Chapter 387: A New Project (3)

The sudden shift in positions within the Cartel was triggered by the death of Chairman Parden McQueen.

It was obvious that with the executive board being reshuffled, the winds of change would also blow down to the directors beneath them.

And in that process, Yerien, who had newly taken office as a director after a fierce performance battle, anxiously looked down at her wristwatch and tapped her foot.

“There’s not much time left until the meeting, and of all times…”

“I never expected to run into a high-ranking Cartel executive in a place like this.”

Whoosh!!

On the head of a beast that was swinging its tough tail like an iron bar.

“I heard all Cartel executives are busy playing with money, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, does it?”

The woman, perched atop the beast, gripping its perked ears, looked down triumphantly at the bespectacled Cartel executive and said,

“You look much poorer than I imagined.”

“…I don’t know why you’re suddenly looking for a fight with me.”

Yerien pushed up her glasses and retorted.

“Seeing as you have a rodent with you, you must be some kind of beast tamer. Wouldn’t it be better if we just went our separate ways?”

Unusual superhumans like beast tamers are generally not common in the underworld, so Yerien instinctively knew that the opponent wasn’t someone from the shadows.

Because beast taming, which easily reveals one’s identity and specialty unless one is incredibly skilled, is quite vulnerable on these streets where it’s easy to be stabbed in the back.

Since Yerien herself didn’t know the woman’s identity, it seemed highly probable that the opponent was someone from the daylight world.

“That won’t do.”

The woman grinned.

“It seems you’re still unaware, but recently, bounties have started to be placed on the heads of The Triad’s high-ranking executives.”

“…What did you say?”

“And it’s a much larger sum than expected. It seems I’ve become a bounty hunter, which wasn’t in my cards.”

The unconventional idea of placing bounties on the executives of The Triad, who dominate Vulcan’s underworld.

And even skilled individuals from the daylight world who, coveting such bounties, were attacking Cartel executives.

This was clear evidence that the lines between the daylight and underworld in this city were blurring.

“Who on earth would put a bounty on our company….”

Yerien, muttering with a bewildered expression, sighed deeply and rolled up her sleeves.

As she raised her mana, a magic circle began to spin around her wrist, preparing a spell.

As someone who held a position in Vulcan’s underworld, she was also a talented individual, lacking nothing in terms of courage or skill.

“Alright. I don’t know how lightly you take our company, but it would be even more absurd to back down when you’re acting like this. Your affiliation?”

“Mirei. I can’t reveal my affiliation, but I’m not unemployed.”

Mirei grinned.

“I went through a lot of trouble to get my dual-job permit, so I’d appreciate it if you surrendered quietly.”

“Ha, how long will you keep up that flimsy lie—”

The moment Yerien’s scoffing, mocking expression changed, five superhumans appeared from all directions around Mirei.

Rumble!!

Various skilled individuals, men and women alike. The mana flowing from their bodies changed, altering its properties in various colors.

They were clearly superhumans of an uncommon level at a glance. It would be difficult for Yerien, a spellcaster, to handle them alone.

Only then did Yerien realize that Mirei was truly determined to capture her, and she bit her lip.

‘If only I hadn’t sent my escorts to the meeting first…!’

To think things would turn out this way while she was off guard due to personal business.

Had her opponent deliberately targeted this coincidence to pick a fight with her?

Mirei, looking down at the scene, tapped the head of the beast she was riding with a relaxed smile.

“It pains me to split the bounty, but 50 million Cells per head isn’t bad pocket money…”

CRACK!

At that moment, the neck of the beast Mirei was riding was cleanly severed from its body.

The beast’s head, cut perfectly straight as if with a ruler, fell straight to the ground, and Mirei’s body, which had been riding on it, plunged headfirst onto the cold asphalt.

“Kyaaak!! Wh-What in the…!!”

As befits a beast tamer, Mirei, who seemed to lack physical ability and rolled helplessly on the ground, had no time to get angry before the headless beast’s corpse swelled up like a balloon and exploded with a pop.

Blood and flesh scattered across the street, splattering gore everywhere.

At the moment the other superhumans’ mouths gaped slightly at the unimaginably brutal scene.

From behind the street, where not even the beast’s corpse remained, Lennok slowly walked out.

“Bounty hunting. Good work. I used to do a lot of it too, back in the day.”

Lennok looked down at Mirei, who was sprawled on the asphalt, and smiled faintly.

“But perhaps due to a lack of experience, your work is quite sloppy. Is it alright to just grab and bother passersby?”

“Wh-What… This bastard…!!”

Mirei, her face flushing crimson, shot up and reached for her neck.

The moment she brought a whistle made of a deep blue gem to her lips and blew it hard.

Thwack!!

Lennok, who had instantly snatched it using Compassion of the Archangel, looked down at the whistle with a curious expression.

“You said you were a beast tamer; you use fascinating items. The fact that you tried to blow this in this situation probably means you wanted to summon a new friend, right?”

“Give that back right now!!!”

Mirei, frothing at the mouth, rushed forward.

That meant the whistle she had just lost was very important to her.

Lennok chuckled and tossed the whistle high into the air.

“Here it is.”

“That…!!”

The moment Mirei’s gaze went upwards, Lennok unleashed a shock spell, sending her body slamming into a nearby building wall.

CRASH!!

After confirming that Mirei had fainted, frothing at the mouth, Lennok turned his gaze to the other superhumans who had appeared on the scene.

“Take her and get out. Then I’ll overlook the fact that my taxi got wrecked.”

If they were from the underworld, he would have just killed them without a word, but since he didn’t know their affiliation, he had no intention of taking further action.

He hadn’t yet fully grasped the extent of the aftermath of the Prohibition Edict being lifted.

He wanted to avoid making things troublesome by being unnecessarily cruel here.

However, the other superhumans exchanged glances, then completely turned their bodies towards Lennok instead of Yerien.

“I never thought I’d see you in a place like this. Does Adamant Thunder of Sector 49 prefer public transportation?”

“You know me.”

“It’s impossible for someone with your level of skill to be common on these streets.”

The muscular giant who stepped forward twisted his neck as he replied.

“Your face isn’t recorded, but I’ve heard your description ad nauseam.”

“….”

“An outside director of the Cartel. And you also serve as an external advisor for Dyke Corp., don’t you?”

Each time he cracked his knuckles, a sound like rebar breaking emanated.

“I apologize for blocking your path, but you’ll have to come with us too.”

“An external advisor for Dyke Corp., huh?”

Lennok saw their blatant hostility and gave a bitter smile.

“As expected, this wasn’t just about the bounty.”

The mere mention of Dyke Corp. at this point meant that they weren’t simply dual-jobbers targeting a bounty.

It seemed highly likely that confronting Yerien was also a planned move.

CRUMP!!

As he lightly stomped his boot-clad foot, the nearby asphalt began to collapse.

A monstrous strength impossible for anyone not a physical powerhouse who used their entire body’s muscles as a weapon.

“When the Prohibition Edict disappeared, I wondered how the city would operate, but it’s become much more convenient than I thought.”

As he took a few deep breaths, the man’s skin began to turn dark crimson.

The giant, transformed into a truly sinister appearance with even his eyes dyed black, strode forward and lightly hunched his shoulders.

“And in the middle of a street like this, there’s far less need to worry about other people’s eyes…!”

CRUMP!!

As he stretched out his two legs, the asphalt was crushed.

Leaving the shattered ground behind, the giant’s body shot forward like a cannonball.

A massive physique, nearly 2 meters tall.

The impact generated by his muscular body, filled with mana, charging at near-subsonic speeds, surpassed that of a tank.

The giant, who had sent a parked jeep near the road bouncing like a pebble, slammed his shoulder directly into Lennok.

Immediately afterward, a circular wave erupted from the area where the two had collided, completely tearing up the surrounding asphalt.

CRACKLE…!!

Yerien, watching from behind, gaped and frantically pulled out her phone from her pocket.

“F-First, I need to contact headquarters…!!”

Adamant Thunder wasn’t merely a skilled freelancer; he was someone who held the position of an outside director for the Cartel under the Chairman’s authorization.

Even if they held the same director position, his treatment was fundamentally different from hers, who had just been appointed to the lowest rank of the board.

It was a situation where it was hard to gauge what kind of reprimand would fall if such an esteemed person got caught up in a commotion in a place like this because of her and ended up in a dire state.

However, Yerien’s worries vanished without a trace, along with the pale lightning that grazed her cheek.

Creation-type unique magic: Dual Weaving

[Accumulated Thunder]

SWISH!!

A light sound, as if stealing the wind.

Because the flash of light, shot with that small piercing sound, too easily pierced the giant’s shoulder, passed through his back, and soared into the sky.

“Urgh…!!”

The giant, holding his pierced shoulder with a stiff face, retreated.

His dark crimson skin was instantly returning to its original color.

Lennok looked at the giant and said.

“It’s a technique that coagulates blood around the skin to increase body density. A good attempt, but once pierced, the bleeding would be that much more severe, wouldn’t it?”

“How…!!”

“You aren’t the only ones who wanted to close the distance and initiate an attack.”

Lennok, casually shaking off the hand where mana had condensed, took a step forward.

The giant, clutching his profusely bleeding wound, naturally took a step back.

Superiority determined by a single exchange.

But Lennok remained expressionless, as if feeling no emotion about that fact.

“However, many fail to understand that this means more options for both sides. You aren’t much different.”

“N-No…! Just subdue him!!”

The giant, desperate to suppress the rapid bleeding, retreated, and in sync with him, the other superhumans who had been radiating killing intent from behind charged all at once.

Despite using different weapons and spells, the mana they unleashed was sharp yet precise.

It was clear they were veterans, not only experienced in combat but also accustomed to coordinated attacks like this.

The mage tilted his head slightly and closed his eyes, instantly unleashing an onslaught of superhumans that poured down like rain.

In the middle of the wide, bursting intersection, a violet mystic eye rotated.

CRUMP!!

He slammed a lightning bolt into the chest of the first attacking golem.

He seized the golem’s shattered fragments, which had burst open like a broken tin can, with mana threads, and as he twisted his wrist, the fragments scattered in all directions, receiving Lennok’s mana and exploding.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

The erupting fireballs uniformly rotated, converging into one spot to form a massive pillar of fire.

An innumerable rain of fire fell from the tip of the rotating pillar of fire.

Instantly, he cast chains of gravity around the necks of the struggling spellcasters in the heart of the raging inferno that engulfed the street, and pointed at the ground.

CRASHHH!!

He froze the chain around the neck of the spellcaster who plunged headfirst into the mangled road, trapping their movement, then unleashed a high-frequency sound magic.

The intensely vibrating ultrasonic waves precisely matched the resonant frequency of the ice mass Lennok created, shattering it.

Waves rose from the melted water amidst the heat, sweeping away the warriors who rushed towards Lennok.

DUDUDUDUDU!!!

“Damn it, what firepower…!!”

“Snap out of it and regroup!! Those who can take the hit re-enter one by one!!”

But the opponents also clung on, desperately resisting Lennok’s multi-sensory assault.

As soon as they realized Lennok was using even sound magic to create openings, someone tore off their collar and covered their ears.

They assessed their injuries and sent forward those who could move to re-engage.

Teamwork so precise it was hard to believe it was exhibited by a small group of less than ten people.

With the organizational power fully displayed even in the middle of this chaotic street, the others snapped to attention and rushed to attack Lennok.

“A militant organization using bounty hunting as an excuse while daylight corporations fight among themselves… As expected, I can’t just let this slide.”

Lennok, observing their actions, lowered his stance and began to cross his hands to form a mudra.

“I’ll have to leave at least one alive.”

RUMMMMMBLE!!

The mana erupting from Lennok’s body flashed and spun, instantly transforming into a vibrant series of lightning bolts.

Evading all their distractions, he struck the chest of the spear-wielder who tried to stab him in the back with [Partial Thunder].

Above the head of the artilleryman shooting from the rooftop of a nearby building, [White Fall (白落)].

Seizing and twisting the mana and artifacts wandering everywhere with [Refined Azure (硏淸)].

BOOOM!!!

Unique magic, which previously required no small amount of mana and time to use, now erupted in rapid succession without hesitation, brilliantly illuminating the surroundings.

The fierce, bright blue electric light, scattered across the street, rotated to form a massive hemisphere.

And within it, dazzling lightning bolts rained down incessantly, turning the entire area into an inferno.

CRACKLECRACKLECRASH!!!

Even Yerien, watching from afar, stopped dialing and gaped.

“No, how can a human….”

Even the high-ranking Cartel executives or spellcasters she knew would find it difficult to project that level of firepower magic as effortlessly as breathing.

The magic Lennok wielded with such nonchalance was destruction magic, difficult for even skilled spellcasters to manifest without expending all their effort and concentration.

His appearance, unleashing such spells amidst a fierce battle, without even a vanguard, while engaging in a chaotic melee with top-tier superhumans, was as grand as a moving fortress.

CRASHHHH!!

Waves of heat and cold constantly surged and swung. Within them, the ground repeatedly melted and froze, and even the atmosphere burst apart.

Lennok’s expression, as he waved his hand from the center of this destruction, remained as calm as it was initially, but the faces of those who charged at him, constantly shifting positions within his sight, stiffened.

“Gah…!!”

The moment someone, unable to hold back, broke formation and forced their way into Lennok’s lightning zone to create a variable.

“The calculations are complete.”

Lennok waved his hand as if he had been waiting.

Immediately after, small concentric circles began to emerge on the chests of the other superhumans who had been directing killing intent towards Lennok.

“Barrier magic… It definitely takes time, but it’s worth trying at least once.”

Lennok extended his hand towards the golden concentric circles floating in the air, then clenched his fist.

“Now, I’ll show you something interesting.”