novelraw Chapter 86 : Chapter 86
Chapter 86 : Chapter 86
Chapter 86: Raid (2)
‘What just happened?’
Spike Blue instinctively grabbed his right arm.
It was hot.
Nerves were bursting out like an explosion in an instant.
Blood poured out, flowing down along his fingertips.
Pain spread along his spine to the top of his head.
He looked down at his severed right arm.
The spot exactly 5cm below his shoulder blade had been cut.
It was cleanly severed.
A cross-section uniformly smooth as if cut by an industrial cutter.
Cold sweat formed on Spike Blue's forehead.
Fear greater than the pain was spreading like ink.
‘How? I didn't feel anything.’
He reflexively darted his gaze around.
There was no trace in the surrounding air.
Yet it was cut.
Without wind, shockwave, or trace of magic power.
It wasn't visible.
It wasn't felt.
But clearly, ‘something’ existed.
That something which took his arm.
His gaze headed forward.
‘Commemorative Photo Corner.’
Atop the wooden building with the half-broken sign.
A pair of a man and a woman stood there.
A woman in Goth fashion who didn't seem mentally sound.
And a man who also didn't seem normal, wearing a white leather mask with holes in the eye area.
Both were extraordinary.
More impressive than their bizarre appearances was the ominous presence they exuded.
“Terrorists.”
Perhaps villains with special abilities.
The culprits who released bizarre monsters in Hero Land.
Those guys had revealed themselves.
And as soon as he noticed the enemy's presence.
Kwaang—!
An explosion burst from the side.
Is it a new enemy?
As the startled Spike Blue turned his head.
The one moving there was Seol Hayun.
One compartment of the parade train was completely torn off.
Seol Hayun moved her hands without delay.
After motions like sign language passed once in her hands, flames rose as she flipped her palms.
[Flower of Flames: Proliferation]
Flame vines that bloomed in an instant wriggled as if alive.
The vines gently wrapped around the citizens' waists and arms and began to carry them into the train compartment.
“Uh, uh—.”
“What! What is…….”
“Ack, hot!”
Amidst the bewildered citizens' shouts, Seol Hayun grabbed her friends and even Spike Blue with the vines and loaded them into the cargo compartment.
Soon her intention was revealed.
Her hands danced once again.
[Flower of Flames: Vulture]
A form of flames covering the sky.
A giant vulture shaped from fire spread its wings and grabbed both ends of the train compartment's ceiling.
The sight was so natural that even Spike Blue stared blankly for a moment.
“Hold on tight!”
Seol Hayun's firm voice rang out, and soon the train compartment began to float into the sky just like that.
The moment the villains appeared and Spike Blue's arm was severed, Seol Hayun had instinctively judged that they must flee as quickly as possible.
But there was something she overlooked.
That something had cut Spike Blue's arm.
Soon that pressure approached as reality.
Deolkeok—! Teodeong—!
The train compartment shook unstably as if blocked by a wall.
Seol Hayun's brow furrowed.
She had noticed that something was blocking the glide.
Spike Blue stuck his head out the window and looked toward the ceiling.
Certainly, there is something.
The ceiling part was deeply dented as if an invisible hand was grabbing the train.
‘This is……?’
He instinctively approached and touched the surface outside the window with his finger.
Seueuk—
His fingertip was thinly sliced.
Drops of blood seeped out.
‘Thread?’
Sharp and tough.
It was too strong to be a simple thread.
Steel wire.
‘Was this area surrounded like a trap? Then what cut my arm was also?’
As he finally realized and opened his mouth.
“Wait, everyone carefu—.”
Before he could even finish speaking, Ryu Jinwoo moved first.
Ryu Jinwoo's sword stretched out the window and cut something.
To the eye, he would have just been swinging his sword in the empty air.
Simultaneously, the pressure crushing the ceiling decreased significantly.
A sound like something minutely snapping was heard, and the smell of iron began to spread.
Spike Blue looked at Ryu Jinwoo with wide eyes.
‘Did this guy notice?’
The train compartment began moving upward again as the something pressing from above disappeared.
However, that was only for a moment.
Gigigik—!
A rough and sharp metallic sound rang out from below.
This time it was the floor.
Something was violently grabbing the floor.
Kkigik— Kkik—
The more the flame-shaped vulture tried to continue gliding, the stronger the pressure transmitted from below became.
“Seol Hayun, stop! It’s grabbing the floor.”
“…….”
At Ryu Jinwoo's shout, Seol Hayun bit her lip.
The decision to try and shake it off was not good.
Because the corner parts of the floor began to split gradually.
Spike Blue stuck his head out the window and looked down.
The villains' gazes were directed at him.
A woman's face wearing a smile as if saying ‘Where are you going?’
The situation became clear.
They had tied the wheels of the cargo floor and the devices at the bottom with wires.
Invisible steel wires were tightening around the bottom of the train as if holding a leash.
If it stays like this, the ending was obvious.
The floor would be torn off, and everyone would crash down just like that.
If that happens, the ordinary citizens would be dead meat.
‘Damn it.’
Spike Blue inhaled.
Resolution reflected in his eyes.
“Hey, juniors.”
He said briefly.
“Evacuate to a safe place properly. While you’re at it, please request support.”
At his words, everyone's gazes gathered toward him.
As if asking what he meant.
“At this rate, we all crash.”
He gripped his polearm firmly.
“Someone has to sacrifice.”
He leaned his body and spoke resolutely.
“It’s decided who will do it. Since I am an active-duty Hero. I didn't get my Hero License just for show.”
With those words, Spike Blue threw himself below the train compartment.
While voices shouting his name rang out, the polearm was swung.
One line, two lines, three lines.
The sensation of cutting invisible lines was transmitted consecutively.
Soon the train compartment began to rise, pulled by the firebird's claws.
There was nothing constricting the train anymore.
Watching the ‘airship’ floating into the sky, Spike Blue's body fell downward.
‘With this, the first problem is solved. Thanks to the sharp juniors, the citizens are safe.’
He rotated his body as he fell upside down.
Kwang—!
Dust rose from the ground with the sound of impact.
As he raised his body and took a stance with the polearm planted in the ground, a soft laughing sound was heard from the front.
“Left alone?”
The Goth woman spoke while sweeping the corner of her mouth with her fingertips.
“Wouldn't it have been better to fight together? Or just leave the train alone and run away as is. Then you could have lived.”
She said with a sneer.
“Hmph, thanks to that, there are no people around, so I can use my full strength from now on.”
Snorting, Spike Blue answered.
But he also knew.
That this fight right now was overwhelmingly disadvantageous to him.
“Heroes are funny, you know? Do you take bluffing classes or something?”
The woman giggled.
Spike Blue's eyebrows trembled minutely.
Did the bluff show?
Well, it must be funny to act tough with one arm cut off.
“Seeing how you’re dressed, you look like you should be stuck in some basement doing a Ouija board. Doesn't seem like you’ve been to school to learn anything either.”
At those words, the woman's face seemed to stiffen subtly.
“You seem to be looking down on me because I only have one arm. I originally fight with one arm.”
Hwiik— Hwik—
The polearm was swung, cutting through the air.
As if showing off his robustness.
No, as if brainwashing himself that ‘I can still fight.’
“Energetic!”
The woman clasped her hands and cackled.
“Look at that. Gonta. Doesn't it seem like that? You know. Like when you pull a bug's leg off, it rampages even more crazily!”
At those words, udeuk—Spike Blue's molars ground together.
“Ah, sorry. Are you mad?”
The woman made a fake surprised face and pressed her cheek with her fingertips.
“But what can I do when it came to mind immediately. It's really similar, you know? The citizens running away, or the Hero acting up claiming to sacrifice himself for idiots. Everyone is like a bug. Scuttling around.”
At those words, Spike Blue's vision shook for an instant.
He inhaled shortly.
“……They say you only see what you are.”
He spat out lowly with a shadow cast over his brow.
“To a pest like you, everything must look like bugs.”
Instantly, the woman's laughter stopped.
A brief silence passed.
And suddenly, the corners of her mouth went up again as if tearing.
“You have a mouth on you.”
And it was the next moment.
Seueuk—
The fingertips of the man wearing the white leather mask, Gonta, shook.
The air trembled subtly.
Spike Blue's gaze moved reflexively.
“Tsk.”
He instinctively swung his polearm.
A residual wind bearing the smell of iron shimmered and swept the empty air.
Pibibit—!
Sensations like the empty air splitting were transmitted consecutively.
Invisible wires snapped and fell to the floor.
Steel wires with surfaces minutely sharpened.
One side had a keen edge set up like a blade.
It seemed to be wrapped in magic power in addition to the superalloy material.
That’s why the arm was cut off smoothly.
Moreover, it wasn't visible until just before cutting.
‘Is that guy's magic power turning objects invisible?’
Spike Blue gritted his teeth and swung his weapon.
But no matter how hard he swung, he couldn't block all the wires rushing in from all directions.
Pit—!
A thin wound was drawn on his nape.
Blood burst, and deep cut marks spread bright red on his ankles.
“Kyahahahaha! It looks like dancing!”
The woman spun around on the spot.
Gonta opened his mouth beside her as if annoyed.
“Hmph, I want to catch that guy from earlier.”
“What does it matter? Let's play with this first and then go catch him~.”
The bastards continued their conversation laughing at each other.
It was closer to hunting than combat.
They were chatting lightly in front of their prey.
Spike Blue's heart sank with a thud.
He realized at that moment.
‘Like this, I’m really no different from a bug.’
His breath tangled roughly.
His fingertips began to tremble.
Pibit— Pit—!
Wounds increased all over his body every time Gonta moved his hand.
‘Don't make me laugh!’
Defiance surged.
Like hell I’ll play along while being treated as a toy like this.
Spike Blue gritted his teeth.
His breath became short, and pain from all over his body rushed in as if stabbing his brain, but he forcibly squeezed out his magic power.
Green light began to condense on the head of the polearm.
The light became sharper, and the air vibrated hotly.
And finally, when the energy was strongly condensed.
[Blade Cutter]
Spike Blue swung his polearm violently.
Green magic power spun and stretched out like a disc.
The fierce rotation flew toward Gonta drawing a curve.
Sound waves cutting the air vibrated minutely.
Seogeok—!
A sharp cutting sound.
Spike Blue saw Gonta's arm being cut and falling.
‘Hit!’
Certainty came in a fleeting moment.
He cut it.
He avenged the humiliation of his arm being cut exactly as it was.
‘Huh?’
But soon he doubted his eyes.
He thought the arm was cut, but it was as it was before he knew it.
The guy's arm was attached perfectly in its place.
‘Did he block it? Or a trick? Illusion?’
Spike Blue's breath became short.
He couldn't believe the sight before his eyes at all.
It was then.
Gonta slowly raised his head.
“It hurts.”
A short phrase.
Saying it hurts would mean the attack hit anyway.
For some reason, the guy's condition was perfectly fine.
‘……Regeneration?’
At the same time, the air began to tremble as if vibrating minutely.
The sensation of something invisible wrapping around and tightening.
Spike Blue instinctively swung his polearm roughly.
The blade stretched out, but it wasn't enough.
In the end, nothing changed.
His resistance was merely a short tantrum.
The more Gonta moved his hands, the more wounds increased.
Even if he tried to strengthen his body by wrapping magic power around it, his concentration collapsed due to pain and the imbalance from his severed arm.
His vision gradually blurred red.
‘Why did I do that?’
Suddenly, such a thought occurred.
‘I acted tough calling myself a Hero, but what is this state now.’
His fingertips trembled.
‘Why did I get off?’
That crazy woman's words hovered in his ears again.
‘Then you could have lived.’
That woman was right.
‘If I ran away alone, I could have lived. Ignoring them and running away to call reinforcements might have been the way for everyone to live.’
But what is this state now.
One arm severed, body covered in blood.
To be struggling in the empty air without saving anything.
He was a bug.
And the stupidest bug at that.
A bug that rushes into a trap without knowing it will die.
His vision distorted.
The feeling that the air was shaking and things that shouldn't be seen were visible.
Hundreds of thin steel wires were covering the surroundings.
However, that was ultimately just a visual illusion.
Actually, nothing was visible. No matter how wide he opened his eyes.
He was getting a hunch.
That guy named Gonta had an enhancement-type spell.
The wires sprawling on the floor without disappearing were the proof.
He concealed them by applying his spell to the wires.
That's why they were neither visible nor felt.
But realization was meaningless.
Knowing didn't mean he could do anything about it.
It was already the limit.
“Killing you now.”
Gonta's low and dry voice was heard.
A tone as if annoyed.
“Yeah yeah, kill him quickly and let's go find those kids!”
The woman replied with an excited voice.
‘Those kids, chasing the juniors?’
Then what did I jump off for.
His blood ran cold.
Is a truly meaningless death like this?
His eyes were closing from despondency.
Soon, the sensation of something winding tightly around his nape came.
Tension as if his skin would be torn off was felt.
He had heard such a story.
That at the last moment of life, one intuitively senses it.
That moment when breath ends.
‘Ah, it’s being cut.’
At that moment when a resigned thought passed by.
[Shadow Chase]
Seogeok—!
A minute sound cutting the air.
Something was cut in an instant.
The pressure wrapping around his neck snapped, and below it, wire lines fell with a patter.
Spike Blue's eyes snapped open.
A black-haired boy stood on one side of his vision.
Uniform, blue eyes, and a firm posture.
The three syllables of the name Ryu Jinwoo written on the nametag seemed to shine.
Before he knew it, he was standing beside him, changing the air.
“Why, why are you here?”
Spike Blue asked with a trembling voice.
The boy inhaled shortly.
And answered very calmly.
“My policy is to repay kindness.”
He raised the tip of his sword.
“Also, I am your junior.”