The dark alleyway was completely silent for a single, terrifying second.
Linease lay motionless on the cold concrete.
A dark pool of crimson blood spread quickly beneath her body.
Chrites stared at the dark-hooded shooter standing at the end of the street.
The shooter looked right back at him, holding the smoking magical rifle, and gave a cold, empty smile.
Chrites felt a massive surge of pure anger explode in his chest.
He dropped his casual disguise immediately.
He pushed his speed to the absolute limit, moving faster than the human eye could ever track.
In less than a millisecond, he crossed the entire street, reaching out to grab the assassin by the throat.
But his hand grabbed nothing but empty air.
The hooded shooter simply vanished.
He did not run away, and he did not use a normal teleportation spell.
He just faded away into the cold night wind like a ghost.
Chrites stopped and looked around the empty alley.
He closed his eyes and focused his incredibly strong senses.
He was looking for any trace of mana, any leftover magic molecules that could tell him where the shooter went.
There was absolutely nothing.
The air was completely clean.
It was like the shooter had never even been there in the first place.
“Damn it,” Chrites cursed loudly.
He turned around and sprinted back to where Linease was lying on the ground.
Her face was very pale, and her breathing was shallow and weak.
The magical bullet had done massive damage.
Chrites knew that he could not use his own magic to heal her.
His Light and Dark magic were meant for total destruction, not for fixing broken bones and torn skin.
He had to get her to a real doctor right now.
And he knew exactly who the best doctor was.
Chrites gently slid his arms under Linease and picked her up.
He held her securely against his chest.
“Abyssal Step,” Chrites commanded softly.
The heavy, black liquid shadows erupted from the concrete beneath his feet.
The darkness completely swallowed them both.
The quiet city street vanished, and a second later, they reappeared right in the middle of the underground bunker of The Obsidian Syndicate.
“Medical emergency!” Chrites yelled at the top of his lungs.
His voice echoed like thunder across the massive room.
“Get Vane out here right now!”
The syndicate members in the main room immediately jumped into action.
Two guards rolled a heavy medical bed out from the infirmary doors.
Chrites gently placed Linease onto the white sheets.
Her uniform was completely soaked in blood.
Vane ran out of the back room.
He was not just a highly trained combat Master; he was also the absolute best healer in the entire organization.
Vane took one look at Linease’s wound and immediately placed both of his glowing green hands over her chest.
“I have her, sir,” Vane said, his voice completely serious and focused.
“The bullet left foreign magical energy inside her body.
It is stopping her blood from clotting.
I need to extract that power and heal the tissue right now.
Everyone, step back!”
Chrites took a step back and let Vane do his job.
The other medical assistants pushed the rolling bed into the brightly lit infirmary and shut the heavy glass doors behind them, leaving Chrites alone in the hallway.
Chrites looked down at his own hands.
They were covered in Linease’s blood.
His jaw was clenched so tight his teeth hurt.
Silas came running down the hallway.
The tall assistant looked at the closed infirmary doors, and then looked at Chrites in total shock.
“Sir, what the hell happened out there?” Silas asked, his voice filled with panic.
“Who the hell did this to her?”
Chrites walked over to a metal sink in the hallway and turned on the water.
He started washing the blood off his hands.
“I do not know who he was,” Chrites replied, his voice cold and hard.
“I tried to catch him, but he vanished into thin air.
He left absolutely zero mana traces behind.
I looked at his clothes, but they did not give me any clues at all.
His uniform did not look like the regular army, and it did not look like any of the common street gangs.
It definitely did not match the soldiers from the DTN organization either.”
Silas handed Chrites a white towel.
“If he left no mana trace, how did he shoot a magical bullet?
That makes no sense, sir.” This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“He used reflection magic,” Chrites explained, drying his hands.
“I recognized the angle of the attack.
He did not shoot the bullet straight at us.
He shot it at a magical mirror hidden in the shadows, and the mirror bounced the attack directly into Linease.
Reflection magic is incredibly hard to use.
It takes a super skilled mage to create an attack like that and make it that lethal.
This guy was really, really strong.”
Silas looked very worried.
“Sir, if he attacked you while you were walking home, that means he knows your real face.
He targeted you when you were not wearing your demon mask.
He knows our civilian identities.”
“Exactly,” Chrites said, tossing the towel aside.
“That is why this is a massive problem.
Finding this guy is our top priority.”
They stood in the hallway and waited.
The minutes felt like hours.
Chrites leaned against the cold metal wall, watching the red light above the infirmary door.
After about twenty minutes of absolute silence, the heavy glass doors finally slid open.
Vane walked out into the hallway.
He looked very tired, and his forehead was covered in sweat from using so much healing magic, but he had a small smile on his face.
“Sir,” Vane said, letting out a long breath.
“She is alright.
I successfully extracted the foreign magic from her chest and sealed the wound.
She is not in any danger anymore.
Her body is recovering.”
Chrites let out a heavy sigh of relief.
“Oh, that is a huge relief, Vane.
You did a great job.
But her recovery is not the only thing we need to worry about right now.
We have to find out who the hell that shooter was.
And it is not going to be easy.”
Chrites turned to Silas.
“Silas, I want you to assign Team Five to this mission immediately.
Call them into the main room.”
“Yes, sir,” Silas nodded, pulling out his communication radio.
“Team Five, report to the main hall immediately.”
A few moments later, ten elite syndicate guards wearing dark suits stood in a perfect line in front of Chrites.
They were the best trackers and investigators in the entire organization.
Chrites stepped in front of them.
“Listen to me carefully.
A highly skilled assassin just attacked us in the upper city.
He knows our real faces, which means he is a massive threat to everything we are building.
I am going to show you exactly what he looks like.”
Chrites held out his right hand.
A bright, blinding white light began to glow from his palm.
Then, he held out his left hand, and a pool of pitch-black darkness flowed from his fingers.
He pushed his two hands together.
The light and the darkness mixed in the empty air in front of him.
Instead of exploding, the two opposite magics wove together like thick paint.
The shadows formed the shape of a human head, and the white light filled in the details of the face.
In a matter of seconds, Chrites created a perfect, floating, three-dimensional portrait of the shooter.
The face looked exactly like the man from the dark alleyway, right down to the cold, empty smile.
“Look at this face and memorize it,” Chrites ordered the tracking team.
“I want you to find him at any cost.
Search the whole country.
Search the entire Grovics continent.
If you have to, send spies into the other continents to find him.
I want to meet this guy face to face.
He tried to use a lethal attack against one of our members when we were out of uniform.
Finding him is very, very important.
Do not come back until you have a location.”
“Understood, boss!” Team Five shouted together.
They immediately turned around and ran toward the exit to begin their massive hunt.
With the orders given, Chrites turned back toward the infirmary.
He pushed the glass doors open and walked inside.
Linease was lying on a comfortable hospital bed in the corner.
She was wearing a clean white shirt, and thick bandages were wrapped tightly around her chest.
Chrites expected her to be sleeping or crying from the pain.
Instead, he saw her holding her smartphone in her hand.
She was watching some music videos on her screen, softly humming along to the song while she rested against the pillows.
Chrites could not help but smile a little bit.
She was incredibly tough.
“Oh, I think you are finally fine,” Chrites said, walking over and pulling up a chair next to her bed.
“You look like you are doing great.”
Linease paused her music and looked up at him.
She offered a tired but genuine smile.
“Yeah, I am feeling a lot better.
Vane is a really great doctor.
The pain is mostly gone already.
Thanks for saving me and bringing me here, Chrites.”
“You do not need to thank me,” Chrites said, leaning back in his chair.
“You are a member of my organization now.
We protect our own people.”
Linease set her phone down on the small table next to the bed.
Her smile faded, and she looked very serious.
“Did you find out who he was?
Do you know if he belongs to the DTN organization, or is he someone else?
Someone suspicious?”
“Ah, well, I do not know who the hell he is yet,” Chrites admitted honestly.
“He did not wear a uniform.
But my tracking team is already searching the entire continent for him right now.
So do not be afraid.
We will catch him.”
“I am not afraid,” Linease said stubbornly.
“I am just angry that he sneaked up on me like that.”
“I know,” Chrites nodded.
“But if you feel like you need some security, I can put some hidden guards around you.
I can assign some invisible spies to watch your house and your walks to school.”
Linease thought about it for a second, then shook her head.
“No, I do not want spies following me around all day.
I want to be able to protect myself.”
“I agree with that,” Chrites said.
“And because you are currently ranked as an Elite Slayer, which is super high but still a little bit too low for the enemies we are facing, Vane is going to start teaching you tomorrow.
You are going to learn advanced self-defense and magical combat.”
Linease looked excited.
“Really?
Tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Chrites confirmed.
“I do not think it is really good for you to be walking around if you are going to get attacked again by some crazy guys.
So you should start having some basic training immediately.
It is really best to upgrade your skills so you can reach the rank of Master.
You should definitely be at the level of a Master to survive in this war.”
“Do you really think I can become a Master?” Linease asked, looking down at her bandaged chest.
“I just got shot.
I did not even see the attack coming.”
“I know you can do it,” Chrites said confidently.
“I can see it clearly.
You have the total potential to be a Master.
You took a lethal attack straight to the chest, an attack that would normally kill a fully grown soldier instantly.
But you did not die.
And with Vane’s help, your body healed super fast.
You look like a brand new person already.
It is almost like nothing bad even happened to you tonight.”
Linease smiled widely, feeling a huge wave of relief and pride.
“Okay.
Tell Vane that I will be ready for training tomorrow morning.
I am not going to let anyone shoot me ever again.”
“That is exactly what I want to hear,” Chrites said, standing up from his chair.
“Get some sleep tonight.
We have a lot of work to do to catch this reflection assassin, and you need all your energy.”