Chapter 13

Max initiated the plan by channeling his lightning into his shield, which suddenly expanded with a static outer layer effect that spread a good twenty feet on all sides that wasn't facing the ground. As expected, the enemy responded with a shower of elemental attacks. Bubbles, along with Jessica, focused on creating barriers of forward-facing shields. This allowed for stronger one-directional manifestations, and between the two of them, they could create layers.

The ranged dealers, along with my lightning, struck the fortress with such power that the crystalized edges broke. Eventually, the walls began to crack, and the ice giants, seeing the inevitable, hopped off the walls and charged toward us. I activated one of my preset spells and created a dome of lightning to wall them off. Then, I activated my second spell, which unleashed a chaos of lightning within the dome. Each strike was weak, but there were thousands of them.

"Yeah!" Max shouted. "That is amazing!" When the spells ended, the ice giants weren't dead, but neither were they in any shape to continue their attacks. Max's team, along with Oden, finished them off quickly. Only the dungeon boss remained inside the crumbling fortress. All around were glistening shards, and I realized these were Mana Crystals. Hundreds of them, if not thousands.

"Looks like we hit the jackpot. Collect all the loot, and then we'll confront the final boss," Sally ordered. Everyone got to work, and Sally offered me an energy potion. "I can't imagine that level of spell not eating up much of your power." I wasn't sure if this would do anything for me, but I was curious. I took it and thanked her. "Those are expensive, but you're lucky, pretty boy; we just made a lot of money with this haul."

As we approached the giant gate, a roar from within reverberated within our very chests. It was deep and guttural. Like the boss knew we were there, and he was pissed. I used the Inspection spell on the potion and saw that it did indeed replenish Mana or other forms of magic. Interesting. I chugged it fully expecting only a minor bump to the ocean that was my Mana, which currently I was only at thirty-four percent. Yet the well of Mana I gained rapidly filled me to nearly seventy percent. That was like… eating a hundred humans or more. Seriously? I need to find out how to get more of these. I doubt I could replace drinking blood with mana potions since there is a very different need for blood than just Mana, but I was curious if it could extend that need.

Max pushed the gate open and then led the way inside. We took up our positions before the ice giant leader. He was even more formidable up close. I could see with both sets of vision that he was coated in magical defenses.

"Max," I spoke softly but loud enough for him to hear. "I can see multiple layers of magical defenses on him."

"Really? That's good to know. So, he'll be tough to take down. I give you permission to act as you need during this fight. I've seen your power. I judge you not just strong but mindful of battle tactics. But, kid, do not die. That's an order."

I winced a little at the kid reference, but I couldn't blame him due to my illusion of appearance. Still, I smiled and cracked my neck. Good, if I can cut loose, then I will.

~~~

"Where is Jacik?" Oliva asked Lucy, who had just arrived with a report on a new victim.

"I don't know. The last he said to either of us was he had business out of town. He's not responding to your messages?"

"No, and I can never track his device. Somehow, he's circumvented the built-in police trackers."

"Well, this case is pretty clear cut. You don't really need his help with that," Lucy replied.

"I know, but this whole breaking news with the unmasking of Radiant Jack happening just outside of his Club has the whole world in an uproar. I need to find out what is happening. Both the Meta Association and the RBI are trying to obtain warrants to search the Club but somehow are being denied."

"Who can deny the Royal Beauru of Investigations a warrant?"

"Technically, the Senet Judges can. They have the authority to override most Royal requests."

"Jacik has that kind of pull?"

"That's one way of looking at it. But it could be that the judges simply find the evidence to be lacking to warrant a, uh, warrant."

"Do we know which Judge denied the warrant?"

"All of them."

"Wow," Lucy replied, stunned. "I wonder what team Pantheon is doing at this very moment…"

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~~~

"Team, quiet down, please," Titan commanded. "As of right now, Radiant Jack is off the team pending a review of illegal off-the-books operations with Cyberpunk that resulted in his identity being revealed."

"A plan we all came up with together, I might add," the Huntsman interjected while looking pissed.

"Yes, that is true, but we cannot afford for more of us to go down for this, so this is an order: everyone is to keep quiet and pretend we know nothing." A few grumbles reverberated around the room, but no one put forth an objection. "Now, while we still don't know for sure Mr. Korleven's connection to the vampires, we do have enough coincidences to conclude some kind of involvement. However, we also know he wasn't present at the Club during this unfortunate event. Which means one of two things."

"Let me guess," Comet Rush cut in. "Either his tech alone could pull off both defense and offense to combat the cyber intrusions, or someone else in the club directed the attack?"

"That is correct. This brings me to his second in command at the Club, the Club Manager, Darci Traxcillion. She has a history going back to early childhood, but some digging shows a lack of evidence that she grew up where it says she did. No one remembers her, and there are no photo records of her attending school. The only photo evidence is on her social media page and while they do look authentic, we also know whatever technology is being employed at that Club is beyond our own understanding."

"So, we need to dig deeper and unravel this whole conspiracy, heh?" the Huntsman asked.

"That is correct," Titan confirmed while glancing over at Radiant Jack's fried helmet. "We will see what we can dig out of that helmet and also attempt to trace the first actual known origin of when Darci came to be here. Then we can try and figure out what her real name is and where she really came from."

~~~

Darci watched with great interest in the team meeting of Pantheon. Then she pressed a button, and her supervirus spread to every visor, helmet, and computer system, which then connected to the Meta Association servers. For now, she wouldn't crash everything, just monitor, but she had no intentions of allowing her identity to be exposed. In the process, she would protect Jacik as well. He was a good boss, after all. But there was one thing she would do. She set up a program to gather data, lots of data.

~~~

Two individuals stood on the roof of a skyscraper some distance away from the Club Eternal Night. Behind them, spanning every rooftop, hidden in the shadows, were dozens of Syndicate members. "He's not there," the Witch stated.

"No, he's not. We should remove Pantheon first, then. A threat as great as our target needs our full attention," Forgotten replied.

"I agree. We don't need interruptions."

~~~

Max held up his shield as the ice giant boss brought his considerably large axe down upon him. He grunted under the strain, the reverberations traveling through his arms causing him considerable pain. Sally's scarlet threads did little to hold back the giant as the boss rampaged through them like yarn.

Jasper's multitude of golden arrows kept pelting the giant, but the defenses defused each one of them. He had to switch to more kinetic-based arrows, which barely penetrated the icy flesh. However, the Jackal had much better luck as his black flames refused to be defused. They hadn't exactly reached the ice giant yet, but the constant attack on the defenses was eroding it quickly. I attempted to aid with that endeavor through a constant stream of lightning attacks.

The boss lifted his axe upward for another swing but surprised Max by kicking him instead. The dwarf man went flying backward like a rocket, slamming into what remained of the ice fortress. I heard the loud crunch and hoped it was ice and not his back.

I dashed in when I saw an opening, infused my fist with lightning, and struck the side of his hip in a leaping Superman punch. Putting perhaps a bit more strength into the blow than should be expected of me, I connected with an ice-shattering blow. A large chunk of his hip blasted into a shower of ice dust as his body was bent sideways at the sudden force before shooting off into another partially broken chunk of fortress. This time, though, the boss went through it and bounced several times across the frozen ground.

"Holy shit!" Jasper exclaimed in shock. "Just how much strength do you have?"

"That's a future SS-ranker for ya," the Jackal responded.

"Cut the chatter," Sally commanded. "He's not dead yet."

The ice giant slowly started to regenerate, and it was the perfect time to press the attack. The team did just that, minus Sally, who checked on her husband and poured a healing potion down his throat. Both Bubbles and Jessica were also nearby casting healing spells, so Max was recovering quickly.

With most of the magical defenses destroyed, Jackal, Jasper, and I sent a constant stream of spells and attacks until the boss was finally defeated.

As Max raised himself up, a laugh followed by a lungful of blood spat onto the ice was heard. "That was a tough fight. But maybe Ryan, you should lead with that." Then, everyone had a good chuckle.

I nodded and let them pat me on the back. The dungeon timer began to count down to its destruction and so we got to work on looting the corpse. The boss's monster core was the real prize, but there were many valuable rewards including enchanted items to be had. As a rule, trainees were not entitled to the loot, but Max allowed Jessica and me to pick an item. Jessica picked a healing rod called Hope's Blessing. It boosted all healing magic by twenty percent and was a B-rank item. She wasn't sure if her type of magic would be compatible with the rod, but she was eager to find out.

I didn't really need anything since my own gear could be enchanted by myself and would easily surpass anything here, but it would be weird if I didn't take anything. So, I chose a gauntlet that was meant to enhance attack magic by fifteen percent. It was an A-rank item despite being less potent than the rod, but it worked on any attack-type magic. I also got a few A-rank mana potions as well. The rest of the loot was given to the team and they would divide up the crystals mined earlier, but as a parting gift, they also gave us a small sack full as well.

When we exited the dungeon, everyone's wrist phones started chirping, including mine. Then we started playing a recent news clip that showed the city in flames and most of the heroes from Team Pantheon dead in the streets.

"What the hell happened?" Max spat in anger, shock, and sorrow. He was a true hero that looked up to the Pantheon. My thoughts echoed his question, but perhaps only the shock.