Riley had noticed something wrong with the atmosphere in the ballroom, as a trained killer, his instincts told him they had been infiltrated, however, the assassins are also so skilled that Riley could only find a couple of them from the stage.
Unintentionally, his gaze wandered to Eleanor, he kept an eye on her as he performed on the stage, creating a fire dragon, one not too large, he decided to reserve as much soul essence as he could, in case he needed to escape.
As he directed the fire dragon up, he naturally glanced up, and there he saw an assassin who already had his bow drawn and was taking aim, and the assassin was aiming directly at him. In an instant, Riley controlled the fire dragon, quickly setting the assassin on fire.
The panicked assassin lost his footing and slipped from the top of the building, he became a living fireball, until he landed on the ground, he quickly gained his senses, and immediately he drew his bow and shot one of the guests in the neck. Killing him on the spot, and then pandemonium ensued.
Riley immediately searched for Eleanor, he saw his new sister panicking, she was confused, and several men were moving in her direction.
He immediately sprang to his feet, drawing several cards from his pocket, holding them in-between his fingers in case of emergency.
He knew his fighting strength was lower compared to the assassins, he speculated that they were at least Series Two Ascenders.
Seeing Eleanor struggle against an assassin, Riley threw a card at the man, the card sliced the man's hand off, completely severing his arm from the elbow.
'Such power...'
Riley didn't have time to kiss the card and compliment its sharpness, he dodged a gunshot, and immediately summoned his magician pistol, and fired several times, the pistol shot out blue beams of light which left a hole in the body of the assassin.
The assassin's eyes were wide in fear and shock, Riley felt his soul essence drain rapidly, he immediately unsummoned the magician pistol, and went back to shooting out cards, he arrived in front of Eleanor in time to parry a sword with his cane.
He grabbed her by her hand and dragged her away from the men, who were engaged with other Series Two Ascenders—who were guards in the Abell house. Swords clashed, and shots rang out occasionally. However ,how can a normal bullet injure a Dreamer? The guards who were using revolvers were killed easily.
"Save Chloe!" Eleanor screamed.
"No!" Riley shouted back.
He dragged Eleanor who was resisting fiercely, but cannot overpower him, after all he's a Drifter while she's a normal teenage girl. At least that was what he thought, Finally she gave up allowing herself to be dragged off by Riley.
"What do you want from me?" Eleanor asked.
"Nothing!"
"Money?"
"No!"
"Papers?"
"No!"
"Clothes?"
"No!"
"Sex?"
"Fuck Eleanor, I'm your fucking bro-!" Riley forced himself to swallow the remaining words, he didn't know his new sister was someone so… vulgar.
An assassin lunged at Riley and Eleanor, Riley anticipating this knew the cards couldn't help him. So he dodged the attack and tried to find another way out.
"Out of cards?" The assassin taunted him.
"I don't need to cards to kill you." Riley responded with equal energy.
"What? Are you that strong, these guys are using the powers of the devil. " Eleanor whispered into Riley's ear.
"Why don't we fight hand to hand? Boxing?" Riley asked.
"Well we were given an order to kill you, I don't know where your confidence stems from, but you will die by my hands , and I will claim the bounty on your head." The assassin replied un-summoning his sword.
"How much?"
"Twenty pounds."
"What? So much!" Eleanor screamed.
Riley glanced at the teenage girl beside him, he didn't know why she talked so much. What concerned her with the bounty on his head, Still… Riley wasn't disappointed.
"Twenty pounds? My bounty should be worth a thousand pounds." Riley said feigning thoughtfulness. "Your employer must have embezzled the money."
On hearing a thousand pounds, the assassin movement became stifled. He seemed to consider the difference between twenty pounds and a thousand pounds, and then he decided, even if he got twenty pounds, it was enough to feed him for half a month.
"I don't care." The assassin replied, then he lunged at Riley.
"Why? It's a thousand pounds." Eleanor spoke, and then suddenly broke away from Riley's grasps. Riley didn't have time to react because he engaged in a fist fight with the assassin, and he was losing, he was on the receiving end.
Although he was good at martial arts, each blow the assassin sent was so heavy that it almost crushed his bones.
'I'm too weak to deal with a dreamer, throwing cards consumes my essence quickly, but not as much as the magician pistol, I have to distract him and then finish him off with the pistol...
Then I will escape with Eleanor, but my escape must be in a grand manner. after all, a magician must leave his audience clapping.' Riley quickly formulated a plan in his mind.
Riley jumped over a half destroyed table, then threw the wooden chairs to the assassin, hoping to distance himself from him, but the assassin wasn't having any of it, he bulldozed his way and reached Riley in less than a second.
The assassin grabbed Riley by the neck, and started to strangle him to death, "Mr. Magician, do you still think you are better than me?"
Riley laughed," I said I don't need a weapon to kill you, I never said my partner won't."
The assassin's eyes widened, immediately he turned backwards, his eyes landed on Eleanor, and then he chuckled, "Seems like your partner needs help." He mocked Riley.
"You talk too much for an assassin." Riley struggled to say before blasting the assassin's chest off with the magician pistol.
The assassin could not believe he had been tricked.
"A magician distracts the audience for the magic to work." Riley said to the assassin whose legs had numbed and had collapsed to the ground. The last thing he saw was a clown who had a devil smile giving him a slight bow.
"Haa!" A assassin screamed, Riley glanced in his direction of the kitchen where Eleanor and an assassin were engaged in a play of cat and mouse, with Eleanor being the mouse, who had stabbed the assassin with a fork in the eye.
He couldn't help but smile.
"This sister isn't acting ladylike." Riley mumbled. "Eleanor, bathe him in with the oil in that pot, tip, use the hem of your skirt to carry the pot."
Eleanor didn't know why the magician had told her to use her clothes when carrying the pot, but she didn't refute his words, instead, she showered the assassin in wheat flour which made her heart ache as she watched the expensive flour stick to the man. Then she carried the pot with the hem of her dress and poured the contents on the assassin.
And the next thing she heard was a scream and sizzling sound. She glanced at the pot in her hand, and then she noticed the pot was still hot, she dropped it quickly and started to blow cold air on her fingers.
"You made me fry him!" Eleanor screamed when Riley arrived with a carriage dragged by a horse inside the ball room.
"Wow! You just made a human shaped wheat bread, wonder how it would taste?" Riley asked, presenting Eleanor a bouquet of red and white flowers with a slight bow.
"No!" Eleanor replied, running off into the distance and came running back with her best friend.
'Did I just get rejected?' Riley thought, but then, she was Robert sister, not his real sister.
"Did you order a pumpkin carriage, princesses?" Riley asked the celebrant and Eleanor as they arrived before him.
"Will your carriage turn to vegetables at midnight?" Eleanor replied with equal energy."If so, you have two hours left." She added.
"Oh gracious goddess finally i met someone with a sense of humor." Riley couldn't help saying, throwing cards in all directions.
"Robert, you have some explanation to do when we get home, provided we live through this." Eleanor said, as she climbed into the carriage with her best friend. "Her name is Chloe." Eleanor introduced her best friend to Riley.
Riley nodded, as the horse broke into a dangerous sprint across the ballroom. With the help of illusions, Riley turned the carriage into a pumpkin ride, and dressed the two girls in princess clothes, but specially making Eleanor cosplay as Cinderella, while Chloe cosplayed the evil stepmother.
Regardless of this, Riley carefully managed his soul essence. He wanted to create a supra and race the streets of ST.VENIS in style, but decided against it.
The Cinderella carriage was much more appealing to the eyes, and his soul essence would deplete rapidly because of the complexity of a car.
The sound of gunshot had alerted the whole neighborhood, the law enforcement who were on their way froze, the moment a white horse, dragging a pumpkin carriage jumped off the first floor, it ran in the air for a few seconds before touching the ground gently and disappeared into the distance.
"In the name of Lussi, this is a miracle." A soldier muttered.
They watched the carriage disappear in stars in a stupor, before the ringing of gunshots snapped them back to their senses. They hurried off into the Abell compound.
Some of the assassins chased after the pumpkin Carriage, which was strangely faster than a normal horse.
"Slow down, this… this is dangerous." Chloe struggled to say as the horse raced and gained speed.
Eleanor seemed to be faring well, she was grinning, enjoying the speed. "Can it go faster?" She asked.
"Of course it can, this is the lowest speed!" Riley replied, he was really enjoying Eleanor's company. He hadn't expected her to be on the same level of craziness as him, he had always thought he was the only crazy one in the world.
"Then race faster, head to the subway and put the steam engine train to shame!" She screamed , "Those idiots think they have the fastest machine... They denied me a free ride!"
"Racing a train? Why haven't I thought of that, if you weren't my sister I would have proposed to you right now!" Riley said as he threw a card out, piercing the leg of the assassin waiting to ambush them.
"I don't care about marrying my brother! And I'm sure Turner wouldn't mind it."
"What?" Chloe screamed, her eyes wide in surprise. "The goddess is against the marriage of siblings!"
"The Goddess knows my brother is the right man for me!" Eleanor retorted, drawing a revolver from under her skirt.
"Slow down, Mr. Robert, racing a train while riding a horse at this speed is dangerous." Chloe tried to persuade Riley.
She was scared of the extreme speed, if anyone had told her a horse could go this fast, she would have cursed the person to death.
"Races are more dangerous than battles, princess." Riley said, summoning the cards and throwing them again. "But not as much as birthday parties."