Chapter 84. World of Art (4)
Boom!
Rumble!
At that ti when the Fla Seeds Riman planted were bursting here and there.
Only the 2nd Squad was not swept away by those explosions.
"Stop."
A man stopped the squad mbers.
2nd Squad Leader, Ryu Ji-ho.
A man with a sturdy build and a slightly sharp but ordinary impression.
But his skin had a bluish tint, and scales were sparsely sprouting on his neck and forearms.
Evidence that he was not an ordinary human.
Ryu Ji-ho said.
"Movent of unstable mana is detected on the floor ahead. Wait."
Ryu Ji-ho knelt on one knee and placed a hand on the floor.
He could feel it.
The hot mana energy clumped inside the floor.
"…It's fire."
"Yes?"
"Mines. Soone planted mines ahead with mana."
"Then the explosion sounds just now……!"
"It ans other squads stepped on them all."
"Such……! Then we should detour and move……."
"No ti for that. We dismantle and pass."
"Dismantle?!"
Ryu Ji-ho took out a small water bottle from his waist.
Actually, it was a size embarrassing to even call a water bottle.
Because it was a size smaller than a film canister.
Ryu Ji-ho tilted that container.
A small amount of water, about 30ml, flowed out from inside.
Wiggle-
The water did not fall to the floor but floated in the air as it was.
The water scattered in the air soon clumped together, then gradually inflated its bulk.
Bubble-
The volu of water increased two tis, three tis, ten tis, twenty tis.
A huge water droplet made like that.
Ryu Ji-ho began to reshape the water droplet with mana.
Shoorururu…….
The round water droplet rotated and twisted down, transforming into the shape of a sharp drill.
The place the tip of the drill aid was the ground.
Ryu Ji-ho swiped his fingertip downward.
The water mass responded to that hand gesture and struck the ground as it was.
Pisyuk!
Water burrowing smoothly into the ground.
The sharply forged water pierced through the ground at once and penetrated even the seed of fire.
The hotly heated fireball broke and was extinguished by the sudden invasion of water.
Pshhh…….
The fire went out.
"Mine removal complete."
"As expected of the Squad Leader……!"
"We go fast."
Ryu Ji-ho shrank the swollen water back and put it into the water bottle.
Like that, the squad advanced again.
Though they stopped again before going far.
"You guys pull out here."
"Yes?"
"I thought about it, the opponent is probably a Pyrokinetic. Then it's efficient for
to deal with him alone with my ability."
"Still, we should cover……."
"If sothing goes wrong, you guys will get swept away by my ability too."
"That……."
"But I'm not saying to sit on your hands. You guys pull out to the engine room from here. And when I signal, activate the 1st floor sprinklers."
"……!"
At those words, the squad mbers understood at once.
It seed everyone noticed what Ryu Ji-ho intended to do.
"Understood."
"Go."
After splitting with the squad mbers like that, Ryu Ji-ho headed to the wide hall on the 1st floor.
‘What kind of guy is he?’
Ryu Ji-ho also knew that his employer, Francis Appel, was an escapee of Mugan.
He also knew that a considerable bounty was placed on her.
But trying to hunt Francis seeing only the bounty was a crazy act.
Because there were dozens of upper-class figures involved with her alone.
The mont one tries to hunt Francis to get the bounty, one turns all these power figures into enemies.
It becos selling one's future for re bounty.
‘If he ca this far, he should know all this background…… why did he really co?’
Ah, perhaps the part-tir brought as a model went on a rampage?
‘…No, a mana detector is installed at the entrance. It's set to send them back imdiately in case of a mana user.’
No matter which way he thought, a plausible answer didn't co out.
Eventually, Ryu Ji-ho concluded.
‘Let’s just do my job.’
His duty was to kill the intruder of this building.
Since he already received the allowance in advance, all that remained was just working hard.
‘Nothing to think deeply about.’
What the cause is, what the motive is, what is right and what is wrong.
This city was too complex to care about such things.
In sailing the vast ocean, one finds the way looking at only a single star.
When everything is bleak, one just has to follow the most shining thing.
Money.
The most distinct and innocent value in this world.
‘Since I received money, I work.’
Thinking so, Ryu Ji-ho walked out to the wide hall on the 1st floor.
He saw a man wearing a coat not far away.
‘That’s the guy.’
Ryu Ji-ho pulled up mana from his Dantian.
* * *
‘Hmm?’
Riman saw.
A young man possessing skin with a bluish tint.
Like that, Riman made eye contact with Ryu Ji-ho.
Riman thought inwardly.
‘Who was he again……?’
He felt like he passed by that face a few tis in the ga.
Anyway, seeing that the impression remained in his head even faintly, he was absolutely not an ordinary civilian.
"……."
"……."
The two just stared at each other quietly.
A silent probing battle where not a single word was exchanged.
Actually, there was no reason for words to be exchanged.
Riman had to sweep away everything blocking him to et Francis.
Ryu Ji-ho had to kill the intruder of this building.
The purposes of the two were too distinct, and the targets were even placed right in front of their eyes.
Therefore, conversation was useless.
Only action was aningful.
Ryu Ji-ho drew the pistol at his waist with quick hand movents.
The muzzle aid precisely at Riman's chest.
The trigger was pulled.
Bang!
Ting!
The flying bullet hit Riman's barrier and bounced off.
‘Barrier……? Is he a Mage?’
The first move missed, but Ryu Ji-ho was not flustered.
Rather, he pulled the trigger tight and fired in rapid succession toward Riman.
Dadada!
Bullets bouncing off every ti they hit.
The magazine holding 16 rounds was emptied in an instant.
But this resulted in no damage.
However, Ryu Ji-ho didn't care.
Since the shooting was rely a smokescreen anyway.
Wiggle-
A huge water droplet floated up behind him.
Using the brief gap created by the shooting, he made a move with the water from the water bottle.
Seeing the water droplet floating in the air, Riman thought.
‘I rembered……!’
Only now did the na co to mind.
Superhuman Hydrokinetic, Ryu Ji-ho.
‘She brought in a guy with such an expensive price tag well enough.’
Well, rather than Francis bringing him, it would be manpower provided by a sponsor.
As soon as Riman muttered inwardly, Ryu Ji-ho proved his expensive price tag imdiately.
Pisyuk!
Five streams of water spewing from the water droplet.
Things to which compression by mana and rotational acceleration were applied.
Five streams of water jets that would lightly pierce even a concrete wall flew toward Riman.
Ryu Ji-ho thought.
‘Because of my shooting just now, he must have pulled up the barrier fully.’
However…….
‘There is no barrier capable of blocking my water jet.’
Barriers using mana are paradoxically weak against attacks using mana.
And the water forming this water jet is in a state excessively altered by mana.
A general barrier could not block this attack.
‘It’s over.’
However, his expectation flew away far into the distance along with the water jets.
Ting!
The streams of water hit the barrier and bent away just like that.
Pubububuk!
The streams of water losing direction hit the walls and ceiling here and there directly.
Holes were pierced plentifully on the thick concrete walls.
At the sa ti, Ryu Ji-ho's eyes also lost direction.
‘He deflected this……?!’
The thod was the sa as earlier.
The mont the water stream touched the barrier, Riman extended mana and seized a part of the water forming the stream.
There was no need to seize every part of the water stream.
Just enough to bend the trajectory of the water stream was sufficient.
Like that, Riman succeeded in lightly parrying the flying water jets.
‘It works.’
Riman confird that it works not only on light attacks like tasers but also on superpowers like this.
The horizon of defensive arts had definitely broadened by one step.
And Ryu Ji-ho was engulfed in bewildernt.
‘…That bastard, did he layer multiple barriers?’
Then mana to allocate for attack would be insufficient?
‘Don't tell
he intends to go with a complete defense strategy instead of attacking?’
Intending to shut himself in a shell, is that it?
"…If so, I'll just drown you."
Beep-
Ryu Ji-ho spoke through the in-ear radio.
"Turn it on."
The squad mber in the engine room who received the instruction pulled the lever.
Valves opened, and water started running along the pipes.
A mont later, sprinklers on the 1st floor started spewing water all at once.
Shaaaaaa!!
Downpour poured in the sealed space.
Riman's brow furrowed slightly.
‘…So you play like this.’
Riman tried to seize the pouring water by extending mana imdiately.
But he soon realized that it was not a very efficient act.
Because all the water in this space was already seized by Ryu Ji-ho's mana.
At least regarding control over water, Ryu Ji-ho was minutely superior to Riman.
Eventually, Riman spread the barrier in a tight sphere shape.
Like that, he blocked all the pouring water for now.
Whether he did or not, the entire 1st floor becoming a sea of water was instantaneous.
Seeing the pouring water, scales trembled quietly on Ryu Ji-ho's body.
For Ryu Ji-ho, a Hydrokinetic, this sea of water was truly ho ground.
‘Now this is my territory.’
Water on the floor too, water in the air too.
The 1st floor had entirely beco his weapon warehouse.
Ryu Ji-ho lightly extended mana and snatched moisture.
And made 50 streams of water jets at once.
‘Fire.’
Shooshooshooshuk!
Water jets flew toward Riman from all directions.
At the sa ti, Riman spread [Detection] more tightly.
He read the trajectories and speeds of all flying water streams.
Attacks flying from all directions without any blind spot.
Riman also deployed mana in all directions as if responding to this.
And projected mana into the interior of all water streams.
Calculate, encroach, and seize.
Like that, snatching all water streams without leaving any, and bending them.
Kwagwagwa!
Water streams missing in all directions pierced walls and pillars, hacking everywhere.
Blocked this ti too.
‘He deflects this?!’
Blocking five or six shots with a barrier is understandable.
But how should one understand a defensive art that deflects water jets reaching dozens of shots without a scratch?
‘If so, I will show you a technique useless even if deflected.’
Whoo…ook-
Ryu Ji-ho filled both palms with mana and then stirred his hands widely.
Kuoooo!
As if responding to the movent of both arms, two streams of torrent were created in the air.
Soon the torrents covered Riman simultaneously from both directions.
Kwaaaa!
Two streams of torrent wrapped Riman as if sealing him.
And started to crush the barrier with high water pressure just like that.
Ryu Ji-ho muttered inwardly.
‘You won't be able to deflect this.’
It was true.
For now, he was blocking the torrent from touching his body with the barrier, but that was all.
Even if he tried to seize the torrent with mana and flow it away, it had already wrapped around the barrier again.
It was a principle where flying bullets could be deflected, but the wrapper wrapping oneself couldn't be deflected.
‘I’ll tighten and crush the barrier like this……!’
Crunch-
The water pressure of the torrent wrapping Riman started to rise rapidly.
Intention to crush the barrier itself.
Actually, cracks started to appear on the barrier little by little.
At that mont.
Crash!
As the barrier broke, water poured down toward Riman.
Watching that, Ryu Ji-ho clenched his fist tightly.
And Riman opened the clenched fist.
Cold energy condensed inside the palm burst out explosively.
Crackle!
The pouring water froze pitch-black in an instant.
The aggression of the torrent was trapped inside the hard ice as it was.
Ryu Ji-ho was astounded.
"You weren't… a Pyrokinetic?!"
"That's just your thought."
Riman twisted the ice he made lightly with mana.
Clang!
The ice broke and scattered onto the floor.
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