Chill Hunt

Chapter 37: Chill Hunt

Bang!

A shot echoed through a dark alley. The running Beyonder could only dodge to the side to dodge the bullet, narrowly missing it. The pain of losing an arm was torturing him and was not letting him think straight.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow looming over him, and tried to block the attack by using Critical Blow with his dagger. Assassin pathway Beyonders had the ability to unleash their full force in one hit, making them incredibly deadly and difficult to fight in close combat.

Unfortunately, this skill was going to be of no use this time. Dagger and sword collided, and then...

Slash.

The dagger didn't break, the Instigator Beyonder didn't have the strength to withstand a clash of forces, so his weapon went flying.

"Aaargh!" The man fell to the ground crying in pain.

"Not bad, you managed to deflect my slash." William looked at the Instigator, writhing on the ground with no arms. "However, that will only make you suffer longer."

He gripped his sword with two hands and brought it down straight for his head. The Beyonder stopped screaming and lay on the ground, not moving.

Leonard approached looking as flamboyant as ever.

"My, you are ruthless." He chuckled.

William smiled and brushed the blood off his sword with a quick movement before putting it in the weapon bag he carried on his back. He had been inspired by the bags used in his previous world by people who practiced a martial art that required the use of weapons such as a bokken. He had entrusted it to a tailor, who had been a bit confused with the order, although he finally accepted it without problems.

It was much less cumbersome to carry around than the guitar case.

"It's not that. It's just that many Beyonders have various ways to save their lives, so ending a battle quickly is more effective in preventing that." William explained as Leonard approached the corpse. "Speaking of acting fast, you should talk less, and dedicate yourself to getting information out of his soul. If we don't do it fast, it will disappear."

"Yeah, yeah. Come on, you're not funny." Leonard sighed and prepared to use the Mediumship Ritual. "You can do it too, so why me? I heard from Old Neil that you're pretty decent at Ritualistic Magic."

William put on a wry smile. "I practically did all the work myself, I have to make sure you earn your salary honestly." Leonard was quite lazy and was often scolded by the Captain.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you were studying to be a teacher?" Leonard sneered at the young man looking at him like he was looking at a kid who needed to be punished. "I feel like you're starting to act more like the Captain than is good for me."

At this statement, William couldn't hold back his laughter.

Leonard stood up. "Anyway, it seems that this was also a member of the Theosophy Order. Their way of acting is getting more and more brazen, it seems that they will send Beyonders until one manages to stay undetected."

"So it seems, he's getting annoying with all this hunting down Instigators and Assassins." William complained as they picked up the body between the two of them and hid it as well as they could. "We could even say that we have become the greatest experts among the Low-Sequence Beyonder to fight someone from that pathway."

Even before Old Neil's death, which occurred two days ago, they had already been dealing with them. And worst of all, they had to form teams to take them out more effectively, there were so many of them. William would swear that he had murdered no less than ten members of the Theosophy Order, that organization probably hated his guts with a vengeance.

William and Leonard chatted about various mundane things on their way back. The Tingen Nighthawks saw each other every day, fought together, and lived through moments of extreme danger together, which made them quite a tight-knit group.

When they arrived at Blackthorn Security Company, they immediately noticed something new.

"Wow, spirituality is all over the place. Looks like someone's been promoted."

Just then Dunn Smith appeared from the corridor. "You're right, Klein is now a Sequence 8." Dunn looked at William. "It's a shame you weren't here, Crestet Cesimir seemed quite interested in talking to you, though he said he'd come back when you wanted to get to Sequence 7."

Leonard put a hand on her shoulder.

"He seems to have his eye on you. He probably wants you to join the Red Gloves when you meet the requirements." In the minds of both Beyonders, they knew that Cesimir had probably had a very good impression of William when he first met him.

"Okay, I'll make sure to try my best." William nodded, and he wasn't lying, although he didn't mean that either in the sense of trying to get there as fast as possible.

In fact, he had already digested the potion earlier that morning, but he still didn't want to be promoted. This might seem weird to a good part of the Beyonders, but there was a reason for it.

Having already fought twice that nearly took his life, he realized that both cases were due to his lack of combat experience. Most of the Beyonders that were in Sequence 7 didn't know the Acting Method, and that meant that many were highly experienced fighters, because they had been Beyonders for a long time.

It was for this reason that William wanted to stay as a Sequence 8 and try to get to the level where he could defeat someone of his level more or less easily. Also, Sequence 8 Beyonders were much more common than Sequence 7 Beyonders, no wonder that was the borderline between Mid-Sequence and Low-Sequence.

Hence, he intended to wait a month or so before communicating with the Church.