Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

I dodged the slash from the first masked man’s sword and then cut his neck with my curved sword. And then, I retreated as I cut the other party’s leg while spinning around, bending over to dodge the masked man who swung his mace.

After I got away from those two masked men, another masked man armed with two short swords came at me from above. I dodged the opponent’s sweeping attack by spinning to the side and sliced my opponent’s left arm. And yet, the other party continued to attack with his right arm as if the loss of his left arm was nothing.

It was as if they had no sense of pain.

Moreover, the speed of his attacks were fast.

I sensed the presence of two of my pursuers who were wielding a longsword and a spear respectively as I fought against the short sword user.

I focused my mind to deal with the short sword use first.

Meanwhile, the longsword and the spear users finally joined the battle as well. But, their attack struck the short sword user instead of me.

The short sword user’s body was bisected by the slash from the longsword user and stopped moving.

It was magic.

Ishtar-sama’s priests can use charms as part of their divine protection. That’s why I, who has weak divine protection, can use this magic too. Plus, since I consumed the assas, my mana has been enhanced as well and the charm I used was more powerful than usual.

The one they cut was my phantom image created with magic. That’s why the longsword and spear users ended up cutting the short sword user who was standing in the way instead of me.

They might have lost their sense of pain, but I used their advantages against them to turn the table.

I used that opening to behead the longsword and spear user while they were still pulling out their weapon from the short sword user’s corpse.

Though my strength has been enhanced by the assas, I’m not strong enough to be able to behead them in a single strike. It was still a fatal wound though.

But, there was no blood spurting from their open wounds. The longsword and spear users could still move like nothing had happened.

Upon sensing the incoming reinforcements, I ran towards another roof.

But then, another masked man came towards me from the front.

The mace user whose leg I’d sliced and the sword user whose neck I’d cut from before were still chasing after me.

As I thought, these guys aren’t human.

There were thirteen of those masked men. This was an extremely disadvantageous situation for me. Though my strength was enhanced after using the assas, its effects were about to expire.

I mean, it’s really difficult to suppress the side effects of this drug.

What should I do?

I forced my brain to work at full speed.

「Splendid… it's splendid movement.」

Suddenly, I heard a voice come from above.

When I looked up, I saw the figure of a knight in jet-black armor floating in the air with his back facing the moon.

「You're…」

Though the scene was hypnotizing, I snapped out of my stupor after realizing that this wasn’t the time to be mesmerized by the fantastic scene before me.

The one who’d appeared was the very same Dark Knight who’d appeared in the basement. I mustn't let my guard down.

The Dark Knight then descended down to the roof.

「I'll take care of her.」

As he said that, the Dark Knight swung his right hand. Thereupon, all the masked men suddenly got blown away.

I couldn’t understand what he’d done just now. What kind of magic was it that he used?

I looked at the Dark Knight.

Though the number of opponents had reduced down to one, my situation in reality had worsened. I knew that this Dark Knight was far more powerful than those thirteen masked men combined.

「Do you hate the fact that I saved your life… just accept it, I wouldn’t do this if not for your extremely beautiful and refined movements.」

The Dark Knight spoke to me as he looked in my direction.

I had no idea what he meant by ‘saving my life.’

But this wasn’t the time to be worrying about such things. I wouldn’t be able to escape from here unless I defeated this Dark Knight.

Thus, I ran towards the Dark Knight.

I created several illusion swords and fired them towards the Dark Knight. The illusion swords went straight towards the Dark Knight.

In response, the Dark Knight simply waved his right hand lightly. With that simple motion, he caught the twin curved sword that I threw along with the illusion swords easily.

「YOU DAMN MONSTER!!」

I couldn’t help but say those words upon seeing such god-like skill.

After I was close enough to the Dark Knight, I moved to his blindspot with the other twin curved sword, aiming for his arms and head.

「Eh?」

I leaked out a dumbfounded voice.

The Dark Knight suddenly vanished right in front of me.

「Good move. It's similar to Reiji's move but, his is sharper than yours.」

Suddenly, I heard his carefree voice come from right behind me.

「Did you trick my eyes?」

I asked as I turned around to face my opponent.

「Yeah, but this wasn’t illusion magic. This was just a simple footwork.」

The Dark Knight replied with a calm voice.

I felt chills running down my spine at hearing his seemingly carefree remark.

He was tricking my eyes with simple footwork? Moreover, he’d done that so easily while I’m in a heightened state after consuming the assas.

I stepped back.

I give up. I don’t think I can win against the Dark Knight no matter what I do. If that’s the case, there’s only one thing left for me to do.

The other party seems to be reluctant to kill me immediately.

I can use this chance.

After I held the handle of the curved sword in my right hand in my mouth, I took a jar out from between my bos*m.

The Dark Knight was looking at me with curious eyes.

Just as I thought, his negligence was in thinking that he could beat me whenever he felt like it.

I made full use of that gap to inscribe some letters on the sword in my left hand. And then, I focused my attention.

I created several shadow clones of myself.

Multiple illusions magic.

「Hee…」

The Dark Knight let out an astonished voice.

「HERE I COME!!」

I ran towards the Dark Knight while intersecting with the illusions I created, mixing my real self amongst the fakes.

I made it look like I was attacking the Dark Knight from four directions by using my illusions.

「Nice try but, it's still impossible.」

When the Dark Knight leaped, he appeared right in front of me.

「Kuh!!!」

I glared at the Dark Knight.

「It's not bad to attack with your illusion while you're trying to escape.」

Hearing his words, my guess turned into conviction. I really couldn’t do anything against the Dark Knight.

But, it seems that he failed to notice one thing.

Let’s pray that big brother will find the clue that I left for him.

And now, I was laughing on the inside while showing a vexed expression on my face.

「It seems you were writing something on the sword that you threw a while ago but… I guess it doesn't matter as long as I find that sword.」

But, the Dark Knight’s words cast a shadow of despair over my heart.

It seems that he’d already seen through my plan.

Assuming that the message I’d left on my sword would be retrieved by the Dark Knight, the only clue left for my brother was the flute I’d entrusted to him.

I have no choice but to bet on that sole clue.

「Sorry, but you'll become my prisoner.」

My body trembled at hearing those words.

I knew what kind of treatment awaited a female prisoner. There was a high chance that I might be tortured as well.

I never expected that such a hideous side was hidden deep inside the Dark Knight’s seemingly docile face.

I understood this since I often basked in this kind of thinking as a dancer.

The Dark Knight raised his right hand.

At that moment, I felt all power drain from my body.

「Nii-sa…!!」

I barely managed to mutter those words before my consciousness sank into the darkness.