Chapter 41
Hearing Karon say he was ready to begin, I exhaled cigar smoke and walked toward the center of the city.
Hadn't Karon said this city was once a center of trade?
True to Karon's words, countless buildings came into view.
A forest of buildings packed tightly across the entire city.
"Urban combat..."
Seeing the sight before me, I naturally voiced the word that came to mind.
As the age advanced, sieges aimed at storming castles and fortresses gradually disappeared.
But as sieges vanished, another form of battlefield began to emerge.
Countless buildings, each one serving as a kind of wall—a form of siege warfare's evolution.
A form of battle that even countless military experts were most reluctant to face.
Urban combat.
...
Even after thinking it over again, I couldn't shake the feeling that I alone was in a different genre.
Thinking that, I slowly exhaled a mouthful of cigar smoke.
The most efficient technique in this situation was probably this.
Smoke clones.
"Shall I start by making about fifty?"
Hooooo.
Around fifty smoke clones formed as the exhaled smoke gathered into human shapes.
It was practically impossible to move all of them with precision.
After all, moving them required my will.
I was supposed to control all fifty clones individually with precision?
There was a limit to multitasking.
So it was far more convenient to set their movements in advance, assigning them fixed patterns like robots.
I had already sent Mist to a cliff overlooking the city when we reached its outskirts.
In other words, the only living people left in this city were Karon and me.
That made issuing an order easy.
Attack anyone other than me.
It was a very simple order, and the smoke clones that received it began scattering in perfect unison.
...
'As expected...'
From a rooftop, Karon watched Abel create countless smoke clones and lightly nodded.
'That's the standard in urban combat.'
When a city was built, every building naturally had a magic circle installed to increase its durability.
It was possible thanks to magic being widespread and commercialized.
Destroying all those durability-enhanced buildings with firepower would be extremely inefficient.
Thus, the most common way to conquer an urban battlefield was for exceptional infantry or knights to capture the buildings one by one.
In that sense, Karon judged Abel's choice to be the optimal answer.
Whoosh.
Once he confirmed that the smoke clones were spreading throughout the city, Karon immediately began moving swiftly between the buildings while maintaining his stealth.
What was the most threatening presence in urban combat?
A knight? A mage? An esper? Or a warrior of another race?
No, none of those.
'For starters...'
The most threatening presence in urban combat was none other than—
Slash!
An assassin.
'One.'
Karon sliced a smoke clone precisely in half, then immediately kicked off the ground and withdrew from the spot.
His movement was so swift and stealthy that not even a speck of dust on the ground moved.
The dense structure unique to urban combat, with its countless buildings packed together,
provided the perfect conditions for hiding one's body, erasing one's presence with stealth techniques, and targeting an enemy's rear.
That was why urban combat was the best battlefield for an assassin.
After withdrawing, Karon immediately cut through the area around the heart of another clone on a different building's rooftop.
Slash!
'Two.'
The second clone scattered like smoke.
But when he heard footsteps nearby almost immediately, Karon smiled faintly.
He had half expected it, but, as expected, the user of the technique had identified the location where the clone had disappeared.
Otherwise, there was no way the clones could have gathered so quickly.
Slash!
Hadn't [White Shadow] rated the power of these clones as knight-level?
The assessment had been accurate. No, perhaps because they possessed bodies made of smoke, their speed actually surpassed that of knights.
As Karon moved between buildings while dealing with the countless clones attacking him, he encountered a swarm of smoke clones that descended on him in an alley.
'Damn...'
...
"Phew..."
Standing near the center of the city and quietly smoking a cigar, I sensed the signals of the clones disappearing and looked east, toward the direction where I presumed Karon to be.
Smoke clones had a wide variety of uses.
They were also extremely useful for scouting the enemy or carrying out strategic operations.
Since I had created the technique myself, there was no way I could fail to sense the smoke clones' cores breaking and disappearing.
If so, the matter was simple.
I moved the clones scattered around me, lured them toward where I expected the enemy to be, and then attacked.
It was a very simple yet efficient strategy.
But.
"This won't be the end of it..."
Karon was a member of the most elite assassin unit in the Nebula ducal family.
If he fell for such a shallow trick, I might actually be disappointed.
Even if I had inserted a little scheme into my smoke clones.
"Boom."
Kaboom!!
***
The street was left in shambles by the sudden explosion.
"Hahaha!"
In the middle of the street, Karon laughed as he brushed the dust kicked up by the explosion off his clothes.
Around thirty smoke clones had descended upon him.
'Probably an operation using the smoke clones.'
The moment he sensed a clone disappear, Abel had immediately sent distant clones one after another.
It was a very simple strategy: lure the enemy in, then attack him at a designated location.
But.
'That last clone.'
That wasn't where the crux of the strategy lay.
The last clone, which seemed to contain a considerable amount of Abel's power, was by no means an ordinary clone with merely knight-level strength.
'Elite knight level?'
No, it didn't possess the strength of a captain or vice-captain.
Perhaps because of the technique's limitations, it was extremely weak compared to Abel's full power.
But its movements were different.
Karon was momentarily flustered by the clone, which fought with fluid movements unlike the other golem-like clones, as though Abel were controlling it himself.
But that much was fine.
No matter how good its movements were, it was still only knight-level.
But all of this had merely been a decoy for the final move.
The real attack was the final move.
A kind of bomb that activated when the smoke clone was defeated.
The clone had collapsed and detonated in the form of a grenade.
"Wow, that was a blind spot."
Karon had already witnessed Abel attack with countless weapons made of smoke during his fights with Kaizen and Bella.
There was no way someone like that couldn't turn a clone into a bomb.
'No.'
It had possessed knight-level power from the outset.
Only someone as powerful as Karon could have dealt with it so easily; knight-level strength was not something to take lightly.
Who could have expected a clone containing that much power to end as a suicide bomb?
Even Karon had never anticipated such a move.
As Karon quietly marveled at Abel's strategy, he heard the light footsteps characteristic of the clones beside his ears.
Step. Step.
There were as many clones as the roughly fifty Abel had created at first.
The clones were quietly surrounding Karon from the rooftops, exterior walls, and alleyways of the buildings around him.
The eerie sight of dozens of smoke people surrounding a single human would have been enough to make a fainthearted person faint.
Moreover, from Karon's perspective, knowing that every one of those clones was a bomb made the eeriness return tenfold.
"Oh dear..."
Then dozens of clones began charging toward Karon all at once.
.
.
.
————!!!!
A tremendous explosion echoed throughout the city in an instant.
At the same time, a powerful wind struck Abel.
...
It was strong enough to knock him over had he not defended himself with smoke.
Watching the entire scene through a single clone, Abel placed the cigar, now reduced to nothing but a butt from creating so many smoke clones, into a portable ashtray.
"Hmm..."
The aftereffects of the explosion slowly began to subside.
Looking up at the sky filled with dust, Abel took a new cigar from inside his coat and cut off its tip.
An ordinary opponent would probably have been finished by that explosion.
But his opponent was a member of [Dark Shadow], the ducal family's most elite unit.
Abel was certain that Karon would never be brought down by an attack of this level.
Fwoosh.
He lit his usual lighter and began slowly lighting the cigar when—
Pop.
He sensed, ever so faintly, that part of the smoke spread across the surrounding buildings had been disturbed.
Pop.
A sort of radar.
Pop.
And that radar had a range of approximately five hundred meters.
To a member of the Nebula ducal family's [Dark Shadow], that was an extremely short distance.
Clang!
"Hey, what did you think of the attack I sent as a greeting?"
Abel spoke calmly to Karon, who had somehow driven a dagger into the back of his neck.
Perhaps because it had been sent as a greeting, Karon looked perfectly fine.
At Abel's question, Karon answered with a bright smile.
"Refreshing!"
At the same time, Karon stepped half a pace away from Abel and began sweeping through all directions.
It was a superfast movement difficult to even catch with Abel's mana-enhanced reflexes.
Then Karon began attacking Abel's vital points as though he were in a trance.
Clack!
'Carotid artery.'
Clang!
'Spine.'
Crunch!
'Temple.'
Eyes, nose, ribs, solar plexus, groin, backs of the knees, shins, and everything else.
Karon's attacks targeted every vital point on the human body.
But those attacks couldn't pierce Abel's heavy defenses.
Since he had known from the beginning that he would be facing an assassin, building up especially thick defenses had been the right choice.
"Tch!"
Realizing that his attacks were ineffective, Karon clicked his tongue and swiftly moved out of Abel's range, retreating into a building.
"Huff... huff. Cough..."
His breath rose to his chin.
The muscles in his thighs, which had poured out mana to their limit, began trembling with spasms.
"Whew... whew..."
'One more time. No, maybe two.'
After checking his condition, Karon looked through the building's window at Abel, who was still standing motionless.
With his cigar in hand, Abel looked like a man enjoying a leisurely moment.
"Haha..."
The sight nearly broke Karon's spirit for a moment, but he pulled himself together again.
If he had intended to stop here, he wouldn't have started in the first place.
'Yes. I can't stop.'
Once he started something, he had to see it through to the end.
With that thought, Karon rose and slowly walked through the window toward Abel.
"What? Is the game of tag over?"
"Ahaha. Yes. I judged that the only way to break through Lord Abel's defenses was a head-on battle."
His voice was calm.
But Karon's eyes were entirely occupied with scanning the smoke Abel had spread around them.
"Then..."
Fwoosh!
At the same time as Karon spoke, sword aura began bursting from his dagger.
He had redirected all the mana he had invested in strengthening his body into sword aura.
Solely to break through Abel's defenses.
Naturally, Abel's gaze began to focus on the dagger emitting sword aura that seemed ready to burst into flames.
"Here I come."
Tap.
Smiling faintly at Abel's reaction, Karon charged at him at high speed.
"Hup!"
Boom!!!
Then Karon's sword aura collided with Abel's smoke.
Everything was proceeding exactly as Karon had planned.
.
.
Abel's vigilance had never relaxed even once.
Naturally. If he had relaxed his vigilance, there would have been no reason to build up such thick defenses.
Karon was also facing Abel with all his strength.
That fact was clearly apparent in his attacks.
How could anyone see attacks aimed at human vital points while nearly breaking the sound barrier and think he wasn't fighting at full power?
That was why Abel considered Karon's choice to emit sword aura in order to break through his defenses reasonable.
The process of withdrawing the mana invested in his body and turning it toward offense had been far too natural.
So Abel hadn't thought of it.
That all of this was a kind of decoy.
That every one of Karon's full-power attacks had been solely to create this one opening.
...
KRRRRR!!!!
Amid the violent collision between his sword aura and Abel's smoke, Karon slowly opened his mouth.
A bomb that had been hidden beneath his tongue, specially made by the boss of [Dark Shadow] at his request.
It was small enough to fit inside his mouth, and it sacrificed its range to push its lethality to the absolute limit.
————!!!
Karon's ability was [Absolute Defense].
As long as consciousness and mana existed, it created an absolute barrier capable of blocking any physical, magical, or mental attack.
But Karon had never once used this ability in front of Abel.
It was his final trump card, the last resort of the last resort, so naturally he had hidden it with all his might.
Shatter!
That was why he hadn't hesitated to make a choice akin to self-destruction.
For one purpose alone.
To break Abel's defenses and drag the battle into the extremely close-quarters combat he wanted!
To see how Abel would overcome this situation with his ability!
Feeling [Absolute Defense] break, Karon looked straight ahead.
'He's flustered.'
Abel, who had maintained a relaxed expression until now, had widened his eyes for the first time and was displaying genuine bewilderment.
Overcome by the exhilaration of seeing everything go according to plan, Karon immediately charged at Abel.
'What?'
And the next scene Karon remembered was Abel receiving his unstable charge in an extremely familiar stance.
'Guh!'
He struck the charging enemy's throat with the edge of his hand, causing a momentary loss of breath.
Then, while striking the back of the enemy's knee, he seized the wrist of his collapsing opponent and threw him away.
The sequence of movements was so fluid and seamless that it unfolded in less than an instant.
'What is this?'
That sequence of movements just now.
This close-quarters combat style, which efficiently incapacitated enemies and ruthlessly attacked the human body's vital points, was the form of hand-to-hand combat Karon knew best.
Close-quarters combat for assassins.
Even while flying through the air, Karon stared blankly at Abel.
Not in [White Shadow]'s reports, not in the records of the past, and not even during his fights with Kaizen and Bella.
Abel had never once moved his body directly to attack.
So Karon had never imagined it.
That Abel would break through this situation with hand-to-hand combat.
Crash bang!
Karon's body flew far away.
"Ah, seriously."
Abel frowned as he looked toward the direction where Karon had flown after smashing through a wooden door in the distance.
"I really didn't want to use this..."
If he used this, memories of his past life would naturally come flooding back, which was why he had really not wanted to use it.
The time when he had worked as an operative.