Side Character Who Became the Pseudo-Protagonist

Chapter 30: Walking Fortress

I was wondering why the local officers didn’t step into the scene to help.

Even if they weren’t Operators, they were still somewhat equipped and had enough training to deal with something like this?

Well, as soon as I stepped inside, I found the answer out quickly enough.

The entire place was a mess, random debris was spread across the whole courtyard.

But worse than that, cadets were lying motionless out on the ground, almost like White Noise wanted to use them as a warning for other cadets who wanted to fight back.

On the opposite side of where I came in from, barricaded behind a few bags of sandbags, were armed attackers with guns pointed in our direction.

And they really were not shy to use them.

BANG—! BANG—! BANG—!

Shots went off left and right, with one barely passing by my cheek because Aidan had pulled me over in time.

"Shit...it’s a mess!"

We barely made it under the cover of a few overturned cars.

Behind the cover, Grant was bracing himself while talking to another cadet who seemed like a senior at the school.

Aidan and I pushed forward until we reached the barricade. Once there, I was barely able to catch what Grant was saying through the cover fire.

"Thomas, how bad is it?!"

The guy named Thomas, with slicked-back hair and glasses, immediately frowned. "There must be at least a hundred of them in total... They’re all armed with assault rifles and Logos Jammers. What should we do?"

"Tch...I’ll handle it."

Grant clicked his tongue before slipping on a Spell Driver of his own.

It was a Bracelet-type Spell Driver, but one that I recognized from the game. It was another one of the Named Drivers, similar to Professor Irene’s Redline and my Huginn.

"Gram."

And it was feared because of only one reason—it was in the hands of Grant Nidavel.

The gigantic man didn’t sprint or do anything flashy. He simply pressed a few buttons on the Spell Driver, before calmly walking out.

Right in the line of fire.

BANG—! BANG—! BANG—!

A barrage of bullets flew at him, but by then it was already too late.

[Spell Sequence Initializing: Innate Defensive Structure Type—]

[Bastion]

The bullets themselves arrived on target, or at least, what was supposed to be the target. Yet for some reason, they stopped a few centimeters away from him.

Almost as if they had struck an invisible wall.

A veil composed of translucent square panels glimmered softly around his body every time a subsequent bullet hit, flattening themselves and dropping onto the ground harmlessly.

"What the—?!"

A few of the attackers stopped shooting, surprised at what was happening. But that window of opportunity was exactly what Grant needed.

And by the time they caught their bearings, he was already right up in their face, slamming one fist into the first guy.

CRASH—!

The man went flying straight into one of the trucks parked haphazardly in the middle of the combat zone.

The others tried to react, trying to pull out their Logos Jammers, but Grant was simply too overpowering.

[Spell Sequence Initializing: Tier 2 Terrain Displacement Type—]

[Rising Stone]

Before they could do anything, two of the attackers suddenly went flying up into the sky, pushed by a pillar of earth that emerged from underneath them.

’Damn, I’m starting to understand the perspective of normal civilians...this guy’s a walking fortress.’

’No wonder normal people were scared of Operators.’

Even if I really wanted to let everyone do everything, I still had to pull my weight after all.

With the destruction that Grant had caused, all eyes were on him. Which left both Aidan and I an opportunity to flank to their sides.

Bursting out from the right side of the barricade with [Boost], I immediately hopped over a piece of debris and charged straight at one of the attackers.

The man was already prepared with his Logos Jammer and would be able to hit Grant with it the very next second.

Though, not if I was able to do something about it.

[Overload]

KRRRK—AAAK!

The red crystal in his left arm suddenly shattered, sending a spray of powder everywhere and throwing the man into confusion.

I reached him in time, managing to knock him out in one fell swoop.

Closing my eyes instinctively, I had half-expected my gun to randomly shatter or for a spike of pain to rush into my head.

But when none of that happened, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"So glad I made that decision to get Lattice Silver...!"

Though, while I was busy admiring my Named Driver, the rest of the fight had been properly cleaned up.

A few of the attackers were on the ground while some were pinned to trees by Aidan’s swords, the blades catching the backs of their collars without piercing skin

Grant was already on one of the pinned attackers, grabbing his collar and yanking the guy forward.

"Where the hell are the rest of you mutts and what are you doing here?" He threatened in a low voice.

"Speak before I crush you like a gnat. You won’t have another chance."

The guy, visibly frightened, confessed everything. "Lo—look! I don’t know anything! I’m just a mercenary for hire! Almost all of us are!"

Grant slammed the man into the ground by the collar and was about to step on him, making good on his threat, when the guy suddenly raised his hand in surrender.

"Ahh—ahh! Please don’t! The rest of the forces are probably in the western side! Please don’t kill me!"

Well, Grant didn’t seem too keen on the idea, but Thomas managed to tap him on the shoulder and stop him.

"It makes sense," Thomas said quickly. "The closest shelter to the Student Council Room would be located in the Western Student Dorms. Claire would’ve gone there if the situation was really urgent."

With a thud, Grant slammed the man’s head down, knocking him out and standing up at once.

"Then we best get there fast."

Luckily, we weren’t ambushed and didn’t have to fight our way through the path toward the western dorms.

However, the big problem occurred when we actually got there.

The entire area was filled with red smoke. Or rather, powdered Red Logicite mixed into some kind of aerosol compound, blanketing the dorms in a faint red haze.

It was way too thin to stop Spells from working at all, obviously. But their plan was probably to stop any Spells that provide information like my [Principle Sight] from finding them inside.

’...If only I had those goddamn eyes and was able to learn [Material Sight].’

And of course, the System chose that exact moment to act like it had been waiting for me to beg.

Like it was reading my mind once more, a blue panel appeared, revealing a single prompt.

[Prerequisite Achieved: Material Sight has been added to the Archive]