Rustle… Rustle. 

Of course, it didn’t mean that the people here would disappear just because Illyna couldn’t find them.

The people hiding probably knew how ridiculous the scene they had just witnessed, but they remained quiet. They were like assassins who had been trained for a long time. Their presence was difficult to detect, and it was hard to make out their characteristics; there was no way to describe the atmosphere other than that it was strange.

Shing… Illyna brought out her energy while releasing her mana as the people in hiding pulled out their weapons and slowly began to surround them.

“I don’t know who you guys are, but the crime for harming the knight order’s trainees is severe.”

Although Illyna wasn’t a Master, she was an unprecedented genius; she was so strong that there was no Expert who could beat her one on one. In fact, even the dense energy she was releasing could not be seen by most Experts.

Whoever they were, Davey had something else in mind. He said, “Illyna. Take the rest of the golems and go to where the trainees are.”

“What?!”

“If the knight order was taken down, no one knows if the trainees will be safe. So, go. I’ll make an opening for you,” Davey said urgently.

Illyna looked like she had now remembered the rest of the trainees and then nodded. She probably agreed because of the faith that she had in Davey’s strength and power. She then said, “Don’t get hurt. I know that won’t happen, but book it if you think it’s dangerous.”

‘Book it? Is that something that should come out of an imperial princess’ mouth?’

Davey was no longer surprised by Illyna’s true self whenever she was with him.

Of course, the men in black robes were definitely not going to sit back and allow Illyna to leave, and they were going to try to stop her; since Davey had already told her that he would make an opening, it would only be right for him to do so.

“Rinne,” Davey called out.

“Requesting the use of a new piece of equipment.”

“As you wish.”

‘A new piece of equipment…’ The only equipment of Rinne’s that Davey knew of was the two strange-looking things on the back of her hand and the large cannon-like weapon. He was intrigued by Rinne’s new equipment that she had developed.

Shwing. Davey’s curiosity immediately disappeared when he saw the weapon Rinne was making.

“That is… Um…”

-A metal lever?

It was a metal rod shaped in a right angle.

‘A crowbar, was it?’

Davey could feel cold sweat running down his body when he saw Rinne’s terrifying weapon. “Was this bat your weapon?”

“Rinne. Creation of weapons is based on and made by the most powerful thing in Sir Davey’s shallow knowledge. Rinne highly values the bat among all of it,” Rinne commented with confidence and glowing blue eyes as she swung the heavy metal bat around.

Whoosh… As the ring floating on top of her head began rotating with speed to emit light, Rinne’s wings shone and her wings’ light particles started flying into the bat.

Perhaps the hidden people realized the strangeness of Rinne’s glow; they noticed something was strange and charged at Rinne to attack. However, Rinne, who lifted her left foot up, was a little faster than them.

“Rinne, values! This! Very! Much!!”

Boom!! Boom!! Boom! Rinne tightly held onto the metal bat that had absorbed light, then stomped on the ground with her left foot. As she did, a large crack was carved up on the floor. As Rinne swung the metal bat, a few intense explosions of blue light happened one by one.

Crash!!

“Amazing.”

‘What kind of theory is Rinne’s weapon based off of?’ Davey couldn’t erase the look of bewilderment off his face. He was certain that the bat was probably an ordinary piece of metal made from some kind of alloy that absorbed mana well. However, from the moment it came into Rinne’s hand and began resonating with Rinne, it had become a nuclear weapon.

Davey snatched the knife away from the person who was trying to assassinate him from behind, but his gaze was focused on Rinne and not the person in the black robe.

“Oh my…” Illyna widened her eyes at the large crater that had been left as part of the region that had blown up to bits.

“Stupid. Go already,” Davey told Illyna.

“Hup! You have to be okay!” Illyna came back to her senses when Davey criticized her, and she lowered herself to start her escape from the place.

The enemies quickly tried to stop Illyna from leaving, but Rinne’s bat that was charged with light particles cut through the air to smash everything into bits again. Booom!!!! With another huge explosion, Illyna left the place. Of course, the enemies tried to go after her since they weren’t stupid, but…

“Don’t move. I can’t say anything about this person’s life if you take another step.” Davey shouted while pressing on the neck of the enemy who he had captured a little while ago. He yelled, “Do you not care about what happens to this hostage?!”

A cold silence surrounded them.

‘This chill, it struck my heart ice c… No, not this.’ [1]

When Davey caught a glimpse of the men’s eyes through the black robes, he could see that they were staring at him like he was some sort of lunatic. He thought, ‘Which means that they’re not emotionless assassins.’

Then, there was nothing better to waste their time than a hostage situation.

“Hey, no way,” Davey said.

“Keugh!”

Rinne’s eyes sparkled as Davey tightened his grip on the hostage, who tried to escape. She commented, “A new skill to control the crowd. Rinne, analyzing that this is highly effective.”

“I hope you don’t have to do anything like this.”

“Does not understand. Requiring an explanation,” Rinne asked calmly.

Davey said nothing more. It would be a huge mess if Rinne, who did not have moral values, were to cause a hostage situation. He simply said to his hostage, “I’ll let you go after I check a few things with you.”

Then, Davey uncovered the robed man who he was holding onto and asked, “Are you guys part of Alpha Reinforcements?”

The enemy of the knight order were evil beasts, not humans. Davey wondered who would come all the way here to attack the knight order when their identity was hidden as well. This meant that they were either the roots of disruption from within Alpha Reinforcements, or they had attacked them knowing that they were the knight order.

“Do you think I would tell you?” The man shouted with determination.

Davey grinned. “Everyone has a plan and a sense of pride...”

“What?”

“Until they get hit.”[2]

Having Perserque’s ability to see through the man was nice, but there was something so satisfying about hearing it from their mouths. Davey’s eyes twinkled.

Sizzle!

[Mind Subjugation]

[Dark Magic ‘Curse Mark’]

[Spell Merger]

[Fire of Interrogation]

The torture flames, which had been used once on Pedkhid, the vampire, had appeared in the world one more time.

‘No, who has called upon this devil?’

Of course, Pedkhid had exploded and died before he could tell Davey everything. However, Davey didn’t think that these people would have a similar curse on them. He thought, ‘They messed up the entire thing because they underestimated their opponent.

-Tsk…

The man’s face was frozen with fear. He saw the purple flame burning in Davey’s hand. “Y… You cruel jerk!”

“Don’t worry. You won’t die.” Davey patted the man’s shoulder, chuckling, but soon dropped the smile from his face. He said, “You slashed dozens of people, and then if that wasn’t enough, you pointed your sword at me, but what? Cruel? Me?”

Whoosh!

“Keu… Kahhhh?!?” The man noticed that this wasn’t an ordinary flame as soon as it touched his skin. It didn’t burn him, but he could feel a nasty, intense pain.

This particular magic spell was from a disciple deeply interested in studying about the human body, so it knew where to attack to inflict the worst pain.

‘If he was trying to kill me, he should’ve known that he could die while trying.’

The black-robed man tried to flail around, but Davey was holding him so tightly that he couldn’t even do that easily.

The reason that Davey didn’t use the Touch of Death to stop the man from moving was to maximize the theatricality of it.

“You cruel jerk!!” Some of the black-robed men charged at Davey, who stepped on the man, like they couldn’t stand to watch the man screaming in pain and foaming at the mouth. However, their attacks were blocked as Rinne kicked them away like a flash of light.

“Keugh! Wheeze… Wheeze…”

“Let’s get one thing straight.”

It seemed like the men were misunderstanding something big-time, so Davey said, “You guys can’t run away now.”

‘Consider yourselves unlucky for running into me. It is a huge crime to stand in my way.’

“I’m doing it one more time. Do anything to endure it. The guy before you couldn’t stand five minutes.”

The man was engulfed in fear when he saw Davey’s terrifying smile. He cried out, “Gahhh!!! I’ll tell you!! I’ll talk, alright!!”

Although the man was flailing around desperately and screaming, Davey went on to pierce him with [Fire of Interrogation] all over his body. The man’s mind had probably gone blank, since he couldn’t go mad even if he wanted to.

Taking away the flame, Davey smiled with satisfaction at the man who was trembling and wheezing.

“You didn’t set a new record.”

Davey knew from experience that the dam flame was not something that someone could take for a long period of time. He asked again, “Alright. Let me ask again: are you members of the Alpha Reinforcements?”

This was the most important thing that Davey had to find out: if the men were enemies from the outside or inside. As Davey gestured for him to hurry up, the man clenched his jaw and glared at him. However, he still couldn’t hide his fear and mumbled, “We’re…”

“That can’t happen.”

Slice! The man’s head fell off with a horrifying sound just as he was about to talk. At the same time, an invisible energy hit Davey, who had no choice but to retreat from the dead man.

Then, Davey stared down at his quivering hand. ‘This body is too weak.’

“Everyone, retreat. Now, carry on with the original plan.”

The surviving black-robed men bowed their heads quietly and disappeared once the man who barged into the battle commanded. The men headed in the opposite direction of where Illyna and Davey had come from.

“This is the first time we’re meeting, yes? Trainee Davey, is it?” The man was wearing the Alpha Reinforcements’ classy uniform. Just by looking at him, Davey could feel that his depth of power was something entirely different from any other swordsman. He added, “I’m sorry, but you must stop here.”

Davey couldn’t help but laugh.

1. A reference to the Korean movie, Tazza, said by Go-ni, the main character. Go-ni gambles with A-gwi, one of the top gamblers in the country, and he says this line when he starts to feel that he might lose. However, Go-ni pretends to get caught cheating to throw A-gwi off, then turns the tables in the end and wins against him. ☜

2. A reference to Mike Tyson’s pre-game interview. ☜