"This is way too easy!" A mysterious voice in the shadows commented nonchalantly. "Dongkun Edda, you go!" "Yes, young master!"
The girl on the roof was about to interfere, when she witnessed a slender figure climbing on the roof opposite her and rushing with almost non-human speed to the three archers. He or she unfolded a whip, and with the same momentum of rushing to them the figure twirled the whip and then tossed it in front of their bows the moment they were discharged; in some way, the already flying arrows made an 180-degree turn in mid-air back to their senders.
Two of the men fell, but the third dodged at the very last moment and made a thrust with a hidden dagger to the newly arrived figure. (S)he dodged as well, and then wheeled around splendidly with the whip and tried to disarm the man. The man avoided it and closed the distance between them. But that was his mistake; his opponent jumped and, while in a 90-degree angle, twisted the whip sharply and slashed his neck.
All that happened within a couple of minutes and so silently, that no one seemed to have noticed that there was ever an assassination attempt towards Lan Gao Wang. That is, with the exception of the girl on the roof, who currently cheered inwardly for the slender figure. When the battle seemed to be over, she used her rope to join them on the opposite roof, and waved her hand to him or her in excitement.
The greeting she got in return would probably make her regret her shameless familiarity. With the whip coiled softly around her ankles, her balance was lost and she fell hard on her bottom, after which the man* (*For he was a man after all, though a rather feminine one. Or should I say, with his rosy lips, his light eyeliner, his long lashes, his slender figure, and his way of walking the right term would be an androgynous character.) pulled the coiled whip and sprinted onto her.
The girl was now spread horizontally on the ground, with a fancy high-heel boot uncomfortably close to her carotid. Nevertheless, she faced the swaggerer as bravely as her circumstances allowed her and by moving her right hand carefully above her head in a tossing in the towel gesture, she talked lightheartedly. "I know we haven't been properly introduced, but is this the way to treat your new Young Mistress"
The dainty man didn't move, or talked back, or even blinked for about a minute, when he finally glanced upwards to his Master, who was mysteriously right beside the fallen girl. After getting his silent confirmation, he finally fell back and even extended a hand to help her stand back up. The girl declined his hand and instead tumbled back up instantly, remarkably revealing that she wasn't so helpless after all.
She bowed deeply before the mysterious Master and spoke with veneration and some hidden excitement. "This disciple, Aizha Lan, reporting respectfully before you, Shifu!"
Meanwhile...
'I refuse to accept this kind of ending! I decline to acknowledge you as my Master, my Overlord, or this world's Everything!'
The master archer, leader of the small band of the failed assassins, refused to die. And by practising his will not to die* (*yet), his blood stop spilling, his artery was once again intact, his neck was never slit!
'I will avenge thee, comrades. Our fate is our own. We are to be controlled by this puppeteer no more!'
What? What... is... happening? I'm the... puppeteer? What? I'm the author, just WHAT THE HECK is happening with this book right now?
This is annoying!You're trying to rebel? Of course I'm this world's EVERYTHING!
Help! Somebody, help! I don't know what's going on, like I've said, I have no clue, and it's kind of scary! This is supposed to be comedy, not horror!
I think I need some booze for this, I cannot face it sober.
HELP! READERS, HELP ME! The archers, the... archers...