In an instant, Lynch realized a problem.
If the gaze spying on him in secret belonged to the Princess's security detail, they would have paid attention to the three intruders the moment they entered the camp, rather than waiting until the three reached the gate to scrutinize them.
The only explanation was that the onlooker was waiting for someone to step into a specific position before taking action.
The countless conspiracy theory stories Lynch had read in his past life made him realize the severity of the situation.
Taking one step past the camp's boundary into the mountains meant entering the fiefdom of the Valente family, and Princess Sophia was currently preparing to step into this very fiefdom.
If she were attacked here, Lynch could hardly imagine what would happen. It would be an absolute disaster.
A princess being attacked in a fiefdom was bad enough, but the Valente family could at least explain that away. The problem was that these hillmen were ghouls—and subjects of the Valente family. With that premise, the nature of Princess Sophia being attacked here completely changed. Once someone used this as a pretext to accuse the Valente family of colluding with mysterious heteromorphs to attack a royal family member, it would be almost impossible for the Valente family to clear their name. Even if the royal family knew the Valente family had nothing to do with it, they would still have to suppress the Valente family to save face. The Valente family was large and powerful enough to endure it, but Lynch, who had just placed a heavy wager on the Valente family as his patron, didn't have such a massive enterprise to lose.
Lynch immediately realized that this plot wasn't just aimed at the Princess—it was aimed at the Valente family and him as well.
If handled poorly, not only would his previous efforts to build prestige with the royal family be in vain, but his future development in Lande would basically be dead in the water.
It was a dead end. As long as an attack occurred, regardless of whether it succeeded or failed, both Lynch and the Valente family would be in deep trouble.
What a ruthless maneuver! It was practically an inescapable trap.
No, there was still one chance.
“We're going over!”
Lynch shouted as he took a step forward. Yet, his vision blurred, and in the next instant, he appeared directly in front of the group of black-robed men in the distance.
【Authority: Earth, Ability: Scale】
Reinforcements from Elder Nikolai.
A single stone cast ripples across a thousand layers of water.
Just as the Princess and her entourage were about to cross the camp boundary into the mountains, the sudden appearance of Lynch's figure drew everyone's attention. In an instant, everyone moved on instinct.
“Who goes there?!” As the sharp shout rang out, two black-clad guards shifted a step sideways, blocking the path leading behind them.
Silently, two ghostly figures appeared behind the black-clad guards. Two sharp blades swerved around the guards, striking toward Lynch's chest and throat like venomous snakes.
“Human wall!” A group of black-clad guards quickly converged inward, using their bodies to form an airtight circle.
“Protect Her Highness!” The core guards on the innermost layer lunged inward at once, preparing to surround and shield the Princess with their bodies.
Everything happened in a fraction of a second; everyone moved simultaneously.
However, Lynch was one step faster.
Facing the incoming sharp blades and the blocking wall of bodies, Lynch paid them no mind and charged straight through. Just a moment before the blades touched his body, the hourglass necklace around his neck flashed with light. 【Sanctuary Beyond Time】, activate.
In this moment, Lynch was adrift beyond time.
No one could block a phantom outside of time; no one could harm an afterimage that had just passed.
The two blades passed straight through Lynch. Immediately after, Lynch passed right through the guards blocking the way and through the newly built human wall, charging ahead of the core guards who had yet to cover the Princess with their bodies. Amidst several gasps of shock, he threw open his arms and lunged at Princess Sophia.
At the exact same time, a streak of light and shadow appeared before the Princess without warning, followed by a shrill, ear-splitting screech through the air and the heavy thrum of a bowstring.
Light and shadow flashed, a half-uttered scream echoed, and blood sprayed into the air.
An arrow abruptly pierced through the center of a brow, and the entire head detonated in an instant. Blood and brains flew everywhere, splattering all over the faces and clothes of the surrounding people.
【Authority: Hunting, Ability: Precision Sniping】
But it wasn't Princess Sophia who was hit.
Her Highness Princess Sophia hadn't even had time to step onto the Valente family's fiefdom before being tackled backward. Lynch's sudden appearance had not only drawn the attention of all the guards, but also that of the attacker, whose fully drawn force was instinctively unleashed.
Thus, the attack was launched, but the fired arrow passed through the afterimage Princess Sophia left behind, instantly killing a guard who had instinctively ducked behind her. Meanwhile, Lynch's collision had already knocked the Princess off her spot a step ahead of time, narrowly avoiding the lethal arrow.
A fine line of blood appeared on her fair cheek, several strands of hair fluttered in the air, and the whistling roar of the arrow vibrated their eardrums until they felt ready to split. At this moment, Lynch's mind went blank, leaving everything to instinct.
Thud.
The two tumbled back onto the camp's grounds. The moment they hit the ground, Lynch instinctively held the soft body in his arms and rolled to the side. The next moment, a soft thwack sounded by his ear as an arrow landed in the dirt right beside his face, sinking all the way to its fletching before the whistling air crack finally caught up.
“Protect the Princess!”
In the lightning-fast sequence of events, the professional guards regained their judgment and made the most correct decision. A group of men lunged directly toward Lynch as he rolled on the ground holding the Princess, covering the two layer upon layer with their bodies to block the line of sight from afar.
Strictly preventing a third arrow.
Yet at that exact moment, the space before everyone warped, and another figure appeared right beside the guards.
A middle-aged man in a green hunting suit was kneeling on one knee, drawing an arrow on a bow and aiming with one eye closed, suddenly appearing right in front of everyone. Staring at each other at point-blank range, both sides froze in shock.
【Authority: Earth, Ability: Castleling】
The standoff lasted for merely a fraction of a second before the arrow left the bowstring, casually piercing through several guards who blocked its line of sight. Amidst screams of pain, the other guards immediately swarmed forward, lunging at the man in the hunting suit. The man in the hunting suit didn't hesitate for a single moment, turning to flee with his hunting bow in hand. Yet the moment he turned his head, he saw a streak of light dragging an afterimage from far to near, appearing right before him in an instant.
【Authority: Protection, Ability: Transfer】
As the light dispersed, a brilliant blade light was revealed. The tall officer lady had arrived in the nick of time, sealing his throat with a sword strike.
The man in the hunting suit dared not stop his feet. He raised his hunting bow to block the rapier; the hunting bow snapped in two, but Officer Natalie was also pushed back a few stumbling steps by the counter-force, forcing her to yield the path and revealing... the folding fan behind her.
Boom.
The shotgun blasted a burst of fire, hitting the man in the hunting suit squarely in the chest. Blood spurted from his chest, and his body was blasted backward through the air, crashing toward the lunging royal guards, who had already raised their swords to chop him to pieces on the spot.
However, with a soft poof, the body of the man in the hunting suit suddenly burst apart, turning into a tattered, blood-soaked shrub. Meanwhile, the stumbling figure of the man in the hunting suit had already appeared twenty to thirty meters away, sprinting frantically into the distance without looking back.
【Authority: Forest, Ability: Decoy】
“Pursue! Don't let him get away!”
Guards shouted, but it was clear at a glance that catching up was impossible. However, right after, they saw an elderly hillman appear beside them, casually scooping up a handful of blood-stained dirt from the spot where the man had vanished.
The dirt squirmed on its own as if alive, turning into a small clay figure within seconds. The old hillman held it before his face and gently blew on it.
Puff.
The figure was blown back into dirt. Far away, the fleeing figure froze mid-stride, and his body dissolved into a shower of dust.
【Authority: Death, Ability: Dust to Dust, Earth to Earth】
Rate on N.U.
