CH 60

Lennok swiftly reached a conclusion and slipped away, seeking cover behind a worn-out jeep parked nearby. From his vantage point, he kept a watchful eye on the entrance of the bar.

A couple hosting a nearby barbecue party noticed him and stared in curiosity, but he paid no attention to their gaze.

Before long, the bar’s entrance grew noisy, and two individuals hurriedly emerged.

“Are you sure about this?”

“No doubt. I sensed a strange energy emanating from the back of your head until just now.”

“Damn… This is really getting annoying.”

A broad-shouldered man and a woman with a peculiar expression appeared. Their slightly unsteady gait betrayed their intoxication, yet their mana was surprisingly potent.

Judging by their nonchalant demeanor, unaffected by the fear of being followed, they seemed like confident freelancers. Furthermore, their synergy suggested they operated as a well-coordinated male-female pair.

Just like Cybrid Echo, Lennok seemed to encounter these pairs with unusual frequency.

“We should make a run for it. If we’re caught here, Madam won’t be pleased.”

“I’d rather die… I can’t give Madam a reason to be furious with me.”

Noticing the man fumbling with a car key in his pocket, Lennok rose from his hiding spot.

He couldn’t allow his suspects to slip away right in front of him.

Pulling a cigarette from his pocket, he lit it and headed straight toward the duo.

As he fixed his gaze upon them, both of them simultaneously turned their heads towards Lennok.

Click…!!

He maintained eye contact with the pair while lighting his cigarette.

There was no doubt that they recognized him at this point.

With a smirk, the man spoke up, “Never thought my first fan would look like this.”

“Mount, mind your words. He’s a wizard,” cautioned the woman, her face tense.

Matching her seriousness, Lennok focused his mana and opened his mouth.

“You know Madison, right?”

“………”

“Hand it over.”

Without uttering a word, the man named Mount and the woman locked eyes.

Suddenly, a smoke bomb detonated between the man’s legs.

Boom!!

Thick black smoke billowed out, obscuring the view in front of the bar.

Even amidst the ensuing chaos, Lennok’s mana perception remained unhindered.

Raising his shield and preparing to cast a stun spell to prevent them from reaching the car, Lennok noticed the driver’s seat of the unoccupied vehicle begin to move.

Vroom!!

Simultaneously, Mount and the woman grabbed onto the car’s trunk and hastily fled from the bar’s vicinity.

Crash!

Lennok managed to unleash a lightning spell, bursting the rear tire of the car, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from rolling away.

“……..”

Lennok furrowed his brow slightly as he watched the car disappear around the corner.

With a flat tire, the car couldn’t have gone far. He needed to catch up and reveal his hand.

Just as he prepared to move, he heard an unexpected sound from his side.

Click.

The man from the barbecue party, who had been seated in the jeep until moments ago, suddenly produced a gun and aimed it at Lennok’s head.

Lennok suppressed a sigh and turned around.

“…..What is this about?”

“What do you think?” the man retorted, voraciously chewing on his barbecue meat.

“I tolerated it when you were lingering around my car earlier, but I won’t stand for you interfering with my friends in this area.”

“………”

“I don’t know why an outsider like you would venture all the way here, but you’d better make a choice quickly.”

Despite his flushed face from alcohol, the man’s aim remained unwavering.

“Either leave quietly or get beaten and leave.”

It was a sudden sense of alienation, one that hadn’t been evident before. This neighborhood clearly exhibited a strong aversion toward outsiders.

Lennok suspected that this might not be a gathering spot for freelancers, but honestly, it wasn’t his concern.

“Hoo…”

Chuckling with a complex mindset, Lennok exhaled smoke.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have let the man who aimed a gun at him off so easily. However, there was work to be done at the moment.

“Consider yourself lucky.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because you just repaid the debt with that car of yours.”

Boom!!

Less than a minute later.

Lennok was in hot pursuit of the group of freelancers, driving the old jeep that belonged to the couple.

There was no need to mention what fate awaited the couple who had pointed a gun at him.

This time, he cast the spell [Bloody Chase] on the woman, and chasing her directly down the alleyway.

Unlike the man named Mount, the woman seemed to possess the ability to sense Lennok’s magic. However, she had no leisure to dispel it while being relentlessly pursued like this.

He attached a blood-stained thread to the car’s front windshield and changed direction as the thread swayed.

If it were an ordinary vehicle, it would have been challenging, but it was quite possible for Lennok to engage in a car chase against a car missing a rear wheel with his rugged driving skills.

As he maneuvered through worn-out alleyways and narrow roads, he soon caught sight of a swaying sedan.

Stepping on the accelerator, he rammed into it head-on.

Bang!!

The car’s body and Lennok’s body shook violently together, but the shield enveloping him crumpled under Lennok’s precise control of mana, preventing any serious injuries.

He swiftly turned the steering wheel, crashing the sedan onto the side of the road.

Screech!!

The old stone wall suffered long scratches, and in an instant, the passenger’s side door of the sedan was severely damaged.

Lennok grinned as he heard muffled screams from inside.

He wanted to continue pummeling the car until it was completely wrecked, but soon, as the narrow alley came to an end, a wide-open field appeared.

The front yard of a decrepit, five-story abandoned building.

To the side, an old railway track that had long been out of service, covered in rust.

With the newfound space, the sedan swiftly veered away from the jeep’s impact.

Lennok could see the car fleeing in the distance, but instead of accelerating once more, he leisurely observed.

‘There’s nowhere left to run.’

He had already assessed the situation with his mana detection long before entering the field.

The road leading back to the alley and the open railway side were both blocked.

Unless the two of them planned on scaling the abandoned building to escape, they had no choice but to stop here.

Even if they considered that option, they wouldn’t dare turn their backs on Lennok in plain sight.

And now… it was time to confront them with their advantage of numerical superiority.

As expected, the car, though shaken but still functioning, came to a sudden halt. The car door swung open.

The two individuals who emerged from the vehicle slowly walked toward Lennok instead of attempting to flee.

Mount clenched his teeth as he rubbed his sore neck.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been hit while driving. It brings back memories. I appreciate it, you bastard.”

“Mount.”

“Trisha, don’t stop me. Judging by how he chased us without missing a beat, he seems quite skilled. We have to shake him off cleanly here.”

“…You’re right.”

Trisha, the woman, finally noticed the “Bloody Chase” spell that Lennok had cast on her and mustered her mana to dispel it.

She stared sharply at Lennok with wide-open eyes.

“Hey, you’re a freelancer too, right? It seems that desperate fool Madison is reaching out everywhere, trying to sell the company’s secrets, but it’s useless now. Why are you meddling in something that’s already over?”

“If you truly believed it was over, you wouldn’t have spared Madison,” Lennok replied sarcastically.

“What do you mean?”

“There would be no reason to keep Madison alive and return him if you had already found a buyer for the blueprint. Didn’t you need someone to take the blame while you sold the blueprint to someone else?”

Unfortunately, in this line of work, betrayal is just par for the course.

If you’re going to stab someone in the back, you have to do it right in a world where fortunes can quickly change, where your life hangs in the balance between gains and losses, and trust scatters like scraps of paper.

In that regard, the actions of Mount and Trisha, betraying Madison and flaunting it, felt incredibly awkward.

While they appeared experienced in their field, the reason they let the naive Madison off with just a bruised lip wasn’t due to a sudden surge of compassion. There had to be another motive behind it.

And that meant the blueprint still resided in their possession.

Preparing for battle, Lennok casually flicked his hand as he retrieved a fresh cigarette from his pocket.

“Hand it over. If you give it to me now and leave, I’ll spare your lives.”

It was the most lenient offer Lennok could make to fellow freelancers.

However, both of them seemed to find Lennok’s words rather irksome.

“No, seriously… We’re the ones trying to resolve this peacefully. If you don’t understand what we’re saying, we’ll have no choice but to use force.”

From their perspective of having the numerical advantage, they couldn’t comprehend Lennok’s arrogant attitude.

It was peculiar how conversations could take place when both sides held such disparate views.

And none of the three involved attributed any significance to such a conversation.

Trisha, wearing a deadly expression, began gathering mana while muttering.

“You think you’re going to spare our lives? Just pray I don’t kill you right here and now!!”

Uuuuung!!

Simultaneously, long threads of mana extended from her hands and attached themselves to the car. And soon like a wild horse bolting from the gate, the car charged toward Lennok.

Buuaaaaang!!

Seeing this, Lennok immediately realized the type of magic Trisha wielded.

‘Manipulation-type Unique magic. And quite a sophisticated one at that. If she can control a vehicle from that distance and ram it straight at me…’

He hadn’t noticed earlier, as he was focused on identifying the presence of the two amidst the chaotic situation, including the smoke bomb. But if Trisha possessed manipulation-type magic, everything that had unfolded thus far made sense.

The reason the driverless car suddenly started and managed to continue with a burst tire was likely due to her influence.

Manipulation-type magic was notorious for requiring precise techniques, yet it offered the advantage of adaptability in various situations once mastered.

However, due to the inherent complexity of magic and the difficulty of expanding the application range and range of the underlying “mana,” success was elusive unless one possessed a natural talent for it.

Unless, like Lennok, who had the ability to improvise and modify magic on the fly.

[Marionette]

He connected his mana, extended through his index finger, to the jeep behind him.

Since the range couldn’t be extended beyond a limit for Common Magic, Lennok poured his mana into the engine, expanding both the range and the application of his magic.

The headlights, previously off, flickered to life, and the jeep’s engine roared to action in an instant.

Vroom!!

BOOM.

Crash!!

The two cars collided diagonally, creating a thunderous noise as they veered off in different directions.

Bumpers and car parts were scattered in disarray.

As a car narrowly passed by Lennok, the jeep he had driven crashed headfirst into the old, abandoned building.

Through the billowing black smoke from the collision, he could see Trisha’s eyes widening as if about to burst.

“Wait… How can you use manipulation-type magic…?”

“You fool, stay focused!!”

Rather, it seemed that Mount, who appeared disheveled, was regaining his senses.

Upon hearing Mount’s shout, Lennok immediately summoned his mana.

Boom!!

The purple whip dispersed into the air, rapidly lashing out in the direction of the two.

Both Mount and Trisha easily evaded the attack, but the whip continued past them, extending further…

It swiftly entwined itself around the iron bars of the abandoned building behind them.

Creak…!!

By infusing [Gravity Bind] into the support of the trembling building that had collided with the jeep Lennok drove, the disrupted balance succumbed to the immense force of gravity.

Only then did Trisha, who had noticed Lennok’s intention, pale, but it was already too late.

With a swift pull, he ensnared her.

The aged and rusted iron bars of the abandoned building couldn’t withstand the force and collapsed like a domino chain, enveloping the entire area.