C204: Water and City (3)
Inside the secret branch of the Black Dawn Society in Baltanung.
"Quickly stir it!"
"Today it's the deadline!"
"What are you doing there?"
With shouts echoing here and there, hot smoke filled the interior and the managers with gas masks on their faces shouted at the workers that haven't slept well for days.
In addition, as they continued to smell the strong medicine without a gas mask they almost became living corpses.
A skinny worker who couldn't stand the harsh environment collapsed on the floor.
"What?"
A manager approached him and tapped him with a club in his hand.
"Hey, get up. Get up."
But the fallen worker didn't budge.
When the manager lowered his head and went close to check he saw that the worker's eyes were completely loose because of the drugs spread in the air.
"Tsk. I can't use this guy anymore."
"What's going on?"
"One guy's gone."
"Again? Haha!"
The colleague who approached laughed as if it was familiar.
"Don't laugh. Can't you be serious?"
"There are so many guys like that in this Baltanung anyway, right? We can catch a few guys and bring them back."
"We have to put in a new one right away. It's hard to meet the payment period."
"It can't be helped. All the branches in Leathervelk have been wiped out. We have no choice but to pull out the supplies."
"Ha, it's driving me crazy."
It was comfortable to push the workers by giving them a few pennies, but the problem was that the work was too slow. In fact they couldn't even meet the quota since the Leathervelk branches were destroyed.
"I heard that a high-ranking person from the headquarters is coming this time so we have to work hard in order to not be blamed by him."
"Who?"
"I heard it's a First Order."
The two managers wearing gas masks were mercenaries who worked as subcontractors for money, not belonging to the Black Dawn Society.
"Oh, I heard he'll be in charge of the drug business we're running now."
"Crazy. Where the hell are we going to distribute this many drugs?"
"But this is not just a regular drug."
"What else is there?"
"I don't know exactly. I heard something, but you know what we're making?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"There are rumors that this is the leftovers of a failed experiment."
"This drug is just a leftover? Then what are they going to make?"
"I don't know. People said black wizards are involved and the person in charge of overseeing them will come here."
"Oh, crazy. Then they're in the same category as the management office here."
The man trembled as he heard that since he was afraid of getting involved with black wizards.
If someone catches their eyes they'll immediately become a subject on their experiment table.
"But I don't know. They only say they're coming, but if you look at the inside atmosphere, it doesn't look that urgent."
"Is it just a rumor?"
"Something like that. Let's do our job. Do you want to go drink beer after work?"
"How can you drink beer in this smelly city?"
"I don't know. I just drink it."
The mercenary, who was speaking, glanced at the floor.
"Was there a puddle here?"
"Did someone spill their drink?"
"I don't think so. Look. It's still coming up. Did something burst underground?"
"Maybe it's because it's such an old place that hasn't even been repaired so the rusty pipeline might have burst."
The mercenaries wondered whether to report this above or not.
At that time, the water flowing through the cracks in the ground became rough and soared high enough to reach the handmade ceiling.
"What?"
The mercenaries stared blankly as the rising stream of water began to shake and hit the surroundings violently. The steel frame, which could not withstand the water pressure of the huge water column, bent, and the boxes containing the medicine collapsed.
"What! What's going on?"
"I don't know!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The factory floor exploded as water columns rose from various places and they stirred up a rampage inside the factory while the managers were unable to react due to the sudden abnormality.
"What's all this is?"
Then a loud voice rang out from the inside and soon a middle-aged man with disheveled hair appeared.
The mercenaries froze in unison.
"Director!"
"What's this?"
Instead of responding to his subordinates, the manager opened his eyes wide.
He felt a disturbance inside, so when he came here, water pillars were rising from all sides and making a mess of the factory. Moreover, as if it were not ordinary water, the water column was wandering around like a snake.
At that moment, a pillar of water flew toward the manager who kicked his tongue, and pulled his right arm back.
"How dare you attack like this?"
A fist came out and the water column that bended steel easily disappeared.
The scattered water poured down like rain inside the factory and
the mercenaries trembled with fear at the sight.
"He broke the water column with his bare fist."
"Yeah, as expected of the 'Knight Slayer'."
The Black Wizard Moloch became was a black wizard who became stronger through body modification and his nickname on the Empire's wanted list was Knight Slayer.
It was a nickname obtained by tearing apart a famous knight known to have surpassed human physical ability with his bare hands.
"Damn it. I was sleeping soundly. What's going on?……Huh?"
Moloch, who was grumbling, squinted at the person who stood in his way.
"Who are you?"
It was an unusual man with his body covered in shadows and a gas mask shaped like a crow's beak on his face.
"Oh, you're the one who attacked, aren't you?"
A man who apparently seemed to be related to the attack appeared confidently in front of him.
Although it was a little unfair for Rudger since Casey attacked with the water. Of course, it was easier for him to infiltrate the building because she made a mess.
Since Rudger wanted to do things quietly Casey's intervention was disturbing.
'There's already water everywhere, so now it's hard for me to move secretly.'
Therefore, he appeared in front of a man who appeared to be the leader and Moloch was rather offended by that.
"How dare you appear confidently in front of Moloch? I'll take that courage from you."
Moloch's body became 1.5 bigger and the clothes he was wearing couldn't withstand the expanding muscles and were torn.
"I won't kill you easily because you interfered with my sweet sleep. I'll play with you like a doll."
"Moloch the Knight Slayer?"
Rudger muttered the name while looking at Moloch.
It was a name he heard of since he killed a knight with his bare body.
When he heard the rumor, he wondered how he did it, but when he saw such a huge body, he immediately understood.
"You modified your body with reinforced drugs."
"Ho. You must have heard of me."
Moloch's body was a product of madness peculiar to black wizards. Otherwise, humans won't be able to have a body size of more than 3 meters.
'I think it would have been a good opponent if he fought against Pantos.'
Sadly, he had to deal with him now.
"I don't know how you knew about this place, but your luck was over as soon as you met me."
Moloch said that and prepared to attack.
As his huge body was shot like a cannonball Rudger, who sensed that something was coming, immediately flew sideways.
Shortly after the huge wind pressure passed by him, a roar rang out from behind. Looking back, Rudger clicked his tongue as he saw the unfolding misery.
'It's amazing.'
There was a large hole in the steel vapor pressure tank that had stood there. It was made to withstand high-pressure steam, so it won't budge even in the case of a huge shock but Moloch went through it.
'He didn't even used magic on his body. Did he broke it purely with his physical ability?'
It seemed that his nickname Knight Slayer was not earned for nothing. With such a strong body, even a decent knight could have been torn with his bare hands.
"Hahaha! You managed to avoid it!"
Moloch, who popped out of the wreckage, burst into laughter at Rudger. He felt a lot of joy since he had a person to play with.
Rudger pulled a black revolver from his waist and aimed it at Moloch.
"Guns? That's funny but I'm a wizard even if I look like this."
Moloch immediately used [silence of fire].
But despite the magic of having an absolute advantage over firearms, Rudger pulled the trigger.
The gun shone and compressed mana was fired at Moloch. However, the mana bullet could not penetrate Moloch's skin and bounced in vain.
"Ha-ha, it's not a normal gun, is it? But that's too bad. You can't even scratch my muscles with such weak means."
In terms of the strength of the body, he seemed to be almost the same as Veron of the bug brothers, who wrapped himself in a shell since not even a mana bullet that could pierce an iron plate was useless against him.
'This is why I don't want to deal with the black wizards.'
Since ordinary wizards are specialized in fighting using magic, their attack methods are constant and easy to deal with but black wizards are different.
As they touched taboos, common sense can't be used in a fight against them.
Rudger fired a flame spell at Moloch. A huge fire burned like a wave and tried to devour Moloch.
"Do you think this will work?"
Moloch spread his hands wide and clapped them. The shock wave generated from the palms of his hands pushed the flame wave back.
Moloch smiled but then he felt a strange touch on his neck.
"What's going on?"
Before he knew it, Rudger was on his shoulder, strangling him with a white wire.
"Was flame magic a bait to block my sight?"
The wire and his skin touched and made a strange noise. Even though it was not an ordinary wire, Moloch's body didn't have a scratch.
"Do you think you can cut my skin with this?"
Moloch reached out and Rudger stepped back from his shoulder.
In the meantime, he aimed at Moloch's eyes and fired a mana bullet with his revolver.
No matter how good his physical ability is his eyes cannot be strengthened so Moloch covered his face with his hands.
"You're like a rat good at fighting."
His opponent used magic, but his fighting method was specialized in stabbing loopholes like a war mage that walked on the battlefield.
'Is he a soldier? But a military wizard wouldn't have come here alone.'
At first, he thought it was a suitable person to play with, but he changed his mind. He wanted to check his face to see who it was.
As he tried to move his body, Moloch narrowed his eyes at the pressure he felt in his body.
"What else?"
On closer inspection, a translucent wire connected to all the heavy stuff inside the factory was tying his whole body like a spider's web.
"That's interesting."
Moloch showed his teeth and tightened his body.
His muscles began to bulge and push the wires away and the iron structures connected to the wire began to shake and be dragged one by one by one.
"You can only earn a few seconds with this."
"Yes, but a few seconds will be enough."
Rudger murmured and pointed his finger at Moloch.
'What is he trying to do? Magic? But usual magic won't hurt my body.'
Moloch judged that it was a bluff but at that moment, Rudger lowered his finger.
"What did you do?"
Suddenly Moloch's throat was squeezed and blood came out.
"Cough! What?"
His body was slowly losing strength.
Rudger's attack couldn't be seen but even so his strong body should've prevented all attacks.
"What the hell……how……."
Moloch, who modified his body, could see what had happened inside his body.
"It penetrated the heart……."
The heart is a key human organ that is protected by strong bones and muscles, and thick skin that no one could touch it, but there was a hole in Moloch's heart.
Moloch forced his muscles to control his blood flow rate.
Thanks to this, he did not die immediately, but there was no way to avoid death as long as there was a hole in his heart, which is the core of life.
"What the hell did you do?"
"I simply calculated the coordinates."
"The coordinates…"
"If I can't attack from the outside, I will do it from the inside."
After deliberately turning Moloch's attention elsewhere and making him careless he managed to block him for a few seconds.
"I couldn't use this method against ordinary wizards or knights because their bodies were surrounded by mana. However someone like you who strengthened his body with drugs and experiments was easier to catch with your guard down."
Moloch opened his eyes wide. He tried to say something, but he couldn't speak because blood flowed out of his open mouth.
"Agh…"
His eyes closed and soon the giant fell forward.
It was a very vain end for the notorious black wizard known as the Knight Slayer.
"Well, then."
Just when he was prepared to deal with the other people.
"What kind of mess is this?"
At the sudden appearance of a third party's voice, he stopped and turned his head toward it.
A man with research goggles on his head appeared. He was a middle-aged man with a bald head and a white gown on his body. It was a typical scientist appearance.
"I visited in person to see how much work was done, but there were customers who were not invited."
It's definitely Rudger's first time seeing him but he knew who he was.
'Victor Dreadful.'
A First Order of the Black Dawn Society and a mad scientist who conducted all kinds of experiments.
Rudger silently aimed his revolver at Victor.