As the two night-black slashes flew toward the charging djinn, the djinn held his ground and yelled.
"HERE!"
Instantly, 3 fireballs soared through the smoke and right at the night slashes. As the slashes and fireballs hit each other, the nightclub floor again shook, causing the roof's light fixtures to fall down and break.
The room was pitch-black, and no one could see anything except me. Anyone who cast a light spell would reveal their location and be susceptible to attacks immediately, so the others were forced to accept the pitch-black environment.
After locating the charging djinn, who was blindly swinging his sword to cut down the tree roots, I crept towards him, not leaving a single trail of my existence.
Although these djinns were at least D rank or higher, I was currently an assassin in my natural habitat.
With my assassin abilities, I could completely erase my presence in the darkness, and with my dragon's eye, I could easily figure out everyone's location while they couldn't do anything.
While walking, I noticed the djinn magician occasionally throwing out fireballs and lighting up the area around him, making creeping up on him much harder.
Astrid was back at the broken table, still creating and casting more tree roots to encircle the charging djinn.
Originally, I had planned to stall the two djinns for 5 minutes, forcing them to retreat as everyone else woke, but now... it was completely different.
I held the complete advantage.
Taking the magician djinn would be problematic due to his fireballs, but the charging one was an entirely different story.
I could feel my Art proficiency and dagger mastery increasing rapidly, so now was not the time to stop.
Creeping up behind Astrid, I spoke right into her ear quietly while using my hands to cover her mouth.
"Don't make a sound. It's Ren."
Her entire body started trembling, but thankfully, she made no noise.
"Use all your mana to create a tree cage around him; I'll take care of the rest."
Releasing my hand from her mouth, I stepped back into the darkness before she could say anything and silently approached the charging djinn.
Astrid hadn't listened the first time, but hopefully, she learned her lesson and listened this time.
With my enhanced eyesight, I could see that Astrid had ceased casting the tree roots and was preparing to cast the tree cage; however, the charging djinn continued to swing his sword mindlessly.
Having used most of my mana in the previous fights, the only ability I could use was Dash, so I preemptively activated it and waited for the tree cage form.
A faint green light appeared, lighting up the dark room, but before anyone could act, the green light disappeared. The charging djinn, the magician djinn, Astrid, and I were now trapped in a cage made of tree roots, preventing anyone from leaving.
As soon as the green light appeared, the charging djinn's swings slowed, and he wasn't paying attention, so I dashed forward with my dagger and plunged it right into his heart.
There was no sound made. A clean and unnoticeable cut was made, with no blood being visible.
Instead of discarding his body, I put his corpse in front of my body, using it as a shield, and immediately made my way toward the magician djinn.
Realizing that he was now trapped, the magician djinn began to release fireballs every second; however, I could easily avoid them with my eyesight.
On the other hand, Astrid was taking quite the beating as she had to jump and move around to avoid the fireballs, but the sound caused by her dodging gave away her location to the magic djinn, leading him to release more fireballs.
As I neared the magician djinn, a fireball whizzed by me, illuminating the area I was in; however, for the magic djinn, only his comrades' body, which I was holding up, was visible.
In a quiet voice, the magic djinn exclaimed.
"Damian, is that you...?"
Without making a noise, I titled the dead djinn's body down and continued to approach the magician djinn.
As I neared the magician djinn, I took one hand off the body and grabbed a dagger out of my pocket, ready to attack.
Now, only a few feet from the magician djinn, I tensed my legs and prepared to lunge forward, but before I could, the magician djinn spoke once again.
Not in a quiet voice but in a loud and ecstatic voice.
"You know, Damian is a real idiot. He'd scream out "me" instead of nodding his head. Try a bit harder in your next life, and you might trick me."
A wall of flames appeared around me, blocking my escape, and 5 fireballs manifested above the djinn's head and immediately came flying toward me.
There was no escape; my dash was on cooldown.
Putting down the djinn's body, I made no attempts to hide my voice and spoke candidly, ignoring the fact that 5 fireballs were rocketing at me, and behind me, there was a large wall of fire.
"You're quite stupid yourself. Why would I play such a risky move without any backup plan?"
I hadn't used any mana after the two-night slashes from earlier, while everyone else in the room had used tons of it.
Astrid used the last bit of her mana to make the cage. The charging djinn had put all his demonic mana into his sword, and the magician djinn had just used all his mana with this attack.
Like charging a phone, your battery and mana increase faster if you don't use it.
Using all of my regenerated mana, I raised my head in the face of the fireballs and tapped my eye.
My perception of time immediately slowed, and finding an escape route was quite easy with all the time in the world.
Using a broken stool near me, I jumped into the air, avoiding the first 2 fireballs. Then, using both my hands, I grabbed a metal bar on the roof, so the next 2 fireballs went right below me.
Releasing no sound, I let go of the metal bar and silently dropped to the floor. The last fireball went to my far right, so I didn't even have to dodge it.
By now, light had reemerged in the nightclub as the fireballs had set parts of the club ablaze. The fire on the wooden bar spread rapidly, illuminating Astrid's exhausted figure in one of the booths.
The magician djinn was out of mana and trapped by the cage, so he could only watch in horror as I slowly approached him.
"Who do you work for?"
Since the book didn't mention this, this entire situation was a variable, so I had to get some information on it.
However, the djinn kept his mouth shut, not of his own volition. It was not uncommon for secret organizations to set spells to kill their members instantly if they revealed any information.
There was no information to be gained here. After killing the djinn, I was tempted to take all the valuables, but the officials would definitely try to find me as those valuables belonged to the citizens in the nightclub.
After grabbing the cloak of the magician djinn, I examined the exhausted Astrid. She was fine besides a few fire marks on her skin and some cuts from wood.
Conversely, I was covered in wounds from both explosions; I had been right next to them both times, so there were multiple scars and scorch marks on my skin.
Since this nightclub wasn't very popular, the authorities would take a while to get here, but I still wanted to leave as soon as possible to prevent myself from being seen by the citizens waking up from the potion.
Staring at the unmoving Astrid, I decided to take her back. If she was found here in this attire, it would be revealed that she had been singing in the nightclub, and rumors would spread, which would be another variable.
"Hey, get up!"
Surprisingly, she had a lot of energy for someone who could barely even move.
"You think I don't want to idiot? No, you're right; I just want to lie here in a burning building for the rest of the night."
"Alright, if that's what you want."
With that, I turned around and headed to the exit.
"WAITTT, DO YOU KNOW WHAT SARCASM IS???"
"That's the 2nd time I've been asked that now. Could you elaborate?"
"... it's when y-"
"I was being sarcastic, you idiot."
Seeing that the citizens in the nightclub were slowly waking up, I stopped joking around and returned to Astrid before turning around.
"What, you gonna get on or not?
"I-i w-wh... alright."
As Astrid climbed onto my back, I felt the cold sensation of Astrid's hands on my bare shoulders, making me realize that my clothes were completely torn.
"... those were my good clothes."
"... we just almost died, and you're worrying about YOUR DAMN CLOTHES?"
"I'll send you the bill for them later. Consider it your payment for me saving you."
"You're not being sarcastic, are you..?"
After a few moments, I asked.
"So, where do you want to go?"
I had no intention of returning to the academy in this state. At that point, I would basically be encouraging the spread of more rumors about me.
It was also possible that Astrid and I would be connected to the nightclub incident if we showed up in this state.
"We can't go to the academy, can we?"
"mhm, I have a place, so where are you headed."
"... I can't go anywhere dressed like this."
To say her attire was flashy was an understatement; if anyone caught her looking like this, the entire school would be spreading rumors, and the academy board might even take action.
And that would be another variable.
I have to take her, don't I..?
"If you want to come with me, just say so."
"... it's not that, it's just I don't have anywhere else.."
It was true; she couldn't even walk, so she was basically stranded.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"What do you want me to say? Yes, you bastard."
Such was the life of a third-rate villain, being scolded and insulted after saving someone.
With a sigh, I pulled out my smartwatch.
It had quite the dandy feature!
You could actually see the real-time location of anyone on your contact list!
[A/N: 75 Powerstones = 1 chapter / 1 gift = 1 chapter]