200. Fang

Rakna landed on the top of a building and leaned over to take a look at the windows. He didn’t see any light but his spell was definitely pointing at this place.

“Further in? Or underground?” He mused and glanced at the roof’s floor. He pulled his hood on and swiped his hand across his face to put on Scherzo.

He walked to the center of the roof and put his hand down. His pupils became crosses and spotted the focal points of the material. He focused on his right arm and cloaked it with dimensional power before punching one of the points.

“[Rift Shuttle,]” he muttered and his fist strangely and silently broke through. Many cracks spread around but remained oddly silent. Then, when Rakna pulled his fist out, shattering sounds echoed and a huge portion of the roof vanished as if it was never there.

Rakna crouched above the hole without falling thanks to Flash Step as the sounds finally returned and the small pebbles at the edge of the hole fell inside the open space below.

“{I see that you have perfected your control over dimensions,}” Fray commented.

‘Kind of. Higure said that Rift can be used in different ways to defend and attack. This is a mix of both. By focusing on the focal point, I created a dimensional black hole that sent the material into a blank dimension,’ Rakna explained and jumped down inside the building after checking it with his soul sense and Fabled Sight. At the same time, he powered down his aura and reinforcement and the temperature outside gradually reverted to normal.

He looked around and saw several exits. He hummed and quietly drew a rune in mid-air that he placed on the wall. “All right. Little guy, let’s split up. There should be more than one staircase so we’ll meet up at the ground floor if we don’t find anything,” he said and Pronos nodded and jumped out from under Sonata. They nodded at each other and went off in opposite directions.

Rakna opened a door leading to an empty corridor and the golden lights of his mask scanned every inch of it. His tracking proficiency had reached maximum level and if there was one thing he could do was spotting traces of living presence.

‘This building is being cleaned… but not used,’ he thought and reached a staircase. He inspected it and silently walked down. His Stealth was obviously active and along with his Sin Skill, there was basically nothing that could possibly have him detected.

He scouted the following floors with Fabled Sight and reached the same conclusion as the very first one. But he also continued to place runes with seemingly no use. After a while, he reached the last floor and rejoined with Pronos who made a shrugging motion with his tail and head.

“Well, that only leaves one place,” Rakna said and looked at the floor. “I can’t see any souls through it but there might just be an array that blocks senses. Tyran would have helped to confirm if there is one or not… Let’s see; there doesn’t seem to be any traces of a trap door or anything,” he added whilst wandering around.

“{Realistically speaking, this organization probably has an actual ‘underground network’ and they use it to navigate the city,}” Fray commented.

“Could be,” the therian agreed and pondered on what he should do. “Oh well, if it goes wrong, I should be able to escape,” he said and turned into a werewolf.

At his full size, compared to before, he was at least a meter taller. His whirlpool-like eyes revolved and glowed with a golden and cross pattern. “[Rift Shuttle,]” he muttered and his entire body was covered in dimensional power. He then channeled his mana into his hand where a constellation formed instantly.

“Well, then. Fuck stealth.”

“{Really…}”

“[Star Monarch – Taurus,]” Rakna intoned and a deep growl resounded. The ground shook and his right arm began to shine. He reared it and brought it down with all of his strength.

The instant his fist touched the floor, nearly all of the building’s foundations disappeared, which was accompanied by a large shockwave. The structure began to collapse on itself as a miniature earthquake spread for a few house blocks.

Meanwhile, Rakna fell through the hole together with Pronos, who had used Gigantism to become nearly ten meters long. They landed on an underground area and right away, his auras came out and blew all the dust while the debris falling from above were being stopped by a green hexagonal shield.

“Fuck! What’s going on?!”

Rakna started hearing several voices right away. He observed the place he had barged into and automatically compared it to a very voluminous sewer system.

Tunnels were going in all thinkable directions and people were moving crates around. There was indeed an organized system under the city. And after a few seconds, everyone began to notice the werewolf in the room.

“Shit, what is that?! A werewolf?!” One shouted and dropped the crate he was carrying. “Gather up, you all! And call the boss! Fast!”

They were quick to react to the situation and took their arms. The ones that had been knocked by the collapsing building recovered their bearings and joined in. They surrounded Rakna in the most efficient way possible, which even the latter had to give them credit for.

He had had a few altercations with criminal groups in the past. More than half the time, they were composed of brainless men that were just there for the thrill of it and the promise of being able to do whatever they wanted. And it usually boiled down to one mentality; egotism. Criminals made for extremely bad teamwork where regulations are needed.

“Well, I praise you for that,” Rakna spoke up after he finished appraising all of them, making sure they could not take him by surprise or that they were not his target.

When his distorted voice resounded; everyone suddenly froze. They began to shiver for one and simple reason; the steadily growing black skull aura around the werewolf.

“But unfortunately, your days end today.”

Pronos hissed at the criminals whilst coiling around his master.

“My most and deepest…” Rakna trailed and faded from their view. “Apologies,” he growled out whilst reappearing above the highest-leveled person.

He grabbed the man’s head and his hand was so much bigger than it fit entirely inside of it. With a snarl, he yanked it out, and as the blood sprayed in front of him, some of the weaker ones finally lost the battle against Despair Aura and fainted.

Pronos also initiated the assault and a salve of poison arrows was shot with his magic. The same number of infinity runes popped up and in the blink of an eye, a dozen of targets had their hearts and heads melted down by acid.

Rakna flash-stepped to another criminal who surprisingly managed to lift his weapon in time to block his claws. But, sadly for him, they slashed right through it and beheaded him.

“Fuck! Blast him! Now!” A group aimed at the werewolf with firearms and heavy artillery. The wolf glared at them and they shuddered before pressing the trigger. Mana-powered shells and bullets flew out of the barrels and exploded on their target.

Flames and smoke erupted from Rakna’s and Pronos’ locations but they all continued to fire until magic spells eventually were added to the equation. The area continuously quaked for about a minute straight where nothing but the sounds of detonations could be heard.

“Hold fire! Hold fire!” One of them shouted and the view began to clear up. The criminals already were sure that it was over. However, when the smoke cleared up, an even stronger wave of black aura filled them with dread as the view of a pair of folded wings reinforced with a magical layer was presented to them. Pronos also resurfaced with not even a single scratch on his scales.

Rakna unfurled his wings and cleared the rest of the dust. Then, he revealed a cold star circled by a ring hovering above his hand. He threw it to the center of the area and coldly spoke the name of the spell, “[Natcattira Kirīṭam.]”

The miniature star promptly imploded and the ring was sucked into it. The imploding energy was twisted by the addition and proceeded to release the energy outward in a ring with an unmerciful cold edge.

It traveled faster than the eye could perceive and the criminals first heard a whistling sound, then a light flashed, and ultimately, strength left their bodies. When they noticed that a chunk of their body was cracking like ice, it was too late as it broke apart and bisected them.

Rakna had flash-stepped to a higher altitude to avoid the expanding ring that dug more into the foundations of the sewer. It had apparently been the last straw and the rest of the building above was essentially routed as it fell inside the underground pathways in pieces.

The storm from outside infiltrated the place but the rain quickly turned into snow and the winds chilly beyond reason. Rakna beheld the destruction below and all the bodies bisected by his spell. A quick scan with his senses informed him that all were either dead or unconscious.

Pronos landed on his shoulder and hissed inquisitively.

“Hm? Is it over, you ask? No,” Rakna replied. “Based on Appraisal, these people were members of the organization we were looking for but the leader wasn’t here… Most of them were around level 50 and some were close to 70 and 80. I predict Fang is closer to 100 or maybe above it-”

“Bingo!”

Rakna’s eyes widened and he felt something approaching. His instincts kicked in and he was about to turn around and clash with whatever it was but Sonata started glowing on its own. A black and golden spherical barrier encased him and blocked the blow of whoever had spoken just now.

A curved blade hit the sphere and the barrier held in. It buffered the damage and even caused the assailant to retreat due to the rebound. “Tch, a reactive barrier? Annoying.”

Rakna raised an eyebrow and fully turned around. His attacker was a tall man with long silver hair and eyes wielding a black scythe even bigger than he was.

“I suppose you’re Fang?” He asked with a calm tone as if he hadn’t just been attacked.

“And I guess you’re a Hit Taker from the Pavilion?” The man sneered and looked at the destroyed base of operations he had set up. “You really did a number on us, huh? There was nearly a third of my men here. How did you know they would all be here today?”

“I have good flair.”

Fang laughed. “Hahaha! Well, isn’t that true, eh? Never seen a four-tailed werewolf in my life. Who knows, maybe you smelled them through the array? You wolves are freaky with that.”

“Where do you keep your victims captive?” Rakna coldly snapped back as the barrier around him was deactivated.

“Whoa, whoa, chill. First, why are you doing this? Uh? Tell me. I can give you ten times what they’re giving you. Why don’t you join me? With a talent like you, we could climb the underground ladder in record time. How does it sound?”

“Don’t waste your breath,” Rakna retorted and Sonata moved away from his neck. It floated to his hand and turned into a Guandao. He then shrunk down his werewolf form a bit so that his size would be more manageable to wield the weapon. “I don’t plan to negotiate anything.”

Fang scoffed. “So what? You prefer risking your life? You didn’t look like one so I thought you were not one of those, but are you trying to be the hero here?”

Rakna snorted and whirled Sonata into a stance as the number ‘176’ was reflected in his eyes after he cast Appraisal on Fang. “What if it is true? Do you really think the bad guy will win?”

The crime leader cackled and similarly spun his scythe. “Real life is just like that. The bad guys win a shit ton more than in bedtime stories. Too bad I’ll have to kill you; I kinda like you.”

The two opponents fell silent and Pronos quietly wrapped around his master’s neck to provide as much support as possible at close range. After a minute of staring off, their figures dashed toward each other and clashed loudly.