บท 8: Assemble the Support Squad! Pt1
Looking at the skyscraper, Christina quickly noticed the sudden change going on inside of it.
"Were you two found out?" She asked doubtfully.
"No, but the security level just went up." Fritz replied while looking through his binoculars.
"How long will it take us to get to the top?" The scarlet-haired beauty beside him asked blandly.
"About... maybe an hour or so. Depends..."
"Then I'm going myself." She put the Imaginary Inverter on her waist along with her MagiPistol .
"Wait! Why...?!" He tried to stop her, but she slapped his hand away with a cold attitude.
"There's no point if you aren't capable of getting through that security by yourself. I'll stay on your grid, but don't get in my way." She answered firmly without any room for persuasion on his part.
After she left the room, a silence blanketed the team as they didn't know why she was like this...
"Does she not trust us?" It was obvious what the answer was, but Christina couldn't help but ask.
"There there... Don't worry. I've heard she used to act like this with her team at the frontlines too."
"Betty, that doesn't make us feel any better." The soft-spoken youth couldn't help sighing at her.
The three of them might be separated by a good distance, but it didn't matter to them whatsoever.
"How's Valry?"
"It looks like she doesn't intend to go in from the front door. She looks like she got her own plan."
"That's good. So... we do this as usual?"
"Let's show her our best!" Christina was suddenly motivated to make their new member regret this.
She wanted them to get to the top first!
And so, they got into their regular formation. The first thing to note was Christina's responsibilities.
As a useless sniper who couldn't take out her enemies, her only option was to do something else.
"I'm attaching the second Macro." She spoke on the line, which they shared all information with.
"Understood." Fritz braced himself mentally.
His headpiece, which looked like glass goggles on the outside, connected his sight with Christina's.
Initially, it was just like a second camera attached to her MagiRifle, but adding a second Macro changed the quality of information relayed to him drastically. It allowed for greater 'depth' of vision.
Normally, such a connection would lead to overloading his brain with visual stimulation, which was why the data would be filtered by Betty first before being sent to the lens on his headpiece.
Of course, having the information run through someone else first caused a slight delay in what Christina could see, but that didn't matter to him whatsoever. He liked taking things slow and stable.
"Can you 'mark' those on the griund floor?"
"Got it." Their squad's sniper replied while changing the setting for her Limiter Inverter.
Although students usually picked between swords and guns, that wasn't entirely honest and accurate.
To be more precise: Many students of the Academy chose to turn their Limiter Inverters into MagiAmmo Magazines. This was due to the inherent fragility rifles and the like had in battle.
If someone broke their firearm, then the Life Seal that held their Magical Capacity would also break.
This could lead to the death of the wielder...
As such, switching between hot weapons that also acted as Macro Converters was more the norm.
Christina Flint was part of this majority of Academy snipers that had her Macro Converter as a scope.
She looked through the lens, calculated, then manually inputted information into Macro Scope she looked through, which would then be sent to their Battle Engineer at home to compile and filter.
Using the 'Radiant Disposition' she was so proud of, she activated 'Magic Sense' once again to see if there were anyone to be wary of on the ground floor. She switched it off straight after doing so.
{Sniper MagiArm: Gatling Mode.} Was the notification that appeared after toggling with her Limiter Inverter. A bullet compromised of Light Magic was loaded into the rifle she was holding.
There was no sense of weight in the bullet cartridge whatsoever. It was made of magical energy and went through 'conversion' after being swallowed by her personal Macro Converter.
She adjusted her rifle and made sure the second Macro attached in front of the trigger wasn't loose.
After the 'Magic Bullet' was disassembled into the sniper rifle via the Macro Scope, she 'loaded' another cartridge of Light Mana again. The number in the corner of her scope's view went up again.
From one to two, from two to three... She kept on loading new bullets to charge the Auto Skill inputted into her Macro Converter. There was a seriousness in her eyes as well as true patience.
Her teammates didn't rush her to pull the trigger. It seemed alright for them as they moved by themselves to make what she was about to do easier. Fritz himself didn't just sit back and relax.
Before she could 'mark' everyone, it was necessary for her to know the location of the gangsters first.
The ones outside were easy to mark, but walls were enough to stop her from seeing the inside.
Mostly because using the 'Magic Sense' Auto Skill couldn't allow you to see regular humans. He as the leader had to at least reveal their locations momentarily himself for her to put down 'markers'.
Rather than staying in the nearby building, the youth went straight to their headquarters on foot.
He didn't use an Illusion Type Redwind Charm. The Macro on top of his MagiPen had its own use.
Unlike Christina, swordsmen and he himself had their own way of using the Macro Converters.
Studies indicated that regular Auto Skills weren't really useful on swords compared to firearms. If they were just going to use the same formulas to attack, then what was the point of using swords?
Cold Weapons had a shorter reach than Hot Weapons. Firearms were more useful than swords.
So what was the point in short range Auto Skills?
The answer Celest Vagabond came up with was not entirely using up the data space of a Macro.
For swordsmen, adding a basic 'Enchant' Type Auto Skill was enough to branch out from.
Using the empty space on the Macro left, they would manually input more advanced Seal Crafts.
This was the advantage of a 'Magic Swordsman'.
Fritz Lazrik, the Charm Caster, was similar to a certain extent, but different in its execution.
His family's Gaiasayer Style focused on creating Charms that would do different effects independently without the use of Seal Crafts. It made more 'Data Space' useless in the beginning.
But over time, the Lazrik Clan realised that the extra space could be used to increase the potency of their Charms. If the formulas written on Paper Charms themselves acted as external Macros, then an 'internal' Macro would boost magic efficiency.
And so, Fritz had around seven Auto Skills on his Macro Converter. A lot simpler than 'Magic Bullets'.
Rather than a complicated 'cartridge' of Mana that not only had to work with other Auto Skills, but also melded with Seal Crafts... Charm Casters like him only needed 'Ink' of the affinities he currently had.
Five colours of the elements, white for his Radiant Disposition, and black for Redwind Charms that his family focused on. These were the 'Ink' Type Auto Skills that were added to his personal MagiPen.
With his Limiter Inverter in his hand, he got to an nearly empty area near the skyscraper where a car park was located. Then asked their their member most suitable at attaining information seriously:
"Do you have a map?"
"Already put together some of the blueprints used in the construction of the building to create one." It was at that point his vision changed. He saw where a janitor's closet was behind a thick concrete wall.
After seeing that no one was around, he started to implement the Combat Gift' inside his MagiPen.
His Life Seal shuddered before awakening the power sealed inside his Inverter. He used Light Ink to draw a parchment on the wall before splashing Earth Ink on top of it. Without even needing any complicated Charms, the wall started to distort.
This was the power of his Combat Gift!
The name of it being 'Elemental Manipulation'!
Using the map Betty sent as a guide, he walked through the gap he created before closing up the tunnel he made behind him. After getting to the closet, he locked the door from the inside.
The smell of cleaning products assaulted his senses, but he still went on to do his next action.
With Christina only needing a signal after finishing her act of stockpiling 'Magic Bullets', Fritz started drawing a pure white Charm on the door in front of him. Now, all were in range of his 'Charm Crafts'!
A wave of magical energy spread moments later...
This was the 'Sensory Brilliance' Light Craft that could reveal everyone within an area around him.
The distance was just far enough to reveal the positions of everyone on the ground floor.
With only a small sound, light-speed bullets were shot at everyone he had revealed the locations of.
The moment they hit, it was as if everyone on the ground floor became within his ability to control.
Illusions became much easier to use on them thanks to Christina's 'marks' acting as support.
It was to the point that he walked through the corridors while casting illusions on everyone there.
The only times he stopped was when hiding from those coming from upstairs to the ground floor.
Their infiltration method was as complicated as that. A great feat considering their members.
"Watch out!" It was a moment of carelessness.
"Huh?" With Betty's quick warning, Fritz quickly noticed a thug who had escaped Tina's 'marking'.
Therefore, the man wasn't affected by his illusion.
This wasn't Christina's fault.
Someone from the upper floor came downstairs, so it was only natural he'd escaped her Magic Sense.
The young infiltrator knew he had to act fast!
*Kachick*
Despite having no firearm on hand, the sound of a handgun being armed could be heard from the youth's left arm. This drew the attention of the gangster, who was about reach for his small radio.
He guarded his left side… The man hoped to defend or even takedown the intruder himself.
This was the wrong choice.
Less than a second later, the man laid unconscious on the floor. His body had been roughed up.
Sweat turned into steam on Fritz's right hand. He seemed tired enough from taking down one foe.
"This is why we don't let you lead the way…" Betty sighed disappointedly. Her leader was too weak.
"…The guy was tough." Of course, the one hearing her criticism couldn't help but defend himself.
And it was true that the man he took down was heavyweight compared to a featherweight like him.
She could only hope they to persuade Valry to be a team player. Though her hopes on that were small.
They continued to move forward…
After finally infiltrating deep, he started to ascend each floor while collecting information on the way.
From what he heard, the Mafia Boss on the top floor of this skyscraper had heightened security.
It looked like someone had healed his daughter.
What was most concerning was that it seemed the right-hand man of Kyle Lancaster was a psychopath. The man only known as 'Jack' had a pension for violence and wasn't really respected.
The man also seemed to come from a line of swordsman who swore to serve his family.
Not much information was known about him, but he seemed to be even more dangerous than Poison Butterly. The validity of this statement couldn't be judged without actually facing that person himself.
Just as he was going to find out more, a gothic man with skulls on his clothes walked past him.
It didn't seem strange to him at first, but Fritz widened his eyes when the man turned around.
The doubled illusionary effects thanks to Christina's marker should be effecting him, but his eyes seemed clear as he looked at him. Fritz started breathing heavily, and was about to attack.
Only to see the man turn to leave once again...
"W-what… just happened...?" He muttered without any clear answer. This left him in a confused state.
It was only after gathering himself did he choose to ignore what happened. They had their mission.
It was then an unexpected voice spoke out:
"I underestimated you all..." On the communication link between them, Valry's voice could be heard.
This made the blonde sniper smile bashfully...
The black-haired bimbo nodded her head from behind the computer at the Academy as well.
It was only Fritz who noticed something and asked:
"Where are you right now?" This question came out since he could hear the wind blowing behind her.
It didn't seem strange initially, but gradually made him realise that something was definitely wrong.
Was she on top of another building? What was the point of leaving if she was going to do that?
"I'm climbing up the side of the building."
"...What?" He wasn't sure if she was joking or not at that moment, because it was way too outrageous!
"You heard me right."
"You DO know this is a 70 floor skyscraper, right?"
"Why wouldn't I know?"
"And you're still planning to climb?"
"Pretty much."
"Why don't you follow us? We're-"
"I don't want to accept your help whatsoever."
"But we're a team!" Christina got angry and spoke over the channel, but Valry was already cut off.
It seemed like she was being distracted...
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