Ian grabbed Alaric's collar and got up.
"Get out!"
The fire wouldn't spread and burn them that fast, and they could put it out if they wanted to, but it wasn't an advantageous thing to curl up in a small space that was being attacked from outside with nowhere to hide.
Ian pushed the young master up as he kicked the door open. Before another arrow could target them, he threw Alaric out of the carriage and jumped down right after him. Alaric landed on the ground face-first and let out a pained gasp. Not minding him, Ian closed the carriage's door to prevent any arrows from ambushing them from behind and examined the surroundings.
It was already dark. Figures clad in black outfits were jumping out from every corner, each holding a weapon and rushing towards the two of them. The guards were fast to react. The soldiers of the county ran in all directions and took out their swords, holding back their opponents and protecting their master.
Laim jumped down from his horse and landed somewhere close to Alaric, defending against another man wearing black clothes.
"Ah..." Alaric pushed himself up while gaping at the sight. People were fighting and blood was spilling right in front of his face. The man's body froze and his expression went blank.
"Get up!" Ian once again grabbed Alarc's clothes and pushed him up.
On one hand, the carriage was on fire, and on the other hand, they were being targeted by an unknown group. Ian didn't forget that an archer was shooting them from behind. It was possible that the archer or any other person would attack them from the rear, so they had to hide somewhere quickly.
'Where should we go? The servants' carriage?' It was true that the other carriage was intact and a few guards were surrounding it, but if the target of the attack was Alaric, then the attacker would run after him, and if the two of them hid beside the servants, the innocent people would be put in grave danger.
'The supply cart-' Ian clenched Alaric's arm instead of his collar, noticing that the man was about to choke because of the pressure on his neck, and ran to the cart which had their food and other stock stored in it. The cart was behind all of the carriages and was farther away from the attacker, a perfect shield for them.
Fwoosh
The moment Alaric moved away from where he was sprawled on the ground, an arrow landed at the spot where he was sitting one second ago.
"Eek!" Letting out a scream, Alaric looked behind his back while running with his servant. Someone was standing on top of the burning carriage, aiming their bow at him. The string was pulled and the arrow's head, pointed at his back, twinkled in the light of the fire. The archer's fingers let go of the string and the arrow was shot out like a hungry beast.
The man's body trembled at the sight. He could see the arrow moving through the air and coming at him, to his throat. Alaric couldn't even raise his arm to shield himself as his hand was being grabbed by his servant. He could only watch the scene, which seemed to have slowed down significantly in his vision, without any resistance, expecting to be hit by it at any second.
But just when the arrowhead was a few seconds away from him,
SHHHHH
, a bright, golden light flashed before his eyes out of nowhere. A hand clad in golden particles moved and, as if creating a shield, drew a line of gold in the air. The tip of the arrow hit the golden aura surrounding the hand and fell down like a light feather. The light faded as soon as that happened as if it was never there, just an absurd lie.
"Ah?" Alaric's gaze shifted to the person who'd just deflected the attack. The person who was helping him escape had bent his body to the side so that his hand could reach the arrow. The boy's body was covering his vision, so he couldn't see what was going on in front of him.
SLASH
Alaric only heard something slashing through the air and his servant's gasp. The next second, red, hot liquid was splashed on his face and the twinkle of a blade covered in crimson entered his eyes.
'Argh, damn it!'
Ian gritted his teeth and took a step back. His body hit his useless master's and lost its balance. The two of them staggered for a second before falling down to the ground.
'Where did this bastard come from?'
The moment he turned to deflect the arrow aimed at Alaric, one of the attackers jumped out of the supply cart and aimed his sword at them without hesitation. Ian had no choice but to shift his body to cover Alaric's. The blade ended up cutting his right flank. Ian winced as he held his breath, staggering backward. The cut wasn't too deep but the sudden pain made his mind go blank for a second.
The attacker was standing in front of them. He was raising his sword up with his gaze locked on the two people who had fallen to the ground. The archer had stopped shooting them as if waiting for the attacker to finish them off.
'...We are doomed!' Ian didn't have that much Aether left. He'd only used a tiny bit of it but that already made his Aether exhausted. It was so humiliating for him, who was used to being bathed in energy all the time when in his later years of life in a round.
"Tsk!"
Stretching his hand, Ian rubbed his arm to the ground in search of a rock or anything else that he could use as a means to defend himself. His hand touched something solid after a second, and he grabbed whatever it was without sparing it a glance before swinging it towards the attacker. He raised his body up a little bit, smashing the thing in his hand into the head of the unprepared attacker who was taken off guard.
BANGG
Ian realized what he was holding when he'd already hit the man's head with it. It was a thick book, the novel that Alaric had been reading in the carriage. He had been holding the book all this time.
The sturdy and thick edge of the book struck the attacker's forehead. Ian frowned slightly at the imagination of the pain that the man must've felt. The attacker staggered a little bit before falling to the ground, unconscious.
'Hoh! I guess it was true that words are stronger than swords!' Ian thought as he once again, looked at his master.
"....."
Alaric's dilated pupils were fixed on the cut in Ian's side and at the blood that was oozing out through it. His face, wet with blood and sweat, was horrified to a surreal degree.
"Get the-" fuck together, Ian wanted to say, that they had to run from the archer that was not too far away, but he couldn't finish his sentence. The dizziness caused by losing blood took over his mind and his body dropped down like a weightless cloth.
'Uh... this damned weak body...' On top of the wound, he got poisoned just last night and coughed up a lot of blood, so his body wasn't in good condition from the start. His heart was racing in a dangerously fast manner, so hard that it hurt. At this rate, both he and Alaric would get killed here.
Through the corner of his eyes, he could see the archer standing at the top of the carriage, staring at the unconscious attacker as if dumbfounded. Ian knew that the archer would attack them as soon as he came back to his senses. He didn't think he could dodge or deflect this one. Ian shifted his gaze back to Alaric, who was shivering, frozen on his spot.
'It could be nice if at least he ran to the cart and hid somewhere, but I don't think he can make it.'
Was this round going to end just like this? Without him finding out anything or knowing the truth? Would the entertainment he'd just found be ruined this soon? What about him? He had his hopes for once... Didn't he deserve to feel excited at least for a few days? He could regress and go back in time again, but would Alaric's changes remain the same in the next round, or would he go back to normal?
Ian dragged his body towards his master, putting himself in front of the archer like a shield. 'I might survive this,' he thought.
"I-Ian... w-wha-"
He didn't pay any mind to the boy's trembling words. Ian had gone through more than this. A few cuts and arrow shots were nothing to him. Thinking that, he raised his head, only to see an arrow tip aimed at him, ready to shoot.
'Ah, whatever,' Ian chuckled inwardly but didn't budge. He didn't fear the arrow or any injuries anymore.
The bow's string was pulled to the extreme and it was ready to shoot, but just then, at the split of a second, a red trail of blood shot out from the archer's body to the sky. The arrow, unable to be shot, fell to the ground alongside the bow, and the archer's body tilted and fell down from the carriage, lifeless.
"What-"
On top of the burning carriage, another figure in black was standing while wielding a sword, the sword that had just cut the other person in half.