Dark Moon
A grenade came flying and slammed into my barrier, detonating on impact.
Shrapnel hammered the barrier with savage force. It didn't break. My barrier held firm.
"He's not our level! We have to report this to the boss…!"
They spun around and tried to run.
I had no intention of letting them go. I waved a hand in their direction. Wind rose.
Wind Cutter
Blades of wind cleanly severed the arms and legs of the fleeing men.
"AAAAAARGH!"
Their blood fouled the alley. I did it on purpose.
These ones are an example.
I had to kill them as brutally as possible. Only then would the rest of the rabble think twice before crawling up to me.
I raised my palm.
Whoosh.
Invisible wind began to whirl above my hand.
"P-please, spare us…!"
"…"
I released the wind toward the men who could no longer run with their limbs cut off. It shredded their bodies like a blender. In an instant they were reduced to minced meat. I looked away from the corpses and walked toward the gang's hideout. Blood spattered across the ground clung stickily to the soles of my shoes. Not a pleasant feeling.
A building came into view twenty meters ahead. No doubt about it—the Harbers Gang's base. I wasn't stupid enough to walk straight in.
They must have heard the screams when their men died, so they know I'm here and have almost certainly prepared a trap. Honestly, I'm not worried… but there's always a one-in-a-million chance, so I won't let my guard down.
Detection
I cast a detection spell. A mana formula spread outward with me at its center. Information from everything the formula touched flowed back to me.
No traps in the alley, at least…
I looked at the building ahead.
Twenty-three people. They're surrounding the entrance like a noose. All of them armed. The one at the back—is that the boss, Harbers?
The ideal move would be to stay at this distance and use an area spell—blow the hideout and everyone in it to pieces in one shot.
Can't do that. That wouldn't leave any fear behind.
Besides, there was something I needed to check.
I walked calmly toward their base.
I opened the entrance with telekinesis and stepped inside. Hostile eyes stabbed into me from every direction. The gang members' faces were savage. Some of them bared their teeth and snarled like animals.
Trying to hide their fear by whipping themselves into a rage? Pathetic.
I shoved my hands into my pockets as if inviting them to attack.
Five layers of barrier, stacked. Even if they had a bomb powerful enough to level this entire hideout, it wouldn't scratch me.
"What's a mage doing in a place like this?"
A Black man with a scar at the corner of his mouth spoke from the very back. His head was completely shaved, and a red tattoo was inked across his scalp.
"What's a mage doing here?"
"Don't play dumb. You started this."
"…We've been keeping our heads down. We killed some bastard recently—turned out he was a government worker, of all things. So we've been lying low ever since."
"Yuyu Chicken."
"Huh?"
"I'm the owner."
"…"
"You know why you're going to die now."
I raised my hand openly. A magic circle began to form in the air.
"W-wait! Hold on a second! There's been some kind of misunderstanding! We never planned to kill you! We just wanted the chicken recipe!"
"And what were you going to do with the recipe? Open a chicken shop?"
"We were going to sell it! An old friend of mine said that recipe would definitely make money! Said he'd buy it himself!"
"Who's this friend?"
"John Clark! The guy who runs the fish-and-chips place across from your shop!"
"…"
My face twisted without mercy. I'd managed to hold back when he spread that rumor about us using dirty oil to sabotage the competition. But now he'd used a gang to try to kidnap me and steal the recipe? If I hadn't had power, would it have stopped at a kidnapping?
The glowing magic circle faded, and Harbers let out a breath of relief.
"Right. Let's talk this out. Misunderstandings can be cleared up, yeah? We admit we started it. If we'd known you were this kind of guy, we never would have touched you. This is all because of that bastard John Clark and his weird request. We should be the ones taking him apart."
"Didn't you just call John Clark an old friend of yours?"
"Which means he's not a friend anymore. Looks like you killed some of our boys in the alley… that was just a pileup of misunderstandings, so we'll let it slide. We'll handle John Clark ourselves. Let's end this here."
"And if I refuse?"
"…You'd better not look down on us too much, spell-slinger."
He pulled up his mana. His muscles swelled, and his eyes turned a blazing red.
A Berserker.
One of the selectable classes in the original game.
The core of a Berserker was Explosive Transformation. By burning mana and life force at the same time, they pushed their physical abilities to the extreme. The life force could be recovered through rest and recovery.
Snap.
I flicked my fingers.
Three magic circles formed in the air at once. The face of the man who'd been holding his ground twisted for an instant.
"We're members of the Jupiter Alliance. Even if you kill every last one of us, that won't be the end. Kill us, and the Jupiter Alliance will come after you."
"I'll negotiate with the Jupiter Alliance separately. I doubt the Alliance has any reason to obsess over vermin like you."
"We're an alliance! We shared drinks and swore an oath of loyalty! The Jupiter Alliance keeps its word!"
"Loyalty from a pack of criminals? You just threw John Clark away like a worn-out shoe."
"That's different!"
"It's not. I'm done listening to your tiresome bullshit. Die."
I activated the spells I'd prepared. Thanks to all his talking, I'd bought myself plenty of casting time.
"What are you waiting for?! Kill him!!"
Gravity
Electric Field
Wind Cutter
The gang members staggered under the suddenly intensified gravity. Blue current raced across the floor and temporarily paralyzed their bodies. Dozens of wind blades flew not at them, but at Harbers. My plan was to kill the most troublesome one first, then clean up the rest at my leisure.
Where I miscalculated was that Harbers was more dangerous than I'd expected.
He tanked Wind Cutter with his bare body. For a mere 2-Class… so this is a Berserker's physical ability.
It was my first time actually fighting a Berserker, and that was where the error came from.
"KRAAAAAAAAH!"
Clank-clank-clank!
His right arm transformed into a blade. A fairly sophisticated mechanical prosthetic. Thick, blood-red sword aura clung to the edge. He charged and swung. One layer of my barrier shattered.
I still have four barriers left.
While he hammered at the barrier, I calmly calculated my formulas.
"GYAAAAAAAH!"
"B-Boss! Help us!"
"This crazy bitch…! Showing up out of nowhere…!"
Screams and gunfire erupted from the rear.
"What the hell is that?!"
Harbers's face twisted into something hideous. Something was tearing through the space behind me. Curiosity and wariness hit me at the same time. Taking my eyes off the enemy in front of me was a bad idea, but whatever was behind me might be even stronger than Harbers. Trusting my barrier, I turned my head.
It was a ninja.
A ninja in a silver cyber-suit. The suit clung to her skin, putting her sensual figure on full display. Her chest and hips were large enough to call watermelons to mind.
She wore a fox mask, and her dark brown hair was tied in a ponytail.
She moved rapidly between the gang members, swinging a ninjato. They couldn't track her properly—but I could see her clearly. The problem was that my eyes kept drifting to those swaying, full breasts.
That's not what matters right now. Focus…
I focused on her chest.
Couldn't help it. That was a man's instinct. And that was almost certainly her intention as well.
"AAAAAARGH!"
The female ninja slaughtered the gang members without mercy as she ran this way. Her work was so clean that even after butchering twenty-two of them, not a single drop of blood had splattered on her body.
I used the spell I'd prepared on her.
Spike
Massive thorns erupted from the floor and skewered the female ninja's body.
Pop!
With a strangely anticlimactic explosion, her body burst like a water balloon. It turned into water and splattered onto the floor.
"AAAAAARGH! What the hell are you?!"
I turned back around. The female ninja was standing there with her ninjato in hand. She was leaning her upper body slightly forward, which made those enormous breasts hang downward and snag my gaze all over again. I forced my eyes off her and looked at Harbers. He was trembling, his right shoulder severed.
My judgment was quick.
The female ninja's target wasn't me—it was Harbers. More precisely, the destruction of the Harbers Gang. I didn't know why. Personal grudge, maybe, or a contract. My money was on the latter.
I stretched out my hand.
Not toward the female ninja—toward Harbers.
Lightning Grab
A 3-Class spell. Blue current flared from the hand clamped around his skull, lighting up the space. The electricity boiled his brain and evaporated his blood. Smoke rose in thin curls from the body collapsed on the floor.
"I was dealing with this one first."
"…"
"If you want, you can take the credit for killing him. I don't care."
The female ninja eased out of the stance that looked ready to spring at any moment. She straightened her back. The shape of her full breasts and the line of her hips were laid bare without a shred of restraint. It was a figure sensual enough to make the one looking more embarrassed than the one being looked at.
"Domo. Mr. Yujin Meier. I'm Invisible Blade."
"Domo. Miss Invisible Blade. Yujin Meier. …You know me?"
"Hehehe. You're the rising star of this business, aren't you? I've heard the stories. You're the first person in this city to accept my greeting. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll withdraw quietly."
"Wait. The power you're using—"
Before I could finish, the female ninja bolted for the window. Crash! She vanished, putting that large rear of hers on full display as she went.