The moment it happened, Leo's first reaction was to roll toward Rosh while pulling the machine gun out of his inventory.
In the next instant, he crouched low and snapped his head around to look behind him—but Rosh's red figure was even faster.
She swung her staff. The sphere that had appeared earlier instantly ignited into blazing flames at the tip of her staff, forcing the attacker to retreat. Her small body then accelerated abruptly in an almost unnatural way, and she drove her palm straight into the attacker's abdomen.
The man who attacked Leo was a tall, powerfully built brute. Yet under that single palm strike, he was sent flying. Blood sprayed from his mouth midair before he crashed heavily to the ground.
However, they weren't facing just one enemy.
The moment Rosh made her move, a sharp longsword slashed toward her neck. Rosh immediately arched her upper body backward, her staff rotating into her left hand at the same time. Using the momentum, she smashed a white orb straight into the second attacker.
Lightning exploded across the man's body, and he was also sent flying.
This blow was far heavier than the earlier palm strike. The man slammed into the wall hard enough to crack it in two places, and the longsword flew out of his grasp.
Rosh didn't pursue immediately. Instead, she took up a combat stance, staying alert and scanning her surroundings.
She could still sense danger.
Narrowing her eyes as the two battered men struggled to get back up, she shouted coldly,
"Who are you people? Why did you attack Big Brother Leo?"
The brute who had been sent flying wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. When he had been knocked away earlier, he had bitten his tongue, and speaking now sent waves of pain through him.
"Heh… what else would we be doing? Borrowing a bit of money, of course. But that one over there—pretty quick reactions."
He shook out his arm. He hadn't expected such a small girl to have such terrifying speed, reflexes, and strength, and he had been caught completely off guard.
Still, he believed that as long as he stayed cautious, things would be fine.
Leo also finally saw clearly what had nearly killed him.
It was a massive iron greatsword. The blade alone was over fifteen centimeters wide, nearly one and a half meters long—and yet the brute wielded it as casually as if it were a dagger.
"So that thing almost took my head off just now?"
Leo stared at the greatsword with lingering fear, silently thanking his luck that Rosh was with him. Otherwise, he would almost certainly be dead.
Then again, if Rosh hadn't brought him into a back alley like this, he would never have come here in the first place.
He knew his limits. If an outsider like him died here, he'd just be another corpse. Maybe Kelly would investigate afterward and avenge him—but after that, no one would really care.
With that thought, his gaze turned ice-cold.
"Hey, Rosh. If I kill them here, will there be any legal trouble?"
His finger was already resting on the trigger, but he asked anyway, just to be safe.
"No. Adventurers getting into disputes and fighting to the death is common here. As long as you're not massacring civilians or killing someone right in front of guards, the duchy won't interfere no matter how brutal it gets."
Rosh kept her eyes locked on the brute, her grip on her staff tightening.
This was exactly what she hated.
The lowest levels of this world weren't much different from the demon world—people who didn't value their own lives roaming everywhere. That was why she had given up specializing in pure elemental magic and instead learned Chaser Orbs and battle mage combat techniques.
There was no time here to slowly research magic.
"That's right, kid! As long as no one finds out!"
The brute swung his greatsword and charged at Leo again. At the same time, Rosh rushed forward, staff raised to meet him.
"Not a chance!"
Their weapons collided. The brute was forced back two steps, but the grin on his face made Rosh immediately realize something was wrong.
Damn it!
She turned her head just in time to see the swordsman she had knocked away earlier suddenly rush toward Leo, his blade thrusting straight at Leo's heart from behind.
She wanted to rush back to help—but in the next instant, the brute's massive sword pressed down toward her. If she pulled away, that blade would come crashing down on her neck.
She had no choice.
She was too short.
At the same moment, alarms blared in Leo's mind. Intense killing intent surged from behind him. Almost instinctively, he began to turn—and just before completing the motion, he pulled the trigger toward the direction the killing intent came from.
The next instant, deafening gunfire echoed through the alley.
Amid the continuous roar, there was also a sharp, metallic crack.
The moment Leo fired, the swordsman's blade struck the machine gun in his hands, instantly draining its durability and causing it to jam and break. However, the bullets fired just before that still struck the ambushing swordsman.
The swordsman stared in disbelief at the two bloody holes in his chest, trying to keep attacking—but in the next moment, the weapon in Leo's hands had already switched to a shotgun.
"Die!"
With Leo's roar, the ambusher was blasted backward, flying through the air in a storm of buckshot and shredded flesh before slamming into the ground, completely motionless.
"What?!"
The brute, who had never seen such a weapon before, widened his eyes in shock. In the next instant, scorching heat surged along his greatsword.
"Where are you looking?!"
Rosh's sharp shout rang out as her staff erupted in roaring flames, forcing the brute to retreat instinctively.
As he backed away, taking in his fallen companion and Rosh's furious glare, the brute made a split-second decision and bolted toward a side alley.
"Don't even think about escaping!"
Rosh immediately gave chase. She didn't plan to kill him, but capturing him and handing him over to the guards was non-negotiable.
Leo didn't follow.
He had something far more important to confirm.
Because the moment he blasted the swordsman away, he heard a clear, familiar sound from the Seven Days to Die system.
At the same time, a bloodstained backpack appeared out of thin air along with the fallen swordsman and dropped straight in front of him.
That's right.
He dropped a loot bag.