With the assassins blocking their path dealt with and the necessary investigation complete, Leon stood up and exchanged a glance with the women.
"Move!"
The instant the word left his mouth, everyone kicked into high gear, sprinting after Demeter and Persephone in the direction they'd retreated.
"Jeanne?"
While moving at full speed, Leon glanced at his Holy Maiden navigator.
Revelation, activate!
"This way!"
Jeanne sped up at once, leaping to the front of the group and leading everyone through the tangled, layered alleyways.
Left turn, right turn, up onto rooftops, over staircases. It didn't take long before they caught up with Demeter and Persephone.
But when they rounded the corner of an alley and finally caught sight of the two of them, they realized the goddess and her follower were in serious trouble.
A jarring clash of steel rang out. The two were cornered by three masked figures dressed identically to the assassins from earlier. The alley was already cramped, and even if they wanted to disengage, there was nowhere to retreat.
Left with no choice, Persephone shielded her goddess behind her and faced the enemies head-on alone.
"More high-rankers?"
Leon paused for a moment, then it clicked.
He'd been wondering about this earlier. Given how low-key he always kept things, why would assassins lock onto them as targets?
Now it made sense. The enemy's target was never them at all. It was Demeter!
Of course. He and his small crew were small fry. Why would anyone bother with them when taking down the head of Demeter Familia would pay so much better?
Look at these assassins. Every one of them was Lv. 2 or above. Even as hired help, just getting them transported in from outside the city must have cost Evilus a hefty sum.
"Ngh...!"
Persephone's pained grunt cut through the alley. Even from a distance, Leon could see her white fitted blouse was already soaked red with blood. One pale, slender arm hung limp at her side. With only one hand left to wield her saber, she was frantically deflecting the enemies' attacks.
Her black skirt was torn high up the thigh, her stockings shredded by blade-edges. She was a complete mess.
With one arm out of commission, an ever-growing collection of wounds, and rapid blood loss, Persephone had already lost most of her combat power.
"A battered older-sister type. There's a certain flavor to that too."
Leon muttered the quip under his breath. As his palm flipped over, sparks were already dancing in his hand alongside a flickering magic circle.
"You all go protect Lady Demeter. Those three are mine."
Jeanne and Rose nodded. With a quick "be careful yourself," they exchanged a glance and leapt onto the rooftops in perfect coordination, fanning out to encircle the area, scanning for additional enemies as they closed in on the goddess.
Meanwhile Laurier, Aura, and Kureha sprinted toward the goddess at full speed.
"Persephone, never thought I'd see you in a state like this."
If the situation hadn't been so dire, Leon would've loved to humiliate her right in front of Demeter, payback for all the years this cold older beauty had given him such a hard time.
Various thoughts flickered through his mind. The corner of his mouth twitched up, and he raised his hand with zero windup.
"Scorch!"
This non-projectile, instant-cast spell was the perfect surprise weapon. Combined with the fact that it ignited directly on the target with zero collateral damage, it was the obvious choice. That was exactly why Leon picked it over the more explosive Fireball to bail Persephone out.
Imagine if he'd gone with Fireball and accidentally clipped the wrong person, or worse, "sent" the fragile Goddess Demeter back to heaven. The fallout would've been catastrophic.
Back at the alley.
Seeing their target was about to crumble, the three masked figures wordlessly pressed their attack harder, trying to finish off this nuisance as fast as possible.
But in that very moment...
From the side, where no one was looking, a crimson magic circle flashed to life at the corner of the alley and vanished in the same instant.
A crackle of sparks.
Embers suddenly leapt across one of the masked figures.
In the next breath...
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
The one who'd been pressing Persephone hardest let out a horrific scream. Then, before Persephone or Demeter's stunned eyes, he spontaneously burst into flames!
Watching her enemy turn into a human torch from out of nowhere, a cold glint flashed behind Persephone's lenses. She seized the fleeting opening, snapped her saber up, and brought it down in a vicious overhead slash that tore open the chest of a second masked figure!
Blood sprayed in a violent arc. The cut man's body went limp and crumpled to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, thanks to Leon's ambush, the dire battle had completely flipped.
The lead masked assassin took in the heart-stopping scene, horror crashing through him. The killing trap he'd so carefully laid had been dismantled this easily?
That alone wouldn't have been enough to make him this furious.
What truly enraged him was that this Adventurer who'd suddenly cut in to ruin everything was someone he'd never even heard of.
Who the hell are you?
A dangerous bastard who ambushed from the shadows, fought without honor, could pull off zero-windup non-projectile magic, and there wasn't a single line about him in the intel Evilus had handed over.
Were Evilus's intel people blind? A magic user this terrifying, and they hadn't picked up a single whisper?
No. This Orario place was way too deep. The bounty was tempting, but if you weren't alive to spend it, none of it mattered.
A dozen thoughts flashed through the masked assassin's head, and without hesitation he committed to a tactical retreat.
But the moment he took his first step back...
Two graceful figures dropped from the sky like phantoms, one in front and one behind, sealing both the entrance and the exit of the alley with surgical precision and cutting off his only escape route!
The assassin swept his eyes around, said nothing.
He just tightened his grip on his twin daggers, mind racing, trying to claw open a way out of the death trap.
Hm? An opening!
In what looked like an airtight encirclement from Jeanne and the others, he caught the faintest, almost imperceptible gap!
A way out!
He lowered his eyelids, carefully masking his eyes and expression.
The next second, he moved!
His hands whipped out from beneath his cloak at speeds the eye could barely follow! A dense storm of shuriken rained down on Jeanne and the others, forcing them to swing their swords up to deflect!
In the same instant his body blurred. He bent his knees, exploded upward, and launched himself diagonally toward the rooftop above.
"He's getting away!"
Persephone, seeing through the assassin's intention, cried out in alarm and was about to give chase.
"Fireball"
But what answered her was a searing flash of light that erupted overhead, painting everyone's faces blood-red!
The assassin sailed through the air, almost free, the smug glint of triumph just beginning to creep up his brow. He'd already started planning his next assassination...
A massive, wheel-sized fireball, screaming with destructive force, slammed dead-on into the smile that had just bloomed on his face!
"Is that your escape route?"
A playful voice drifted down from above.
The next moment...
A thunderous detonation rocked the alley, rolling explosions chaining one after another into a single roaring wall of fire!
Persephone: "..."
Demeter: "..."
Goddess and follower stared blankly at Leon, who was peeking shiftily from behind the eaves with only his eyes visible above the rooftop.
This was really a member of Demeter Familia? In name, at least? Total sneaky bastard.
Persephone pushed up her glasses, one lens cracked, and lowered her head as her cheeks flushed.
You've got this kind of power and you couldn't just defeat him in a straight fight? Seven against one, an elaborate trap, a faked opening... all of it just for that one face-melting fireball at the end?
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