Run, Yuna!

Inside the noble's villa in Medi City.

Baron Harry's face was deathly pale, the wine glass in his hand frozen mid-air, as if he didn't know whether to drink it or set it down.

The three female unaffiliated experts behind him were also stunned, staring blankly out the window at the crimson dragon soaring across the sky.

As the great dragon flew past, a thousand silver skysoar dragons also began circling in the night sky.

All of Medi City became lively in an instant.

Countless people stuck their heads out to witness the magnificent sight of those thousand dragons.

Many knights instinctively looked up toward the sky.

Yuna glanced at the fine wine in her glass, which reflected the flickering candlelight, and the smile on her lips deepened.

"It seems my ride is here. I should be going."

She drained the glass in one gulp and set it down on the table with a sharp thud.

"Young Lord Harry, thank you for the invitation. I will host you next time."

As she spoke, the girl stood up, gave Harry a beaming smile, and turned to leave.

"You! Where do you think you're going? You are not permitted to leave!!"

Baron Harry snapped out of it, instinctively moving to block her path.

Yuna paused. Under Harry's panicked and slightly angry gaze, she glanced back over her shoulder and offered a radiant smile.

"Does Young Lord Harry intend to keep me overnight? What a pity. Even if I were to agree, I fear that great dragon outside and those thousand dragon riders would not."

As he watched Yuna's alluring figure slowly walk away, the agitation on Harry's face became increasingly obvious.

The Yuna before him was the deputy commander of the Western Expedition Army, with direct command over five thousand knights.

If he truly let her leave to rendezvous with that dragon, the Dragon Knight Corps, and her own five thousand knights...

That level of combat power was absolutely enough to wipe out every faction in Medi City!

He could not let her leave!!

A look of ruthless resolve appeared on Baron Harry's face.

Although every Guardian Knight had their status recorded on a document tablet at the Holy See...

And the cause of their death would often be recorded on the document tablet replica.

If a knight was insulted, the Holy See would certainly demand accountability. However, if a Guardian Knight simply died in a conflict, the nobles of the Kingdom of the Moon could at least withstand the fallout.

Insulting a knight was like slapping the Holy See in the face before every race on the continent.

But if she died in battle, even if there was an investigation later, they could just push forward a scapegoat.

The Holy See and the Pope would not look into it too deeply.

After all, strength was what mattered; it was simply natural selection.

But if she died while being insulted, it would damage the reputation of the entire Holy See.

No matter what, the Pope and the Holy See would never allow such a thing to happen.

Though the result was still death, the process leading up to it determined whether it became a matter of the Holy See's pride.

Originally, Harry had intended to try and arrange a marriage alliance with this Knight Yuna.

He hadn't been in a hurry to kill her because the aftermath would be difficult to handle.

Even if they killed her and the Holy See knew, they might not investigate deeply, but there still had to be a plausible reason and a sufficiently large 'fat sheep' to offer as a scapegoat.

This was politics.

To avoid that outcome, the Harry family had not intended to kill her from the start.

On one hand, with Kevin present, a single Guardian Knight like Yuna couldn't cause much trouble.

On the other hand, killing her would be costly to resolve later.

But now, Baron Harry could no longer care about such things.

Since things had reached this point, his only option was to kill her!

"Stop her! Kill her! Do it now!"

As soon as the order was given, the three female unaffiliated experts behind him quickly rushed forward.

The moment she heard his voice, Yuna reacted instantly, lunging forward with a burst of speed!

"War Skill! Holy Charge!"

Boom!!

This world was strange in that way; if one did not shout the name of the skill, its power might only be about a third of its potential.

But by shouting the name, the power would reach its peak.

The moment Yuna shouted the skill name, her speed exploded. Holy energy and light elements poured from her body, forming a semi-circular barrier in front of her.

The unaffiliated experts guarding the outside naturally heard the commotion from within the room.

Several of them reacted and blocked the door.

However, facing Yuna's full-power burst, even an elephant-man known for his strength across the continent could not withstand the massive force.

In an instant, eight level-fifty experts blocking the door were sent flying.

At the same time, Yuna looked up and shouted toward the sky.

"I'm over here!!"

This was immediately followed by a sharp cry.

"War Skill — Holy Guard!"

As the words fell, the holy energy and light elements pouring from her body enveloped her entire being.

Most of a knight's skills relied on weapons, but her preferred weapon had been confiscated.

Since she had just knocked away eight experts, she noticed the elephant-man had been carrying a massive hammer.

Although his nearly three-meter-tall frame had been sent flying, the hammer had remained behind.

She wasn't the type to be picky; since she didn't have her own weapon, she would just use whatever was available!

Using the momentum of her charge, she reached out and grabbed the handle, concentrating all her strength to swing the three-ton giant hammer!

"Ugh, ahhh!!"

Accompanied by a roar, the massive hammer crashed down.

The elephant-man who had just been knocked away was the most heavily injured and hadn't had time to get up.

The hammer came straight for him!

In the elephant-man's terrified gaze, the massive hammerhead slammed down!

To his dying moment, he never imagined he would die by his own weapon.

Boom—!

Splat!

The three-ton hammer fell, and the elephant-man's head, neck, and chest were instantly reduced to a pulp of blood and gore, spraying out from the gaps beneath the hammerhead.

There was no doubt that beneath that hammer, nothing remained but a smear of blood.

The blow had likely pulverized even his skull into dust.

As the massive hammer landed, the nearby experts immediately reacted, drawing their weapons.

However, the fastest were those using short blades, who reached Yuna almost instantly.

The momentum from Yuna's charge had been entirely spent on that hammer strike.

In her view, among this group, only the elephant-man had been capable of harming her in a short amount of time.

But because of that, her speed had dropped. With the hammer handle still in her hands, she saw an opponent rushing her with a dagger and raised the handle to block.

An ordinary swordsman might have paused, but the one with the dagger was clearly an assassin-type expert.

Facing the sudden obstruction of the handle, which was nearly as thick as a thigh, his body leaped as light as a bird, sailing directly over it.

Using the momentum of his dash, his body began to spin!

In the moment they crossed, the dagger lunged toward Yuna's face.

Seeing that she hadn't blocked him, Yuna took a step back to avoid the peak of his power.

Then she suddenly reached out, grabbed the assassin's arm, and yanked him toward her.

Her intent was to break his balance.

She hadn't expected the assassin's body to be so flexible. He exerted force through his waist, and his right foot kicked out toward Yuna's face before he was even pulled in.

In a split second, Yuna saw a flash of silver.

She instinctively dodged to the left. A whistling wind rushed past her ear, and a cold sensation grazed her cheek.

There was no time to think.

Yuna took advantage of the opponent's desperate posture, swinging his arm with all her might to slam the entire assassin into the ground.

Boom!!

"Cough!"

The assassin hit the ground, the massive impact causing his eyes to bulge uncontrollably.

A human-shaped crater instantly formed in the ground, and the surrounding stone tiles cracked and shattered.

Her superior attributes allowed Yuna to take the advantage in this moment.

Their strength differed by at least twofold. Although the assassin's fighting style was nearly suicidal and his experience and skill were high, he still suffered greatly due to the gap in raw attributes.

Without the slightest hesitation, Yuna kicked out at the assassin's temple.

The sharp tip of her knight's armored boot pierced about two centimeters deep with a sickening squelch.

At the same time, the sound of rushing wind came from behind her.

She instinctively rolled, tumbling over the assassin's corpse and snatching his dagger in the process.

After rolling, Yuna used the strength in her legs to explode upward!

She didn't look back; in this moment, her goal was survival!

If she stayed to fight these experts to the death, a dozen of them swarming her would leave her with no way to fight back.

But when the fastest and slowest pursuers were separated by distance, preventing them from covering each other...

She could take them down one by one!

Yuna leaped high, not forgetting to shout a reminder:

"Over here!!"

With that shout, Yuna vaulted over the villa's outer wall.

Behind her, a dozen Guardian-level experts quickly followed.

One of them leaped onto the roof, drawing a bow and aiming an arrow at Yuna while she was still in mid-air.

"Hit!!"

With a light shout, a flash of fire streaked through the night sky!

Swish!

Yuna had no way to dodge in mid-air. She could only rely on her rich combat experience, raising the stolen dagger to forcefully meet the firelight.

Clang—!

A sharp sound of metal grinding echoed as the flaming arrow was deflected upward, soaring into the sky!

However, that massive impact also broke her jumping momentum.

Since she hadn't jumped very high and had been forced to parry the arrow, she had no time to adjust her balance. She only had time to protect her head before crashing to the ground.

Boom!

The girl crashed through the outer wall of a courtyard across the street and rolled three or four times. She didn't stop for a second, immediately leaping back to her feet.

But this time, the angle of her leap was much lower.

Otherwise, she would be targeted by that fire archer again. By staying close to the ground, she would have a chance to maneuver even if he fired again.

However, this also slowed her escape speed slightly.

The fastest pursuer, a fencer with a light sword, had already caught up.

He held a rapier and lunged directly for Yuna's back.

Yuna glanced back. This guy was ruthless!

The rapier in his hand was actually four-edged, a square blade with four deep blood grooves carved into it. Once it pierced someone, the bleeding would be unstoppable.

Though a rapier looked unremarkable, it was often fatal.

The wound might not be large, but a puncture into the flesh was a hole that would cause excessive blood loss in a very short time.

Seeing the fencer lunge at her, Yuna simply unfastened her large red cloak and whipped it around!

Whoosh!

The only weakness of a rapier was that it wasn't suited for slashing.

Facing the sudden arrival of the red cloak, the fencer raised his sword to strike upward!

Otherwise, if the cloak wrapped around his blade, a rapier with no cutting edge would be easily controlled by the opponent.

Yuna seized the opportunity. This time, the fencer had no chance to pursue further as she shook him off.

Without a proper weapon or a mount, she couldn't even use her knight skills and was forced to use swordsman skills.

This was a huge disadvantage!

Only a fool would stay and fight head-on!

As she ran, Yuna looked up at the sky.

It was obvious that the thousand dragon riders in the sky had noticed the battle down here.

The crimson arrow that had just shot into the sky was enough to attract everyone's attention.

While sprinting, she reached up and touched her cheek.

Just a moment ago, when the assassin had kicked out, she had instinctively dodged.

But he had still managed to leave a wound on her face.

Feeling the warmth flowing down her cheek and seeing the crimson on her fingertips, Yuna couldn't help but curse under her breath:

"How despicable, hiding a blade in the tip of a boot!"

As she spoke, the crimson on her hand began to slowly change color. A trace of black was so striking amidst the red blood on her fingertips!

Poison!?

The word flashed through her mind, and Yuna gritted her teeth in rage.

That bastard! Not only did he hide a dagger in his boot, but he even coated it in poison!!

And this poison seemed quite unusual!

For it to turn her blood black so quickly, an ordinary person would likely die upon contact.

They truly were a bunch of lunatics who lived by the blade, using such underhanded methods!

She instinctively looked back behind her.

Once she lost this group, she would have to find a way to go back for the assassin's corpse to get the antidote.

Otherwise, she probably wouldn't last long.

But in the moment she turned her head, a flash of red light entered her vision.

Is this... the high-level archery skill, Silent Arrow?!

She had no time to dodge. Yuna could only barely shift her body, offering her shoulder instead.

Clang!

As the sound of metal grinding echoed in her ear, accompanied by a burst of sparks, a massive force pressed down on her shoulder.

The arrow grazed her shoulder plate!

Her balance was shattered in that instant!

The girl went flying, spinning through the air!

With a loud crash, she smashed into a house diagonally across from her.

In an instant, there was a chaotic commotion of squawking and fluttering.

Under the gaze of the numerous experts, the girl who had disappeared emerged from the ruins amidst a chorus of clucks, holding a bewildered hen and covered in feathers as she leaped out once more!