Chapter 11
Chapter 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: A Strange Person is Following (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
His uniquely masculine features and a magnificent, statue-like musculature.
A popular figure whose rank among Fixers was faster to count from the top.
And in the bounty hunting world, a Double Number Fixer of trust and stability, with a request success rate nearing ninety percent.
In the past, he had made a name for himself as the "Mage Killer," having eliminated countless mages who could turn the tide of battle.
But now, he was just a man in a damp bathrobe with wet hair, abruptly branded a pervert.
Victor forced the corners of his mouth up to endure the throbbing pain in his forehead and thought.
*Just a few more hits from that magic, and my head will crack open like a watermelon. They can cast something like this without an incantation? What an absurd monster.*
He couldn't help but be astonished by the Ghost's unimaginable power.
Even if the current Victor was a sitting duck with no equipment other than a grappling gun borrowed from his assistant, having rushed out in nothing but a bathrobe after a shower.
He was an enhanced human, with nerves, muscles, and a skeletal structure far superior to an ordinary person's.
A superhuman who could shrug off pistol rounds like scratches and lift a car with his bare hands.
Yet, even he felt the pressure from attack magic that was being fired without an incantation.
Considering the potential they would have with a sturdy bodyguard to block the front lines…
It felt like a waste for such a talent to remain unheard of in this underworld.
“I like you very much, Ghost! Is this a demonstration of our skills? Very well, from this moment on… I will come at you with the intent to defeat you with all my might!”
Hup!
Victor’s defined muscles pulsed as they exploded with power.
It was a fearsome momentum, reminiscent of a bull.
Of course, the fact that he was wearing a see-through bathrobe made the Ghost instinctively recoil.
But whether he knew it or not, he simply laughed with delight and charged forward.
*The only saving grace is that the tells for an attack are easy to read! For such high power, the pattern is incredibly simple. A fundamental flaw of mages.*
Swoosh!
Victor lightly dodged the intermittent attacks meant to keep him at bay, learning the Ghost’s patterns.
The moment he tries to close the distance, they quickly retreat while continuing to attack.
That means they aren't a stationary turret type who has to focus all their attention on magic.
Seeing how they anticipate movement and prepare magic along the projected path…
Rather than a target-locking type of magic, it seems to be quite flexible in its application.
The time from the initial tell to the impact is a minimum of 0.3 seconds.
This gap can be intentionally delayed, but it cannot be shortened.
The start and end of their movements display physically impossible speeds.
The Ghost uses magic to assist most of their movements; their actual physical abilities are weak.
*…I see it. Three moves from now, checkmate!*
Victor calculated all the cards he held and all the cards the Ghost had revealed.
And by calculating every possible scenario, he determined the shortest path to victory against the Ghost.
If the Ghost didn't pull out something new that they hadn't shown until now…
Only three more actions were needed before the outcome was decided.
The power to calculate every possible variable the opponent could present and lead it to victory.
This was precisely why Victor was famous as the Mage Killer.
“…”
First move.
The Ghost kicked off the ground, scaling the building's outer wall to the rooftop.
Victor, almost simultaneously, hooked his grappling gun onto the wall and reached the roof.
Second move.
Landing on the roof, the Ghost stood with some kind of device at their back and faced Victor.
Victor, having also reached the rooftop, charged toward the Ghost with enough force to gouge the floor.
Third move.
For some reason, the Ghost made no move at all.
The distance between them closed to a mere seven steps, and just as Victor was certain of his victory…
A sudden, fierce wind swept over them both.
The pale white Ghost shot toward Victor at high speed.
***
Psychokinesis was a useful ability in many ways.
But unfortunately, it wasn't a perfect ability without any flaws.
For one, its control was clumsy, like wearing mittens, making precise work difficult.
It also required considerable concentration, so at most, I could manipulate two or three objects at once.
And the crucial part that was giving me the most trouble right now…
…was that moving an object with psychokinesis wasn't very fast.
I could somewhat mitigate that weakness by using my power to grab and throw an object.
But doing so was like throwing a baseball I’d been holding; the object would fly completely out of my range of control.
This made it quite difficult to do anything purely with psychokinesis against that ridiculous pervert who could dodge my psychic flicks with his reaction speed.
The speed of psychokinesis itself was sluggish, and if I gave up control for speed…
There was no way that pervert would fail to dodge such a simple movement.
*That's why I needed it. A way to gain speed while maintaining psychokinetic control!*
Whooosh!
The wind blasted out as if pushing my small back.
It was a gale of about 40 kilometers per hour, strong enough to knock one over if caught off guard.
The source of the wind was none other than the building's ventilation system.
This was a densely packed area, where buildings were crammed together so tightly it could be nicknamed a jungle gym.
The ventilation systems, essential for tall buildings, were inevitably placed on the rooftops to save space.
And the larger and more complex the building…
It was only natural that the wind speed of the ventilation system would increase as well.
I used my psychokinesis to twist the internal structure of the ventilation unit, directing the wind toward myself and the blonde pervert.
The result was this gale that was now battering both of us.
Of course, this wind alone wouldn't make that blonde pervert bat an eyelash.
Even I could stand my ground without psychokinesis if I braced myself.
It was unlikely to have any meaningful effect on that monster.
*But this is more than affected enough!*
As the blonde pervert charged at me with incredible speed, I retreated straight back.
I threw off the white cloth I was wearing and tossed it forward.
The lightweight cloth flies at a speed similar to the wind's.
Meaning, the blonde pervert would naturally be engulfed by the rapidly flying white cloth!
*He’s fast, as expected. He reacted in that short instant.*
But was he truly a formidable opponent?
In that brief moment, the man seemed to realize I wasn't in the flying white cloth and showed signs of changing his direction.
It was a level of instantaneous judgment that was hard to believe was mere reaction speed.
However, since I already had faith in his abilities, I was able to counter the pervert’s absurd reaction time.
*But the cloth is still within my psychokinesis range!*
The cloth, riding the wind at high speed, traced a physically impossible trajectory.
The addition of psychokinesis to the wind had completely altered its movement.
Perhaps he hadn't expected this.
The cloth successfully covered the man's face, and I used my psychokinesis to wrap it around him tightly and intricately so it couldn't be easily removed.
With this, it was almost over.
I took out the last item I had prepared from my pocket and scattered it into the air without hesitation.
*How on earth did that pervert know my location? No matter how I think about it, only two possibilities come to mind.*
What I scattered into the air was a wad of bills.
The money I had obtained through my thieving today.
Enough to live on for at least a couple of days.
If he had hidden a tracker on me through some method, it had to be on either the cloth or the bills.
But since I didn't know which one it was… I decided to boldly give up all of today's earnings.
If I had to choose between a few measly bucks and a safe, comfortable life without risk…
The latter was unconditionally worth several, even tens of times more, wasn't it?
*Take this, Rain of a Thousand Petals!*
The shredded bills flew at incredible speed, carried by the wind.
When I added high-speed rotation with my psychokinesis…
The pieces of paper closed in on the blonde pervert with the ferocity of blades.
“Uoooooh!”
Did the blonde pervert, his face covered by the cloth, also sense that something was amiss?
He, who had been trying to tear off the blinding cloth, immediately went into a defensive stance, guarding his vitals.
Of course, since I had no intention of attacking his vitals, it was merely a welcome posture that left his other targets wide open.
Shred!
Dozens of paper fragments grazed the pervert's body.
And before he could regain his posture, just a half-beat faster…
I solidified my psychokinesis into a ball and pushed hard against his chest.
Was even a monster of a man like him unable to resist being pushed while off-balance?
The blonde pervert was sent tumbling helplessly off the rooftop.
It was a lightning-fast series of combination attacks that all happened in a matter of seconds.
*It worked! Now, to escape!*
This was the best I could do right now.
I endured the dizziness that rose from pushing my concentration to its limits and hastily fled the scene before anyone could see me.
Just in case, I was wearing a goblin mask I’d bought sometime ago over my face.
But without the cloth to cover my body, I felt incredibly anxious, as if I were naked.
Fortunately, perhaps the bills really were the tracking device.
Or maybe the pervert who fell off the roof no longer had the luxury to give chase.
After I sent the man falling, the presence of a pursuer completely vanished.
Just to be safe, I circled the area for about two hours.
Right before the sun began to rise, exhausted, I staggered back to my base.
*Thieving… I should take a break for a while…*
It was a truly tearfully arduous day, one that felt like it would give me a trauma about perverts.
***
Thud!
Victor, having fallen from the rooftop, landed perfectly on a pile of trash bags in a dumpster.
He hurriedly tore off the cloth wrapped around his face and scrambled to his feet.
*Lost five seconds. I can still catch up. The Ghost’s escape patterns and preferred directions are in my head. If I move now, I should be able to spot them…!*
Maintaining extreme focus, Victor made the best possible judgment he could in the moment.
Perhaps now that the cloth, which could be called clothing, was gone…
This might be the only chance to find out the Ghost's true identity.
Victor leaped out of the dumpster.
Suddenly, he noticed that his body felt somewhat bare.
Especially the dangling between his legs, as if nothing was holding it in place…
“So that last, flimsy attack was aimed at my clothes!”
Victor gave up on his bathrobe, which had shrunk too much to be called clothing.
He placed his hands on his hips and quickly scanned his surroundings.
But no matter where he looked, he couldn't see anything that could serve as clothing.
The Ghost's torn cloth could perhaps cover his groin.
But if he was caught wandering around like this, there was a high chance he would be socially executed.
A Double Number Fixer running around naked on rooftops in the middle of the night?
No matter how you spun it, it was headline news material.
“Hahahaha! If I wander around like this, I’ll be caught by the police before I find any ghost! I lose! What an absurd fellow that Ghost is!”
Victor gracefully admitted his own defeat.
If he had been wearing his usual carbon fiber suit and had his Arc Glaive, this wouldn't have happened.
But choosing to go out in a bathrobe was his own decision, made to not waste time.
The Ghost and Victor had fought with all their might in the given circumstances.
It was just that the Ghost had come up with a more creative idea than he had.
There was no room for excuses, nor did he want to make any.
The midnight chase was, in every sense, the Ghost's complete victory.
He savored the refreshing feeling of defeat he hadn't felt in a long time.
“But if my eyes didn't deceive me, what was under the Ghost's cloth was…”
However, as Victor closed his eyes and slowly replayed the fight with the Ghost, something that had been bothering him came to mind.
It was when the Ghost had thrown off the cloth.
The scene beyond the cloth, visible for a fleeting moment.
If his memory served him right, it was unmistakably the figure of a child.
“Don't tell me it's… the city's darkness, again.”
Victor's expression turned serious.
He slowly raised his head to the dark night sky, lost in deep thought.