The Shackled Man
Rewinding time just a little.
To the moment the awakened Hwasinjo first began to whip up its firestorm.
Hera and Riel were in Room 50 of the Full Moon Auction.
"Woooow… That is seriously cool."
Hera was pressed flat against the glass, staring at the Hwasinjo. Both hands were cupped around her eyes like binoculars. She looked as wonderstruck as a child on her first trip to the zoo.
Behind her, Riel spoke calmly.
"My Lady. Should we not withdraw?"
Hera answered without looking away.
"Riel, Riel. No, no. Still that little sense of fun? When a show this entertaining is just getting started, ducking out right away would be… hmm?"
She trailed off with a nasal hum.
Hera's gaze locked onto two black silhouettes leaping from Room 78.
Their faces were completely hidden behind tightly wrapped masks, but guessing who they were was hardly difficult.
"Oh my god — little brother…!"
Build, aura, movement — it was unmistakably Leon. Even with every inch of his face covered, there was no way she would fail to recognize her own brother.
And the woman beside him with that spectacular figure was, of course, Aria — his girl. Hera had already confirmed the two of them leaving together earlier.
"What else has he got planned this time?"
Hera's eyes glittered as she watched Leon and Aria tear straight through the wall of flame without hesitation.
Unexpected events. Incidents. Variables. Amusement.
"Ahaha."
She was having far too much fun. Pleasure flooded through her. It made her dizzy.
Her newly changed little brother really did live in the most entertaining way. She liked it.
After laughing for a good while, Hera spoke offhandedly to Riel.
"Riel. Forty-four and thirty-four. You know the ones. Finish them and get out. Even you wouldn't handle walking into that mess."
"Understood."
CRASH!
The moment the words left her mouth, Hera drew her Sword Gang and blew the entire window out in one stroke.
She dropped through the opening and began streaming toward the center, pouring mana out in thick, continuous waves. The roaring heat was shredded and split apart by her aura.
"…"
Riel moved as well. Her form rose like a butterfly taking flight.
Tap— tap— ta-tap—!
She raced down the sheer cavern wall as if it were level ground. The earth spirits under her command were assisting her every step.
In an instant Riel scaled the wall and arrived at the nearest room — Room 44.
The door stood slightly ajar. Shouts carried from the corridor beyond.
"Why the hell won't it work?! Can you not see that monster out there?!"
"S-sir, as I've already explained, the ritual formula is unstable. If we attempt a teleport under these conditions—"
"Shut up and hurry the hell up!"
A grossly obese man was roaring at a Full Moon staffer.
Sweat poured off him in sheets. From his clothes and manner of speech, he was clearly a noble.
Clutched tightly in one of his hands was a little girl.
Her clothes were already disheveled. He hadn't even been able to wait — the moment the bid was won he had taken delivery of the child and done god-knows-what. And even in this life-or-death moment, he still clung to her like a treasure.
"…"
Riel's face twisted. Without a word she drew her blade and strode forward with measured steps.
"I've been using this underground hole for years, and this is how you treat me?!"
"If you would just wait a moment, our mages will—"
The staffer's voice, bent low in a servile bow, cut off mid-sentence.
His lowered gaze caught something that should not have been there.
The man's head.
—Thud.
A head heavy with fat hit the floor. It was so dense it neither bounced nor rolled.
"…!"
The staffer's eyes flew wide enough to tear.
Shhk!
The blade punched ruthlessly into those widened eyes.
Riel kicked both corpses — noble and staffer — out of the way, then peeled her palm from the girl's eyes and said,
"Wait here for a moment. Stay exactly where you are. I'll come back for you shortly."
"…"
The girl looked at Riel's face and gave a dazed little nod.
Riel dragged the two bodies back into the room and hurled them out through the window.
Fwoooooooosh—!
A violent blast of fire-wind incinerated the corpses in an instant, melting even the bone fragments.
They would be recorded as casualties of the Hwasinjo's rampage.
Tap—!
Bodies disposed of, Riel set out for Room 34.
There was still more that needed cleaning up.
Back to the present.
Leon charged the Shackled Man, thinking,
As fast as possible.
The vast underground cavern was collapsing second by second under the Hwasinjo. Time was desperately short. He had to strike hard and get out.
"Grrk!"
A drop of drool spilled from the Shackled Man's mouth.
Before it could hit the ground, blade and hand-edge crossed.
Clang!
Leon's refined sword aura was stopped cold by the Shackled Man's wrist.
Rip—!
The Shackled Man's fingertips raked across Leon's mask.
Fast. And he had blocked sword aura with bare flesh? His body was absurdly hard. Something about him was not human.
If he had been wrapping himself in mana the way martial artists did, that would be one thing — but he wasn't.
The Shackled Man was wielding an energy Leon had never seen before.
Bang! Clang! Crrrk!
Leon traded several more exchanges. The heavy iron chains fixed to the Shackled Man's feet scraped the ground, throwing sparks.
His movements were pure savagery — like fighting a single ferocious beast.
And yet the fighting style clearly had foundations. Before he lost his reason, he must have been a formidable warrior.
Then—
Aria, her bundle already filled, called to Leon from behind.
"Master! Shall I help?"
Leon kicked the Shackled Man away and answered shortly.
"No. I've got him. Go. Now."
Aria needed to reach the main warehouse. Enemies were approaching from that direction as well, and there were things she had to secure from inside.
"Yes."
She understood, so she didn't linger. She sprinted for the main warehouse entrance the Shackled Man had been guarding.
"KRAAAAH!"
Seeing Aria draw near the entrance, the Shackled Man went berserk and lunged for her.
Aria raised a barrier without expression. The Shackled Man tried to smash it with his arms, but Leon of course beat him back and tore him away.
Clunk!
In that opening Aria slipped cleanly into the main warehouse.
"You're not going anywhere."
Leon grinned.
"…"
The Shackled Man glared at him with murder in his eyes.
Viscous killing intent poured out. Having already lost Aria, he seemed to abandon her and refocus entirely on Leon.
The two of them slammed into each other again without pause.
Crack!
At some point Leon had drawn a dagger into his free hand and was fighting with both. The close-quarters struggle had grown so difficult that the second blade came out of pure necessity.
Sword aura hammered into the Shackled Man's forearm again and again until the flesh was scorched red.
Yet there was no sign of a wound forming, and no flicker of pain on his face.
Aside from the few places that could never be tempered, the blade simply would not go in.
What an utterly ridiculous body.
Leon was aiming as carefully as he could for vital points — eyes, throat, armpits — but the man's defense and evasion were rock-solid as well.
And I can't just pour out a massive sword aura either.
Of course, if he slammed a full-power strike home, the result might change.
But right beside them were clusters of small children. Soft, fragile children who could die instantly from even a minor shockwave.
So Leon was still doing everything he could to keep his distance and keep his energy from spraying outward.
What to do…
Then a simple, clean solution rose in his mind.
Just become so fast he can't block it.
Thud!
Leon drove his shoulder into the man. Mana gathered in an instant and detonated in a shockwave, hurling the Shackled Man far back.
But how?
Leon remembered.
The sword he had used when he beat Prua half to death without mercy.
He would need at least that level of speed if he wanted to punch through the Shackled Man's defense and bury a blade in a vital point.
"KR-RAAAAAAH!"
The Shackled Man's frenzied battle aura crashed over him. The unfamiliar energy he radiated made Leon's spirit tremble.
His heart pounded. Every fine hair stood on end. This was a dense, concentrated killing intent that no mere sparring match could ever produce.
But Leon preferred it this way. A laugh slipped out of him.
He drew his own killing intent. He poured the will to kill into it and focused every scrap of it on the Shackled Man.
"…Grrk!"
Even the Shackled Man seemed to struggle under that pressure; he groaned and his body faltered for a beat.
Hoooooo…
The world Leon saw went black. His vision sank into pitch darkness until only the enemy's form remained. All of his concentration, riding the killing intent, poured onto that single target.
And then — the energy the Shackled Man wielded seemed to become faintly visible. A violet smoke shimmered and wavered around his body.
In the next instant the violet energy surged, and the Shackled Man's arm carved a trajectory through the air.
Clang!
Leon deflected the attack with his dagger and, in the same motion, thrust for the man's throat with his sword — a stab that mirrored Goren's blade work.
The tip cutting through the air was stopped by the back of the Shackled Man's hand. Leon ignored it and drove a kick into the man's knee.
—CRACK!
Leg met leg, and the sound was like stone shattering.
Huh?
Leon's eyes twitched. Something just now had been different. His foot had gone out with unnatural speed, and the force behind it had been far stronger.
"…!"
The Shackled Man's knee bent the wrong way. Damage had finally been done to that impossibly solid body.
With his lower half paralyzed, his balance collapsed. A massive opening appeared.
And then—
"!"
Suddenly, Leon saw a point.
But given his stance and angle, a sword thrust was impossible. On pure instinct he reversed his grip on the dagger and drove it into the crook of the Shackled Man's arm.
Crunch!
The blade sank into flesh. There was real impact — the same speed and power as the kick a moment ago.
The Shackled Man swung his remaining arm in a desperate arc. But a posture that thoroughly ruined posed no threat to Leon at all.
Whoosh!
Filthy fingers carved empty air.
Point. Point. Point…
Points began to bloom everywhere.
Leon burst into wild laughter and moved every limb he had.
Kicking with his feet, slashing with the sword, stabbing with the dagger, smashing with the pommel, driving with his elbows.
He used every motion available to him and poured damage into the man.
CRRRRRRRRRRRRRACK—!!!
The Shackled Man's entire body burst, tore, and shattered. Blood painted the air like fireworks.
And then—
…in a corner of his mind.
—Crack!
Leon heard a rupturing sound.
The sound of a crack forming in a wall.