Chapter 20

"Did something happen?" Katarina and I rushed downstairs and asked the receptionist only to find the everyone in a panic.

"Hey! What's going on?" I grabbed the body of a young beast man who had rabbit ears and asked a little bit forceful.

"A swarm of rhino-class monsters appeared in the sky above the city. Currently, the barrier is holding them off but the mayor has announced for everyone to evacuated." I could see fear and terror in the young boys eye's and judged that he wasn't lying and let him go.

"What do we do?" I looked at my companion and entrusted the decision to her.

Rhino-class monsters as their name implies we're monsters shaped like a rhino but with destructive capabilities several times that of an average one.

Alone, they are not that much of a threat but the true terror is when they come in swarms.

Imagine a hundred, three meters large, rhinos start charging at full speed.

Their momentum would be enough to crush everything in their path making them existences capable of wiping out cities.

Their armour was resistant to most low level magic and physical attacks making swarm tactics useless against them.

Well, they aren't a match for me so I wasn't worried about that.

What I wanted to know was...

"Can we reveal our strength here?" Even I would not be able to take them out without using a sliver of my full power and depending on who or what may be after us, we might be in danger.

As a princess, there was a high bounty of Katarina's head. Large enough to make an average person live like a noble for the rest of their lives.

The adventuring session was a chance for a royal or noble to take their strength to the highest level possible and flush out a y assasins aiming for them.

It was an incredibly risky venture but the fact that it was still carried out spoke volumes of it's effectiveness.

Regardless, that doesn't mean we should throw ourselves headfirst into danger like idiots.

"We'll save them." In the instant I had all those thoughts, Katarina replied with zero hesitation or fear in her voice and I nodded and bent down.

Like a rehearsed move, she hopped on and I ran out of the house and looked at the sky to see that dark objects had covered the sky.

No, those weren't just objects but hundreds of rhinos. From what I could see, they were simply hopping up and down on the barrier but just that was enough to cause the town to shake to it's very foundations.

In there streets, people ran, stomping all over anything in their path. Luckily, I couldn't spot anyone being trample but at this rate, it was only a matter of time.

"What's the plan, Katarina?" I yelled as I ran alongside the residents ignoring the weird look they were giving us.

"I need you to go a little bit faster and take me to the mayors house. That should be where they are evacuating to. I need to borrow the speakers there." I nodded and leaped into the air and landed on the side of a two storied building.

Before gravity could take hold of me, I kicked off against the building and like that, I made my wayin the direction the people were fleeing in and in seconds, I could spot a mansion that I was pretty sure was the mayors mansion. 

People flooded the gates and it was everything the guards could do to make sure the gates weren't broken as they guided the flood of people inside.

"Where should I land?" I asked as I performed my final jump and arrived above the mansion.

"Second floor, third room across the hall." Katarina said and I turned to look at her and opened my mouth when she cut me off.

"A ruler would naturally know where her people are residing in."

"That's stretching the definition a little too much!"

I angled myself so that my feet were facing the mansion and unleashed a kick that broke the window with wind pressure and I landed inside the building under the dumbfounded eyes of the guards and residents.

"Intruders! We have intruders!" I heard shouts coming from outside but didn't have time to pay attention to them as I ran down the hall and burst into a door.

"- and we should prepare the circle." A man was holding a plan sized tablet in his hand as he spoke.

As he heard the door open, his eyes widened in shock and surprise before it was replaced by caution as a magic circle appeared in his hands and he aimed it at us.

"Wait! We're not your enemies." Katarina waved her hand and a golden token inscribed with a lizard-like dragon coiled around shone in the room.

I recognized it as the official token of the royal family and apparently, the mayor did too and he dropped his guard but only a bit.

"I'm coming. I'll talk to you later." He said to the other person on the tablet and dropped it on the desk in front of him.

"So, who are you two and why do you have the royal family's token?" I let Katarina down as he talked and she took in a deep breath and closed her eyes.

As she opened them, a mysterious presence unfurled as the dignity of a queen appeared almost making her seem like a different person entirely.

"I'm sure greetings are unnecessary as it it I, Katarina Farses, second princess of the kingdom. I happen to be taking a stroll through here and saw the state that this city is in and decided to lend a hand." Her voice was steady and strong as she spoke and I was sure if she spoke like this every time, I would gladly be her subordinate.

Or maybe not. You never know.

"P-princess." The mayors expression paled as he realized he had aimed an attack at the princess

"I'm sorry for my earlier misconduct. I wasn't aware that the princess had come to see me."

"If I was an intruder, you did well to respond to me. It is not something you should be punished for and instead, I have half a mind to reward you but that must wait until we overcome this crisis." Katarina took a step forward and held out a hand to the mayor.

"For now, please grant me commanding rights over the city."