Chapter 282 Break In [1]
Riding atop his spear like a witch flying on its broomstick, Kazuki headed straight at Ren, showing no fear at the incoming obsidian wall.
Ren, unable to remove his daggers from the wall in time, dodged the attack and tried to kick his legs forward.
As the spear on Kazuki approached Ren, six pitch-black tentacles suddenly emerged from Ren's back, creating a protective shield around him.
Noticing the tentacles protecting Ren, Kazuki stood up atop his spear before taking out two clean hunting knives.
Propelling a tentacle forward, Ren attempted to make Kazuki lose his balance and fall; however, the spear simply circumvented the incoming pitch-black tentacle before heading straight at Ren.
Taking a deep breath, Ren sent three of their tentacles back to protect himself from Kazuki before propelling the other forward.
The three tentacles going forward immediately embedded themself in the obsidian wall before shaking rapidly to make a hole in the previously perfect wall.
Weaving around the tentacles, Kazuki attempted to cut one of them in half with his hunter knife, but...it was the knife that broke, not the tentacle.
Now, realizing the severity of the situation, Kazuki shifted his trajectory to the right so he was no longer aiming at Ren but a few meters to the left of him.
Ren's tentacles, not able to reach that far as Ren didn't have enough corruption to maintain them, could only flair while Kazuki flew just out of their reach.
Like Ren's corrupted daggers, the tip of Kazuki's spear seemingly embedded itself in the obsidian wall, proving its superiority over the material.
Seeing this out of the corner of his eye, Ren immediately sent the tentacles to his left side to prevent Kazuki from coming any closer.
Glancing downward, Kazuki was surprised that the horde of djinns was now down to less than ten as Kaneki took care of the few remaining loners.
Seeing this, Kazuki immediately called out to the main cast, who had no one to fight against anymore, below.
"SHOOT UP! STRAIGHT UP!"
Hearing Kazuki's urgent voice, the heads of the main cast immediately flicked upward towards Kazuki.
However, Ren's pitch-black cover around his entire body alongside his perfectly made corrupted mask made him blend in with the obsidian wall.
That, combined with Ren's stealth stat, made it almost impossible for the main cast to see Ren from such a far distance below.
Looking at Kazuki with confused expressions, the main cast paused for a moment before heeding his instructions.
However, none of them were standing exactly below Ren's current positions, so their spells just flew up and into the ceiling.
As a water orb, an ice lance, a fire tornado, a sword of pure-blue divinity, a sword surrounded by a red hue, and last but not least, a battle axe headed straight up to the ceiling, Kazuki sighed.
When he said shoot up, he didn't mean...shoot randomly up at the ceiling!
Staring at the swordsman below, who had even thrown their weapons up the ceiling, Kazuki sighed.
Regaining his composure, Kazuki pointed ahead to where the masked figure was before yelling.
"RIGHT H-"
But, before Kazuki could finish his sentence, a sudden bright flame blinded him before heading straight at him.
Pulling his spear out of the obsidian wall, Kazuki allowed him to free-fall for a second before immediately stabbing his spear back into the wall.
A second later, the bright flame, in the shape of a ball, hit the exact spot where Kazuki used to be, but as the ball of flames made contact with the obsidian, it immediately perished.
As the ball of flames disappeared, Kazuki hesitated for a moment, anticipating another attack, yet nothing came.
Glancing upward at the masked figure, Kazuki assumed he was the cause of the attack before looking back down.
Pointing at the corrupted figure, Kazuki yelled.
"HERE."
Ren, despite knowing a barrage of mana spells and weapons would soon him, remained still, simply stabbing at the obsidian wall with his daggers and his three tentacles.
Seeing no need for defense anymore, Ren raised his other three tentacles before also commanding them to break the wall.
Feeling the temperature decrease around him as a water and ice spell came at him, Ren threw one last dagger strike at the wall.
*RUMBLE*
Realizing the wall was weak enough, Ren threw his right foot at the obsidian wall, causing it to tilt and become unstable.
Demanifesting his tentacles, corrupted dagger, and corrupted body, Ren allowed him to free-fall to the ground.
*RUMBLE*
Keeping his corrupted mask on, Ren narrowly dodged an ice lance before, ironically enough, landing right on one of Alya's ice pillars.
Kazuki, realizing the wall was going to collapse on itself, immediately removed his spear, afraid of dealing with any further damage.
Falling the round, Kazuki missed his intended landing spot of a nearby ice pillar, so he simply allowed himself to descend all the to the ground.
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At the same time, Kaneki finished up the last of the djinns, leaving a field of dark-black spots above every djinn's body.
Feeling the ground shake and the wall collapse, Kaneki sprinted towards the main cast with his katana out.
Landing cleanly on the floor, Kazuki glanced around at the main cast, which now included Ruby, as she unsuspiciously stood next to Irene.
In contrast to everyone else, who was silent and staring at the collapsing obsidian wall, Ruby managed to mutter out.
"a fire snowball...I'll have to use that next time."
Hesitating for a moment, Kazuki looked to the right, immediately noticing Kaneki's sprinting figure.
Within a few seconds, Kaneki had arrived in the clear around the ice pillar where everyone else stood.
*RUMBLE*
As the obsidian floor began to lean inwards, Kazuki glanced at his smartwatch, waiting for the message, before finally saying.
"The wall is down, but that doesn't mean the vault is robbed... just yet."
Nodding his head, Kaneki concurred with the statement before turning to the main cast.
"You all can leave now; I've cleared out all the djinns. There should be nothing stopping you from exiting now,"
"..."
"...?"
As the atmosphere quickly loosened, the main cast stared at each other in silence before Liam eventually stepped up.
Showing no fear in front of Kaneki's piercing gaze, Liam shook his head before calmly replying.
"Shouldn't you two be the ones leaving? After all, we were here first."
"..."
As Kaneki's expression turned to one of pure anger and Kazuki sighed, Liam paused before continuing in an eerily calm voice.
"Don't worry, we're willing to compromise. You two can stay with us here... if you'd like to."
Turning around, Kaneki seriously stared at Kazuki for a moment before solemnly saying.
"You heard them. They don't need our help, so I'm out of here. They said it, not us, so the principal can't blame us if they all die."
As Kaneki began to walk towards the exit, Kazuki reached out his hand before tightly gripping Kaneki's shoulder.
Leaning forward, Kazuki quietly whispered directly into Kaneki's ear.
"It's like looking into a mirror, isn't it?"
"Shut it."
"You do know we can't leave them, right."
"And why not? They seem so confident. Let them fend off the robbers all by themselves like the 'grown-ups' they are."
Smiling upon realizing Kazuki had just fallen for his trap, Kazuki leaned forward even further before replying.
"Then, they'll get all the glory and fame for protecting the vault... while we'll be left with nothing. Imagine all that djinn killing a minute ago was for nothing..."
Pausing upon seeing Kaneki's eyebrows raise, Kazuki got even closer and continued.
"And worst of all... that brat will get all the credit while you're left with n-"
"That's enough. They'll die to the robbers, so now fame of glory will bestowed."
Gripping Kaneki's shoulder even tighter, Kazuki grinned and replied.
"And, who do you think will be blamed for that? If they die down her protecting the vault, we'll be the ones at fault. The news will paint us as a bunch of cowards who abandoned some first-years to save our own asses."
"But, they're the ones who told us to l-"
"Does that matter? In the eyes of the media, we'll be blamed for their deaths, named as abandoners, and socially killed."
"..."
Realizing the logic behind Kazuki's words, Kaneki swiped the hand off his shoulder before reluctantly turning around.
Seeing this, Kazuki rejoined the main cast before pointing to the approaching Kaneki and saying.
"I guess we'll be taking your compromise!"
*RUMBLE*
Interrupting the group's reunion, the obsidian wall leaned even farther inward, causing the ground to shake even more.
However, nobody worried about the ground shaking, as there was now an entrance to the vault visible.
At the top of the leaning obsidian door, a small hole could be seen, leading straight into the vault.
Without any words being spoken or any gestures being made, everyone knew what to do.
Casting a temporarily floating spell on everyone, Alya allowed everyone to levitate up to the base of the obsidian door.