Osian and Balud's actions were swift.
They burst through the door, blasting away the first man who entered, leaving the rear intruders to panic.
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
In an instant, the men on the second floor were down in a spray of blood.
It wasn't that they weren't prepared, but there were things they had overlooked.
The first was the presence of Osian.
They had considered Balud, but the presence of Osian was something they hadn't anticipated.
Besides, they'd turned off all the lights, and the flickering glow in the air was enough to make them even more nervous.
Blue and white lights were dancing in the air as the raiders collapsed in a spray of blood.-Thud!
Balud wiped the blood from his cheek as he slashed at his opponent's forehead with his hatchet.
"Looks like the second floor has been roughly cleared."
"Yes. But we're not done yet."
If Kursha has shown his readiness before, this is only the beginning.
If he's not just after Illua, but Balud as well, he's got more in store.
Outside, they heard a snap and felt something fly by.
An explosion shattered the wall on the second floor as debris and dust flew, along with scattered books and torn paper.
"Mortars? They’re doing this in the middle of a civilian settlement? When are the guards coming?"
"How much money do you think my organization has spent on guards?"
"Maybe you should have spread the money around a little more."
"If you're going to argue, argue with Kursha."
Osian and Balud were unharmed in the blast.
A nebula silk draped around Osian's shoulders shielded him from the blast, and Balud formed a wall of ice with a rune of frost to block the blast.
Balud stared in astonishment as Osian wrapped himself in a pure white cloak.
He hadn't heard of this ability when they had fought before.
'What the hell is that guy.......?'
Whether Balud was surprised or not, he could feel a flurry of activity outside the house.
He could feel them preparing for the next attack, as if the mortar that had just hit was just a taste.
On top of that, those still on the ground floor were making their way up.
"I guess we'll have to split up."
"Yeah. That's what I think, too."
"I'll take care of the outside. You can handle the first floor, right?"
"Are you sure you don't mind? It's funny to say this, but the people outside are here to kill me, and you don't have to get involved."
"Is it that much of a problem for a fixer to protect his client?"
With that, Osian leapt out of the hole in the wall.
A moment later, there was a flash of white light, followed by a series of screams and explosions.
"Huh. Guess I'll have to do my part."
Balud unbuttoned the shirt at his neck, then pulled the shirt off his forearms, energizing the runes on his forearms.
He didn't like the idea of using them, but he couldn't afford to cover anything up now.
"Hiiii! My home, my home, my home!"
He could feel Illua's panic at the explosion that had just happened but at least she hadn't been swept up in the blast.
"Please try to fight through this without doing any damage, I have important materials here!"
"That's easier said than done."
Balud couldn't believe she cares more about her research than her own life.
She's not even remotely sane, Balud thought, and sheathed his axe.
The men waiting on the first floor were not rushing up to the second floor.
Who would call them crazy if they didn't last thirty seconds before they were all slaughtered?
Instead, they settled down on the first floor as if they were going to camp.
They're going to make him a beehive the moment he gets down the stairs.
‘They think they can win if they stall.’
And they're right. Even with this much commotion, the guards won't come.
Balud wondered if his impatience with the recent events had been a bad thing, and if he should have brought a few more men with him.
‘No. It would have only caused more damage.’
Balud steeled himself and tightened his grip on his axe.
He abhorred anything barbaric, but ironically, his senses were sharper than ever as he gripped the axe.
He could feel the position of his enemies, breathing tensely below him.
Balud lifted the axe and slammed it down on the second floor.
The floor collapsed under the force of the impact, crushing the intruders waiting below.
"Crack!"
"Up, up, up!"
"Shoot!"
Bullets rained down through the falling debris but Balud was already gone, his hatchet slamming into the back of the enemy's head in the rubble before he flung himself sideways, ready for his next prey.
-Thwack!
With each swing of the hatchet, one life after another fell to the ground.
With his forearms glowing red and his axe emitting a blue light, he looked like a ghost in the middle of the night.
"Aaahhh! Die!"
The terrified raider fired his gun, but the shaking muzzle failed to hit Balud.
He was already gone, and by the time he realized it, an axe had been embedded in the nape of his neck.
His body collapsed helplessly while bullets were whizzing through the air.
The kitchen was a shattered mess as the smell of gunpowder mingled with the odor of spoiled food as dishes broke.
Illua poked her head through the cracks in the second floor and shouted.
"You're going to destroy everything?! This house is worth a fortune!"
"I suggest you take this opportunity to move to a new house. I never liked it to begin with, and now it's cooler."
A cool breeze blew in from the open window, chilling the interior.
The raider ran out of bullets and Balud drove his axe into his forehead.
"You know how much this house is worth!"
"Anyway, there's money to be made from this successful excavation of the ruins, isn't there?"
"Well, I've been living here all my life."
"You'll think of that when you get to a better place."
Balud gave the last remaining raider a cold stare over his glasses.
"Damn it."
Not expecting Balud to be this strong, he tried again and again to pull the trigger of the gun in his hand.
It was useless, the gun having already spit out all its bullets. Abandoning the gun, the man pulled a weapon from his waistband. It was a hatchet like Balud's.
Balud's eyes narrowed at the sight of the hatchet in each hand.
He realized that the weapon was not simply an imitation.
"Were you also a Northerner? I don't remember seeing you in the organization."
"Shut up!"
Balud's words fell on deaf ears as the man in front of him was already moving on.
Balud let out a small sigh. The man was obviously one of the Organization's subcontractors, probably a newcomer to the city, since there's little money to be made in the north.
"You would have had a better life if you had come under me."
"If you say so, then die!"
The Northerner in front of him lunged at Balud.
Balud was unfazed by the flash of the twin axes, but he remained calm.
He dodged the attack with minimal movement, then used his hatchet to flick his opponent's handle upward with a light touch.
The spinning hatchet smashed into the ceiling.
He tried to strike back with his remaining weapon, but it suffered the same fate and was smashed into the ceiling.
Turning to the weaponless Northerner, Balud spoke.
"May you rest in peace in your great homeland."
-Boom!
Balud let the man go painlessly.
After clearing the first floor of enemies, Balud was not happy.
He called it work, but he didn't like the fact that he had to kill the man with his own hands.
"I came to Tirna because I didn't want to see this, and I wanted to do what I could to help the Northerners stop being treated as barbarians.
The Northerners, who had been plundering and fighting in the north, were not treated well for being savages.
It was the same in Tirna, a city of opportunity and freedom.
They were forced to become the underclass of society, so they banded together to survive.
That's how the North Blinders were born but at some point, the organization became corrupted.
Instead of only accepting Northerners, the organization began to accept people from other organizations in order to make money.
In fact, pure Northerners were treated poorly within the organization. Even the bosses seemed to have forgotten where he came from.
"It's bitter."
Balud was beyond the point of being sad or angry about this.
How much blood had he gotten on his hands to get to this point? Balud was strong enough to not show emotion.
There was something more important to him now.
His boss's daughter, the one person he had to protect.
Balud casually took out a cigarette and twisted it in his mouth.
"Ah! Don't smoke in the house!"
“They fired mortars and guns at your house, and now you’re talking about smoking?”
Ignoring Ilua's protests, Balud lit the fire.
There was a whoosh and a puff of white smoke, and through the dispersing smoke, Osian's form was visible as he entered the front door.
The starlight blazing from his sword and the cloak wrapped around his body were nowhere to be seen.
Osian looked at Balud and asked in surprise.
"What is it, do you smoke?"
"What, can't a mafia smoke one of those things?"
"It's harmful."
It was a bland response. So innocent, in fact, that Balud burst out laughing.
"Are you done cleaning up outside? You don't seem to have a scratch on you."
"You can see for yourself if you want."
Balud pushed past Osian and surveyed the conditions outside.
"Ha."
There were over thirty people lying on the ground outside.
Some were dead, others barely breathing.
There were three or four sturdy vehicles around them, all heavily armed, too much to kill a single person.
All of them, of course, were burned and smoldering.
The sheer firepower alone would have wiped out an entire organization.
Who would believe him if he told them that a single man with a sword had wiped them all out?
"Still, you're not quite there yet."
Balud approached the survivor with a cigarette in his mouth and a hatchet in his hand.
“Ugh.”
Crawling on the ground, the survivor's lips quivered as he watched Balud slowly approach.
Balud turned to face him, exhaling a puff of smoke.
"Did Director Kursha send you?"
"I know what I'm doing, you son of a bitch."
"Well, I wasn't really curious, who else would do something like this anyway, ah, rather too much."
Balud muttered something like that and swung his axe.
It was bitter, but the raiders shouldn't be spared.
-Boom!
The ruckus of the day would probably not even make the local papers but that was a common occurrence in this city.
*
The 31st district was packed with people.
There were people of all shapes and sizes, dressed in all kinds of clothes and their mere presence made the atmosphere suffocating.
It was a natural reaction.
The people gathered here were about to explore the ancient ruins.
The moment they enter, they become each other's competitors.
It was unlikely that they would fight from the start, but with no idea what would happen, even that was not certain.
There would inevitably be betrayal and control.
Knowing all of that, each group was wary of the other as much as possible.
Tirna's guards were equally worried that they might cause a disturbance.
The guards are supposed to stop disturbances within the city, and today there were far more of them than usual.
Among them was Tirna's enforcer, Alensia Hare.
She'd come to the district because it was close to where she usually operated.
"It's like a powder keg about to explode."
It would go off as soon as we got inside but that didn't matter. It just didn’t have to be here.
Whatever happened inside the ancient ruins was beyond Tirna's jurisdiction.
Some of the guards made joking bets on how many of those gathered here would make it out alive.
Just then, several vehicles arrived from the distance.
‘The North Blinders.’
They were mafia, but they also had legitimate businesses and lobbied the officials in Tirna, making them hard to catch.
Alensia frowned, not liking the idea of legally armed criminals.
However she couldn't help but be surprised.
‘Uh, why him?’
One of the men who stepped out of the vehicle was Osian.