Chapter 141: A Near Death Experience?

“Hold on.”

I said to Fiona, almost as an afterthought, as I dispelled my [Profaned Guardian] and crouched to spring toward the nearest ledge.

Teleporting now was dangerous. I’d managed to avoid being detected so far, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way.

Better to do this the old-fashioned way.

I leaped the instant the platform swept past, twisting mid-air. I took the brunt of the impact against the glass wall and shielded Fiona with my body.

I couldn’t let her get hurt here.

We couldn’t use healing magic unless we wanted to draw the attention of everything lurking in the underground.

“Intruder!”

Shadow Society members in both the left and right corridors shouted, steam pistols leveled at us.

It seemed even they weren’t allowed to use magic here.

So there was a trade-off to their powerful defenses after all.

[Endless Fang]

CLANG!

CLANG!

The blades intercepted the bullets before they could reach us; the impenetrable steel more than made up for the lack of magic. And would you look at that…

[Endless Fang] seemed to drink in some of the magic-detection defenses in the tunnel as well.

BOOM!

I blasted the swords outward as a distraction.

[Light Manipulation]

While they were still fumbling for a target, I lashed a hook of light at the one on the right, snagging him by the robes and flinging him toward his partner.

BANG!

I slammed both of them into another glass window—and, like a miracle, a train roared past, obliterating them the moment they hit the rails.

SPLAT!

But there was no time to celebrate my victory yet. God knows how loud that fight was, and while it shouldn’t draw as much attention as a full-on magic battle,

It would still attract a decent number of people.

“Grab a gun!”

Fiona nodded, already grasping the situation. She was an S-Class; she knew better than to cast magic here without me even telling her.

“They’re here!”

More appeared along the edge, this time forming a firing line, steam muskets raised.

“Fire!”

BOOM!

[Endless Fang]

Same tactic, same process.

THUD!

I kicked the sword hard, launching it straight into the firing line. It slammed into them with a powerful explosion, kicking up dust and turning the air into a makeshift smokescreen.

That was all I needed.

Five pulls of the trigger. Five bodies. That’s all it took.

As for Fiona…

She had held her own against another group that had tried to sneak up behind me, dropping three of them without even breaking a sweat.

“Surprise~?”

“You need to do better than that to impress me.”

I headed for the dead bodies and rummaged through their corpses for the muskets they’d used.

[Fusing]

[Steam Assault Rifle]

After what happened before, I wasn’t dumb enough to forget about my system. Besides, Fiona would be the last person to snitch on me; it was fine to show it to her.

“Did you just create a new gun from two, instantly!?”

“Yeah. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

I tossed her an assault rifle made from the extra pistol she had, plus the steam muskets lying around.

And just in case…

[Fusing]

[Steam Sniper]

Another weapon. I didn’t bother giving one to Fiona, though. I doubt she could handle the recoil.

***

We moved from corridor to corridor—this time silently and slowly—as we rounded each corner with our guns drawn. It was surprisingly quiet. After the first wave, nothing else seemed to threaten us.

But I’m fine with that for now, especially with someone trailing behind me.

“Y’know, for an underground society, I didn’t expect them to label their corridors with directions.”

Fiona muttered as she looked around at the bleak gray walls. The only things breaking up the monotonous, seemingly endless corridors were the ominous white signs, washed in crimson light.

“Judging by the trains, the entire place should be huge; it was better to add directions than have everyone memorize where to go.”

“But… come on, it’s not something you expect from a name like ’shadow society’.”

“I’d have to agree with you, it looks stupid—”

BADUMP!

H-Huh?

What…?

My body moved on its own before I even understood what was happening, stepping a bit to the right—right where Fiona was walking behind me.

BANG!

A bullet tore through my shoulder, punching through my heavily reinforced skin and ripping through both muscle and bone.

My body moved to protect Fiona before I even reacted?

“C-Cael!”

BADUMP!

Another instinct suddenly flared.

[Endless Fang—

No, too slow!

I jerked right, narrowly dodging a shot to the head. The bullet sheared clean through my right ear with a deafening crack.

BADUMP!

Fuck, who the hell was shooting at me!?

More importantly, what the hell was going on? I wasn’t casting a spell, so why was time so slow?

I forced my body to steady. Time itself seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace as everything shifted into near autopilot. This was a feeling I hadn’t had in a long time…

Was this… actual fear of death?

I guess the lack of magic usually covering my entire body was finally letting my body react at its fullest, doing everything it could to keep me alive.

I steadied the gun in my hands, eyes dilating as I focused on the corridor ahead. It was dark, like all the others… but I could tell something was hiding in it.

Probably invisibility.

No matter.

I pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The instant I fired—

BADUMP!

Another flare from my senses.

Then I saw it: the air beside me warped, space blurring. The bastard was stalking us under a cloak and was about to stab me.

But getting this close to me was a bad fucking idea.

THWACK!

I caught his wrist before he could stab me, then snapped my head toward Fiona to order her to fire—only to see her frozen, concern etched on her face.

Right… I was moving faster now, riding the adrenaline.

No matter, this was a good chance to remind myself what it actually felt like to be on the verge of death.

[Profaned Prince]

“Crumble!”

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