"A little impatient are we now, Baldwin?" Alexander's thick voice echoed within the silent space around me, the sounds of blades colliding shattering the space itself into bits as the pressure pushed me back by a significant distance.
The recoil from the sudden block clearly affected the demonic example of a human being as well, his body moving some steps back before regaining his stability.
"The church's dog..." Baldwin let out spitefully, malice clear in his tone as he pointed his blade at him, "I have no time to play around with an insignificant being such as yourself."
"It doesn't please me either," Alexander bit back, brandishing his blade as he assumed a firm and stiff battle-ready stance, "...being near evil filth such as yourself disgusts me to my core."
Before Baldwin could let out another word, a silvery glint flashed beside his head before a blast of wind blinded me for a second; my focus returned with Grat's battle axe being held at its blade right before it could slice the man's head in half.
"I shall not repeat my words," Baldwin let out, a cold tone clearly evident in his voice as he pushed back Grat's axe, "...I will not entertain dogs, leave before I use you and this killer's spawn to wipe this kingdom's floors."
Hold up, who's what? His words were clearly aimed at both Alexander and I but who the hell was the killer's spawn in his sick and twisted plot?
That being said, his threat wasn't empty. One look at the man and you could feel it--the pure, thick and almost suffocating pressure that surrounded him. The kind you'd get after seeing a man point a gun at you in a dark alley way, the man before us was clearly ready to kill--and he sure as hell was confident he would.
Shaking off a bit of the fear that had formed a cloud over me, I quickly drew my blade, leaped some steps back and sucked in a deep breath as I assumed a battle stance. Regardless of what happened, this fight was inevitable...there was no way I was not getting involved.
Noticing my actions, Alexander showed a grin before flashing a sharp cold stare back at the armored beast before him; a dark blue glow flashing from his eyes almost like thin streams of mist.
"Go ahead, do your worst." Alexander let out, his words being the last we'd hear for a short while before Baldwin let out a muffled grunt.
Without another word being exchanged, Baldwin flashed out of my view--reappearing right in front of Alexander who's blade had been readied to parry whatever attack was being thrown at him.
An ironclad fist was what met the surface of his blade, but the impact left one hell of a sharp noise and sent a blast of air all around us; Alexander himself seemed to have the wind blown out of him for a second before he instantly tightened his jaw and flung the fist away with a simple movement.
Almost instantly, his body movement changed; all the momentum that had been thrown at him blew back out as he charged forwards, his blade colliding with the man's again with Grat attempting another hack from behind.
As expected, all were futile attempts. Baldwin easily deflected each attack with movements that seemed impossible considering the weight of the armor covering his body. He was almost flawless--fitting of a weapon forged by constant battles as a hunter, his rank was earned and it was evident; even a holy knight and an orc were like mere ants to him.
"The gap between the two of you is substantial, master." Mes chimed in, her voice tearing through my thoughts as I watched the battle unfold before my eyes.
"No shit, how do I take him out?"
"You don't"
"The hell you mean by that?"
Mes audibly took in a deep breath before barking back out her words loud enough to make my own ears ring, "YOU DON'T, DUMBASS"
"The gap between the two of you is like the heavens and the earth,"
"Alright, alright! Then what the hell do I do?"
"Maintain a significant distance between the two of you," She continued, her tone now calm and collected, as though she was making mental calculations as she spoke, "...I believe I might have figured out how to get you out of this."
Just the words I needed to hear--for the first time ever since reincarnating, Mes actually seemed like she was serious about helping.
"Alexander, Grat...keep him busy for me." I let out, tightening my grip on my blade for a moment.
Without hesitating, I quickly turned and hauled ass; only stopping once Baldwin himself was a satisfactory distance away. Then my movements changed, this time running around the battle instead of away from it--my plan was simple, only move back once the distance I created got reduced...whatever Mes was cooking, I was down to eat.
"Speak to me Mes, how do we beat this guy?" I inwardly let out, dodging debris that surprisingly flew past me from the battle I was avoiding.
"Beat?" She chuckled out, her subtitles quickly shifting as she continued speaking, "...you can't beat him, master."
"Then what the hell is this grand plan of yours!"
"Outlast him," She calmly responded, "...I know you noticed it, he's draining a lot of magic just handling those two."
Now that she mentioned it, all that pressure surrounding him didn't seem ordinary. He didn't need it to be terrifying after all; the fact that he was a living A ranked monstrosity was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine. Heck, even Alexander himself must have had a drop of sweat tearing through his skin--you don't simply pull that title out of some ditch, you earn it in ways no human is willing to go through.
That being said, even if all that pressure he was releasing truly was magic--and even if he was draining it all out just to eliminate us, it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't need magic to turn us into mushy piles of flesh...
"Be clearer Mes, that dude clearly doesn't need magic to take me down."
"Trust in me, master." Her tone was as calm as it was during her last talk, she was confident and it was clear, "...only allow him to attack you through magic, you'll absorb any magical attack."
Trust in a woman talking in my head...I was already practically insane so what else did I have to lose. All I had to do was keep my distance...
keep my distance...
keep...
hmm...well would you look at that...
I'd lost the person I was supposed to distance myself from.
"BOY!" Alexander shouted out, preparing his blade before sprinting forwards, anger in his eyes that didn't meet mine.
Instead, they were staring at something right behind me--and that something happened to have a blade vertically slicing down towards me, ready to split me into perfect halves.
déjà vu much? I always seem to attract near death slashes like this one; well, perhaps it was too early to speak since I'd only experienced one other from a beast that wanted me hacked to pieces.
With no other option; I twisted my body back, blade covering my chest as I stared at the well sharpened blade that was hurling down at me. Best case scenario, the blade miraculously manages to block the damage and I leave there with nothing more than a broken spine.
Worst case? Take a guess.
A blue streak of light quickly flashed before my eyes, and in the literal blink of an eye--what was once before me was replaced with an open field, a familiar disembodied voice letting out words that seemed to have been uttered long before everything happened.
"Blink!"
What followed after was an echoed crash before Alexander finally managed to swing his blade at the man that had missed his target.
It didn't take Baldwin long to lose his blade as it was sent flying a great distance back right after; allowing Grat and Alexander to send in a flurry of swings and blows.
"You're one hell of a runner, Lance." I let out, taking some steps back.
The man I'd been talking to himself seemed out of breath yet still determined to join in battle; saved my life but clearly took a hit to his soul well too.
"And you sure do know how to attract the wrong kind of attention." He worded out, taking short breaths to calm himself.
"What can I say, fame comes with its own disadvantages."
"Yours seems to have only those." He added, readying himself for another sprint, "...got any more suicidal spells up your sleeve? How do you plan on taking down this brute?"
"We can't take him down," I responded, immediately resuming my circulation around the battle--this time combatting some of Baldwin's backup along my path.
"Just hold strong for a while, he can't keep this up for long."
For a moment, he planned on protesting but after taking a moment to analyze what I meant, a determined look drew itself on his face. With another blink, he was a streak of light that led straight to Baldwin; the blade that Baldwin had just recovered quickly flying out of his hands.
"As expected from a holy knight..." I mumbled out to myself as I resumed my sprint.
And so, a functioning strategy was formed. One that seemed impenetrable; Grat was the brute, he violently struck Baldwin to make him stunned for a fraction of a second. Creating a window for Baldwin to be attacked through. Alexander would use that window to send as many devastating blows as he could, frequently enchanting his blade with spells to further increase the damage.
Then once it seemed like Baldwin would fight back, Lance would immediately thwart any of his plans by knocking away any weapon he intended on using; his speed being his ultimate weapon.
Having his plans interrupted, Grat or Alexander would stun him again before continuing the cycle whilst I kept my distance with Mes rejuvenating my stamina using magic from time to time.
I felt like I was playing one of those MMORPG games and I was just being carried by my overpowered team to beat a dungeon boss because I was too under leveled. My involvement would simply either end in my death or the system being disrupted; as such, Lance took it upon himself to make sure I kept my distance anytime the brute came anywhere close to me.
Felt scummy, but it was all I could do.
Wearing him out was out of the question for me and trying to evade him on my own was also an absolute no go zone, as such, I could only focus on taking down the guys he'd brought with him as I circled the battle area.
The plan was solid, almost too solid.
Pinning down an A rank was absolutely not an easy task but when shit hits the fan, it doesn't get any easier. Our machine-like system instantly lost a cog when Baldwin finally let out an enraged roar, the pressure around him shifting in seconds as a red glow emerged from the eye holes of his helmet.
"Enough of this nonsense!" His voice growled out as his figure quickly charged towards Alexander; who was already charging at him.
You'd have to see the speed he gained to believe my words; as if his previous pace wasn't hard enough to keep up with, his movements now seemed a lot more chaotic and less orthodox. With a swift dodge and a random haymaker, Alexander was sent flying a great distance with Lance soon following him--his being an ascend into the air before being followed up with a fist to the abdomen that sent him crashing into nearby trees.
Grat was not spared either; after dodging another fatal axe swing, he grabbed onto his face, slammed him into the ground multiple times before finally sending him flying right at me.
I'd dodged the incoming orc but quickly fallen into his trap, the damned man was standing right in front of me.
Dodging was futile, my neck was in his firm steel grips before I'd even known it--the ground below me quickly turning to air as he raised me up to face his masked head. His usual awful stench sending an offended reaction all through my body, mixing itself with fear.
"You die today, son of Tylvannis the butcher."