Chapter 99

Thundercloud (2)

If I let go of the tension, it wouldn’t be surprising to die at any moment.

But in this situation, I wasn’t the only one anxious.

"This darkness won’t last forever, will it?"

It was a temporary darkness created with an add-on. There’s no way it could continue endlessly. If it were a masterpiece-level battle gear, it might be able to maintain the darkness as long as desired, but…

At the very least, that was impossible with just an add-on.

'What was it called again? Right, the pitch-black stick.'

I’d seen it in a book from the House Featherwing. It was a disposable add-on that, when broken, sustained darkness for a certain period of time.

That duration was about 30 minutes.

"Did you flunk out or something, oppa?"

Nora suspected I might’ve been someone who failed to become a Lunaseeker agent and dropped out midway.

Of course, the principle was to eliminate everyone, but it wasn’t entirely unheard of for someone to escape without dying.

"Yeah."

When I replied, Nora scoffed.

"Aha, then how did you learn the Swift Blade?"

If I had flunked out of Lunaseeker, there’s no way Featherwing would have taught me the Swift Blade.

On the flip side, if I had learned the Swift Blade, there’s no way the Lunaseeker Agency would have allowed me to train as an agent.

But that didn’t really matter.

"Who cares. I guess it doesn’t matter."

Just a foolish thought. Nora Galatea suddenly stopped attacking and hid herself in the darkness, waiting.

"What are you doing?"

"You think you can win if there’s light, don’t you, oppa?"

Her snickering echoed, followed by a single remark.

"I’ll wait. It sounds fun. Let’s fight again when it’s bright."

Her voice came from far away. Instead of answering, I hurriedly raised Flicker.

The blade of her yataghan was already thrusting toward my heart. The steel of Flicker and the tip of her blade met with a loud clash.

With a grating metallic screech, I let out a bitter smile.

"Kid, your tricks are cheap."

"Aww, it didn’t work."

She had tried to lure me into letting my guard down and kill me, but I saw right through Nora’s little trick with ease—as if it were natural.

One thing was certain: if time kept dragging on like this, light would eventually return to this space.

And although I was accumulating more and more shallow cuts from grazing blades, I hadn’t allowed a blow severe enough to put my life at risk.

'You’re doing better than I thought.'

Nora had expected I’d notice if she tried to kill me outright, and she’d been right about that.

But the way I was responding now clearly surpassed her expectations.

‘Was he holding back when he fought the Areumdri Pawnshop’s exploration team?’

Her response was so impressed that she was even thinking things like that. But this wasn’t about hiding my strength.

I just knew a lot.

Kairus knew how Lunaseekers attacked, what methods they used, and how they took their targets’ lives.

"I’m kind of a pain to deal with, aren’t I?"

He grinned slyly in the dark as he spoke.

While I was well aware of the Lunaseekers’ techniques, Nora Galatea was not.

Even as she watched my movements, she couldn’t even begin to guess that I might be from Featherwing.

'She doesn’t know.'

In truth, Nora Galatea hadn’t been a Lunaseeker for very long. She was so inexperienced that the agency had assigned Shaun to guide her specifically for this mission.

Featherwing had fallen six years ago. By the time Nora began training as a Lunaseeker, any curriculum involving how to deal with Featherwing had already been scrapped.

The House Featherwing had been completely wiped out, leaving no trace behind.

‘No need to study an enemy that no longer exists.’

It was a brutally efficient conclusion, and I understood it. The family hadn’t just been scattered—they’d been obliterated. Every direct member of the Featherwing line was believed to be dead, and aside from me, that was true.

That’s why Nora Galatea didn’t know any of Featherwing’s characteristics, nor how to deal with them.

Even if there was a gap in our skills, the reason I was still alive and fighting was precisely because of that.

'Ugh, this is starting to be a problem.'

Nora launched a few more attacks.

If they’d gone just a bit deeper, she could’ve disabled my arm.

If they’d been just a bit faster, I would’ve been blinded.

If they’d been aimed just slightly higher, her blade would’ve lodged in my mouth.

"You... damn it."

Tiny differences were creating huge outcomes. And now, light began to return to the add-on that had lost its glow.

"Hello?"

"Hello!"

We exchanged greetings the moment we saw each other’s faces—while swinging our weapons.

With her attack, Nora leapt toward the ceiling.

I followed her movement with my eyes and, at the same time, swept Flicker across the floor.

There was resistance against the blade, followed by a sharp sound.

The Nora that had jumped toward the ceiling was a fake. The real one was lying flat on the floor, aiming for a surprise attack.

"What the hell, oppa—who are you?!"

"Secret."

Even as I spoke, I turned around.

Behind me, Nora was charging in.

I swung Flicker, and her arm twisted in an unnatural direction as she blocked and spun with the momentum.

'Damn.'

The moment I saw that, I braced myself.

Spin, spin—Nora’s body began rotating at high speed.

The combination of joints moving freely in any direction and her rapid spinning transformed her into a high-powered blender that, in the blink of an eye, could grind a person alive—coming straight for my life.

She was so fast that, to others, it might’ve looked like she was simply spinning wildly but in truth, every one of Nora’s attacks was aimed at a vital point that would result in death if even a single strike landed.

"You could’ve gone for a tendon in the arm or leg or something."

"If I have time to go for that, I should just cut an artery, shouldn’t I?"

If there was enough of an opening to attack a limb, it wasn’t worth just disabling it—you should be cutting the artery running underneath.

One strike. That would be enough.

"People don’t die easily. But strangely, they also die really easily. Isn’t that funny?"

Kairus agreed with her on that point. People survive situations where you think, No way they’re still alive.

And sometimes, they die in moments when you think, No way they just died like that.

"I hope you’re the latter."

"Aw, too bad. I’m more the former."

Even though the entire House Featherwing had been destroyed, I had survived. I’d endured six years in the Carlson Labor Correctional Facility, and now I was laying the foundation for a new life in Bennett City, while dreaming of revenge.

My life was tough. And my desire to achieve what I wanted was strong.

I swung a windstorm I had momentarily summoned like a hammer, aiming for Nora.

She staggered back several steps, enduring the blow from the storm.

But the moment the wind that I created began to fade, she charged at me again.

"You’ve probably relied on that flashy swordsmanship a lot up until now."

The wind swept out once more, but unlike earlier, it failed to restrain her movements. Before the gust even reached her, Nora had already dodged out of the way.

"You know something? The Lunaseeker Agency doesn’t teach us how to counter Swift Blade when training agents."

"...Yeah. I know."

It was something I was well aware of.

Lunaseeker agents weren’t taught how to deal with Swift Blade. There was no need.

Once they underwent the procedure and completed their training, they could handle it without needing to be taught.

That was the bare minimum requirement for earning the title of agent. Nora wiped the sweat off her brow and continued.

"That Swift Blade you rely on so much, that you trust without question—against people like me, it’s nothing more than a petty trick not even worth studying."

I chuckled as I listened to her.

"I said I knew, didn’t I? What, are you deaf? You’re still just a young brat, and already this pitiful."

From the start of the battle, I had been using the norigae to constantly create water, and then using Flicker’s output to boil it again and again.

As a result, the area around us was now filled with heavy moisture and intense heat.

"You said you’re used to Swift Blade, right? Then how about this?"

From the center of my body, a wave of intense cold began to flow out.

The hot, humid air collided violently with the sudden surge of frigid energy.

A thick fog, dense enough to make it hard to distinguish anything in front of her, filled the maze. Glancing around at the swirling masses of steam, Nora muttered dryly.

"Aha, if you really wanted to die, you could’ve just stuck your neck out for my blade instead of making all this fog. Still, thanks, I guess."

Fog and darkness shared the same trait of obscuring a person’s vision. If darkness created the perfect environment for Lunaseekers to operate, fog worked just the same.

"Sorry, but the one whose vision is blocked is you, not me."

The wind howled. The thick cloud of steam, now so dense it obscured even one’s nose, raged violently around the area where Nora stood, driven by the currents created by Swift Blade.

"…."

The fog thickened to the point that it was questionable whether it could still be called fog at all. Nora’s entire body was soaked by the suspended condensation floating through the air.

‘Humidity can be supplied endlessly through battle gear and add-ons, and temperature differences are easy to create.’

Nora Galatea’s vision was obstructed, while I remained outside the shroud of mist encircling her.

"Go ahead, try to get out of the fog. You think I’m just going to stand by and watch?"

Nora clicked her tongue quietly at my words.

Inside the fog, completely cut off from outside information, she was inevitably going to be delayed in responding to my attacks.

Being the only one who couldn’t see meant accepting that risk.

"It’s different from darkness, huh?"

Darkness was neutral. It blinded everyone. But this fog was completely on my side.

But just then, something happened that I hadn’t planned.

I had only created the fog based on experience. I hadn’t foreseen this.

From within the violently swirling fog, a pale flash burst out, followed by a thunderous roar loud enough to tear the eardrums and shake the entire maze.

"What… the hell was that?!"

For Nora, who’d been waiting for an opening to escape the cloud, it was quite literally a bolt from the blue.

Something had flashed in front of her eyes, and then a powerful shock slammed into her entire body before vanishing.

The only reason she survived was pure luck—she had been channeling output into her defensive add-on in preparation to break through the fog.

"Li… lightning?"

Lightning had struck inside the fog, which had been swirling under the control of Swift Blade. For Nora Galatea, the mysterious shock she just experienced could only be explained with one word: lightning.

‘I have to get out.’

That one strike was enough to make Nora certain of defeat. Her muscles twitched intermittently, and her head reeled.

Because she’d been preparing for defense, she managed to endure the shock somehow. But she was in no condition to continue fighting.

‘This is an external commission.’

If this had been an official assignment issued by the Republic government, a Lunaseeker agent would be expected to risk their life. That’s what the company existed for.

But this wasn’t official. It was a private commission taken for company profit. In such cases, the safety of the agent took absolute priority.

Losing a Lunaseeker agent—one completed with vast investments of time and budget—on a job that wasn’t even for the Republic would be a national loss.

In other words, for Nora Galatea, the highest priority now was to immediately retreat and return to the surface.

"…Mission failed."

To eliminate Kairus, she would have had to cut through that cloud and strike head-on.

But retreating didn’t require that. On the contrary, the fog now served as a veil that covered her escape.

Having reached her conclusion, Nora bolted without hesitation before another bolt of lightning could strike her.

"Thank god this was an external job!"

Shivering slightly after her successful escape, Nora shouted out. Not having to die here was a relief.

As someone who didn’t enjoy killing, Nora Galatea also valued her own life quite a bit.

"Just try and question me. I’ll rip open anyone’s mouth who does."

To be honest, surviving after getting struck by lightning hundreds of meters underground in a maze was a miracle in itself.

Having made her decision, Nora Galatea fled without a second thought.

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