"This way!" Lydia shouted. "There's a side street over there that should be less crowded!"
Lucas kept one hand on Celeste's arm and the other on Raymond's shoulder, trying to keep the group together.
Behind them, he could hear the guards shouting orders and magic barriers began forming around the square's perimeter.
They were maybe fifty feet from the alley Lydia was heading toward when Lucas heard it.
A scream of pure agony. The sound of someone dying.
Lucas's head snapped up toward the rooftops.
Another figure in dark clothing stood there, arms raised, dark purple energy swirling around their hands. The energy coalesced into dozens of spikes.
Sharp and deadly.
"GET DOWN!" Lucas shouted.
The Legion mage thrust both hands forward, and the shadow spikes rained down like deadly arrows.
People scattered in every direction in order to escape. The spikes slammed into the cobblestones, into market stalls, into people.
Each impact released a burst of that same purple energyand anyone touched by it screamed as their flesh began to decay.
A spike embedded itself in the ground inches from Charlotte's foot. She froze completely and her face white with fear.
"Charlotte, move!" Marie grabbed her friend and yanked her forward.
More Legion mages appeared on the surrounding rooftops. Three, four, five of them.
The royal guards were trying to respond, but they were overwhelmed. The shadow spikes punched through the magic shields like paper.
"Red Alert! Red Alert! Protect the king!" A guard shouted.
Arrows flew toward the rooftops from some of the guards but the Legion mages easily dodged them.
It was obvious they were at least Iron ranked.
In the game, the Legion's first public attack happened two years from now at Borderfort.
They laid siege to the fortress city, easily conquering it and making it the base from which they went on to conquer the rest of the continent.
They certainly hadn't attacked any civilians at festivals. At least not this early.
[Ding!]
[Quest: "Survival of the Fittest"]
[Objective: Survive the Legion's first public attack]
[Reward: Skill: Danger Sense (Basic), Skill: Soul Sword, 2 Free Lottery Spins]
[Failure Penalty: Death]
[Time Limit: Until the attack ends]
Great. Just great.
"The alley!" Damion shouted. "Everyone, follow me!"
The group changed direction. Lucas saw a woman get struck by a shadow spike and watched as she collapsed dead and the decay spread across her body in seconds.
Close by, a child stood crying over a fallen man which was probably his father.
Lucas grabbed the kid's arm as they passed. "Come with us!"
The boy didn't resist. He was too shocked to do anything but follow.
They finally reached the alley entrance. It was narrower than Lucas would've liked, barely wide enough for two people side by side, but it was away from the main square and the worst of the attacks.
"Keep moving!" Zacard said, dagger still in his hand. "Don't stop until we're clear of the market district!"
The alley twisted and turned as it passed by the back entrances of shops and homes. Lucas could still hear the screams behind them.
What on earth is going on? Montrose marriage proposal, Legion assassination attempt and terror attack, Zacard and Damion are friends, Marie knew Lydia too early, the Castille family survived.
This is all wrong. There is no way anything like this should be happening!
Unless.....
What if there was another transmigrator? Someone who'd arrived before me, with knowledge of how things would play out, who'd started changing things before I even got here?
If that's the case, so much things suddenly made sense.
Someone had been meddling with the timeline, and now the Legion was adapting to it because they had somehow figured out their original plans wouldn't work anymore.
Or even worse, the other transmigrator was on their side.
"Lucas!" Celeste's shouted. "Watch out!"
A figure dropped from a rooftop into the alley ahead of them.
Then another. And another.
Three Legion grunts. They were all armed: two with short swords, one with a wicked-looking curved blade.
"Well, well," the one with the curved blade said. "Look what we found. Little noble brats trying to escape. Let's kill the guys quickly and enjoy the company of the ladies. They're just too good-looking."
Damion smirked and said, "Don't run off your mouth so early."
Light flashed, and suddenly he was holding a golden sword that definitely hadn't been there a second ago.
Holy sh*t, Lucas thought. He already has a soul weapon? At seventeen? That shouldn't be possible until at least Copper rank!
Zacard moved to Damion's side, and held out his hand and a spear wreathed in crackling blue lightning appeared.
Are you kidding me? Lucas stared. Two soul weapons? Aren't these supposed to be rare? They say even a Mythril rank might not have one yet these guys casually have it.
They are way more powerful than they should be at this point in the game!
In the game, at this point in the timeline, Damion and Zacard were talented but still students.
Neither should have reached the level where they could manifest soul weapons, which required not just power but a deep connection to their own mana and fighting spirit.
The Legion grunts looked less confident now. In fact, they were downright terrified.
"Soul weapons?" the leader said. "The intel said nothing about—"
He didn't finish.
Damion rushed forward with a speed that made Lucas's enhanced agility look pathetic.
His golden blade swept through the first grunt's defenses like they weren't there, and the man crumpled with a scream.
Zacard's spear stabbed out. The man convulsed and fell, smoke rising from his burned clothing.
The third grunt tried to run. Damion's sword extended, the blade of light stretching impossibly long to catch the fleeing man in the back.
The whole fight lasted maybe ten seconds.
Lucas just stood there. Doing nothing.
Pathetic.
"Everyone okay?" Damion asked, his sword fading back into light and disappearing.
"F-fine," Charlotte said.
"That was..." Raymond looked like he might throw up. "That was a lot."
"We need weapons," Lydia said.
She was already moving toward the fallen grunts and carefully began checking their bodies.
Lucas joined her. He found a short sword that seemed reasonably well-made and took it, along with a belt and sheath.
Marie grabbed a dagger. Raymond reluctantly took a sword that looked too big for his scrawny frame. Charlotte picked up a small knife, holding it like it might bite her.
Even Celeste armed herself, selecting a slender blade that matched her elegant appearance.
The kid Lucas had grabbed was still standing there, eyes wide and vacant with shock.
"What's your name?" Lucas asked.
"T-Timmy," the boy whispered.
"Okay, Timmy. Stay close to me, alright? We're going to get you somewhere safe."
Just as Lucas finished speaking, he heard footsteps. Lots of them.
The group turned as one toward the sound.
Six more Legion soldiers emerged from both ends of the alley, surrounding them.
"Shit," Zacard said, raising his spear again.
The leader of this new group, a woman with a scar running down her face, smiled coldly.
"I see you've killed some of ours. That wasn't very nice of you, was it? Guess we'll have to return the favor."