Chapter 73

Chapter 73

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 73Before arriving at the factory complex, while recalling the situation from the game, I had a brief conversation with Parnello.‘Parnello, Father said the reason the two of us are moving alone is to keep Calione from being exposed to the Villain Alliance, right?’‘That is correct. There would be nothing good for Calione in letting them know we planted a spy among them.’In other words, the focus of this mission was solely on ‘rescue.’

According to the plan, we could escape immediately once we secured Ratte.

But for some reason, I kept thinking this rescue operation was a trap.‘What if this really is their trap? If that happens, wouldn't our identities eventually be exposed?’‘That possibility certainly exists. In that case... shouldn't we annihilate them?’‘Annihilate them?’‘Yes. Just in case, the Don entrusted me with something separately, and hearing what you said, Young Master, I think it would be best to give it to you now.’Saying that, Parnello handed me an orange revolver-shaped flare gun and spoke.‘Communications will be cut off the moment we enter the complex anyway, so it will be difficult for them to leak information about us outside. In that case, all we have to do is make sure no one carrying information gets out, don't we?’‘And that's when this is needed?’‘That is correct. There are twelve Calione Hitmen scheduled to arrive on the follow-up helicopter. Normally, they would be positioned outside the factory complex to ensure no enemies escape... but if you fire this, Young Master, every Hitman will gather at that location.’In other words, it was an item that would make them abandon the surrounding encirclement and gather in one place, so I was told to use it only when absolutely necessary.‘I will.’That was how the flare gun ended up in my hand.

With this, every Hitman surrounding the area would come running here.

“What the hell did you do?!”

Blanca, slowly regaining her sight, shouts with tears streaming from her eyes.

“Nothing much.”

Saying that, I glance toward Ratte on the upper floor.

While Blanca had been fully focused on fighting me, Ratte used her ability to control rats to cut the ropes binding her.

That was also why I'd gone along with Blanca's pointless conversation and frontal battle from the beginning.

To draw all of her attention toward me.

I had carefully sent Ratte Calione's hand signal at an angle she could see, asking her to cut the wire along the wall.

And the result was the explosion just now.

“You goddamn bastard! You Calione bastards were always like this! Right now──.”────!!

At that moment, Blanca's body is pushed backward as a purple flash bursts against her shoulder.

Although the aura covering her entire body blocked it and prevented any injury, the impact itself was transmitted to her.

“What kind of crazy bastard casts magic while someone's talking...!”────!!

Another flash bursts.

Once again, her body tilts heavily backward, but only the surface is slightly scorched. It hardly looks like something that could be called an injury.

“...

You think magic like this can even make me flinch?”

“Ah, I thought that might happen, so I prepared a little more.”

I rotate my body and swing my fist, completely smashing the wall behind me.

Then men in black suits appear simultaneously from behind it.

Each of them carries heavy weaponry or has magic already being cast in their hands.

“Take her down.”

In an instant, tremendous gunfire fills the surroundings and begins pouring toward her.

It isn't enough to wound her, but it's more than sufficient to make her hesitate.

While she falters, I slowly rein in the aura that had been raging wildly.

“Young Master. Is your body all right?”

The man who came as the leader of the follow-up unit glances at Blanca as he speaks to me.

He was a member of the organization who had carried out the operation with me at Incheon Port under the name Eagle, and was also the person who had just sniped Blanca with magic.

“Yes, for now. What about the enemies nearby?”

“We narrowed the encirclement and killed every enemy we saw. Jackal is currently facing Parnello.”

In other words, the only one currently capable of threatening us was Blanca in front of us.

“Secure Ratte first and have her treated in the rear. After that, back me up from behind according to the anti-

Awakened manual.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

The man bows and answers without the slightest hesitation at my command.

He then relays orders to the nearby members of the organization and slowly retreats.

“Cease fire!!”

At the man's shout, I charge toward Blanca and throw a punch.

-Booom!

A massive sound erupts, difficult to believe it came from two humans colliding.

“Round two.”

“To think you'd call in other people. Aren't you embarrassed...?!”

“Why would I be embarrassed? If this is also my power, then it's still power.”

Blanca, who had grabbed my hand, strikes upward with her left arm, trying to break my right arm.

But once again, her body staggers from a sniper shot fired from far away, and I don't miss the opening, amplifying the aura at the point where her palm and my fist meet to draw out repulsive force.

“If bloodline and authority are power, then they're my power too.”

“You goddamn bastards, seriously...!”

“Do you have time to look away?”

As the repulsive force grows stronger, Blanca tries to push me away to maintain distance.

But once again, a shot flies toward her head and snaps it backward.

Without missing the opening, I leap toward her and drive my knee into her jaw.

“Ghk...!”

“The dogfight starts now.”

When I stomp toward the head of the woman who crashed to the ground, she rolls sideways and dodges.

“Seriously! Do you have no honor?!”

“Honor? Ah, right. I left it in my room before coming here. Thanks for reminding me.”

“You little brat, seriously!”

As she tries to get up, I kick her once more, sending her rolling awkwardly across the ground again.

“Maybe because your aura looks like a beast, you roll well too.”

“...

The brat who was getting beaten by me just moments ago!”

“Did it really look that way? If you're that upset, why don't you call your comrades too? Ah, are the rest still stuck in prison because they couldn't escape?”

“...

I'll kill you.”

Perhaps my painstaking provocation worked, because she erased the playful tone and smile she'd had until now and glared at me with cold eyes.

But...

“It's too late for that.”─────! ─────! ─────!

Not ordinary rifles, but anti-materiel sniper rifles designed to destroy tanks thunder continuously, disrupting her again and again.

If I kept attacking with this support, I should be able to subdue her quickly.

Just as I was about to approach her to land a decisive follow-up blow.

The pure white, fur-like aura covering Blanca's body erupts with white light as though exploding.

Reflexively covering my eyes, I extend my arm and strike away whatever approaches.

Krrrk── sounds come from my sleeve.

“I swung that intending to cut it off...”

Moving at a speed so fast even the support team behind me couldn't react, as though she had become a completely different person from before, she swings claws made of aura and tries to slash through my arm.

“...

This progressed faster than I expected.”

Fortunately, she hadn't managed to cut through the clothing itself, but there was a scratch on it.

The fact that Unique-rank armor of all things had its threads torn from a single scratch meant her physical abilities had risen explosively.

That was exactly what Phase 2 looked like in the game.

“Judging by your expression, you seem pretty surprised?”

Blanca speaks while slightly tilting her head.

At the same time, a bullet strikes behind her and sends fragments flying.

“You must be in a hurry, using that already.”

If her senses had risen enough for her to evade bullets traveling faster than the speed of sound, I couldn't even begin to guess how much her physical ability had increased.

Her appearance had become even more animalistic, and even her senses had changed drastically.

“...

I wanted to avoid using this if possible, but you've already used every card you can play too, so I suppose it doesn't matter.”

Hadn't she said in the game that she rarely used it because the backlash afterward was severe?

Seeing that level of ability, it seemed more than worth it.

“Ah, right.”

She slowly approaches me.

“You know something?”

The ceiling of the building, filled with achromatic colors.

Moonlight begins pouring through a hole in the middle of it.

Like a spotlight bestowed by the night illuminating an aria onstage, Blanca stands in the center of the moonlight with an atmosphere so refined it could almost be called noble, then slowly stretches a hand toward the sky.

“I never once said I was alone.”

The pouring moonlight begins cascading over her head.

Blanca silently receives the moonlight like a religious devotee receiving a baptism.

Her snow-white hair gradually takes on a dreamlike, mysterious glow, and the moonlight that finally reaches the ground slowly gathers, beginning to form a shape.

It was a wolf.

“Wolves are animals that hunt in packs, after all.”

When the flowing moonlight finally takes the form of wolves.

-Awooooooooooo!!

Dozens of wolves begin howling in unison.

As though resonating with them, Blanca howls as well.

It was the signal that she had fully entered Phase 2.[Support the Young Master immediately!]

At the appearance of the wolves looking ready to charge me at any moment, the support team's voice comes through the in-ear monitor, and at the same time, countless bullets begin pouring into the building.

But Blanca's wolves evade the countless attacks with the leisurely steps of wolves strolling through a forest.

“You think you can catch my children with toys like that?”

As though mocking the sight, Blanca lowers her body forward into a quadrupedal stance, baring her teeth alongside the wolves surrounding me as though they could attack at any moment.

“The Boss probably won't care even if you lose an arm or a leg. Then this is the end, little Young Master of Calione.”

Blanca pulls her body back as though ready to spring at any moment and slowly speaks to the wolves.

“──Bite.”

A storm begins to rage.

Like a pack of wolves chasing prey, their movements as they continuously race along the walls are so intense that I can feel my brain growing tired just from trying to focus.

If I defend because I think an attack is coming, they retreat, and if I keep one in check, another attacks in this frantic situation, I...

“Thank you.”

“...

What?”

I couldn't stop the corners of my mouth from curling upward.

“Actually, I was waiting for you to summon the wolves.”

Because I wanted to see these messages appear in front of me.[The number of enemies has increased sharply.][Bloodline Ability: 「Calione」 is strengthened!]

A red storm rising from my body devours the surroundings.

The scale of the aura increases even further due to the newly acquired [Hunter of Villains]

and [DisPater]

.

The building, which only moments ago had been filled with white afterimages from the wolves' movements, was now overlaid by my aura, dyeing the surroundings crimson.

“What the hell is this...”

At the alien sight, she flinches and trembles.

The moon turns red, and the wolves formed from moonlight begin collapsing one by one and twisting their bodies.[Bloodline Ability: 「Calione」 dominates 「Moon Wolf」.][Domination successful!][「Moon Wolf」 changes into 「Red Wolf」.][Control of 「Red Wolf」 has been transferred.]

“My trump card.”The attribute of my aura that I'd learned through the battle with the ‘Ranger Club’ was domination.

And until now, I'd used that aura to strengthen my body or dominate equipment and make it even stronger.

But the Vito Calione I had seen in the game was different.

Vito Calione's red aura dominated the surrounding air, the ground, and even space itself.

Simply confronting him within the same space made it hard to breathe and slowed your entire body.

It was clearly an absolute power capable of dominating even things without physical form.

Then couldn't I also use my aura that way?

The plan began from that idea.

And Blanca was the perfect opponent for the experiment.

Because I was far too familiar with the pattern where she summoned Moon Wolves with aura once Phase 2 began.

Use Calione's firepower to shave down as much of her aura as possible, corner her in a confined space, then draw out the ability of [Bloodline: Calione]

to its absolute maximum and envelop and seize control of the weakened familiars.

The result was overwhelmingly successful.

“Come here.”

When I whistle, the wolves naturally run toward me and begin rubbing their faces against my legs.

They were fairly troublesome to defeat in the game, but seeing them like this, they're kind of cute.

“Ah...!”

Blanca could only stare blankly at the sight with a devastated expression.

“Is it really okay for you to just stand there like that?”

I smile as I say that, then point at her with my index finger and speak.

“Bite.”

Blanca's expression is dyed with despair.