Chapter 167
Chapter 167
Red Ticket (1)
Every time I got hurt, Tapas had to endure the consequences as well.
Blood trickled down, mixing with the rain and seeping into the ground.
“...”
Even the blood on my sword was quickly washed away by the downpour. Soaked to the bone, I pointed my sword at Tapas, who stood before me.
The way my body creaked and groaned was far from normal. But Tapas, standing on the opposite side, looked even worse.
"This isn’t..."
Even by the drug-addled standards of Tapas, this couldn’t be called a proper fight. There’s a saying that offense is the best defense, and another that attack and defense are one and the same, but no one could apply those phrases to a fight like this.
I had sustained three serious injuries, with twenty-five minor wounds carved into my body.
Tapas, on the other hand, had just two injuries. His arm, struck during my first attack in a trance-like state.
And now, his belly—wide open, spilling intestines.
Even with the help of drugs, no one could keep fighting after sustaining a wound like that. It was obvious that I had won. As blood poured from his body, the drugs lost their hold, and Tapas gradually returned to his senses.
"You fool. The victory before your eyes will lead you to defeat in the end."
Tapas dropped the broom he was holding. He couldn’t fight anymore. But I wasn’t in great shape either.
"I know."
As Tapas let go of the broom, the drowsiness that had been weighing down on me lifted. The first thing I checked was my victory. The next, my physical condition.
‘I’ve lost a lot of blood from the wounds, and I’ve got a few broken bones.’
I had to hold out against the four Operations Committee members heading this way—long enough to make it meaningful.
But I was too injured from the fight with Tapas. Tapas looked at the guts lying on the muddy ground and spoke to me.
“Make sure you win.”
“I thought you’d say something like, ‘I’ll go ahead—catch up quickly.’”
At my words, Tapas shook his head.
“That would ruin my dignity.”
If he had to die in defeat, he at least wanted it to be proven that his death came at the hands of someone strong—that was Tapas’s wish.
“Then... no hints?”
At my question, Tapas gave no reply and collapsed onto the ground with a thud. So much blood had poured out that the spilled intestines and the dirt around them turned red.
The fact that he had spoken this much up to now was a miracle in itself. The drugs had kept him talking, but his limit had come.
“Farewell.”
Kairus sat down next to Tapas's corpse, collapsed on the ground, and began stopping his bleeding. He had to take care of his body, even if only a little.
“They’re here.”
The rest he was granted didn’t last long. Thanks to the procedure-enhanced regeneration, many of the minor wounds had healed quite well, but the serious injuries etched into his body couldn’t possibly improve in such a short time.
Bottom line: he couldn’t fight at full strength.
Kairus gripped the Veil of Plumed Mist tighter in his hand.
Five figures emerged from the darkness. Tapas was dead, but since the Wesson siblings counted as two, that number made sense.
“I warned you. I even held on to the faint hope that, maybe, we could maintain a good relationship from the outside.”
The first to speak was Cecilia. She wore a raincoat and held a black dagger in one hand.
“What’s with that hobby of yours?”
Kairus’s gaze had fallen on the cat-shaped doll hanging from her waist.
Her eyes shifted to Tapas, lying on the ground. She let out a sigh.
“They say big-chested women die young. Should I be worried too?”
“I figured that bitch would croak from a drug overdose. But fuck, she got taken out with a blade.”
Next to her, Lukas—his glowing tattoos exposed—spoke up.
“I always do stuff with my sister at night.”
“You interrupted us. I’ll make you twitch like a frog.”
He didn’t seem pleased about the interruption. Of course, Kairus felt thoroughly disgusted just listening to the two of them talk.
“Disgusting. You incestuous freaks.”
At that, Donovan Bonaparte let out a small cough.
“Young man, mind your tongue.”
“Why should I? Are you too old to get a grasp of the situation?”
And now, Kairus had no reason to act subservient toward them. Cecilia, at least, had been his former client, and he had even prepared a personal gift for her, so he showed her a modicum of courtesy.
But the rest? There was no reason to extend that to them. He was either going to die here or survive and rise to their level.
‘In this situation, what’s the one advantage I have right now?’
Before engaging in a battle, the first thing to assess was his own advantage.
Expecting this outcome, Kairus had already prepared his own answer.
“Try your best to keep up.”
The storm clouds cleared, and the wind subsided. In the now-clear night sky, Kairus took off into the air.
“…You’ve got to be kidding. Is he running away?”
Lukas stared up at Kairus rising into the sky, a look of disbelief on his face. To be honest, if Kairus was fleeing now, there was virtually no way to catch him.
‘How the hell do you catch someone flying faster than sound?’
But he couldn’t let it go. If that had truly been his plan, there would’ve been no reason to pull the sausage out of Tapas’s belly in the first place.
“See you in the city.”
Before the words even finished, Kairus vanished with a deafening roar of propulsion. He had flown toward Bennett City.
‘With more eyes on us, they won’t be able to twist the story.’
When it came to fleeing, a city full of buildings and obstacles offered far more advantages than this empty wasteland. Of course, the city would end up in shambles, but worrying about that was too much at this point.
“That bastard…”
Donovan muttered in disbelief as he watched Kairus make his escape. Of course, by then, Kairus was already far out of earshot.
“Letting him go just like that rubs me the wrong way.”
But Kairus, who had already gained quite a bit of distance, could still hear the thunderous boom! that echoed from behind him.
“Son of a bitch.”
A boulder the size of a house—clearly thrown by Lukas—was hurtling toward Kairus at a terrifying speed. Kairus quickly changed direction and tried to dodge it.
The boulder grazed just beneath his feet, slicing the air with a long, vicious sonic crack.
He had nearly ended up like a sparrow struck by a slingshot. Kairus glanced briefly at the four Operations Committee members, now only dots in the distance, then continued his flight.
“Wahahahahahaha! Fall, damn it!”
With a stomp of his foot, Lukas leapt into the air. He was now charging straight at Kairus. Unlike true flight, it was a leap that would inevitably come back down in time.
But to Kairus right now, that fact wasn’t much comfort. Lukas was about to slam his fist down on him.
“If I jump high enough, how’s that any different from flying?!”
To Lukas’s shout, Kairus answered with a steep dive. Lukas’s punch tore uselessly through the air.
“Guess I—wait, these lunatics?!”
Kairus, who had begun to respond in a slightly mocking tone, froze mid-sentence. A massive tree came flying at Lukas, still airborne.
It had been hurled by Barenza Onui, who was chasing Kairus through the air.
“Nice!”
Lukas stepped onto the tree midair and launched himself again toward the diving Kairus.
‘…’
And it wasn’t just one or two things being thrown. The four Operations Committee members below were hurling rocks, trees, and other heavy objects into the sky without pause.
Their goal wasn’t to hit Kairus—but to give Lukas platforms to step on midair.
“Too bad!”
Whoosh! Lukas’s kick barely missed Kairus’s back. It was just a kick, but the resulting wind pressure made Kairus’s flight waver precariously.
Before it got any worse, Kairus used Swift Blade to stabilize the air around him and exhaled as he calculated the remaining distance to Bennett City.
He had thought it would be an easy arrival, but clearly, things weren’t going to go so smoothly.
“What the hell is that?!”
Beneath Barenza Onui’s feet, a silvery metallic mire began to spread, shimmering in the air, and from it countless tendrils stretched toward Kairus.
Calling them tendrils wasn’t quite right—their tips were so sharp, they might as well have been writhing harpoons.
“Run on it!”
At Wesson’s shout, the other four immediately dashed onto the silver tendrils. The only one left standing on the ground was Onui, controlling the silver mire.
‘So it has to stay connected to the ground to function. And it’s a battle gear used by two people.’
Even in the middle of a crisis, gleaning that bit of information brought Kairus some satisfaction.
And their speed—though fast—still wasn’t enough to surpass his flight. He hadn’t broken the sound barrier for the sake of sustained flight and better control, and the silver tendrils were barely managing to keep up with him.
“Kh.”
Cecilia casually grabbed one of the tendrils and snapped off its sharp tip, then hurled it at Kairus.
He twisted midair and deflected the incoming tendril. One of the other tendrils suddenly extended and devoured the piece that had been flung aside.
‘It’s not regenerating.’
The fact that it went out of its way to retrieve and consume the broken piece meant the total quantity was limited. While he quickly took in the situation, it wasn’t just Cecilia snapping and throwing tendrils anymore.
“Repeating crossbow.”
When Donovan lightly tapped the suitcase he’d brought with his foot, it folded and reshaped itself into a massive crossbow fitted with a crank.
As Donovan turned the crank handle, du-du-du-du-du—a flurry of bolts shot out, all aimed at Kairus.
He accelerated further, blasting wind from his back.
‘They’re homing?!’
The bolts, momentarily scattered by the turbulence, soon realigned and came flying back at him with deadly precision.
Tendrils wriggling through the air and bolts that returned even after being deflected—Kairus was now performing a circus act in the middle of the night sky.
“Still…”
They didn’t seem intent on killing him. Kairus could sense their hesitation in every attack.
Just like Younia, the president of Lunaseeker, had said—they were still unsure whether killing Kairus here was the right move.
Of course, that didn’t mean the situation was any easier! He could feel their determination to kill him if he didn’t produce results they could accept.
“Scorching Blade.”
Donovan’s suitcase shifted once again, this time into a sword. When he swung it wide, a cloud of white powder arced through the air like a crescent moon toward Kairus. The powder exploded all at once.
Barely dodging the blast radius, Kairus struck aside a broken tendril and grimaced.
“That old bastard—what the hell kind of battle gear is that?!”
The suitcase kept changing shape, transforming into all sorts of weapons and pressing him hard.
The arm slashed by Tapas still wasn’t moving properly. The flesh had closed, but the severed tendons would need more time to heal.
He continued his acrobatic flight through the air. The speed of the arrows and tendrils was nearly the same as his, so from Kairus’s perspective, they looked as if they were frozen midair.
Deflecting. Dodging.
Little by little, Kairus drew closer to Bennett City.
“I finally return to my half-decent hometown… and this is the kind of welcome I get?!”
With a shout, Kairus crash-landed toward Bennett City.
His landing site was the busy Upside district of the city.