Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

The bullets have stopped, showered—they probably used all the ones they had, though they were not much of use against him. His armament blocked all of them apart from the unexpected shot at first. But his mind was far from settling down.

Wrik's heart pounded hearing the cry from Byul, but he did not even have the luxury to look at her. He needed to deal with the man with the lance first.

He surged all the wind attribute mana in one fine slash and forced the sword with all his strength. He did not go after any other of the enemies, but the leader with the lance. 

The man blocked his sword with the lance, but Wrik had already guessed that. He fainted the sword below the spear. Though his sword could not reach the armour of the opponent, he released all the wind attributes at once. The gale wind released and its sharp edge cut through the opponent's body all over. 

After all, the element was not his, and he was using it for the first time. Even with best effort, he could not limit it to only one slash. But even if he could not, it was enough. Four or five sharp gales wrecked the man all over. 

The leader of the enemies flew a few metres away and dropped in the wreckage. Wrik did not wait for that, nor did he wait for the enemies to come at him. He bolted towards Byul, who had stopped yelling only a second ago. 

His heart rumbled when he saw her on the ground while a couple of men stood with their posture, as if they did not know what to do. But their mind worked fast and were about to take the unconscious figure as a hostage.

How could Wrik let it? 

He finally noticed the [Link] has broken when he appeared before the men. They could not even take the unconscious girl as a hostage, as he already beheaded one of them in cold blood. His mind was on high adrenaline, so he did not care about the notion of the killing. 

He only knew one thing now. If he left them be, something bad will happen to his friend. They better die than something bad happened to Byul. The other two guys did not even come at him, seeing their beheaded companion.

"Abort! Abort!" someone said from behind, carrying their bloodied leader. 

The rain had cleaned the blood from his body, as he made a few more slashes to the ones behind them.

He probably had killed three or more people today, but he had no mind to think about those now. 

He watched the masked men leave, and he did not linger there as well. They had specially come after him and Byul for some reason, who could tell there would not be more. 

He sighed in relief to notice Byul was unconscious, with a severe wound on her head. She always ended up in the wrong situations. Carrying her steadily, he left the place. 

The pain from the wounds rose further. It was the psychological effect of the brain. Now that his head was not busy and steadier, the pain finally had found the broad way to his mind.

He walked on the muddy water. It became more tiring with the weight he was carrying. Fortunately, the rain and the mud did not only restrict his movement; with the heavy rain ongoing now, there was a pretty good chance, none could follow his track and find him.

During the walk, he was wondering who or why they had attacked him and Byul. Did the thief boss have connections with this kind of person? Probably not. Byul or he did not do anything drastic with him—only gave the warning to give back what belongs to Byul and attacking them will only make his situation worse. 

'It's probably because of the test,' he thought. There were no other people he had offended other than Scythe and the one backing him. The old judge he had encountered was probably the type of person who held a grudge against him. 

But the people they sent were not entirely elite as well. They did have experience dealing with Mahasayer, but only three of them could wield mana. If all of them could and were just as experienced, then he could only run and hope they would not follow him.

The people that attacked today had experienced, but they appeared like some rogues or something that we're looking for an opportunity. 

Wrik rested on those thoughts as there was no way he could find a conclusion about this. He had covered a couple of miles in between the time, but he did not stop. He only knew he was advancing towards the dome, but it would take hours to reach there. 

The best decision here would be to find a good spot to hide and tend their wounds. Two bullets were still stuck to his body, and Byul probably had one. He had all types of medicine needed with the little instruments to remove the bullet and sew the wound.

He walked for a few more minutes and went inside an abandoned building. The entrance was closed by a few empty oil barrels. He gave a short kick enough to open a path for him to slide in. But inside, there was another problem waiting for him. 

"Go away, outsider," a voice said. It was a young male voice, a little shaking, though quite threatening enough. "There is no place for you."

Wrik saw a few silhouettes in the dark. Not tall or dominating, but there were few of them and most of them appeared like children. He did not put their threat in mind and went inside. 

"Look, I mean no harm," he said in a normal complacent voice. At least tried. "We are injured and will leave after a few hours."

The children did not listen to him and were about to throw rocks or whatever that came near their arms. Suddenly, a voice called. 

"Stop!" And the children did stop. The voice said again. "Go back inside."

The voice was similarly young, but firm. It was a female this time. She looked at all the children leaving them here and gazed at him again.

Wrik saw a small figure in the dark. "Look, I just need a few hours," Wrik said, knowing messing here may turn things worse for everyone and he could not hurt these children. 

Then a figure came before him at once. "What happened to you?" she asked. 

Wrik was about to answer, but he recognised the person. "Saras?" he asked with a start.

The short girl nodded, implying she had recognised him first. She was the girl he had met a few days ago and saved her from a few soldiers, though he had not thought they would meet again today. 

"What happened to you?" Saras asked, gazing at him and the girl on his arm.

"Some people attacked us," he said and moved to a corner. He left Byul on the cold floor and then opened his spatial pouch. He did not have the mind to find whatever he needed one by one, so brought out everything from it. He first lit up the blue limelight lamp as the darkness lessened by a little. 

"Can you help me?" Wrik asked Saras. 

She nodded and crouched down. "What do you need me to do?"

"Remove her cloth first," Wrik said and gave his spare clothes to Saras. "She might have a bullet in her body, be careful of that." 

Saras took the clothes and went forward toward Byul. Wrik did not tend his wound first, but lit up the omega cube. He called Anton at once, but unfortunately for him, it did not connect. He called Tanya, Michelle after that but none of them connected. It was probably the problem with the signal. The rain must have jammed the service.

In the end, he could only leave his location with an emergency alarm. He did not know if it would be delivered with this bad signal. He hoped it would be delivered soon, so anyone of them got the message and send help. The night was still young, he did not want to take chances.

Wrik then collected all the instruments he would need and the medicines from aspirin to the healing talisman and went near Byul. Saras had changed her clothes by the time with her back bare. There was a bloodied wound just above her waist, probably the wound from the bullet. 

Saras brought the limelight. "Have you done this before?" she asked. Her expression showed the declination. 

Wrik released a self-conscious breath and triggered the [Eye of insights]. A light appeared in his eyes as his senses heightened. The impaling agony rose with the headache, but he ignored it and focused on removing the bullet from the back of Byul first. 

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Next chapter: An Old True Tale