Chapter 83 - Battle City (3)

My shooting practice with Sion must not have been in vain. The bullet flew true.

Then magic unfolded before my eyes.

'What—?'

CLANG!

The vampire swung his greatsword and deflected the bullet. Gunpowder clashed with cold steel. My eyes widened of their own accord at the fantastical sight.

Drawing his sword, deflecting the bullet, and slashing downward all flowed into a single motion. The magical blade descended toward my head.

RAT-A-TAT!

"Graaaah!"

The vampires firing from behind delayed Grizzly by a beat.

Then, into that beautiful, chilling arc of steel—

CLANG!

A spear thrust in and knocked the sword aside.

"...!"

An old man with a sturdy physique and swept-back white hair.

"Behold my arrival."

It was Lee Munryong, who had come running, panting for breath.

"Coolness: confirmed."

Seeing the intervening spearhead knock the greatsword away snapped me out of my daze, and I backed up. Well, this wasn't exactly the time to bring it up, but...

Dumbfounded by his flashy entrance, I asked, "... Old man, were you reading a soccer comic before you came?"

"I was. Funny stuff. Quite entertaining."

Lee Munryong answered without taking his eyes off the blond foreigner... or, more precisely, vampire.

"That bastard—"

He had seen this one before—a monster who had even learned human martial arts. The creature had briefly clashed with his former client, Alphonse, and Lee Munryong remembered the information Alphonse had shown him that day.

His eyes flew wide.

"The gay Nazi vampire! Ioannis!"

Leaving those first two attributes aside, I'd suspected it, but apparently he really was a vampire.

"He's dangerous. Let's run!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Lee Munryong bolted.

"...!"

I recovered my senses and hurried after him. Obviously, I hadn't intended to fight while surrounded, but I couldn't believe he'd just taken off on his own first.

I temporarily dismissed Grizzly so he could recover and summoned the gnomes.

"Waaaaah!"

"Gnomes won't let you get away with this!"

Mia, who had been directing the vampires, panicked at the sight of the spirits in red caps.

"Th-these are redcaps!"

Evil fairies said to dye their caps red with blood!

"No, they're gnomes."

Ioannis soothed his adorable pretty-boy vampire lover in a calm voice and lightly kicked aside the swarm of gnomes rushing at him.

"They're elemental spirits made of earth itself. Hitting or destroying them will only scatter them briefly. Ignore them."

The gnomes had only been meant to buy time, and they soon vanished. Yohan had escaped, but Ioannis's blue eyes shone calmly. A smile formed on his lips.

"Spirit magic."

He had expected it to some extent, but... the current master of <Mysteries of the Worm> wasn't using any full-fledged pagan magic. He used only the Invisible Vampire and safe magic—a completely different approach from that of 'She Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken' in the past.

She had spread shadows as broadly as a river, summoning the head of the Egyptian crocodile god Sebek and swarms of crocodiles that served him, among other things. She used the pagan knowledge in <Mysteries of the Worm> without hesitation.

To Ioannis, who knew 'her,' Yohan's current approach was, by analogy, using the Invisible Vampire and minor basic magic—his passive and his basic QWE skills—without putting a point into his ultimate or using it.

"Even masters of the same grimoire use it differently according to their disposition, it seems."

But quite apart from that...

Ioannis turned to look in the direction Yohan had fled. They must have turned onto another street along the way. Lee Munryong was one thing, but even Yohan was nowhere to be seen.

It had been the same when he first drew his pistol. His movements were faster than expected. It wasn't simply a matter of quick decisions; his physical speed itself was high. That was unexpected.

'Has he learned breathing techniques or physical enhancement magic?'

... Learning a new branch of magic in such a short time?

It was absurd, but both Edward and Alphonse—well-known European magicians—had died at Yohan's hands. He couldn't afford to let his guard down.

Perhaps Yohan would become a dangerous magician in a different way from 'her.'

* * *

After running clear of the vampires, I shouted as I ran alongside Lee Munryong.

"Hey! You can't just run that fast on your own!"

But he answered with a light chuckle.

"Look who's talking."

"What?"

My head cooled in an instant, and I realized something. I'd been too frantic to notice while the vampires were chasing me, but... as my legs moved, the scenery sped past.

"...!"

It wasn't anything ridiculous like the whole world appearing to slow down, but it felt as though I was running a hundred meters in seven or eight seconds. And although I was out of breath, it wasn't that difficult.

My breathing techniques had improved my physical abilities.

'Those health exercises actually worked...?'

Steadying my breathing, I covered the streets at speed alongside Lee Munryong.

WHOOSH!

Simple, fast, and good. Yes, this was what I'd wanted!

'Hey, this is awesome! Run, run, with the power of magic!'

Honestly, this seemed like the most useful magic I'd learned so far.

At its master's reaction, and the fact that it had been helpful, the grimoire tucked inside my coat—

BAOP!

<Baopuzi> reacted with delight.

Meanwhile... the grimoires in my other pocket and in my hand, <The Lesser Key of Solomon> and <Mysteries of the Worm>, vibrated in displeasure.

HUMMM!

FLAP!

'Grr! How impertinent!'

Anyway, another enemy appeared immediately. A man who looked like a Taoist priest from a martial-arts novel floated lightly down from a building, holding an Eight Trigrams Plaque in one hand, and gave chase as he spotted me.

"So you're the thief who stole Baopuzi!"

He drew his sword and charged.

"How dare you steal what was to be mine! Die!"

This was so sudden and chaotic. In disbelief, I shouted, "Who the hell are you?"

Lee Munryong frowned at the Taoist. He was a famous contract killer and fairly skilled.

"This one's dangerous too! Let's run!"

"You're—Wild Loose Cannon! I'll kill you too!"

Recognizing Lee Munryong, the Taoist grew even more enraged and pursued them with his sleeves billowing.

WHOOSH! WHOOOSH!

Was this actual lightness skill? The Taoist's legs pushed off the ground at an absurd speed, closing the gap.

Lee Munryong whispered quietly in a serious voice.

"... Keep running. I'll show you the ultimate secret of the Eight Extremes Spear."

'The ultimate secret!'

At his serious tone, I kept running as instructed. Honestly, hearing him call it an ultimate martial-arts technique had me a little excited.

But perhaps Lee Munryong was tired.

"Whew...!"

He suddenly slowed, and the Taoist smiled as he aimed for his back.

"You bastard! You're exhausted!"

Then... Lee Munryong's eyes gleamed. The ultimate secret of the Eight Extremes Spear unfolded.

'Eight Extremes Spear Ultimate Secret: Pretend to Run Away, Then Stab!'

The instant his enemy thought he had gotten behind him, Lee Munryong kicked off the ground and spun a hundred and eighty degrees.

WHOOOSH!

His spear drove toward the Taoist's heart with all his force behind it!

"What—Gah!?"

SPLASH!

The spearhead pierced the Taoist's heart and was swiftly withdrawn.

CRASH!

The Taoist's corpse collapsed, and his prized implement, the Eight Extremes Plaque, tumbled onto the ground as well.

The notorious hired killer who used the Eight Extremes Plaque to track down treasures or people to kill—the Thousand-Li Demon Lord—had joined the struggle for the grimoires without any particular resolve and died a pointless death.

"Kill confirmed—for sure!"

Then Lee Munryong stabbed the Thousand-Li Demon Lord through the head with his spear, killing him twice. Fortunately, there was no reaction, and Lee Munryong exhaled in satisfaction.

"Whew~ The moment you think you've won is when you're in danger."

"I mean... it's effective, but isn't that ultimate secret a little too underhanded?"

"But I won."

He said it casually, and I looked at the Taoist's corpse and conceded the point.

"I didn't say I disliked it. It's reassuring."

The problem was that this guy wasn't our only enemy.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

Footsteps rang out. We'd run pretty fast, but they were catching up quickly, perhaps because they were vampires.

I narrowed my eyes.

"..."

I thought of Ioannis, the blond vampire who had displayed the impossible feat of deflecting a bullet with a sword. According to Lee Munryong's information, he was the leader of the vampires. Since the initial attack had come from them, he was probably also the bastard who'd blown up my secret workshop and kicked off this whole mess.

Naturally enough, I didn't enjoy fighting. I would run and avoid combat wherever possible. But I absolutely hated being sent around in endless circles.

My black eyes gleamed calmly.

'... So I'll kill him for good.'

I knew which enemy I had to kill. Now we were both the hunters.

... The problem, of course, was that he moved with a force of gun-wielding vampires. It was dangerous, but should I give it a try?

"Old man, can you buy me some time with hit-and-run attacks against the vampires?"

"I don't mind... but what about you?"

Lee Munryong raised an eyebrow, and I answered without hesitation.

"I'll take down their leader."

Since I'd thrown the plan together on the spot, I explained further.

"Well, I'm going to try luring him away. Keep an eye on things and pull out when the time is right."

"Oh~ Are you worried about me?"

"If you die, I'll have wasted my gold."

I'd put it all in the case because I needed to make an impression at the time, but I'd spent every bit of gold I had hiring Lee Munryong. He should at least give me my money's worth.

I spotted a pedestrian overpass a little ahead.

"... Then let's run again."

Lee Munryong and I ran toward the overpass. As the pursuing vampires drew closer, he smoothly deflected bullets with his spear, buying time and pretending to help me escape.

"Go!"

Well, that was what he was actually doing, too.

I deliberately glanced at the vampire ahead for a moment, then turned and climbed the overpass. As I scrambled up the stairs as though fleeing, I found someone already waiting on the walkway.

"Hey there~."

Ioannis greeted me with a gentle smile. Vampires gathered behind him.

I turned slightly to look.

"..."

Lee Munryong had already withdrawn, and vampires were climbing up behind me too. I was surrounded.

Ioannis's relaxed voice rang out.

"You're trapped."

I answered briefly.

"No."

Judging by how well the vampires had kept up or gotten ahead, they seemed to have studied the local geography. But there was one piece of information I had over him: the bus schedule.

I'd always imagined doing this and never actually tried it, but... there was no time to hesitate.

I ran toward the railing, jumped onto it—

VROOM! THUNK!

And landed right on top of a moving bus.

"What?"

It had happened so smoothly that the vampires' eyes briefly went blank.

Ioannis smiled as he watched Yohan, kneeling on one knee atop the receding bus, look at him with calm black eyes and mouth the words:

'Fol-low-me.'

This was irresistible.

"... You drive a man wild."

Even for a vampire, jumping onto a bus that had already pulled away was difficult, but Ioannis could do it.

"Master!"

Leaving Mia's cry behind, Ioannis stepped onto the overpass railing and leaped, the tails of his black coat streaming behind him.

THUNK!

He landed at the rear edge of the bus.

Feeling the rough wind brush his skin, Ioannis stood upright and spoke.

"One-on-one. How romantic."

"... I didn't think you'd actually follow me."

RATTLE-RATTLE! CLUNK!

The bus was moving faster than I'd expected. I glared at him from an awkward half-crouch.

Ioannis admired Seoul's nighttime scenery from atop the moving bus.

"How unfortunate. In that case..."

He quoted a line from a favorite novel.

"Weep and prove your innocence, magician."

At those utterly unexpected words—

"—"

My expression went blank for a moment, and I burst into helpless laughter.

"Pff, hahaha—."

I straightened my knees and stood upright. I was still a little unsteady, but I felt the fierce wind against my back.

"I—"

I'd regret this later, but I couldn't help it. I told the arrogant vampire bastard straight to his face:

"I didn't even cry when my own fucking mother abandoned me, you dumbass."

Ioannis's blue eyes flashed, and his smile widened enough to reveal his fangs. Whatever else happened, coming to Seoul as Chairman Kim had suggested had been the right decision.

Ioannis drew his enchanted Damascus steel sword and held his arm out horizontally. Yohan tightened his grip on the iron-covered grimoire <Mysteries of the Worm>.

CLUNK! CLUNK! RATTLE-RATTLE!

The stage was the roof of a moving bus, beneath a maddened moon.

A blond vampire and a magician in a white coat faced off.

THOOM!

Then the bus jolted heavily as its load increased.

"■■■■■—!!"

The Invisible Vampire roared.