The Golden Bat and the Archer’s Gambit

Under the heavy downpour, Li Yue was waiting beneath the shelter of a bus stop.

An arrow, arcing through the torrential rain, struck the bus stop sign beside her with a sharp clang.

“….Is she not afraid of hitting me?”

Li Yue knew well that this was the signal from Alezno, indicating that she had run into some trouble.

‘It seems it’s my turn after all.’

She tucked away her phone, having just sent a message, and then donned her motorcycle helmet once more.

Mounting the bike, she ignited the engine.

With a roar, the motorcycle surged forward, tearing through the curtain of rain and hurtling towards the gate of the unfinished building site.

With a resounding crash, the rusty metal gate swung open, confirming it had not been locked; after all, the kidnappers were trespassers themselves, and having broken the original lock, they hadn’t bothered to add a new one for vehicle access.

The patrolling man in the suit was utterly unprepared for the sight before him.

A heavy downpour lashed down from the sky, and the abandoned building was sufficiently secluded; heaven knew why anyone would dare to force their way into their temporary hideout.

[Blonde? A foreigner?]

“Hey, who are you?!”

No sooner had he voiced his question than Li Yue’s raised front wheel slammed into his chest, sending him flying through the air to land unconscious in the muddy ground.

Including the one she had just sent flying, there were three men on patrol; with Li Yue causing such a commotion, the other two naturally rushed over.

“Hey! Who are you!!”

Facing the exact same question again, Li Yue shook her head and dismounted her motorcycle.

“That question truly lacks originality,” she declared. “Why don’t you both come at me?”

As she spoke, she drew a golden baseball bat from behind her back.

The two men in suits had no idea of Li Yue’s background, but her height and build hardly suggested she was capable of a fight.

Their hesitation did not mean Li Yue would hold back; this ‘fighting queen’ was known for her ruthless efficiency, and without a word, she swung her bat directly at one of them, aiming for his head.

The man, clutching a collapsible baton, was so intimidated by Li Yue’s aura that he instinctively adopted a defensive stance; despite her being just a woman, he found himself unable to even contemplate retaliation, enduring a barrage of painful blows from her.

The other man in the suit hastily drew his own collapsible baton and rushed forward to assist, but Li Yue’s baseball bat was aimed precisely at the hand gripping his weapon, and as she brought it down, she simultaneously gave it a sharp thrust.

“Waaah!!!”

His hand, caught between two opposing forces, became the victim, and the man immediately clutched it, letting out a pained wail.

Even without the Goddess’s blessing, Li Yue’s accumulated combat experience from the other world was more than enough to handle the current fight; sometimes, her subconscious reactions were born from crawling back from the brink of death.

To her opponents, Li Yue appeared as a reaper returned from the battlefield.

“Hiss, call for backup! This is insane!”

Clutching his wrist, the man pressed his walkie-talkie; they knew full well they couldn’t defeat Li Yue, so they prepared to call for reinforcements.

Li Yue did not stop him, for this was precisely her objective.

She even waited until he had finished calling for help before moving to assist him into unconsciousness.

Thugs from the basement soon burst out, flashlights cutting through the gloom, grumbling about being forced to rush into the heavy rain in such dreadful weather.

Glancing at the three men already incapacitated, the leader glared at Li Yue and demanded:

“Which faction do you belong to? How much did he pay you? Do you understand Chinese?”

A dialogue box above his head even read:

[Where did this monster come from? Is she a helper hired by Mo Changhong?]

[Could she be some foreign assassin?]

Evidently, he seemed to have misunderstood something.

“Huh?”

Li Yue quirked her lips into a somewhat amused smile.

“My apologies,” she stated, “but no matter how much money you offer, I would never betray my employer. That’s a professional courtesy.”

Playing along with their assumption, she decided to cultivate the image of an enigmatic master.

“Ha, is this all the people you have? I’m afraid that might not be quite enough.”

Unbeknownst to them, the thugs had begun to encircle her; knowing that two fists were no match for four hands, and being cornered from behind would be troublesome, Li Yue chose to charge forward.

[Can’t let her get close, I need to shoot…]

The bat, flinging drops of rainwater, whistled through the air as it swung towards the man who had just spoken; even as he reached into his clothes to retrieve something, Li Yue’s bat had already struck his jaw askew, rendering him motionless on the spot.

Before she became the Hero in another world, Li Yue typically refrained from lethal force during fights.

However, seeing this man reaching for what appeared to be a dangerous weapon, Li Yue seemed to have triggered some primal instinct.

Had that blow landed squarely, it truly would have been fatal.

Upon seeing their leader instantly incapacitated, the other kidnappers all drew handguns from their pockets—real firearms, every one of them.

Several dark muzzles pointed at Li Yue, and triggers were pulled without hesitation; an ordinary person’s reaction speed could never match a bullet’s, and even without the Goddess’s protection, Li Yue could not evade them.

Bang, bang, bang—

A volley of gunshots drowned out the sound of the downpour; however, beyond five meters, a handgun’s accuracy was largely a matter of fate, allowing Li Yue to slide into a nearby rebar-reinforced cover.

“Heh, ‘Sunset Red’ marksmanship (TL Note: A humorous Chinese slang term referring to poor shooting skills, often associated with elderly people who have trouble seeing clearly.).”

Yet, she felt no panic, even finding the presence of mind to jest.

The sensation of dancing on the edge of life and death inexplicably exhilarated her; though devoid of the Goddess’s blessing, Li Yue felt the rush of adrenaline as her own form of protection.

“Get out here!”

“Mo Changhong will regret sending you!”

The deep night, coupled with the heavy rain, provided Li Yue with cover, yet she had to expose herself to their view, drawing attention to create an opportunity for Alezno to rescue the captive.

‘In the end, am I really risking my life for the Demon Lord?’

****

The rain continued to fall, showing no signs of abating.

Alezno observed the battle below from upstairs, her gaze falling upon the man in the suit she had incapacitated earlier; he likely had a handgun in his possession as well.

The presence of handguns was an overwhelming disadvantage, a dimensional reduction attack, for Moon, who had lost the Goddess’s blessing.

She was clearly in a stalemate; Alezno raised her bow, calculating the firing angle, but even if she acted now, she likely wouldn’t be able to take down all the gunmen.

Li Yue could hide, but she was clearly trying to prevent the kidnappers from retreating into the basement, thus she kept emerging to draw their attention.

‘I need to hurry.’

Alezno gritted her teeth and turned to descend the stairs.

The basement door was ajar.

Alezno peered closer into the room, where two men remained on guard; in front of them stood a camera, and opposite the camera was the bound Demon Lord.

It appeared they were filming the next ransom video.

Yet, the Demon Lord seemed remarkably calm.

Perhaps because she wasn’t crying or struggling, her hands were merely bound behind her back, and her mouth remained uncovered.

However…

There were injuries on her face, indicating violence had been used to enhance the ransom effect.

Alezno couldn’t fully grasp the situation, but with only two opponents, she was confident she could deal with them before they could react.

She gently pushed open the partially closed basement door.

With two arrows clutched in her hand, she drew her bow.

She instinctively aimed for their heads, then shifted her target to their thighs.

Two consecutive arrows elicited two cries of pain; Alezno then rushed in, and before the men could continue screaming, she swung her bow at their heads, forcefully knocking them unconscious.

“Ha—”

Alezno found her hands trembling from nerves, realizing she was, after all, different from her past self.

In response, Mo Linyu merely stated, “Ranger, you arrived even faster than I expected?”

‘Huh? What’s with this ‘already expected’ attitude?’

Alezno took a deep breath as she untied the knots behind Mo Linyu’s back.

“Moon is in danger; we need to hurry…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Mo Linyu suddenly pushed off with her feet.

Since the ropes were still tied, she lunged forward, chair and all, even bumping into Alezno’s shoulder.

“Ouch… huh?”

Behind Alezno, the kidnapper she thought she had knocked out was, at some point, half-crouching and scrambling to his feet, even drawing a gun.

The Demon Lord’s self-sacrificing headbutt stopped it all.