Rosseweisse's Saint's Guard.
Comprised of 17 members hailing from different countries. Included in their ranks is Kallen Creed, a Huntress within their ranks who happens to be the sister-in-law of the man they discovered to have kept the Saint safe back in Lothargien.
As their name implies, their job is to safeguard the Saint no matter what and to provide for their needs at every opportunity. At least, that was what they were preparing to do a few hours ago if not for their Saint's command to protect the civilians trapped in the palace.
"How are we even supposed to protect the ones inside if we can't even get in?!", one of the Guards-a young man wearing an ensemble of white coat and white mantle, complained as he let loose an arrow towards an approaching enemy and piercing their head.
"Do you realize that the entire palace is under siege?! We can barely hold them here by the entrance with just 6 of us!", another Guard-a woman wearing the same white coat, retorted while reloading her firearm.
"May and Carl! Both of you should just shut your mouths and fight! The ones at the vanguard need your support!", another Guard-an old man who wore a pure white robe reminiscent of a certain wizard in a fantasy novel, roared as he unleashed a bolt of lightning that vaporized a couple of enemies before him.
"Sorry boss!"
"Apologies, Centurion Darius!"
The two offered their quick apologies to the old man who regarded them with a nod.
"But I gotta ask boss...was it really a good idea to have only us 6 here? Shouldn't it be full-force if we're facing such a large enemy army?", not even a few seconds pass and Carl, the archer, broke silence. Wondering why they were having to struggle to against such a large enemy force with just 6 of them.
"We are one of the Guards who have the smallest of number of members. This the best formation I could think of with regards to following the will of the Saint.", the Centurion, Darius answered solemnly while he cast a worried gaze towards the palace, "We number 16. Our only Huntress, Kallen, is currently inside the palace with the Royal Family and even with the Royal Knights inside, they can barely hold on against the ones that slip through our defense right here. 6 of our other comrades are on the other side of the palace doing the same thing; reducing the number of enemies that manage to enter the palace by any means necessary."
Carl's brows creased in confusion. He was obviously still unconvinced.
"You should understand Carl. I sent our best Legionnaires and our only available Hunter to go and bring back the Saint. That is why only 6 of us remain here to fend the enemy off."
"But still...boss, wouldn't it be better if we just go inside the palace and assist in defending the civilians as instructed by the Saint?", Carl pointed out.
Darius' brows creased as he blasted another enemy with lightning, "Do you mean to say that you would rather have the entire force and firepower of the enemy concentrated in one spot? Boy, if you have a death wish then I can give the order to fall back right now.", he retorted with a dismissive grunt.
"Ei. Was just curious boss! You don't need to be so uptight.", Carl quickly denied him with a wry laugh.
Probably satisfied to have gotten his point across even for a tiny bit, Darius makes one last grunt before returning his full attention towards the enemies before him.
"I just hope the ones I sent to find the Saint who left the palace abruptly, do not find any illogical trouble come their way...", he mutters so in complete worry as he continued to blast his enemies with bolts of lightning and balls of fire.
*****
Somewhere in the city...
"Are we even sure we're going the right way?"
"We've been passing only roads with lots of corpses for the past hour...you sure we're not just avoiding combat and lost?"
The voices of women resonate in the turbid air.
In the middle of a rather quiet road littered with innumerous corpses, a trio of women who wore what looked like plate armor over their dresses.
Needless to say, the trio are members of the Saint's Guard who were sent by the Centurion, Darius, to find the Saint and bring her to safety.
"Weren't we ordered to just stay in the palace and keep the civilians safe? Why are we out here looking for her? Aaron is also missing even though he was supposed to be guiding us.", one of the knight-like women asked. Her armor making clanking noises as she ran.
"Because she is not allowed to die, Maria. That's it.", one of the women, the one at the forefront, answered briefly.
"Eh? But like, isn't she with the same guy that Centurion Darius and Centurion Haley both said to have brought her out of Lothargien unharmed? Wouldn't you say she's in capable hands?", the lady knight, Maria, answered back. Obviously not in the mood to be running around the city looking for The Saint. In the first place, Maria and Kyrie has never seen the Saint in person. They only knew that the Saint was in England from their superiors who briefed them of the situation prior to the palace siege.
"Child, we are members of the Saint's Guard. What are we if we let someone completely unrelated to the Saint do our job? Remember why you took your oath.", the woman at the forefront, shot back.
"But Ms. Jackie, we've only been running through quiet random roads since we passed the Lambeth bridge. Are you sure we're not lost?", this time, the other lady knight, a young girl in her teens and carried a large tower shield on her back, asked again meekly.
Just as she had said, for the past hour since passing the Lambeth Bridge, the trio had only been passing through quiet roads littered with corpses of monsters and terrorists. Jackie-the lady knight at the forefront, seemingly chose corpse ridden roads deliberately without hesitation.
"Kyrie, you are just new to the force so maybe you have yet to understand completely.", Jackie muttered, "The Saint is currently with the man said to have fought his way through Lothargien leaving corpses in his wake without regard and is reported to be very skilled in fighting groups of enemies even when encumbered with the responsibility of protecting the Saint. As for the reason why the Saint chose to accompany such a man, no one in our Order knows. But it is pretty much common sense to just follow the trail of dead bodies if we wish to find them. Afterall, only the 2 of them went past the Lambeth Bridge.", Jackie explained to the young Guard.
"I understand.", Kyrie answered in understanding and she simply remained silent after and continued to follow Jackie.
The trio then run past a few more roads and around a few more turns until they felt something akin to a scanner run over them and they finally found one of the most promising signs of their quarry yet;
A large ominous tower floating just a hundred feet above them and the sounds of battle echoing in the distance.
"Gunfire and beastly roars. They're close!", Jackie exclaimed.
"Hold on there Lady Jackie! How are we sure that it's them?", Maria hurriedly stopped Jackie from proceeding further. Asking her what made her think it was their objective who was currently fighting.
"Did you even listen to the part of the report that it was only the Saint and that man who passed the Lambeth Bridge?", Jackie answered in an incredulous tone.
"Yes I did. But like-"
*Crash!*
Something bursts out of wall near them and cuts Maria's words off mid-sentence.
The trio immediately went into battle mode and took battle positions. A reflexive reaction to situations like this. However, they were immediately dumbfounded as they saw what had just crashed through the wall;
A heavily-armored terrorist wearing what looked like a bulky exosuit was pinned to another wall by a large 18-wheeler truck.
"HRRR! HRR!", the terrorist struggled to remove himself but to no avail.
Before the trio could even think of what to do, the door of the shotgun seat of the truck opened and out came down a young man with ash white hair and wearing what looked like black tunic and trousers with a white surcoat over them and a black half-cape dangling down his left arm. A sword hung on his lower back and a firearm was slung on his right shoulder.
"Damn. You guys just don't go down easy huh? You're more well-equipped than a goddamned Royal Knight.", the young man grumbled as he unslung the firearm-a pump-action shotgun, and release the safety.
"KUH! You inhuman bastard! You will not get away with-"
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up and die already!"
Without waiting for the terrorist to finish, the young man aimed the barrel at the terrorist and quickly pulled the trigger and blowing off the terrorist's head causing grey matter to splatter the wall.
The very act almost caused the trio to puke.
"Hmm...that's the last of the bullets...", with a sigh the young man remained unperturbed and promptly threw away the shotgun before simply approaching the now headless corpse and then rummage inside its armor.
The trio who inadvertently watched such a gruesome and brutal show, was rendered speechless as they continued to watch the young man rummage through the corpse. Confused as to what they should do in the current situation.
"Hm?"
Not a moment later, the young man turns towards them and his brows creased betraying his annoyance at the sight of the trio, "Let me guess. You guys are also gonna try and kill me as soon as you snap out of your shell-shocked reaction?", he asked. His tone, obviously one of being fed up with having to deal with troublesome things.
The trio remained speechless but then a moment later, the one to break silence was Jackie.
"Eh. Um...by any chance, are you the one accompanying the Saint?", she asked. Completely lost as to how to deal with the young man.
The young man was slightly taken aback, "That's a surprise. Is this a case of 'if violence doesn't work, diplomacy is the answer' shenanigans? Sorry to break it to you idiot but diplomacy is non-existent in the goddamned battlefield.", the young man shrugged as he drew his sword.
He was obviously ready to kill them.
"Wait! We are members of the Saint's Guard! We are here to bring back the Saint to the palace!", Jackie hurriedly denied the young man's words and quickly introduced themselves.
However-
"Bullshit. All the Saint's Guard were ordered to stay in the palace by the Saint herself so there shouldn't be anyone of them roaming around the city. Sorry idiot, but that reason ain't gonna fly with me."
-the young man clearly did not believe her and instead started to charge at them sword at the ready.
"Wait-!"
*Clang!*
The sound of metal rang in the air as Kyrie rushed forward with her shield raised to defend Jackie from the young man's sword.
"So heavy!", Kyrie grimaced behind her shield. Her arms feeling incredibly strained by the force of the young man's attack.
"Tch! Harder than I thought! How the heck did you get there so fast with that heavy-ass shield?", the young man clicked his tongue before jumping back to take some distance.
"I knew it! This guy is not the one we are looking for! Lady Jackie, get back! Let the Legionnaires handle this one!", said Maria as she drew her weapon-a spatha, and rushed towards the young man, "Where's the Saint you bastard?!", she roared.
Jackie who was slightly taken aback by the young man's sudden attack shakes her head to snap herself out of her stupor, "Wait, Maria! Do not attack-"
"Shut the hell up you reckless idiot!", the young man made a wide-but quick swing of his weapon which forced Maria to stop in her tracks and raise her sword to block it. However, she was quickly pushed away by Kyrie who had jumped forward and blocked the attack in her stead.
*CLANG!*
"Kuh!", Kyrie grimaces once again but then, "GAAH!", she gets blown away by the young man's attack and is forced back.
"Kyrie!", Maria cried out worriedly towards her young companion but that was a mistake.
"Don't take your eyes off of me you idiot!"
The young man had taken advantage of Maria's momentary lapse in vigilance to get close to her.
"Wha-"
It was a fatal error. One that Maria truly regrets at this very moment with every fiber of her being as she looked upon the young man's near demon-like visage as he raised his sword high above his head.
"Maria!", Jackie who did not plan to just watch from the sides rushed forward with her weapon drawn. Determined to protect her comrades from the young man's merciless attack.
But then-
"Mr. Ashen!"
-the voice of someone resounds in the air and quickly catches the young man off-guard and making him stop his attack mid-swing.
"Idiot! Keep yourself hidden!", the young man retorted in an almost reflexive manner. Allowing Maria to snap out of her reverie and jump away and get Kyrie who was groaning on the ground and bring her to safety.
"Eh? Is that person the Saint?", Maria muttered warily as she looked at the figure walking out of the ruined wall;
A young woman wearing a loose gray turtle neck shirt tucked under a pair of loose black jagger pants, a pair of dark-gray hiking shoes and has a ridiculously long platinum blonde hair that reached until her rear flowing down her back.
"Lady Rosseweisse!", Jackie called out to the young woman.
"Eh? Ms. Jackie?", the young woman, Rosseweisse, looked at Jackie's direction and made a face filled with surprise, "I thought I had asked you to remain in the palace. Why are you here?", she asked.
'So she's the Saint?!', Maria exclaimed mentally out of surprise. She expected the Saint to be someone a bit more older, dignified and imposing. She did not expect to see that the Saint that she was supposed to be protecting is this carefree and defenseless looking lady. Forget looking dignified, the young woman did not even look like a Saint right now.
"Oi, Nitwit! Don't just ignore me and go back into hiding already! Don't you understand that they are friggin targeting you right now?!", the young man-whom Maria presumes to be the one called Ashen, demanded as he hefted his sword over his shoulder.
"Eh? But they are not our enemies Mr. Ashen. They are the members of the Saint's Guard that are assigned to protect me.", Rosseweisse replied.
But the young man did not seem to believe her, "Nitwit, don't tell me you forgot about the shapeshifters we encountered just a few moments ago?", he shrugged.
"But-"
"Who was the one who got out of hiding and alerted them to our position because she got duped by their disguise?"
"Urk!"
Their exchange was rather peculiar in the eyes of Maria and Jackie.
Afterall, a Saint is one who is supposed to be respected and treated with care. No human in the world would willingly refer to such a person so casually and abrasively. Let alone berate them for something they did as they all know that divine retribution would be the thing they'll receive in exchange.
And yet here is one such person who not only berated a Saint, but also bluntly called her a 'nitwit' and an 'idiot' and yet no divine retribution fell down upon him.
"Just what is-"
Their words of disbelief was cut-short by the young man's disgruntled words;
"On that note, go hide somewhere I can sense you while I go ahead and deal with these nuisances. Shouldn't be too hard for you to do."
It seems he still wants to kill them regardless of their affiliation and that is something both Maria and Jackie find very terrifying.
Their long duty of looking for the Saint seems to be far from over.