[Sky Coating]

If they can track me, I shall obscure their vision; if contact leads to an explosion, I shall use my blade!

Under the shroud of smoke, the puppets' vision was completely severed. They could only mechanically tilt their heads, searching for targets in a daze. In such an environment, they were even less effective than a panicked commoner, let alone capable of resisting Lude's harvest.

"First, the decapitation." As he spoke, Lude swung a silver-green arc of sword light, and a head immediately soared high into the air.

The second puppet was bisected by a single sword stroke before it could react, while the third puppet gained a bloody hole in its brow accompanied by the crack of a gunshot. The fourth was pierced through the heart, the fifth had its liver ruptured by a bullet, the sixth had its carotid artery slashed, and the last was split in two.

When the smoke cleared, Lude was the only one left standing in the carriage.

He held a head in his hand; once it left the body, the rune on its brow dissipated. In fact, of all seven puppets, only the one with the ruptured liver was still struggling, though it was clearly unable to rise.

It seemed this Arcanist technique provided no additional vitality to the host, nor did it perform any degree of physical augmentation.

Furthermore, once the host died, the technique lost its effect.

That made things easier to handle, Lude thought to himself. As long as he didn't encounter a purely melee-focused technique, his strength, speed, and precision were more than enough to suppress an average person.

Perhaps the risks of close-quarters combat remained high, but Lude only lacked an Arcanist technique; he was not without his revolver.

Although he had never studied marksmanship in his past life, even with the high precision of this body, he could hit whatever he aimed at within fifty meters.

One could only say that as long as the body's base stats were high enough, even clumsy, amateur strikes could hammer someone's brains out.

Now, all Lude had to do was advance toward the front of the train while carefully searching for the Arcanist who created the puppets.

However, just as Lude was deep in thought, a hand reached out silently from nowhere and pressed onto his shoulder.

"..." Lude's movements stiffened instantly. He slowly turned his head to look to his side, but as far as his eyes could see... there was nothing?

No, that wasn't right. Where the sunlight spilled in along the edge of the ruined carriage, one could faintly perceive...

It was like a colorless marble dropped into water; even at the intersection of light, only a faint, transparent outline could be seen.

The next moment, a scorching red light bloomed in the air like a crack, instantly outlining a human figure!

BOOM—!!!

When Lude saw the red crack, he only had time to protect his face before leaping backward with all his might.

The next instant, the shockwave from the explosion slammed into Lude like a giant hammer, sending him flying backward.

From the front of the carriage to the rear, Lude was blasted over twenty meters before the impact force gradually dissipated.

The moment he landed, Lude touched down with his toes, immediately bent his knees, and then let his body roll onto his side, using his hip to absorb the remaining momentum. Only by rolling across the ground did he finally shed the force of the explosion.

Even so, Lude could not rise immediately; instead, he spat out a mouthful of blood with a groan.

It had to be said that this body was truly sturdy. If an ordinary person had been caught in such an explosion, the outcome would undoubtedly have been total disintegration. By comparison, suffering only internal organ damage in his abdomen was almost an insult to an Arcanist technique that required the consumption of life.

However, a puppet capable of optical camouflage—what kind of expert was this?

Was it an evolved version of an Arcanist technique? No, a person only had one soul and, naturally, only one technique. Perhaps the same technique could manifest in different forms, but its core must remain the same.

If it were a technique for creating puppets, it might be possible to create puppets with different functions.

But since the opponent's ability was to turn humans into self-destructing puppets, it was impossible for them to also have the ability to grant puppets optical camouflage.

In other words... adding optical camouflage to objects or humans was the technique of another Arcanist?

Thinking of this, Lude couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Because he didn't know the other fellow's technique, Lude had diverted a full fifty percent of his focus to defense.

Distraction during combat was a fatal error, and it was precisely because of this that Lude had allowed the bomber to get close.

Now that he knew the other fellow's technique was non-offensive, things became much easier to handle.

A concealment technique and a self-destruct puppet technique could be called a pair with excellent synergy: the concealment technique protected the main body, while the puppet technique searched for and eliminated enemies, simultaneously allowing for the creation of deadly invisible suicide puppets.

However, conversely, neither of these techniques provided any enhancement for close-quarters combat!

In other words, this battle had been a game of hide-and-seek from the very beginning.

The puppets had to find Lude before their main bodies were exposed, and Lude had to avoid the puppets to find the main bodies.

Once those two Arcanists entered Lude's range, the following events would no longer be a battle; the word [Execution] might be more appropriate, because within Lude's reach, the opponent would absolutely have no chance to resist.

Just then, a nearly imperceptible sound of footsteps arrived; clearly, the invisible puppets had quietly surrounded him.

"He likely guessed what my technique is," Brandon said in a low voice, frowning as he stood behind Polina.

[Sky Coating], an Arcanist technique belonging to Brandon, allowed objects to be coated with optical camouflage through palm contact. The technique would not dissipate until the attached spiritual energy ran out, though faint shadows would appear at the boundary between dawn and dusk.

This was a purely auxiliary technique, but if used correctly, it could play a massive role.

In fact, the Black Tide Society leader's personal guard was less of a "guard" and more of an "assassination squad." After all, Don Juan's own strength was far greater than any one of them, and even several guards attacking together would be easily laid out by him.

Precisely because of this, all members of the personal guard were actually developed in the direction of agents, thieves, or assassins.

For an assassin, the fighting style was often one strike, one kill.

This was indeed the case; in past battles, their targets were often sent away instantly by the explosion of a puppet.

But if they failed to achieve that, according to their behavioral logic, they should find a way to flee to distant parts and avoid the enemy's edge. Therefore, the implication of Brandon's words was to ask Polina whether they should flee now or continue the fight.

Polina was currently shoving her gun barrel into a man's mouth, then stuffing a wooden carving into his brow.

Upon hearing Brandon's words, she pondered for a moment and replied, "Let's give it one more try. I have already created over thirty puppets, distributed throughout the carriage and on the roof. They will no longer attack proactively, but will instead serve as landmines and alarms."

"Relying on the time we've bought, I will activate [that move]. If he manages to break [that] as well, we retreat!"

"Fine," Brandon nodded.