389 Valour Skills

"So… These guys are the leaders?" I asked, pointing at the one dead body, the one unconscious man and one more unconscious guy who was missing an arm and two legs.

"According to our sources, that is correct, Mistress."

I'm guessing the 'sources' she was talking about were the cult members who were being interrogated before.

"Sooo… Who are they?"

"Just some nobles who dreamt of something out of their reach, Mistress."

Ok…

Well… I went ahead to use [Screened] but it's not like it gave me much information since I don't know how significant they are, especially when two were only Baron houses with the last one being a Viscount.

Their stats weren't even that great to begin with with all three having an average of tens in their stats across the board.

The only thing similar between the three of them was that they all share the title of 'Demon Cultist' amongst their list of titles.

There's no question that they were definitely a cult after that...

But seriously… Were they really betting on using the princess to summon a demon and take over the kingdom that way? What's so special about the princess that they are sure the demon would not turn on them instead?

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be getting an answer from these three anytime soon since they were not really in a position to actually talk… But then again, we've yet to clear the area yet anyway since there's still cultists running about.

How the heck did they even convince people to join this cult? Promises of money? Power? Guess I'll have to find out later.

The tunnel had led us to the Viscount's manor on the outskirts of the city.

That was already quite a big deal since this practically meant that the city's walls were compromised from the very beginning. If the capital were to face an invading force and they find out about this tunnel… That would be pretty bad.

Leaving those three noblemen aside with a pair of maids to guard them, the rest of us moved on to clear the rest of the manor.

We had to move fast since everyone else must have heard the commotion and might be trying to escape from here right now. And if we let one escape, they could just start up another cult if they were determined enough.

That's why it's best to get rid of all of them now, especially when every one of them was gathered here right now.

I followed behind the maids as they went to clear the rooms one by one, the main force moving towards the main hall of the manor where we were expecting most of the cultists to have escaped to.

Sure enough, the main doors of the manor were left wide open and one of them was even running towards it at this very moment.

One of our maids was quick to respond by throwing a knife that impaled the running man in the back of his knee, causing him to tumble onto the ground while screaming in pain.

"Search the perimeter, let no one escape. Show no mercy," The maid acting as the group leader commanded, prompting everyone to scatter.

I figured that since I was of no help indoors, I might be able to help them search for these cultists outdoors with my flying so I joined them in rushing out of the manor.

Already, I could see a few of those cultists dispersing in several directions from the main entrance, obviously thinking that it would be harder for us to catch them if they were to split up.

I chose a group of three that chose to stick together and flew after them, my sword drawn and held at the ready.

The sound of my wings flapping behind them drew their attention and they turned their heads to gawk at me.

The leader must have realised that they could not outrun me and turned around with his brethren to fight me. He was using a longsword while the two followers beside him were wielding an arming sword each.

[Name: Irfan

Title: Sword Flash, Mercenary Hunter, Swordmaster Reject

Race: Mahun

Gender: Male

Current Mood: Determined

Stats:

90 Strength

110 Dexterity

80 Endurance

15 Magic

Skills:

Noble Etiquette (Tier 1), Leadership (Tier 2), Tracking (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 2), Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 2), Shield Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1), Spear Proficiency (Tier 1))]

Hmm… Impressive but I doubt he would be a challenge for me.

I landed in front of them and intentionally flared my wings to look more imposing, "You three… Lay down your weapons and surrender if you don't wish to die."

The leader raised his sword to point the tip at me, "You'll never take us alive, Royal scum!"

Err… What? I'm not even part of the Royal Family though?

I didn't get to retort that since the three of them charged at me at that moment, spreading themselves out in a fan to flank me from both sides while the leader charged me from the front.

I hefted my blade and got ready to intercept him, expecting this to be an easy fight.

"[Sword Flash]!" Irfan roared, his figure suddenly disappearing from view.

Eh?

I felt my entire body go stiff and I had the mental image of a sword being held against my throat, right before a metallic clang resounded from beside me.

"Mistress, please forgive my delay," Katsuki apologised, having just deflected the sword that was a split second away from reaching my neck.

Well… Not really, since my instinct prompted me to raise my own sword in defence so even if Katsuki had not deflected the sword, I would have defended myself anyway.

But that brought the question of what was that 'Sword Flash' he was shouting when he was running up to me earlier? Was that a Unique Skill? But his status screen definitely did not show anything about a Unique Skill.

So what the hell was that?

The Irfan guy backed off and glared at my maid, "Tch… This is not good… She has some kind of Valour Skill that can match my speed too…"

"We'll take care of the other one! You can fight against the maid!"

"Got it, let's go!"

Err… I really just want everyone to stop for a while… What the heck is a Valour Skill? Is this something new that I don't know about?

Ah, whoops, those two are charging towards me now. Getting distracted in a fight is a big no, no. I can figure out what was going on with that sword flash or whatever later.

"Katsuki, can you handle their leader?" I requested.

"Understood, Mistress."

She dashed forward with her daggers while I focused on the two cultists charging towards me.

I was a little bit more cautious now in case these two also do something unexpected like the first guy did.

But it seemed like my caution was for naught as they simply ran up to me normally and tried to slash at me with their swords.

Thus, I had no problems dealing with these two in particular, especially when their stats were only around the twenties each.

What's more… They don't even have a tier one in Martial Skills… It's obvious that they aren't experienced fighters and were more like labourers…

The one on the left tried to attack me with a clumsy overhead slash from his sword, so I easily sidestepped him and smashed him in the back of the head with the flat of my sword.

Just that was already enough to knock him out and send him sprawling onto the ground.

The other cultist rushed up to me in an attempt to stab me to which I spun my sword in a circle and parried it, redirecting his sword to the side.

I then switched my grip on my sword and smashed my pommel to the top of his head, letting him join his companion in blissful unconsciousness.

Huh… That was easy…

I called up a Shadow Summon to watch over these two in case they were just pretending to be weak so that I could watch Katsuki's fight instead.

Those two were still at it but it was clear that Katsuki had the advantage here.

The only odd thing was that the guy was yelling out something that seemed to have an effect, even though I know for a fact that he did not have any Magic Skills… I'm guessing this was related to the Valour Skill he was mentioning earlier?

"[Fourfold Multi Slash]!"

He brought his sword down and Katsuki swung out her daggers quickly, deflecting his physical blade away from her with a loud 'clang'.

Her daggers then lashed out and four more 'clangs' could be heard as she struck against invisible blades in the air.

That was… Not magic I think?

I tried to look at his status again.

[Name: Irfan

Title: Sword Flash, Mercenary Hunter, Swordmaster Reject

Race: Mahun

Gender: Male

Current Mood: Determined

Stats:

90 Strength

110 Dexterity

80 Endurance

15 Magic

Skills:

Valour Skills:

[Sword Flash], [Threefold Multi Slash], [Fourfold Multi Slash], [Body Strengthening]]

Ok, that wasn't there before…

So I pretty much have confirmation that this [Screened] boon only shows me what I am aware of… Which means there could be things I don't know about that aren't being displayed and will only show themselves after I'm aware of it…

Interesting…

As for that guy… Even with those skills, it was not enough for him to beat Katsuki and she simply cut off his hands the moment he overextended his sword swing.

The guy didn't even get to scream before Katsuki knocked him out with a blow to the head.

Well, leaving him aside… I need to find out more about these Valour Skills… Who can I ask?