The Gilded Wolf Captain on the loading dock spun around.
"What did those idiots do? Stabilized the situation! Now!"
BOOM.
Ray completed the sabotage. The main intake pipe burst.
A geyser of superheated steam and molten slag erupted into the room, spraying the assembly line. The Gilded Wolves shouted, diving for cover as the liquid fire consud the conveyor belts.
"Intruders!"
A guard scread, pointing up at the catwalk where Ray stood, silhouetted against the steam.
"Saboteur on the…"
There was a crack of displaced air. Svane vanished.
He reappeared instantly on the gantry, directly in front of the shouting guard.
Svane moved faster than the eye could follow.
Slash.
The signal flare was severed from the guard's hand.
Thrust.
The blade pierced the gap in the guard's armor at the neck.
Poml Strike.
Svane spun and drove the hilt into the helt of the second guard, crumpling him instantly.
Two Gilded Wolves down in less than a second.
"Kill them!"
The Wolves on the ground floor roared, drawing shock-batons and swords, rushing toward the stairs to cut off Rina.
Ray closed his eyes.
He Activated ‘Quad-Concurrent Partial Imrsion,’ his innate passive Cognitive Network skill imdiately kicked in preparation to offset the coming ntal strain.
Ray imdiately used the Grizzled Veteran’s Tactical Assessnt skill, which was also complented by his innate Art of Transience, Fulcrum Principle. Then Serene Cultivator’s Aetheric Perception skill.
The world slowed down and beca a battle grid in Ray’s mind, he saw everyone's movent and the possible vectors of attack.
Using the Understudy Protocol’s Resonant Link Communication. Ray started to command Rina.
Rina,
Ray’s voice echoed in her mind.
Target approaching your left. Duck.
Rina dropped. A shock-baton sparked over her head.
Thrust up. Hit the Ribcage.
Rina drove her dagger upward. The Wolf gasped as the blade found the weak point in his cuirass.
Ray didn't stay still. Now using the Stoic Assassin’s Flowing Shadow technique, he flowed over the railing, dropping ten feet to the floor below. He landed silently, absorbing the impact with ease. His reforge body is now showing dividends.
A Wolf rushed him, swinging a heavy mace. Ray didn't block. He stepped inside the swing.
Ray placed his hand on the Wolf’s tal breastplate. He casted the cantrip spell Shocking Grasp smoothly,lightning crackled silently. The Wolf convulsed as the electricity scrambled his nervous system, and he collapsed.
"Captain! Mage on the south catwalk!"
Ray barked, tapping his ear cuff.
A Gilded Wolf mage had Rina dead to rights. His fingers were hooked like claws, dragging static from the air. A jagged arc of erratic blue lightning Witch Bolt was already tethering to his hands, crackling with a high-pitched whine as he prepared to unleash the sustained beam.
Svane pivoted. He didn't run. He simply raised his left hand, extending two fingers.
"Ictus!"
The air distorted around Svane's hand. With a dull thump of displaced pressure, a lance of translucent, concussive force shot from his fingertips. It crossed the distance instantly, slamming into the mage’s chest with the sound of a sledgehamr hitting a sandbag.
Stolen novel; please report.
The lightning sputtered and died as the mage was lifted clean off his feet by the impact. He tumbled backward over the railing, plumting into a vat of cooling slag.
“AAAAAAHH!”
The Gilded Wolf mage scread in pain until its final breath.
From the shadows another Wolf lunged to flank the Svane. He didn't even look. He parried the desperate sword strike with a lazy, bored flick of his wrist.
Svane riposted with surgical precision, piercing the Wolf’s heart.
The fight was over in ten seconds. Five Gilded Wolves lay dead or unconscious.
"Clear."
Svane stated, flicking the blood from his blade.
A blue translucent screen appeared in front of Ray.
[SKILLED APPLICATION DETECTED]
[EVENT: COMBAT, ASYMTRIC SKIRMISH (SQUAD LEVEL)]
[PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: ADEPT]
[ANALYSIS: Host successfully orchestrated a multi-front engagent against superior combatants (Tier 2 Elites - Gilded Wolves) while simultaneously managing a structural sabotage objective. The utilization of 'Captain Svane' as an autonomous kinetic asset, combined with the zero-latency 'Resonant Link' guidance of 'Rina' created a flawless tactical kill-box with zero friendly exposure. Large mastery gain.]
[Tactical Assessnt
15% (CAPSTONE already reached, adding half of mastery gain to the next archetype skill 'Survival Instincts (Passive)'), Aetheric Perception
10%, Flowing Shadow Technique
5%.]
Ray dismissed the notification window.
"To the stairs! They’re distracted now! Let’s Move!"
Ray commanded.
They reached the heavy iron door marked 'Service Entrance - Upper Levels'. Svane kicked it open.
They burst into the stairwell, leaving the inferno behind them.
Ray paused for a second, looking back at the ruin he had caused. He tapped into his belt pouch. After the skirmish he picked up so void ore and its refined counterpart, the Null Alloy. He couldn’t put it in the bag of holding as it has anti magic properties which would render his bag of holding to not work.
"That should buy us so ti."
Ray said while getting a nut bar from his belt pouch and opened it.
He took a bite and looked up the spiral staircase. Rina and Svane are already used to Ray’s quirk.
"Kaelen is on the third floor, east wing. Let's go get our friend."
They moved up the stairwell, Ray thought to plan their approach.
He wanted to try sothing. It was a technique he hadn't attempted yet. Unlike the full sensory displacent where his body went limp and helpless, Ray wanted to attempt to pilot his own body while simultaneously maintaining the connection to process the visual feed from Nox.
It was dangerous. It was likely stupid. But the current situation calls for it.
Ray looked down at his shadow. Detecting the stare, two golden eyes opened in the darkness and looked back at him.
Nox, I need you to scout ahead.
Ray projected.
Nox understood. The shadow separated from Ray’s silhouette, flowing up the stairs like spilled ink.
Ray took a breath and activated partial sensory displacent.
The change was instant and violent.
His right eye changed. The light within the iris vanished, replaced by a dull, violet void. In his mind, that half of his vision was replaced by a monochro world of high-contrast heat signatures and fluid shadows.
His left eye remained human, seeing the smoky, dim stairwell and Rina’s cloak ahead of him.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[WARNING: NEURAL DISSONANCE DETECTED]
[Technique: Bi-Location Sensory Stream]
[Alert: Your optic nerves are not designed to process dual-spatial inputs. Prolonged usage (> 5 Minutes) will result in severe vertigo, migraine, and potential temporary blindness.]
[Recomndation: Cease technique imdiately.]
Ray swiped the notification away with a ntal flick.
"Noted."
Ray muttered.
He reached into his belt pouch pocket and pulled out another nut bar, he opened it and took a bite, forcing his brain to focus on the chewing motion.
The Crimson Weaver’s passive ‘Neural Gastronomy’ skill kicked in.
The effect was imdiate. As Ray swallowed, the splitting headache throbbing behind his eyes dulled significantly. The nausea roiling in his gut settled into a warm hum of energy.
Cognitive Network handles the voices, but the Crimson Weaver pays the electric bill.
Ray thought his brain received the fuel it needed to handle the dual-processing load.
"Young master?"
Rina whispered, glancing back.
"Keep moving,"
Ray said, his voice steady now.
"I have Nox scouting ahead for us."
.
"You’re bleeding."
Ray wiped his nose. His Theorist glove ca away red, but he felt that the bleeding has already stopped.
"Push through,"
Ray muttered, blinking his eyes rapidly to clear the double vision.
"Nox just ahead of us. The hallway is clear. The Wolves have sent their forces to the basent to deal with the explosion."
The sabotage was working. The distant roar of the ruptured furnace and the wail of the alarms masked the sound of their boots on the stone steps. The heat was rising, chasing them up the tower like a physical predator.
"East Wing, Lets move."
Ray commanded.
They burst out the stairs onto the third floor. The hallway here was opulent, plush red carpets, gold-frad portraits of ancestors who looked similar to Titus Thorne, and heavy velvet drapes.
But the air slled of smoke.
"Two targets, at the room ahead, at the end of the hall."
Ray hissed, his left eye coming back to life as he deactivated the partial sensory displacent.
They approached the corner. Ray signaled for a halt.
Two Gilded Wolves stood guard outside a heavy oak door. They were agitated, looking down the corridor toward the main staircase where smoke was beginning to curl up from the lower levels. But their discipline held; they hadn't abandoned their post.
"They're armored, standard plates. If we rush them, they’ll have ti to shout."
Ray whispered, assessing the threat.
"Then I won't rush."
Svane said.
He sheathed his longsword and drew two short, heavy combat daggers from his belt.
He looked at Ray and suddenly disappeared. He had used the sa skill he had used in the skirmish earlier, a short distance teleportation skill Tactical Shift, which is a trademark skill of a high rank Aegis.
There was a sound like a vacuum collapsing, a sharp, distorted thump.
In the sa heartbeat, he reappeared directly behind the two guards. The air displaced by his arrival ruffled their cloaks.
Before the Wolves’ brains could process the sudden shift in air pressure, Svane struck.
He didn't stab. He slamd the heavy pomls of his daggers into the base of their skulls, right where the helt t the neck guard.
Thud-Thud.
It was brutal, precise, and nearly silent. The guards’ eyes rolled back, and they crumpled to the carpet like marionettes with cut strings.
Svane caught one before he hit the ground, lowering him silently. He looked back at Ray and Rina.
"Clear."
Svane whispered, straightening his cuffs.
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