Throwing Down the Gauntlet
Gulp.
One after another came the wet sounds of throats working. In the end, the assassins swallowed those ominous-looking pills.
The result:
"Hah! Hah!"
"Aaaargh!"
Their presence—once as secretive and keen as a hidden blade—twisted into something rough and savage, like enraged beasts. Exactly like the assassins he had seen in the mountains.
"Kakaka! Damn, this stuff hits hard!"
Unlike the others, the leader who had taken the dark-crimson pill suffered the change far more violently. Worse still, it did not stop at a shift in aura.
Whoooosh! Clang! Clang!
The vortex of his core, sucking in mana, roared even fiercer. A body that had been little more than a living corpse regenerated at an unnatural speed. The stilettos Jun had driven deep into him slid free with ease.
And that was not all. The whites of his eyes and the veins threading them blackened. Looking at him no longer felt like looking at a human being.
Is this what a Demonic Human looks like? The ones I'd only ever heard about in stories?
Kate ground her teeth.
"Jun. You still have the recording orb, right?"
When he nodded, she asked him to hand it over at once.
"Weren't we supposed to leave no evidence?"
"That was only for anything related to the assassination. This is different."
Her will was so absolute that Jun did not argue further. He entrusted the recording orb to a nearby priest, then drew Firmus and walked alone onto the battlefield.
The others offered to help. He shook his head and refused.
Strictly speaking, the electricity he unleashed was not a super-ability but a natural phenomenon. Unlike electricity shaped by ordinary powers, it could not distinguish friend from foe at the user's will. Using Realize might have made it possible—but his gut told him there would be no time for that.
Jun, should I help at least? I could take your electricity just fine.
No, For. Stay on support. You know why without me saying it.
Hiiing… I never should've turned into a fairy.
There were far too many eyes around for Fortuna to shift into human form. Plenty of people already eyed her greedily as a fairy who wielded holy arts and luck-related power. If word got out that she could become human as well, someone would absolutely try to snatch her.
Besides—
My cores are hanging by a thread.
Internal and external reinforcement. Electricity discharge. Magic. Radar. Thought Psychic. Realize. Running every last one of them at the limit had left Jun's cores with nothing to spare. If Fortuna switched to human mode now, he would tip straight into overheat.
Fine. I'll do it your way for now. But the second you're in real danger, I'm coming out. Don't try to stop me then.
That's exactly what I want. If I'm in trouble, don't hold back—just come.
He had absolutely no intention of dying in someone else's fight. Even if life got a little more annoying afterward, Jun wanted to live.
"Keheheh. Go on! That one's my prey—don't touch him."
Shashashak!
The assassins swept past Jun on either side. Moments later, the noise of combat rose behind him.
He did not turn to help his allies. His earlier work had already cut the assassins' numbers down hard, and even those still on their feet were in rough shape. They had powered up with the pills, true—but he trusted that Kate and the others could handle them.
"Keheheh. Good of you to come, brat. Time I paid you back for earlier."
"You really don't have to."
"Oh, I do. I'm the type who can't stand being in debt. I only feel right once I've paid it back several times over."
"Only when it's revenge, though."
"Keheheh. Bingo."
The leader assassin—Fist—no, the Muscle Man—sidled closer with a greasy grin. His swaggering gait belonged to a street thug, but the body wrapped in corded muscle was pure menace, and the presence rolling off him was utterly feral.
Aura like this… he's right on the edge of Boss's level.
The rank he projected now was Yellow. His technique probably lagged a step behind, but from their earlier clash, this was not a man who won on technique. Calling him Yellow was fair enough.
This is going to be a headache.
Against him alone, Jun might have managed somehow. The problem was the two additional Green-rank powerhouses still standing. And of course their positions lined up perfectly—midline and rear. Earlier they had had no one to hold Jun back and so could not shine. Now they had a rock-solid meat shield, and they would run wild.
Jun let out a long breath and checked the other two.
The whip-wielding leader—Snake—was already lurking behind Muscle Man, hunting for an opening.
The bow-wielding leader—Shadow—had vanished as suddenly as he had first appeared.
Nothing for it. Do what I can.
Whirrr! Crack! Crackle! Click.
He spun all three cores, poured out electricity, and set his blade true.
The odds of victory were vanishingly thin. Even so, he had not the slightest intention of flinching back in fear.
Backing down after I've given everything I've got is still plenty early enough.
"Nice! Real nice! I like you a whole lot!"
Muscle Man dropped into a crouch. Every fiber in his body drew taut. That chaotic power compressed into a single point.
Danger.
"So die!"
BOOM!
A colossal detonation of air, and Muscle Man's form vanished.
Jun twisted his upper body without a heartbeat of delay.
WHOOOOM!!!
A fist the size of a battering ram smashed through the space where his head had been an instant before. The sheer force set the atmosphere itself shuddering.
"Khahaha! You dodged it! No way—you're the real deal!"
Jun swung the electrified Firmus. This one was dangerous. There was no room for conversation.
Without Radar, that last hit would have killed me.
Slash!
"Ignoring me, huh?! Come on, open that mouth! This is fun!"
Even wounded, Muscle Man laughed as he threw another punch. The wounds would heal soon enough—no need to care. Did he not feel pain at all?
Jun clicked his tongue, recovered Firmus, and drew a pair of daggers instead. Then he glued himself to the man's body and forced a point-blank brawl.
Physical ability favored the other side. Reaction speed favored his. To exploit that edge, he could not afford to open any distance.
Bonus: I can use this bastard as a shield against Snake and Shadow too.
"This is zero fun! One hit from you, one hit from me—let's trade!"
Absurd. Maybe he could tank a hit, but one clean blow on Jun's side meant a one-way ticket out of this life. The proposal was not even worth answering. Once again, Jun answered with steel.
Thud!
A dagger sank deep into the muscle fibers. Instantly Jun detonated the pseudo-core inside the weapon.
Martial Art — Weapon Explosion
BOOM!
"Gyaaaah!"
The dagger exploded. Shrapnel tore through Muscle Man's fibers and the flesh beneath. This time even he could not laugh it off—he screamed and staggered back.
Jun moved to press the advantage at once.
But—
Whip! Whistle!
The moment distance opened, a lashing whip and a single arrow forced him off the chase.
"Tch!"
He clicked his tongue in frustration even as Radar observation and predictive thought let him slip both attacks with ease. Snake and Shadow, however, seemed determined to make up for every idle second. Their assault never let up.
Snake's whip carved bizarre arcs, hemming in Jun's movement. Shadow's arrows fixed obsessively on his vital points. Neither was truly lethal on its own—but both were a relentless nuisance.
"Uryaaa!"
While Jun's feet were tangled, Muscle Man—wounds already closed—rejoined the fight. At least his skull was not pure muscle; this time he kept a careful distance instead of charging in.
Clang! Thud!
"Ghk—!"
Under the three assassins' continuous combined assault, Jun finally took a clean hit. Pain lanced through him hard enough that his knees buckled on their own.
"Is it over?"
"No. The hit felt light. The bastard floated his body on purpose right before impact. And before that, some kind of barrier caught my fist once."
"Looked like his stance broke mid-move. That right?"
"Yeah. There was a rock under his foot, of all things. Same kind of crap kept happening—was it just me?"
"No. I had the same thing."
"Ditto."
"Abnormal luck. I heard a fairy of fortune stays at his side—must be her doing. More useful than I expected. We'll take her with us."
"Don't tell me you're planning to keep her all to yourself."
"I'll say this now: my organization took the heaviest losses from this job."
They had landed a single successful strike, and already the assassins were crowing as if the fight were won. Fortuna's power must have looked delicious indeed—the air between them edged toward drawn weapons.
"You fucking bastards…"
Jun clenched his teeth and forced himself upright. His wounds still throbbed, but he could not stand by and watch them treat Fortuna like a prize to be claimed.
"He's up. Finish him first, then we talk."
"Hmph. Don't you dare snatch him the second you see an opening."
"If you try, I'll put an arrow through you."
At the sight of him, the assassins broke off their bickering and began to close in, slow and deliberate.
Jun! I'm coming out. Don't stop me!
…Just a little longer.
You idiot! Don't be stubborn for nothing!
Fortuna was right. This was no time for pride. And yet Jun could not simply obey. How was he supposed to step back with these bastards standing right in front of him, treating his woman like war loot?
Somehow—somehow—he would land one solid hit.
With that resolve, he drew Firmus.
In that instant—
"Jun! You've got this!"
Harry's voice rang out, cheering him on. Right after, a gentle shaft of light descended from the sky and settled over him.
…For?
It's the Saint's Miracle! Ah—no time for that. Every scrap of luck I've saved up—all in! Let's gooo~!
The fortune the Angel of Luck had carefully hoarded poured into the miracle about to unfold, amplifying it further. The beam the young saint had called down swelled into a radiance brilliant enough to be seen even from distant Lemumni.
The Saint's Miracle, magnified by the full measure of Fortune's stored luck, bathes the battlefield in light visible even from Lemumni.
Within that radiance, Jun understood the miracle that had come to him. He raised the Stigma—now bearing a new power—before his chest and spoke the word quietly.
<|eos|>