[Miss Sophia, I was intercepted by the enemy, and the target's truck was lost. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoBut if you look at the direction of travel, you should be heading towards the banquet site, which is your side!]

[I've also encountered an opponent here...... Very pestering guy, I won't be able to meet you in a short time. 】

Abruptly, the plan of action was hampered. Cam and Shephilia reported an encounter with the enemy at the same time, which caused uneasy thoughts to rush through Sophia's heart.

"What kind of character is the opponent?"

[[A sword knight!]]

"Tsk......tsk!"

The two answered in unison, but it revealed the worst situation. In today's imperial capital, there is no doubt that the only 'knight' who can intercept Shephilia and Cam in the [Luna Armor] head-on is the 'Legendary Blade'.

Sophia, who fought alongside those knights, knew that in terms of their ability to fight head-to-head, those knights who claimed to be the 'strongest in the empire' would undoubtedly be superior to Cam and Shephelia, and although they would not be defeated immediately, the situation would only get worse in the long run.

Now, Sophia has a grim choice. Go to rescue the two, or immediately burst into the banquet hall to rescue their father?

-- Don't be in a hurry, calm down, and quickly but calmly sort out the situation.

The news of my father's entry into [Zesetoria] should not have been exposed to the nobles of the royal power faction and the Goddess Cult so quickly, not to mention that the Goddess Sect has no right to use the knights of the 'Legendary Blade'. Then, just like the previous invitation, these knights, who only obey the orders of the royal family, will appear at this time, undoubtedly following the direct orders of a certain 'royal family'......

Prior to this, the other party even had a clear grasp of the movements of the 'three of us', who had been secretly acting since before entering the city, and they were just right to preemptively strike. Who is it, and why did they choose to launch the attack at this critical juncture? What is the significance? No, don't try to figure out the opponent's mind first, because the information in your hands is too small to guess. Now is the time to prioritize the unexpected.

In this way, after some thought, Sophia decided to rush to Cam and Shephilia first.

There is no movement from the building under his feet for the time being, and there are no dangerous people to pay attention to within the range of [Breath Perception], although there are many guards, as long as they don't act brutally, even if something unexpected happens, Father Lutega is enough to deal with it alone.

It is imperative that we first give a helping hand to our comrades who are in a difficult battle.

"If it were Sister Alice, she would have done the same. ”

After making up her mind, Sophia's figure turned into a black cat walking through the night, leaping and running on the roof.

**

"Whew...... Ha ......"

Cam leaned his back against the marble stone wall, and pressed the barrel of his sniper rifle against his cheek, so that he could clearly feel the hot heat left by the bullets.

His current state of mind was as if he had been hunted by a wild wolf, and the buildings in the vicinity were quite dense, and the terrain was very complex, and it was difficult for the lights on the streets to flow into the alleys.

After the initial brief encounter, Cam immediately decided that melee combat could never be an opponent, so he continued to use the transparency ability of [Assassin] to distance themselves from each other, trying to pin down his opponent by sniping.

Originally, according to common sense, Cam, who was an orc, should have an advantage in terms of physical fitness, eyesight, and weapon range, but the knight who suddenly attacked was more familiar with the terrain of this crooked city than Cam. It has the appearance of a human, but it is more sensitive than the smell of a beast.

In fact, the opponent's sixth sense was unbelievably sharp, and a precise shot aimed at the center of the eyebrows from a few hundred meters away would be immediately detected and the bullet was blocked with the blade of a one-handed sword. It was definitely no accident, from the beginning to the present, at least six snipers have been blocked on the spot in this way.

Moreover, after each split bullet, the opponent can accurately follow the angle of the bullet to lock on to the sniper location where Cam is lurking, and launch a pursuit without hesitation. After a few rounds, the hide-and-seek battle between the two sides gradually turned against Cam, who was forced to be forced into a building area with a wide field of vision.

Cam then tried to strafe with an assault rifle in order to hide the sniper's projectiles, but to no avail, as his opponent was able to easily identify the fatal blow and block it with unerring precision. The bullets of the assault rifle were left alone, because even if they hit, they would not be able to shake the defense of the 'Holy Spirit Armor' at all.

So far, whether it is speed, senses, or melee strength, the opponent has the upper hand. It was becoming more and more difficult to procrastinate, but there was something more worrying to Cam than the danger in front of him - and that was the truck he had just tracked.

When the black-caged canvas was blown away by the night wind, Cam could clearly see the 'thing' hidden beneath the canvas. It was—the iron cage was full of orc children.

However, that alone wasn't enough to make Cam feel anything special. It is not surprising to know that in today's empire, there are some captured orc children who are sold into slavery. Especially in this imperial capital, most of the nobles would raise slaves of the beasts under various names, and also used them as coolie laborers, some to satisfy their habits at night...... However, the orcs I saw just now were extraordinary.

If there's anything out of the ordinary, it's number one: they're so clean and in very good health. It's not like being brutalized as a slave at all. Second, they are too young, and the oldest is only seven or eight years old like himself. The youngest is probably only the age of her sister Ricky. All in all, it is too young to be used as a 'coolie' or for any other 'special' purpose.

On the surface, this may seem like a good thing, after all, there are many people who enjoy beautiful orcs as pets, or like Miss Sophia and her family, they treat orcs with affection, a special aristocracy.

But if this is the case, it is still incredible, because the orcs are 'naked', whether male or female, naked and dignified in iron cages. But the skin of the whole body was cleaned, and there was no trace of starvation or abuse, and the orc children were trembling with a look of horror as if they were about to run to the execution ground.

Cam, who had watched his own people being killed, felt a sense of 'responsibility' for what had happened at this moment. I also suddenly remembered the agreement I made with Shephilia once upon a time - "I want to change this country." Let humans and orcs live together in harmony and stability. ”

At this time, it was only a slight desertion, and the 'fierce beast' in the night bit its own tail.

"Alright! Stop hiding and playing tricks!"

The diminutive opponent stabbed down from mid-air with a pitch-black one-handed sword in his hand. Cam rolled sideways from the spot with a spirit, narrowly dodging the falling fangs.

A dark red mess of hair was upturned against the wind in the fall, and a bright silver strand of hair mixed with the front bangs stood out in the moonlight. A pair of ruby-like pupils were burning with a fierce battle intent of the young knight, and he blocked in front of Cam with high spirits, and he raised the blade of his sword and said-

"If it's a man, and look at your weird armor, if you're also a 'knight'!

Unexpectedly, the opponent saw through Cam's gender at a glance. Before that, no matter who it was, Cam would be regarded as a beautiful little girl wearing a dance skirt like [Luna Armor]. No...... Except for Shephilia, it should be said.

"This gentleman, you claim to be an upright knight, so why don't you introduce yourself before the surprise attack? It is said that the knights of the imperial capital follow the corresponding etiquette. ”

"Hah! If you encounter a petty theft, you must report it first! Won't they all run away?"

The knight replied disapprovingly, but having said that, with the strength of his feet and his sense of smell, he believed that no thief in this world could easily escape, "But it's okay, I'm Caius, Caius??" Kurus!One of the Seventeen Knights of the Blade of Legends!What about you?"

"Unfortunately, I can't reveal my identity without the master's permission, Mr. Knight. ”

"Haha, there's nothing to apologize for!" Caius smiled aggressively as opposed to his height, "I'm not very interested in the name of the soon-to-be-defeated man anyway!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the young knight raised his sword and broke through the wind, unleashing a thrust that was as turbulent as a waterfall.

"[Saber] load!" In the face of the surprise attack, Cam immediately activated the 'rank card', but the young maid did not have any kind of 'blade' in her hand, but quickly set up the rifle in her hand, aimed at the opponent's head and pulled the trigger.

The distance between them allowed him to shoot only once, and if he missed, he would be unsuspecting to let the strongest knight of the empire burst into his arms.

"Hah! Don't be stupid! Such a pungent attack tastes like this, no matter how many times you repeat it, the result will be the same!"

Caius did not slow down the speed of his advance in the face of the flying projectiles, he just swung the black sword in his hand very casually, and blocked the projectiles rushing towards the center of his eyebrows with a crisp sound, and then slashed the blade back with the force of the charge, and the tip of the blade went straight to Cam's throat.

At this moment, Cam, who was still in the shooting posture, had no time to defend. However, at the moment when the blade of the sword almost pierced the skin, there was a sudden 'clang' impact, and the reaction force of the sour numb transmitted back from his hand bounced Caius's body back.

"W-!"

At the last moment, the block was successful. But Cam still kept his gun up and shooting...... The problem is that the shape of his 'sniper rifle' has changed drastically.

I saw that at some point, from both sides of the gun, stretched out two long crescent-like blades, like 'wings' opened, surrounding the shape of a huge crescent, and encircling the pretty figure of the young maid in the sharp crescent embrace. The young knight suffered an unexpected miss, and his mental turmoil and physical imbalance made it difficult for him to cope with the next counterattack in an instant.

Cam stretched the barrel of the gun, and finally fixed it into a long handle that was more than twice as long, so that the original 'sniper rifle' turned into a huge scythe in the blink of an eye, and the long blade of the moon scythe rotated like a windmill, launching a sharp and ferocious combo towards the opponent's body. The 'Spirit Armor' suffered a series of heavy blows to the flank, and the diminutive Caius was immediately catapulted out of the air.

- Oh no!

Perhaps it was because he had never seen anyone think of a tool like a 'scythe' as a weapon, or perhaps he did not expect a rifle to be transformed like this, but in short, the young knight Caius encountered an unexpected crisis.

He hurriedly recovered his momentum from the fall, and then jumped and flew backwards one after another with his hands and feet, trying to pull away from a safe distance and avoid the ensuing pursuit of the other party.

Unexpectedly, however, when Caius finally came to his senses and waited for him, there was a bright light in the night that burned his eyes, and nothing happened. The figure of the enemy melts into the night and becomes untraceable. As a result, it was just a thought of retreating, and he let his opponent run away.

"Ha, haha...... It's refreshing to escape...... Damn!"

The fact that he would so decisively give up the great opportunity and choose to flee without hesitation could not help but make the young knight let out a wry smile, and at the same time unwillingly plunged the one-handed sword in his hand into the ground. Now that it was going to be very difficult to track it down again, not to mention the amount of time it would take to put him in a-for-tat battle with Nacam once again, Caius was not completely sure of winning. The opponent's adaptability and fighting style completely exceeded his expectations.

"Forget it, the task of delaying time has been completed, and everything will be fine if the truck can catch up~~!

The young knight raised his voice and 'muttered to himself' loudly into the empty night, and then, as if deliberately showing that he had completely lost his will to fight, he pulled his weapon from the ground and put it in its scabbard, put his hands behind his head, and swaggered away.

"Hoo ......"

In the shadows of the building, Cam watched the back of the knight Caius, and at the same time untied the optical camouflage of the [Luna Armor], and sighed deeply. Although the knights of the 'Legendary Blade' had heard of it, when they actually fought, the strength of the other party was far beyond their imagination.

In fact, even in the end, the other party obviously realized that he had not run far, and if he continued to fight unrelentingly, I am afraid that this battle would not simply end.

The maid of the beast ears was sure that even Sophia, who had tried her best, would not be able to easily make an enemy of such a 'monster knight'. Then, as Sophia teaches in her usual training, there are not only two conclusions that distinguish the outcome of a battle: "losing" and "winning".

Sometimes, how to avoid a battle can also be seen as a victory. In the face of an invincible enemy, don't think that you can defeat him alone from the beginning, and choosing to retreat at the first opportunity is the best choice. Once the escape is successful, then the tactical level is quite successful.

"Miss Sophia, this is Cam, who has successfully thrown off the enemy, what should I do next?"

[Very well done, you first rush to the scene of your father's dinner, try to sneak inside to observe the situation, and rescue your father if he is in danger...... If there is no danger, try to stay as still as possible. 】

"Where's you, miss?"

[I'm on my way to support Shephelia. 】

"Understood. Sophia's answer, which clearly said that he had abandoned himself, made Cam smile knowingly, because to him, this sentence also represented trust, which was equivalent to "trusting you from the beginning that you can handle it alone".

**

In the midst of the struggle with the enemy in front of her, Shephilia had the illusion that the other party was more like a beast than an orc.

The knight in front of him was a few years older than himself, a brown-haired, childish teenager. The weapon he wielded was a one-handed knight's sword made of 'Radiance'.

She wasn't referring to metaphors, but to the real 'Sword of Light'.

In the night, the young knight's body was wrapped with purple thunder, and in the running and jumping, it constantly emitted the sound of 'crackling' electricity, leaving a brilliant trajectory in the air, and the posture was like a 'thunder beast' in a hunt. And the 'Sword of Light' in his hand was like a glittering sharp beast tooth.

I saw that every time the knight swung his sword, a shining arc of light would shoot out in the air, and I didn't know how it worked, no matter where the arc flew to, the young knight's figure could cross the space, catch up with it in an instant, and let the blade in his hand reunite with the light. The strange speed and spatial movement created by this left Shephilia helpless.

Although he seems to have an advantage in terms of running speed, in the actual fierce battle, this advantage cannot be reflected at all. As long as he couldn't shake off the flash of the arc blade, it was as if no matter where he fled, he had a shining thunder beast fang, clenching tightly in his hand.

However, just as Shephelia was on guard, the young knight once again showed amazing skill-

Three sword splits in a row, three flying arcs of light shot head-on, and the trajectories of these three sword flashes deviated slightly from each other, and Shephilia flew into the air, and her body accurately passed through the gap between the three arcs with a slight difference. I thought that with my current posture, after successfully dodging the arc light, no matter which light blade position the opponent appeared, I would be able to deal with it smoothly......

However, the unbelievable fantasy scene was staged again, and the figure of the young knight was divided into three, and 'at the same time' appeared in the position of the three light blades, the afterimage and the real body that could not be distinguished, and at the same time launched a killing slash, and the afterimage of the young knight was like three lightning bolts falling from the clouds, and Shephilia was blown vertically to the ground.

Even Shephilia, who reflected the passing of the gods, could not resist the attack that came from three directions at the same time. It turned out that there was no so-called 'afterimage' among the three shadows, and the three attacks were all real heavy blows - the [Space-Time Stasis] barrier blocked the first slash, and the two clear slash marks left on the [Luna Armor] after this are the best proof of this.

The violent impact made the corners of Shephilia's mouth water, and she was just about to get up from the ground, only to see the young knight covered in thunder, pointing his shining blade straight at her throat.

"Please don't resist any more uselessly, I don't want to leave too many scars on such a shiny and charming girl who looks like a snow fairy. ”

Even in the face of the orcs, the young knight wore a refreshing smile that was as bright as the sun, and praised Shephelia's appearance in a soft voice, and gave a polite persuasion, and then, as if suddenly remembering something, added, "Ah, by the way, forgot to introduce myself. I'm Singh, Singh?? Mete Aulet. A knight of the 'Legendary Blade', it's a pleasure to meet you, beautiful young lady. ”

There was no contempt, no hostile tension, the young knight said. But this is like a kind attitude towards a friend, but it does not subvert the reality that he is the enemy......