WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss

Chapter 025

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Blasphemia Branch (5)

Red flames, dark and acrid smoke. And the noise of the fire alarm. Elements that interfere with human senses are all concentrated together.

But Nardanit has another sensory organ. Biofiber hair. The biofibers wrapped around the entire engine room like vines taking root.

The function of the biofiber hair did not stop at simply searching for the enemy.

Just as the biofibers had intertwined to form a magic circle when he tried to cast the self-destruction spell, the true strength of the hair lay in its function as a spell-formula construction mechanism.

Replacing the hand seals mages use to assist in constructing spell formulas with biofiber manipulation.

Mana supplied from the mana core surged into each strand of hair. A lethal magic was loaded into the red-hot hair.

The reason he prepared an attack instead of immediately extinguishing the fire with water magic was simple.

Because the fire was a variable more favorable to Nardanit himself.

At first glance, this situation seems fatal for Nardanit, who is connected to the power line and unable to move.

But the reality is different. Nardanit, steadily supplied with mana from the mana core, can use magic without limit to protect himself from the fire.

He forms an air layer to block the heat, purifies the toxins mixed in the smoke, and readies his stance. The opponent cannot afford such a waste of mana.

If Ortes, unable to endure the heat, moves first, Nardanit only needs to eliminate him with a carefully prepared magic.

Even if the biofibers find Ortes first, it is the same. It will only hasten the moment of the promised execution.

The movement of the hair, advancing as if to cover the entire engine room, was both swift and precise.

Clang!

A noise clearly different from the remnants of the explosion magic. Lightning and flame rain down toward the source of the noise. The hair, sharpened harder than steel by hardening magic, stabs in all directions like spears.

The amount of hair in this attack was about 20% of the total. Nardanit knows the opponent is a skilled combat mage.

That first noise was likely a feint made deliberately to lure an attack.

Distract attention with the first, then inflict a fatal blow with the second.

A common reading in battles between mages.

Nardanit conserved power to intercept a surprise attack. The attack he just fired was flashy but used little mana.

1 second passed.

No movement from Ortes is detected.

2 seconds passed.

He searches the attacked spot again. Still nothing.

3 seconds passed.

Still not moving? What on earth…

Grrrooooo-!

A tremendous noise that seemed to shake the entire mana-driven locomotive echoed.

A violent shaking that churned the inside of the locomotive. The entire engine room creaked as if a localized earthquake had occurred.

‘He must be planning to attack the battlefield since he’s at a disadvantage in a magic-versus-magic output contest.’

Damn. Fast on his feet, befits a secret inspector.

Nardanit hesitated whether to disconnect from the mana core. Without the assistance of the mana core supplying nearly limitless mana, he would be somewhat disadvantaged in an all-out battle.

But being connected to the power line means losing mobility. He can overcome that to some extent through his biofiber hair, but-

Nardanit, who had been checking the status of the power line, froze.

Mana was not being supplied.

“No way?”

Nardanit immediately wrenched himself free from the connection to the power line, as if tearing it off. Despite the pain of ripping through living flesh, his thinking remained clear.

Krrrrrkkk!

Sharp, reinforced hairs surged up and gouged out the top of the locomotive. A choice he would not have made under normal circumstances, when he would have used the fire to pressure Ortes.

The exhaust fumes filling the engine room poured toward the sky.

Beyond the torn ceiling, a desolate plain flashed by.

The passenger cars that should have been connected were only visible far away, like abstract shapes.

Only the very front car of the mana-driven locomotive, the engine room, was racing ahead.

‘Ortes separated the train!’

His victory condition was killing the bastard, but the bastard’s victory condition was to report this information to the Ten Towers. He had been under the illusion that the bastard would obediently face him head-on.

It was only natural that mana was not being supplied from the power line. The connection to the mana core at the rear of the train had been severed.

‘So starting the fire was to drown out the warning sound of the power line disconnection!’

It’s not easy to focus on another alarm when the fire alarm is already ringing. Drawing in a large amount of mana had ironically become a bad move.

If he hadn’t stored mana in the engine room beforehand, the locomotive would have stopped by now. At least 30 seconds had passed since the train was separated.

He could no longer hesitate. Nardanit leaped outside the locomotive. The gathered wind caught his body and at the same time pulled the torn-off top panel of the engine room.

A refining magic swept over the top panel of the locomotive. Supports for a person to hold onto rose up, and the edges of the iron plate were honed like blades. Nardanit, standing while gripping the support, soon bestowed lightning magic onto both sides of the tracks.

Between the crackling lightning along the rails, the iron plate Nardanit had torn off and climbed onto settled in. A sight reminiscent of a cannonball.

Biofiber hair dug deep into the ground. Although the lightning continued to gather and shake the iron plate, the hair that had pierced the earth remained firm.

The crackling noise now roared so fiercely it could no longer be called noise but thunder.

The moment the collision of the two lightning bolts Nardanit gripped reached their critical point, he withdrew all the biofibers.

A gigantic blade was launched at an unfathomable speed along the straight line traced by the lightning.

***

‘That crazy bastard. He’s using magic to make a railgun?’

I’ve only seen the word railgun in novels or occasionally in the news, but I’ve heard the basic principle. A weapon that places a projectile between two rails and fires it using electromagnetism.

That corrupt branch chief had fashioned a makeshift railgun using the severed top panel of the locomotive and the lightning magic applied to the tracks, and was approaching me with it.

No. The word approach is too weak.

He was crashing into me!

“Haha, damn it!”

‘The railgun developed in America or somewhere had a speed of over 3 km per second, right? Judging by how it’s coming, it’s not that fast.’

But it has already exceeded the speed of an ordinary train. More than enough power to blow a person apart.

Even though I tore open the front car, there’s such a thing as inertia. This train is still slowly rolling along the tracks.

And at the same time, these tracks are, unfortunately, straight. I’m automatically getting closer to the magic railgun.

If I stay here, my upper and lower body will be split in half by that iron plate and I’ll die.

Then. What should I do.

***

Rapid acceleration by electric current. Ortes came into view of Nardanit, who was racing backwards along tracks hundreds of meters long every second.

The bastard was boldly revealing himself right in front of the passenger cars. Was he trying to withstand the collision with barrier magic?

No. He sees a right hand aimed like he’s firing a gun.

What the bastard is targeting is his own head. A magic bullet type spell, perhaps?

It is difficult to use additional magic besides controlling the course of this iron plate. Only a few seconds remain until impact. The processing capacity of his auxiliary brain is already at its limit from preparing a defensive magic to deflect the shock.

If he uses the prepared defensive magic now, he should be able to block Ortes’s magic.

But the warning message that hadn’t been transmitted until the very end weighs on him. He must deliver this news to his comrades, so he cannot choose mutual destruction.

The only means he can use now is his biofiber hair.

Nardanit gathered his hair to form a bulkhead.

At this point, less than 3 seconds remain until impact. The sharply honed steel projectile aims at Ortes.

But the hunter’s eyes aimed at the muzzle are hidden by his own doing.

Screeeech!

The iron plate Nardanit was clinging to which was about to split an entire passenger car in half, and only stopped after crushing about half of the second car.

As the vibrations ceased, Nardanit immediately released the wall. He had to confirm Ortes’s corpse-

Turning his head, Nardanit met two strands of bluish light staring back at him. It was Ortes’s barely open eyes.

A bundle of biofibers hardened into the shape of a blade surged toward Ortes. A reflexive attack.

Ortes’s left hand knocked aside one bundle of fibers. The deflected hair-blade cut its own comrade. The collision point of the two bundles. A gap in the attack appears.

Ortes, slipping through that gap, grabbed the severed bundle of fibers. The biofiber, still retaining its blade shape due to residual mana. He dashes.

The blade Nardanit had reinforced to its limit easily pierced even its owner’s body. The strike aimed at the heart hit precisely.

“How…?”

A question thrown out with his last breath.

“I jumped. The iron plate you used as a projectile was long horizontally, but not tall vertically. If your sight had been clear, you could have intercepted me with magic, but you blinded yourself, didn’t you?”

Was he saying he simply leaped over and clung to the back of the iron plate? Nardanit realized that the defensive magic he had spread had also protected Ortes, who was behind him.

“You damn…”

Nardanit’s head dropped, and his body no longer moved.

***

Truly tenacious bastards, fighting like that. This is why I hated dealing with Blasphemia.

As I caught my breath, I heard hurried footsteps approaching.

Ah, damn it.

“B-Branch Chief!?”

The kid staring in shock at the corpse. It was Niobe.

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