The Blood Brotherhood (1) An electromagnetic storm raged around me, turning my surroundings into a cloud of dust.
Through the obscuring vision, I could clearly see flashes of blue electricity.
"Tesla Arms! Why is he here with that thing?"
Tesla Arms.
It was a military-grade prosthetic arm with special abilities.
The Tesla Arms emit high-powered electricity and are so valuable that only a few were made in all of Tirna.
They were not something the average gang could obtain, that meant that the intruder was a force to be reckoned with.
The mercenaries and fixers couldn't understand why this man had suddenly appeared.
"Get the fuck out of the way! Back off!"
"Run if you want to live!"The mercenaries, who had been calm in the face of crisis, panicked.
The only ones who seemed to be in control were the fixers, who had earned a reputation for themselves.
BANG!
Anna, the sniper at the very back of the group, fired her sniper rifle at the intruder.
Her vision was obscured by a cloud of dust, but her bullets seemed to care not a whit for it, hitting the infiltrator squarely in the forehead.
-Ziying.
That's when it reacted.
It held out its Tesla Arms, just as it had when it first appeared, and a powerful magnetic field erupted, immobilizing the bullet in midair.
-Tsuup.
A red glow flashed from behind the round goggles of its gas mask.
It curved like a crescent moon, as if mocking Anna.
Ping─!
Immediately afterward, the bullet locked in midair turned back toward Anna.
"......!"
Anna's eyes widened as she watched the sequence of actions through the scope.
But as a sniper, she didn't have the maneuvering power to dodge the bullets flying at her.
She squeezed her eyes shut, and sparks flew with a crack.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Osian's back, sword in hand.
"Stay back."
A bullet, neatly cut in half, lay near Osian.
She recognized it as a large-caliber bullet from her sniper rifle.
Now, Osian had sliced through the flying bullet with his sword.
After a moment's stunned silence, Osian lunged at the enemy.
He had gotten within striking distance of the intruder in a matter of seconds.
"What the hell is this?"
Kiying──!
However, the moment the intruder brought out his Tesla Arms again, Osian's sword strike was stopped in midair.
No matter how fast a swordsman is, the sword he swings is still metal.
As long as it was affected by magnetism, it could never reach him.
"Using a sword? How ridiculous."
The intruder who had been watching Osian closely commented.
He was impressed by Osian's use of the sword as a weapon.
"I don't know if you're stupid or brave, but trying to swing a sword at me is......."
"You talk a lot."
Osian said that and put more power in his arm.
The muscles in his entire body surged with power, and the sword that had been blocked by the invisible wall slowly moved forward.
"What......?"
The intruder's eyes widened beneath his gas mask as he saw the sword slowly approaching.
He used a powerful magnetic force that could stop even a flying bullet in midair but Osian pushed through with pure physical force?
"......you cheeky little bug."
The intruder kept his voice low, as if he didn't like Osian's approach to him.
At the same time, the magnetic force that had been repelling Osian's sword became even stronger.
Boom!
The ground that Osian was standing on with his two legs shook and cracked.
Still, Osian didn't fall backwards.
In fact, as he began to push harder, he took another step forward through the powerful magnetic force.
‘I can still do this.’
Osian felt it.
Even with his sword now blocked, his physical abilities had not yet reached their limits.
His physical abilities were unbelievable.
Osian pushed harder.
The ground slammed down with a loud thud, but Osian didn't stop.
The intruder's eyes shone through the gas mask.
"That's right. For a bug, you sure are strong."
A magnetic force of this magnitude could easily blow away not only bullets, but also a large truck rushing by.
It's ridiculous that it's being held up by a human.
Even more ridiculous was the fact that he had increased the power, and Osian was still gradually closing in on him.
"......I was only going to do a performance test, but it won't work."
The intruder muttered, then lifted his right arm.
The arm, exposed by a subtly torn bandage, was human and was enchanted.
"Mage......?"
Osian had never imagined that it could be a mage who had caused this.
Wizards in this age don't wear robes and wield staffs like in the olden days, and they don't say, "I'm a wizard.”
So it was a mistake to assume the other man's occupation from his appearance.
"Stupid asshole. Too late."
The intruder held out his right arm toward Osian.
The violet-colored power circled above Osian's head like an angelic ring.
Then, with tremendous pressure, it crushed Osian's body.
-Boom!
The three-star gravity magic [Gravity Press] was activated.
A gravity magic that surged gravity within a certain range.
This was unpleasant news for Osian, who had been battling with the magnetic force.
The power that had been slowly gaining the upper hand was now equalized.
Osian's legs dug into the ground ankle deep, and his muscles began to strain, albeit slowly.
‘This is too much for pure physical strength.’
As Osian's first sense of crisis took hold and he thought to himself, the intruder's thoughts were even more absurd.
‘He’s taking in the power of the Tesla Arms and using his body to withstand the Gravity Press at the same time?’
The Gravity Press is a dangerous spell that can crush a bare human body like a squeezer but Osian was able to withstand it under extreme conditions.
His physical prowess is beyond common sense.
A fixer of this caliber would have gained a great reputation in no time.
"What's the point, you're going to die here anyway."
The intruder said and tried to increase the power of his magic….He would have, if the bullets hadn't come flying.
"Ronald, shoot!"
At Commander David's command, the two automatons fired their Tommy guns.
With a snap and a click of his tongue, the intruder redirected the energy he was about to inflict on Osian, manifesting a new kind of magic.
A translucent barrier of magic was created in thin air.
Bullets from the Tommy gun hit the barrier like a rain shower on an umbrella.
Osian's body vanished, and David, seeing it, shouted.
"Get back!"
"You pesky little flying bug, I'll take care of you first."
The intruder instantly cranked up the Tesla Arms to full power.
The sudden surge of power sent Osian's body flying backwards, along with his sword.
It was a wide-spread magnetic force focused into a single point.
Quickly pushing Osian aside, the intruder turned his attention to David.
The moment David saw him, he thrust his automaton forward and jerked back.
Immediately, fireballs flew out and engulfed the automaton.
Roar!
With flames in his right arm and electricity in his left, the raider was a demon descended upon the human world.
A wide swath of flames engulfed the other mercenaries.
"Aaaah!"
"Help!"
Just then, Jonathan, his skin hardened, lunged at the intruder.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
"What is this big guy?"
The intruder sneered at Jonathan and activated his gravity magic.
The two-star gravity magic, Gravity Pulse, slammed into Jonathan's head.
Kwazizik!
"Kwahhhh!"
The steel skin that had repelled bullets peeled off like bark. Jonathan's body bounced back like an otter and hit the ground.
The mercenaries lost their fighting spirit at the sight.
The Tesla Arms alone were daunting, and he was also a mage.
The ease with which he used magic of that power, he's at least a 4-star mage.
He'll be treated as an elite force wherever he goes.
They'll all die here.
It was David who shouted at the mercenaries who froze in place at the thought.
“What are you doing? Evacuate inside the power plant!”
David shouted as he lifted a wounded mercenary to his feet.
With their way blocked, the mercenaries had no choice but to flee into the power plant.
The intruder sneered at them.
"You think I'm going to let that happen?"
He extended his Tesla Arms and pointed them at the fleeing mercenaries.
‘I'll just generate the electricity and zap them all at once’, he thought.
-Crackle.
But it didn't happen.
Feeling the strain on his left arm, he glanced at the Tesla Arms and cursed.
"Damn it. That asshole."
A trickle of white smoke was coming out of the Tesla Arms, it was overheating from excessive power.
He gritted his teeth, remembering Osian.
In a fight that would normally have been a one-sided affair, this one had pushed the Tesla Arms past its power limit.
It's self-cooling, but it's going to be slow for a while.
The intruder looked to where Osian had flown. He was long gone, if not dead.
"Lucky bastard. I'll make sure to kill you next time I see you."
With that, he muttered to himself and slowly walked back into the power plant.
It was time to catch and kill the bugs that had fled inside.
*
"Hmph. Hmph. What about him? Is he chasing us?"
"Nope. He's not coming. I think he ran off."
"Holy shit. How many do we have now?"
Those who fled into the alleyway took a head count.
There were five of them who escaped unharmed.
-Boom!
Just then, a huge Jonathan dropped out of thin air.
The mercenaries gasped at the sight, drew their guns, then lowered them as soon as they saw who it was.
It was Osian who had brought Jonathan to them.
‘He brought back a hardened behemoth in one piece?’
‘I think he just took on a Tesla Arms before. How much power does he have?’
Anyway, two more returnees brought the total number to seven.
"Holy shit. Tesla Arms users, I've never heard of that."
"Who the fuck is that?"
As the mercenaries chattered amongst themselves, it was Anna, the sniper, who answered.
"I've heard of him. There was a recent raid on a military warehouse, and some important supplies were stolen."
"Wait. I heard about that, too. It was the Blood Brotherhood."
It was all over the newspapers, so everyone knew about it, but the people who did it were very famous.
"The Blood Brotherhood? Are they dangerous?"
Osian asked, and the mercenary replied with a bemused but kindly tone.
"It's a terrorist organization of only a handful of powerful men, and they're vicious and insane. Every single one of them is stronger than most organizations, and they're made up of all kinds of dangerous people. They're red tagged in Tirna."
"So you're saying he's part of the Blood Brotherhood."
"Something like that. Damn it. Why would a bunch of crazies like that be in a place like this.......?"
The problem is the request.
If that crazed terrorist maniac showed up, they wouldn't be able to fight him alone.
"Where's David and his automatons?"
"They're inside, he must have gone after the ones who escaped."
"They've been found. Or they're about to be."
Despair. Frustration. Fear.
The mercenaries shuddered at the sight the intruder had just shown them.
Anna, the sniper, was the first to regain her composure.
"I should probably get going."
"What? What about the job?"
"Failed, of course. You should be grateful you survived. Oh, and by the way, you said Osian, thank you for saving my life. I owe you my life."
Instead of answering, Osian pointed to Jonathan, who had passed out.
"If you're going to go, help him up and take him with you."
"......You're not going?"
Anna asked curiously, reading something in Osian's words.
"Yes."
"......What are you going to do by staying here?"
"Save the others."
The mercenaries' eyes widened at the unexpected words, including Anna's.