No matter how many rats charge at it, the elephant does not even flinch.
Each time it simply takes a step, dozens of them are crushed to death beneath its feet.
For the elephant, such a thing is far too simple. It required neither effort nor attention.
Phyron was like that—an elephant trampling through a swarm of rats.
He merely tensed his muscles and charged forward without hesitation, yet the rats fell on their own.
“He’s a monster! That thing’s a monster!”
“Run for your lives!”
“Who the hell could catch that thing?!”
The bounty hunters were seized with terror and fled.
They had come to earn money, not to die.
The mercenaries also decided the losses were too great and retreated, and the petty criminal syndicates that had joined in for easy profit followed suit.
“Get out of my way! Anyone who stands before me won’t live!”
Phyron’s voice, louder than a train’s horn, only added to the chaos.
Those who were too close felt their ears ring and their heads spin from the sheer volume—some even frothed at the mouth and fainted, eyes rolled back.
Even without magic amplification, Phyron’s raw voice carried clearly across the distance.
The terrified onlookers rolled their eyes and slipped away.
No one bothered to stop them.
They were not comrades anyway—only competitors who had come to divide the bounty.
With fewer mouths to share it, the remaining ones would earn more.
‘Even with this, less than half will run.’
Following the path Phyron had cleared, Ludger analyzed the situation.
Thanks to the human bulldozer plowing through ahead, Ludger himself wasn’t the main target. Still, there were always those who tried to go after the one who looked weaker.
“Die!”
The man who leapt out from a side alley collapsed before he could take a few steps.
The same happened to the others.
They fell without knowing why—and never rose again.
All of them were dead.
“W-what? Why are they all dropping dead?”
“What the hell did he just do?”
The attacker hadn’t seemed to do anything, yet people around him fell like wheat before a scythe.
A few sharp-eyed ones who looked at the corpses widened their eyes.
“In that short moment—he hit only their vital points?”
Tiny wounds were engraved on the bodies.
So small that one had to strain their eyes to notice.
‘But how?’
They soon discovered the reason.
Around Ludger floated a cluster of black particles, drifting gently through the air.
The scent carried on the wind bore a thick, metallic tang.
‘Iron sand?’
Each time someone lunged at him, Ludger gathered the iron sand into the shape of sharp daggers and pierced their vital points.
The darkness of the color and the dim surroundings had hidden it from sight, and more than that, Ludger’s magical skill was extraordinary.
He gathered the iron sand, formed blades, and struck—all in the blink of an eye. To the attackers, it simply looked as though they had fallen for no reason.
“Watch out! He’s manipulating iron sand!”
“Back off! Rush in carelessly and you’ll die for nothing!”
Those quick on the uptake retreated at once.
The slow-witted became food for Ludger’s iron sand.
They dropped like marionettes with their strings cut.
To anyone unfamiliar, it looked as if a plague were spreading around him.
Ludger gazed coldly at his enemies.
‘From here on, they won’t go down so easily.’
The quicker ones were the seasoned fighters—the true veterans.
These were the real deal, the ones worth fighting.
Ludger stopped toying with the iron sand.
“Stand back! I’ll take care of this one!”
It seemed the same on Phyron’s side.
Even from afar, someone stood their ground and faced him without fear.
Kiiing. Thud.
With each heavy step came the sound of cylinders and gears tightening; the ground shook with every impact.
A loud hiss followed as compressed steam burst outward.
A massive man clad in powered armor grinned at Phyron.
“This one’s mine!”
Confidently, he charged.
The powered armor was more than three times Phyron’s size.
From the right arm, a hatch opened and a thick spike shot forward.
A pile-bunker capable of piercing even a tank’s frontal armor fired straight at a barehanded man.
“Ha-ha! Now this is good!”
Instead of showing fear, Phyron laughed and threw a punch.
The pilot smirked.
“You idiot! You’re charging powered armor with your bare hands?”
Even if the man was a mage who strengthened his body, he couldn’t possibly match the high-output armor.
That proud thought shattered like glass at the sight before him.
Crash!
The moment Phyron’s fist hit the pile-bunker, the thick spike crumpled and compressed.
His punch didn’t stop there—it smashed through the armor’s entire arm as if grinding it to dust.
“W-what—?”
The pilot had no time to react to the impossible sight.
Phyron’s next punch slammed into the armor’s abdomen.
Boom!
The straight strike tore through the air, sending the powered armor flying.
It tumbled across the ground, demolishing several nearby structures before finally halting.
The machine never rose again.
“Hmph. That’s what happens when you rely on such weak contraptions! A true man must train his muscles!”
Having destroyed the powered armor with his bare hands, Phyron’s eyes gleamed as he searched for his next prey.
Seeing that, Ludger shook his head.
‘Seems I needn’t worry about that side.’
He kept walking calmly.
Phyron was far ahead, clearing everything in his path, but Ludger was not slow in following behind.
Yet, there were still those who tried to pick him off like easy prey.
Gunfire erupted from a distance.
Ludger immediately activated [Silence of Fire].
The attack halted for an instant—just a blink.
Then the shooting resumed.
Ludger narrowed his eyes.
‘Special ammunition? No—different from ordinary gunpowder.’
He caught a bullet that had bounced off the iron shield he’d formed and inspected it.
Normally, a bullet ejects its casing upon firing. But this one’s casing and body were fused into a single cylinder.
Moreover, it lacked the distinct smell of gunpowder.
From the darkness, bullets streaked past like white tails of light. Ludger quickly grasped their mechanism.
“Compressed-steam propulsion.”
Firearms use explosive force to propel bullets.
In other words, if there’s sufficient pressure, even without gunpowder, the same power can be achieved.
Here, that pressure came from compressed steam.
High-pressure vapor expanding into kinetic energy propelled the bullets with gun-like force.
[Silence of Fire] suppresses ignition, not the expansion of steam.
‘To create something like this without special powder...’
Though weaker than conventional firearms, the power was still deadly at close range.
‘But this won’t pierce my defense.’
The iron sand around him thickened into a black storm cloud.
Though it looked like smoke, its density was greater than stone.
No man-made weapon could penetrate it.
The enemies surely knew this, yet they kept firing—wasting ammunition.
Every bullet shredded by the iron cloud was absorbed into it, enlarging its mass.
Then, a sudden flash—something huge came flying.
Boom!
If Ludger hadn’t quickly compacted the iron sand into a circular shield, it might have struck him directly.
‘A shell?’
He kept [Silence of Fire] active just in case.
Even so, that level of impact meant it too used steam propulsion.
“He blocked that too!”
“What kind of monster is he?!”
In the distance, Ludger spotted the tank.
Clearly not a weapon made for capturing people.
Its slow approach meant it had been waiting—forewarned.
‘Whoever informed them—it’s obvious.’
But they’d overlooked something:
Ludger was not someone who could be harmed by mere human weapons—nor by anything greater.
He advanced without pause.
Trailing a black cloud, he looked to his enemies like a moving natural disaster.
Meanwhile, he delicately released threads of mana, one by one, destroying every surveillance camera tracking him.
Eventually, the endless rain of bullets ceased.
Not from exhaustion or retreat—
“But finally, they’re here.”
Even within the dark cloud, Ludger could clearly see what was happening outside.
Those who had been firing withdrew as new figures arrived.
The newcomers were mages of the New Mage Tower.
“So this is the one. The fool who dared attack our Tower.”
“To lay a hand on the New Tower here in Isla Machia—you must be insane.”
“No need to capture him. Kill him outright. Because of him, too many of ours are already dead.”
The War Mages came with the intent to kill.
Judging by their words, they already knew everything that had happened.
And if they sent people despite knowing Ludger was a Lexuror-class mage—
“That means someone of equal rank is here.”
He muttered to himself, but someone answered.
“You catch on quick, huh?”
Along with the voice came a surge of immense mana.
Ludger drew in all his iron sand and turned it toward the source of the voice.
The cloud condensed into ten massive layers of black steel before him.
A gigantic heat source slammed into the wall.
The first layer vaporized. The second followed.
The third, fourth, and fifth were pierced clean through.
The sixth, seventh, and eighth melted and sagged, unable to hold.
The ninth finally stopped it.
That level of firepower would pierce most defenses—but this attack had destroyed eight layers in one strike.
Judging by its ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) speed and scale, it wasn’t even a large-scale spell.
And yet the power...
To wield such magic effortlessly meant the opponent was also a 6th-Circle Grand Mage.
“Well, well? You actually blocked that? I put quite a bit into that sneak attack, you know. Impressiveee.”
The speaker sounded almost sulky, as though annoyed that his ambush had failed.
Ludger looked toward him.
A man with slicked-back white hair stood there.
His skin was pale, his eyes glowed a dull yellow.
He wore white clothing like a laboratory coat, a black metal mask with golden trim covering his mouth. His tall, thin frame gave him a strangely grotesque air.
“Oh my, this isn’t really the kind of opponent I wanted to faceee.”
He spoke with exaggerated fear, his voice drawling unnaturally.
“You say that, yet you’re already scheming something.”
As Ludger spoke, he dragged the remaining iron sand across the ground, tearing it apart.
The earth split and crumbled; any magic circle hidden beneath was destroyed before activation.
“...Oh?”
Apparently, the man hadn’t expected his setup to be countered. His reaction was genuine surprise.
“Hmm. I heard I’d be facing a 6th-Circle mage, but this isn’t looking good for meee.”
Trailing off, the man bowed politely.
“My name is Andrasch. Lexuror-class mage of the Bourgeois faction.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, Andrasch narrowed his eyes at Ludger.
“I suppose you already know why I’m here, don’t you?”
Before his words even faded, light flared from the sky, and immense heat crashed down upon Ludger’s head.
The meteor-like blast triggered a massive explosion.
The shockwave swept away the bounty hunters hiding nearby and tore buildings and structures apart.
Feigning courtesy while launching a surprise attack.
But when the smoke cleared, Andrasch’s eyelid twitched.
“Is that all?”
Shrouded in black shadow, Ludger stood amid the blast zone, blue light gleaming from behind his raven mask.
