In the Blink of an Eye (3)

The pattern of the ensuing clash was, for the most part, overwhelmingly one-sided.

The sole exceptions were those moments when the enemy pressed down on me with raw physical force.

Because the opposing mage possessed a body unlike mine, once contact was made, he would naturally gain the upper hand in raw strength.

I slipped free of every bullet I had fired, restored my waist with a simple displacement, and charged straight at the enemy mage, clutching the **Baramil** tight.

Hyiah! I swung my arms with a shout, carving out a wide arc—only for my wrist to be seized.

“Oh?”

“I’m pushing the shock value to its limit… this angle feels just right—!”

I tilted my head in surprise. He’d expected me to flee like some helpless girl? Did he think trying it once would work?

Well, it was a perfectly rational choice, all things considered.

Crack! My captured wrist twisted at an angle it should never have been able to withstand.

I was still a human being. When pain became unbearable, I screamed. “Kyaaah—!”

Lucky bastard. Almost no one was close enough to hear my cry.

The sensation of bone grinding away reminded me I was still alive.

Hah. That was exactly why I had to plunge headfirst into the storm of uncertainty.

Witches were flexible by nature, but I wasn’t twisted enough to enjoy the pain.

It was enough that the constant alerts from my pain center felt… exhilarating.

Imagining the future in which I survived this danger gave me a thrill.

Even with my wrist shattered, I kept my mind racing, trying to find a way out of the situation.

‘In a way… I could almost compare it to extreme sports.’

Of course, it was infinitely more superior. I was nothing like a skydiver or wing shooter flinging myself into a magic storm.

My grip slipped, and the **Baramil** clattered to the floor with an ugly metallic ring.

At the same time, the mage tightened his grip, trying to crush my wrist.

It seemed he’d decided that since I was screaming, he needed to focus harder and finish me off.

If I had charged in blindly and been captured like that, it would have been a perfectly valid counter.

But.

“Really? You thought that would work?”

I forced a mocking smile through the agony. At the same time, my shadow beast **Shattenmädchen** poured out around my trapped wrist in a swirling tide of magic traces.

“Th-this—?!”

Did he have no learning ability at all?

‘No, maybe it was the best outcome.’

No matter what, the **Baramil** was useless against the breakthrough I had planned. I activated only displacement this time, not Blink.

“You’re still flustered? Think about where our hands are right now?”

The fact that it wasn’t “my” hand but “our” hand was simple enough: part of the space I had displaced had also been taken by the enemy mage’s hand.

It was only natural. Displacement or Blink were both functions that could clearly separate me from everything else.

If I could adjust the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠very density of the shadows, it might be possible, but in the middle of combat it was too difficult. I had no reason to bother.

I closed in on the enemy mage even closer than before, wearing a nasty grin.

Logically, keeping my distance should have been the smarter play.

After all, if I pulled back a little, displaced the part of my body, and snapped it back to normal, my wrist would heal perfectly while his would be cleanly severed.

That was exactly what allowing **Shattenmädchen**’s shadows to approach me meant.

No matter when or where, any part of my body could be cut away. I could have sworn there were almost no mages who could overcome that instinctive dread of magical amputation.

But there was no need to sever his wrist.

Even if regeneration took time, I had no reason to spray blood everywhere with the strong Luminal reaction.

Calling **Shattenmädchen** to lick up every drop would have been the same. It could swallow the surface blood, but once absorbed, it was stuck.

Of course, if the only goal was to kill the human in front of me without leaving traces, I would have simply slipped away the moment I could.

Would the mage know that the reason I had spared his life was my firm resolve to come back without unnecessary killing?

Of course the Korean mage was stunned that his hand had vanished.

Since he had briefly experienced both my displacement and Blink, if he had any combat sense at all, he would realize it hadn’t disappeared—it had simply shifted for a moment.

But knowing something with his head and feeling it with his body were two different things.

I used the brief disorientation to spin on my heel and drive my heel straight into his side.

“—?!”

He hadn’t expected me to attack with my body at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all.

The face full of shock twisted in pain.

It wasn’t the strongest kick, but with heels that weren’t too high, it still hurt like hell.

“If I can make you hurt, you can make me hurt back, right?”

“Kyaa… you…!”

“That’s the only word you know? And you really thought you’d make it out alive like this?”

I hadn’t planned on ending him with one stomp. What followed was an attack using **Shattenmädchen**.

Shadow beasts could stretch out from anywhere around me. This time they erupted explosively from my heels.

I had only used them in amorphous shadow form before, but now they had taken on proper hand shapes for the first time in a while.

The shadow beasts that carried a portion of my soul acted autonomously and immediately began binding my enemy.

“Damn…! Like this—?!”

“You didn’t know? I’ve been using this method more often lately.”

Testing the new ability was enough. I’d finish him the old way.

I retrieved the **Baramil** from the floor and restored the displaced enemy and my own hand to their original positions.

It was simple to free my trapped wrist.

Order **Shattenmädchen** to grab the enemy mage’s wrist in reverse, then crush it.

“Aaaah—!”

The pressure that had been crushing my wrist loosened. It was easy to yank it free.

I glanced down at my ruined right hand.

Hmm… I’d basically smashed it to pieces. My nerves were destroyed, and I couldn’t move it at all.

I activated regeneration. The mangled shape of my right hand was already reforming in real time.

A sudden hunger hit me. It was the fake hunger caused by the regeneration magic draining my stamina.

It wasn’t urgent. I could return, eat rations with Pavel, and be fine.

While **Shattenmädchen** ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slowly tightened around the Korean mage, I focused on restoring the underground space where the fight had taken place.

Magic, magic, magic again. The only flaw was the floor plate the **Baramil** had accidentally scratched; that could be covered by manipulating the memories of those involved.

While I fought the mage, I also managed to drag the lieutenant who had barely crawled toward the exit in front of me.

“Hic… hiiik…!”

“You really thought I wouldn’t notice you sneaking away so carefully?”

I appeared before the enemy mage and the lieutenant with a Blink. To anyone outside magic, it was just like teleportation.

The lieutenant’s strange adventure that had taken him all the way to the elevator in the deepest underground had ended here.

I wove some of **Shattenmädchen**’s shadows into a makeshift leash, then slung it around the lieutenant’s neck. He would have no choice but to follow me with choking sounds.

Whether the stars on his collar meant anything or not, he was nothing more than a worthless dog in front of me.

A bound soldier, a powerless mage bound by **Shattenmädchen**, and finally a witch.

The three of us slowly boarded the elevator and returned to our original location.

As we rose, the mage tried desperately to talk.

“You’re not going to kill me? You’re not going to make that foolish choice of sparing me after all I’ve endured, are you?”

Foolish choice? Killing him would have been the more foolish thing.

I answered with silence. Whenever the mage tried to speak, I increased the pressure from **Shattenmädchen**.

“Now I understand! You were secretly infiltrating here, and you spared me because you didn’t want to kill anyone!”

“Hah! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’ll tell you—it won’t do any good! The moment I leave, the higher-ups will be contacted!”

“You’ll be unable to leave this country and will be hunted forever! Because of that complacency of yours!”

He was so noisy. The **Charm** on the mage wasn’t very effective, but given his depleted stamina, his resistance was only slightly better than a normal human’s.

I whispered to the mage, meeting his eyes.

“Shut up.”

The babbling mouth slowly closed. For a moment I used **Shattenmädchen** to feed the mage a piece of cultured slime.

“Wh-what… What did you do…?!”

Even after I had used **Charm** to silence him, he still resisted with the magical resistance of a mage.

In such cases, the straight way was to push harder with sheer repetition.

He might have a slight headache, but since I had split the **Charm**, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was actually more effective than before.

“I warned you. Shut your mouth.”

“My body… keeps overheating…!”

Of course. The impure substance had entered his body, and his immune system was raising his temperature to purge it.

That immune reaction would fade soon enough. Soon the host would fully assimilate with the slime.

While I kept breaking down his resistance with repeated **Charm**, the mage suddenly said something.

“Ugh… memories… Do you really… if our eyes meet, I’m finished…?”

Impressive insight. In truth, **Charm** only required our eyes to meet.

During the time I had just settled in London, I had struggled to understand the incomplete mechanism of **Charm** that flowed through the blood.

What I discovered was that while **Charm** activated normally on my side even if I wore sunglasses, the enemy could simply close their eyes or turn away to avoid it.

It seemed obvious. Otherwise I couldn’t have cast **Charm** on someone inside a concrete bunker.

In that case, the advantage of being able to block any defense would have been canceled out by the drawback of activating at random, regardless of my will.

In that sense, the mage’s method of squeezing his eyes shut and turning away from me was quite sophisticated.

On the surface it looked foolish, but in reality it was the most efficient counter.

Of course, that meant I couldn’t dodge my other offensive magic…

“Haha! I already know you can’t kill me! If I just keep holding on like this, that’s enough!”

—Right now I couldn’t kill the mage in front of me.

It was a weakness I hadn’t foreseen.

But after thinking about it for a moment, I realized I could still break it.

I let out a small laugh and decided to shatter his complacency.

I summoned **Shattenmädchen** and pushed its head into the pocket dimension inside my mouth.

And in the pitch-black darkness offered by the shadows, two glowing spheres floated.

The mage’s two eyeballs.

What? Eyes closed or not? If I displaced only the eyeballs into the pocket dimension and met his gaze, **Charm** would activate normally.

The two eyeballs floating in empty space without expression were hard to read, but I could sense a flicker of fear.

Of course. He should be afraid.

I stared into his eyes and slowly began the activation phrase for the final **Charm** I would use on him.