Escape.

"Don't look back or even think about coming back here for me."

"You are an actual pain in the ass."

"I don't have the time to argue."

"DAMN IT! JUST GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE!" Vivi started running down the street with the girl in her arms. "I'm trusting you with this!"

"Cover your face!" I yelled at Vivi while hardening my face. I was sure it didn't change too much but it should be enough to at least mask who I was.

Vivi grew a mask over the bottom of her face like she did our claws. A new jaw.

'What even was she?' It sucked how I didn't even have time to think.

I turned my attention to the immediate danger. Vivi was already way out of here.

Looking at the soldiers marching toward us, I grabbed a stand and pushed it down to block the way. The vegetables started to fall and roll down the street.

'There response was way too qui-' From behind the guards, a group of rough-looking guys came out.

"Get your weapons out! Chase that man! Secure the girl!" A man from inside the inn shouted. As the group of ruffians started coming out.

'Well, that explains it.'

It made sense that there was such a boisterous group of pathetic vermin inside the inn. This was the safe spot of the 'gang'. And judging by the immediate response, the guards were bought off by this 'boss' of theirs too.

Tch.

This entire city was a corrupt woven spider web. I couldn't fight a spider in its home.

I turned around and made a run for it.

Way ahead of me, Vivi's speed increased exponentially as she zipped through the city's street. I couldn't catch up with her even if I wanted to.

Well, I had my own problems to deal with.

'I'll get out of here.'

The streets were rather crowded. But the obstacles were less scanty than the forest. There was no reason for me to be unable to navigate through this.

"Natural Predator." My next plan of action was to find the guards hidden amongst the group.

My senses sharpened to only looked for armoured men- and sure enough, there were a few.

'So well organised. But I'll just thread through them!'

While running I bent so far forward that my chest was almost parallel to the ground. I was going so fast my hands couldn't keep up without active effort.

The thing with having stronger legs was that everything felt as if I was sliding on ice. No movement felt excessively taxing but was hard to control. Add to that the fact that I was heading downhill, this one required all my attention.

Seeing the volume of armed people on the main road, I turned and got on the footpath and started running in between all of the stalls. This little area was a lot thicker than the forest. But that meant that only one guard could chase after me at once from behind. And any armoured men in front of me would be obvious.

"Stop right there!" A good samaritan within the crowd decided to block my way.

Using my insane momentum, I just kicked him to the side and as I did, I jumped out of the stall and back onto the main road. The stalls turned in another direction from there.

I lost a good chunk of the guards behind me but-

"Shit." Guards lined up right behind the mass public as if to disguise themselves. A bunch of ruffians also mixed themselves in.

There was a little more than a kilometre to my destination.

"Hardening." I hardened both my hands and placed them in front of my body.

'I'll just ram through them.'

I picked up my pace even further before hopping down to the main road. I ducked my head in between my hands and put my weight forward.

And that was all it took. Out of nowhere, and with no prior warning- My upper abdomen got impaled by a dagger!

Getting pushed from behind my body flailed a couple of times before coming to a halt.

I grabbed my torso to prevent any blood from coming out. Behind me there, was a man carrying a dagger while casually walking away.

How uncouth and bold. What made him think he could just walk out of this?

Before he could get too far away, I pulled out my short sword and shoved it in his back.

"AKK!" The man pushed it out and stumbled forward. But that was enough, a stream of his blood started to leave his body and my left hand started to drink all of it.

[Nutrition obtained. Commencing (Regeneration - D)]

The wound in my torso started to heal up.

These people weren't messing around. They weren't looking for fair play bringing an assassin into this. Their only objective was to get the attendant girl and to kill the rest.

"You were the one who pushed me to do this." I got off my ramming pose and swung the sword so as to get rid of the blood on it. "Listen up! I will kill anyone who gets in my way!" I alerted the guards.

Many of them looked young, only a little older than me. That wasn't an excuse. If someone tried to kill me, they should have had their own death always present as a possible outcome.

But none of the guards budged. Some even had a greedy look on their face.

'Guess that's that then.'

Without wasting a single second, I rushed forward sword first. None of it was personal but anyone who tried to stop me from going home had to stop before they couldn't anymore.

My first strike landed on a rather flimsy looking man. But even he was able to parry it. The title of a guard wasn't for show.

Unluckily for him, I neither knew swordplay nor did I intend to play white.

I hardened my foot and crushed the metal plate guarding his foot. He bent forward so I gave him an uppercut. My foot didn't leave so his back got stretched apart. I heard loud cracks.

The next second, the guards surrounding me got into the action swaying their blades at me.

Sure they had technique, but that didn't matter against my superior senses and reflexes. After a sequence, there were blades incoming from either side at the same time.

I kicked the groin of the man who was to my right and shoved a sword between the helmet and armour of the other man. Impaling his neck.

Pulling both of my appendages back and removing the sword from the man's neck, I took off again.