A sword fast approaching, time ticking by, yet an unnatural calmness surrounded Roland as he stood there. Had he given up, was this a death wish?
Of course not, it was just Roland testing the limits of this body. He still had not fully recovered from the incident at the gate and his body was not in top condition. The best way out of this situation was to minimise his movement and play reactively. This was why he had stood in the open, to cause as much delay as possible, a sneak attack in this situation might have knocked out one, but the rest would be more alert and dispose of him more efficiently.
Why would Roland risk his life to extend the fight, wouldn't that just delay the inevitable? But Roland was no fool- he was a natural survivor; nothing had ever been outside his calculations.
The dark sword was now inches away from Roland's exposed neck, time slowed down as Roland began to exert his mental capacity to the fullest. Timing was everything now, once the sword crossed the imaginary line Roland had visualised, that's when he made his move. Leaning back, Roland flipped backwards, using his legs to first kick the sword out of the attacker's hands and then swivelling onto his right side, grappled the arm with his legs. Pulling himself up with his legs, Roland then went on to move to the left side of the attacker- outside of the field of view of the other assassins. Utilising the inertia, Roland banged his head against the uninvited guests, knocking him out cold whilst still standing.
The only reason this had worked, was because one of the intruders hurried ahead, whereas the other three were just there for support and had a much more relaxed demeanour. They knew that they had higher cultivation, and this was an easy job. They wouldn't expect a cultivator to attack physically due to their pride or for a youngster to have much fighting experience.
However, when they saw the sword go flying and no more movement from their companion, they grew weary. Fanning out into a semi-circle, they approached more cautiously and began circulating their chi, being in the 5th Stage of Mortal Realm they were more than confident in being able to beat a nobody in the Fighter Realm.
A breeze passed by the group, before suddenly one of the three was sent flying aside with a long mark on their chest, blood sent spurting everywhere.
'''Crash'''
The assassin hit one of the shelves in the room and knocked everything over. Yet, what was more mysterious was the fact that no one could be seen there. The other two, who were busy ransacking the place immediately went over to see what happened, whereas the remaining individuals went to deal with Roland.
All of this had happened in a matter of seconds, yet Roland had enough time to charge his chi for an attack. From his memory he remembered that this body had no affinity for elements- or so the previous person was told. Yet Roland could feel something inside of him, so he drew upon that and exhausted all his chi into power for one attack.
Although hiding outside of view had it's advantages, it also meant he could not see them either. Yet, that did not cause Roland to falter, he had estimated how far they would be by now. The fact that it was night played to his advantage as there was no shadows inside where the moonlight could not reach, however it seemed that his opponents were trained to hide natural sounds and he could not hear their footsteps, sound of breathing or any other cue that could help pinpoint the intruders.
Making the best of the situation, timing it to the best of his ability- Roland threw the unconscious individual to the right side in front of him and moved to the left, clenching his fists full of chi- there seemed to be some muscle memory that allowed him to make movement similar to a tiger pouncing in mid-air. Once he saw a target, he crouched down and punched upwards aiming at the chin. The opponent seemed to see this coming and dodged, however that was just a feint. Spinning in mid air, Roland grabbed onto the intruder with one hand and with the other that he had charged qi into punched the abdomen.
Meanwhile the intruder having dodged an attack to the chin, expected another attack to the face. When Roland grabbed onto him, seeing an opportunity a meta-physical chain came out of the individual which wrapped around Roland, and as the individual had strong affinity with the lightning element, a massive surcharge of electric current suddenly flowed through Roland.
Gritting his teeth, as he incurred internal injuries and his previous wounds opened up, Roland's punch connected to the individual.
'''Splat'''
A massive chunk of skin, in the shape of that punch just imploded and passed right through to the other side, sending the individual skidding across the floor, with Roland being flung to the roof by the chains and losing all of his energy from the current. His skin was being burnt as the current continued to pass on through, from his peripheral vision he saw Solio break through the door and rush inside, immediately taking down an opponent with a wind strike. The last thing he saw was waves coming from behind, hitting all the intruders and a '''ROAR!!!!''' sound that felt like a mighty beast, knocking Roland unconscious as the current ceased to flow. This time there was a faint figure he could see holding some type of spear, appearing in a gallant pose above a downed assassin- it must be his guardian angel!
This was the second time Roland found himself in an unknown situation, there was no one who could help him, because he was too weak. In this world it seemed that weakness was a crime. The strong could bully him and take his life on whim, no one would be friends with someone like him and no one would stand up for him.