Ironclad Assassin (5)
I conjured a gunshot — a feint, just once.
In the same instant, a hairline gap opened.
Daggerus flinched at the first shot and shifted his gauntlet; my actual round was already flying just wide of where he expected it.
"Gah—!"
Daggerus, mid-charge, clutched his shoulder and staggered. The bullet, loosed under the cover of that dual report, punched cleanly into his left arm. It wasn't a vital hit — not fatal — but it was enough to hobble him, and that was the point.
I slipped between the pillars for the next shot. Daggerus righted himself after a single stumble and bolted forward again, clearly willing to eat whatever came next if it meant getting clear of the security forces' line of sight as fast as possible.
But from the start, my job had only ever been to buy time.
"Should be about now."
Tap. Taptaptap.
Light, rapid footsteps rang out from far down the street. A girl in goggles tore toward us at full sprint, ash-gray hair streaming behind her. Sinel.
"…Boss?"
"Sinel. Take him down."
Her eyes locked with mine as she flashed past. A nod — she understood. She drew a dagger from her thigh holster, flicked it spinning through the air, snatched it out of the spin, and closed on Daggerus at a terrifying clip.
"Kh—ugh…! That girl from before!"
"…"
Bang! Ba-ang!
Panicked, Daggerus opened fire. Sinel simply tilted her head and let the rounds whistle past. Nowhere to run — a straight shot between alley walls. She painted a gray streak through the air and was on him in a heartbeat.
A savage close-range slash of the dagger.
Sharpness
Screeech—!
Daggerus threw up his gauntlet in desperation; Sinel's blade scraped screaming across the iron plate. He thrust his free fist to counter, but her kick found his gut first.
A reversal finished in a single breath. She drove him back at a speed he couldn't answer, whipped the dagger back into position, and drove it down.
Thud!
Blood sprayed from the shoulder the blade buried itself in. Daggerus groaned through a face twisted with pain.
"Ghk—gaaah…!"
He hit the ground hard, pistol tumbling from his grip. Sinel kicked the weapon away, then wiped the blood spattered across her face with the back of her gloved hand.
Disarmed. Subdued. Whatever magic he had left wasn't going to help him like this.
Figuring the situation was more or less settled, I holstered my pistol and walked down from the building. Sinel, still blood-flecked, looked up as I approached.
"Good work, Sinel."
"Yes. But that voice earlier…"
"We'll talk about that later. Right now I've still got business with this one."
Contract killer. Ironclad Daggerus.
Ordinarily, handing over his location would have been the end of my job. But Daggerus had put up more of a fight than expected, and I'd burned more energy than I'd planned. Without Sinel, taking him down would have been a real problem.
The combat tension coiled around my body began to ease. I dragged my tired frame over to where he lay.
"Ghk…"
"We've both had a rough day, Daggerus."
"Mister Trillo's… ugh… hunting dog, are you?"
"You've got the wrong idea. I'm not one of them."
He stared up at me, baffled. Fair enough — I'd been with the Valiant, so the assumption wasn't crazy.
"Then… what are you?"
"Someone who makes a living selling people like you."
"…"
"Running only wasted both our time."
Liam, the one running the operation on Daggerus, had been taken out by him. Now that the runaway was back in hand, it was time to call Mister Trillo and collect the rest of the fee.
I reached into my pocket for my phone. I was about to dial when something felt wrong, and I stopped.
Click.
Cold metal pressed against my skin. I glanced toward Sinel, still standing guard at my side — dagger in hand, eyes wide, staring past me in alarm.
"That's enough. Drop the weapons and freeze."
"Sinel. Who's behind me?"
"Security forces."
Security forces.
The name alone pulled a dry laugh out of me. The Valiant had made a flashy enough mess, sure, but I hadn't expected the security forces to show this fast. I hadn't even heard a siren. Odds were a nearby unit had simply stumbled across us.
I killed the phone screen and spoke toward the officer at my back.
"Mind if I turn around?"
"If you put both hands up."
"Done."
The muzzle left the back of my neck. Hands raised, I turned.
A gold-haired girl stood there with a notepad open and a gun trained on me. Beside her, a black-haired man. Black hair was rare in this city — rarer still on a man wearing a thick muffler over his coat.
A face from memory surfaced. I tested a name under my breath.
"Ney Terdos."
"…You know me?"
Her reaction sealed it. The series' main heroine, Ney Terdos. Which meant the man behind her was the protagonist of War City himself — Usher Hayes.
Usher wore that heavy muffler over his coat to hide the restraint collar around his neck. A combination that distinctive didn't just walk around this city by accident. My guess had been right — nearby security officers had found us.
"Who knows. Maybe I do. Maybe I don't."
"Are you seriously playing games with me right now?"
"Is that what matters here?"
"Then what does?"
"The fact that security forces are threatening me for no reason. That seems more important."
I eased my hands down a fraction and shrugged. Daggerus was a wanted man rolling around on the pavement — if I played bounty hunter, this could still be smoothed over. The real priority was keeping Mister Trillo's name out of it. The Valiant were a criminal outfit; getting tangled with the security forces would be a headache. I hadn't even collected the rest of my money yet. I wasn't about to let this go sideways.
"You. Who are you?"
Ney adjusted her grip on the gun and demanded my identity. I answered while quietly preparing to slip telepathy into the conversation.
"Percival Smith."
"Percival Smith?"
"That's right. I am…"
I drew up my mana, ready to use telepathy — and the world went black.
I only understood what had happened when I heard Usher's voice.
"Stop. Try anything cute and I'll kill you where you stand."
Usher had closed the distance in an instant. His open palm hung a breath from my face. He still didn't know what my magic was — he'd simply caught me starting to cast and moved first. The kind of instinct only a protagonist got to have.
I raised both hands again. Even if it had been Sinel facing him instead of me, Usher's casting speed had the edge. War City was a power-fantasy novel, after all.
"Hold on. I have no intention of fighting the security forces."
"What were you about to do?"
"Just add a little context."
"And the woman behind you?"
Usher lowered his hand and jerked his chin past me. I looked back. Sinel had the dagger out again, ready to move — still dead set on protecting her employer, security forces or not. The sight of it almost made me smile. I gave the order to put Usher at ease.
"Sinel. Stand down."
"Yes."
She sheathed the dagger. Usher kept watching past me with that same grim expression. We weren't the only ones here. Behind me, Daggerus was still on the ground, clutching his shoulder.
Through the edge of my vision I caught him carefully pushing himself up. He staggered to his feet and bolted for the narrow alley, trying to slip away in the confusion.
Running from Usher Hayes was, in my opinion, a spectacularly stupid decision.
"Tch."
Blink
Usher vanished from where he stood and reappeared directly in Daggerus's path. He seized the fleeing man by the head.
"I told you to stop."
Area Binding
Usher Hayes's signature technique from the novel. He locked down the surrounding space itself, then — still mid-Blink — slammed Daggerus's head into the ground.
Ney covered one eye with her hand and shook her head.
"Usher. I told you not to kill him if you could help it."
Her voice came out half a sigh. I'd seen this exact beat in the novel, before I ever set foot here.
Only then did it truly hit me — I was inside the story.