Chapter 301: To Be Caught In The Night

The men rejoiced.

They were gone, the subjugators, those stupid bullies that thought they could walk into the city of Gloria and took it as their own. These people had been enough to scare even a number of the Guardsmen to wander about the city during the night in the event they were attacked.

It had been a stressful time for Guardsmen who were aware of what it could be but forced to pretend that these people didn't exist. 

But it wasn't them who had suffered on the tyranny of having superior-leveled people taking the city and claiming it as their own turf. However, now they had packed up and left. It was as if they were gone like the winds, not even a single trace.

Oh, they were wrong.

However, in disbelief or not—the local crime groups and syndicates were finally rid of the big fish, no of the big sharks… whales that had turned the city upside down. Now they could return to their usual way of things.

And then finally, the local Thugs of the city of Gloria found a new target tonight. "I found a good one—a straggler this late and weaponless." The sharp-eyed young man turned eagerly to their boss. "What do you think?"

"He doesn't look like he has any money though." One of them complained with a shake of their head.

One of the people backed off against the alley's wall shrugged and idly stretched his fingers, covered in metal braces. "I don't care. Let's just beat him up."

"What are you, stupi—" The guy quickly caught his words and swallowed them. He then grinned appeasingly, "I mean, some of us got to vent out stress. Have at him! He's easy prey—"

"Shut up." The only woman in their group assailed the man with a kick in the back of his knees. 

When those tyrant trio had been around, they had incited a change amongst the local thuggery and criminals that loitered and lurked in the city. They started taking it as their own and even the ones who had challenged them—all fell down. Even the promptly nicknamed Thunder Fist had gone down in a second after fighting that… that demon.

Tiefling, or whatever they had been.

Now, Thunder Fist swaggered down from out of the alley. The others in his group silently cheered him on or thought it was stupid to waste energy, but neither did they want to get hit. And coincidentally, it wasn't only his group that somehow targeted the young man at the same time—finding perfect victims without leaving any traces was difficult.

This one just happened to walk in without even a hint of care.

Multiple local thugs eyed each other with some wariness, but then a sense of camaraderie overcame their previous disagreements and turf arguments. It was great having a common enemy, it meant that temporary alliances formed together.

It wasn't so good to be at the other end of the line in this newly found relationship.

Han instinctively dodged the first punch thrown into his direction, his feet throwing him off the ground as he shoved against the next man that had been about to stab him.

The knife cut lightly across his side, as Han hurtled himself forward and saw the rest of the people emerging from numerous other alleyways.

A cry for help caught in his throat—he saw a lady inside of her house, flinging ragged and faded windows to a sharp crack. He couldn't expect any heroes to throw themselves out here. 

Something flew right at him, and Han once again dodged at some guy with a slingshot. There were about five, six, seven—no eight of them now. One of them blocked his pathway to Kraelonia Academy.

No time to think, he swerved to the right and into the ninth one. He backstepped and then saw a tight alley he threw himself in. It wasn't like all of them could attack him all at once right? He needed a narrow place and he found it—Han pulled up his inventory and searched for a weapon, and then held a wand in his hand.

He spun around to meet his chasers and came across wildly different people, and while it was dark, he could at least tell that each of them didn't look like the person who approached anybody to sell him random wares.

"Stop right there—or I'll blast your brains out!" Han shouted.

At least three of them stopped in their tracks at the sight of the majestic wand and the threat—a rechargeable and one-use wand was something available around the city. And if a kid got their hands on it, then it was at least dangerous.

Others had their minds elsewhere. "How much do you think that'd sell?"

"Not so useless after all, looks costly."

Han gritted his teeth, "I'm warning you. Don't take another step or you'll have it." What could he do right now? He was supposed to have spells right? No? He could try for one attack and then his mana was going to end him—there was no large mana source here.

"Have what?" One of them cackled. A nasty grin on his face. "The wand? We don't need your permission, kid. We're taking it whether you want it or not."

"No, I'm taking it." Another guy at the back responded. "I spotted him first. You guys can get whatever else he has."

A Thief grunted and pointed his knife at Han. "Now's not the time to argue, let's just attack him and split it later."

"Sure, as if we can trust anyone in the stinkin Rats of—"

"What about we break it?" Someone suggested, somehow a peacemaker in the group. "There's ten of us so if we split it off, then all of us get a piece."

"Don't be stupid, you can't break a wand—"

"I call dibs for the longest piece." Another one shouted.

"Another idiot, gods cursed you all!"

Han stared at the bickering in disbelief, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. His hands were sweating buckets already as he chided himself for being stupid enough to trap himself in this narrow alley—until his hand  tightened on his wand.

There was only one spell he knew by heart—the man shot out a ball of light at the men. The one closest to him immediately swerved and dodged the spell, knocking back against the second one to avoid it. The ball struck directly at the fourth and fifth one, who screamed and tried to cover themselves, afraid of the spell.

And others temporarily cowered at the sudden blinding flash that sprang in the alley.

Han was already vaulting from one wall to the other. He didn't have any sticky webbings to keep his footing on the narrow alleyways, but he sure did have agility and reflexes befitting his Class. He landed across one of the flat rooftops and suddenly met the gaze of a woman with a bow—Han immediately grabbed for her wrist, and then threw her off the roof.

The Kraelonia Academy was at the right—but he couldn't leap that far to make it.

Already below him, people were scrambling up to face him. He gritted his teeth and then looked forward. The fall wasn't nice. He pulled back for a moment and launched himself towards the closest roof, landing across the next one and then repeating the act.

Han threw one look behind him and found no immediate pursuers, but when he looked down, he came across the sight of several other people staying and lurking in their alleyway. One of them looked up, muttered a curse and threw up their wand.

A miniature fireball threw itself upwards and he jumped backwards.

It could have resembled a small firework display if it had been anymore prettier, but Han didn't wait a minute longer and moved on to the next roof and a couple more, until he saw that the other roof was haphazardly placed a bit farther than usual.

"Crap. Do I go down now?" He didn't have the advantage on the ground if they came at him in numbers.

His gaze swerved around his surroundings, until he finally eyed a wooden square on the rooftop. Han immediately crouched down and tried to lift it, but found it was locked—in the inside naturally.

He gritted his teeth and made a decision.

Han raised his foot and thumped it across the wood. A searing pain shot up his leg, to which he ignored as he did it again. Thwack. Thwack. Anywhere else, he might have jumped off the room and tested his luck—but terrible living conditions meant terrible building materials.

The square wood finally gave in and splintered, actually dropping into the floor, no—a young girl had caught the wooden block in her hands and gave him a glare. Somehow as if uncaring that he looked like a robber breaking in.

"Help, I need to hide—"

She looked at him once, grabbed him by his shirt with her free hand and then dragged him down like a demon pulling him to the pits of hell. Han fell off from the roof, taken aback by her sudden movements. The man crashed and landed on the floor and met the cold cement on his stomach and chest, only holding one hand up that protected the wand from getting crushed by his weight. 

He quickly met the pain aching all around from head to toe.

The young girl looked down at him, and then at the wood in her hands. She shoved it up back against the hole and then reattached it with a plank.