Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 76 - 75: The Real Scheme.

’Fuck! is what I’m gonna do to the one who fired at me!’, I cursed angrily.

But that anger left as soon as it arrived. My mind cooling down in an instant, as I saw another bolt coming at me, followed by another three in the distance.

I didn’t have much time; my mana was disoriented and I couldn’t cast any new spells, not for the next few seconds.

But I had to stand, I had to react, blocking just won’t do as I would become a sitting duck for the next attacks.

I instinctively activated [Split Second]. No, instinctively wasn’t the right word; it wasn’t wild instinct. It was more like...habitually?

It was as if this body already knew what to do and I subconsciously just followed that.

The world around me stopped, my body stopping along with it, becoming so, so heavy, as if made of lead, but my thoughts were fast as ever.

Then again, I felt the same urge, the same habitual feeling and this time I just gave in.

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The multiple thoughts moving in my head stopped, [Parallel Mind] deactivated, as one and only one thought was churning through my mind – How should I move my body?

And maybe, it was because I was so focused, that my body, my mind, and my mana moved as they did, so smoothly without any waste.

I didn’t stand completely. Just took a knee and picked up a piece of iron near my hand, and threw it in the same motion. Then, I activated the magic I had already casted in advance...

[Acceleration x15]

...as fifteen acceleration circles appeared in its path.

-BOOM!!

The piece of iron broke the sound barrier and started glowing, becoming hot with friction, as the next instant it crashed with the crossbow bolt.

From afar it looked as if someone slashed at the bolt from below, making it spin right before it entered the hole in the wall, that my body crashed into.

-Bang…!!

The two meter long bolt struck the wall vertically. The force behind the bolt not a joke as its spin broke a part of the wall, causing more rubble to fall, in slow motion. Or so it appeared to me.

And thanks to that, I could see them, another three bolts coming at me from behind the curtain of rubble.

Alas, they were too late...

I wasn’t disorientated anymore, nor was I unprepared.

With my hand on my sword, I activated [Attribute Infusion], which was cancelled due to mana disorientation. Again, my equipment was flooded with mana, becoming a part of myself as all my stats received a significant boost.

Not satisfied with just that, I casted [Enhance Enchantment], increasing the power of my sword’s enchantments further.

And then, I launched myself at the bolts.

-Boom!

The green gem on my glove flickered for a second. The same emerald barrier expanded for a single instant, like a force field, to repel the first bolt and clear the rubble.

-Tang!!

Sparks flashed as the bolt landed on the barrier, struggling to pierce it. But they were just dying sparks I suppose, cause the next second the bolt was sent flying, high in the air, along with a shower of rubble.

The building that I was previously in collapsed completely, another dust cloud forming around it. My body pierced through the dust cloud as I ran across the plaza and my vision got clear again.

Then with a burst of mana, I strengthened my body and slashed, right at the bolt that was almost upon me.

My sword glowed with mana, the enchantments on it working on their max, as it slashed the bolt in half, from head to tail, with little resistance. But I wasn’t done yet, there was still a last bolt left.

Taking a step forward, I stabilized my footing and reverse slashed at the last bolt. The angle wasn’t good this time, so I couldn’t cut it in half like before, but the power was more than enough to deflect it up in the air.

I jumped, following its ascent and then I kicked. Sending it back from where it came from, which was actually quite far away, of course I didn’t forget to add a few acceleration circles in the mix just to make sure it had an impact.

Another explosion resounded in the place, this time not of a bomb but of a bolt destroying a building.

’Guess, I added to many of them...’

Of course, I followed after it, leaving a shockwave in my wake.

[Acceleration x5]

I think it is obvious by now, but I am really glad that I mastered the [Acceleration] spell. The spell gave me mobility beyond my rank.

Like right now, despite actually being a newbie D- rank, I travelled around 2 km in a matter of seconds. The spell was so damn useful that I wondered why other people didn’t use it as much as I did.

’Well, they couldn’t travel with it like I do, which is only possible due to my unique attribute, but there were still some awesome things you can do with it.’

I stopped pondering as I reached the site, and scanned my surroundings with my mental avatar and an artefact just in case someone was hiding in for an ambush.

But I found nothing that indicated as such, nothing alive near me, nor were there any magical traps.

So, I entered the building.

Surprisingly, the building was still standing, though half-broken, it hadn’t collapsed.

It was then, that I noticed that it was two stories higher than other buildings and had some unusually high walls surrounding it. Its structure was perfect for defense and though torn, I could spot the flag of the empire in the rubble, along with broken bits of siege machines that attacked me.

’Did I just destroy a defense structure of the city?’, I grimaced cause this was gonna have some serious consequences.

Inside the building, I found no one alive. It didn’t mean there was no one, it just meant they weren’t alive.

Yes, there were dead bodies, a lot of them. I knew that as soon as I scanned the building and I had already encountered some.

They were wearing the same uniform under their armor. The uniform for empire’s low ranked personnel and all of them were dead.

Even their reason for dying was the same.

A stab straight on their head, heart or any other vitals. A single strike where their armors and helmets didn’t make a difference.

And even though I hated myself for it, I was relieved. These wounds meant that they didn’t die because of the bolt I sent back. Instead, it meant they were ambushed by someone.

Someone who far outclassed them.

Most of them were Magicos, around F~E rank, but considering there were more than thirty of them, the assailant should be C rank atleast, or a group of D ranks.

But, I rejected the possibility of them being a group, cause the wounds were too similar to be caused by a group of people, and there was no commotion in the building at all.

Unless there was a group of people, trained together from childhood to be assassins, this scenario wasn’t possible.

’But seriously, what were the chances of that being the case?’

Also, that assailant should be the one who attacked me. But where is he/she now?

’Did they escape?’, I furrowed my brows, ’It wasn’t more than two minutes from the first bolt firing and the me reaching here. They escaped in such a short window of time, that too without leaving any clues?’

If that was true then either my opponent is very fast or very meticulous.

I hoped it was the first possibility.

’Now what to do?’ I questioned myself, looking around the half-collapsed building.

Actually, I wanted to salvage the broken parts of the siege machines, but the bolt I sent back directly crashed on the giant crossbows, so it would take time to do that. Time that I didn’t have.

Just in case, I checked my subordinate’s locations, ’Isn’t Syrus pretty close from here?’

So, I did something any boss would do, I pushed my work on my subordinate.

’Syrus.’, I called him.

-Yes?

’Note my current location. There’s a half-collapsed building here, with broken siege machines. I want you to salvage the building. Remember anything can be a clue here, so don’t leave anything unearthed.’

-On my way there.

’Good.’, I said and disconnected the call.

It’s nice having such obedient subordinates, I thought and blasted my way back to the plaza.

Thanks to the attack, I lost precious minutes, making it impossible for me to defuse the bomb in the plaza. I already could see the raging magical vortex surrounding the bomb, making it quite clear that it would explode in seconds. So, I gave up and moved in for my next target.

Except it didn’t.

I didn’t notice it at first. With all the sounds around the district, it was impossible to notice it. But after defusing another three bombs and being almost out of targets, I was bound to notice.

’The bomb didn’t explode, even though more than ten minutes have passed!’

My eyes widened as a fleeting thought entered my mind.

Immediately, I stopped.

Landing on the rooftop of a building, I opened the map and checked the locations of the all the bombs. Defused, not defused, exploded. All of them.

Especially focusing on type of building they were in, the position of the building all such stuff while also pulling out the map of the district.

And as soon as I overlapped them. I cursed – SHIT!!!

’The fuck, the fuck, the fuck!!’

I panicked for a second before actually starting to move.

[Acceleration x8]

-BOOM!

With the fasted as I could go, launched myself towards the plaza.

’The buildings which mostly had bombs were the ones who had the highest mana output of the city, like potion stores, artefact stores and as such, except the decoys that later exploded or I defused. These building use so much mana that they have a different mana supply from the normal shops, a high powered mana supply, instead of the regular mana supply system.’

And they were also the first among the ones that exploded, the ones that I couldn’t prevent from exploding.

If all the mana output is stopped being used by such shops, then there is a supposed to be a system that accumulates the residual mana and then disperses it.

And that system is right there, right below that plaza.

’The bomb in the plaza didn’t explode and just accumulated mana. I got attacked as soon as I reached the plaza, and all the residual mana output is being accumulated to that same plaza that has the system to disperse it.’

Alarm bells rang in my head as my brain figured out the situation.

’If someone tinkers with that system...’

I could already imagine an explosion that erases all of the district.

’The fuck!!’