Chapter 154: Dragon's Eye, Human Heart (18)
Chapter 154: Dragon's Eye, Human Heart (18)
Several agile figures stood atop the narrow corridor.
My enemies and I were positioned at opposite ends of the straight path. There were about five or six of them in sight, but there was no telling who might burst out from the doors lining the hallway.
The stairs were further down.
Glancing to the side, I spotted a floor map. The words 'Department Head's Office' on the second-floor diagram stood out. In other words, I had to climb those stairs to suppress the Newspaper Club.
Of course, since this was the headquarters of an intelligence organization, I couldn't trust the map implicitly. I merely inferred that the general layout would be similar.
In the first place, I wasn't the one who was cornered; they were.
It was crystal clear who would be in more trouble if the Newspaper Club's true identity were revealed. They had every motivation to take me down here and now.
In that case, I just had to accept the fight. The corners of my mouth curled upward.
"…Come at me."
At my renewed provocation, the shadows scattered.
I took my first step forward at the exact same moment.
The first to charge was the club member who had already taken an axe to the shoulder. Having pursued me from the front entrance, he apparently hadn't had enough, as he drew another dagger from his coat.
Naturally, I was faster.
Thwack! My axe buried itself into the man’s other shoulder. The gruesome sensation of crushing cartilage traveled up my arm.
Along with a spray of blood, the man’s scream erupted as he lunged at me.
"Aaaaaagh!"
Leaving the collapsing man behind, I took another step. Two more figures were rushing toward me.
The whistling sound of air being sliced through the corridor was sharp.
Swish! Two daggers thrown through the air curved at an eerie angle. It was textbook-perfect knife throwing, but their intention was obvious.
They planned to bury a blade in me while I was busy parrying the daggers.
Of course, I didn't need to play along. My arm was already raised high from pulling back the axe.
I gritted my teeth, and the muscles in my arm contracted. The moment the axe broke the sound barrier was the very next instant.
It moved at a speed better described as a flash of light.
The momentum of the hand axe, backed by mana-reinforced strength pushed to its limit, was terrifying. A pure white trajectory was carved in a straight line instantly.
Clang! One of the flying daggers was deflected with a pathetic metallic ring. There was still one dagger left, but it didn't matter.
I kicked off the ground and began to sprint.
Time, which had felt sluggish, suddenly snapped back into full speed.
Crunch. The sound of the axe blade shattering a forearm bone echoed. Perhaps the club member hadn't expected me to discard my weapon in this situation, as his eyes were wide with shock.
But that was only the beginning.
By the time I twisted my body to dodge the remaining dagger, the hand axe had altered its trajectory of its own accord. The axe, flying once more, struck another club member.
He was a man who had just been preparing to leap.
Having just left the ground, his body couldn't withstand the hand axe's momentum. His upper body collapsed sideways.
The sound of crushing flesh and muscle followed.
By then, I was already within arm's reach of the lead club member. He was merely staring blankly down at his arm where the axe blade had been embedded.
Naturally, he couldn't react to me.
My body slammed directly into him.
Thud! Two solid bodies collided.
"Gah!"
At the impact of my shoulder strike, a stifled gasp escaped the man's mouth.
As he went down, I snatched the axe from the shoulder of the man falling through the air.
Then, I buried the blade into the remaining shoulder of the man who had hit the floor.
Crunch. The sound rang in my ears.
"Aaaaaagh!"
That made two. My eyes scanned the remaining enemies like a predator.
Two of the survivors were leaping toward the walls. The last one seemed to be muttering an incantation. As always, mages were troublesome opponents.
The swords of the two women who had kicked off the walls lunged toward me.
Daggers again, but their tips were glistening. It was obvious they were coated in poison.
My hand wrenched the space itself.
The blades of the two women, bent at a bizarre trajectory, grazed past me.
It was close. If I had been even a moment slower, I wouldn't have escaped unscathed.
Taking another step, my hand axe crushed the shoulders of the two women one by one with merciless speed.
"Kyaaaah!"
"Ngh…!"
One of them must have been well-trained, as she bit her lip and suppressed her scream. Not that it mattered; she ended up sprawled on the floor just the same.
By then, the mage's chanting was nearing its end. I didn't have many options.
I threw the hand axe again.
The light struck home, leaving a sharp sonic boom in its wake. It was inevitable that a scream would burst from the mage's mouth.
It was then that someone ambushed my flank as I kicked off the ground again.
Crash! I heard the sound of wood splintering and looked to the side to see a door smashed open. A white blade flashed from within the shadows that emerged.
I couldn't block this surprise attack.
Thuck! A dagger buried itself into my arm, and my body staggered in the opposite direction. It was a relief that I had at least managed to raise my arm to block at the last second.
The man didn't even seem to think about pulling the dagger out. He immediately withdrew his hand and tried to pull something else from his coat.
Another hidden weapon, no doubt. I wasn't about to let him.
My remaining arm grabbed the man's arm. A look of panic flickered in his eyes.
If he had investigated me, he probably had a rough idea of what move would come next.
I pulled his arm with all my might and threw him over my shoulder. Like a bolt of lightning, the man's body was slammed into the corridor floor.
Boom! The shockwave shook the wooden floorboards.
"Cough, ack…!"
A pathetic groan escaped the man's mouth as he failed to withstand the impact. It was understandable.
Because the corridor was so narrow, his lower body had hit the wall and bent at a right angle. I heard a sickening crack, so his spine must have been compromised.
That's going to hurt, I thought, giving the twitching body a final glance.
I raised my hand, and the hand axe smacked back into my palm. My eyes indifferently scanned the path ahead.
With a series of creaks, the doors lined up along the corridor were opening.
Two rooms left before the stairs, and two people stepped out.
I let out a short, dry laugh and asked, "Are you the last of them?"
Of course, no answer came.
A woman who was relatively close to me rushed forward. She held a dagger in each hand.
She was a tricky opponent. I took a step toward her and swung my axe downward.
Clang! My axe blade wedged itself between her crossed daggers. Her arms trembled, but a hand axe was fundamentally a weapon swung with one arm, while her two daggers were not.
When the woman gritted her teeth and shoved the axe aside, an opening naturally appeared in my stance. She immediately tried to dive into my guard.
However, the fact she had momentarily forgotten was that since the hand axe is a one-handed weapon, I still had one arm free.
As I had prepared, the hand I had been reaching toward my waist flashed like a beam of light.
It didn't even make a sound.
The flat of the drawn blade struck the woman's side. Though she managed to block it with her arm, she couldn't help but stagger from the unexpected blow.
That was her fatal mistake.
My hand axe bit into her arm, and another body was sent sprawling to the floor.
Concerned she might try to stand up again, I stepped on her remaining wrist and crushed it.
"Ugh, nghhhhh…."
A suppressed groan escaped her lips along with the sickening sound of bones grinding. This was enough.
My eyes turned toward the final opponent.
As if he had been waiting, he threw the weapon he had been preparing.
It was a wire.
Judging by the weight attached to the end, it seemed it could be used for striking as well as restraint in an emergency.
It was indeed a bizarre weapon, fitting for the Imperial Intelligence Agency.
The weight curved along its trajectory like a living snake. I immediately began to run.
And just before the weight and I collided—
I leaned my upper body back and slid across the floorboards. I reached out and grabbed the wire.
Crackle. I felt the precursor of an electric current. I didn't know why, but I had already sensed it coming.
I immediately twisted my body and yanked the wire as if performing a throw.
Tug. I felt something being pulled toward me at my fingertips. Simultaneously, the crackling current surged through the muscles of my arm.
Electrocution. My muscles contracted involuntarily, and the current piercing into my brain created blue sparks.
However, there was an advantage.
Because my muscles had contracted forcefully, the strength pulling the wire was amplified. Like a fish caught on a hook, the man's body flew through the air.
Thud! His body hit the floorboards and bounced once. The current cut out around then.
I pulled again with renewed strength, and the man's body was dragged toward me. As the distance closed second by second, the man's eyes filled with terror.
Because, by then, the hand axe was already back in my hand.
The moment he reached me was the end.
Splatter! Blood sprayed through the air.
"Agh, ngh… Aaaaaagh!"
As another scream erupted as expected, I had to cover one ear with my free hand. Not that it did much to block the wailing that pierced through to my other ear.
I spoke in a pathetic tone. "Stop screaming already, will you? You're intelligence agents. How can you be so bad at enduring pain?"
"Heh, heh… you crazy bastard…."
Despite my chiding, the man only chuckled.
He gave me a fierce smile and warned, "You… you dare touch the Imperial Intelligence Agency? You think you'll get away with this?"
I was silent for a moment. My eyes flickered to the side before looking back down at the man.
A smirk played on my lips.
"Then why did you touch me first?"
And before the man could open his mouth to argue, my hand axe buried itself into his shoulder once more.
The man's body writhed in agony, and a piercing scream erupted from his mouth again.
He was still too loud. Unable to take it anymore, I kicked him hard in the head.
Thwack! The man's scream was cut short.
He had been knocked unconscious.
And that was the end of it.
The Newspaper Club had been wiped out. Only one person remained.
My eyes scanned past the stairs. Though faint, heat was leaking out. It was certain that someone was there.
As if I had received an invitation, I turned my steps as if possessed.
The 'Queen of the Ball' was waiting.