The Author's POV

Chapter 206: Banquet [4]

—Spurt!

"Haa…haa…Damn it!"

Extracting the tip of her spear out of the corpse of a villain, Melissa cursed. This was the fifth person she had killed. With combat not being her forte, Melissa was obviously easily tired. Her breathing was rugged.

If not for her spear, she would've been in deep trouble.

===

Name : Blood-line Spear

Rank : D

[Bloodlust control] - Helps users identify if there is any bloodlust directed towards them.

===

With the effect of the spear, by feeling their bloodlust, Melissa was less prone to sneak attacks.

This was specially made for her since she did not have a battle instinct as others did. With her spending most part of the day inside of a lab, it was only natural that she didn't have a battle instinct.

Battle senses could only be developed through experience. Without experience, such a thing was not possible.

—Shuuuua!

Suddenly, Melissa's spear vibrated. Leaning back, the sharp tip of a reaper passed by her grazing the side of her cheek.

"Hup!"

Turning around, Melissa took a step back and swung the spear horizontally creating a beautiful arc.

—Spurt!

Blood spilled everywhere, and a female villain fell to the ground.

Ignoring the corpse, Melissa wiped the side of her cheek, and muttered, "Haa…that's the sixth"

Aside from the effect of the skill, the spear was extremely sharp giving her an advantage over opponents of the same level. As long as her opponent was not a lot stronger than her, she could hold her own.

"Haaaaa—!"

Before she could relax, a large blade slashed in her direction. Feeling the bloodlust, Melissa instinctively straightened her spear and blocked the attack.

—Clank!

Loud sparks flew everywhere and Melissa took ten steps back.

'Damn it, he's stronger than me'

From the initial exchange, she knew that her opponent was stronger than her. She might be in trouble this time.

—Swoosh!

"Haa!"

Without giving Melissa any time to think, her opponent slashed vertically towards her. Once again, Melissa straightened her spear.

'Damn it!'

—Spurt!

Just as Melissa was about to block the attack, a silver streak brushed past her and impaled the man in the head. Blood spilled everywhere.

"Haa…Ha…Thanks!"

Sighing in relief, Melissa turned around and nodded her head. In the distance, Amanda held her bow and repeatedly shot arrows supporting anyone she could. Her cold eyes surveilled the perimeter like a hawk. Nothing escaped her vision.

Standing in front of her, multiple students formed a protective shield. Like this, Amanda reaped through the lives of multiple villains.

Naturally, she attracted the attention of a lot of villains as well.

"Stop her!"

"Attack her!"

Whiiiing—!

Distracted by Amanda for a moment, a whistling sound arose next to Melissa. Despite her spear warnings, the attack was too fast.

'Crap!'

With her eyes wide open, the back of Melissa's hair raised. She knew that she was in trouble.

—Spurt!

However, right when she thought she was going to die, she heard a splattering sound. Turning her head around, she spotted Jin silently standing on top of the corpse of an asian looking man.

Taking his eyes off of the corpse, Jin coldly looked at Melissa for a moment before he disappeared.

Shiiiiiik—!

He then reappeared behind a caucasian looking villain a couple of meters away from her. Slitting his throat the villain instantly died.

"Haa…haa…"

Recovering from the shock of almost dying, Melissa's breathing was extremely rugged. Staring at Jin's cold face in the distance, Melissa thought, 'Is he on his period?'

…

"Haa…haa…this should be far enough"

Leaning against a tree, Professor Thibaut caught his breath. In a matter of minutes, he had run very far from the establishment. Approximately five kilometers.

'I'm screwed!'

Despite having run so far, he knew that his days were numbered. With the plan failing, he knew that all responsibility would befall him.

"Fuck, what went wrong!"

He did everything according to the plan.

He came in early and installed all of the devices that he was given. Nothing should've gone wrong.

Moreover, how could the blame fall on him if the devices malfunctioned?

He was a manager, not a technical expert.

"Who's there!?"

Sensing something, Thibaut's head snapped towards the distance. A blue hue mixed with black threads emanated from his body.

"Woah, I came in peace"

Suddenly a youth with deep blue eyes appeared fifty meters away from Professor Thibaut. Scratching the back of his head, the youth awkwardly said.

"Fancy seeing you here Professor, you also running away?"

The youth was in fact me.

Catching up to Professor Thibaut wasn't actually that hard. Despite its flaws, drifting steps was a movement art that was perfect for chasing someone.

Knowing the general direction of where Professor Thibaut ran, I caught up to him in no time.

Though I do have to say that the mana consumption of drifting steps was no joke. About 1/6 of my mana was gone.

"Huh? Who are you"

Startled, the hue around professor Thibaut intensified. Alarm bells rang in his mind.

'Who was he? How did he find me? He looks like a student?'

"Hm, that hurts. It's me professor, Ren…Ren Dover"

A hurt look appeared on my face.

I've been attending his classes for eight months and he completely forgot everything about me? Was my charm still not high enough?

Squinting his eyes and getting a closer look, Professor Thibaut suddenly remembered, 'That's right, isn't he the youth that appeared all over the news? The one that the higher-ups told me to take a closer look at? Wait…'

Professor Thibaut suddenly flashed a brilliant smile, "Ah, it's you. What are you doing here?"

"Running of course. It'd be stupid of me if I didn't run after what I witnessed"

Secretly disgusted by his smile, I shrugged my shoulder and casually answered.

"That so…you came at just the right time"

Staring at me, a thought struck Professor Thibaut, 'What if I killed him? Would the higher-ups pardon me for today's blunder?'

This seemed plausible.

In fact, the more professor Thibaut thought about it, the more convinced he was about his conjunction. A trace of hope appeared in his eyes

'Yes, if I kill him, there's a chance that I not only will get pardoned but awarded too!'

With the death of such high-profiled talent, the Monolith would surely reward him. Recalling something, Professor Thibaut subtly turned his watch.

[Target]

[Name : Ren Dover]

[Rank : E+]

[Age : 16]

[Status : Dead or Alive]

[Reward : 5000 merit points]

Opening the bounty list and staring at the reward list, Professor Thibaut's heart raced.

'5000 merit points? Yes, this should be enough to save my life!'

Since cash was traceable, the Monolith used a system called merit points. With them, all members of the Monolith could exchange the points for items and artifacts.

At that moment, Professor Thibaut saw a ray of hope. 5000 merit pints was more than enough to save his life.

He had to seize this chance at all costs!

"Keumm…Keumm…professor what are you doing?"

Perfectly reading Professor Thibaut's thoughts, I coughed.

'At least hide that smile off of your face'

"Me? Nothing…"

Snapping out of it, Professor Thibaut smiled savagely.

Shiiing—!

Without answering my question, Professor Thibaut pulled out a saber from his dimensional space. Having never seen Professor Thibaut fight before, He looked a bit funny holding onto the saber.

Still, the pressure coming from his body was nothing to scoff at.

"Wait, you're a professor. You need to be more civil about things. Let's talk things out"

I raised my hands and protested. Why must people always fight during conflicts?

Words worked just as well.

"Shut up and die!"

Professor Thibaut sneered and imbued his saber with magic power.

Wiing—!

Just like a laser, a horizontal blade of magic power shot up from the tip of the saber. But that only lasted for a second. The sword's blade flickered, then disappeared. Following which it appeared a couple of meters before me.

Staring at the incoming energy slash, I calmly placed my hand on the sheat of my sword.

'I guess he's not someone that likes to talk…here goes nothing'

Click—!

Tapping onto the grip of my sword, a subtle clicking sound resounded across the area.

…

BAAAANG!

"Impossible!"

A figure crashed against the side of the walls. Cracks appeared everywhere.

"It's no use, Edmund!"

Calmly walking forward, Donna's whip gently caressed the ground. Stopping a couple of meters before Edmund, Donna triumphantly smiled.

"You've already used your skill before, you won't be able to use it anytime soon"

Depending on skills, generally, there was a cooldown time. Edmund's skill also had one, hence why once Donna found him, she easily took him down.

"Khh…how did you know I was here?"

With his legs broken and his arms dislocated, Edmund knew that he was finished.

At this moment he only had one thought in his mind, 'How could this have happened?'

He made sure to cover his traces perfectly when moving to the second floor. Donna shouldn't have been able to sense him.

It was understandable before since he purposely leaked out some of his energy. But he had not leaked anything out this time!

This shouldn't have been possible!

"How you say?"

In fact, Donna was just as shocked to have found Edmund here. If not for Kevin's persistence, she would've never been able to find him.

Thinking of Kevin, Donna frowned, 'Just how did he know?'

—Kacha!

Staring at Donna waiting for an answer, instead of an answer, Edmund suddenly saw a black streak flash past his eyes. A cracking sound followed suit and his vision turned black.

—Thump!

His unconscious body leaned to the side.

"Like I would let you buy time…"

With a lot of experience under her belt, Donna didn't waste any time. Extending her hand, a cracking sound resounded across the space and she knocked Edmund out.

Why talk to him now when she could talk to him during questioning?

BAAANG!

Suddenly another explosion rang from the distance. Taking a peek, Donna's smiled.

Waving at Donna, Kevin shouted.

"Miss Longbern, we're done on our side too"

Holding onto the head of a blonde individual, Kevin's chest heaved up and down unevenly. Apart from his hair and clothes being a mess, he looked perfectly fine.

Wizzz—! Wizzz—!

"Done here as well!"

Behind him, a black portal slowly shrank. Emma patted her hands in satisfaction.

Donna took care of Edmund, Kevin took care of the villain, and Emma took care of the portal.

That was the plan.

Though close, Kevin was able to overpower the villain, and the plan succeeded.

With Edmund caught and the portal broken, Kevin knew that everything was over.

"Good job"

Donna also knew this, hence why she was happy. What could've been a terrible situation was resolved quite easily.

'I guess today is my lucky day…'