The captain rambled on for a while. Gaius and Isabella exchanged concerned looks but said nothing. There clearly were unresolved issues in how Esven got his position. Getting an opportunity to vent could be more cleansing for him than any holy blessing.

  At some point, Isabella's arm found its way underneath Gaius'. Walking like that made him wonder if maybe this was the knight's idea of a date. He didn't know enough about knights, especially not those of the Caladonian variety, to disprove that. He simply chose to enjoy the moment.

  On his end, he knew exactly what he saw in Isabella. She made it very easy for anyone with eyes to appreciate her standout features. And stand out they did. But beyond just her appearance, Gaius liked Isabella's infuriating at times unpredictability. She was like this job where everything goes wrong and you have to improvise at every step, but in the end, you barely manage to pull through. There were few things more exhilarating than that. And after spending a good deal of time around Isabella, Gaius was about ready to conclude that she was one of them.

  But then, he could not for the life of him figure out what she saw in him. For all she knew, he was just a merchant with a few good stories. He wasn't a great warrior, he didn't have the wealth of someone like Vasily, and he was very far from sharing her devout beliefs.

  At times he wondered if perhaps Isabella was merely interested in bringing out the hidden potential in him. And that was her big challenge. But that was just as likely as her fancying him because his shaved dome reminded her of the full moon.

  Esven was bemoaning Siembra's magistrate and all his pointless and overly restrictive regulations when Gaius stopped in his tracks.

  Even in his state of light infatuation, a part of his attention was dedicated to scanning their surroundings. And right now, that particular part was raising all sorts of alarms.

  They were walking down an ordinary Siembran street, bookended on both ends with rows of cozy houses that oftentimes doubled as storefronts.

  The road was just like any other. The streetlights mostly worked. Everything seemed perfectly fine for a very late evening. But still, it was all too still. The windows were shuttered like during an alef night. Even the occasional stumbling drunks disappeared a block or two back.

  "Careful," Gaius shouted right before a couple of throwing knives skewered Hector and the Rat. One of them got hit in the chest, the other in the throat. Both were dead before they hit the ground.

  The next barrage of knives was aimed at those still standing. The one heading for Isabella bounced off her invisible shield without causing any harm. Thanks to Gaius' warning, Esven was able to deflect his knife with the back of his gauntlet.

  Gaius himself was conveniently not there. A pale outline of him was pierced straight through and dissipated as the knife embedded itself in the ground, leaving Esven and Isabella to fend for themselves.

  A group of grim men, caped and cowled, stepped out from every conceivable bit of cover. They encircled the knight and the constable without saying a word or even making a sound. Most of them were armed with dirks painted black. Several carried arcane implements.

  And then, just behind them was Donny, the shady merchant. Seeing his ugly mug silenced the part of Gaius telling him to run. This was payback, and he was on the hook. His best bet was to help Esven and Isabella survive this encounter.

  Observing this all from the relative safety of a narrow passage between two houses, Gaius couldn't believe a sniveling coward like Donny had enough pull to organize this attack in so little time. But that was something he would ponder later. Right now, he had another thing in mind.

  Even when he pulled his disappearing trick, Gaius wasn't running, he was repositioning. There was little he could do in a big no holds barred brawl that was about to happen. Instead, he decided to direct his efforts to finding the knife thrower. The deadly missiles came from somewhere above.

  Gaius looked up, sighed, and congratulated himself on having the foresight to wear comfortable clothes. It's been years since he used his skills as a cat burglar, but he hoped that all that nimble stuff would come back to him once he started scaling the wall leading up to the nearest roof.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The assassins down below, and Gaius had no better word for them at the moment, begun their advance. They moved in perfect sync, covering one another from every conceivable angle.

  Esven put a swift stop to that. In a blink of an eye, the arbalest he carried on his back was now in his hands. The first bolt flew past the assassins and hit Donny in the eye. Not wasting any time to reload, Esven followed that up with a couple of explosive flasks he carried on his belt. Their contents created a ring of fire between the two of them and the assassins.

  The assassins weren't too concerned with Donny's fate. They fell back and let their wizards do their thing.

  Rhythmic chanting filled the air, interrupted by a bit of gurgling as Esven's second bolt found his mark in one of the mages.

  The other two finished the job, conjuring what seemed like a small pond right above the patch of ground marked by the flames. The fire went out with a whimper to that mass of water that crashed down on Esven like a wet but heavy fist from above.

  And at that moment Gaius was all but ready to believe that Isabella's protection was indeed coming from the gods. Once the water dissipated, she was left standing without any injury, dry as a desert.

  The knight positioned herself over Esven, and met the new assault.

  In their rush to press their advantage, the assassins left caution behind. They seemed intent on overwhelming Isabella with their numbers. Attack from multiple directions, retreat when necessary, be too much to handle.

  It was a tried and true strategy that worked even against the best of fighters. Stuck somewhere halfway up a wall, Gaius was scared that even despite Isabella's divine defenses, she wouldn't be able to handle this onslaught.

  Gaius' preferred way of dealing with knights was to avoid them at any cost. Because of that, his back had seen way more knights than his eyes ever did. And even though Isabella's fighting style was not at all similar to that of Mystlund's knights who preferred their protection to be made of reinforced metal plates, it served as a great example of what one could do when backed by divine power.

  Isabella had complete faith in her shield. Her main goal was making sure Esven wasn't stabbed before he could get up.

  She spun her saber in wide arcs without even momentary interruptions. A few swings in, the blade got infused with a faint blue glow that trailed its movements. These residual strokes of light hung in the air, tearing through a couple of bullheaded assassins who foolishly assumed they were there merely for show.

  Others decided to try their luck penetrating the knight's shield only to be rebuked by it and then get cut down by Isabella's counters.

  Those who went for the easier supine target were met with a flurry of kicks, slashes, and zaps. All of that while wearing sandals.

  Still, the assassins pressed on, but by then, Esven figured out up from down. Without an opening to reload his arbalest, he started using it as a club in conjunction with heavy punches of his armored fists.

  The two were actually pushing the assassins back when Gaius vaulted himself onto the roof. The knife-thrower wasn't there, or at least he was good at making himself not seen. Gaius assumed the latter. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a pattern of miscolored tiles on a neighboring roof.

  Gaius was halfway through a single step towards that peculiar arrangement when it ruffled and was revealed to be a painted cape. There was also a trace of illusion, faint enough that Gaius initially missed the magic altogether.

  Underneath the cape was a man. Tall, lean, and featureless, he was essentially mummified by belts, each of them holding a good dozen throwing knives.

  Two of those flew at Gaius who dodged one and almost the other. A streak of blood dripping from his shoulder put him on a timer.

  There was no cover between him and the knife-thrower, no way to avoid his next barrage, and none of Gaius' magics had that much range to them. He was an easy target and he knew it.

  Lacking better options, he changed the grip on his axe and lobbed it at his opponent. Not waiting for a reaction, he leaped the gap between the two roofs and conjured a coating of metal around his left hand.

  The knife-thrower was quick to figure out Gaius' gambit. He dodged the axe, then produced two more knives and assumed a defensive stance. He waited for Gaius to approach and take the fight into close quarters.

  Gaius' first instinct in any fight was to start talking and avoid it altogether. This clearly wasn't happening. Gaius' next course of action was to make the first hit the last.

  He hid his transmuted hand right until it was the moment to strike. Then, he put all his weight into a hook that would've knocked a bull out.

  The knife-thrower was no bull, he was more akin to Gaius. He wasn't there when the punch was about to land.

  This threw Gaius off-balance and granted the knife-thrower an opportunity to run him through.

  Giving up whatever mobility he had, Gaius dropped on one knee and met the knife-thrower's charge with an extended right hand and a desperate incantation.

  A burst of fire exploded right in the knife-thrower's face. It wasn't hot or powerful enough to do any real damage, only to singe his eyebrows. But no matter how you spin it, getting a faceful of flames tends to be a shocking experience.

  This brief reprieve allowed Gaius to straighten up and even look around to try and find his axe. When that proved fruitless, he went back to using his fists.

  An overpowering surge of magic from below diverted a part of his focus to what was happening down there while he and the knife-thrower exchanged blows, feints, and tricks.

  Story Facts - Chapter 22