Chapter 55: Chapter 55:Banquet [4]

Stepping forward, the leader of the djinns wore a grin while speaking.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Are our little pups trying to escape?"

Her sparkling red horns lit up the dark room, illuminating the main cast alongside Ruby and others standing near the open window.

Dropping a ladder out of the open window and down to the boat, Alya said.

"We need more time."

"Unfortunately, we can't let you have that. You have my dearest condolences!"

With those words, a blood-red aura enveloped all of the djinns before materializing in the form of tens of sharp red discs.

Time seemed to slow for Liam as dozens of blood-red disks surged towards them, each of the disks capable of killing more than 3 people.

With his sword, Liam was only capable of defending against one or, at best, two disks, so what were we supposed to do against dozens of them?

"DEFEND!"

Stepping forward, Alya cast an ice barrier right in front of the incoming disks while Lily created a shield of water right behind the ice barrier to slow the disks' speed.

As the disks pierced the ice barrier and raced through the water shield, Liam and Kevin stood in front of the group, their swords pointed at the remaining seven disks.

Holding their swords horizontally, Kevin and Liam each took on 3 disks while leaving the last one for Lily and Alya, who were helping get people down the ladder and onto the ships below.

After being pushed back by the discs and into the wall, Liam and Kevin managed to redirect the discs to a nearby wall, away from their fellow students.

However, despite his attack being completely foiled, Djinn's expression didn't change a single bit.

Instead, he raised his hand again. The horns of the djinns behind him began glowing a dark red as 12 more discs manifested above their heads.

"Usually, I would just get it over with... but now, I feel like playing with my prey. Who's gonna save you out here in the middle of the ocean? We have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD!"

"Ah, those expressions of yours. Can't wait to see them again in 10 minutes."

Alongside the disks, chains broke through the floor beneath the djinns and surged toward the four main cast members, preventing them from blocking the disks.

"WHAT DO WE DO?"

"I-i d-don't know."

Lily couldn't even plan for this scenario. In the book, all that was mentioned was Liam gaining a power-up and defeating the powerful djinns, so she couldn't have predicted their attacks or movements.

Turning to Liam, with her hands clenched in desperation, Lily said.

"Do something, Liam."

"???"

After a moment of silence, Kevin exclaimed.

"YOU'RE PUTTING OUR LIVES IN THIS IDIOTS HANDS, LILY??"

Even Alya seemed concerned by Lily's words as she replied.

"...Lily, maybe we should take our loss and leave."

"*PFFT*"

Even Ren, who was hiding in the shadows, couldn't help but laugh at Lily's outrageous words. Of course, Ren was just laughing rather than doing something because he knew those outrageous lines would actually work, as Liam now had achieved the perfect conditions to obtain his power-up.

They and the students were at risk of dying or being kidnapped, the djinns were here attacking them, and finally, there was an escape route present.

Those were the 3 conditions that needed to be fulfilled.

"I-I'll t-try. W-we can't just leave these students behind. If we wanted to survive in the first place, we would have never gotten on the cruise ship."

"Why did we even come to the banquet in the first place? What was this planning and effort for if we just left now?"

"All four of us wanted to save these people; that was our goal at the start, and it still is."

After giving a solemn nod to Lily and a quick wave to Alya, Liam turned around and punched Kevin as hard as he could in the chest.

"WHAT THE HEL-"

"Always wanted to do that before I died!"

Leaning down, Liam patted both Zach and Irene's unconscious bodies before pulling out his sword and facing the incoming chains.

Made of pure blood, the chains were dark red instead of metallic gray, and they showed no mercy as they rampaged through the tables and chairs in the room to reach Liam.

The fact that the chain was able to pierce through the tough wood of the table without even slowing down said enough. One hit and that chain would pierce right through Liam's body.

Staring down the incoming chains, Liam laughed for a moment before saying to himself.

"Didn't this already happen once?"

Ah, yes, at the amusement park, Liam had faced this exact some ordeal and made it out alive, all be it with some luck.

He had survived last time, so why wouldn't he this time?

As the chains neared Liam's figure, he briefly turned around and saw Alya alongside Lily, sending the hostages down the ladder with grim expressions.

There was also Kevin, but he was just giving Liam the middle finger while clutching the lower half of his body with a pained expression.

"Is the last thing I see really going to be that bastard...? I'll be damned."

At least he wasn't dying for nothing.

Born an outskirt rat to a poor family, Liam was very familiar with the concept of selfishness. In fact, it was his whole ideology!

Stealing from vendors to get food, fighting other beggars to receive money from civilians, and even attacking other rats who dared to enter your territory.

Growing up, Liam was forced to endure and adapt to these conditions.

Beg, attack, steal. Beg, attack, steal. Beg, attack, steal. An endless loop, with one goal.

It was all to survive. That was all that mattered to Liam.

No matter how many terrible actions or crimes Liam committed, he never felt bad. Whether it was robbing a fellow beggar for money or stealing bread from a market stand on the fringe of collapsing, Liam always walked away with the same indifferent expression.

Why should he care? None of it was his fault, was it?

Was it his fault he was born on the outskirts? Was it his fault that he was born to a poor family? If all he was doing was adapting to his environment, why should he be blamed?

All that mattered was him and only him.

"Who would have thought I'd be here? From stealing and attacking to sacrificing myself for others with no regrets, even in the face of death."

The old Liam would have been long gone as soon as the news of the djinn's attack reached his ears, yet the new current Liam was here, protecting them at the cost of his life.

What was the cause of this transformation?

Recalling his backstory, Liam let out a chuckle before saying. seaʀᴄh thё NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

" *PFFT* When I die, they BETTER create a play about me and my life. Wait, who would be the villain? Kevin? No...? Oh, that Ren guy would be perfect!"

Remembering the time when he had been caught off guard and beaten by his jealous classmate, Kevin sighed.

The weeks of anxious anticipation of the jealous boy's revenge had been too much for him.

"I really wasted a week biting my nails waiting for his revenge..."

"If I knew I was going to die this soon, I would have just beaten him up and gotten it over wi-"

[Who says you're going to die?]

"huh? What the hell???"

In front of Liam appeared a system menu, all too familiar to the one that portrayed the stat's menu.

Blocking Liam's view of the incoming chains, the blue system screen disappeared before reappearing with a different message.

[Embrace it, hero. The one destined to save it all.]

Not giving Liam any time to react, he felt his entire body overflowing with power; his trembling legs had stabilized, his sword had grown ten times lighter, and he felt something weird whenever he moved his hands.

An unknown presence in his body.

"Well, it can't get any worse than this!"

Like how he used mana, Liam gathered the unknown presence in his body, leading it towards his chest. There was far too much of whatever substance it was to stay in another part of his body.

As the last particle entered the square that his substance formed in his chest, Liam suddenly felt a flashing light blind his eyes.

Reopening his eyes, Liam saw that the system menu had disaperead, instead replaced by his sword, which was now shining a light blue.

The blue aura engulfed his sword, illuminating the dark room to the point that most people would have thought it was daytime outside. He seemed to have absorbed all of the unknown substance in his body.

As the first set of chains pierced right toward Liam, he charged forward with his now blue sword, ready to intercept it.

Putting all his strength into his sword's slash onto the chain, Liam was surprised when his sword simply passed through the chains like a knife cutting butter.

Falling onto the ground due to the strength he had put into his sword's slash, he watched as the entire chain disappeared despite him only hitting one small portion of it.

Magic Nullification.

Standing back up, Liam did the same thing for each of the disks as his sword effortlessly cut through them like butter, causing the discs to shatter into thousands of pieces before disappearing into thin air.

Ignoring the djinn's surprised and dreaded expression, Liam swung his sword in the air, releasing all of the unknown substance he could muster. A light-blue elemental slash charged right at the group of djinns.

With no time to dodge, the djinns watched their lights both literally and mentally flash before their eyes as the elemental slash neared them.

*BOOM*

After the slash cut right through the djinns, it continued charging forward, even cutting through the cruise ship's walls before flying out into the ocean and out of sight.

"Well, goodbye to you too, sword slash!"

Not giving any explanation to the astounded Kevin, Lily, and Alya, Liam walked up beside them before carrying out the rest of the people, who were unable to witness the event due to fainting from fear or the rubble that fell on them.

In the other corner of the room, Ruby, who was completely oblivious to other events, stared at one body that seemed to be unconscious.

Holding their head up, Ruby swept her hands across the boy's cheeks, but upon feeling the prickling sensation of their skin, she immediately dropped the head onto the hard floor.

"That's not him."

Channeling her eyesight to confirm her suspicions, Ruby peered deep into the individual lying on the floor's desires.

"... the desire is as strong, but unless he became an alcoholic in a single day, it's not him."