With the two guards down on the cold floor, I stepped over them and walked straight to the central control panel.

The screen was filled with bright blue charts and glowing red numbers. Large black power cables ran from the bottom of the console, stretching across the concrete floor toward a massive steel door at the far end of the chamber.

"The power flows directly through that door," I said, pointing toward the heavy steel entrance. "The spatial anchor must be right behind it."

"And main force," Carmilla added softly. She stood near the doorway, holding her black sword loosely in her right hand. The white cloth wrapping fell away, dropping onto the floor.

I pulled out the small, high-density explosive charge and slapped it right onto the main junction box beside the desk, setting the timer for sixty seconds.

"This will blow the main circuit," I whispered. "It won’t kill the anchor right away, but it will blind their main system."

I tapped the red button on the side of the charge.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

"Let me go first," Carmilla said smoothly. Her dark red eyes glowed faintly in the dim light of the sub-station. "If there are heavy fighters inside, you stay behind me."

I didn’t argue with her. I knew my limits. I didn’t have mana, and my strength came from physical footwork and my iron dagger. Carmilla was the real heavy hitter here.

Carmilla stepped up to the massive steel door. She didn’t bother looking for a keycard or a door handle. She raised her left boot and kicked the heavy metal lock with pure, mana-infused power.

BOOM!

The heavy steel door buckled inward, tearing completely off its iron hinges and flying twenty feet into the next room!

CRASH!

We rushed through the destroyed doorway into the main cavern.

The room was huge. The limestone ceiling rose nearly fifty feet high, supported by thick steel pillars. In the exact center of the cavern sat a massive metallic structure shaped like an upside-down ring. It hummed with terrifying power, shooting thick beams of dark purple energy into a swirling spatial tear in the air above it.

The spatial anchor was already active.

Standing around the glowing ring were six heavily armed guards carrying automatic rifles. But standing right at the front of the platform was a tall, bulky man wearing heavy iron shoulder guards and a long black leather coat.

His face was covered in jagged scars, and his eyes burned with a bright yellow mana glow.

He seemed like the boss here.

"Well, well," he growled, his deep voice echoing off the limestone walls like thunder. "I thought I smelled rats crawling through the drainage pipes."

The six guards immediately raised their rifles, aiming their sights straight at us.

"Fire!" He roared.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

A wall of hot lead ripped through the air!

"Get behind me!" Carmilla yelled.

She leaped in front of me, her body moving so fast her trench coat blurred in the dark air. She swung her black sword in a wide, sweeping arc.

CRACKLE-BOOM!

A blinding wave of crimson lightning exploded from her steel blade! The sheer pressure of her royal blood-mana formed a thick red shield of electrical energy right in front of us.

The incoming bullets hit the red lightning shield and instantly melted into glowing orange sparks, dropping uselessly onto the stone floor.

CLINK-CLINK-CLINK!

"What the—?!" one of the guards shouted, his hands shaking as his rifle barrel overheated. "She’s a high-tier mana user!"

"Spread out, you fools!" The boss shouted, pulling a massive two-handed iron warhammer from his back. The heavy hammerhead burst into bright yellow flames. "Encircle them!"

Three guards scrambled to the left, while the other three moved to the right, trying to flank us around Carmilla’s lightning shield.

"I’ll handle the center!" Carmilla said, her voice dropping into a cold, deadly melody. "Woo Jin, watch your flanks!"

"Got it," I said, drawing my iron dagger.

Carmilla didn’t wait for them to set up their crossfire. She launched herself forward like a red rocket!

SWOOSH!

She vanished from her spot, leaving two scorched boot prints on the concrete floor. She reappeared instantly right in front of the two guards on the left platform.

She swung the hilt of her sword sideways, driving the heavy pommel straight into the first guard’s helmet.

CRACK!

The iron helmet caved in, and the guard crashed backward into the control console, completely out cold.

The second guard tried to raise his rifle, but Carmilla’s left hand moved like a striking snake. She grabbed the rifle barrel, crushed the metal casing with her bare gloved hand, and spun around, sweeping her leg low across the floor.

THWACK-THUD!

The second guard was kicked clean off his feet, slamming hard against the rocky ground.

While Carmilla was tearing through the left side, the remaining four guards turned their focus toward me. They saw that I wasn’t radiating any mana aura at all.

"Take down the weak one!" a guard yelled, dropping his empty rifle and pulling out a heavy tactical combat knife.

Two guards rushed toward me from the right side.

I took a deep breath, focusing entirely on my footwork. I didn’t have mana to throw lightning or create shields, but my body stats were high enough to react fast.

The first guard lunged forward, thrusting his tactical knife straight toward my throat.

I stepped smoothly to the left, letting the sharp blade glide inches past my ear. Before he could pull his arm back, I grabbed his wrist with my left hand, pulled him forward to break his balance, and drove the butt of my iron dagger straight into his temple!

THUD!

He gasped, his eyes rolling back as his knees collapsed under him.

The second guard lunged in right behind him, swinging a wild left hook at my face mask.

I ducked low under his punch, using my momentum to slide across the slick stone floor. I popped up right behind his back, hooked my right foot behind his ankle, and shoved his shoulder hard.

TRIP-CRASH!

He tumbled headfirst into a pile of metal supply crates, getting pinned under two heavy steel boxes.

"Useless idiots!" a loud voice boomed from above.

I looked up just in time to see a massive shadow blotting out the bright purple light of the spatial anchor.

The boss had leaped thirty feet into the air! His massive iron warhammer was raised high over his head, wrapped in a thick, roaring tornado of yellow mana flames!

He wasn’t aiming at Carmilla. He was crashing down straight on top of me!

"Die, freelancer!" he screamed.

I couldn’t block a hit like that with my iron dagger—the physical weight and yellow mana impact would break every bone in my body.

I threw myself sideways, rolling violently across the limestone floor.

BOOM-CRASH!

The boss’s heavy warhammer smashed directly into the spot where I had been standing a fraction of a second before.

The solid concrete floor shattered into shards of sharp rock fragments. A massive shockwave of yellow mana exploded outward, tossing me through the air like a ragdoll.

I hit the side wall hard, sliding down to my knees. Pain shot through my shoulder, but my grip on my iron dagger remained rock solid.

"You’re fast for a guy without a drop of mana," he grunted, pulling his massive hammer out of the crater he had just created. Yellow flames flickered along his heavy leather coat. "But physical speed won’t save you from a B-rank hunter!"

He raised his warhammer again, stepping toward me with heavy, crushing footsteps.

"Don’t touch him," a cold, dark voice echoed from the center of the cavern.

The boss stopped in his tracks, turning his scar-covered head around.

Carmilla was standing twenty feet away, right beside the glowing spatial anchor ring. The remaining guards were all lying unconscious across the platform.

Her coat was torn at the edges, revealing her sleek black combat gear beneath. Her dark hair floated in the air as pure, concentrated crimson lightning sparkled wildly around her entire body.

The air pressure inside the cavern plummeted instantly. The temperature dropped so fast that our breath turned into white mist.

"A blood-mana user..." The scared boss muttered, his eyes widening in shock as he finally recognized her energy output. "You’re not a freelancer. You’re from the royal—"

"Silence," Carmilla commanded, her red eyes burning like two miniature suns in the dark cavern.

She raised her black sword with one hand, pointing the dark tip straight at his chest.

CRACK-BOOM!

A deafening roar of red thunder shook the entire cavern!

Carmilla transformed into a streak of pure crimson lightning. She moved so fast that my eyes couldn’t even track her trajectory.

The boss barely managed to bring his heavy iron warhammer up in a frantic defensive guard.

CLANG-BOOM!

The black sword collided with the burning warhammer!

A massive wave of red and yellow sparks burst outward, shattering the glass lights along the cavern walls. The physical force pushed the boss backward, his heavy boots carving two deep grooves into the concrete floor as he slid thirty feet back.

"Argh!" he roared, his arms trembling under the sheer weight of Carmilla’s strike.

The yellow mana flames on his hammer were instantly extinguished by Carmilla’s red electrical aura.

"You think you can stop Project Obsidian?!" He screamed, swinging his heavy hammer in a desperate, wide arc.

Carmilla didn’t even bother dodging.

She stepped straight into his swing, her black blade moving in three rapid, razor-sharp thrusts.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

The crimson blade cut cleanly through the boss’s thick iron shoulder guards, slicing through the heavy leather coat like paper.

The boss gasped in pain, dropping his burning warhammer onto the floor with a loud CLANG. Blood dripped from his shoulders as he stumbled backward, clutching his chest.

"It’s over," Carmilla said flatly, stepping up to him and resting the cold tip of her black sword right under his scarred chin.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!

Report chapter

Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter