Science and Madness

by The Blight

In their pursuit of power and "data", defectors from Zurrernorn and Corpus of the Abyss try summoning something directly from beyond. However, what they pull from the other side is completely unexpected. Away from home and disoriented, a madman finds that when the world is filled impossibly powerful beings, science is his only ally.

13. Rose Thorn

It was the next morning and Blue Rose listened intently as Climb recounted his experience at the brothel. He had just begun to talk about Rhamnusia in detail.

"He completely destroyed Brain-sama's body. By the time I came too, he was—"

Evileye spoke up.

"—Brain Unglaus? Isn't that the guy who lost to Gazef Stronoff in the martial arts competition?"

Tina nodded. "Though I heard it was a close fight, I'd rate him around Gagaran's level, if not higher."

Evileye scoffed. "That isn't really saying much."

Gagaran began to move but Lakyus beat her to it. She slapped the little vampire in the back of the head.

"So it seems that this Brain Unglaus has skill, and you're saying that Rhamnusia defeated him immediately?"

Climb nodded.

"Y-Yes. And also, once Rhamnusia had my sword in his hand, he cast some kind of fire spell and easily broke it in half."

Blue Rose nodded.

"Then perhaps it really is a demon we're dealing with here. Powerful fire spells are known to be staples among demons."

Lakyus nodded and continued.

"Then a safe estimate for his difficulty level would be around 110 to 120."

"Doesn't that seem a little high though? That would make him a treat even if all five of us were to attack him."

"Maybe, but with everything we've learned about him so far, it's clear that it's unwise to challenge him without ample back up. We also know next to nothing about his allies and his magical weapons, so we can't afford to be careless. The additional difficulty rating is to account for is unpredictability"

Lakyus leaned back and sighed.

"Well, the one promising thing we've learned from this then is that he's not working with Eight-Fingers."

Climb shuddered as he recalled holding on to Cocco Doll's severed head.

"That should at least give us some peace of mind, it also means that there's now one less location we have to attack."

They all nodded in affirmative.

"Then let's talk about the details of the raid, I'm thinking that in addition to the prince's and marquis' forces, Blue Rose should split into two separate teams…"

...

Vera opened the door to see the iconic butler. A carriage was waiting on the street just outside.

"Sebas-san! You're here."

"Indeed, I'm here to pick up Tsuare, how is she?"

"She's been a pleasure."

The response seemed to surprise Sebas slightly. Vera turned around and called out into the house.

"Tsuare-san! Sebas-san is here!"

Tsuare and Niven appeared from a back room. They were all smiles.

Tsuare saw Sebas in the doorway. She turned her head and blushed. She proceeded to the door with Niven close behind.

"Come along Tsuare, I've prepared a new home for you."

Tsuare nodded and stepped out the door. She seemed a little sad for some reason.

Niven approached her.

"W-Will I get to see you again, Miss Tsuare?"

She and Sebas already knew that the possibility of ever seeing the boy again was low once they got to Nazarick.

Tsuare smiled and no longer seemed afraid of other people. She leaned down and placed a kiss on Niven's forehead.

"Thank you, maybe we will see eachother again and you can teach me how to make all of those neat things you talked about."

Niven blushed madly and put his hand on the back of his head, sheepishly rubbing his unruly black hair.

"Y-Yes."

They waved as Sebas and Tsuare proceeded to the carriage and disappeared down the street. Vera nudged Niven with her shoulder.

"She's cute."

Niven blushed madly.

"I-It's not like that! R-Really though, it's not...:"

Their playful banter was interrupted by Stockwell who was all the way back in the laboratory.

"Is the girl gone yet!?"

Vera closed the door and called back.

"Yeah! She's gone!"

"Then let's get a move on! It's going to be a busy day with all the running we're going to have to do before night comes! Faber's been working at a rate of as one gun an hour for the last several weeks, so now we've got a hell of a lot of muskets and pistols to hand out! Niven, you're holding down the house!"

"Yes sir!"

...

Raeven leaned over his son. He was splayed across the hospital bed, covered in dark rashes and barely breathing.

A priest watched nervously as Raeven brought a syringe to the boy's arm.

"I'm not too sure about this Marquis."

"What choice do I have!?"

He slowly inserted the syringe and squeezed until all the liquid had been emptied. The priest began his healing spell, but was so surprised by the results, he almost stopped himself.

The boy's rashes visibly started to clear and his fever began to drop. He coughed and began to open his eyes.

"Rii-tan! Rii-tan! Are you okay!? How do you feel!?"

The boy weakly lifted his hand, but it quickly waned. Raeven caught it and brought it to his cheek.

"Papa's here, papa's here, what do you need?"

"...It hurts…"

Raeven was brutally reminded that the medicine was only a sample.

"...It hurts…"

The boy began to close his eyes and the dark rashes returned. The priest casting the spell began to wane.

Raeven closed his eyes and said a prayer.

"Papa's going to take care of you."

He nodded to the priest and left the temple, praying that the gods would forgive him for what he was about to do.

...

Night had fallen. The time had finally come for the operation to begin.

Lakyus crouched in the darkness of the alleyway. A murky layer of clouds had gathered overhead earlier, blocking out the moon and drenching their world in darkness. They welcomed the darkness however, as the element of surprise was the linchpin of this operation's success.

She was surrounded by several dozen men. Half of them were dressed like city guards while the other half wore various different types of armor and weaponry, included among them were also several magic casters. It was a combined force of Prince Zanack's men and the mercenaries and ex-adventurers that Raeven had hired.

Ahead of them was their target, a solitary iron door that was rumored to contain an illegal gambling ring run by the Eight-Fingers. Said rumors were later confirmed by the princess's intelligence network, and thus the building had become a target for their unified raid.

A form materialized from the darkness ahead of them.

"Tina, how does the place look?"

The darkness morphed into a young woman dressed like a ninja. The men made room for her and she crouched down in the middle of them.

"Everything looks good, I confirmed the existence of the gambling ring. And as far as security goes, they're down to a skeleton crew. I only saw two people guarding the door. I don't think they know we're here."

Lakyus nodded and the men let off a sigh of relief.

"Then we should have no problem with a frontal assault."

She stood up and addressed the men.

"I'll take care of the door, stay on my back and keep your eyes peeled. If members of the security branch are hiding here we'll be in for a fight."

After they responded in affirmative, they took their formation. Lakyus approached the door.

She took up the demonic blade Kilineyram.

「Dark Blade Impact!」

She swung it down and the heavy iron door vaporized into sightless atoms along with the man behind it.

The other man who had just seen his friend killed stared in shock. "Who-Who are you! -"

He flopped face first to the ground, revealing the ninja standing behind him.

The men behind Lakyus inhaled in amazement of the pair's skills.

"Stay on the alert and follow my lead."

"Yes ma'am!"

…

"How much further is the gambling ring, Tina?"

Tina and the rest of the men were followed closely on Lakyus's heels. They had been winding through the narrow corridors for quite some time.

"It's only a few more bends."

"We're making good time, in that case—"

The pannelings on the walls suddenly came loose all around them, revealing dozens of men lying in wait. All of them were wielding muskets, and all of them were at point blank range.

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BANG-B-BANG-BANG-B-B-B-B-BANG

Their ears were assaulted by the sound of a rolling thunderstorm. Musket rounds zipped through their lines.

"Gah! What was that!?"

Lakyus and Tina had both been hit during the surprise volley. Many of the men behind them had been instantly killed by the close quarters sneak attack.

"It's the metal spitters that Rhamnusia had! This was a trap!"

"RAWWWWWWWWW!"

The men in the walls did not bother reloading as it would take too long, or rather, they had only been taught how to hold the guns and pull the trigger at point blank range; any reloading anyone tried to do would have been primarily guess work. They grabbed their secondary weapons and jumped out of the cubby holes and into the disoriented lines of the invading force.

Lakyus and Tina had little time to respond.

"Retreat!"

Even while injured from the musket fire, the two of them were able to easily dispatch the low leveled men coming at them, but the same thing could not be said about the forces behind them.

While Raeven's force of mercenaries and ex-adventurers were calm and holding up remarkably well, Zanack's men were being slaughtered.

The close quarters combat was creating casualties at a remarkable rate. And even if Lakyus and Tina could survive and win this battle by themselves, if they stayed, all of their men would assuredly die in the process, which could hardly be counted as a victory. They needed to act quickly.

"Everyone get down!"

Their mem immediately responded to her command and dropped to the floor. Lakyus doubled back into her men.

「Dark Blade Mega Impact!」

Her blade extended in length and she slashed everyone ahead of her that was still standing up. A large number of the enemy was cut down in an instant, but they were still far from safe.

She had only created an opening through which they could escape.

"Retreat!"

The two women and the men charged away with all their might, expecting to be pursued or blockaded.

The defenders seemed to decide to let them go however. They taunted them as they retreated all the way back out into the alleyway.

...

Lakyus leaned up against the wall of the alleyway, the men collapsed around her as well. The fighting had been brief, but it was intense.

Their numbers had been nearly halved.

Almost the entirety of Zanack's forces had been eradicated. However, the vast majority of the ex-adventurers and mercenaries were still on their feet. That was to be expected though since they were generally much stronger than the royal guards that Zanack had supplied.

One of the adventurers who looked to be an alchemist, or perhaps some kind of rogue, took a small swig of a potion before handing it to Lakyus.

"You're hurt."

"Huh?"

Lakyus had barely noticed due to adrenaline, but she was indeed bleeding from a couple of bullet wounds.

"Oh, yes, thank you."

She took the potion and downed it in one go. She felt her body relax. He handed one to Tina as well.

"Tastes a bit different from the normal healing potions."

A slightly displeased reply came from the hooded adventurer.

"Sorry about that. I'm a skilled alchemist, but even I have a hard time getting the taste right."

Lakyus dismissed him and started to examine her wounds.

She tenderly felt around one of the bullet holes in her arm. The musket shot had not penetrated all the way through as would have been expected of normal human flesh. Instead it had only gone half way and logged itself into her arm.

"Thhh- Ah..." She seethed as she picked the lead ball out of her forearm.

She thought about the weapons. Their penetrative ability was formidable. It seemed to her that their power was akin to a bow and arrow being wielded by someone who knew a decent amount of martial arts, and not only that, but the projectile they fired was so fast as to make it impossible to dodge. What scared her most though was that it could be wielded by such low level thugs, and in such numbers.

She turned to Tina.

"We need to inform her highness that the enemy was prepared for us. That ambush was too well put together for them to not have had some kind of foreknowledge. I assume it's the information leak she mentioned. The other locations are probably encountering similar obstacles."

"Right, I'll go and-"

"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere."

The alchemist stood and lifted his hood.

"What are you talking about—?"

—Lakyus's eyes grew wide.

She had committed to memory the faces of each head of the eight-fingers in case they encountered one during the operation.

"You're—!"

"—Oscas, head of the assassination department. Trust me, the pleasure's all mine."

All of the ex-adventurers and mercenaries that Raeven had hired suddenly adopted twisted smiles. No, they were never ex-adventurers in the first place.

The men surrounding Tina produced concealed flintlock pistols.

"T-Thats why—!"

"Why so many of us made it out while Zanack's men got slaughtered? Yes, We were careful to avoid too much friendly fire."

"Why you—!"

Lakyus began to get up but fell over, paralyzed. She looked over to Tina and she too was struggling to move. Hector seemed pleased.

"It really is hard to disguise the taste sometimes."

"—the potion…"

"Yes, the effects were: Comfort, false healing, relaxation, paralysis… and death. And oh boy, you just went ahead and drank the whole thing down no questions asked didn't you? That makes me happy though, I spent a long time putting those together. Made it especially for you two after all, I call it, 'Weed Killer'."

He chuckled. "Because you know, 'Blue rose'? Gods I'm funny."

Lakyus struggled to respond.

"But I saw you… you drank it too."

"Ha! The oldest trick in the book." Oscas grinned. "You think I'm incapable of a little sleight of hand? I got pretty nervous there for a second. The little one almost saw through it."

Tina glared at him.

"How did you sneak into Raeven's forces...?" Lakyus stuttered.

"Sneak in? Oh no no, you misunderstand. Raeven accepted us with open arms, I was quite surprised myself."

He knelt down and lifted her face off the ground. He examined it in his hands.

"*whistle* I was skeptical at first, but now that I can see your face up close, your reputation as a cutie is well deserved."

"...Fuck you…"

"D'Awww, don't be like that Miss Aindra, I'm sure that the whole thing about your armor only being equippable by virgins is a myth."

He let go and her face slammed back down to the ground.

"But- It seems like we won't get the chance to test the validity of that myth. Rhamnusia was very explicit when he ordered that we're to kill you as quickly as possible. Honestly, even though you're paralyzed chatting with you like this is probably a breach of orders."

He turned to the rest of the men. "You boys can keep a secret, right?"

There was a chorus of dark laughter in response.

Lakyus tried to respond, but the poison had already circulated most of her body. Her throat was paralyzed.

Her body trembled as she struggled against it.

"You try in vain. I've 'done the math', as Rhamnusia would put it. I'm the most gifted poisoner in this whole kingdom —nay. the whole human world, and you just downed an entire flask of my masterpiece. A whole damn flask! A flask that Rhamnusia himself concentrated."

He laughed maniacally. "The only thing that could save you now is the fabled 6th tier spell 「Panacea」, and I know you don't know that spell. This is where you will die."

Her eyelids slowly closed. The last thing she saw as her world faded into darkness was a paralyzed Tina and the rest of prince Zanac's men being gunned down by pistol fire.

…

Evileye, Gagaran, and Tia marched down the corridor. Behind them was an entourage of men, a coalition of ex-adventurers and mercenaries, and prince Zanack's private forces.

Evileye turned to Tia.

"Where are we going after this again?"

Tia rolled her eyes, she had already recited the same sentence several times now.

"After we clear out this facility suspected of housing the banking department, we're to go and clear out a mansion suspected to hold the leader of the drug trade, Hilma."

The vampire scoffed in annoyance.

"This is taking too long, we haven't seen any enemies since—"

Suddenly, the pannelings on the walls dropped down to reveal dozens of men armed with muskets.

"What the—"

「Translocation Damage.」

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BANG-B-BANG-BANG-B-B-B-B-BANG.

Musket rounds whizzed through the invading forces lines. Though for some odd reason, they seemed to be very partial on only seeking out the men provided by prince Zanack.

"What the hell was that!?"

Through sheer force of luck, Tia survived the volley with only grazes, and Gargan's armor had protected her. Evileye also survived unscathed due to her spell, but sacrificed mana in order to do so.

Tia immediately recognized what had happened.

"They're the same magical weapons that Rhamnusia had—!"

"RAWWWWWWWWW!"

The ambushers in the cubby holes jumped into the disoriented force and engaged in a brutal melee.

Evileye was not having it.

"Mass of muscle, Tia, get down."

「Widen Magic: Shard Buck Shots」

…

"Y-You'll protect me against Blue Rose, right?"

The head of the banking department shook nervously as Rhamnusia talked about the statistics of the invading force.

"Well, if everything goes well, they won't even manage to get here. Ah- listen."

They strained their ears across the hollow courtyard. They heard the unmistakable sound of a musket volley off in the distance. They then heard a resounding battle cry shortly after.

"It seems like everything is going according to plan."

The head of the banking department let off a relieved smile.

"Adamantite adventurers are assuredly strong, but they're still human, even they-"

Rhamnusia paused.

"—W-what is it?"

"The sound."

The sounds of melee in the distance had been snuffed out all at once. The head of the banking department began to shake once more.

"D-Did we win?"

"Hmm...I doubt it."

Rhamnusia began signaling to the woman hiding in the shadows of the courtyard.

"I underestimated the power of the three of them. Go and make yourself scarce…"

…

Evileye had stopped the ambush single handedly. At the cost of an inordinate amount of friendly fire, every single ambusher had been killed by her spell.

Prince Zanack's men had been nearly annihilated in the short and intense fray, but luckily, a lot of Raeven's forces were still unharmed.

They gazed in horror around them at the crystal shards poking out from the ambushers' bloodied bodies.

Evileye turned to the men.

"All of you will only slow us down, split up and search the entire compound without us."

The ex-adventures and mercenaries didn't seem to like the order.

"B-But Evileye-sama, we-"

"You got a problem with it?"

They didn't understand how such a small girl could be so intimidating. They shook their heads nervously.

"R-Right away!"

After they broke apart, Evileye turned to Gagaran and Tia.

"Let's find the boss of this place so we can hurry up and get this operation over with."

...

The trio of women entered a long outdoor courtyard embedded deep within the compound. The night was dark and windless.

Tia stopped them the moment they entered. Her eyes narrowed and her voice held tones of worry.

"It's him. The demon."

Stepping out onto the lightless turf of the courtyard was the auspicious mask that they had been looking for. Even though they did not know the nature of his weaponry, it was obvious to them by the way he carried himself that he was armed to the teeth.

His voice seeped from the night.

"Guten abend fräuleins. Don't you know nothing good happens at this hour?"

Gagaran and Tia turned to the vampire. "What do we do?"

"We size him up. This is a good opportunity to learn more about this enemy."

"Are you sure? That could be dangerous."

"We'll flee if this turns into a battle we can't win."

Rhamnusia waited while the trio made their formation. Evileye in the back with Gagaran and Tia in the front.

Stockwell examined them closely. This is going to be a tricky fight. His cocky eternal demeanor belied his worry. The way the three of them navigated the ambush seemingly unscathed was extremely unsettling. He had hoped that if he and Vera were going to be taking them on that they'd be in a weakened state.

He reasoned that thanks to his poison gas and acid, he and Vera would have little issue managing with Gargaran and Tia who appeared to be close range fighters. The magic caster on the other hand was unpredictable.

By this world's standards, Stockwell was very weak. If the magic caster had a spell that could bypass his equipment and attack him directly, he would have no chance at winning. That being the case, it would be wise to take out Evileye as quickly as possible before she had a chance to act.

His eyes fell briefly on Gagaran once more. Wear a helmet, idiot. Why are you not wearing a helmet? What's the point of all that armor if you're not going to protect your most vulnerable area? God this world really doesn't make sense sometimes.

He was perhaps a little too bugged by the illogical decision.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. The ninja and the magic caster are showing way too much skin. I understand the merits of freedom of mobility but seriously? Mythril mail enhanced with 「mitigate weight」 would weigh effectively nothing to these guys and would still offer adequate protection. Ahhh, these people!

"Hold on. " Tia said. "Last time he had someone with him. Someone who fought at range."

"You think they might be hiding somewhere?" Garagran said.

Evileye scanned the darkened courtyard. Her eyes were far better at seeing in the dark than her human colleagues. She noticed a small, prone figure at the far end of the courtyard.

"I see them." she whispered.

Stockwell saw that they were still deliberating. This was a good time to strike now that Evileye was standing still, it meant that Vera could line up a perfect shot. He made a hand signal.

"Where do you see them?" Tia asked.

"There's one person. Very back of the courtyard, just right of cent—"

There was a small flash of light from where Evileye saw the prone figure. And in the very same amount of time it took for her mind to register that she had seen a flash, her head recoiled from the impact of what she could only assume to be a projectile based attack. Her mask cracked.

As her teammates realized she had been hit, they heard the sound wave of the rifle discharging catch up to them.

"Evileye!"

"Shorty!"

Evileye was unharmed, but she was far from calm. The ceramic mask she wore fractured and broke away from her face. That mask was a magical item, much stronger than one made of normal ceramic. It meant that whatever projectile she had just been hit was far more dangerous than the ones they encountered earlier.

Evileye glared at Rhamnusia, fangs exposed.

Stockwell was equally far from calm.

Shize.

As far as he was concerned, the enemy had just survived their best shot at victory. Additionally, with the aid of his magic items that sharpened his senses, he could see Evileye's blood red eyes and fangs.

He had read that vampires existed in this world. They were considered undead, so he was unsure if they experienced a similar lack of critical areas like zombies and skeletons did. If that was true, that was extremely dire news for him.

But he had little time to think about it, the battle had already begun.

「Fly」

"Go!"

Evileye rose into the air and Tia and Gargaran started towards Rhamnusia.

Evileye saw Rhamnusia make another hand signal.

"「Translocation Damage!」"

She had cast her spell just in time. The bullet collided with her heart and harmlessly bounced off. She felt a drain on her mana as the physical damage was converted into mana loss.

Those hits were undeniably powerful. She calculated that a few dozen of those would leave her mana in a tight spot. 「Translocation Damage」 was an inefficient use of mana, but in spite of that, her attacker had landed an attack on her forehead and her heart, and she didn't want to test what would happen if it weren't nullified.

She was especially cautious because whatever that attack was, it launched physical material similar to her own 「Crystal Dagger」 spell, meaning it did pure physical damage that was difficult to resist. Additionally, the projectiles seemed to excel in piercing damage, meaning they would likely be able to penetrate her defensive 「Crystal Sphere」 spell.

Such attacks were reminiscent of a weapon she had come across more than a century ago. Her memory of the encounter was vague, but she did recall that It was possible to dodge the projectiles from such weapons. However, dodging them required one to predict where the projectile would fly which required being able to clearly see the one firing them. Given that the sniper was obscured and some distance away, Evileye would have no choice but to endure the hits.

She called out to Tia "That weapon is a huge problem! I don't like splitting up, but it would be foolish to just let her keep shooting at us from a distance!"

Tia nodded in agreement and ran in Vera's general direction. 「Hide Shadow」, the ninja disappeared into the darkness.

Stockwell made one final hand signal upon seeing the ninja disappear. Its meaning was "Stay on guard and fend for yourself." He had no choice but to trust Vera.

It would've been ideal if the muscled woman went after Vera since she was wearing a full suit of armor that Vera could exploit with her magic, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

Gagaran and Evileye turned to Rhamnusia. "Let's do this."

"Right!"

Gagaran charged. She immediately threw her massive war pick. A move that the demon did not expect.

Shize! He was just barely able to react in time due to the distance and his enhanced mobility from his magic items. He narrowly avoided getting squashed like a bug. The pick smashed into the turf and split the ground where he had been standing just a fraction of a second earlier.

Gagaran expected this. The war pick was only a distraction.

「Crystal lance!」

Evileye launched a glassy, elongated object 2 meters across in the demon's direction. He was still reeling from dodging the war pick and would not be able to dodge this attack.

The lance unexpectedly cracked in mid air halfway to its target. A bullet had smashed into the glass-like material, causing a fracture to form. The lance's aerodynamics were thrown off slightly but maintained its overall trajectory.

Not good. Stockwell suppressed his dread as he realized just how powerful that magic caster must be if they could launch such a large object at such speed. He desperately deployed his flexible ignonick shield. He waved the blanket-like material in front of him and hardened in mid air.

He felt an intense pressure in his right arm followed by a sharp pain as the sound of the crystal lance shattering met his ears. He saw the broken tip of the lance pierce through the solidified shield and grind to a halt, dragging along the ceramic beads and spidersilk innards of the blanket.

He had little time to calculate the lance's destructive potential.

"What do you think you're doing taking your eyes off of me!"

Gagaran reached the war pick and lifted it up. She moved startlingly quick for someone of her build. Stockwell could hardly believe that she could manage to out pace him with that heavy armor of hers when he had all of the magical items from the six arms enhancing his agility.

Stockwell unhardened the shield and waved it to the left of him between him and Garagran. He solidified it once again and braced his left arm.

Gagaran swung into him.

「Smash」

He felt a tremendous impact followed by an equally tremendous pain as Garagran's war pick collided with the shield. The kinetic energy of the impact flowed into the left side of his body. To put it bluntly, he felt like he had just been hit by a bus. While not nearly as fast as the swordsman's slashing attack he witnessed the other day, it had easily double its raw kinetic energy.

He did his best to jump and roll along with the direction of Gagaran's swing to lessen the impact, but despite this he felt the bones in left arm snap. He could even feel the armor and metal brace along his forearm bend out of shape. A sharp, hot pain ran up his shoulder and he did his best not to emote.

His right hand fumbled to the tab on one of his chlorine canisters as he was launched several meters across the turf from the impact. With a frantic pull of the tab, a great hissing cloud of yellow fog erupted from his chest. The cloud of chlorine gas consumed him and Gagran in an instant.

"Get out of there muscle head!"

Gagaran heard her ally and quickly backpedaled out of the cloud. She was not unaffected however. She heeled over and began to retch. The pressurized gas continued to expand and she was forced to retreat even further.

After a few moments had passed and the chlorine had expanded to put a couple dozen meters of distance between them, Rhamnusia's voice pierced the sickly yellow cloud.

The demon's voice positively dripped with frustration.

"You sure turned tail quickly! You some kind of coward!? Why don't you come back here and try to squash me with that pick of yours? You'll be fine as long as you close your eyes and hold your breath."

Eviley hovered a great deal away from where her ally and the demon were.

"Don't fall for his taunt muscle head!"

Gagaran coughed up a wad of phlegm. "You don't have to remind me."

She had a headache from inhaling the gas but thankfully she hadn't taken in too much, relatively speaking. She was still more than capable of fighting.

The demon cackled gleefully.

"Oh but it's true! The chlorine won't hurt you as long as you close your eyes and hold your breath."

The demon's silhouette began to move inside the thick veil of gas. "I have good armor and magic items assuredly, but I don't have anywhere near the innate natural endurance of people such as you two. Truly, I would be in quite a nasty spot if you managed to get even a single good hit on me."

Evileye called out once more. "He's just trying to bait you muscle head! Don't be stupid!"

"Like I said! You Don't have to remind me!"

The demon chuckled once more.

"The most challenging opponent I've had to face so far in this world was a big ol' monk who simply ran at me. He managed to deflect a couple bullets and throw me to the ground, I really only escaped with my life due to— ."

「Crystal Lan—」

Bang.

A bullet zoomed out of the cloud of gas.

「Translocation Damage」. The damage was converted into mana loss. Evileye clicked her tongue, she would have to be forced to take the hits eventually or run the risk of burning through her mana.

At the very least, Rhamnusia's ranged attack seemed to be much weaker than the attack used by the one hiding in the darkness, so it may be possible to block them with her 「Crystal Sphere」. She had just been acting out of caution so far.

She was wary of how fast the cast time on Rhamnusia's magic weapon was.

"Don't interrupt your enemy when they're giving you hints on how to defeat them. Hahaha! Come and get me."

The demon laughed evilly as he opened another canister of chlorine with a loud hiss. The yellow cloud around him increased in opacity and his silhouette disappeared into the chlorine.

Gagaran fell back to Evileye where the vampire descended to meet her.

"Oi, Shorty." Gagaran said.

"What?"

"I think he's telling the truth. At least the part about the gas. As far as I can tell, it only affected my lungs and eyes. I think I can get to him as long as I close my eyes and hold my breath."

"Don't be an idiot."

"I'm not being an idiot. I'm saying that I can protect myself if I need to and that we should come up with a plan."

They began strategizing.

…

Under the cover of his poisonous fog, Stockwell went to work.

Despite being deeply immersed in the opaque fog, he could see the two women strategizing in the distance. This was thanks to a magic item called 「Necklace of the Eye」, a trinket he had taken from that swordsman earlier. Once activated it allowed him to see in lowlight conditions, protected him from blindness for several minutes, and granted him the ability to see through dust, fog, and other similar obstructions.

He looked in the direction of Vera. He saw flashes and heard some gunshots in the distance, but unfortunately, he was in no position to help her.

The first order of business was fixing his left arm. Gagaran's blow had left it crippled. He had done his best to try to conceal his pain in his dialogue. He hoped that his two opponents hadn't noticed or had mistaken his unstable cantour as merely him being an unhinged demon rather than being in severe amounts of pain.

He knelt down and stepped on his broken forearm. He bit his lip in pain as he leaned on his splintered arm with all of his body weight in an attempt to bend the metal braces and armor that Gagaran had dented back into shape.

Stygilight was very sturdy, so naturally, he could not bend it back entirely into its original shape with just his body weight and strength, but all he needed to do was to beat out the indentation just enough for the natural shape of his arm to fit and free up the currently locked elbow joint.

He could feel blood pooling beneath the armor as he kicked it several times back into place.

Once that was done, he fished out an ampule of dark red gas from one of his pouches. It was concentrated healing potion in the form of oxygen gas from his earlier experiments. It had a calculated potency of 43 RHC; more than his own health point maximum.

He only had three such ampules, so it was regrettable he had to use one on himself instead of using it to damage the undead vampire. Each one required 15-20 normal sized blue potions to make, equating to an exorbitant amount of money per ampule.

But he was in no position to be making complaints about finances.

He broke the delicate head of the ampule beneath the filter of his gas mask and breathed in deeply. The gas was chemically identical to normal oxygen so it had no issue passing through the filter.

Additionally, inhalation allowed the potion to absorb into his body far faster than ingestion or topical application.

His arm and body mended back into shape immediately. The pain was gone and feeling returned to his left hand. He examined the equipment on his left arm briefly.

One of the wires for the electromagnet was broken and there was an irreparable kink in the acetylene gas line. Both his torch and magnet would be unusable, but luckily the acid sprayer was still functional.

He looked at his ingonick hair shield. The crystal lance had torn a large hole in it even after he had hardened it. Broken strands of spider silk and silicon carbide beads hung loosely from the area of the tear, and a section of the shield remained hardened as a result of a broken water line.

He guessed that based on the hardness, clarity, and color of the crystal lance, it consisted of some kind of quartz crystal.

That would've made it softer than his stygilight armor and ignonick shield so normally it wouldn't have been able to penetrate very far. But as was the case with any material, with enough mass and velocity, even simple quartz could become a lethal threat. He calculated that if one of those crystal lances hit him directly in the head or torso, it would be game over.

He suppressed the panic in his mind. Calm down Wesley…

Both the magic caster and the armored woman were extremely dangerous. Both were easily on par with or above Zero's caliber. He had severely underestimated them, but the worst thing to do in this moment was to panic. He needed to keep his head cool.

Stepping out of the chlorine cloud to reunite with Vera was too great a risk. Allowing the vampire a clear line of fire to shoot crystal lances at him would be a death sentence. He had a flare that could potentially blind her to throw off her aim, but it only lasted for a few seconds. After that, he would be defenseless.

He reasoned that his best play then would be to switch his focus away from the magic caster and take out the armored warrior while he still had the safety of his chlorine.

His acid sprayer was his most potent weapon in that regard. It had an effective range of five meters within a 60 degree code and could spray for two continuous seconds. He had enough acid and slime enzyme for two shots. Even if Gagaran's armor happened to be made of adamantite, he reckoned his acid mixture could still eat through it so long as he maintained the full two seconds at close range.

He opened his last canister of chlorine gas. With a final hiss, the cloud around him darkened.

The wind was in his favor. He calculated he had another two minutes of total cover left before it would become too thin to effectively hide in.

He took off the bottom two canisters of his bandolier and opened their taps. These contained a concentrated solution of sodium metal dissolved in propylamine. The liquid was a deep coppery color and had very high electrical conductivity. In the chlorine rich atmosphere, it would not last very long on the ground, but he certainly had a few minutes before its properties decayed.

He took a minute to carefully spill the liquid evenly around him in as wide an area as possible.

Finally, in the event that they encountered an undead, he had had Faber craft a set of rounds from an ingot of enchanted silver he had acquired from the magician's guild. Stockwell had expected to use them in case they met a lich like Davernoch again or a necromancer from Aamon's cult, but they seemed like they were appropriate for the current situation as well. He went about carefully exchanging the rounds in his rifle.

…

Evileye and Gagaran discussed their plans. They looked into the deep yellow gas. It was regrettable that as an earth elementalist, Evileye didn't possess the air element spells necessary to neutralize or blow away the gas.

"Without anyway to blow away the gas, we won't be able to accurately target him." Gagaran said. "Also, if I charge in there, I'll be closing my eyes and mouth the whole time. I won't be able to see him, and I'll be fighting the whole time while holding my breath and listening only with my ears."

They furrowed her brows.

"I can try throwing Fel Iron again, but once it's lost in the fog, fat chance I'll be able to get it back."

Evileye agreed.

"In that case, it would be better to provoke him and make him reveal his position to us so that you can get another good swing on him. His ranged attack makes a lot of noise."

Gagaran nodded in agreement.

"He blocked my attack last time, but I'm pretty sure it hurt him bad. I could hear his bones break."

"Really?"

Evileye was surprised. If they were indeed fighting a high level demon, it was extremely unlikely that a single hit from Gagaran would've done enough damage to cause a mechanical injury.

"Yeah." Gagaran said. "It felt like smashing an oyster. Hard ass shell but squishy on the inside."

Gagaran smiled and flourished her war pick. "My natural prey."

Evileye rose into the air. From what it sounded like so far, Rhamnusia had a very "cheesy build" as the leader of the thirteen heroes would have put it to her. This demon was someone with very high defense and offense in exchange for a miniscule amount of HP.

He also looked to be someone who heavily relied on their equipment, such as the flexible shield he had used earlier. Moreover, it was still unclear where his skill investments were. He seemed to be magic focused, but she couldn't tell what kind of magic he was specialized in. At the very least, his primary strategy seemed to involve hiding and evading.

"He probably set up traps while we were talking," Evileye said, "I'll try to disarm them with my buck shots while provoking him. I'll also try to give you cover if I can. The moment you feel like you're in danger, get out there. I doubt I can save you if you get lost in that fog.

"Right."

Evileye looked down at the massive cloud of poisonous gas in front of her. She outstretched her hands.

「Widen Magic: Shard Buck Shots!」

Sharp crystals the size of tennis balls materialized in the air around her. She launched them into the cloud like a hail storm.

Gagaran began to orbit the cloud, waiting for her opportunity.

…

The buckshots rained down through the poisonous gas and Rhamnusia braced himself.

The shots were weak individually and could not pierce the stygilight armor beneath his coat, but that's not to say that they didn't hurt like hell. Even after putting up his shield to block most of the shots, it still felt like he was getting stoned.

Damn this hurts!

He raised his rifle and fired two shots at Evileye. As one might expect, holding up a shield with one arm and getting pelted by crystals tended to throw off one's aim.

Bang. Bang.

The bullets whizzed out of the fog and narrowly missed the vampire.

Evileye called out to Gagaran. "Go!"

Gagaran took a deep breath and charged into the gas.

Evileye stopped her 「Shard Buck Shots」 to avoid friendly fire.

She then turned to where she thought Rhamnusia to be after hearing the gun shots.

If he was indeed the type of opponent who relied heavily on equipment, then acid spells would be the best choice to use since they had the ability to directly damage equipment.

「Acid Splash!」

Translucent liquid materialized in the air and splashed downwards like water from a bucket being cast in a broad stroke. The acid fell through the chlorine in a heavy rain and drenched the demon. The turf sizzled and popped around him.

When the acid made contact with Rhamusia's coat, the normally black material discolored and turned gray, but the damage was merely cosmetic. His coat was made of asbestos and adamantite fibers, and cacked with a layer of fluorocarbons and chlorinated alkane wax. He had extensively studied the acidic properties of slimes and knew how to make his equipment resistant even to his own concentrated slime bile.

The 2nd tier spell raining down from above was of no concern to him.

You'll need to try harder than that to eat through it.

Most of his other gear that wasn't treated with acid resistant coating were still made of chemically inert adamantite alloys, so he was confident they should be fine to endure a little bit of punishment.

The demon's voice pierced the gas. He feigned a cry of panic. "AhHhH! You can use acid magic!?"

Evileye smirked in satisfaction. My suspicion was correct. He doesn't like acid.

「Acid Splash!」

She slung another pool of acid into the fog. This elicited another cry of pain from the demon hiding below.

Stockwell heard Gagaran's footsteps approaching. She had been given more than enough information to determine Rhamnusia's location within the fog. He turned his head and saw her approaching fast. As he saw the shadow of her war pick that snapped his arm like a twig earlier, he resisted the urge to panic and activate his trap too soon.

Calm down, I have enough time.

He reached into a pouch at his waist and withdrew an elongated cylinder wrapped in brown paper. A fuse protruded from the top of it. He brought it near the sparker on his left gauntlet that was normally used to light the acetylene torch and the fuse began to burn brightly.

He turned away from Gagaran and ran in an arc around the edge of the cloud to buy just a few more seconds for the fuse to burn lower.

Gagaran had her eyes closed so she had no way of seeing the soft orange glow of the fuse filtering through the chlorine ahead of her. She could only hear the quiet crackle of the burning fuse and Rhamnsuia's retreating footsteps.

Rhamnusia quickly flicked the burning object in Gagaran's direction as he faked another scream in response to Evileye's next acid attack. Gagaran heard the demon's screams and the sizzle of acid just a few seconds ahead of her. She quickened her pace.

You're mine—!

BOOM

The ground quaked beneath her feet with an explosion of heat and sound.

"Musclehead!" Evileye yelled into the fog.

Had Gagaran been a normal human, the dynamite would've killed her and thrown her dismembered corpse several meters across the courtyard. But she was not a normal human.

Her armored frame was heavy and titanic. All it managed to do was knock her off balance. She fell backwards as her armor absorbed the brunt of the impact.

Due to her closing her eyes, he had little knowledge of what Rhamnuisa just did to her. It was hot, so she thought it might have been the third tier spell 「Fireball」, but 「Fireball」 tended to be hotter and was bright enough that she should've been able to see a red glow through her eyelids.

She also remembered 「Fireball」 not being nearly as loud or disorienting. To give it an analogy, getting hit by a fireball was like being thrown by a burning judo toss, while whatever Rhamnusia had just done felt like getting sucker punched in the gut.

The sharp pressure wave disrupted the fluid in her ears causing her to lose the sense of up and down. Likewise, the pressure wave had forced her airways open for a moment, and she had been forced to take a breath. A small amount of chlorine had managed to slip into her lungs.

She clenched the muscles on her face tightly. Her lungs burned and her body screamed at her to open her mouth for fresh air, but she refused to breathe.

Her immediate thought was that this was a combo attack from Rhamnusia. Now that he had knocked her off her feet with the explosion, he was going to follow up with a high power spell.

"Get out of there musclehead! I'll cover you!"

Garagaran heard her ally through the ringing in her ears. She was in full agreement. There was no need to be stupid here. Best to retreat out of the fog and restrategize. She struggled to her feet. But, without vision and with her sense of balance disrupted from the blast, such a thing was impossible.

"「Acid Splash!」"

Evileye slung another pool of acid into the fog.

Rhamnusia screamed. "Stop casting that damned spell will you!"

Evileye caught the glint of a small glass object breaching the top of the yellow fog. It tumbled clumsily in the air towards her in a high arc.

"What the—?"

Her immediate thought was that this was the same attack Rhamnusia had just used against Gagaran. An explosion, in other words. In that case it would be best to block it rather than try to dodge an AOE in vain.

"「Crystal Wall!」"

A sturdy wall of clear-blue crystal materialized in front of her.

The glass ampule broke against it with a quiet pop. The dark red gas inside erupted into a small cloud that easily expanded past the wall towards Evileye.

"Wha—AhH!"

She screamed as the gas came into contact with her skin. Her face and skin blistered where it made contact. She recognized this pain immediately from her 200 years of experience as a vampire.

It was the pain of an undead like herself coming into contact with a healing potion. She dropped out of the sky. Confusion passed through her as she fell. A red potion? How does Rhamnusia have something like that?

Gagaran picked herself up from the ground the moment her vestibular sense returned. She felt moisture in her palms. Water?

The turf was slick with some kind of liquid. It had gotten all over her when she fell from the blast, soaking into the crevasse of her armor. The chlorine gas had long since destroyed her olfactory senses so she had no way of smelling the liquid to be sure.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and began to head in the direction she thought she had entered the cloud from.

Suddenly, the moment she went to get up to move the sensation of pins and needles flooded her body. Her legs buckled underneath her.

The demon's voice came from behind her. "Where do you think you're headed?"

She heard Rhamnusia's foot falls grow louder. With every step he took, she could feel the paralyzing sensation increase in intensity.

Bright electric arcs jumped from the wire trailing behind the demon's battery pack into the puddle of liquid covering the ground like a coppery oil slick.

"This amount of current would've killed any human from Earth I know, yet you're still managing to make movements. Congratulations, by my calculations you're more durable than that swordsman."

Gagran struggled with single minded intensity to move, but no matter how hard she tried her body wouldn't listen to her. Her legs twitched benather her, rebellious to her neurons' commands.

The demon's battery pack smoked and popped as he neared her.

Gagaran felt the electricity weaken for a moment and she pushed with all her might. For an instant, she regained control of her legs—

—Sphuishhhhh

A dense stream of sizzling vapor bored into the back of her head, neck, and torso. Her armor blackened and flaked away and the exposed flesh on the back of her head blistered. The combined, concentrated digestive power of 50 fully grown slimes bored into her.

She did not have time to contemplate the pain.

Bang. Bang.

It almost felt unfair.

Despite maintaining concentration on the gas spell, paralyzing spell, and acid spell all simultaneously, Rhamnusia also had the ability to use his magical weapon with no cast time. She didn't know all of the details when it came to casting magic, but this seemed like cheating.

Two bullets slammed into the back of her skull from point blank range. Each shot was surgical in placement; aimed at the base of her brain stem with the intent to end her life.

"Wear a helmet, idiot."

She felt a profound dizziness as her head recoiled from the shock. She fought the urge to fall unconscious.

She reasoned that it was unlikely that she would be making it out of this alive. In hindsight, the better play would've been to let Evileye handle this whole thing at range while she went to assist Tia.

It was her overeagerness after feeling the demon's bones snap in their first exchange that had led to this unfortunate scenario.

But that doesn't matter now. She thought. There was no point in dwelling in regret.

Lakyus could revive her after the fact. The best thing she could do now to help her team was to get in one last hit.

She summoned every microgram of will in her body to move. 「Ability boost」

She would contort her body in one motion and bring Fel Iron into the side of the demon standing over her.

She committed to her martial art.

「Spinning Sma—」

Bang.

A third bullet entered her brain. The power in her martial art faded as the consciousness was reaped from her body. It was absurd how fast the cooldown on that magic weapon was.

...

Vera shot the crystal lance headed for Stockwell. She nodded to herself, that was the last bit of support she would be able to provide him for a while. She knew the assassin was coming for her.

A kunai materialized from the darkness. Vera prepared to dodge, but the kunai instead shot forth and collided with the rifle in her hands She missed?

Vera squinted in realization. No, she's being cautious. She's wary of the rifle. She aims to take it out before dealing with me.

Vera remembered the direction of the thrown kunai and aimed into the darkness.

「Dark Crossing」

Tia avoided getting shot by teleporting to another nearby shadow. Vera clicked her tongue.

I have a feeling this is going to be annoying, and I bet she's thinking the same thing. She's avoiding getting shot at all costs so she's being careful to stay hidden. But she needs to make a move eventually.

「Shadow clone.」

The clone did not bother to dodge, it beelined directly into Vera's barrel. She squeezed the trigger and it dissipated.

She's still just testing me out, but I can tell she's determined to take out the gun... I just need to do what Wesley and I always do: End this with a decisive strike before the enemy has a chance to get serious. I just need to figure out how...

Vera reached a hand into a pouch at her waist.

Best to just play it safe until then though. I'm lucky my opponent uses daggers.

She pulled her hand from the pouch and with it, a handful of iron filings. She tossed them in a wide arc around her and they drizzled down like gray rain.

Another shadow clone ran at her from the front.

Doing this again?

She squeezed the trigger.

「Immobility Binding Paralysis」

Vera felt her body tense. Paralysis!?

「Dark Crossing」

Vera did not need to see Tia to imagine that she was closing in for a kill. It would be the most obvious thing to do in her situation where her target was immobilized.

Luckily, as an air elementalist specialized in lightning spells, Vera had access to spells that easily countered paralysis.

「Silent Magic: Freedom of Movement」

Her body flashed a dim yellow light as movement returned to her limbs. She immediately pulled the tab on her canister of chlorine.

Her field of vision turned yellow as a torrent of gas erupted from her chest.

She heard what sounded like someone taking a surprised inhale from behind her. She turned around only to briefly see a shadow fade from her view.

Vera had hoped to paralyze the ninja while she was in the chlorine or follow up with a shot, but Tia had been too fast.

This girl has insane instincts and reaction speed… As expected of an adamantite adventurer…

The realization that she, a simple third tier magic caster, was fighting one on one against an adamantite adventurer suddenly dawned on her.

Vera largely considered herself on par with a mythril or Orichalcum plate adventurer, but those bearing adamantite plates tended to be more than just a single step above them in power. Many of them were said to have one foot in the realm of heroes.

In a normal fight, her chance of winning against Tia would be less than 20%/

But, this wasn't a normal fight.

Vera had access to weapons that could devastate even an adamantite plate adventurer should it connect, and armor and special techniques that would normally not exist in this world. If she were going to win this, it would be these additional tools that would have to decide it.

She briefly looked around into the cloud of chlorine. She couldn't see more than a meter ahead of her.

Damn it Wesley, you should've given me that necklace instead. I'll ask Galdur to copy the enchantment on it later… fine then.

She focused and cast a spell

「Electro Sensory Pulse」

It was only a first tier spell that radiated a small pulse of electricity from the magic caster. It did no damage, but it was useful for exposing people cloaked in stealth because the magic caster would be able to tell when it collided with a living thing, similar to how the electric sense works in platypuses.

A wave of light pulsed out from Vera and distorted slightly when it made contact with Tia. Vera's eye briefly caught the assassin's washed out form.

The ninja was crouched low to the ground more than a dozen meters away, just outside the radius of the chlorine.

There!

Vera raised her rifle and shot. Tia had countermeasures to that level of detection magic, but had assumed that her opponent was specialized in ranged physical abilities so she had not bothered to prepare said countermeasures. She panicked slightly.

「Immovable Adamantite Shield!」

A large shield radiating multiple colors appeared in front of her. It narrowly deflected the bullet.

…

Tia, realizing she had been exposed, ran through several options in her mind.

The trickiest thing about her opponent was that she was concealed deep with a bank of poisonous fog. It would make getting into melee range extremely risky, she couldn't see her opponent as is, and she would have to hold her breath and close her eyes as she approached.

Moreover, it seemed that her opponent moved after every shot, so she had little clue of where to head in the first place.

However, she couldn't just sit outside the fog forever. If she did that, one of those projectiles would hit her eventually.

「Dark Crossing」

She teleported to the other side of the fog to avoid an incoming bullet. She noticed that the bright light emitted by the weapon could be seen as a faint glow coming through the yellow gas.

That's it.

「Shadow Clone」

She sent a clone of herself into the fog and focused on its approach.

Bang.

As expected, her shadow clone was destroyed. And in that same moment, she saw the flash of the gun shot reveal her opponent's silhouette through the fog for a moment.

「Shadow Clone」

「Shadow Clone」

She made two shadow clones and commanded them to run into the fog, one following a second behind the other.

Tia took a deep breath and prepared to enter the fog. She'd finish this fight before having to take another breath.

Vera saw a form approach from ahead.

Again with these clones? Is she trying to waste all of her abilities?

Bang.

The clone dispersed.

However, Tia, who had been watching the light carefully, was able to pinpoint Vera's Position.

「Bursting Flame Column」

A column of fire burst forth at Vera's location. Violent tongues of flames wrapped around her.

Vera gasped with pain.

Same as it was with Stockwell, her equipment was flame proof, so she could not burn. However, even through the heavy insulation the heat was ferocious. She was racked with a wave of dizziness.

She remembered how during their fight with the six arms, Stockwell had been subjected to a series of fireballs and remained conscious, so she knew she could struggle through so long as she remained focused.

She dropped to one knee.

Focus! She's surely going to follow this up with an attack!

She saw a silhouette approaching her from the front.

Don't fall for it! It's a distraction. An opponent like her always attacks from behind!

Vera turned around, rifle in hand prepared to intercept the ninja.

She saw a different silhouette approaching from that direction and squeezed the trigger.

Bang.

「Dark crossing.」

Tia was prepared for this.

The flames created by her 「Flame Bursting Column」 were bright enough to cast a shadow on her shadow clone approaching from the other direction. She teleported to its shadow to avoid the bullet.

Vera saw Tia's form disappear. Huh!?

She turned back to the front where the shadow clone had reached her. It grappled the barrel of the rifle.

Oh no you don't!

She loaded another round into the chamber, but as she was squeezing the trigger—

「Bursting Flame Column」

The fire surrounding Vera went out, as another column of flame appeared, only this time it was centered on Tia's own shadow clone.

The shadow clone was utterly destroyed by the technique, however doing so cast Vera in a bright orange light, leading her to cast a prevalent shadow.

Bang.

「Dark crossing」

Tia jumped into Vera's shadow and unsheathed her blade as her shadow clone faded away.

Vera panicked as she saw her opponent disappear once more from view. With a desperate prayer, she dropped her rifle and activated her experimental magic.

「Static Charge」

Tia saw Vera's form burned into the back of her eyelids by the light of the fading fire. Crouching low, she aimed for the heart, striking at an upward angle; a path every skilled assassin knew that avoided the ribs.

「Assassinate」

Her blade bit into the armor on Vera's back. However, it did not penetrate as far as she hoped.

With the sound of scraping metal, she felt her aim slip, and though she could not tell for certain as she could not open her eyes, her blade felt strangely dull.

The surface of her blade was gummed up with iron shavings.

And while Tia had suspected her opponent might be earring armor beneath their coat, she was surprised by how hard it was. It was almost on the level of adamantite.

Suddenly, she felt the hairs on her body stand at attention and she could taste an overwhelming bitter, metallic taste in her mouth.

Tia's instincts told her that something bad was about to happen.

She pulled her dagger away but could not dislodge it from Vera's armor.

What is this!?

Tia decided to abandon it. As her hand let the handle of her dagger, a thin streak of electricity jumped from the handle to her retreating hand. It only stung, but it freaked her out nonetheless.

What's going on!?

Tia turned on a dime and sprinted out of the fog. Once she was out, she opened her eyes to see her opponent looking in her direction.

"Oh no you don't! You're still charged!" Vera yelled.

Vera threw an object at Tia. Although "threw" was a bit misleading of a term.

Vera simply tossed a small metal object in Tia's direction, and as if by some unknown force, it accelerated through the air all on its own.

Tia ducked beneath the object, and as it passed, Tia could feel the hairs on her body being drawn towards it like the needle of a compass.

Ultimately though, it mattered little that Tia managed to dodge it.

BANG.

The small object exploded into a blinding light and sound, disabling Tia's visual and vestibular senses. She stumbled forward. This is bad...I-I can't see or hear, I can't balance.

「Skeletal Grip!」

Boney hands erupted from beneath the ground and grabbed hold of Tia's arms and legs, pinning her to the ground.

Shit! I was careless!

Vera saw that Tia had finally been caught. She celebrated inside. Finally!

Vera was confident she could win now. She only needed her opponent to stay still for a moment for her magic to secure victory.

Her metal rifle had been displaced when she used her magic earlier, so she didn't have time to pick it back up and shoot the ninja. Also, there was no guarantee a single shot would kill her.

So, she relied on her magic.

It was a new creation, unique to this world that operated both on the rules of tier magic and the laws of physics.

She laced her fingers together and outstretched her hands in front of her, right on top of left. With great effort, she slowly separated her glowing hands like the opening of a jaw, sparks jumped between her separating finger tips. Her spell began to forcibly rip the electrons from every atom in the environment below her left hand, cationizing the ground, the air, and the skin of the stumbling assassin in front of her. The electrons then moved to the area above her right hand, compelled by an overwhelming positive charge.

In essence, it was actually an incredibly simple spell. All it did was create a charge differential.

Her hands continued to separate, cationizing the ground and anionizning the air. The two masses of positive and negative charges continued to grow in strength with every electron ripped from the environment. She felt her mana rapidly draining as she forced these two opposing entities to stay apart.

This would use a lot of mana, so she needed to make it count.

The light around them crescendoed into a bright white as the strength of the electric field surpassed the dielectric strength of the air. Pulsing fractals of electricity spiraled outward through the air overhead, like a thundering storm cloud.

A couple seconds had passed and Tia had just barely gained her senses back, just enough to raise her head to look back at the magic caster. Her various daggers and metal armaments rattled in their sheaths in response to the powerful magnetic field being generated.

Tia's hair which was normally tied up like a broom had come undone and spread out like an afro.

She tried to move but found that she was still pinned down by the skeletal hands.

「Dark Crossing」

She teleported to the opposite side of Vera where the shadow of the poisonous fog was being cast. Tia celebrated inside, the caster's spell would've undoubtedly killed her but she had managed to escape.

Vera saw for a brief moment that her target had disappeared, she did not panic.

Tia was in the casting zone and thus was positively charged, there was no escaping this spell with short range teleportation once it had already been set into motion..

「Over magic — Ion Avalanche」

The ions smashed together with the sound of thunder.

Tia could not avoid the torrent of electricity, seeking her out at nearly the speed of light.

She was reduced to a lump of charred flesh, leaving behind a strong stench of ozone.

…

Evileye finished healing herself with negative energy. Vision returned to her as the swelling on her eyes, mouth, and lungs receded.

Was that really a healing potion?

The sensation of positive energy coursing through her body from exposure to a healing potion was unmistakable. She had experienced the sensation several times before. What's more, she was aware of the existence of red healing potions and knew them to be many times stronger than the normal blue ones.

But those potions were liquid. The thing that had been thrown at her had clearly been a gas. There was no liquid vapor or residue left behind.

She wondered if Rhamnusia's yellow gas was something similar.

Does he have a skill to turn liquid poisons and potions into gas?

The sound of three gunshots broke her thoughts.

Curses! I was out too long, he got us.

"Musclehead!"

She received no reply.

Instead she saw Rhamnusia's silhouette through fog. He was illuminated from behind by a small fire emanating from the box on his back and billowing a large cloud of white smoke.

Rhamnusia did not bother trying to put out the electrical fire. He had pushed his battery pack too far trying to electrocute Gagaran and was paying the price for it. He simply unstrapped his battery pack and let it fall to the ground.

With a pair of mechanical clicks, he twisted off the corroded nozzle of his acid sprayer and replaced it with a new one. The old nozzle clattered to the ground, still sizzling apart from the residue of concentrated slime bile.

Evileye knew what Rhamnusia approaching her meant.

She cursed internally. I'm sorry musclehead, I'll find Lakyus and get us out of this mess.

She refused to flee as long as she still had a chance of victory. Rhamnusia was a slippery opponent for sure, but he was not beyond defeat. Especially because he had let slip his weakness. All she needed to do was get a few good shots in. Moreover, with Gagaran no longer part of the equation, she could go all out without fear of friendly fire.

She steadily rose into the air. She took a deep breath and bared her fangs.

She spoke coolly. "I bet you think you're strong, Rhamnusia."

The demon laughed mockingly. "Think? No, I have an exact calculation of it."

"Hmph. Did you really think I was going all out?" Evileye said.

Rhamnusia let out an insane laugh. "What is that supposed to mean? This is a fight where either party is liable to die and you choose to hold back? Thank you for the handicap, I suppose."

Evileye scowled at him.

Enough time has passed for the chlorine gas to spread out enough that he couldn't hide completely. It was like a murky yellow swamp from the waist down, but from waist up, it was now thin enough that she could clearly see the demon's silhouette.

She formulated a plan to defeat the demon and did not waste any time. She summoned a crystal lance and immediately launched it at Rhamnusia.

"「Crystal Lance」!"

"Woah there!"

It was easier to avoid now that he only had one opponent to focus on and thanks to their distance, but it was still terrifying nonetheless.

It would be impossible to take the attack head on. Stockwell hastily turned to the side and allowed the crystal projectile to slide off the hardened flat of his ignonick shield.

He immediately returned fire. The time it took for him to rack the lever on his rifle was far shorter than the time it took for a spell to come off of its cool down.

Bang.

Even with her flying around and at a fair distance away, Stockwell was able to shoot accurately thanks to the magic items that granted him better senses and dexterity.

「Crystal Sphere」

A bubble of tightly locked, hexagonal crystal plates materialized around Evileye.

The silver smashed into one of the plates but did not break through, only leaving a spider web fracture in the surface.

Stockwell's eyes went wide. Bullet proof glass! No way!

Eveileye smirked. As she had suspected, Rhamnusia's ranged attacks were much weaker than those of the sniper.

And now that she could see him clearly, she had nothing to fear from him.

「Quicken magic: Acid Splash」

「Twin Magic: Crystal Dagger」

She launched a series of spells at him while closing the distance.

Stockwell turned on his heel and ran. I need to run!

He screamed as he heard the sizzle of acid lap at his ankles followed by the two thuds behind him.

"You can't run!" Eveile shouted from behind.

He quickly fished a flare from his pouch, ignited it, and lifted it over his head.

SSSssshhhhhh

The flare immediately began to burn with the brightness of 60,000 lumens. It had a pyrotechnic mixture of magnesium and potassium nitrate similar to the composition of the flares used in world war 1 to light up entire battle fields.

The entirety of the courtyard was bathed in light.

Evileye squinted, trying to find the demon. So many ways to hide! Annoying!

It was like trying to look directly into the sun. She held her spells, looking for a place to aim.

Even with the flare held above his head, it was still intensely bright for Stockwell, as the light of the flare diffused off the chlorine beneath him and into the holes of his mask.

He squinted in Vera's direction. She looked to still be engaged. Damn it! I have to do something. That shield of hers is a problem. If you had something like that, why didn't you use it earlier you fucking vampire!?

He had a minute before the flare went out, he needed to make the most of it.

AS he considered his option, he realized that he should've made some kind of holster to attach the flare to the back of his helmet, so that he had use of both of his hands. As he was now, he would have to constantly be holding it with his left hand awkwardly behind his head.

Lets just try this then.

He fished another stick of dynamite out of a pouch. I'm going to blow that shield of yours apart as soon as you get into range—

The flare sputtered out.

Now way! Did I mess up when making it!?

He quickly examined both the flare and the dynamite in his hands. The central column of the fuse had been corroded away by acid.

Damn it! All those spells must've leaked into my pouch.

"You can't hide!"

He saw the vampire turn on a dime in mid air, rubbing the light out of her eyes.

Without fear of retaliation, she flew directly at him to close the distance.

Stockwell panicked. What do I do!?

He had no way of defending himself in time. He turned to flee.

"「Crystal Wall」!"

A wall appeared in front of him as he tried to run.

Fuck!

He turned in the opposite direction and brought a hand to his satchel to fish out a stun grenade.

"No more escaping! 「Region Petrification」!"

Eveileye stretched out her hand towards him as she flew.

Stockwell felt his movements grind to a crawl, as though his feet were being transformed to stone. What is this!?

"「Maximize magic: Crystal Lance」!"

Stockwell saw the shard of crystal materialize before Eveileye. It was almost 50% larger than the ones she had summoned before. I can't avoid this one! Have to use it!

The crystal lance rocketed towards him. He watched in slow motion dread as he saw his own masked facade in the reflection of the approaching crystal.

He struggled to raise his middle finger. Stockwell had thought that it was only fitting that he put the ring on that finger. 「Deflection Ring」

His body flashed briefly in response to the active item. It had the ability to deflect a single ranged attack up to a certain level. Though, he would not be able to use it again for a full hour.

The crystal collided with his chest. The stygilight plate protecting him warped inward with a metallic creek.

Stockwell immediately felt pain as his chest muscles contracted and his ribs cracked under the pressure. Heat poured into his chest.

He let out a pained, breathless squeak. W-Was the ring not enough!?

The 「Deflection Ring」 had only managed to partially negate the 4th tier spell. Though, Stockwell had the feeling that if he hadn't activated it, it would've gone right through his armor. That magic is terrifying!

The crystal lance splintered and bounced to the ground before fading into nothingness.

Rhamnusia reeled from the force of the attack and stumbled backwards. He fell to his hands and feet.

Given that Rhamnusia wore a mask and his coat obscured the condition of his armor underneath, Eveileye couldn't tell the extent of his injury. All she knew was that her 「Crystal Lance」 had connected and knocked the demon to the ground.

All according to plan. She smirked with satisfaction. This was all just to prevent him from counter attacking while she prepared the coup de grace.

"「Sand Field」!"

It was a 5th tier spell of her own creation.

Sand particles dispersed throughout the surroundings. The particles clouded and thickened around the demon, and the ground beneath his hands and feet began to shift and slide.

Rhamnusia struggled to get back to his feet as the sand storm roared in his ears. What's she planning!? Another crystal!?

He could not see nor hear inside the storm despite his 「Necklace of the Eye」, nor could he move against the torrent of sand shifting beneath his feet. As a result, he was immobilized, blinded, silenced, and dazed, as were the intended effects of the spell.

Stockwell frantically went about his mental list of tools and weapons he had on him, but found nothing that could help him in this situation. Worry filled him as he realized that he was completely at the vampire's mercy.

Why didn't she just open with this!?

Evileye gazed at the sandstorm below her.

Normally in this situation, she would now infuse her 「Sand Field」 with the excess negative energy in her body causing any living creature caught inside to suffer from life drain.

However, she had used most of that energy up healing herself from the potions. Besides, she had something far greater up her sleeve. Rhamnusia had been foolish enough to reveal his weakness to her and she knew exactly how to capitalize on it.

She stretched her hands towards the sandstorm. "Suffer and die. 「Boost Magic: Medusa Tears」!"

The spinning sandstorm tightened around the demon, gaining speed like a ballerina pulling their arms in. The particles of sand flashed green in color and the environment began to sizzle and steam. It was a skill that infused acid damage into all her earth-type elemental spells. This effect was boosted thanks to her metamagic and her earth element specialization.

Corrosive sand ripped into the demon.

Stockwell braced his arms over his face and did his best to crouch his body into as small a ball as possible to reduce his surface area. He had no other choice than to have faith his equipment could endure the storm. He wrapped his ignonick shield around him.

Evileye continued the spell with single minded intensity.

She heard a muffled scream from within the sand storm.

She expected that a powerful demon like Rhamnusia might be able to break free from the storm and launch a counter attack, but no such attack came.

She held the spell for its whole thirty second duration.

The sand storm petered out with the scratchy sigh of sand particles drifting back to the ground.

The effect it had on the environment was evident. The loose turf of the courtyard had been stripped away in the spell's area to reveal its stone foundations. The stones themselves were pitted from the extreme acid exposure and increasingly eroded into smaller particles toward the spell's center.

And at the spell's center, Evileye saw Rhamnusia's form. He was slumped over on all fours and buried ankle deep in a mound of still steaming sand.

She made out the remnants of the flexible shield he had been using the whole fight. It had practically sloughed apart like a liquid and pooled to one side of him.

His normally all black appearance was bleached entirely gray. His helmet was heavily pitted from sizzling nodules of caustic sand and many of his unknown tools looked to be heavily damaged.

But, he was still clearly alive. She could see his head moving with heavy breaths. That was not good.

That was the strongest acid attack she was capable of mustering. She had hoped to dissolve him completely into a puddle of carboniferous muck.

How? I thought acid was his weakness?

Rhamnusia answered as though the demon was reading her mind.

"I'm no stranger to acid." Rhamnusia coughed. "I know full well how it works in this world. It is enzymatic and consumptive in nature. So long as you understand that, it is possible to design a countermeasure for any strength of acid."

He began to chuckle as he struggled to his feet. Sand fell from his cloak in gummed up, waxy sheets. "Your acid is strong."

He stretched his arms and looked around at his coat that had been bleached light gray. And as he did so, his chuckle morphed into a deranged laughter. "Your acid is strong indeed! HAhAhAhaAhaAH! But you know nothing about the minutiae! Nothing of the science behind this world's corrosive substances!"

"The hell are you talking about!? Science!?"

"A beautiful word, yes! Yes! Your acid is strong by Earth standards, but if you made it any stronger, it would begin to consume your own silicates and thereby waste its corrosive power! You're shooting yourself in the foot by trying to use it in conjunction with another material effectively. And if you can't dissolve quartz, you can't dissolve me."

He raised his rifle towards Evileye.

She saw the gesture.

「Crystal Sphere」

Her bubble of crystal appeared immediately.

Rhamnusia pulled the trigger.

Click.

The weapon did not fire.

"Oh, of course. The sand." He tipped the barrel downward and a stream of sand rolled out.

「Crystal Lance」

The battle was not over. Evileye still had some mana to play with.

As the vampire materialized another lance, Stockwell lobbed what he deemed to be a useless weapon against her.

"What the—?"

The move didn't seem like a threatening attack, in fact, the clunky object probably wouldn't even reach her at their distance. Regardless, the gesture was surprising and she delayed her attack a moment to move out of the gun's trajectory.

Afterall, this was Rhamnusia's primary weapon, surely this was meant to do something.

She flew to the side as the gun sailed below her and fell lifelessly to the ground with a thud.

"Hm?"

What was that supposed to do?

She looked back to Rhamnusia. He was holding in hands three small ampules of light-green, light-blue, and gold colored gasses.

These were concentrated agility, haste, and strength potions respectively. Each one took anywhere from 20-30 normal sized potions to make.

The gun throw was just to distract Evileye for the half-second he needed to pull the potions out.

He broke the ampules underneath the filter of his gas mask and inhaled deeply. This one breath cost him approximately 90 years worth of wages of the average Re-Estize citizen.

As Evileye saw him do this, it clicked in her mind where Rhamnusia's main skills were invested.

He's an alchemist!

She launched the crystal lance at him.

Stockwell's sense of time slowed to a crawl as the effects of the potions took hold. The haste potion sped up all of the body's processes such as perception and reflexes. Crucially, one of the body's mechanisms that was also sped up was metabolism.

This meant that the effect of the potion would be felt greater than normal but its duration would be exponentially shortened. The same was true for other potions taken in tandem with the haste potion. That is to say, they would be metabolized exponentially quicker as well.

Right off the shelf, the haste potion had an advertised duration of two minutes. But when concentrated twenty times over through Stockwell's chemical means, that duration became closer to about two seconds.

He saw the lance float towards him at the rate of a casual stroll and he easily stepped out of the way.

Or rather, he felt his right foot shatter as he launched himself out of the pile of sand.

While it was true that the supernatural abilities the potions instilled acted outside of his muscles and would not tear apart his body directly, his body and the armor that supported it would still have to endure the impact of his limbs and joints against whatever objects they came into contact with. This included the ground.

This maneuver was his last ditch trump card. With this enhanced speed and strength, he could outrun a car and kick down a tree, but his body would be utterly destroyed in the process. Additionally at the end of the duration he would suffer severe mental whiplash from his mind suddenly going into perception overload.

He rocketed towards Evileye.

The pain was beyond comparison as he dashed across the courtyard. With his enhanced perception, he could do nothing but feel the pain in absolute clarity as the bones in his feet broke into smaller and smaller pieces with each step.

Sounds of his own screams rattled into his ears from within his mask.

But this was just physical pain. A mere sensation within his mind where he had absolute dominion.

It could not compel him to stop.

Evileye saw Rhamnusia's form briefly disappear into a cloud of kicked up sand as she fired the crystal lance.

"Wha—!"

Her ears were met by the demon's scream; a pain-fueled war cry doppler shifting into a higher pitch as he accelerated towards her in a blur of motion.

—Fast!

It was like she was fighting an entirely different opponent now. She intuited that he was trying to close into melee range so she instinctively flew upwards to gain altitude.

She moved just in time as the demon's form skidded under her.

Stockwell saw her rise to roughly twenty meters above him and saw her make the motion to cast another spell. He did not give her pause.

He drew the sword holstered at his waist.

The sword in question was the rapier he had acquired from the fencer Malmvist of the Six-Arms. It was called "Rose Thorn." It had two terrifying complimentary enchantments imbued into it.

The first was called "Grinding Flesh". The moment the rapier came into contact with skin, it would tear the flesh around it apart. If the sword pierced the skin, it would leave an even more massive wound with the flesh torn about.

The second was called "Master Assassin." It was an enchantment that would turn even a minor scratch into a serious wound.

The two enchantments together made even a scratch lethal.

And he drew this sword from the magical scabbard he had taken from the warrior Peshurian called a "Scabbard of Haste", which increased his attack and movement speed for a few seconds after drawing a weapon.

Stockwell fixed his gaze at the vampire twenty meters above him. She was inside her crystal bubble and moving her hands in slow motion for what was assuredly another spell.

He crouched down low.

He did not bother to brace himself for the pain to come, he already knew it would be this way. There was no reason to ruminate on it.

He activated his acid sprayer. He didn't intend to use it immediately, but there was a small, roughly fifth of a second delay between the psychically actuating the switch and the valve opening that would allow the acid mixture to flow.

Then he moved.

Like a spring being released, he launched himself into the air. As his legs fully extended, he felt his tibias and corresponding muscles tear away from his knees, only remaining attached to his body by way of his armor.

He would not be able to move again until his legs were healed. Therefore, he needed to finish this fight before he hit the ground again.

His vision blurred over red as the capillaries in his eyes burst from the geforce. He lost consciousness for a moment as the blood rushed away from his head before he immediately snapped back into clarity when he crashed into Eveileye's crystal bubble.

He saw the vampire's startled expression reflected many times over in the fractures splinting of her crystal sphere. Her lips moved to express something but Stockwell's perception of time was too slow for the sound to be meaningful.

He bounced into the sphere chest first, leaving a mark but failing to fully break through or firmly lodge himself in it as he intended. This would've been much cleaner had he not lost consciousness from the geforce.

He should've planned this out better, he chided himself.

Before he bounced out of arm's reach, he punched into the sphere with his left hand.

With his enhanced strength, breaking into the solid quartz was like breaking into an egg shell, albeit an egg shell that liquified the hand inside his gauntlet in the process.

A fifth of a second had passed and the acid sprayer hissed to life. A cloud of concentrated slime bile filled the space within Evileye's bubble.

He followed up immediately with Rose Thorn in his right hand. He thrusted towards Evileye.

The sword thrust was able to break through the solid crystal once more, but the recoil of the blade tip breaking through the crystal dislocated his right hand at the wrist.

The rapier plunged into the vampire's midsection from below.

A huge portion of her abdomen was gouged away by the rapier's enchantments, enough to expose her spinal column, while the cloud of acid accosted her extremities.

Stockwell thought he could hear her scream. This was an undeniably lethal maneuver. He had effectively destroyed enough flesh to reduce her body weight by 25%. And Yet—

How?

Her blood red eyes shifted to make eye contact with him.

To be able to see him clearly while he was moving this fast should've been impossible.

A shiver of terror crept up his back.

Rage was on her face. Her fangs dripped with her own blood.

His consciousness flickered as the effects of the potions began to fade and the passage of time began to accelerate.

For Evileye only two seconds had passed since she saw Rhamnusia inhale the potions.

She had seen him approach in a blur of motion but had lost track of him for a moment when he had passed under her. But after she felt the demon collide with her crystal sphere she was able to locate him once more.

Though he had acted too fast for her to be able to cast a proactive spell in time.

She considered herself careless for not immediately applying her 「crystal skin」 the moment she thought Rhamnusia was trying to close into melee. Her reaction was slow because it had been some time since she had been forced into a situation where she had needed to use it.

She really hadn't expected Rhamnusia to be able to power up so suddenly and violently.

But, that was the situation she found herself in now.

Her exposed skin melted away immediately under the cloud of acid. Whatever nonsense Rhamnusia had been spouting at her earlier about acid must've not been all talk. This was definitely the most powerful acid attack she had ever been hit with.

Simultaneously, she felt her lower body rend apart around the area of the blade that the demon stuck into her.

She could still feel bodily pain even as an undead vampire. It wasn't as severe as what she remembered as her time as a human, but it still made her scream in pain nonetheless.

Luckily, as an undead such injuries were not un-life threatening. Her heart did not beat as is, so her blood pressure dropping from the injury did not affect her consciousness. All that mattered was that she still had HP.

She really had gotten careless, allowing her HP to drop so far. That demon probably could have taken her head off with that attack had he aimed higher.

She locked her eyes with Rhamnusia as he fell. She saw his wild green eyes behind the protective sockets of the gas mask.

Even if he had heightened strength and speed, it was clear that he lacked the ability to fly. Therefore, he would not be able to dodge in free fall.

The terror she saw in his eyes told her as much.

Evileye's nails extended into long, 10 centimeter claws sheathed with negative energy.

She didn't like having to rely on her vampire racial abilities.

She slashed at the demon's chest as he fell away from her. Rhamnusia did not mount a defense.

The claws tore into his cloak and left a mark on his armor. The negative energy passed through unabated.

She felt the man's life force drain.

He has no resistance to negative energy?

The flesh around her lower body began to slowly regenerate in response to the small amount of HP she stole from him with her attack.

Rhamnusia hit the ground with a metallic thud. It did not sound like a pleasant landing.

The demon did not move from the position, only managing to turn his head upward toward the air where Evileye hovered above him.

Is it over?

She could hear the demon mumbling something quietly, but the words were incoherent, and overpowered by the pained wheezing sound he was making.

Stockwell looked up at the vampire. He tried to move his hand to take out his final healing potion but to no avail. He could wiggle his forearms, but the muscles in his hands had been practically shred to liquid. The best he could do is fumble through his pouch in vain trying to grip what he thought was the top of his last potion ampule.

He tried to use his telekinesis to fish the potion out, but the mental whiplash of the haste potion stabbed at his brain, making it impossible to focus on the magic.

All he could do was think of laments.

How is that girl still moving? I hurt her so much! I saw her spine for god's sake! Is it because she's undead? What bull is this? I should've tried aiming higher even if it would've taken an extra second of positioning. I should've gone for the head.

He fought desperately to keep his eyelids open. If he was going to die, he wanted to at least know how.

How many health points can she possibly have? Even after taking that 43 RHC health potion to the face earlier! That final attack alone would've killed 4 or 5 Zeros or Gagarans! Am I supposed to believe she is really that much stronger than them!? Does this world really have monsters this strong!?

Evileye fixed her gaze on him, analyzing his condition. That was definitely his trump card. A final attack that comes with a severe recoil. But… It wasn't enough.

She wasn't about to do something as cliche as confidently asking "any last words", or something like that. She extended her hand. You don't have resistance to negative energy. No need to use a 4th tier spell like 「crystal lance」 anymore.

She clicked her tongue. Tsk. Damn my mana is low. I can't believe you tricked me into thinking you were weak to acid.

「Negative Energy Ray」

A beam of black energy emanated from her open palm.

Suddenly, she noticed a small form rushing from the shadows.

Tia!?

The form appeared to belong to her comrade. It rushed forward between Stockwell and Evileye, blocking the beam of negative energy with its body.

Evileye's eyes narrowed. Tia's face was charred and twisted. She had been turned into a zombie. The negative energy must've healed her.

That means—!

Bang.

Evileye's head recoiled from a rifle round as she turned toward the darkness. Pain shot through her head and blood pooled behind her left eye.

Damn it.

Her ears rang as dizziness washed over her.

As an undead, even a direct shot to the head wouldn't kill her immediately. That being said, her HP was in critical condition.

She bit her lip bitterly.

Tia's zombified form was standing over Rhamnusia in a defensive stance, and she could see Gagaran's form shuffling towards her as well. She could also see the sniper in the distance lining up another shot.

She could hardly contain her frustration.

I'm sorry, Tia, Gagaran. I'll find Lakyus right away.

She could not hope to survive if she continued fighting like this.

「Teleportation」

She disappeared without a trace.

Silence returned to the courtyard. The battle was over.

Stockwell wheezed a sigh of relief.

A few moments passed before Vera came lumbering out of the darkness clutching her back in pain.

Tia's dagger was still thoroughly lodged into the armor at an angle too difficult for Vera to remove.

She clambered over to Stockwell who was still lying face up on the ground.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Stockwell could not squeeze out the words. He only managed to turn his neck slightly in her direction and gasp.

"...oh." She muttered.

She began feeling around in his pouch for a potion. "Do you still have any red— ah, here."

She fished the last ampule of healing potion from his pouch and broke it beneath the filter of his gas mask.

The pain in Stockwell's mind cleared like the sun breaking through a layer of fog. Within seconds he could feel his joints reattaching, his fluids returning, and his flesh reknitting.

He sat up starkly, ripped off his gas mask and threw up on the ground.

Even though his body had mended, the pain still echoed in his nerves like an image burned into his retinas. It slowly faded from his awareness.

After he finished throwing up, he took several deep breaths and began to slowly regulate his breathing.

"I take it your fight didn't go well?" Vera asked.

Stockwell wiped the spittle from his mouth before gazing at the place where Evileye had disappeared. "...We'll call it a draw for now."

He looked at Vera. "What about you?"

Vera gestured to where the dagger was still lodged in her back. "She got me pretty good. A little help?"

"Yeah, come here."

Vera winced in pain as Stockwell put his hands firmly on the dagger, and bracing his feet against her back, began working the dagger out of the armor.

"And that's—" The dagger pooped out with a scraping sound followed by a geyser of blood "—why we wear armor. You've got any red for that?" Stockwell asked.

"I'm fine with blue." Vera took out a regular healing potion and poured some over the wound before gulping the rest down. The bleeding stopped immediately.

She sat down next to Stockwell and ordered her two zombies to unequip their magical items.

They caught their breath while they watched the zombies assemble a small pile of rings, charms, daggers, and pieces of clothing.

After a few seconds, Vera suddenly looked upwards, having noticed something. "What's that?"

Stockwell followed Vera's gaze towards the sky of the open courtyard. The murky black clouds had gained a flickering crimson hue; evidence of a massive fire.

"What the hell?"

Stockwell saw the tip of a ghastly flame rising high into the sky.

He turned to Vera.

"We need to get out of here and see what's going on."

…

Climb had been backed up into an alleyway. His group had been ambushed shortly after entering the Eight-Fingers hideout. And after only barely escaping with their lives, the men all of a sudden started to turn on eachother.

That was how he had ended up in this state, back against the wall with no one to call his ally. And what's more, a giant wall of ghostly flames had just appeared out of nowhere.

He shouted at his assailants.

"How did you manage to sneak into Marquis Raeven's forces!?"

The men with varying armor and weapons approached him with twisted smiles. "Wouldn't you like to know."

They charged him all at once, weapons raised.

Climb steeled himself. Two people stepped into his attack range, one with a sword and one with a mace. He didn't have time to think.

He hacked down the one with the mace.

He saw the other's sword sail towards his neck. He watched it in slow motion and his life flashed before his eyes. It would lob off his head and there was nothing he could do about it.

The princess's image flashed in his mind. ...I don't want to die like this….

Suddenly, the sword stopped inches away from his neck as if it collided with something hard.

"...What…?"

A seething presence emerged from Climb's shadow, an odd figure that appeared almost two dimensional.

The shadow demon's claws had intercepted the blade.

"What!?"

The shadow demon lashed out and the man's chest erupted into a shower of blood. It detached from Climb's shadow and sprang into the enemy mob.

It hacked down men one by one.

Climb stood dumbstruck, unable to interpret the scene in front of him.

The men screamed in panic.

"U-Use the weapons! Shoot it!"

They revealed pistols and began to fire upon the monster. The monster reeled with every shot, each bullet eliciting from it a shower of thick orange blood that immediately dissipated into darkness once more.

It continued to hack down at least a dozen more men before it finally succumbed to the pistol fire. The strange, two dimensional entity fell to the ground and faded into nothingness.

"W-What the hell was that!?"

The surviving men looked around at each other.

"I-I don't know."

They turned back to see Climb still dumbstruck at the back of the alleyway.

"W-Whatever, let's just finish this so we can get paid."

"Right!"

They raised their weapons once more and approached Climb.

Suddenly, the men in the back began to scream once more.

"What now!?"

The men at the front turned around to see dozens of shadowy wolves cloaked in darkness. They pounced into the mob and began to mow them down.

"AhHhHhHHhHh!"

Climb stared in horror once again. Two shadowy entities had saved him back to back at the last minute. The wolves continued to mow down the men.

Two of them saw Climb in the back of the alleyway. They turned and charged him.

Climb gulped in his throat and raised his sword. The two wolves pounced at the same time and then—

—They stopped in mid air.

He suddenly heard the voice behind him.

"This is the one we're not supposed to hurt, right?"

He turned to see a juvenile, silver-haired vampire wearing an evening gown.

"Who—"

Shalltear Bloodfallen suddenly grabbed Climbs face. She scrunched his cheeks and examined him closely. She nodded gleefully to herself.

"Yes! I got it right!"

"Who are you?"

Shalltear walked away from him, completely ignoring him. She seemed pleased by the fact that she had remembered not to kill him.

The shadowy wolves ran back to her and fused with her shadow.

The men had been utterly massacred.

"Huh?"

Every single man had been killed, that is, all except for one. He was still crawling on the ground, still just barely alive. She suddenly looked straight down and yelled at her shadow.

"Hey! You missed one!"

She clicked her tongue.

"Fine, I'll finish him off- Huh? What's he doing?"

The man used all of his strength to lift a cylinder towards the sky. He pulled a string.

It suddenly rocketed upward.

The firework whizzed through the air and made a small explosion in the night sky.

Shalltear cocked her head in confusion. "What was that supposed to do?"

He was immediately killed by Shalltear shortly after.

"Who are you—"

Climb began to approach her, but Shalltear had already disappeared without a trace.

…

Stockwell rounded the corner with Vera close behind. They exited the compound and stared in horror at the city skyline.

Ghostly flames rose high into the sky.

"That's the warehouse district."

They could tell from their vantage point that the flames had circumscribed the warehouse district of the city.

They turned when they noticed a faint trail of embers rocket into the air. Vera mouthed wordlessly.

"It's the distress signal."

They saw the firework rise high into the air and make a tiny red explosion in the murky black sky.

"What!? The larceny department has fallen!?"

Dozens more rose up from all around the city, seemingly simultaneously. Each exploded into a different color. Stockwell didn't like the fireworks display one bit.

"What!? Oscas's group was defeated as well!? And Hilma too!?"

He was seething with both rage and panic.

"What's happening!? We should've obliterated them with this plan! How are all of our strongholds falling simultaneously!?"

Stockwell's eye began to twitch.

"How are we losing!? We defeated the majority of Blue Rose so what's the problem!? I would've known if Renner hired another force! And even if she did, I would've know if there was a force nearby that could defeat the firearms—"

Stockwell suddenly stood stark still in realization.

"Wesley?"

"...Renner's secret masters."

"What?"

A meek voice spoke up from behind them. "R-Rhamnusia-sama. What's going on? Are we safe now?"

It was the head of the banking department. Apparently, he had heard the battle come to an end and had come to check on the current situation.

Stockwell ignored him and tried to load a round into his rifle. Caustic sand fell from the chamber and other compartments.

"...damn vampire nuked all my equipment." He muttered. "Can I borrow your rifle for a second, Vera?"

"Sure?"

She handed him the rifle.

Without hesitation, Stockwell aimed it at the head of the banking department and pulled the trigger.

Bang.

The man fell over dead on the spot.

Stockwell handed the rifle back to Vera.

"None of this is going to plan!" He yelled in frustration. "This place will probably get attacked any minute now, we can't risk information leaks. We need to change and figure out what's going on.

He started marching back in the direction of their house.

---

"The most crucial thing in PVP is to deceive one's enemy. For instance, pretending that you're vulnerable to holy-elemental attacks when you're largely immune to them after swapping out your gear." - Ainz Ooal Gown