Science/Magic 71 Intense Battle in the Fores

...

"Careful!" Harold cried out and took out his shield. He and his men instantly moved to protect Gerald and Erika.

In one second, they had formed a circle with the city lord's children in the center. They then pointed their weapons to the people charging towards them.

An instant later, the black shadows clashed with them.

*Bam!*

"Erika, the barrier!" Gerald shouted. Erika nodded shakily and activated the barrier in her necklace.

Just like that, the fight between the black shadows and Harold's men started.

But not all the shadows attacked them. Half of the shadows attacked Bloed and the girls.

However, Bloed could not help but wrinkle his brows at that moment.

He had thought that Gerald and the others would turn againsts them at this moment, joining hands with the black-dressed men to attack them while they explained the reason behind it.

In fact, Bloed was even expecting to fight the city lord. Regina had told him that if the city lord appeared, she was going to take care of him.

But for some reason, not only Gerald's group was not attacking them, but they even were fighting against half of the black-dressed men.

'Could it be that I was mistaken? Is the city lord not the one behind the attacks?'

For an instant, Bloed could not help but doubt his judgment.

But he shook his head in the next instant.

'No, I'm sure I'm right. Then… They want to make us believe they are not with the black-dressed men? But why are they still feigning ignorance at this point?'

Bloed did not know the reason, but if they wanted to play, Bloed was going to accompany them.

"Tito!" With Bloed's voice as the signal, the mechanical puppy moved. It instantly turned into metallic sand that flew in the air until wrapping around Bloed's body.

Then, the metallic sand turned into a bluish armor!

Bloed movements were smooth. Before the armor took shape completely, his hands were grabbing two energy guns created from Leto's body. He aimed to the black-dressed men charging towards them and shot.

*Bam!*

With the first shot, one of the black-dressed men fell.

Then–

*Bam bam bam bam!*

Bloed's eyes glinted with a ice-cold light. He pressed the trigger once and again, aiming to the black-dressed men and killing them in droves.

In the first second, he had killed three of them!

However, these men seemed to have received information about Bloed's weapon from yesterday's battle. They started to move erratically, managing to evade the bullets and avoiding death.

Bloed did not care, though. He was already expecting something like this. Instead, he continued shooting calmly.

The black-dressed men continued rushing to the group like a black wave. Bloed's senses felt more than thirty life presences around them, and the number was still growing!

Half of them were attacking Gerald's group, and the other half were attacking Bloed and the girls.

But although they tried to hide it well, Bloed realized that the half attacking Gerald's group was not giving their all.

Instead, the half attacking them were like crazy men that wanted to eat Bloed and the girls' flesh and drink their blood.

When the men were about to reach them, the girls moved.

Both Regina and Liu Ying moved at the same time. Regina stood in front of Bloed and Liu Ying stood behind him. They looked at the black-dressed men and snorted.

"Die!" Regina materialized a energy blade in each hand and spun around. Her blades moved like agile snakes, each one searching for the enemy's throat and killing them in one move.

Liu Ying, on the other hand, filled her punches with mana and bellowed.

"Ha!" With a cry, her blood-red mana surged outwards, crushing everything in front of her and stopping the enemies in their tracks.

Meanwhile, Bloed provided support to the two girls, shooting to the men attacking them and killing one every time he found an opening.

With this formation, Liu Ying and Regina were the vanguard and Bloed was the rearguard.

The battle intensified quickly. Although no B-Rank combatant had shown himself yet, the sheer number of D-Rank and C-Rank practitioners attacking them was overwhelming.

But the two battles taking place at this time were completely different. In Gerald's side, nobody had died yet, but in Bloed side, there were already fifteen bodies after less than thirty seconds.

That scene surprised all the people present.

At that instant, a voice sounded from the forest.

"Take care of them first or we will lose all our men!"

As soon as the voice sounded, half of the people attacking Gerald's group changed targets.

Bloed smirked inwardly. 'So, this the excuse they are going to use, huh.'

Even so, he did not show anything in his face. He just frowned and continued pressing the trigger.

With the increase of the enemies, the situation of the group worsened. Regina and Liu Ying's felt the pressure on them increasing, and Bloed bullets became less and less effective.

For each enemy they killed, another two took their place. In truth, the enemies were not very strong individually, but even ants could bite an elephant to dead.

Erika, who noticed that situation, turned anxious.

"Mr. Harold, help them!"

But Harold smirked. "Young miss, our responsibility is only to protect the young master and you. We can't put your safety in risk for unrelated people."

Erika's expression fell. She turned to Sara, but Sara shook her head.

"I'm your bodyguard, young miss. If something happens to you, I will not be able to bear the consequences."

Erika's face turned pale. Finally, she stared at Gerald.

"Brother!"

Gerald, however, just smiled. "Don't worry, nothing will happen to them. Father is just waiting until all the enemies show themselves completely to catch they all in one fell swoop."

Sara, who heard such at obvious lie, closed her eyes and sighed. She could only pray that nothing happens to Bloed and the others.

In truth, she wanted to help them, but she could not do it, not when her sister's life was in the city lord's hands.

So, she could only watch.

Bloed and the others' situation quickly worsened. Before long, Liu Ying was injured; and although the injury healed quickly and she continued fighting, anyone could see that she could not last long and this rate.

As for Regina, although she had not been injured yet, the space where she could move was turning smaller with each passing second.

But when it seemed the situation could not turn worse, a shadow appeared above them.

Instantly, an intense pressure surged out of the shadow. The pressure attacked Bloed and the girls, slowing their movements.

At the same time, the shadow extended its hand, forming a claw and aiming for Bloed's arm.

'B-Rank!' That thought appeared in every person spectating the fight.

In an instant, the claw reached him. Erika and Sara could not help but cry out.

"Watch out!"

But then–

*Growl!*

Suddenly, a powerful grunt sounded.

Then, the metallic wolf standing beside Bloed looked up.

Before the shadow could understand what was happening, it saw a claw coming towards its neck.

Finally, Leto had moved.

Chapter end