Chapter 24 | The Assassin Is Reunited with a Friend
Liogel was even more dangerous than I’d imagined.
Tarte and I nodded to each other, then simultaneously pulled out special syringes and injected a drug into our necks. The chemical only worked for a limited time, but it stimulated the brain and removed its natural limits.
The world slowed down, and my physical capabilities and instantaneous mana discharge increased.
The drug granted me overwhelming strength, but it was a double-edged sword. Humans had limits for a reason, and breaking past them came with serious consequences. The effects of the chemical also only lasted for a short time, and using it continuously led to building a tolerance.
I classified the medicine as a trump card, only to be used in extreme circumstances.
Liogel charged at Tarte instead of me, his mane fluttering in the wind.
Fox ears and a fluffy fox tail sprouted from Tarte’s body. This was yet another ace in the hole that only worked for a short while.
We also activated Servant’s Devotion. My testing had revealed that it would only work for roughly three minutes.
Tarte understood the situation we were in. She knew that holding back would equal death.
She elected not to dodge, instead charging head-on with her spear. Wind exploded at her back. She used a spell Dia had developed. Its incantation was extremely short, and it loosed a burst of air that launched the user forward.
“Cats are prey for foxes!”
The side effects of Beastification had made Tarte grow belligerent. Servant’s Devotion allowed me to hear all of her aggressive thoughts.
Tarte had the look of a carnivore in her eyes. The violent personality that emerged when she used Beastification seemed at odds with her adorable appearance.
The spear in Tarte’s hands was different from her usual one. Her typical polearm was divided at the grip with an attachable knife serving as the tip, enabling her to conceal it under her servant clothes. It sacrificed strength and function so she could hide it and keep it on her person.
However, our recent battle with the beetle demon had made me aware that Tarte’s weapon lacked raw force. For that reason, I’d made her a new spear that prioritized might over portability.
The spearhead could rotate. A Fahr Stone I’d embedded in the tip caused it to spin rapidly like a drill.
I’d made the point using the toughest alloy I could think of. The result was a magic polearm that cut through diamond.
Utilizing her bolstered strength from the drug, the surge of air at her back, Beastification, and Servant’s Devotion, Tarte thrust her weapon at Liogel. The attack had more than just the weight of Tarte’s charge behind it. She also used her back and arms to put everything into it.
Tarte’s spear was longer than Liogel’s claws, so it found purchase first. Liogel would’ve been able to dodge it had he tried, but he continued forward, likely believing no weapon could pierce his flesh.
That was the wrong move. Tarte’s armament was special.
Her spear drilled into the demon’s body. However…
“No way. Lord Lugh’s lance…”
“You are quite a strong female. It takes skill to cut me.”
The tip had gouged into Liogel’s chest, but its rotation slowed to a stop just before the demon’s heart. His muscle had stopped it.
Liogel then spread his arms wide and swung them both toward Tarte, claws poised to rip her to shreds.
“Not a chance!”
Tarte twisted the handle to use her polearm’s hidden mechanism. As soon as she did so, the spearhead rocketed forward with an explosive sound.
The excessive recoil knocked Tarte back about four and a half meters, and the tip of her weapon tore through Liogel, sending him flying. After landing, Tarte affixed a spare spearhead. Liogel was pinned to a boulder three and a half meters from where he’d been a moment before. The spinning tip had a hook that kept it lodged in the demon and affixed him to a boulder.
“This new spear is so useful!” Tarte exclaimed.
Her weapon was both a polearm and a high-caliber gun.
The tip itself was embedded with a Fahr Stone to power the rotating mechanism. It was designed to be used as a rotating spear most of the time, and when necessary, the Fahr Stone could be activated to perform a Cannon Strike.
I’d constructed it in a way I believed suited Tarte’s fighting style. She was not an especially skilled marksman. I’d fashioned the armament to fly in the face of what cannons were supposed to be.
Great job, I praised mentally before taking off at a run.
I was not an observer in this fight. My role was to create a sure opening for Dia to strike with Demonkiller.
With Liogel still trapped on the boulder, I sprinted toward him and began chanting. I was using Multi-Chant and the skill I found in its depths called Quick Chant to prepare two spells simultaneously.
Looking annoyed, Liogel gripped the hooked spearhead and ripped it out, tearing his own flesh as he did so, and glared at me.
“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!”
The demon howled. It wasn’t just for intimidation. The sound created a mana-empowered shock wave. It threatened to lift me into the air and blast me away. Fortunately, I entered range to use my spells and finished my incantations just in time.
“Wind Cage! Ice Prison!”
Two spells took effect.
The first was a wind one that filled the area around the target with carbon dioxide to rob their lungs of oxygen. The second was water magic that restrained the enemy by encasing them in thick ice.
My real objective was to entrap Liogel with the latter of the two spells, but he’d never stand still long enough for it to take hold. Thus, I’d had to hold him with Wind Cage first.
Just as I’d intended, the demon fainted immediately after the oxygen was sucked out of his lungs, and ice formed around him.
The frozen water was close to four and a half meters thick. There was no way he would be able to move. This was ice at absolute zero. Such intense cold alone was going to render Liogel immobile. No matter how strong the demon was, it was worthless if he couldn’t move.
“Good job, Lugh. I’ll take it from here,” Dia signaled to me with her eyes as she passed by and headed toward Liogel. Her Demonkiller chant entered its final stage. The spell could permeate ice. It was the perfect chance to hit Liogel.
I started chanting a composite spell using Multi-Chant. I was preparing Railgun.
Nevan was taking care of sniping duties this time and was currently locked on to Liogel, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some insurance. The moment Demonkiller made impact, Nevan’s shot and my Railgun would pierce the demon’s Crimson Heart together.
Dia finished her incantation, all but guaranteeing our victory.
That’s when I felt a chill.
I could feel that something was wrong. After canceling my Railgun spell, I grabbed Dia’s collar, put her behind me, then threw a Fahr Stone forward and directed the explosion.
“Hey, what the heck was that for?!” she shrieked.
I’d caused her to fall on her back and miss Demonkiller when I yanked her from behind. The Fahr Stone explosion would likely undo all our hard work to trap Liogel in the ice, too.
I’d known the consequences of my actions, however. There was something definitely off about all of this.
There was nothing supernatural about an assassin’s hunches. Assassins were constantly probing their surroundings, so they learned to pick up on even the most trivial of signs.
Normally, I would want to investigate those signs to judge the level of danger, form a plan, and decide how to react, but there were many cases where time did not allow for that. In such instances, I had to rely on my vast experience and make snap choices.
That was the sixth sense of an assassin.
“Looks like I was right,” I muttered.
The Fahr Stone cracked, and an explosion aimed at the demon scattered fumes and fragments of metal. At the same time, a blast from within the ice sent frozen shards flying in all directions like buckshot.
The two explosions collided, carving traces of destruction into the surrounding environment.
And then…
“Tch…”
I saw Liogel, charging toward me with his body low to the ground. He slashed up with his claws. Although his body was covered in cuts and burns, and chunks of skin and bone were missing, he didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.
Even the explosions hadn’t deterred the demon. Liogel passed directly through them, racing straight for me. Running into those blasts was a reckless and suicidal move, and that was precisely why it caught me by surprise.
The explosions, the light, and the dust obstructed my senses almost entirely, rendering me unable to rely on my assassin’s sixth sense.
This was bad. I had no chance of dodging against Liogel’s swiftness. The best I could do was evade a lethal wound.
Before the blow was struck, a shaft of light pierced the demon’s limb at the elbow, sending his forearm flying.
The remaining half of Liogel’s right arm passed centimeters in front of my face. I immediately countered by throwing a Fahr Stone into his mouth and used my feet not to kick him, but to push off of him and gain some distance.
The Fahr Stone erupted in the demon’s maw, blowing off his head and neck.
While keeping an eye on him, I moved away and assumed a formation with Dia and Tarte.
“Nevan saved me.”
She was the one who had come to my rescue. That attack had likely been what she’d been readying to launch after Dia’s Demonkiller pierced Liogel’s heart.
I would’ve been seriously wounded if not for her.
“That’s amazing she was able to hit from so far away. I’m glad everyone is safe, but this isn’t good. The drug and Beastification are going to run out soon. He is too strong,” said Tarte.
“You’re right about that,” agreed Dia.
Tarte was correct. Liogel’s power was insurmountable.
I never thought that he would use mana and miasma to free himself, to say nothing of his absurd physical might and defense.
We had used all of our resources in the hopes of ending things quickly, but we’d only managed to barely come up even.
The demon’s head grew back.
I had already come up with a new plan, but if it failed, we were finished. While eyeing Liogel closely, I searched for a moment to strike. However, he did something I wasn’t anticipating. He ignored us and broke into a full sprint.
I had to stop him from going that direction, or it would spell disaster.
“Cannon Strike!”
I pulled a cannon already loaded with bullets and Fahr Stones out of my Leather Crane Bag and fired, but he dodged it. Liogel was no longer acting arrogantly enough to take hits intentionally.
He was now far ahead of us. Catching up to him or hitting him with an attack would be tough.
Liogel was going after our sniper. The previous attack had alerted him to Nevan’s presence, and he’d clearly decided to kill her first.
Nevan began firing at the demon as he drew near. She had no problem striking him because she was using light element attacks, and the bolts of magic cut through his body. Unfortunately, the light attacks were very thin, inflicting only small injuries that healed in mere moments.
In a rare show of panic, Nevan grimaced. She had no means of defeating Liogel, and we possessed no way of reaching her in time.
Unless we did something, the demon was going to eat her.
“Shit!” I clicked my tongue and ran.
This is really bad. I can’t help her… No, think. There’s no way I’m going to watch a comrade die.
That was when it happened.
A large ebony sword descended from above, striking the ground before Liogel. I expected the demon to ignore it and keep running, given his previously displayed stubbornness, yet he stopped in his tracks.
A man dressed entirely in black landed on the sword’s hilt. He crossed his arms, and his cloak fluttered in the wind behind him.
I understood why Liogel halted. A terrible, sinister power was emanating from that blade. It even surpassed Gáe Bolg, a divine treasure I once encountered.
With no one there to answer my questions, the owner of the sword and Liogel faced each other.
“Who the hell are you? Are you the same as us? You have our scent,” the demon snarled.
“The same as you? Ha, so that’s how you see me. Truly, I have fallen.”
I hadn’t been sure of the man’s identity, because his clothes obscured his face, but after hearing him speak, there was no mistaking him. The owner of that overwhelmingly mighty sword was someone I knew very well.
I thought he might show up, but the timing couldn’t have been better.
Liogel scowled. “Do not interfere. I need to tear off that man’s limbs, then defile and eat his women in front of his eyes.”
“I won’t allow it. Those are my friends, and this girl is special to me.”
“Then I’ll tear you to shreds like the others.”
“You sure talk big for a pawn who is going to demonstrate my greatness. You will serve splendidly. I will prove here and now that I am no longer stuck chasing behind Lugh.”
The swordsman in black jumped off the hilt and drew the sword from the ground.
“Now behold the new power I obtained by falling to the darkness, nay, by coming to rule over it. Then engrave my name into your mind. I am Naoise, the Hero of Darkness!”
He declared his name as if he were an actor in a theater getting high off a performance.
The lion and the Hero of Darkness then crossed blades.
“How awful…,” I whispered absentmindedly upon witnessing Naoise’s transformation.
I was not going to let Mina get away with this. I was horrified by what she had done to my friend.
My hands balled into tight fists.
This was what she’d meant by making Naoise her plaything. I hadn’t been able to stop it.
Regrets would have to wait, however. For now, I needed to focus on the task at hand. All that mattered was killing Liogel.
After the battle, I’ll do everything I can to treat Naoise. I owe it to him after failing to save him from this.
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