The man I fired at was down on the ground, clutching at a few wounds on his body, while the other man was still grasping at his eyes. A flash of light followed by a loud bang echoed behind me, as the man looked up just in time to see me reach him.
He swung his axe at me. He missed. And I slashed at his legs, ducking under the swing. The man screamed, falling to his knees. Before I finished him off with a quick shot to the head.
It happened so fast. One moment I was ignoring the gunfire ringing off behind me as I finished off the second thug, the next I was outside catching my breath for a moment. The Plague Doctor followed immediately after, rapidly loading more bullets into his revolver.
"Don’t let up. There’s still dozens of them."
"Right," I said, aiming through the door and blasting a man holding a crossbow in the head. Bullets whizzed past me as I ducked back behind cover. "Got anything else up your sleeve?"
"Not unless you have something." The Plague Doctor fired off multiple shots as fast as I could even aim. "Do you?" he asked, stepping from his side of the door to next to me.
"I—" I bit my tongue. Is he trying to make me use magic? He suspected me of something— I did not know what he thought he knew, but he definitely knew something. I shook my head, exasperated. "This is not the time!"
"I know," he remarked casually as he fired another round. "That’s why I’m waiting for you. You have a secret, don’t you?"
I hesitated. Then a round object rolled at our feet. My eyes widened, and I reacted before I could even think. "Bomb—"
I rolled out of the way as it exploded at my behind; the shockwave scattered some dirt and rocks on me, knocking me back further. But otherwise, I was unharmed. I whirled around in a panic, trying to see what happened to the Plague Doctor. Why didn’t he move out of the way?
Only to have my question answered when I saw the domed barrier surrounded him.
Right, forgot about that.
I wanted to sigh in relief; I was glad the Plague Doctor did not die. However there were more pressing issues at hand I had to focus on. Like the gaping hole in the wall!
The double doors of the warehouse had already been destroyed from the fighting. But after that bomb went off, the wall next to it was blown apart, tripling the size of the exit for the thugs.
A few projectiles impacted the Plague Doctor’s translucent shield. There were much fewer flying about now. The Plague Doctor seemed to have mostly targeted those with ranged weapons during the previous engagement.
I picked myself up as the domed barrier dissipated, and the first thug charged at the Plague Doctor. The masked man simply brought his cane up, aiming the slightly pointed end at the charging enemy. The lower half of the cane glowed, the mana crystal at its top shining a different color. Then the Plague Doctor ran the thug through with it effortlessly.
More thugs came at him swinging their weapons. The Plague Doctor took a fencer’s stance, and met them all in combat. He blocked. Parried. Stabbed. And the thugs fell one by one at his weaponized cane.
I managed to fire off a few shots both at the thugs assailing him, and the ones giving them covering fire. Two fell dead, another was wounded. Before finally, some of the thugs turned their attention to me.
The first man knocked my gun aside, following up with an overhead strike. I sidestepped it easily, stabbing into his guard. The blade plunged into his chest. With a quick twist, I yanked it out and turned to the other two thugs immediately to my right.
I slashed at the one on the right as he backed up. The other thug swung at me from behind, but I sidestepped around it. They came at me at once from both sides. I took advantage of my smaller size to continuously dodge between the two, focusing on deflecting the incoming strikes, while alternating my counters with every other swing.
I managed to cut one low. Right at his shins. And he stumbled back for a second. I immediately followed up on him as his friend tried to stab at me with his sword from behind—
And I ducked out of the way.
The injured thug was struck on his chest. He barely even registered what happened before he fell, with the blade lodged into his heart. The other thug’s eyes widened in shock as he realized what happened. I took that opening the moment I saw it. With a quick double slash, the other thug fell over.
I was panting. My breathing was heavy. I had to labor for each breath to come out. If only I could use magic! But I could not.
I swung my gaze around, looking at the fighting happening right in front of the warehouse; there were still over a dozen thugs circling around the Plague Doctor. But they were keeping their distance. The small pile of bodies at his feet was enough of a deterrent to keep them all charging in at once.
A part of me wanted to immediately charge in and help him. But another part was screaming at me to get out of here. I was scratched up, and if I had made a single mistake, I would have been dead by now. And more than that…
"Gah!"
A scream. And another thug fell dead in an instant.
"What are you
