(Julius Argenti POV)
I rushed to the sewers as fast as I could. During that trip, I almost got lost twice. Hey, I'm not Zoro. This is my first time here and I couldn't have possibly memorised all the routes.
'Why am I thinking these things? Nobody can hear my thoughts. I might be going crazy. I need to talk to more human beings.'
As I entered the sewers, a disgusting smell assaulted me. I had to dull my olfactory receptors with mana so the smell wouldn't distract me during a fight.
I extended my senses outward, sensing the running mages. They all spread out in different directions, trying to maximise their chances to escape.
'There's no B ranks? Sad. Whatever, let's finish this stupid game of tag.'
I sprinted at Mach speeds, not worrying about my mana consumption. None of them were my match. My first targets were the non-mages who would be difficult to track if they escaped the sewers.
They had very weak mana signatures so finding them would cause many headaches. Thankfully they were easy to kill as none of them could even react to me.
After finishing everyone off, I sprinted to where the mages were. They were all grouped together, presumably giving them a better chance of surviving if they ever encountered me.
I soon arrived at their location, just as they were about to leave. The sonic boom followed after me, the shockwave pushing some of the mages back.
However, the walls were undamaged.
'What kind of material is this? It's extremely sturdy. Whatever it doesn't matter.'
They all stared at me nervously. If these people used mana to enhance themselves, they would've escaped already.
I could guess their thought process for not doing so. Firstly, using mana as a beacon is sure to attract any mages and secondly, they needed to conserve mana in case of fighting me.
Though the first didn't matter with my mana sensing and even with conserving mana, they wouldn't stand a chance. It's not me being cocky. I'm just stating the truth.
Even with reduced mana, the mana I had exceeded theirs by several times and the maximum of my enhancement and reinforcement far eclipsed theirs.
Similar to the men I fought before, the D ranks provided cover fire while the C ranks fought on the front. The strongest among them was a woman, probably the leader.
I vaguely remember seeing her photo when reading the report, but I couldn't be bothered remembering it. Woman or not, I just had to kill her.
I am a firm supporter of gender quality. Equal rights, equal fights. This sword is rated E for everyone.
Though I didn't note she had the solid attribute and the man and woman standing next to her had the heat and gas attribute respectively. I'd be a failure of an assassin if I couldn't remember my targets' abilities.
The D ranks quickly fired the guns at me. Unlike before, I wasn't trapped in a room where I barely had space to move around. I also had water I could manipulate.
Though I was hard-pressed to call it that. It was absolutely disgusting and I almost felt bad using it as a weapon against my targets.
The bullets were stopped with a shield of water and then reformed into spears and launched at my targets.
The speed of the spears were so fast that the C ranks were barely able to dodge while they hit two D ranks, fatally wounding one of them and outright killing the other.
With them breaking their formation, I employed the strategy of divide and conquer. The D ranks were left behind. I used {Burst Step} to arrive at the D ranks, quickly finishing the bleeding D rank.
The others fired their weapons, but I easily evaded all of them. The leader created an {Earth Wall} to block and stop me from reaching the other D ranks.
The man with the heat attribute swung their red-hot sword at me, which I lightly defended. I responded with a heavy kick to the solar plexus, which caused him to gasp for air.
He was knocked into the sewer walls head-first. He probably wasn't dead from that, though would be out of commission for a short time.
I went around the wall that blocked me from the D ranks and arrived at their location.
The woman with the gas attribute tried to stop me from killing her boss' subordinates by launching compressed {Gas Cannons} at me. She kept some distance from her so she didn't have to suffer the same fate as the man with the heat attribute.
I brushed them off and responded with a few {Mana Slices}. The D ranks were prepared for my arrival but I already prepared ahead.
I manipulated the slimy sewer water to create 7 water tentacles that swatted all the bullets. Then, when they had to reload, the tenacles chased after them, piercing their bodies and leaving blood splatters across the floor.
It was a gruesome scene I had seen tens of times. Scattered blood and guts were something that was just a part of my life.
All that was left after my massacre was only the 3 C ranks. The man had recovered from my attack and got up to fight. They stood in battle ready knowing they were going to die.
They weren't despairing and fought full well knowing they were going to lose.
'Che, can't you just give up and die? Make my life easier. I want to sleep.'
Others probably would've commended their battle spirit. I on the other hand was annoyed. I couldn't care less if they did so. I just wanted to finish the battle quickly so I could go home.
"You government dog! Can't you see what's happening with the country we live in?! People are suffering!"
The leader spoke up for the first time. I could feel her anger in the {Haki} she emitted. Based on her words, she probably was a part of Ataxia. It was probably through that connection that allowed her to obtain the gun artifacts.
Then the report I was given about them was wrong or deliberately hidden. The former was practically impossible, so it must've been the government that gave the request to kill them. They wanted to snuff out any signs of revolution.
"So? What does that have to do with me?"
I replied to her indifferently. I didn't care if the reason for the kill was faked. The only part of the report that had to be correct was the target's strength.
Although heartless, I don't care about the suffering of non-mages. I was selfish. My life mattered above all. I didn't mind doing the dirty work of the government because they gave me protection.
I only wanted to get stronger.
If James or Violet was in this position they would've let these guys go. Their sense of justice wouldn't have stopped them from doing anything.
Maybe Amina would do the same. Despite her personality, she had a kind heart and helped others out. Though only for those who deserved it.
The other 3 were surprised at my complete indifference. They could tell I was relatively young with my face, though seeing me act so indifferently spooked them.
No words were exchanged and only the clashes of our blades remained. The heat attribute swordsman was the first to go, as I baited him with a feint, before stabbing him in the back with a water spear.
The other two were finished soon after as I revealed my hidden knife to catch the gas attribute woman off guard and finished her off with a {Mana Slice}.
I quickly disarmed the last woman, pinning her body against the wall of the sewers, with a sword in her stomach. I surprisingly missed a few vital organs so she was still alive.
As an act of kindness, I let her bleed out instead of killing her immediately. Torture? What do mean by torture? She gets to live longer.
I stared at the woman in front of me. I could see no fear on her face. She immediately tried to spit on me, but I calmly avoided it.
"That's it? No last words? You'll die soon."
I questioned her apathetically.
"I have nothing to say to likes of you! Kill me!"
"Sure."
I granted her request and slashed upwards, splitting her body in half. I guess she didn't like my gift of letting her live longer. Geez, people are so ungrateful.
I know that shouldn't be joking about these things, but killing is second nature to me. I just found it funny. I had already realised I had some sociopathic tendencies.
I could cause a massacre of thousands of innocent civilians and sleep well that night. Besides myself, I only cared for a few others. And I don't plan to change.
I returned to base, reporting any information I learned. The SUITE tech support managed to pull some information off the hard drive, though it was mostly useless.
They also snagged some information off the cloud drive they were connected to before it was all erased. They told me that the person on the other side probably throughout we obtained nothing.
The only name I received was from a civilian who was reported to be a forger. The information was probably correct as he was already on a watchlist for SUITE for the suspected forgery.
I planned to deal with this tomorrow after school as it was well past midnight and I still needed sleep.