Assassination Attempt

It was dark by the time I left the Fairy Tail guild and I was alone on my way back to the Rune Knight base. I was strolling down the dirt path deep in my thoughts.

Most of the plans have succeeded without a hitch and now I would be a squad leader meaning I would learn many of the tactical skills that would make me an effective leader.

Right now I was charismatic, being able to sense anybody's emotion and perfectly control my body to match what I wanted but I was not a leader.

I didn't know how to properly delegate leadership, distribute resources, or create an effective chain of command. I mean I knew the basics from osmosis but nothing concrete.

It was why I was so worried about the military back home. They did have all of that and much more manpower than me.

If not for the fact that the president had that odd task I would probably be crushed by the military. Though I did think by then I would be able to crush any of them in a one-on-one fight.

But what I was worried about more than anything else is the collateral damage we could cause in our fights. Right now I could probably sink and island if I tried my hardest.

By the end of this mission I fully expect to be able to destroy mountains like Guildarts so if a conflict happened between me and some of the similar power how bad would the aftermath be.

I think we could irreversibly change the landscapes of entire countries during our fight. The toll of anyone close to the fight would also be unimaginable.

And that was only a straight-up fight. I know the power of ritual magic or machinery. Right now I think that a tech genius would be able to make a nuclear bomb so long as they had the materials.

There was nothing stopping them, they could buy the materials from the shop and then just build them with their crazy technological skills.

I fear what would happen to our world when that idea pops into the mind of some would-be warlord. If I thought of it others must've as well.

Ritual Magic could be even worse as often they have the ability to deal damage that we can't really deal with. Radiation makes scientific sense but what about magical curses?

All these questions rolled into my mind the danger of biological weapons creating zombies, the terror of nuclear winter, and the danger of an S-rank fight.

Before I could finish my train of thought however I felt a fast-approaching attack. It was so fast and aimed right at center mass that I knew I couldn't dodge it fully.

I spun to the side and let the projectile rake across the side of my body, making a hole right below my left ribs just barely missing any organs.

The projectile then hit the ground causing a massive explosion and launching dust and debris into the air. Immediately moved to try to see who had attacked me.

The projectile had been a small purple ball of light so I didn't know exactly what this type of magic was. Another one of the shots entered my sensory radius aiming at my head.

They could see through this dust cloud, they must have some other way of sensing where I am. I quickly moved my head away from the spell letting only graze the side of my head.

Since the dust didn't block their attack I jumped into the air and began zig-zagging around to try and mess up their aim.

The next spell still aimed true, aiming to remove my left leg from the knee down but I moved my leg to the side causing me to score a swallow grove on my calf.

This was not going to work, they were incredibly accurate and were picked off from what looked to be 2 kilometers away. I couldn't hit him back either at that range.

So I decided though it might be dangerous I had to rush in. So I dashed toward the mage, their shot only grazing me but they seemed to have back up.

I felt a powerful magic try and root me in place but my Armament Haki dissipated it before it could even take a hold of me.

But then 10 people try to do the exact same type of magic, and using my Anti-magic I yelled "Bind Breaker!" and managed to shake the spells off.

But not fast enough as the mage managed to get their first clean blow on me spearing a hole in my left bicep making that arm useless for me.

Whoever this person is they are fucking powerful, that bypassed my Armament Haki like it was nothing. If not for my ability to dodge his blows I would be swiss cheese.

I ate the wind healing restoring all my energy and mitigating the damage I had taken. My left arm was still out of commission but it wouldn't be getting any worse or hold me back.

I did have to come up with a way to deal with the group of binders however as they were hidden in the wood and I was still a kilometer away.

I couldn't sense them with my Observation Haki and my eye could not pick them out, as they hid well in the dense forest.

Knowing that strength was not going to help me here I immediately used Seimei Kikan to switch to my quick form, reducing my strength and defense for speed.

Since the mage could already blow holes in me there was no need for more defense. I once again dodge one of his blows this time fast enough to not receive a grazing wound.

The binders however struck once again and I felt I was being restricted by 10 mages. I was ready however as a Lacrima appeared from my Requip Space.

I yelled, "Bind Breaker," and this time with the help of the Lacrima I managed to get rid of it fast enough to cause the next spell to only graze my temple.

It was becoming a problem now, as I got closer the spells started reaching me faster and the bindings became a lot stronger.

Before I had the time to cast my anti-magic spells as the bindings were relatively weak, weakened even further by my Armament Haki, but now that they were close I was in a pickle.

If I went closer, even with the help of Lacrima, I would not consistently be able to get out of the binding spell before I got hit by the purple orb.

So I decided to stay here and begin attacking the forest around me. I knew the location of the mage that was shooting me due to the trajectory of the bullet as for the rest of them I don't know.

I pulled out my laser rifle and began blasting in the general area I knew the shooter mage was, I was not perfectly accurate but the number of attacks and their area of effect caused it to work.

The mage stopped shooting me for a moment allowing me a choice. I could close the distance to try and kill them all or stay back here to be safe.

If I closed the distance and the shots hadn't done much damage then I could be a sitting duck and the binders froze me and I got shot with by the S-rank mage.

However, if I didn't close the distance I would not have a really effective way to attack as I had just used all the bullets of my laser rifle.

I could still use my Rankayku and Wind Dragon's Kick but at this distance, they traveled slow enough that I expected most of them to dodge.

Seeing that both options weren't great I decided to keep my distance there was right now no reason to risk my life in such a dangerous gamble.

While I was getting slowly chipped down my Wind Dragon Slayer Magic made it so that it was barely an issue. Eating the air kept me moving in top form despite the injuries.

On the other hand, those mages were slowly draining their mana trying to keep it in place and the S-rank mage must be pumping his shot with all the power he can.

I was probably one of the toughest opponents in Fiore but his shots tore through me like wet tissue paper, there was no way doing that was easy.

The shots I did also made sure that they were now much warier of a counterattack from me. Keeping them on their toes and allowing me to do feints.

I did want to take them down however, that is why I had closed the distance instead of playing it safe and running so I started bombarding the area with magical attacks.

"Wind Dragon's Kick! Wind Dragon's Roar! Wind Dragon's Flying Blade!"

While they were still reeling at my laser rifle shots I was free to conduct a carpet bombing of spells all across the forest.

Then when I felt the binder hit me again there were only 7 this time and 3 of them were weaker than normal. I broke out of it with another "Curse Breaker!" not even needing a Lacrima.

The accompanying shot was also slower than normal. Not by much around 0.03 seconds but enough so that I knew I had hit the mage with my attacks.

I then attacked the mage with more Wind Dragon's Kick and Roars but as I guessed they were too slow to hit the mage, only serving to annoy him.

The damage I did however did seem to be pretty major as the mage's rate of fire was drastically dropping as he was forced to keep moving to dodge my blows.

It also seemed like he moved away from the binders and each subsequent binding attempt had the same amount of binders.

However, I could tell that the 3 that were injured were definitely on the path to their death and the other 4 were getting tired.

So I kept this up trading minor grazing blows here and here while pumping insane amounts of mana and power into each one of my blows ripping the forest so shreds.

I was free to spend energy like a mad man with nothing stopping me from eating the wind I was truly seeing the power of my magic for the first time.

After a minute of this stalemate, one of the binders had finally died and the rest was weak enough that I felt safe to close the distance on the S-rank mage.

I shot like a bullet toward the S-rank mage, the binding magic being so weak now that my Armament Haki took care of it not needing me to cast at all.

I finally saw the S-rank mage for the first time. It was a bald old man and he was missing his right arm. I finally heard him say his spell, "Piercing Bullet!"

The purple orb rushed at me. But I had been prepared I knew that at such a close distance I wouldn't have been able to dodge the bullet fully.

So using Seimei Kikan I had moved the position of my organs so that the was an area where the spell could hit me in the chest but not hurt any of them.

I attacked in such a way that my chest was the optimal target and he shot at it just like expected. It went through my chest but didn't deal any significant damage.

I closed in on him and used an Armament-infused Shigan to make a hole in his head. I immediately looked around me with my Observation Haki if any of the binders were close by.

There were 2 nearby and I took care of them quickly but the others had scattered. I found 1 using my enhanced sense of smell tracking him down with that but the last one had escaped.

I sat down feeling the hole in my chest. I was functioning pretty well as the consuming the wind gave me energy and strength even though right now I should be collapsed on the ground.

Seeing as I still had the energy I didn't drink my healing potion and instead began storing the corpses of the assassination team in my Requip space.

I could fit them all so I ended up having to carry 2 of the corpses back towards the way of the Rune Knight base. I was met on the way back by Barat however.

He saw my left arm hanging by my side limpy, a hole in my chest, and 2 corpses over one shoulder and said, "It's always something with you isn't it."

I smiled, "If it wasn't then I wouldn't be the rising star of the Rune Knight would I?"

He sighed then nodded his head, "Ok you can hand off the corpses to Fulmiur, we need to get you medical attention as soon as possible.

He then grumbled to himself, "See how he got the name Maniac. Nobody walks on the road like a hole in his chest was not an issue."

I did as he bid and smiled at Fulmiur while doing so. That had been an exhilarating fight. I now knew much more clearly my strengths and weakness. And I still had a lot to improve on.