Masquerade Ball (6)

The stone walls inside the black market groaned and shuddered. My senses, sharpened by Gigan, screamed a warning.

Something is coming.

The host seemed to pick up on the wrongness in the air as well. He set down the microphone and, with stiff, urgent gestures, signaled for the guards.

"Miss."

I shot up from the leather ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chair and turned to the Chairwoman, bracing for whatever was about to happen. She nodded at my word, then lowered the black filter that had been draped like an ornament over the eyeholes of her fox mask, covering her eyes.

She'd prepared that as a precaution — so that if she ever had to use Yongan in an unexpected situation, no one else would notice. I just never thought we'd actually need it.

Fuck. What about me, though?

Yongan pierced through every kind of ability, and because it mixed so many of them together, it was hard to pin the Chairwoman down as any one person. I was a different story.

Swordsman.

In this world, I was the only person who picked up a sword and swung it.

"Damn it."

I stripped off my dress shirt in a hurry, tore it, and wrapped the fabric around my hands. For now, I'd disguise myself as a nature-type ability user — the most common kind — by mimicking one with spirit energy and fighting in close quarters. That should keep my identity hidden. If things got too dangerous, I'd pull a blade from my inventory. No point hiding who I was if I ended up dead.

A grinding, scraping sound — like something being chewed through stone — swelled as the walls shook.

Then a boom.

The stone face at the back of the black market, hidden behind a red curtain, exploded inward. Shattered rock sprayed into the air, and through the gaping hole, the source of the chaos slowly came into view.

"Grrlk—."

A wet, gurgling rasp leaked from beyond the wall, like a throat trying to force sound through water. Splash. Splash. Liquid seeped through the rubble and spread in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a shallow film across the stage.

"L-Ladies and gentlemen! Please, run for the exit — now!"

The stage lights wavered, and their glow spilled across the things beyond the wall. They had human shapes, but their skin was a mass of glistening scales that caught the light and scattered it in every direction. Hideous mouths jutted forward, and something like tiny fins fluttered at their cheeks. They looked like fish that had been forced into the shape of men.

"Aaaaah!"

A woman's scream tore through the air, and then the rest of the crowd followed.

"Out of the way, you bastards!"

Participants shoved and clawed past each other, stampeding toward the black market's entrance.

"This way, everyone! This way!"

Staff members waved frantically from the doorway, herding people out. I had no intention of leaving. Every strange thing that happened in this world was something I'd have to deal with eventually. If I looked the other way now just to make my life easier, it would only grow into something worse and come crashing down on me later.

That was just the kind of world this was.

One of the creatures beyond the wall rolled its eyeball, sweeping the black market. A dull black pupil, the kind that looked like it could swallow you whole, drifted across a round white sclera — then stopped. It was looking at the host, who had just stepped down from the stage and was watching the situation unfold.

"Huh?"

The host noticed the thing staring at him and let out a dazed, bewildered sound.

"Grrrrlk—!"

And then the creatures beyond the wall surged into the black market at terrifying speed, charging straight at him.

I swung my fist at the wine sitting on the table. The glass shattered, red wine soaking the cloth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wrapped around my hand. I ignited the wine-soaked fabric with spirit energy and charged the creatures rushing the host.

"Gah?!"

Guards stationed nearby rushed in to intercept — but the creatures' scale-covered arms smashed into them, and the guards' bodies couldn't take the impact. They burst. A wet, meaty crack, like a hammer tenderizing flesh, and bright red blood and chunks of meat sprayed through the air.

"H-Help me!"

Blood speckled the host's ridiculous mustache mask. He staggered, then broke into a clumsy sprint toward the exit. At that speed, he wouldn't get far before he burst the same way they had. As if to prove me right, a fish-man closed the gap behind him in an instant.

"AAAAAGH!"

The host saw the fish-man's hand rise high and curled in on himself, already certain of how this ended. Then a tremendous crack split the air, followed by a dull, heavy impact — from the fish-man's body, not the host's.

"Hoo..."

I'd made it. Barely. If I hadn't juiced my agility with the Swift Swordsman's buff, I would have been too late. The punch I'd driven into the fish-man's gut had landed clean. A sharp, satisfying sting still lingered in my knuckles.

"Kelk—!"

The fish-man I'd punched tumbled across the floor, clutching its stomach and coughing. A disgusting, viscous fluid dripped from its protruding mouth.

"Grrlk—! Grlk—!"

Whether they realized a comrade had gone down or that they'd failed to catch the host, every fish-man on the stage turned its gaze on me and the host.

"Oh, fuck."

Dozens of empty black pupils locked onto me at once, and goosebumps crawled over my skin before I could stop them. Every living thing's gaze had something bright and vital glittering in it. Theirs didn't. There was nothing in those dull black pupils but a raw, hungry heat — a craving for something.

"Form up! Get in line and get ready!"

The shooter-type and ability-user guards pulled weapons from their subspace storage and armed themselves.

"Fire! Kill them all!"

A storm of bullets and abilities crashed into the fish-men. Bullets without mana couldn't pierce the dense scales covering their skin. Even the ones loaded with mana only managed to crack the scales a little.

"Grrrrlk—!"

A few of the ones staring at me and the host ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twisted around and charged the guards instead — apparently deciding that taking hits forever would eventually hurt. The rest ignored the gunfire and abilities entirely and came straight at us.

"Ah... fuck."

I coiled power into my calves and kicked off the ground, charging them in turn. The flames wrapped around my fist flared brighter as I fed them more spirit energy, and I drove an uppercut into the first fish-man's jutting jaw.

It wasn't just a punch. The principle of swiftness that came with my new class, Swift Swordsman, wasn't limited to the sword. From something as small as picking up chopsticks to the way I walked — any movement of the body could carry that swiftness. Ever since I'd classed up, I'd been constantly trying to feel and grasp that elusive sensation. And the punch I threw now held every last drop of that essence I'd gathered.

It looked like I'd swung too lightly. The destruction said otherwise. The fist that met its jaw shattered every scale in the way and burned the flesh underneath with searing flame.

"Hup—!"

Not done yet. Five more were still coming at me. I pulled the extended punch back in one smooth motion, twisted my front foot sideways, and put rotation into my body.

A simple skill for observing yourself. I'd thought it was complete garbage at first. It wasn't. The moment I used it, every sense receded and my consciousness floated free — like I'd taken a step back to look at myself from the outside. Where I was looking. Which way my force was going. How the enemy was attacking. I could see all of it.

I drew a deep breath and moved my accelerated body. In a single instant I slipped into the approaching creature's guard and snapped a short punch into its chest. The scales shattered as its ribcage caved in. I spun and brought my fist down on the one beside it.

A massive bloom of flame engulfed another one right next to me, perfectly timed.

Nice one, Chairwoman.

I silently thanked her for the support from behind, then kept just enough distance from the last one that my fist would barely reach — and used a skill.

My body flashed, and five punches fired off one after another, slamming into the fish-man's face.

"Keluk—!"

Its face cooked a raw, blistering red, and then it crashed to the floor. The senses that had drifted away snapped back into my body all at once, and I let out a breath.

"Hoo..."

The ones that had come at me were all down. I looked around. The guards were fighting hard, but they had a decent edge on the fish-men. These things had overwhelming physical specs, but they also had a fatal weakness — which was why they couldn't break through guards who were actually committed to killing them.

That weakness?

Melee units. And they were stupid.

The ability users flashed their powers, shoving the fish-men back however they could, while the shooters poured every ounce of power they had into mana-loaded rounds. That alone was enough. Bodies that were nothing but tough slowly shed their scales and died. If these fish-men had even a little intelligence, they would have dodged, or climbed the walls to hit blind spots. They didn't. They just charged. And I knew better than anyone that mindless melee rushers were free food for ranged fighters.

"Hmm... looks like things are mostly under control."

The guards would finish the rest without me. I caught my breath and looked around. What the hell were these things, anyway? I studied the ones lying face-down on the floor. Green scales covering a human body. Gills sprouting from the sides of their cheeks, layered over a person's face.

"What the fuck is this?"

I'd never seen anything this weird in the game. How had they even gotten into the black market?

I was poking one of the bodies with my toe, still looking it over, when a scream ripped through the air in front of me.

"AAAAAGH!"

I whipped my head around at the host's agonized cry. A long, white, snake-like thing had slithered out of the gills of the first fish-man I'd dropped, and it was tearing into the host's arm.

"Jesus Christ."

I packed flame into my elbow, slammed it down, and severed the snake, then rushed to the host.

"Nngh—! Aagh!"

I'd been a little too late. His wrist had been torn off. He thrashed in pain, writhing and crawling across the floor.

"Hang on."

I used spirit energy to cauterize the gushing stump, then looked at the snake that had bitten his wrist. No. Looking closer, it wasn't a snake. It was an insect. Its pitch-black eyes were compound insect eyes, and the mouth that had torn into the host's arm was a pair of mandibles, like an insect's jaws.

"What the hell is this thing?"

The string of bizarre, shocking events left me disgusted. I flicked the insect's head. Something rolled out of the mouth tucked inside those mandibles.

"Huh?"

A pebble. The pebble — that absurd item that doubled water-attribute power and boosted affinity so high even an ordinary person with no ability would look like an ability user — had fallen from its mouth.

"Kiiiek! Kiiik!"

It must have had stubborn vitality, because the moment it dropped the pebble it went berserk, clacking its mandibles, desperately trying to pick the thing back up. I punched it away, then stared at the pebble on the floor.

Was that why they'd gone after the host first? It tracked. A pebble with water-related power, and these fish-shaped demons. I couldn't put my finger on the exact connection, but in this world, there had to be one.

"Hah..."

I glanced around. The participants had all fled the black market. The only people left inside were the guards — and they were all too busy fighting the remaining fish-men to notice anything.

Which meant...

I quietly picked up the pebble and slipped it into my inventory.

It wasn't that I wanted the pebble. Not at all. I was only taking it because if I, the player, didn't hold onto this dangerous item, there was no telling what kind of disaster it might cause. Yeah. That was the only reason.

Guilt needled me. I looked around, caught the Chairwoman's eye — and she smiled at me, bright and approving, and nodded.

See? The kind Chairwoman just signed off on it. This isn't a crime.

Yeah. That's what this is.