Dee set himself down on the empty ground closest to the warehouse and waited as everyone got down.

  The plan they had come up with was quite simple. Elle and Vil would keep watch just in case Lana or Johnny got alerted to their presence. In the meantime, Arthur would sneak to the back of the warehouse and free Celia. They would come back the same way he had entered, and then leave. Dee would wait here to make a quick escape. First, to drop off Celia somewhere just slightly outside the city, and then to make a portal and leave immediately after.

  Arthur jumped through the incomplete window of the under-construction site and coughed up some dust. The others followed through their own windows. Thankfully, workers had stopped coming here for a while now, so it was a straight shot to the warehouse through the area. It also gave him enough time to think things through.

  “Vil, do not crash out, alright? We need you to be calm and collected.”

  “Why would I crash, Elle?” The knight shook his head in confusion, “I am not a land or air vehicle. Humans do not crash.”

  “I’ll make you crash if you ever say that again, got it?”

  “Why do you bully him so much?” Arthur asked, hoping to lighten his own mood as they stepped through spilt-over bags of concrete dust and bricks.

  “Well, who will? You? No, you won’t. Someone’s gotta tell him what’s what. Plus, he’s my student, you know, so that gives me complete control over what I tell him. Isn’t that right, Vil?”

  “I am indeed your student. That is correct. Although I must agree with our new friend here that it is not wise to keep making fun of me. I have a very limited threshold of accepting insults!”

  “Yeah. Sky’s the limit.”

  Elle pushed himself through the next window and got out of the window. Vil and Arthur followed after him, and found the opening of the warehouse in front of their eyes.

  Without a word, the three men stepped through the small door on the left and entered the building. It didn’t seem like there was anyone in here either. And now that he was inside the place, it became clear that the building was just a storage for some delivery service. There were packages of all shapes and sizes strewn around. Some were just on the floor, and some were on the many tall shelves that lined the entire inside.

  “There.” Vil was quick to remember the exact layout of the place due to his ability. He pointed at one of the piles of cardboard boxes, and all of them walked to it.

  Arthur picked one of them up and immediately threw it aside. It was empty. And judging by the way all of the other boxes had moved with the air, they were all the same. As soon as he picked up the next one, Elle sighed and pushed him aside. Then, with a single kick, he blew through the entire pile and cleared a way to the trapdoor on the floor. Vil chuckled and nodded in agreement, as if even that little bit of violence had been enough to please him.

  Together, they opened the door as quietly as possible and found a set of dark and dingy stairs that went down to the basement. Elle nodded, pushed Vil forward, and they started to walk down in a straight line.

  As he walked, Arthur wondered what Celia was going through right now. She had been very panicked when she had been kidnapped, but that was to be expected. She was otherwise a smart woman who probably knew it was best to keep herself calm and collected to make sure she didn’t get into too much trouble. After all, the assassins did not care about her. They had no reason to kill her.

  But if they didn’t, then why had they kidnapped her? Arthur and the others had assumed that they would contact them to use her as bait, but they hadn’t. In fact, they hadn’t reached out at all.

  “Wow, this goes on forever,” Elle whispered.

  He wasn’t wrong. They only reached the bottom after maybe forty or so seconds of walking. When they finally entered the basement, it was almost as tall as the warehouse outside, which itself could probably have fit Dee in his entirety. This entire building space combined would fit two of him. Maybe even more.

  Thankfully, this part of the building was also littered with more packages and boxes. How did people even need so many of them? The entire city probably did not order all of this. Did they? Surely, they were not this hungry for online products.

  “Alright. Arthur? Go.”

  Elle gave him a pat on the back and a smile. Arthur nodded and crouched down, making his way to one of the boxes to hide behind it. As soon as he did, he noticed Johnny somewhere close to the middle of the warehouse through a gap.

  He controlled his breath and started moving once more. Box to box, cover to cover. This place was built from the ground up for someone to sneak through it. An assassin’s paradise. Or, well, in his case, whatever the opposite of that was. He was here to take down the assassins.

  Or was he the assassin in this case?

  Celia probably knew all that better. He had never had much confidence in his language and grammar skills.

  Barely grazing by another box, he stopped it from falling down and noted how much closer he had gotten to the assassin now. At this point, he was even able to see Lana. She was quietly sitting on a luxury chair that she seemed have removed from its package, with her legs crossed and head resting on the back. She seemed almost harmless like this, but her outfit was still a bit too intimidating and goth-y for her to truly give off that vibe.

  He still hadn’t seen Celia, though. Where was she?

  “What…time is it?”

  A small croak close to where he had been hiding almost made Arthur jump. But then he realised it was her voice. The reason he hadn’t seen her was that she had been right beside him, separated by a single layer of boxes. He felt his heartbeat rise as he tried to consider what he was going to do now.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Finding her was a good development, but she was right in front of Lana, and often in the line of sight of Johnny, who was walking along a fixed path at a fixed pace. It was almost like a game or a puzzle, now that Arthur truly saw it. The solution was that he had to slowly untie Celia before Lana woke up, and while Johnny had his back turned to her. It would take three or four loops, but it would work out easily.

  He got himself ready and peeked out a little bit once more. To his surprise, however, he noticed something he wished he hadn’t. Or rather, he wished it hadn’t happened, so that he wouldn’t have noticed it in the first place. Through the boxes, at a diagonal angle, he saw Vil and Elle, also crouched down and looking at the scene unfold. Why were they here? Now, no matter where Johnny turned, he had the chance to spot them if he looked closely enough.

  Arthur shook his head and focused on Celia instead. He couldn’t do anything about the other two. For now, he needed to focus on getting her out.

  As soon as Johnny turned once, he gave himself a quick pat to calm himself down and adjusted his glasses. The next moment, he whispered, “Celia, it’s Arthur. Don’t react, though. If you can hear me, then ask him something stupid.”

  “The fuck? Why would I do that?”

  Was what she actually decided to reply.

  He sighed and stopped himself from laughing. Of course, she didn’t do something like that. She would never. What she did do, however, caused Johnny to turn and look back at her. Eyes wide, he stared hard, as if looking right at her soul. But Celia shook her head and quickly covered it up.

  “The rope is digging in too much. It hurts.”

  Johnny looked straight back and kept walking along his path.

  Making sure that Lana was still asleep, Arthur calmed himself down, pushed one of the boxes aside to make enough space for him to push both hands through, and reached for Celia’s ties. They weren’t simple rope, as he had expected. Instead, they were using the plastic zip ties that were often used in these industrial locations. Difficult to normally break through, but they were a blessing in his case.

  Arthur took out the knife that Vil had given him earlier and got to work snapping.

  _____________

  Elle wasn’t sure why he was still following Vil, but it was what it was. There was no stopping a hurricane, and there was no stopping the Commander of the Armies of Helonia. If there was one thing that he had learnt from being with this knight for about four months now, there was nothing to be done about his whims. It had been a pain to recruit him too. Even today, he sometimes regretted talking to Arcadia about letting him into the team.

  He was, however, a good man. There was no denying that. And there was no fighting back against the fact that if they needed anyone right now, it was a good man. Especially if they wanted to save themselves. All of themselves.

  That good man, at this very moment, was trudging through a bunch of cardboard boxes because he had accidently stepped into one of them. Then, convinced that the sound he made must have alerted the assassins, was moving forward so that they did not gang up on the new Arthur and kill him in an instant. Despite facing off against Lana and holding his own, Vil believed that the man ‘still had far too much to learn’.

  “Look at him, snapping her ties without a care in the world!” Vil exclaimed, his voice finally in a whisper. Johnny was looking straight in their general direction, but they were far too low for him to notice unless he was trying. That was one thing that they had going for them.

  As soon as the assassin turned, Arthur quickly hid himself behind the boxes, and Celia started acting like absolutely nothing was wrong.

  It was fascinating how quickly they always kept up with the information. Once something even slightly magical happened in front of their eyes, every single Celia ended up believing in the multiverse as a whole. For some time, Elle had believed that it was a sign of someone who would not survive very long. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. It was just the sign of someone who knew when to change their opinion and keep up with the world. Every single Celia Ingram he had seen in his life was a smart girl who always survived. Because she was flexible like that.

  “Look, we should go back, alright? They’re clearly fine, and the assassins haven’t noticed them. Come on.”

  “No, you do not understand. It is true that I came in here out of a misconception. Our new friend is perfectly fine and under no danger. But that is true only for this very moment. What about the next moment, Elle?”

  “You mean that the next second, which is now right now, Arthur will get caught? So, based on the assumption that he could mess up, we’re destroying our whole plan and idea?”

  “No! You dimwit, Elle.” Vil exclaimed, looked back at him, then immediately controlled his expression and turned back, “I apologise for my outburst. Either way, you must listen to me. What I mean is – what happens when he frees Celia, and they escape? Sure, they might have maybe ten seconds before the assassin Johnny turns and notices them. But what after that?”

  “Oh…”

  After that, he would use his skill and immediately destroy the entire general location of their escape using a single punch. After that…they would be dead. Any other assassin, and any other skill, and they would have been alright. But the one they had decided to name Johnny was a problematic one. Not only was he a potential walking copyright strike because of his way-too-derivative skill, but that skill was powerful. Very powerful.

  “Do you understand what we must do?” Vil looked at him.

  Elle gulped and sighed, “I guess.”

  He saw what they had to do. The main target here was Celia and her freedom. And given the difference in their combat experience, he and Vil were clearly the ones who needed to stay back and give Arthur enough time to pull that off. It would be foolish and selfish not to do something as obvious as that. They could always get away with a skill or two if things went badly. Or, well, Elle could.

  Vil’s skill did not really have any combat potential, but his physical prowess with a sword undercut that issue nine out of ten times. Plus, he had Knuckleduster Joe to help him out if the need arose. First, because the magical horse was quite fast. Second, because the name threw off confused opponents enough to allow him some time to get away.

  Johnny looked away once more, and Arthur appeared. This was the third time. He used the knife to snap through the last tie, and they all took a sigh of relief. Except Vil. Because this is where his troubles began. Even Elle’s, but Vil was usually the one to rush into battle first.

  As soon as the knight readied himself to get up, Elle decided that it would be best to give him a little bit of support.

  He closed his eyes, pushed his hand forward towards Johnny and closed his eyes. One. The ground was his only option. The little bit of dirt and stone in it was enough. Two. A prison would need to be better than last time, but it would also be a very expensive cooldown. At least half an hour. He only had one more refresh potion in stock. A simple one, then. Five minutes’ cooldown. Three.

  Vil rushed forward with a scream.

  Skill Activation

  Sin

  The dirt and rock jutted out from the ground and trapped Johnny in a small crystal-like formation that reached up to his thighs. Before he could keep up with what was happening, Vil had already reached Lana. His scream alerted her, and she jumped back, throwing the chair at him as he moved. Vil cut through the chair, and it split in two. One half hit the immobile Johnny in the back, while the other flew into the shelves and sent them falling down backwards in a domino effect.

  Arthur took the time to pull Celia back through the boxes and disappear.

  Good. It had worked. Or, well, the rescue had worked. The fight had only just started. Elle sighed, cursed his luck, and then walked out into the open.