Chapter 272: Enemy Territory (II)
“WAIT! THAT GUY… IT’S HIM! IT’S HIDE VOLTER!”
The diagnostician’s terrified shriek ripped through the damp air.
For a fraction of a second, the entire customs plaza at Berth Nine froze. Dockhands dropping iron chains, crane operators looking down from their steel cages, and the perimeter guards all turned their heads in stunned disbelief.
Then, instinct took over.
“WEAPONS FREE! ENGAGE!” the captain of the Exterminators roared, his halberd igniting with a thick, violent yellow earth mana. “CONTAIN THE THREAT! DO NOT LET THEM REACH THE GATE!”
CLACK-CLACK-BOOM!
Twenty military soldiers in black armor raised their mana-rifles in unison, their barrels humming as volatile energy condensed to fire.
Behind them, three specialized combatants stepped forward, unleashing their talents.
One of them slammed both palms against the concrete, causing a massive, four-meter sharp granite slabs to erupt from the ground, walling off the terminal gates. To his left, a mage channeled mana into his frequency gun, firing a shimmering, concussive pressure wave across the pavement meant to target the knees and pin them to the dock.
“Gideon! Break the wall!” Kai shouted.
“WITH PLEASURE!”
Gideon lunged forward, his warhammer clearing his shoulder in a brutal upward arc.
BOOM!
The hammer’s head smashed directly into the erupting granite slabs. Reinforced by Gideon’s physical might and mana, the four-meter stone barrier detonated into a storm of pulverized gravel, showering the enemy vanguard and shattering their defensive line.
ZZZZT—CRACK!
From behind Gideon’s broad frame, Ryan stepped into view, his spectacles catching the glare of the muzzle flashes. He thrust his hands forward and arcs of lightning teared through the air. The lightning chained with pinpoint accuracy, striking the mage and two riflemen, short-circuiting their armor systems and dropping them to the floor in convulsions.
PNEU-HISS!
Kai pivoted on his robotic leg, the pneumatic servos whining as he absorbed the recoil of his focus staff. He fired four spiraling water balls, hitting and unarming the three incoming guards of their weapons, straight into the concrete piers.
Evelyn’s heavy revolver barked twice. Armor-piercing cores blew through the knee joints of the flanking shooters, sending them tumbling over the safety railings into the harbor water. She summoned her new Shinigami which Hide had never seen. It was a tiger, which did not quite fit Evelyn’s other beast which was a fox, but it was efficient.
Near the rear, the diagnostician who had found Hide turned on his heel, desperately trying to scramble toward an emergency communication pillar.
Fwip.
Kiko’s fingers flicked through the air.
Dozens of invisible threads shot across the gap, wrapping tightly around the guy’s boots and wrists. With a sharp yank of her hand, the spatial wires sheared through the man’s armor clasps and hoisted him upside down into the air, gagging his mouth before he could utter another word.
SHING!
Sora blurred past like a gale of wind, her rapier dancing through the front ranks. She didn’t deliver lethal thrusts; instead, her precise wind blades severed weapon straps and cut tendons, neutralizing six guards in the span of three breaths.
In less than twenty seconds, nineteen of the twenty Exterminators and all of the military personals were disarmed, paralyzed, or unconscious.
Only one of the two captains remained.
“You… murderer!” the captain spat, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth beneath his visor.
Realizing his squad was decimated, he channeled every ounce of his remaining mana into his halberd, charging straight at Hide with an all-out overhead cleave.
SWOOSH.
The katana flashed from its scabbard.
A thin, vibrating coat of dark mana clung to the blade’s pristine edge. Hide stepped inside the halberd’s arc, parrying the weapon with a lazy flick of his wrist.
CLANG—SNAP!
The steel shaft of the halberd was sliced in half as if it were soft butter.
Before the captain could recover, Hide’s boot drove straight into his abdomen, shattering the chest plate and sending the man crashing flat onto his back against the damp concrete.
Hide stepped forward, planting his foot directly over the captain’s pinned arm. He reversed his grip on the katana, leveling the razor-sharp tip directly above the captain’s exposed throat.
His eyes, at this moment were completely vacant—cold and devoid of hesitation.
‘Kill him, and then the others that are alive.’ Hide’s instincts demanded. ‘No witnesses. No loose ends.’
He began to thrust the blade downward.
“Hide, wait!”
A warm hand clamped firmly around His wrist.
Hide froze mid-strike, the katana’s tip just an inch from the captain’s jugular.
He turned his head slightly. Sora was standing beside him, her eyes slightly wide with urgent pleading, her grip tight around his arm.
“He’s already disarmed,” Sora said softly, her breath trembling in the cold wind. “The squad is neutralized. We have the disguises. We can leave right now without killing anyone. You promised me you wouldn’t become the monster they want you to be.”
Hide’s breath hitched and his fingers loosened on the hilt of the katana.
It was only a fraction of a second.
But in the world of high-tier exterminators, a fraction of a second was an eternity.
Down on the ground, the captain’s terror flipped into manic desperation. While Hide’s attention drifted toward Sora, the captain’s free left hand slammed against the red emergency clasp mounted on his collar.
BZZZZT—PING!
An unblockable, high-frequency emergency transponder engaged instantly, beaming a priority signal directly through the satellite uplink to Central Command.
“ALERT! PRIORITY ZERO!” the captain screamed at the top of his lungs into the collar transmitter, his voice echoing over the channel. “BERTH NINE, PORT KALEN! HIDE VOLTER HAS BREACHED THE SECTOR! HE HAS AN ARMED FORCE—THEY ARE INFILTRATING—”
SHIK!
Hide didn’t hesitate a second time.
The katana plunged downward.
The midnight-blue blade punched cleanly through the captain’s throat, pinning his neck directly to the fractured concrete beneath. Crimson blood gushed from the wound, choking the rest of the words in the captain’s mouth into a wet, bubbling gurgle. His body convulsed once, his eyes rolled back, and the life faded from his gaze.
Click.
The transmission severed.
Silence crashed over the dock, broken only by the cold lap of waves against the ship’s hull.
Hide slowly wrenched the blade free, hot blood dripping from the steel.
He stood there, staring down at the dead captain. The message hadn’t given away their civilian disguises or their specific target, but the primary warning had escaped. The core command knew. Walter knew.
‘AHAHAHAHAHA!’
The voice in Hide’s head erupted into a roar of mocking laughter.
It clawed through his skull, violent and sharp.
‘Look at that! LOOK AT WHAT SHE DID!’ the voice sneered, dripping with venomous amusement. ‘Isn’t mercy beautiful, Hide? Isn’t love just magnificent? You hesitated! You stayed your blade because your sweet little lover whispered pretty words in your ear!’
Hide clenched his fists around the hilt of his sword, his jaw tightening until bone ground against bone.
‘Now the signal is out,’ the voice hissed, its tone turning cold, cruel, and suffocating. ‘The entire Central Continent is waking up. The gunships are spooling their engines. Walter’s executioners are deploying. And because you were too weak to slit one throat… every single person who followed you to this dock is going to die.’
‘Shut up,’ Hide snarled silently, his knuckles stark white.
‘Just like Risa, Hide!’ the voice shrieked, driving the nail deeper. ‘You couldn’t save her because you were soft, and you won’t save them either! Look at them! Look at their faces! You brought them here to be slaughtered, and their blood will be on your hands!’
“Hide…”
Sora’s trembling voice called him, but he pushed her away in anger. “Shut UP!” He rasped.
Then, He blinked, his eyes slowly clearing as he pulled his gaze away from the corpse.
Sora was staring at him and all the others at the blinking severed transmitter on the dead captain’s collar, the color drained completely from Sora’s face.
She realized instantly what her hesitation had cost them.
“I… I’m sorry…” Sora whispered, her voice cracking as tears welled in her eyes. “I didn’t think he would—”
“It’s done,” Hide cut her off flatly.
He flicked the blood off the katana with a sharp snap and slid the blade back into its scabbard.
Across Port Kalen, the wail of defense sirens began to howl in the distance, echoing off the iron seawalls. Their plan to easily reach Walter without much fight had been dissolved.