That was why she had blood on her face when she had confronted him in the alleyway...

Zephyra had killed members of the City Guard in cold blood for some reason... well, there was no time to think back on it as he was the one that was going to suffer from it at the end of the day.

Like now... Four Rivera Guard Captains had confronted him.

’How do I escape then?’ Klaus thought. Today was the last day he would be using this Persona... it was already branded and allied as a Villain in the eyes of the Rivera City Guard which would in turn spread it all over.

His current situation didn’t look really good and he wouldn’t be scared if Zephyra was here, however she was currently selling the mined silver to her super secret contact... so he was left on his own as usual.

Klaus raised up his hands and one of the captains smiled.

"I’m glad you at least have the sense to—"

Klaus’s Magnetic Field suddenly spread outward.

Since they were wearing metal as shoes and even had them as badges, Klaus pushed them backward. It wasn’t by much as they skidded back, however by the time they got out of the Magnetic Field’s effects, Klaus was already hopping along a nearby building.

"Sigh..." The woman who had been questioning him sighed and turned behind.

"Cover all the escape routes!" she shouted to her fellow Captains. "Don’t let him reach ground level!"

They nodded as she looked at Klaus in the distance.

’We need to not only detain him but that masked woman as well who caused that outrageous purple light to flash in the sky...’ she thought.

She pushed off the building with a gust of wind building beneath her feet as she hopped in the air, covering a lot of distance with a singular hop. Once she was behind him, she hopped forward and angled her two feet forward, building up wind force.

’It won’t be bad if I break his back, right?’

Klaus looked backward to see that the Captain had already caught up and a sword appeared in his hand from his storage ring as he turned it into a metal whip. Instead of attacking, he threw it at one big lamppost and it wrapped around with the help of Magnetic Field as Klaus spun out of the way.

The woman shot forward, impacting the side of a building and bending it inward.

CRASH!

"Stay still! All this will be added to your already high amount of charges!" the Captain called out.

Klaus kept moving while asking. "But you were the one that destroyed that building, didn’t you?"

Klaus’s sword turned back to normal as he ran on the walls and the woman gathered wind around herself, prepared to move again.

Up front which was a place leading to a market. One of the Captains was standing there with fire around his arms and he let loose balls of flame directly at Klaus.

’Don’t these people care about the civilians beneath us?’ Klaus thought. However, if he wanted to escape, he needed to go underground into the sewers or something and the—

He moved out of the way and flipped to the right as the fireballs passed by him. The Captain who had been rushing to him raised her guard, stopping the pursuit to cover herself and the others from the fireballs with the help of her wind.

"Focus on the Heavenly Commoner, not the damn buildings!" she shouted at the Fire Captain in frustration.

’Are they new or something?’ Klaus thought, because this level of inexperience was just too much for Captains.

Nevertheless, he raised a pill up from his storage ring and popped it into his mouth as he ran along the wall, leaving small craters in it.

Right now... he needed...

「Item: Speed Boost Pill」

「Tier: 1」

「Description: A basic alchemical pill that temporarily enhances the user’s physical speed and reaction time. When consumed, the pill causes the user’s perception to slow slightly while their body moves faster, creating a brief window of enhanced mobility. The effects last approximately 3 minutes before wearing off naturally.」

His legs and even his body began feeling weird as he popped it into his mouth. When Taula and Mirela had tested this pill out, they had described it as them being able to move faster as well as see things a little slower. Though it only lasted for 3 minutes, it was a pretty cool pill.

Klaus shot forward, increasing his speed dramatically as he ran along the wall. The Fire Captain ignored the orders of the Wind Captain who had just shouted at him to watch where he was shooting, and he kept firing.

Klaus dodged all of them with enhanced perception, and then he noticed something on the ground. It was a sewer grate which was one of those metal coverings leading into the underground drainage system.

He extended his sword down there, using Magnetic Field to pull it to the side before jumping forward into the open hole.

"Oh no, you don’t!" the Wind Captain shouted.

She shot forward like a bullet, sending waves of wind blowing everywhere as she grabbed onto his cloak. However, Klaus expected that and detached his cloak.

She could only grab the fabric as he entered the sewers, and then a blue glow surrounded the cloak as it was pulled back to the owner with the help of the storage ring.

The Captain gritted her teeth.

"Tell the rest of them to maintain their positions!" she yelled at the Fire Captain. "I’ll be the one to give chase!"

Before the guy could even accept or object, she shot down into the sewers.

SPLASH!

The woman dove down completely into the smelling sewers and landed on the musty ground, looking around. He wasn’t immediately visible, so she shot forward with wind-enhanced speed.

After moving for about a minute through the winding tunnels, she could see Heavenly Commoner waiting for her up ahead.

As she stopped her motion, a wave of strong wind spread all over the sewers, knocking the dirty green water from the center channel onto the ground a bit before it returned like water coming onto the shore.

"Oh?" the Captain said. "Wasn’t he going to run?"

Klaus didn’t reply and he simply brought out his sword in a bright flash of light as he held it in a combat stance.

She smiled.

"I’ll be the one to bring you in, and you’ll serve time for all of your crimes."

With that, she brought out her own sword.

She closed her eyes for a moment. She had seen his fight during the Tournament of Swords since she’d been in the stands as a spectator so she was quite like a fan. It was pretty weird for her to see him branded as a criminal now, but duty was duty.

The Captain opened her eyes with mana glowing in them.

’I want to test my sword skills against him...’ She thought and they charged at each other simultaneously.

CLANG!

Their blades met in the center with tremendous force with the impact sending cracks spreading across the stone ground beneath them as the collision created a shockwave that rippled through the sewer tunnel, disturbing the stagnant water.

Klaus immediately transitioned, using the locked blades as a pivot point. He planted his foot and swung his body upward in a flip, connecting both legs to her jaw in a brutal double kick.

CRACK!

She flipped through the air from the impact, but steadied herself with a burst of wind before she could crash into the wall. She spat blood into the green water below and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand with her jaw throbbing.

Klaus landed athletically on his feet and brought his sword back up into ready position in a perfect stance.

’Hot...’

She grinned despite the pain with adrenaline pumping through her veins and shot forward again with renewed determination.

CLANG!

Their swords collided once more, this time in a horizontal exchange that sent sparks flying in the dim sewer lighting.

She pushed forward with all her strength, trying to overwhelm him with raw power, but he disengaged smoothly with his blade sliding along hers and countering with an upward slash aimed at her midsection.

CLANG!

She parried it aside at the last second and immediately thrust forward without hesitation, aiming for his shoulder with deadly intent.

Klaus sidestepped with minimal movement as the blade passed within mere inches of his body, close enough that he felt the wind displacement from the strike but he riposted instantly with a diagonal cut that came in fast and sharp, forcing her to jump backward to avoid being hit.

She landed in a crouch and immediately launched forward again, not giving him time to breathe.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

They exchanged a rapid series of strikes with their blades moving so fast they became nothing but silver blurs in the dim sewer lighting.

Each impact sent bright sparks flying like fireflies and echoed loudly through the tunnels with sharp metallic rings that sounded like bells.

The Captain feinted left with her body language selling the fake completely then came in hard with a right-handed diagonal slash that had real killing intent behind it but Klaus read through the feint like it was written in a book and parried smoothly with their blades grinding against each other with a harsh screech as they struggled for dominance in the bind.

The muscles in both their arms strained from the pressure.

He broke the bind suddenly and spun his entire body, bringing his sword around in a wide horizontal arc aimed directly at her neck... a strike that would decapitate if it connected.

CLANG!

She ducked under the lethal cut at the absolute last moment, feeling the blade pass inches above her head, and immediately swept low with her leg, trying to take out his footing while he was mid-spin and vulnerable but Klaus jumped straight up over the sweep and brought his sword down in a powerful overhead chop while still airborne, using gravity to add force to the strike.

CLANG!

She caught it on her raised blade with both hands, and they locked together in another test of strength.

Their faces were only inches apart now as they pushed against each other with everything they had as sweat dripped down both their faces from the exertion.

"Not bad at all," the Captain said through gritted teeth, genuinely impressed despite the situation but Klaus said nothing in response.

They broke apart simultaneously, both taking several careful steps back to catch their breath and reassess the situation.

The Captain gathered wind mana visibly around her entire body, and small cyclones began forming around her arms and legs like living accessories as the air pressure in the confined tunnel increased noticeably, making the water ripple.

"I’ll be going all out now!"

She burst forward with even greater speed than any of her previous attacks with her wind-enhanced movements creating visible afterimages that trailed behind her like ghosts.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Her blade came in from multiple angles in rapid succession... in a high slash, low cut, straight thrust, and even a diagonal chop with each strike backed by concentrated wind force that made the impacts hit significantly harder than they physically should have.

Klaus defended against each one with precise movements but she was definitely pushing him backward now step by step.

Her relentless assault was forcing him to give ground steadily and his boots scraped loudly against the stone walkway as he was driven closer and closer to the curved sewer wall behind him.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

She pressed her advantage mercilessly, not letting up for even a fraction of a second as her strikes came faster and harder with the wind mana amplifying every movement.

Klaus’s back was nearly against the wall now as he was running out of room to retreat and she saw it... a tiny opening... his guard was slightly too high on the left side for just a split second which was a minuscule gap in his otherwise perfect defense.

The Captain committed fully to a powerful thrust aimed directly at his exposed ribs, putting absolutely all her strength and wind mana behind the strike as this was the finishing blow however at the absolute last possible moment, Klaus twisted his entire torso with incredible core strength.

The blade passed by him harmlessly, missing his ribs by a hair’s breadth. He caught her extended sword arm firmly with his free hand, planning to use her own forward momentum against her in a classic counter but she’d anticipated exactly this move.

’Got you...’

The Captain released her grip on the sword with one hand letting it dangle from just her other hand and immediately blasted Klaus with a concentrated wind bullet from her now-free palm at point-blank range with the mana compressed into a devastating projectile.

BOOM!

The wind bullet hit like a battering ram and Klaus was thrown backward violently, his body sliding across the slick wet stone until his back slammed hard against the curved sewer wall with a painful impact that cracked the bricks and the Captain didn’t give him even a single second to recover or catch his breath.

She launched herself high into the air using a powerful burst of wind propulsion from her feet, flipping gracefully mid-air so both feet were pointed straight downward toward her target.

Massive amounts of wind pressure built and compressed beneath her boots like twin pneumatic hammers ready to strike.

She descended like a meteor, like a divine judgment, aiming to crush him completely against the wall and Klaus tried to dodge to the side, but she adjusted her trajectory mid-descent with expert wind control, cutting off his escape route.

CRASH!

Her boots slammed into his chest, pinning him against the wall with the force of a small explosion as stone cracked behind him from the impact.

She pressed her forearm across his throat, using her body weight and continuous wind pressure to keep him completely immobilized against the wall.

"Got you," she said breathlessly with her face inches from his masked one. "You’re a crimi—"

His legs suddenly shot upward with incredible flexibility, wrapping around her extended arm in a leg lock. Before she could process what was happening, Klaus used his core strength to flip her entire body over and down.

She slammed into the stone walkway hard with the impact knocking the wind out of her lungs.

THUD!

The next thing she knew, he was sitting on her back with both of her arms pinned behind her in a submission hold.

She tried to blast him off with her free hand, channeling wind mana but he caught that one too, twisting both arms into an even more secure position that made it impossible for her to move then she felt cold metal around her wrists.

CLICK! CLICK!

"What—" The Captain’s eyes went wide. He’d used her own handcuffs against her... they were the specialized cuffs designed specifically to prevent mana usage by cutting off the wearer’s ability to channel magic through their body.

"Let me go!" she complained, feeling heat rush to her face.

The Heavenly Commoner finally spoke as his hand came down to rub her head almost mockingly while he sat properly on her back with both her arms completely restricted and her magic sealed.

"If you want me to let you go," he said calmly, "then you have to sleep with me."

The Captain’s brain short-circuited for a moment.

"S-Sleep with y-you?" she stuttered with her face turning bright red. "Go fuck yourself!"

Klaus stood up without another word and began walking away down one of the tunnel exits, leaving her handcuffed on the ground and panic rose in the Captain’s chest as she watched him leave.

"W-Wait!" she called out with her voice cracking slightly. The masked man paused and turned back to look at her and she swallowed hard.

"Please..." the Captain said quietly. "Please be gentle with me."