Chapter 35

BOW! The heel of the governor’s foot bashed into the mask of a silver masked figure, blowing him backward and propelling his face down into the ground.

“Phew…” The governor let out a breath.

Yet, the fight wasn’t over yet - at that moment, two other silver masked men who had been hiding behind the first took the opportunity to simultaneously strike, pulling out swords and stabbing forward.

“Shit!” The governor yelled. He didn’t expect his enemies to be so coordinated. Careful to not let the two kids on his shoulders get hurt, he stealthily dodged the strikes with a fluid duck and then once again pushed forward by striking out with a spirit energy empowered kick.

However, the silver masked opponents had learned their lesson from their incapacitated comrade and quickly backed up, avoiding the strike. They then split into two directions, one on the left side of the governor and one on the right. They readied their swords and then sliced outward, toward the governor’s two sides.

‘Fuck… I can’t let them double-team me like this!’ The governor thought as he quickly tried to dodge backward. However, his opponents were quick and were already following the governor forward and striking again.

And this time, they had noticed the governor’s weak spot - the children! Their strikes now seemed to be aiming for the two children on his shoulders.

The governor clicked his tongue. Normally, he would’ve easily been able to counterattack and beat the attackers at their own game. However, he had limited access to his fists and couldn’t afford to let the children he was carrying get hurt - if he dealt with one silver masked fighter, the other could stab one of the children. Therefore, he chose to keep dodging backward.

“You can’t get away!” One silver masked man seethed as he and his partner continued to chase the governor with increasingly rabid stabs.

“Fine! I’ll fight!” The governor suddenly stilled in his tracks.

“Good, now take this!” The silver masked men chanted as they took advantage of this moment and simultaneously stabbed outward with lightning-like speed.

“No!” Alivia and Finn cried out, watching the approaching blades with horror.

“Don’t worry!” The governor reassured. The next moment, he suddenly jumped upward, aided by some spirit energy in his feet. In just a moment, he had gained air and was over five feet above the silver masked men.

Fuoosh! The two blades struck nothing but air as the governor soared over the two fighters’ heads, did a flip, and then pounded his legs down on the silver masked fighters’ exposed backs.

BAM!! BAM!! Two simultaneous thuds sounded out as the silver masked fighters slammed onto the ground. Before they could gain their bearings again, the governor was already ready and stomped on each of their backs, rattling their bodies and knocking them out.

“Phew…” the governor wiped his brow. That had been a close one. If that move had failed, he would have been forced into more drastic measures. He couldn’t help but bend forward and take a deep breath. After all this fighting, he was beginning to feel some symptoms of exhaustion.

“Guh…” Alivia and Finn couldn’t help but feel dizzy from the aerial flip. But at the same time, they were amazed at the governor’s capabilities and were relieved to be alive.

They found that the scenes in front of them were playing like a movie, too vivid and action packed to be actual life. This entire day had been surreal, and they were still trying to keep up.

“Alright, we gotta move…” the governor had rested for only a moment before he stood back up. He was about to turn around to continue to flee when his eyes suddenly widened.

Behind him, he could see a large group of twenty or so bronze and silver masked men had manifested from the foliage, all pointing at him and yelling.

“Damn, they must have caught up as I was busy dealing with all those fodder… so many of them!” the governor groaned. He quickly turned around and sprinted forward toward Grandpa Dinran.

As he reached him, he reached down and grabbed Grandpa Dinran by the waist, gently twisting him and lifting him up into his arms as well.

“-huh?!” Grandpa Dinran was startled, but then looked backward and spotted the approaching group. Immediately understanding what was happening, he nodded once before closing his eyes and reciting a prayer.

“Phew!” The governor grunted as he lifted Grandpa Dinran, and shifted his body to adjust for carrying three people at once. Although it was heavy, and he would run out of stamina quickly, he had no choice!

‘I can probably only afford to full sprint for about half a minute. In that time, we can hopefully lose those masked guys… being in their field of vision is dangerous!’ The governor grit his teeth.

Pressured by the mass of approaching masked fighters, he channeled a large portion of his spirit energy into his legs. Then, in one burst, he blasted forward and multiplied his speed, charging at a full sprint.

Fuoosh! In only a few moments, he had already traversed a few dozen meters and had nearly lost the approaching crowd.

He continued in this tiring state for a full half minute before finally slowing down and starting to gasp in heaves. Even in his exhaustion, he nervously glanced backward to see if the masked fighters were still behind him. Seeing nothing, he sighed in relief.

Just as the governor was starting to relax, his spine suddenly tingled, and all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge. It was like an alarm bell sounding in his head.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he dove to the side.

ZZZZZZZIP!

Like a bolt of lighting, an indistinguishable object zipped past where the governor had just been standing. It continued onward and soared into a tree.

KABOOM!! The tree immediately exploded into a thousand different fragments.

The governor, Grandpa Dinran, Alivia, and Finn all had already just been tumbling on the ground when they were once again blasted backward by the tree explosion. All four of them were airborne for a few moments before violently crashing onto the ground again.

“Ugh…” The governor was only dazed for a moment before he quickly came to his senses. He grasped onto the side of a tree to quickly get up and then frantically looked around to check if everyone was alright.

Luckily, everyone seemed to be unhurt, just dazed and unconscious.

“Phew…” the governor wiped his brow and took a deep breath. What a powerful missile! It had traveled so quickly that he was almost unable to dodge it - furthermore, it had a completely unexpected amount of destructive power!

“Damn, that missed.” An ominous voice rang out.

“Huh?” Startled, the governor quickly turned his head, still breathing heavily.

At the edge of his vision stood a solitary, skinny gold masked, black cloaked man. On his side he carried a sheathed sword.

The governor stared at this gold-masked figure for a moment before his eyes began to narrow.

“Storan… I knew it would be you.”