Saint Louis City.
At the exit of an alley, a slender yet resilient young girl stood, her figure draped entirely in a deep brown robe, head slightly lowered. Her face was covered with obvious costics to disguise her true identity.
She stood at the alley’s exit for a few seconds before nonchalantly rging into the flow of people on the street, heading toward the center of the city.
About ten minutes later, she reached a large complex of buildings at the city center, once the mansion of the Pompo Family.
The mansion looked radically changed; the once austere black exterior walls had been painted a bright white. Many walls and houses, which had collapsed in previous battles, were rebuilt. The porch of the main entrance had been torn down, and the emblem of the Pompeii Family had disappeared, replaced by a peculiar crest — an interlaced golden sword and silver long spear.
Every now and then, fully ard Soldiers and Magic Knights hurriedly passed in and out of the main entrance, all bearing the sa emblem — the sword and spear.
The girl watched all this with a complicated expression, her gaze a bit lost, and unconsciously her fist slowly clenched.
"Swish!"
From within the mansion ca a commotion as a tall Magic Knight, accompanied by a group, rode out through the main gates.
The girl looked at the tall Magic Knight, her eyes widening slightly as she recognized him. It was the forr Commander of the Pompo Family’s Magic Knights — Gao Wen Nova Trunk.
Compared to over four months ago, Gao Wen looked even more imposing and exuded a more powerful aura. His eyes were deep, his expression stern, intimidating without anger. Surrounded by a cluster of subordinates, who seed sowhat tense and respectful.
The girl bit her lip lightly, looking at Gao Wen. Gao Wen seed to sense sothing, abruptly turning his head to look over.
The girl was startled, her movents stiffened, and she almost raised her hand. Finally, reason suppressed the impulse, a flash of red flickering in her palm, as she tried to appear casual, slowly turning around like a passerby to head down a side street.
Gao Wen rely glanced at the girl before withdrawing his gaze, apparently not finding anything amiss. He casually said a couple of words to his subordinates and then rode off in the direction of the city outskirts, his entourage quickly following.
Seconds later, once Gao Wen and his troop had completely left the space in front of the mansion, the girl erged from her hiding spot in the street. She glanced in the direction Gao Wen’s group had gone, her expression a bit conflicted, and after a mont of thought, decided to follow.
...
Her lips slightly parted, a gust of wind lifted the girl’s feet, lightening her movents considerably and doubling her speed. She quickly caught up with Gao Wen’s group, cautiously trailing behind to see what they were up to.
After a few minutes of following, a look of confusion appeared on the girl’s face. She noticed Gao Wen’s group was not heading straight for the city gates and out of the city, as she had expected, but took a turn midway, heading elsewhere.
After impatiently following for a few more minutes, the girl’s expression grew increasingly puzzled. She realized Gao Wen’s group seed to have no set destination, rely circling around.
Were they patrolling the city’s security?
The girl speculated, soon shaking her head internally to dismiss the thought. For they had passed the sa spot for the second ti, hardly like a patrol.
What were they trying to do, then?
Wait, had their numbers decreased?
The girl suddenly realized she had overlooked a crucial point, her body tensing.
Her eyes widened as she looked closely at Gao Wen’s group several tis, confirming the reduction in their numbers. Because it was a gradual decrease, it was subtle, and she hadn’t noticed at first.
So the question arose, where did the missing ones go? Did they have a special assignnt?
Thinking about Gao Wen constantly leading them in circles, the girl felt an intense sense of danger engulfing her. Without hesitation, she turned and dashed into a nearby dead-end alley.
Almost as soon as she entered the alley, she heard the rapid approach of nurous hoofbeats from the alley’s entrance.
The girl’s heart began pounding in her chest; sweat uncontrollably seeped from her skin, her palms growing unusually slick. She didn’t look back; there was no ti. She quickly chanted a Spell, wrapping herself in a gust of wind. Racing to the alley’s end, she leaped high, vaulting over the stone wall into the alley opposite.
But the sound of galloping hooves did not fade; it ca from all directions, a slightly desperate thought flashing in her mind: she was surrounded.
She looked down at the moss-covered green bricks beneath her feet, a bead of sweat slid from her forehead, falling to the ground, shattering into fragnts.
"Huff—ha—"
The girl took a deep breath, grudgingly pursing her lips, her foot stepping forward again, flipping into a nearby residence, trying to find a gap in the encirclent to escape.
...
Run, run, run...
The girl vaulted over residence after residence, continually shifting positions, trying to escape toward the outskirts, but she found the number of people surrounding her increasing, layer upon layer of encirclent cutting off all escape routes.
Suddenly, she had a realization: those who quietly dropped from Gao Wen’s group earlier had not only stayed behind to lay in ambush but surely so had gone to seek reinforcents.
"You really think highly of , Gao Wen!"
She vaulted once again, landing in an abandoned courtyard, muttering in a low voice, simring with resentnt.
By this ti, her face was flushed red, sweat continuously dripping. On one hand, her Mana was greatly depleted, and on the other, her Physical Strength was also largely sapped.
The girl did not give up; taking a deep breath, she regained so strength, readying herself to vault once more to flee.
Just as she neared a wall of the abandoned courtyard, her ears twitched at the sound of piercing air. She swung her body swiftly to the side, and at the next mont, "bang!" A gleaming Magic Rune Long Spear smashed into the brick wall, gouging a hole as it pinned in the courtyard, its tail quivering incessantly.
If the girl had insisted on vaulting, she would surely have been impaled by the Magic Rune Knight’s thrown spear.
The girl’s fists clenched tightly, hearing the dense footsteps closing in from all directions, clearly, the enemy had precisely locked onto her position.
She had no chance to escape.
With her teeth biting into her lower lip, blood oozing, her expression was angry and unwilling.
She crouched, slowly retreating into a near-collapsing house, preparing for the final struggle. She had made the worst plans for the outco, but did not want to simply accept it.
She had just stepped into the room when a voice rang out behind her, whispering with a hint of sigh, "You really were careless, weren’t you?"
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