The Second Nail

"What do I do, Teacher? He—he's made everyone in the restaurant calm down!"

Moke curled his massive frame as tightly as he could, whispering a plea for help to the Balloon Puppet beside him, which possessed the appearance of a hulking brute.

Yet, the puppet remained silent—its meaning was clear: this was his trial.

At least, that was what Moke thought; he never once considered the other possibility, which was that his teacher actually didn't have a very good solution either...

"What do I do, what do I do..."

Moke clawed at his own scalp so fiercely that he didn't even notice his fingertips had become stained with blood.

He could see Lude gradually making his way down the corridor toward his position.

At this moment, Lude had not yet discovered him hiding behind the bar, but it was only a matter of time!

If things continued like this, he had less than 30 seconds left!

Fear quietly gnawed at Moke's heart; that was a monster forged by alchemy, it was impossible to win...

I have to hide, what should I do, what am I supposed to do...

Lude loaded bullets into his revolver while walking clockwise, searching the restaurant step by step.

In truth, he had already sensed that the target he was hunting was likely behind the bar.

Just to be safe, Lude decided to screen the restaurant bit by bit, just in case there was more than one enemy.

Unfortunately, perhaps sensing Lude's intentions, not a single Balloon Puppet launched an attack along the way.

"Well then..." Lude quietly pulled back the hammer, ready for battle.

He would use the pistol for a feint first, and while the prey dodged, he would strike directly through their chest to crush their heart.

He would not repeat the mistake of failing to kill Professor Beshe with a single punch.

Tensing the muscles in his waist in preparation for the explosive force, Lude arrived behind the bar.

After confirming he was ready, Lude grabbed a cup and hurled it violently.

The moment the ceramic cup struck the wall at the end of the corridor with a piercing shatter, Lude performed a tactical roll, aimed his muzzle behind the counter, and pulled the trigger six times without hesitation.

However, once Lude emptied his magazine and saw the situation behind the counter, he couldn't help but freeze, because it wasn't Moke.

The man lying behind the pile of sacks, while similar in build to the attacker, had a completely different face, wore entirely different clothes, and even had a vastly different skin tone.

Most importantly, Lude remembered this person.

Lude's brain possessed a photographic memory, so even though he had only glanced at the room upon entering, he remembered this man had been in the restaurant from the start; in other words, this guy wasn't a disguise.

Not to mention, the man was now lying on the ground with six bullet holes, crimson blood slowly flowing from the wounds.

Lude's sense of smell was quite keen, and he was certain that it was real human blood, not something like a blood bag.

Balloon Men didn't bleed; they only leaked air.

This giant was neither the spellcaster who used nails nor a puppet made of balloons, so where had the nail-user gone?

Had he already left the restaurant?

Or had he hidden himself using some method?

Or perhaps he had slipped upstairs when he wasn't looking—though that possibility was slim; Lude was quite confident in his own observational skills.

Yet, the moment Lude turned around, the giant suddenly erupted into motion, throwing a punch embedded with a nail toward the back of Lude's head!

"What?!"

Hearing the rush of wind behind his ears, Lude immediately realized the situation had turned dire.

Realizing it was too late to dodge, Lude decisively raised his hand to meet the incoming fist.

Before that cursed nail, Lude's iron-like skin and steel-like bones felt as if they were fake, pierced through in an instant.

A cold, viscous voice sounded in Lude's ear once again: "Two."

The giant, having succeeded with his strike, immediately prepared to pull his hand back, but he tugged twice, and his hand... wouldn't come out.

He looked up to see Lude's vicious, cruel grin.

"Got. You!"

Clutching the giant's fist tightly, Lude roared and slammed a heavy punch into the giant's abdomen.

Accompanied by a dull, thudding sound like a truck hitting a wall, the giant was sent flying backward.

The tables and chairs in his path could not withstand the immense force, instantly shattering into a pile of wooden debris.

Finally, the giant's body smashed through a wall with a bang, landing in the restaurant's first-floor kitchen, shaking a pile of bottles and jars down from above with a clatter; the massive amount of pepper caused him to sneeze several times.

He struggled to stand, only to stumble and fall back to the ground, looking severely injured.

However, Lude was not satisfied with this result; he had used his full strength for that punch, and hitting an ordinary person should have at least left a gaping hole in their chest, or at the very least, pierced through them like it had with Professor Beshe.

He looked at his right hand; that previous punch hadn't felt like hitting a person, but rather like striking a piece of thick armor.

This isn't right, Lude thought, frowning, especially since he had struck the soft, vulnerable abdomen.

Siana had once told Lude that spellcasters were not inherently a combat-oriented profession; they merely studied certain extraordinary means, but remained mortal flesh and blood at their core.

In truth, this was not particularly strange, for not every spellcaster's ultimate desire was to obtain the power to suppress an entire generation.

Sensory pleasures and indulgences, Knowledge glimpsing the roots of all things, The pursuit of a metamorphosis to shed one's past, Exploring how to attain an ageless, immortal life, Or simply chasing after an endless, never-ending war.

These were all common desires and pursuits among spellcasters.

For many spellcasters, martial force was merely a tool to achieve their desires, and as long as a tool was sufficient for the job, that was enough.

One never heard of a mechanic needing to forge a wrench out of aerospace materials just to fix a car!

However, there were a minority of spellcasters who would truly lay hands upon themselves to seize power.

Just as Lord Hypnos had described, they would transplant the organs of extraordinary creatures into their own bodies, use alchemy to reconstruct their flesh, or resort to even more dangerous methods.

Recalling the sensation of that last punch, which had felt like striking steel, Lude knew clearly that the guy before him must have subjected himself to alchemical modification.

Considering that bullets had indeed pierced his arm earlier, yet six shots to his chest and abdomen had not affected the precision of his movements, he had likely installed subcutaneous armor or a metallic skeleton—some form of alchemical prosthesis—in his torso.

Heh, he's the same type of spellcaster as me.

Against such an enemy, small-caliber pistols were useless; one had to use shotguns, rifles, or alchemical weapons. Only then could one effectively penetrate his defenses—

—Or use a sufficiently heavy blunt object to shatter his internal organs, such as Lude's own fists!

Lude prepared to close the distance immediately, but he calmed down just as quickly, for he heard the sound of hammers being cocked all around him once more.

"Tch." Lude clicked his tongue. In the brief moment they had clashed, Lude was certain that if he were given one minute, he could finish off the guy playing with nails—but the Balloon Puppets armed with guns surrounding them were truly a nuisance.

There was more than one of them, their operational precision was not low, and they could pop up at any critical moment to put a bullet in him.

Lude's combat technique, to put it politely, was mediocre; to put it bluntly, it was a chaotic brawl. Once the gap in power between the two sides was even slightly narrowed, this shortcoming was immediately exposed.

Even though Lude only needed one punch to land on the head or neck to end this fight instantly, as long as the nail-user could keep up with his speed and deflect his punches with a block, Lude would immediately find himself in a difficult spot.

If it were just that, he would only win with great difficulty, but that guy still had a third nail in his hand that needed to be avoided, plus an unknown number of Balloon Puppet gunmen harassing him from the sidelines... tch.

Lude gritted his teeth; he could not continue to entangle himself with this nail-user!

He had to find a way to clear out all the Balloon Puppets, or take out the one controlling the balloons.

With this thought in mind, Lude leaped backward and jumped out through the window.