Chapter 24: Oil and Arrows

This squad of archers, dressed in green robes and leather armor, had clearly just arrived. They hadn’t even nocked their arrows.

When Aurora burst through the tavern door with her people, she ran straight into them.

Both sides froze for a split second.

Aurora’s mind raced.

There was no time to weigh gains and losses. She could only act on instinct and common sense.

And instinct and common sense told her: never place your fate in someone else’s hands!

“Take them! Kill them!”

Aurora raised her hand and fired an “Ice Ray” straight into the chest of the nearest archer.

The sun was blinding. Pedestrians screamed and scattered. The green-robed archers scrambled for their quivers—but it was too late.

The Knight Captain reacted instantly. His long sword thrust forward, finishing off the archer Aurora had staggered, while his shield slammed into another’s chest. The sergeant followed close behind, and together they struck like an iron wedge, leading the entire guard detail into battle.

In a single clash.

The green-robed archers hadn’t loosed a single arrow before Aurora and her people cut them down.

“Murder! Murder!”

“Murder! Murder!”

The blood caused the bustling street to explode into chaos.

The pudgy spice merchant was the first to move. Without even seeing who killed whom, he frantically began shoving bags of cinnamon and cloves under his cart, muttering, “My goods, my goods, my goods,” moving as if he’d practiced all his life.

At the stall next door, the old woman selling pottery grabbed her most expensive glazed vase and fled into the alley without looking back, abandoning her remaining dishes and bowls.

The customers ran even more decisively.

Two housewives carrying vegetable baskets screamed and bolted in opposite directions, eggs spilling from their baskets. A well-dressed fat merchant tripped over a sack by the roadside, face-planted, got up, and continued running with one shoe missing, not bothering to retrieve it.

In the chaos, a scrawny street urchin darted to the unattended spice stall, grabbed handfuls of nutmeg, stuffed them into his shirt, and vanished into the crowd like a rat that had stolen cheese. The pudgy merchant, still busy shoving goods under his cart, didn’t even notice—his mind now wholly focused on how to stuff himself under the cart.

In less than ten seconds, the once lively street was half-empty, left with overturned stalls, broken eggs, and a mess.

“Knight, signal for reinforcements! Run to the Left Bank!”

The knight obeyed, firing a flare into the sky.

Then Aurora didn’t even spare a glance for the carriage that had brought them; she and her people bolted.

Walpurgis followed behind her, while Juliet’s tail clung tightly to Aurora’s belt, dragging her so unsteadily that she nearly tripped Aurora.

“Young Lady Master, I—I can’t run anymore—”

“Shut up and run!”

But the Guild, as the underworld boss of Frania, was no pushover.

Just as they rounded the second street corner, figures appeared on the rooftop. Three of them, in green robes, short bows already drawn.

“Get down!”

The Knight Captain bellowed, raising his shield in front of Aurora.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Three arrows fell almost simultaneously. Two embedded in the shield; the third grazed the edge and struck the Knight Captain’s left arm.

The arrowhead hit the chainmail with a sharp clank—the angle was too steep to penetrate. A ricochet!

Aurora’s three archers immediately returned fire.

The three who had ambushed them weren’t so lucky. Their simple leather armor couldn’t withstand such close-range volleys. After one salvo, they toppled backward and lay still.

But killing one cockroach often meant the room was already infested.

More green robes were emerging from alleys and sewers, like rats pouring from burrows, scattered at first but rapidly gathering.

They couldn’t escape.

Aurora’s eyes locked onto a shop across the street—its door half-open. Brick structure, two stories, fireproof, small windows.

Above the doorway hung a faded sign painted with an oil jug.

“There! Rush in!”

She led her squad charging toward the shop.

The sergeant kicked the door open, and the guards filed in. The knight entered last, slamming the heavy wooden door shut behind him. The sergeant immediately dragged a long table over to barricade it.

Thuds of arrows embedding into wood came from the door. Dense footsteps surrounded them from all directions.

They were surrounded!

Aurora slid down the wall, gasping for air. She looked up and surveyed the small shop that had saved their lives.

The first floor held shelves and a counter. On the shelves, dozens of wooden barrels and clay jars were neatly arranged, labeled with olive oil, rapeseed oil, whale oil, and lamp oil.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of grease.

At the back of the shop was a wooden loft—a half-floor platform above their heads, bordered by waist-high walls. A ladder leaned against the wall; it was the owner’s living quarters.

‘This is just like the cabin defense in Resident Evil 4.’

Aurora suddenly had an idea.

The Guild’s thugs swarmed in, surrounding the oil shop in layers.

Soon, Keen’s voice rang out from across the street:

“Miss Aurora, come out. Don’t bother struggling. Those few people you have aren’t even enough to fill my teeth.”

Aurora took a deep breath and shouted back.

“Ha! I can hold this house until I die of old age!”

Keen scoffed.

“I know you’re waiting for reinforcements. Let me tell you, forget it. It’ll take the Left Bank at least half an hour to get here—plenty of time for me to drag you out of that wrecked house five or six times!”

“Come in and try if you have the guts!”

Keen issued an ultimatum:

“Surrender. Come out quietly, and I promise I won’t sell you to a brothel.”

“Never.”

Keen raised her hand and waved.

“Boys, attack!”

In an instant, arrows flew like locusts, pouring in from all directions. They slammed through the windows into the walls and floor, sending stone chips and wood splinters flying.

Burly men wielding various weapons approached under the cover of arrows. The leading thug raised a warhammer and smashed the door with a bang, breaking through.

In less than a minute, Aurora’s barricades were cleared.

Keen’s face lit up with glee.

‘Hmph, the little girl left the walls and door undefended, inviting the wolf into the sheepfold?’

Without the terrain advantage, she could drown Aurora and her few people with sheer numbers!

The Guild’s thugs surged inside. At that moment—

“Go, Walpurgis! Show them what you’ve got!”

“Leave it to me! Fog Cloud!”

Milky white mist poured from Walpurgis’s palms, creeping like a living thing into every corner of the first floor, leaving only a small space near the ladder clear so as not to block their own view.

Inside the fog, the Guild’s thugs were blind, unable to see even their own weapons!

“Knight, throw the oil barrels!”

Aurora and her people had already moved the oil barrels to the second floor.

The sergeant and guards obeyed. They picked up barrels, unscrewed the stoppers, and with combined effort, hurled them down. Golden oil exploded instantly, spreading a shiny film quickly across the stone floor. The entire shop reeked of an overpowering greasy smell.

The leading Guild thug tentatively stepped forward—

“Holy crap!!”

He slipped, his legs skidding wildly as if on ice, and fell flat on his back, his head hitting the stone floor with a dull thud. Then a second fell, a third was no better—one after another, they slipped and crashed down like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

“Fire!”

Aurora gave the order.

From the loft, three archers and Walpurgis had the high ground. Bowstrings twanged repeatedly; arrows accurately pierced the thugs who were floundering on the ground, unable to get up. A blue light flickered at Walpurgis’s fingertip, and an Ice Ray struck an unlucky thug trying to stand by leaning against the wall. Frost spread over his leather armor, freezing him in place.

The battle was so easy that even Juliet steadied herself and burst into laughter.

Excited to play a tune but lacking an instrument, she scanned the second floor, her eyes settling on an iron pot left by the shop owner. Why not use that as a drum?

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Magic spread with the drumming. A faint warm glow enveloped everyone.

The Bard’s Inspire Courage spell!

Aurora turned in surprise, looking Juliet up and down as she was immersed in her performance.

‘This one actually knows the Bard’s exclusive spells!’

‘I thought she was utterly useless!’

By now, a few skilled thugs had managed to scramble close by stepping on their comrades’ bodies.

Under the effect of the inspiring song, the Knight Captain’s arrow-struck left arm seemed less sore, and the sergeant’s swings grew faster.

The Knight Captain smashed the first with his shield, sending him sliding far across the oily floor. The sergeant cut down the second with a single slash.

The second and third waves of thugs surged forward, only to meet the same fate—the fog blocked their sight, oil stole their footing, and arrows claimed their lives.

They just couldn’t break through!

Keen stood on the rooftop across the street, watching her men feed in wave after wave without even a splash. Her expression darkened further.

The first floor of the shop was now covered with fallen thugs, their groans rising and falling.

And the report from the observation post on the Holy Maiden River Bridge made her even more crestfallen.

The Knight Order had arrived—much sooner than she had anticipated.

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