"…you"re kidding, right?""No. I"m dead serious." My reply was unmistakably set in a serious tone. Harvey"s eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
"EH!?"
"Oi, not so loud," I snapped, glancing around. There were still people streaming into Souhampton Stadium, making their way through the darkened interior and toward the spectator seats. A few of them were looking in our direction curiously, their attention no doubt piqued by Harvey"s exaggerated outburst. "You want to alert the culprit that we"re looking for him?"
"Ah…sorry." Harvey gulped and then calmed himself down. Then he appeared to remember who he was talking to, and he brightened up. "Of course…Senior Richard, you have taken down a.s.ssa.s.sins and rank A monsters before. Getting rid of whoever"s stupid enough to emanate such intense killing intent wouldn"t be a problem for someone of your caliber."
I really disliked being looked at with those idolizing eyes of his. Harvey practically wors.h.i.+pped me and for some reason appeared to believe that I could do no wrong. If I intended to hunt this apex predator then I must be very confident of winning against it.
Of course, I felt nowhere the same amount of confidence that Harvey seemed to place in me, but I couldn"t exactly tell him that or he wouldn"t help me. I wasn"t stupid enough to go face what was most definitely a monstrous killer by myself either, and I intended to call upon the a.s.sistance of Jamie and the other Silver Wolves.
"Actually, we"re helping the mercenaries and security track down the source…we don"t want it to suddenly show up in the middle of a match and ma.s.sacre the students and spectators inside the stadium. Furthermore, if an attack happens inside such a closely packed area…you can imagine the chaos and pandemonium. People would be trampling and crus.h.i.+ng each other in order to escape, and the death toll will rise even higher. No, it"s best to track down the source as soon as possible and erase it before it can threaten everybody."
Harvey watched me in amazement. "So that"s why you"re setting aside the chance for personal glory!"
"Huh? What? No, I…"
"You"re awesome!"
"No, I"m not!"
It took me a few moments to figure out that Harvey had completely misunderstood my intentions when I brought up the Silver Wolves. I mean, sure, of course I prioritized the safety and well-being of all the students, staff and spectators inside the stadium over everything else, but I never thought of sacrificing personal glory and all that bulls.h.i.+t. In fact, the idea of personal glory and taking all the credit never even occurred to me.
"Dude, I"m not invincible. I"m not going to let pride get to my head and attempt to solo this monster, only to get killed…if that happens, it"s not just my life – everyone"s lives are at stake here. My ego would be costing the lives of others. I"ve to be more responsible than that."
"Yes, you truly are someone we should all aspire to be like!" Harvey was nodding in approval, again misunderstanding my rationale for some sort of n.o.ble att.i.tude. I was tempted to inform him htat I was the last person everyone should aspire to become, especially if you believe the comments from readers about how I was stupid, mentally r.e.t.a.r.ded, spineless or pathetic. For some reason, a good number of readers appeared to believe that only idiots like me would be willing to risk my life to save other people and they vehemently condemned me for it.
Well, f.u.c.k them. I was going to save the people in the stadium, regardless of whether I knew them or not. This was my duty…my responsibility as a mage of the Global Federation. And my dream was to follow in my father"s footsteps and become a hero like him. Kill the few to save the many. If I had to stain my hands with blood and eliminate the source of the killing intent to protect the innocent spectators who had filled Southampton Stadium to capacity, then I wouldn"t hesitate to do so.
Speaking of hesitation, there was no time to waste arguing with Harvey or convincing him of my fallibility. I gestured vaguely to the air.
"Can you trace the source of the killing intent? I remember that among all the students in Jing Tian Academy, you"re the one with the best nose for this. I"m counting on you."
"Yeah, I can try." Harvey took a deep breath and nodded.
"All right. Let"s begin immediately."
"Before that…have you already scouted out the place? I remember you can summon a bunch of crows and spirits to reconnoiter the place."
I nodded and raised my hand to be perpendicular to the ground. There was a flutter in the darkness, then one of my Corvus floated downward to perch on my arm.
"Way ahead of you…but they can"t see anything. I had them search the place earlier, but they can"t see anything. Since they – and I rely more on sight and sound, we couldn"t pinpoint the source of the killing intent by tracing the murderous aura alone. That"s why I"m asking for your help."
Harvey puffed his chest out proudly and patted it. "Leave it to me!"
"All right. I"ll leave it to you then." When he closed his eyes and began tracking the source of the mana with his senses, I quickly departed to contact Jamie and the Silver Wolves. Briefly filling them in on what I had Harvey do, I requested that they join us both in finding the source.
"You kids should not be involving yourself in this," Jamie declared disapprovingly, but I shook my head in disagreement.
"It doesn"t matter if we"re kids or not. For the sake of everyone in the stadium, you"re going to need every helping hand you can get. This isn"t about kids or adults or whatever, it"s about preventing a ma.s.sacre."
"Ma.s.sacre, huh?" one of the mercenaries chuckled dryly as he leaned against a counter, his arms folded. "Surely you exaggerate."
No, I wasn"t, but I wasn"t confident enough to refute an adult. However, this murderous sensation felt very familiar, and I had the impression this wasn"t the first time I was feeling it. I was certain that at one point during my life, I had faced a near-identical killing intent that almost overwhelmed me, but I just couldn"t place my finger on what exactly it was. Another person? A monster?
No…an a.s.sa.s.sin. And not just any a.s.sa.s.sin. The Umbra a.s.sa.s.sins, while deadly, relied more on stealth and subtlety, and thus did not emanate such a ferocious killing intent. The Veneneum a.s.sa.s.sins might be capable of killing even the strongest mage with just a single drop of poison, but to get that into their target"s system they would lay low rather than produce such an obvious fearsome aura.
"…a Frenzor a.s.sa.s.sin," I murmured, reminded of the two transhuman monsters I had faced back in Jing Tian City when we went to rescue the city council members, which included Alicia"s father, Vincent Violet.
How could I have forgotten what those psychotic killing machines feel like?
"Senior Richard!"
Harvey appeared to be done, and he was scrambling toward me. His eyes went wide when he caught sight of the huge group of Silver Wolves milling around me, and he stuttered for a moment. I quickly stepped in, filling his view in an effort to calm him down.
"What"s up, Harvey? Did you locate the source?"
"Uh…yes…yes! I did!"
"Good. Excellent work!" I patted his shoulder encouragingly. "I"ll have to trouble you to lead the way then."
Harvey brightened up, feeling proud at being relied upin by his idol (though I felt very uncomfortable at the idea of being regarded as such). He then wheeled about and strode off to one of the staff rooms.
"This way."
I raised an eyebrow at that. Despite the sign clearly barring unauthorized personnel from entry, I had slipped a couple of my Corvus into the room and found nothing. Even so, I trusted Harvey, or I never would have approached him for help in the first place.
"Um…"
"Don"t worry. We have authority." Jamie gestured with a hand, and the door swung open automatically to allow us entry. Just as I expected after sending my Corvus for reconnaissance earlier, the door led to what seemed like a deserted corridor, with nothing but dull gray concrete covering the walls, floor and ceiling. There were long piping, and narrow ventilation shafts that stretched endlessly across the entire length of the pa.s.sageway. There were doors here and there, but again, my Corvus"s search had turned up fruitless.
Did Harvey pick up something that I missed?
"There"s nothing here," one of the mercenaries complained as Harvey trekked through the corridor. My junior was ignoring the multiple doors along the way and heading straight for the end.
"Trust me," Harvey said.
"Why should I…?" the mercenary wasn"t able to complete his sentence, because Jamie hushed him firmly. Since I was the one who asked Harvey for help, I decided to believe in him and I followed just behind, hurrying to keep pace.
What exactly did Harvey find that I missed?
"Here."
Harvey suddenly stopped near the end of the corridor and glanced about. Even though his eyes darted across the ceiling, the walls and the ventilation shafts, he eventually fixed his gaze on the floor. Pointing downward, he gulped.
"It"s right below us."
The mercenaries exchanged several glances, but none of them could deny that the killing intent had amplified exponentially the closer we got toward Harvey"s position. I could feel the hair p.r.i.c.kling on the back of my neck and chills were gripping my spine so tightly I swear my bones were creaking. Suppressing a gulp, I stared at the ground. For a moment, I thought I saw an illusion of an abyssal monster dwelling in the deep darkness below. My breath caught in my throat, and I found it increasingly difficult to breathe.
"The kid might be right," one of the mercenaries spoke up nervously, obviously feeling the same crus.h.i.+ng weight of fear as I did. "The killing intent is strongest around here."
"Is there a way to get down there?" another mercenary demanded.
"Yeah." Jamie drew a huge cannon and pointed it at the ground, brown mana unfurling from his barrel. "We"ll make an entrance."
"!!!"
All the mercenaries scattered backward. A couple of them grabbed me and Harvey and dragged us back. Even though Jamie didn"t bother to look up at us, he seemed to know when we were all out of range. The instant the last mercenary scrambled toward a five meter point, he pulled the trigger.
A searing beam of ruby light disintegrated the ground below his feet, swallowing up not just the concrete but also everything bneath it. A terrifying roar echoed from the abyss below, and something leaped through the devastating beam, his bulging, muscular surgically enhanced body somehow withstanding the destructive force.
"!!"
Jamie barely managed to get out of the way in time, diving just as the lethal blades of a neuro gauntlet sliced through the air where his head and chest had been a second ago. As he threw himself down, the Silver Wolves mercenaries reacted instantly and fired as one, bombarding the ma.s.sive figure in a black synsuit. I caught sight of a silver, metallic skull-shaped mask before it disappeared under elemental explosions.
"Hit him with everything you got!" one of the mercenaries hollered as he sprayed a torrent of flames from his incinerator, bathing the hulking Frenzor a.s.sa.s.sin in superheated fire. His comrades grunted as they flung whatever spells they could down the narrow corridor, and I was utterly impressed that not even one spell touched the retreating Jamie. The Silver Wolves were truly the best of the best, able to avoid inflicting friendly fire on one of their own even in such a situation.
As he rolled back to his feet, Jamie hefted his cannon and added his immense firepower to the bombardment. The Frenzor a.s.sa.s.sin snarled as he relied on a mixture of his lightning reflexes and the superhuman st.u.r.diness of his altered physiology to withstand the merciless barrage of spells thrown at him.
"You kids should get out of here," one of the mercenaries told me and Harvey. My junior nodded and hastily departed, but not before he noticed that I wasn"t following.
"Senior Richard? What are you doing?"
"I told you, didn"t I?" I paused as the Frenzor a.s.sa.s.sin let out a deafening bellow, and waited for the noise to die down before I resumed. "I"m here to help kill that thing."