"Ah, Judgment Unit. Of course they would come, wouldn't they," muttered Blackjack

Inside the circus tent, the battle between the Judgment Unit and the criminals has already begun. Judgment units gained upper hand as expected. After all, the majority of the criminal side is just mindless pawns.

A dual swordsman is leaping around the battlefield while slaying many pawns. At the same time, a sexy woman created her own pawns with a fog.

The big man carried a missile launcher in his shoulder wreaking havoc in one corner while in the other corner, the archers were murdering from behind the vanguard. 

The battle is so one-sided and they thought it would be over soon. However…

One of the Judgment Unit sneaked behind and managed to kill his enemy. He then looked around for another prey when suddenly, the person he assassinated before exploded, killing him without leaving any single trace.

This accident shocked all of his allies. Exploding pawns make them more cautious in their massacre because the explosion was strong enough to annihilate them without any single trace.

Meanwhile, three people already surrounded 4-star criminal, Luca the Predator. The three of them encircle and throw knives at him.

"Hmph!"

In response, Luca stomped his foot, causing a shockwave that blew away both knives and his enemies.

"Is this all you have? Elites of the elite empire army are really disappointing," mocked Luca. "Bring me your captain!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but we're a bit short on people this time."

Suddenly, an electric cage appeared and locked Luca in. Luca tried to touch the electric cage with his bare hand but immediately get rid of that stupid thought.

"Please just hang in there for a while until we clean up these cannon fodder."

"Ho… are you Cody? I will play with you then while waiting for your captain to come."

Cody Ignored Luca and focused on taking care of pawns first. The Pawns weren't strong individually, but the exploded one was really bothersome.

"Void, stars, lightning. Bless upon me. Electric Arrow!"

Cody releases dozens of electric arrows and kills multiple enemies at once. Without any delay, he immediately casts another spell. But,

[Death God Technique, second: Death Knell]

The sound of a bell chiming extremely loudly interrupts Cody's chanting. Shortly after he realized the bell wasn't real. It is a technique that directly attacks the opponent's soul.

Luckily, Cody is a magician and has a powerful soul. Otherwise, he might end up like his bodyguard who is lying on the ground while bleeding from every hole in his body.

"Guh… I've heard of it. One of the forbidden techniques from Death God school. To think it would be this strong..." Cody murmured.

"Is this all you have!? Wizard from Azure Peak?"

Luca, who has somehow been released from the cage, rushes to kill Cody but he is immediately blocked by other unit members.

"How bothersome…"

Cody observes the battlefield. Putting the pawns aside, there were only four criminals in this tent. 4-star criminal and the most bothersome, Luca, targeted himself while 3-star criminals, The Tari-Ari brothers, have been busy with other members. In contrast, their main target, Blackjack, just sits quietly in the middle of platforms, ignoring the commotion going on around him.

"That old man is really something…"

[Death God Technique, First: Omen of Death]

Luca once again launched an attack. A pitch-black aura in the shape of a giant serpent killed the person who blocked his way and rushed into Cody.

"Lightning cage! Electric bird!"

Firstly, Cody confined himself in an electric cage to block Luca's attacks. Then he formed three electric birds that flew into Luca.

The criminal tried to avoid the wizard's attack. However, before he knew it, a person he thought was dead sealed his movement with his own body.

Three birds hit their targets, mercilessly roasting both of them. The unit member instantly died, Yet, Luca still managed to stand up. It was because the black aura he emits greatly reduces the impact of the magic.

"Why don't you just die already?" Cody murmured.

"Kuh-hahaha! there's no way I'd die before witnessing your captain's beauty!"

"Eh, did someone call me?"

Many heads immediately turned to the source of the voice.  

"Captain…"

A woman walking steadily on the battlefield. She is indeed beautiful, no, being called just beautiful is a bit condescending considering her magnificence. The combination of her doll-like face with light armor and a pair of swords on her waist gives forth an aura of peerless beauty.

This woman is none other than the often rumored Captain of the Judgment Unit, Irelina.

"Seriously, why didn't anyone wake me up..."

"So-sorry…"

"Yeah, whatever."

"Ah… Ah! Amazing! My love! You're still the same as the person I saw back then!" Luca shouted with great admiration.

However, the person who receives this kind of affection can only respond in one way. "... Disgusting. What with this guy?"

"Be careful. Despite his strange obsession with you, his skill is a real deal," said Cody.

"Yeah, I can see that he is indeed strong. Leave him to me."

"As you wish."

"Ah… it had been a while since we met in person. Are you missing me?"

"I said, it's disgusting. And who are you?" asked Irelina.

"Ah! So you don't know me? Then lemme carve myself in your heart! (Literally)"

Luca, who couldn't control himself anymore, directly charged toward Irelina. The sword he swung seemed to turn into a black, large serpent.

The Captain frowned slightly then crossed swords with him.

As a quasi-grandmaster of the Death God school, not only did Luca master many techniques, his attack is also extremely heavy. But strangely enough, Irelina can casually withstand his attacks without much effort.

Cody, who was finally freed from Luca, continued to finish off the remaining pawns. He didn't worry about his captain because he knew how terrifying that woman was.

"Amazing… incredible… stunning!"

In an instant, Luca and Irelina had already exchanged dozens of attacks. With every single swing, the aura that Luca emitted grew denser and his attacks became heavier and heavier.

[Death God Technique, Third: Death Manifestation]

His black aura condensed and manifested into the world in the form of a large, six-headed black serpent.

"See this? This little guy is my masterpiece. Let's see how you handle it."

"So, it seems like you've been eaten by your sword, huh." Irelina sighs.

"Ahahaha! Eaten? What do you mean?"

The technique Luca uses is the Trilogy of Death which got banned by the Death God school. The reason is that this technique would drive one into insanity and neverending bloodlust. 

"As a student of the same school, allow me to end your suffering."

"You, what have you been babbling about!?"

The serpent attacked but Irelina could evade with the most efficient move and then cut off one of its heads. 

Irelina moves around as if she is dancing. Dodge this and cut that; dodge that then cut this. Nevertheless, no matter how many times she cut the serpent's head, it would quickly grow back.

"So annoying."

As Irelina was distracted by the serpent, Luca used the opportunity to launch a surprise attack from behind.

However, Irelina already guessed his thought and reacted quickly with the spinning attack to block Luca's strike as well as prevent the serpent from attacking.

Upon finishing her 540° attack, she then immediately charged toward Luca. Not giving Luca time to respond.

[Death God Technique: Thrust]

"Eh...?"

The Captain's movements were so fast that even Luca didn't have time to react and Irelina's sword had already pierced his chest. A mouthful of fresh blood spits out from Luca's mouth.  

It's over… or so they thought.

However, something surprising happened.  Luca and the serpent instantly switched places. Even the wound that he should have suffered also disappeared. 

This is none other than the aura manifestation power. 

"So close…" Seems like Luca gets his sanity back.

The serpent immediately wrapped tightly around Irelina. It should be noted that Luca's black aura had an attribute to corrupt the living thing. Normal people would die just by contact with it.

But Luca did not launch an attack and instead retreated to Blackjack. He doesn't believe his aura alone would be enough to harm Irelina, and sure, he was right. In an instant, a stream of light swept across the black serpent and completely destroyed it.

Luca gets backlash because his aura manifestation had been destroyed. It's regrettable because he spent so much time and effort to manifest his aura but who cares, the important thing right now is to stay alive.

Luca runs as fast as he can. A chill ran down his back. It had been so long since he had felt this way. His last experience with this feeling is when he was nearly killed by his master for stealing forbidden scrolls.

"How can an adorable girl from back then become this scary… Old man! Do something!" Luca shouted to Blackjack.

"Why should I be? We're just here to buy some time."

"Kuh. Don't you understand? If this goes on we will die!"

Nonetheless, Blackjack still doesn't budge. He continues reading his book.

Irelina rose towards them. She is like Yama who will take her enemy's life, yet when she looks at Blackjack she gets mellowed a bit.

"Jack..."