ACADEMY'S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR
Daughtry was aware of what Ludger, no, Moriarty said.
In order to survive in this world, the first and foremost thing he needed was a quick sense.
Daughtry immediately grasped the situation.
"Everyone, kill him!"
Daughtry's command was quick.
If Moriarty had come to get rid of them, there was no other answer but to fight hard instead of bothering to deal with him or whatnot.
Daughtry's men moved under his order.
They threw away the guns that didn't work and took out daggers.
However, the flow was not so good. As the space was limited, their failure to bring proper weapons became poison to them.
"Hiyaaaaaat!"
"Kill him!"
But their opponent was a wizard.
The moment they hesitated, they would obviously die.
There was a chance of winning if they rushed toward him from all sides.
More than anything else, Moriarty was sitting in the middle of the bar and not somewhere far from them.
Even though what bothered them was the black werewolf who was standing behind him…
They numbered close to 100 people.
"As expected."
Hans gave him a questioning gaze as he saw the Crimson Society gangsters running toward both of them from all sides.
"What should I do now?"
Hans was honestly amazed that the Crimson Society did not run away, let alone be scared by him.
A sense of loyalty? No. Rather than that, they were so spiteful that no matter who their opponent was, they would rush toward their opponent and bite their neck.
Just like the name of the crimson snake that lived in the southern jungle.
The Crimson Society was full of those kinds of people.
Ludger didn't answer Hans's question; he showed it with his action instead.
Tap.
Ludger lifted the cane in his hand and tapped it gently on the floor.
At that moment, shadows began to flow from the cane and spread throughout the bar.
"Oh, ooh?"
"Wh-what's this?!"
The Crimson Society members tried to move after they were confused by the shadows, but their bodies remained still.
No, to be exact, their bodies moved, but it wasn't according to their own will.
The darkness swallowed up all the light inside the bar.
If compared to the alleyways outside that had no streetlights, Ludger's shadows were much denser and darker.
It was a pitch blackness in which light had completely disappeared.
And within that blackness, there was only one person.
—Ludger himself was able to move without a hitch.
"Aaaaaargh!"
"What?! Aargh!"
"I can't see anything!"
Screams resounded in the dark. All of them were agonizing death screams by members of the Crimson Society.
There was a sword drawn from inside the cane; Ludger grabbed the sword and quickly killed the members one by one.
"H-help me!"
"Leader! Please help me! Leader!"
As their colleagues died one by one and their voices were clearly heard, the rest of the organization members failed to stay sane.
It was a horror where they couldn't see anything.
And at the same time, they heard the sound of death steadily approaching them, so they couldn't hold their sanity.
"Aaaargh! Die! Just die!"
"Argh!"
"He's here!"
Frightened, the organization members swung their weapons all over the place, unable to withstand the fear.
And they aimed at other colleagues nearby them, and in an instant, the bar turned into a battle where they were killing each other.
It was not simple magic.
To be exact, it was more like a complex magic that used darkness and shadow and then added a curse that instilled fear in the opponents' minds that had been weakened.
Based on the spellcasting elemental properties used…
It was the third-tier darkness spell…
The Dream of a Fool.
It didn't work for people with strong mental powers or good abilities.
In a space filled with only low-rank people, it was a spell that had a greater effect than everything else.
"Damn it! What are you guys doing?! Hurry and stop him!"
Daughtry clenched his teeth and shouted. He could not see in front of himself, but his will was not shaken by that kind of darkness.
—Because he had something to believe in.
Following his command, the two men who had been standing guard for Daughtry near him moved.
Whoosh!
When the two wielded their swords, the aura that was placed on the tips of their blades cut the darkness that was made up of magic and crossed through it.
Soon, the magic was canceled, and the surrounding light returned, plainly showing the appearance of the bar.
Daughtry's lips trembled.
"The… the hell?"
The bar was a completely horrible mess.
Fewer than 10 people survived among nearly 100 of his men.
Even those few people were almost dying, they were bloody and full of wounds.
Daughtry's bloodshot gaze turned to Moriarty, who stood at the center of the horrible scene.
'What about the wolf monster? Where did he disappear into?'
The werewolf had disappeared somewhere in the middle of the chaos, as he could not be seen, and Moriarty was alone.
His figure that standing still with a sword amidst the corpses was like a grim reaper who appeared just before people's death.
There was not a drop of blood on Moriarty's body, even though his surroundings were covered with blood.
His appearance seemed to be that of someone who was beyond the world, so Daughtry unwittingly got goosebumps on his skin.
"Kill him!"
The two men moved as soon as Daughtry gave them the order.
They were a big man with mostly shaved hair and a slender long-haired man.
The two went to either side and rushed toward Moriarty at terrifying speeds.
Their speed was extremely fast.
Average people would have allowed both men to approach them at the moment they said 'Oh' and immediately lost their heads.
Semi-Knight…
Those who could not become Knights but had far more physical abilities than ordinary people.
'They're not something to look down on.'
Not only did they split his magic just then, but they were also the ones who knew how to deal with auras.
Their level was almost equivalent to regular Knights, even though they hadn't managed to enter the Knights' Order.
They were stronger than apprentice Knights.
'I don't think I'm going to lose, though.'
Ludger slightly stepped back and spilled a bottle of pills under his feet.
Fwoosh!
Immediately afterward, the bottle of pills exploded and purple smoke spread widely around.
"Poison!"
The long-haired Semi-Knight stepped back and protected Daughtry. No matter what anyone said, the battle was over when the leader died.
The big man tried to resist the poison by surrounding his body with an aura.
At that moment, flying daggers flew while piercing through the smoke.
Clang clang clang!
The big man calmly swung his sword to strike all the flying daggers.
It was a sudden attack, but he struck them all away with transcendent reflexes.
…But there was something he overlooked.
—The fact that there were poison bottles mixed between the flying daggers.
Baam!
The poison from the exploded reagent bottle spilled all over his arm.
"Aaaaargh!"
Whiiiiiiieeee!
However, no matter how much aura he emitted, the poison that came into direct contact with his skin could not be easily cured.
What Ludger threw was more like a chemical that dissolved everything rather than a poison that reacted in one's body.
Unless he protected his body with an aura shield, he couldn't prevent it.
"Darn it!"
In an instant, the big man, who couldn't use one of his arms, swung his blade with his remaining arm toward the purple smoke with a murderous gaze.
Whoosh!
A large wind blew from his sword and the smoke was torn away.
The big man, who was about to chase Ludger immediately, was confused when he could not see Ludger.
"Where is he?"
"Be careful! Below you!"
At that moment, his colleague, who was watching from behind, warned the big man, but it was already too late.
Whoosh!
Ludger's sword, which popped out of the shadow below, pierced the big man's chin and emerged from the top of his head.
"Just because I'm a wizard doesn't mean I don't fight in close combat."
Ludger said so and pulled the sword from the big man's corpse.
The large corpse tilted and fell sideways.
The reason for his defeat was that he had thought that because his opponent was a wizard, the opponent would distance himself and prepare for the next magic.
Therefore, Ludger was able to win immediately by exploiting the opponent's preconception.
The long-haired guy, who had no choice but to watch his colleague's death, clenched his teeth.
"You brat. What the hell are you?"
"I told you before. I'm Professor James Moriarty."
* * *
* * *
"There is no way that rumors about a wizard who fights like that didn't spread in the first place. It's strange that I haven't heard from Moriarty in years as well. Are you hiding your real identity?"
"Do I have any obligation to answer that? You are someone who is about to die, though."
Ludger sneered at the long-haired man and showed a mocking laugh over his shoulder and toward Daughtry.
Daughtry's face turned pale.
"K-kill him! Kill that brat! Do as I pay you!"
One of the two men who held the greatest power in the Crimson Society had been killed. The only person Daughtry could trust now was the long-haired man who protected him.
The long-haired man clicked his tongue and read the atmosphere.
Seeing Ludger's moves in killing the other Semi-Knight, he seemed very experienced in combat.
From his psychological warfare that caught the opponent off guard to his moves that did not even hesitate to engage in close combat as a wizard.
He couldn't underestimate Ludger even the slightest bit.
"You won't attack me?"
"Will you let me live if I step back?"
"You!"
Daughtry shouted with a pale face as he heard the long-haired man's words.
"A-are you going to betray me now?!"
"Whether it's betrayal or whatever, look at our current situation. The guy who's as talented as I am died without having any chance. You want me to fight a monster like that?"
"I gave you the money!"
"That money is not more valuable than my life."
"T-twice! No, I will give you thrice of the money! Including the portion that was meant for your dead colleague! So kill him!"
When Daughtry said that it was going to be three times the amount of money he usually received, the long-haired man's ears perked up as he was tempted.
Thrice? Then it was worth the challenge.
—Because he was also usually getting a lot of money.
'Is it possible?'
Ludger's presence was quite intimidating at first, but he had already seen the method he used to fight.
Originally, fighting was about understanding the other person's method and reading their technique.
If he couldn't suppress Ludger with his strength, then the top priority was to get his guard down no matter what and pierce through an opening.
Actually, Ludger also fought like that.
If he was careful about that, then somehow…
At that moment, Ludger pulled a gun from his waist and shot toward them.
Bang! Bang!
"Uurgh!"
He deflected the two bullets fired at them with his sword, but the sense that he felt in his hands was somewhat strange.
They weren't bullets. Rather, they were more like something with mana…
'Mana bullets? Crazy. He even uses this kind of thing?'
It was simply not the moves that the wizards he knew would show. They said that eccentric wizards sometimes did strange things, but it was completely beyond his common sense.
At that moment, Ludger fired a mana bullet again.
The long-haired man, who was deflecting the mana bullet with his sword, thought that he should not distance himself like that, so he rushed to Ludger.
Ludger stepped back again.
The long-haired guy who was a Semi-Knight was running much faster, but reagent bottles were rolling where Ludger stepped back.
'Do you think I'll react the same to what I saw just then?'
He had already seen Ludger's way of fighting and had noticed his moves.
That was a bottle that spread poison fog. The long-haired guy swung his sword before the smoke was invoked.
He had planned to cut the smoke down before it was invoked…
But his face soon distorted.
'The sword…!'
When he cut the bottles down, the sticky liquid that popped out from them locked his sword to the floor.
He tried to pull the sword off by surrounding the sword with his aura, but there was a gap of a couple of seconds.
Ludger aimed his gun at the long-haired man's forehead.
'If I can't block it, I should avoid it!'
With his reflexes, he could avoid flying bullets just by watching the other person pull the trigger.
Therefore, he, who was concentrating on Ludger's figure, had no choice but to look down due to the sudden, hot pain that he felt in his abdomen.
"Oh?"
There was something like a black spear piercing through his stomach.
He turned his head and looked back, and the spear that was popping out from his shadow penetrated his abdomen from his back.
"H-how….?"
The magic that wizards used… wasn't it usually invoked from the spellcaster?
Ludger had used magic and rotated it away to aim for his back?
It wasn't like that. If it was, he would have recognized it because he hadn't taken his eyes off Ludger.
Then there was only one possibility:
The magic was literally aimed at him after being invoked from a different direction.
—The magic was coming from a completely different place.
"I have never heard of thi—"
Baang!
Ludger's magic bullet pierced his forehead.
Eventually, both of the people with Semi-Knight strength died in vain without being able to leave any scars on Ludger.
After watching the scene from beginning to end, Daughtry plopped down on his spot as if it was slippery with a face like he was facing the grim reaper.
Step. Step.
Ludger slowly approached Daughtry and looked down at him.
His face, which was backed by light, was blocked by the shadow, so Daughtry couldn't see him well.
"Well, then."
But it was clear that the person was looking at him while smiling.
"Let's finish our conversation."
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