Chapter 142: Traditional Infiltration Takes Too Long

BANG!

The assassin hit the ground as if gravity had suddenly tripled. I watched his face slowly contort as he realized he’d been caught.

Damn, I’d missed this kind of excitement.

BANG!

Before he could fully fall, I drove my elbow into the back of his head, feeling bones crunch beneath the impact.

Then—

Time snapped back to normal.

BOOM!

The floor cratered as I slammed the assassin down, the back of his skull crushed beyond anything compatible with life.

“H-Huh?”

Fiona blinked once. What in the world just happened? One moment I’d been shot in the shoulder, and the next I was on the floor with a dead assassin beneath me.

More importantly, I was badly injured: one ear completely gone now, my shoulder bleeding profusely.

It looked lethal to her.

Even though it really wasn’t for me, I still had lingering chaos energy in my body, keeping me going.

“Care to give me a hand?”

I laughed, wincing as I tried to stand, using the wall beside me for support.

“W-What happened?”

“We weren’t alone after all. One of them was waiting for us to drop our guard before striking…”

The moment Fiona heard my explanation, she grabbed me and half-dragged me toward a nearby door labeled: “Storage Area Unit 432.”

BANG!

She slammed the door shut and immediately started barricading it, shoving a metal shelving unit in front of it. Her problem-solving was fast—stupidly fast. The moment she realized we were being stalked, she went straight for cover.

We were cornered now, but at least the tight space would limit how many invisible assassins could attack us at once if any was still following.

“Smart girl.”

“Q-Quick, use that weird sword you have!”

“So you noticed it lowers magical defenses?”

“That isn’t important!” she snapped.

[Endless Fang]

I laughed at her reaction. Yeah, she was starting to grow on me. She was so different from most people at the academy. Years of living in and managing the underbelly of society with her parents had given her the same kind of skills I had.

“Stand still, babe.”

She placed an arm on my shoulder, deciding it was the more serious of my two wounds.

[Greater Restoration]

My shoulder knit itself together in seconds. Torn muscle reformed. Bone snapped back into place with a wet crack. The bleeding stopped.

Guess their ammo didn’t have anything special laced into it.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Fiona blurted, her voice thick with guilt. “This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t tagged along!”

She changed her tune the moment she actually saw me get hurt. I guess her obsession really did have some real care mixed into it. Too bad I was never going to reciprocate it.

“It’s fine. I’m the one who accepted the deal. It’s my responsibility.”

I gritted my teeth as she healed my ear next. The torn flesh knit itself together, and within moments, I felt good as new.

Well, aside from my heart still pounding from almost dying.

Normally, I’d be annoyed, but I had accepted her deal to tag along, and a good assassin always makes good on his contracts.

This was no different.

She was basically a client, and while I might have originally died after being betrayed by my own client, that didn’t mean everyone was the same.

“B-But I still forced you to—”

“I suggest you save your worrying for later,” I cut in. “Besides, I would’ve never gotten this far if it weren’t for you deliberately pissing off the shadow society.”

[Endless Fang]

I began filling the entire storage room with swords. Unlike spells, their magical passive wasn’t enough to set off the underground’s security measures. And as for the passive itself—

If I just stack enough of them in one small space, then sooner or later, they’ll absorb everything in the room that’s preventing me from using magic. Allowing me to use more than just basic manipulation.

Well… I hope that’s how this worked.

“Y’know, you kind of just indirectly got yourself exiled from your family with the stunt you pulled earlier.”

I stretched my body, making small talk while I continued to fill the room.

“Don’t think about it too much—”

“You hate them, don’t you?”

I cut her off before she could finish. There was no way she hadn’t understood what I’d said earlier; deliberately pissing off the shadow society for my sake wasn’t a small thing.

It technically made her a traitor to her family.

Even if she was obsessed with me, that alone shouldn’t have been enough to justify her actions.

“…It’s rude to psychoanalyze a girl without her permission, y’know?”

She tilted her head and pouted.

Well… if she didn’t want to tell me, I wouldn’t dig too deep. Nothing can stay hidden from me for long anyway.

“Now!” She slapped her own cheeks, snapping herself back to focus. “How do you suppose we get out of this situation?”

“Well… I’m a bit tired of wandering through corridors.”

I grinned at her. The room was now completely filled with [Endless Fangs], each one greedily absorbing the magical defenses that had been blocking me from using any meaningful spells.

“Y-You’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, right?”

“I’m going to speed things up with a little destruction.”

“But what’s the point of… this?!” She gestured to the swords scattered across the floor. “You could level this place without doing all this.”

“If I use a big AOE, sure. But I’d rather not bring down the entire district above us.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I need time to set up a more controlled explosion.”

Sure, I could just implode the entire underground society in one go, but a massive blast would leave too many survivors. Besides, I’m here to infiltrate the society, not just wipe out their base. There’s no point in taking control of an underground organization if I erase their entire operation in the process.

The swords I’d summoned were the key to that—buying me time to cast something more refined without alerting the entire society with a sudden surge of magic.

“There’s a dark spell for that?”

“If it didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

I turned away from her. “Now, let me work.”

“I’m not really going to stop you anyway.”

She smiled, crossing her arms as she shifted to the side to get a better look at my face.

“Just let me admire you while you do your thing.”

“Do whatever you want….”

Well… looks like she’s back to her original mood.

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