Chapter 53 (1/2)

Chapter 53: Chapter 6 Sudden Change-1

The cool spring morning air swept across SoYoon's face. As she woke from her deep sleep, the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the sun rising through unfamiliar buildings. Searching through her last memories, she bolted up, surprised, and checked her smartphone. An hour had passed beyond the patch's expiration time. Her face stiffened like a statue.

***

One night, SoYoon went out to Outhouse to fulfill a request from a client. Having done similar tasks for this particular client, Firebug, before, she didn't think much of it. As she got closer to the appointed location, however, she started to suspect something was wrong.

First, Firebug liked houses, not abandoned warehouses. Second, he acted alone, so there was no reason she should be registering the presence of so many people. She pulled out her sword.

As expected, someone other than Firebug was at the appointed location. It was a man dressed in an expensive cream-colored suit and a striped necktie. If they had been in the heart of the city in Outhouse, he would have attracted a lot of attention with his good looks. He was smiling as he greeted her.

”Welcome, Undertaker. It's been a long time, hasn't it?”

”Cheshire.”

”Thanks to your unexpected interference last time, I have suffered great losses. It has also become very difficult to make any contact with Alice Liddell. And isn't that thanks to your getting in the way?”

What he was trying to get at was that since Heart was protecting Alice, he was going to take out his frustrations on SoYoon instead. The moment she arrived at this place, she anticipated his motive, and she gripped her sword tightly and lowered her body. Cheshire smiled at her reaction and tapped his head.

”A person must use his head. Do I look so dense that I would use the same method that failed me last time? I'm not that naive.”

The smile from his face disappeared in a heartbeat as he stepped back. His men surrounding her stepped forward, each holding a magic storage box.

Unlike a magic trap that activated when a specific action triggered it, magic storage units released their specified power when the user unleashed it.

SoYoon ran at them. At almost the same time, she heard the small sound the magic storage units made in conjunction with the cold air that ruffled her hair. It was the usual sort of phenomenon of a wind-type spell.

The type of wind magic used in this situation would be obvious. She crouched down and propelled herself upward. At the same time, lines of strong winds encapsulated the space she had been in seconds ago.

She had moved a bit late and so got a long cut on her leg, but the moment she landed, she bounced off the floor and ran at Cheshire's men. The winds from the storage unit continued to attack her, but they were able to aim in only one direction. Thinking of them as invisible knives, she was able to avoid most of them with the right timing.

There were five storage units. She charged at the man closest to her and brought him down. She sliced him from his shoulder to the hand that held the magic storage unit.

She heard the wind slicing through the air from the place next to her. She threw the corpse in that direction and crouched down just in time to avoid it. The man calmly aimed in her direction, but he was too late. The knife sliced through his legs, and as he fell, it finished him.

After getting rid of the second magic storage unit, SoYoon went after the third. Only a few steps away from the man, she heard the sound of quarrels approaching. This must have been why the third man had been on top of the warehouse.

SoYoon pulled out the knife she had strapped to her thigh and swung it at him. At the same time, she heard the sound of the magic storage unit activating. She blocked the oncoming quarrel with the knife and crouched to avoid the vicious wind that tried to take off her head.

The third wave of the spell must have been trying to hit her legs because it came at her low. She jumped into the sky to avoid it and brought down her sword as she landed. The man, whose head she had cracked in half, fell over as the magic storage unit spun in the air. With the knife she had in her left hand, she stabbed the box then aimed it toward the top of the warehouse. The man's scream dissipated into the distance.

Within moments, she had destroyed three of the magic storage units. As the two men who were left hesitated, SoYoon ran at them. They shot quarrels as a last attempt, but they were too late, and they landed in the ground. They both attempted to use the magic storage unit another time, but SoYoon was faster. She swung her sword and cut down not only the man in front of her but the box that he was holding, and she flung them over the warehouse.