Chapter 214: Saving The Impenetrable Shield

The purple fire didn’t just burn; it screamed.

It was a concentrated, roaring pillar of necrotic energy that smelled overwhelmingly of rotting meat and raw ozone. It tore across the bloody mahogany stage, instantly turning the heavy wooden floorboards into fine, drifting black ash. The heat sucked all the oxygen out of the air, creating a suffocating vacuum that made my ears pop.

At the edge of the stage, Baek Jin-Woo planted his boots into the wood. His face was pale, drenched in cold sweat. He raised his rag-wrapped sword, feeding every single drop of his Orthodox Qi into the deep blue dome shielding the thirty terrified, weeping villagers behind him.

He was going to die.

Jin-Woo’s Iron Bastion was meant to deflect physical strikes. Demonic Cult fire didn't shatter shields; it infected them. The moment that purple flame touched his barrier, it would rot the Qi directly back to its source, incinerating Jin-Woo from the inside out.

I didn't think. The necrotic instincts of Assassin Number Seven completely took over.

I pushed off the slippery, blood-stained floor. My shattered left collarbone ground together, a blinding white-hot spike of agony driving straight into my neck. I swallowed the scream. I scooped up a heavy, discarded iron mace from a fallen guard with my good right hand.

I didn't throw it at Elder Vane’s body. I threw it at his extended, burning hands.

The heavy iron spun through the air, completely silent. It smashed directly into Vane’s right wrist just as the purple fire left his palm.

Vane’s arm jerked violently upward. The trajectory of the Demonic blast shifted by a single, microscopic degree.

It was enough.

The roaring pillar of purple fire entirely missed the center of Jin-Woo’s shield. It grazed the curved upper edge of the blue dome, hissing like a drop of water on a hot iron skillet. The sheer kinetic force of the glancing blow sent Jin-Woo skidding backward, his boots carving deep grooves into the wood, but the shield held.

The fire crashed into the heavy red velvet curtains at the back of the stage. The fabric instantly vaporized, leaving a massive, smoking crater in the dark stone wall behind it.

Vane stopped.

The Demonic Elder lowered his bruised wrist. He didn't scream in pain. He didn't curse. He slowly turned his completely black, empty eyes toward me. The amused, arrogant smile faded from his wrinkled face, replaced by a cold, bottomless rage.

"You filthy, interfering rat," Vane hissed, his dry voice cutting clearly through the chaotic roar of the amphitheater.

His hands ignited again. The purple fire crawled up his forearms, licking at the charcoal-grey fabric of his robes.

I didn't retreat. I charged him.

I closed the thirty feet between us in three desperate, agonizing strides. I kept my center of gravity completely low, slipping under the thick, choking cloud of ash hanging in the air.

Vane thrust his left palm forward, sending a concentrated sphere of necrotic fire directly at my chest.

I threw my weight to the right, sacrificing my heavy black wool cloak. The fire clipped my shoulder, instantly incinerating the thick fabric and scorching my skin. The smell of burning hair and charred meat filled my nose. My nerves screamed, but I didn't stop moving.

I stepped fully inside his guard.

Vane was an Elder. He possessed terrifying, world-ending Qi. But his physical body was frail, old, and entirely reliant on distance. I was a weapon forged in the absolute darkest pits of close-quarters slaughter.

I whipped my right hand out, lashing the heavy iron chain around his extended left wrist.

I pulled brutally downward, locking his arm against his side. Before he could ignite his right hand to blast me at point-blank range, I drove my right knee directly into the side of his thigh. The peroneal nerve ruptured under the impact. Vane’s leg buckled instantly.

As he dropped forward, I brought my right elbow up, smashing it squarely beneath his chin.

The impact snapped his head back. His jaw dislocated with a wet, sickening pop. Blood sprayed from his lips as he bit entirely through his own tongue.

I wasn't finished. I kept the iron chain wrapped tight around his wrist, stepped behind him, and planted my boot squarely in the center of his back. I pulled his left arm backward at a horrific, unnatural angle.

Vane’s shoulder popped entirely out of its socket. He let out a wet, gargling shriek, his body thrashing violently on the floorboards. The purple fire on his hands immediately extinguished as his concentration completely shattered.

I stood over him, my chest heaving, the burning pain in my scorched shoulder throbbing in time with my racing heart.

\[System Notice: High-Level Hostile incapacitated without lethal intent.\]

\[Karma Generated: +50.\]

I looked down at the writhing Demonic Elder. He couldn't weave hand seals. He couldn't channel his fire. He was completely, utterly disabled.

"Mu-Kang!" Jin-Woo roared from across the stage.

I turned my head. Jin-Woo was pointing frantically at Vane.

I looked back down.

Vane wasn't writhing in pain. He was rolling.

The Elder twisted his body, his black eyes wide and completely deranged. He didn't need to weave a hand seal. He didn't need his dislocated arm. He simply snapped his jaw back into place by smashing his face against the floorboards and opened his bloody mouth.