Sorry for the late release, I translated the chapter but I forgot to publish it.
Bursting out of the sewer manhole was a beastly chimera. Looking like a cross between a tiger and a wolf, the chimera slipped through the hole, which was much smaller than its size, with ease.
It looked like a cat slipping through a narrow hole.
[Krrr!]
The chimera salivated at the sight of Rudger, Passius, and the fallen Liberators nearby.
[Kwah!]
With a yell, the chimera leaped high and lunged. At the same time, a pure white flash spread out like a net and enveloped the chimera. In a flash, the chimera's body shattered into cubes, scattering in all directions.
Passius brushed the white aura from his fingertips.
'Excellent.'
Rudger could see why he didn't carry a sword when he went out from the way he'd cut the chimera to pieces in a matter of seconds. He didn't need one in the first place.
'When you're a master knight, you're a weapon in your own right.'
Passius, on the other hand, was about to ask what was going on, but then shut up.
A moment ago, more chimeras had begun to emerge from the sewer hole. They kept coming, and in a matter of moments, the number of chimeras that had emerged from the sewers had risen to nearly a dozen.
It was a good thing there were no people around, or the screams would have been deafening.
"This is getting out of hand."
"It seems so."
Rudger responded to Passius's words while using magic.
The spell was quickly completed, and pillars of stone rose from the ground and surrounded the chimeras.
The imprisoned chimeras roared and swung their mace-like tails at the pillars. Chunks of stone rained down and cracked with each blow.
"These are no ordinary chimeras."
Rudger narrowed his eyes while reinforcing the shattered pillars.
The chimeras tried to slip back into the manhole cover they'd emerged from when their prison failed to shatter. Presumably, they intended to exit by another entrance.
"It seems they have some intelligence."
Rudger didn't allow them to leave and once again he quickly casted a spell as fire enveloped the chimeras.
As he watched them burn to ash, Passius asked admiringly.
"Is it resolved?"
"I don't think so."
Rudger lifted his head and stared in the other direction and Passius did the same.
The chimeras didn't appear in just one place. They appeared simultaneously wherever manhole covers existed.
"Aaaah!"
"Aaah!"
As if to prove it, civilian screams echoed from everywhere.
Rudger and Passius' expressions naturally hardened. Seeing this, the Liberation Army's first-level agent couldn't help but laugh.
"Kkkkk. Foolish bastards, you thought you could just stop us, but in the first place, we were nothing more than a stalling tactic."
Using special gunpowder, the group staged a large-scale terrorist attack to draw attention to themselves. With that attention, they have enough time to unleash their chimeras on the capital, wreaking havoc.
"That's one hell of a plan."
Rudger frowned slightly. He knew the Liberation Army was working with the Warlocks, but he hadn't realized it had gotten this far.
'If it's on this scale, they've been preparing for this for some time.'
A fearsome, mass-produced chimera army is certainly a threat but Rudger instinctively realized it didn't end there.
The special gunpowder impervious to the Silence of Fire was certainly something, and the hordes of chimeras hidden in the underground of the imperial city were certainly impressive but they could not fundamentally disrupt the majesty of the Millennial Empire.
They may shake it, they may crack it, but the system of a nation is not easily destroyed by such things.
There's no way the people behind something of this magnitude don't know that. That means they have at least one or two more things they believe in.
"What else are you up to?"
"Hmph."
The Liberation Army agent didn't answer, just laughed. Rudger wasn't expecting an answer, either, so he gave a signal.
Passius punched the Liberation Army agent, knocking him out cold and turned to Rudger with a serious look on his face.
"You didn't hear the whole thing, are you going to be okay?"
"It wasn't like he knew more than that anyway. If he knew that much in the first place, he wouldn't have been abandoned like that."
"So what are you going to do now, do what you're told, or help?"
Passius glanced at the distant commotion.
"What we need to do is find out what they're up to. If anything, the underground is likely to be empty now that the chimeras have appeared."
Rudger's answer was cold. As if cutting through with a knife.
It also meant that he had no intention of stopping the chimeras from going on a rampage.
Passius's expression hardened. It wasn't until he saw the disappointment in his eyes that Rudger spoke.
"And I don't think it's necessary for you to go out there."
"What?"
"Have you forgotten how many elite troops are gathered in this city right now?"
"Ah."
Two of the Empire's three major knight orders were now gathered in the city, as well as high-ranking wizards from each of the magical societies.
Their numbers alone were enough to wage war and as long as they were in the capital, they would not let this happen.
Indeed, as if to prove it, a series of enormous ripples of magic could be felt in the distance.
Rudger, with his sensitivity to magic, and Passius, with his acute senses, could feel that the battle had begun.
Even as he watched in admiration, he asked Rudger a question.
"But even the knights and wizards will not be able to protect all those people."
"The capital's police and guards won't be sitting idly by either."
"That's true, but isn't there a just-in-case scenario? If we mess up, the students might get hurt. Are you still going to stand by and let that happen?"
"Students could get hurt……."
Rudger interrupted.
"I can't deny that."
"What?"
Something about the ease with which Rudger conceded this point struck Passius as odd. It was as if Rudger had been waiting for him to say this, rather than questioning him.
"I know it's only superficial, but as a teacher, I can't stand by and watch my students get hurt."
"Uh, there's……."
"Let's go."
"Go where?"
"Chimeras are running wild in the city, are you going to let them be?"
"You could have just told me……from the beginning."
"Didn't Sir Passius tell me that if I messed up, the students could get hurt? I just accepted your words."
When Rudger said that without changing his expression, Passius couldn't help but laugh. He suddenly realized why the First Princess had said that.
Even though Rudger spoke coldly on the surface, there was a caring side in his behavior and words. In some ways, he was similar to Princess Eileen.
"You shouldn't be ashamed."
From the rumors he'd heard, he assumed that Rudger was an inhuman psychopath, but now he knew for sure that Rudger Chelici was more humane than anyone else.
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing. Let's go, we can't just sit around and play."
"For the record, I didn't make the comment, Sir Passius did."
"Aye, aye, let's leave it at that."
Rudger nodded, a little miffed and the two men moved toward the center of the fight.
* * *
"Awww!"
Hwiron's voice was cheerful, and he threw out his fist.
[Pow!]
The fist struck the air with terrifying speed and a gaping hole appeared out of nowhere in the torso of a distant chimera.
The officers at the scene let out a gasp.
"Amazing, that's the power of a sixth-rank wizard."
Hwiron's battle method was very simple but powerful. He stored his magic in his fist and released it by thrusting it out.
It was more like a technique than magic, in fact, some of the police officers who saw him fight were wondering if he really used magic but Hwiron proudly proclaimed that what he was using was magic.
Magic, after all, is the use of mana. His argument was that his fist punch and the release of energy was also a technique that used mana, so it was magic.
While he wasn't exactly wrong in principle, it was still a bit jarring but Hwiron's performance was dazzling enough to override that.
A horde of chimeras that the cops alone would have had a hard time dealing with were being swept away like leaves by a single punch.
"Lord Hwiron! Danger!"
Maybe because he'd gotten too close to the chimera horde, one of the chimeras, scaling the exterior wall of a nearby building, lunged at him and sank its teeth into him.
The sharp, double-barreled teeth sank between his exposed trapezius muscles and the nape of his neck but what happened next was even more disconcerting.
The chimera's teeth didn't pierce Hwiron's skin, but instead made a strange sound like they had collided with solid iron.
The chimera's teeth, which could tear through bricks, instead shattered and fell to the ground.
"Huh? Hahaha! Look at this little guy. Trying to bite me?"
Hwiron looked at the chimera, which looked at him with trembling eyes, and then extended a vicious hand. The chimera's neck snapped in his grasp.
The officers realized why Hwiron was a sixth-rank wizard.
He didn't need any fancy magic tricks. All he had was a ridiculous amount of mana, the power to release it all at once, and the stamina to never tire. And that was all he needed.
[Pow!]
With each blow of Hwiron's fist, the chimeras that had been swept away by the magic died.
"More! More!"
Hwiron shouted, and the chimeras caught up in his taunt turned their eyes upside down and lunged at him.
The subtle ripples of magic in his shout shook the chimeras' minds and a swarm of chimeras filled the street as they charged at him.
Light flashed in the air, and countless magic bombs rained down like a bombardment, devouring the chimeras.
The chimeras were torn apart or burned to a crisp with the explosions.
Waiting for the bloodshed, Hwiron looked up at the sky with an annoyed expression. There, with her hair tied back on either side of her face, was a small girl, Caroline Monarch.
"Hey, little lady, you can't just take someone else's food."
"Hey, muscle pig, I told you not to call me that."
Caroline Monarch descended slowly from thin air, scowling.
The officer, who was trained in magical knowledge, marveled at the detailed, yet effortlessly natural floating magic.
Caroline, for one, was irritated with Hwiron.
"You're smashing things with your fist, one by one, when you could have just stirred them up with magic all at once like this."
"Uh-huh. I'm restraining myself because there won't be any buildings left if I do that."
"Forget restraint. I'm sure you'll enjoy the opportunity to fight for a long time. Who wouldn't?"
Hwiron shrugged and Caroline gave him a pitying look.
"Anyway, we're in the middle of a situation, so put aside your personal feelings. I don't know what the hell is going on, but I'm guessing this isn't an ordinary incident."
"I see."
The chimeras began to swarm once more in the distance, despite the magical bombardment. There was an almost endless stream of them coming out of the underground.
Hwiron slammed his fists together to steady himself, and Caroline fluttered her hair as she summoned her tyrant-like magic.
The two of them were about to counter the oncoming chimera wave when a beam of light fell vertically from the sky.
Caroline and Hwiron looked up as a vertical beam of light swerved in midair and pierced the forehead of the leading chimera.
The beam was no bigger than a fingertip, but its terrifying speed and power burned and melted the chimera's vital organs in an instant.
It didn't stop there, though, as it veered off again and pierced the next chimera. In the blink of an eye, a dizzying array of colorful light trajectories, like constellations woven into the air, unfolded.
The charging chimeras crumpled to the ground, almost simultaneously.
"What is this…….?"
"……."
Hwiron's eyes widened, and Caroline fell silent.
The spectacle of the light that had unfolded a moment ago was a sight to behold, but they both realized at once the magnitude of the magic.
"A single beam of light compressed to the limit?"
In order to defeat such a large number of chimeras, one would have to use large-scale magic that consumed a great deal of mana but there wasn't that much mana in that beam of light. It was simply a way to kill all the chimeras with the least amount of power for the most effect.
It wasn't as if Hwiron and Caroline couldn't do the same thing. It's just that they don't use it because they're sixth-rank and full of mana, but it's something they could do with enough time and practice.
In other words, they had to practice for a long time as sixth-rank wizards. To that extent, the magic from earlier was exceptional in its efficiency and most importantly, its properties.
'Someone who can handle rare magic like the light attribute would be able to…….'
Caroline lifted her head and saw a black-haired unlettered man, fluttering his black coat and looking down at the situation.
His blue gaze confirmed that there were no chimeras in the immediate vicinity, and then he was gone, flying over the building.
Rudger recognized them, but didn't say hello. That meant that there was no need to share.
"Well."
Hwiron saw it, too, and laughed in disbelief.
"How can such a person be a teacher? What a waste of talent."