As soon as I attacked the guard and cut his fingers off, the one I dodged before charged at me.
Claanng!
'He's strong... Fortunately, I disabled one of the two at first. I would have died fighting them together otherwise.'
I could already feel how strong he is based on the force of his strike. It was like defending against Morgan's attack.
Of course, his swordsmanship was nothing compared to Morgan. Even comparing them would be a great insult to Morgan.
The injured guard tried to pick up his sword from near my leg with his other hand. I noticed and immediately kicked his chin while still engaging with the other guard.
{Mana Borrow}
{Mana Assault}
Slice!
I rotated my body and sliced the throat of the fingerless guy who was already defenceless.
[You have killed a named Human Lvl. 21]
Now that the distractions were gone, I could put my full attention in front. But this guy wasn't an easy opponent. I knew that my victory was guaranteed in a long fight but I can't waste more time like I did with Morgan.
'I need to create an opening somehow.'
I poured more and more mana into my sword trying to find a way but somehow he kept holding on.
The ethereal and silver light started to dance beautifully with my moves and my opponent found it more and more difficult.
I looked sideways and saw Sylas dominating his opponent as he was also trying to deal that fatal strike.
He looked at me urgently as if trying to say something. He pushed his opponent and shouted at me.
"Dodge! An archer"
'What!? '
My eyes widened as I heard those words.
'Twang'
I was a little late but still managed to react in time to prevent a critical injury.
The moment I heard Sylas, I put an enormous amount of my mana at once into the sword and pushed my opponent to the ground and jumped back. The arrow slid past my face slightly touching my cheek and a few drops of blood flowed down from it.
I had much experience in archery as I lived with Rowan and I was already at the peak of 1st Path to Memories of Silence.
Still, that didn't mean that I would be able to know if an archer is nearby hiding his presence. But due to all that experience I was able to pinpoint the location of the archer seeing the direction from which the arrow came from.
He was already loading his second arrow. My eyes fell on him and he shuddered a little but still continued his attack.
'Twang! '
'He's decent! Not a completely useless archer'.
The archer alone wouldn't be a threat to me as I could easily react to his arrows now that I knew his location. But just as I cut the arrow in half, the one with the sword dashed at me again. He was already tired and bleeding in many parts.
'Che... My mana is reaching its limit too'.
{Mana Borrow}
Mana Borrow is a skill which can supply me with mana from the surrounding but at the same time I would physically exhaust myself much quicker. That was the only reason I never used it more than three times in any fight.
It supplies a great amount of mana but also I need to pay the price in the long run. That was why it was called 'borrowing'.
And right now, I had to finish him off quickly.
But just as I used Mana Borrow, a notification appeared in front of my eyes. And of course, like usual it was something baffling and hard to believe.
[Your skill Mana Borrow (3 star) has been upgraded to Mana Flow (???) ]
I mean... why would I believe it? I didn't even know this was possible. Of course, I knew skills can be upgraded. But upgrading a skill from a different stigmata? That was really, really rare.
And even more so, upgrading it above 3-stars was completely unheard of.
The whole world would be screaming if they heard that I not only learnt a 3-star skill from a foreign stigmata which was unbelievably difficult to learn, but also succeeded in upgrading it to a higher level.
As I was too immersed in my own world to notice my surroundings, an arrow flew towards me and entered my stomach from the side.
Gah!
'...Argh ! I got distracted.'
It did look a little deep but not life threatening.
How could a normal arrow kill me when I had a Mana Barrier surrounding my body that was made with the intention of surviving Ava Edenheart's arrows.
'But that guy is really irritating me now. Can't you guys come one by one?'
{Mana Flow}
I tried my new skill and mana started to enter my body from the surroundings at a much higher rate than before. Not only that it was much easier to transfer this mana into my weapon.
'A Blade that cuts' started to glow more brightly as if it was having a palatable meal.
My sword clashed once and he was already pushed back. He was backing off a step with every second that passed.
It wasn't that hard to dodge the archer once I noticed him, considering I don't get distracted again. Also it was hard for him to predict my moves similar to Dance of the Dragon.
Thud!
I heard a body falling and saw Sylas already took care of his opponent.
"I am going for the archer"
"Don't kill him"
He nodded and went ahead in the direction of the archer leaving me with this guy to deal with. And now that the archer was no longer a problem, I could fight without worrying about other things.
With the already tired opponent, it was an easy one and ever more when my sword was brimming with mana.
Slice!
[You have killed a Human Lvl 23]
***
I rushed near Sylas and saw the archer with a missing arm.
"Why did you ask me not to kill him? "
"I have to ask him something."
I took out my spear and stabbed a little into his stomach.
"Now there, I am going to ask some questions and you are going to answer me. Is that all right? "
"Yeah... Just kill me, asshole"
{Lightning Wave}
"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! "
"Do you really think this is a request?"
The archer looked towards my eye biting his teeth. With deep golden eyes, I was looking down at him who was lying on them with no emotions.
I didn't need to think twice to kill a guy like this. I was already raging at the situation here. They killed hundreds of humans and experimented here. And I couldn't even imagine how long they had been doing this.
{Lighting Wave}
"Aghhhhhhhhhh"
I didn't use the Lightning Wave for long as I didn't want to risk killing him without getting any answers. Some of the scientists ran away while some were there, but I doubt they would know anything looking at their situations.
They were just some psychopaths used here to conduct experiments with the people.
"Don't worry. I won't kill you. I'll just continue this until you decide to answer me."
{Lighting Wave}
"Once you answer me, you're free to go. Just think about it, yeah?"
{Lighting Wave}
"Aahhhhhh.... I... answwar... I will...answer... Pwease stop! "
Blood and saliva filled his mouth as he desperately begged me to stop. Tears were falling from his red eyes.
"Good. Then the first question. Is the Doctor behind this? "
"The Doctor?"
Both the archer and Sylas posed the same question together.
"I'll fill you in with the details later, Sylas. And you keep speaking"
"I-I don't know any Doctor. We follow the orders of Lady Vincia"
"Don't fucking lie!!" I screamed, somehow controlling myself to kill him.
"I-I am saying the tru-truth... Trust me"
'What? I was pretty sure the Doctor was behind this. And now it was someone called Lady Vincia?"
"Then what is your plan here?"
"T-the monsters are released to the streets. They were mutated with h-human's blood or something...I don't know much....and..and the Duke's daughter...she's already baited, I-I think...We were supposed to meet her now"
My whole body shook uncontrollably as I heard those words come out of his mouth. They were mutated with human blood? I started to remember all those dead people that the Dark Wyvern killed.
It was no doubt a mutated one.
'Is it the same person behind this attack? That Mr.H?'
I didn't know what to think as that was not only the shocking thing he said.
'The mutated monsters are released to the streets? '
I didn't even want to assume how large the tragedy was.
For now, I have to do what I can.
"Where were you supposed to meet the Duke's daughter? "
"N-n-near the 15th Street of the Small Market area. There...there is a small a-alley."
The Small Market is just a few blocks away from the market that I usually visit. Due to the main market being the spotlight of an upcoming festival I didn't know about, people rarely visited near the Small Market these days.
'I-I told you everything. Let me go now, please''
There's no way I could let him go. All these guys, no matter what their circumstances were, did something unforgivable.
"Someone is coming, Marcel''
Just as I was about to kill him, I heard Sylas' words while he was looking towards the large door of the room. Of course, I had no idea who he was talking about as I didn't see anyone.
"Are you su-"
Chaenng!
My eyes widened as I sensed the fluctuations of mana at the last second and blocked the dagger just an inch away from my neck.
"Wow! I knew you were strong but now that I have experienced it firsthand, I am really amazed."
'It's her. The veil lady!'
My spear started emitting small sparks as soon as I saw her. I was ready to strike her any moment with Lightning Wave.
"Are you sure you should be fighting me? That cute little Isabelle will die if you stay here..."
'Wait a minute... Not Penelope... but Isabelle? So they were targeting Isabelle all along.'
But now I'm in a tough situation. I don't think she's lying as the archer guy said the same thing.
I didn't know how long it would take to kill her with both Sylas and me together but we had to do it fast.
"Sylas, we need to go all out and finish it"
"... "
"Sylas? "
For some reason Sylas was staring at the lady with a complicated expression. The lady was smiling at us but that smile was filled with deep rage as if she wanted to rip both of us into shreds.
"You go, Marcel. I will hold her here."
"What? Are you stupid? You already used so much of your blood."
"... That won't be a problem."
He bent a little, grabbed the archer guy by his neck and picked him up. Then he slowly brought his face towards the archer's neck.
"Ahh... Ahh.. What are you... S-stop... Ahhhhhh!"
And bit it with his pointed canines.