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Chapter 5: Close One

  How many buildings had Leo leaped across now?

  He wasn't sure, but his ferocious pursuer left nothing but destruction and rubble in his wake.

  Leo was certain that the town guards would be called at any moment by those who were witnessing the chase scene.

  So whilst flinging himself from roof to roof, and ducking under flying bits of stone that came his way, only one thought remained.

  'Where in the hell is Knight!? Didn't he say he'd know when I was ready!?'

  While thinking to himself, Leo leaped across to another building. Focusing more on speed rather than pinpointing exactly where he was going, Leo tripped and fell on the ledge of a white powdered roof, rolling for a while before sprawling in a heap near the opposite end of the rooftop.

  Now covered in bits of white dust, he found his head lingering over the edge, and down below him were the dark narrow alleys of the backstreets.

  Trying his best to quickly stand back up, Leo felt a powerful hand suddenly grip his ankle and lift him up into the air. Whilst upside down, he was brought face to face with the goliath who had been chasing him down from the ruined apartment. Feeling extremely feeble and weak in this moment, Leo attempted to flail about, or even hit his enemy in the face with anything. Instead, he felt a sharp pain in his ankle that was being held by the beefy man. Leo immediately took that as a warning from the man to stop flailing around and trying to attack him. He imagined that his ankle could be completely crushed with one forceful squeeze. Not just his ankle, maybe his entire leg would shatter from the shockwave.

  Leo winced and just glared at the man for a while.

  It was without a doubt the quiet man from Har's restaurant. Although now, he seemed a lot more active and responsive in a sense. His eyes were wide open, a dangerous gleam glistening in their brown colour, his hair was a little dishevelled, strands hanging across his forehead, and his breathing was heavy. Leo however, doubted that the man would be tired from just running to catch up with a short regular human like himself, so why did he looks so exhausted?

  "L-Let me go! What do you want?"

  There was a pause, but then the man responded with a deep resounding voice that made his words seem more like a command rather than an answer:

  "I want to...No, I need to end it...We want to end that deplorable-"

  Before the man could finish his sentence however, there was a loud crash from behind them that shook the entire roof they were on, sending white dust into the air. Leo quickly looked past the man holding him to see a tall figure with flowing white hair, and purple beaming eyes wearing a well fitted white suit. Leo blinked once, but before his thoughts could fully be gathered, the figure was already blitzing it's way towards Leo's captor. One thing Leo did notice about Knight this time though was that he was wielding a shimmering short sword with a white grip and hilt.

  Besides Knight's angelic appearance, Leo felt another thing besides shock at his arrival.

  Immense relief.

  'Never thought I'd be relieved for anyone. But it's my ass being saved!'

  Leo used Knight's distraction as a way to swing his body up, so he was now holding onto his Captor's arm tightly. Not hesitating whatsoever, Leo dug his teeth deep into the man's bicep making him flinch from the pain and weaken his grip on Leo's ankle.

  Once he landed on the solid ground of the roof, Leo immediately crawled away and looked back after hearing the sounds of steel clashing with steel.

  Both Knight and the Beefy man of the Draconis Clan were now caught in the heat of battle, attacking each other with intricate strikes and calculated attacks. The Beefy man was using what Leo assumed to be a dagger which he had concealed rather well on his person, considering Leo never noticed it before.

  . . .

  Knight was knocked back a little by a fake attack which the Beefy man did, changing his initial strike from a regular slash with his dagger to a left handed punch to the jaw. It had connected, and unfortunately, really well since Knight was bleeding a little from his nose. Once he regained his senses though, the Beefy man was already beginning to turn towards where Leonardo last was.

  Kissing his teeth in anger and brandishing his blade, Knight whispered to himself before dashing at inhuman speeds to block off the Beefy man's route towards the defenceless Leonardo.

  "Going somewhere?", he spat with a teasing tone and smile.

  Knight could see the irritation growing on the Beefy man's face at his sudden appearance. He witnessed as the domineering man threw his dagger onto the ground and brandished his fists instead, both of his arms up to his knuckles perfectly covered by metal gauntlets which gleamed under the moonlight.

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  Grinning to himself a little, Knight suddenly stepped forwards firmly, and swung his blade vertically from his left. The Beefy man's eyes widened at the speed of the attack and blocked it with his right forearm, sparks flying into the air. The man grunted and jumped up after blocking Knight's attack, backflipping and going to send a kick towards Knight's chin mid jump. Knight quickly lifted his sword and turned it to the flat, the Beefy man's foot connecting with it but still sending Knight into the air, his body reeling a little from the shock.

  'What monstrous strength! Is this his trait? No...I'm not sensing his Ki being used at all...'

  Knight landed with a roll and ran towards the man again, wasting no time. Both probably knew that Knight was the much faster fighter at this point, so the man was late to react, however this didn't mean that he couldn't.

  A flurry of overhead sword strikes, slashes from his sides, and even from below rained down on the man, forcing him to fight on the defence. He blocked some with his metal gauntlets, especially Knight's overhead and vertical slashes, but was forced to dodge, or even jump over attacks aimed at his legs and feet.

  "Ngh...Cocky bra-"

  After dodging a thrust attack aimed at his knee, the man was about to respond with a ferocious punch, but before he could finish his insulting sentence and direct his attack towards his target, he witnessed as Knight was already in the air, spinning as though he was about to...

  Unable to react in time to Knight's sudden change in fighting style, the Beefy man was sent reeling back from a powerful spin kick to his chest.

  Knight landed gracefully and patted his white suit down with his free hand before sighing and slicking his white hair away from his face.

  Stumbling and gasping for air from the pain, the Beefy man was more than sure that he felt his sternum had been cracked or even shattered by the boy's kick.

  'Who...'

  Not knowing where he even was at this point, the Beefy man continued to step back a few times in pain before coughing violently. His foot was caught by the ledge of the building they were on and he wobbled backwards before disappearing into the streets below.

  Knight had put a bit more effort into that kick than he had originally wanted, but it didn't completely mean that Leonardo's pursuer would give up either. This only gave them a short moment of respite, not to mention the other two Draconis Clan members in the town.

  Sighing with a bit of relief, Knight turned to where Leonardo was and saw absolutely nothing.

  'Queen better know what she's doing.'

  . . .

  Leo hopped over a multitude of building roofs before he stopped, gasping for air and dropping down on the ground. He leaned his back against the ledge of the roof he was on, making sure to still be wary of his surroundings.

  He didn't really want to get in the way of Knight who looked like he could handle himself well, so he went ahead and did his best to keep out of the fight. Leo also considered the possibility that maybe the Beefy bastard would probably even use him as a human shield, keeping Knight from fighting at his best.

  Slowing down his breathing, and finally calming down a little, Leo curled up a little before putting his face in his knees with a heavy sigh of exhaustion and regret.

  'No home. No confirmed safety. The Draconis Clan is after me for some reason. I'm probably gonna have to join that stupid Island of Johanna expedition. What'll I tell Har? Will I even have the chance to tell him? Did that old bitch Carmen hear the destruction? If she did, then that other long haired guy must have as well...'

  He slapped himself in the face a few times to check if he was dreaming, but alas, nothing he tried could steer him away from the cards he'd been dealt today.

  "I just wanted a better apartment..."

  "Apartment? Such lowly dreams."

  Leo suddenly looked up after recognising the voice which graced the silence with it's presence.

  Knight was standing over him, his figure illuminated by the moonlight.

  Leo tilted his head in surprise and asked with a slight bit of hesitation:

  "You...beat him?"

  Knight shook his head before walking away from Leo as he responded:

  "No. He'll probably be back, and the other two have most definitely realised something's up by now as well."

  Leo looked down at his knees for a bit before exhaling heavily, "So you know about the other two Draconis Clan members. What do they want from me? Does this involve Johanna?"

  Knight stayed quiet for a while before nodding his head and ushering Leo to stand up. Leo quickly stood and gathered his things before watching as Knight just jumped down into the dark streets below. He reached for a ladder on the side of the building with a jealous grumble and followed after Knight, the pair walking through the narrow backstreets.

  'I wonder how strong my body would be with developed Ki...'

  However, Leo's train of thought was cut out by Knight:

  "To answer your questions Leonardo, I know about the other two members in town because of my trait. I'm not sure what they want from you at all, and this doesn't involve Johanna whatsoever, at least to my knowledge. I'm only Queen's little service dog after all, so she doesn't tell me everything."

  Knight laughed softly at his own joke, but received a questioning look from Leo before continuing:

  "If I had to assume, it probably has to do with you being the final member of a deceased clan."

  Leo raised his eyebrow before thinking to himself a little.

  The concept of him being the final member and heir to a dead clan would most definitely bring him some unwanted attention from other clans, but then again, his existence wasn't supposed to be information that anyone was supposed to know ever. Which was why Leo was so surprised that Knight was even aware of his background. The Draconis Clan most certainly could have had their own methods of finding out about his identity as well if Knight was able to, but that didn't answer his other question either. Why would they try to kill him? If it was because of his identity, was Knight going to try kill him as well? No, he was under someone called Queen, and they had other, more important plans anyway. So Leo was fairly trustworthy of Knight, or at least for now. Besides that though, a lot of the questions Leo had about the Draconis Clan, alongside their reasons for targeting him today was most likely something he wasn't going to receive the answer to just yet.

  "So, where are we going now? This route leads to the southern gate Sir Knight."

  Knight smiled and turned towards Leo who was trudging behind him.

  "Yup. Outside the southern gate is where we're camped. By we, I mean the rest of the Island of Johanna strike party."

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