继续 is 21 strokes when printed, but less when foreigners in China like me write them when we handwrite them quickly.
继 is 5 strokes handwritten (纟,䒑,丨,八,乚 each written in one stroke) and 续 is 4 (纟,十over乛,氵,人 each as one stroke), so that's 9 altogether.
Mainland Chinese who learn handwriting at school have a way of writing each character with only one or two strokes.