Chapter 10:

With his ruggedly handsome features, sculpted muscles like a marble statue, and status as a top-ranked fixer, Victor was a star among his peers.

In the bounty hunting world, he boasted a near 90% success rate—a fixer of trust and reliability, holding the prestigious title of a “Double Number Fixer.”

In the past, his reputation as the “Mage Killer” stemmed from his ability to eliminate dangerous spellcasters who could tilt the tide of battle.

Now, however, drenched from head to toe and wearing only a bathrobe, he found himself reduced to being mistaken as a weirdo.

Victor forced a grin, enduring the throbbing pain in his forehead as he thought:

That attack… A few more of those, and my skull might actually crack like a watermelon. Being able to unleash magic like that without an incantation? She’s a ridiculous monster.

The sheer power hidden within the Ghost made even someone like him feel uneasy.

True, Victor had rushed out mid-bath, armed with nothing but a borrowed grappling gun.

But even so, as an enhanced human, his body surpassed ordinary humans in every way—nerves, muscles, and bones.

He could shrug off bullets with mere scratches and lift cars with his bare hands.

And yet, the Ghost was firing off magic so powerful it made even him feel vulnerable.

If she had a capable bodyguard backing her up, her potential would be overwhelming. It seemed like a waste for someone like her to remain hidden in the underworld.

“I like you even more, Ghost! You want to show me your strength? Fine, I’ll take you down with everything I’ve got!”

Victor’s muscles pulsed, their definition becoming more prominent as his body surged with power.

He resembled an unstoppable bull, charging forward with incredible momentum.

Of course, his translucent bathrobe made the sight utterly appalling to the Ghost, but Victor either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He simply laughed as he sprinted toward her.

The one good thing is that his attacks are easy to predict. Strong power, but very simple patterns. A typical flaw of mages.

Victor dodged the Ghost’s occasional probing attacks with ease, observing and learning her patterns.

When he tried to close the distance, she would retreat and counterattack.

This meant she wasn’t a stationary turret-type mage who needed full concentration to cast her spells.

The way she anticipated his movements and prepared spells along his route indicated a more versatile magic style.

Her attacks took at least 0.3 seconds to connect from the initial trigger. While she could delay that gap intentionally, she couldn’t shorten it any further.

Her movements sometimes exhibited physically impossible speed, meaning she relied heavily on her magic to assist her body. Her actual physical abilities were likely weak.

…I see it. Three moves ahead, and checkmate.

Victor calculated all his options and hers.

Based on every possible variable, he determined the shortest path to victory.

Unless the Ghost revealed something entirely unexpected, the battle would be decided in three moves.

This ability to predict and counter every conceivable outcome was why Victor earned the moniker of “Mage Killer.”

Move 1:

The Ghost leapt off the ground, scaling the building’s exterior wall to reach the rooftop.

Victor followed instantly, hooking his grappling gun onto the wall and pulling himself up after her.

Move 2:

On the rooftop, the Ghost positioned herself with a ventilation unit behind her, facing Victor.

Victor, now on the roof as well, charged at her with enough force to crack the ground beneath him.

Move 3:

The Ghost stood still, not making any moves as Victor closed the seven-step gap between them.

Confident in his victory, Victor lunged forward.

But just as he was about to claim victory, a powerful gust of wind swept over the rooftop, enveloping both of them.

The Ghost’s white cloth shot toward Victor at incredible speed, propelled by the sudden wind.

Telekinesis was a highly versatile power, but it wasn’t flawless.

It lacked precision, like trying to manipulate objects while wearing thick gloves.

At most, the Ghost could control two or three objects at a time, and manipulating something with speed was difficult.

While telekinesis could be used to throw objects to gain speed, it also meant losing control of the object entirely, like throwing a baseball out of reach.

This made fighting someone with Victor’s reflexes incredibly difficult—her telekinesis lacked the speed to outpace him, and a simple throw would be too predictable.

Which is why I needed a way to maintain control while gaining speed!

The powerful gusts from the ventilation unit behind her blasted out, pushing against her back with force equivalent to a 40 km/h wind.

These rooftop ventilation systems were crucial for large, dense buildings like those in the “Jungle Gym” district.

The Ghost had used her telekinesis to tweak the ventilation unit’s internal structure, directing the wind toward herself and Victor.

The wind alone wouldn’t faze Victor—it wasn’t strong enough to unbalance someone of his stature.

But the Ghost wasn’t relying on the wind to harm him.

As Victor charged forward, the Ghost slipped out of her white cloth and flung it directly into the wind.

The lightweight fabric flew at the same speed as the wind, making it almost impossible for Victor to dodge.

As expected, Victor’s incredible reflexes allowed him to realize there was no body beneath the cloth in mere moments. He began adjusting his movements to change course.

But the Ghost had anticipated even this.

The cloth is still within my telekinetic range!

The trajectory of the white cloth suddenly veered sharply, defying the wind’s natural direction.

Telekinesis added its own force, wrapping the fabric tightly around Victor’s head.

Caught off guard, Victor struggled to tear the cloth away, but the Ghost’s telekinesis made it impossible to remove.

At the same time, the Ghost retrieved something from her pocket and scattered it into the air.

The scattered object was… paper bills.

The Ghost’s entire earnings from the day, enough to survive for at least two days.

If he’s tracking me, the method must involve either the cloth or the money.

Unsure of which one was the culprit, the Ghost decided to discard both at once.

Between a few scraps of cash and her safety, the choice was obvious.

Riding the wind, the shredded bills spun toward Victor with telekinetic force, turning them into razor-sharp projectiles.

“Ughhh!”

Victor, sensing the incoming threat, abandoned his attempt to remove the cloth and instead covered his vital areas.

This defensive posture left him wide open.

With perfect timing, the Ghost condensed her telekinetic energy into a tight, ball-like form and slammed it into Victor’s chest.

Thrown off balance, Victor couldn’t resist the force. He toppled backward off the rooftop.

In mere seconds, a perfectly executed sequence of attacks had sent the blond pervert plummeting to the ground below.

It worked! Time to get out of here!

Exhausted from pushing her focus to the limit, the Ghost hurriedly fled the scene, slipping on a goblin mask to conceal her face.

Though her cloth was gone, making her feel oddly exposed, she didn’t stop until she was far away.

Whether it was the discarded money or Victor’s fall, there were no signs of pursuit after that.

Later, at her hideout, the Ghost collapsed from exhaustion.

No more theft for a while…

Today has been a grueling, traumatic day.

Meanwhile, Victor emerged from a pile of garbage bags where he had landed, tearing away the cloth wrapped around his head.

I’ve got a 5-second delay. If I move now, I can still catch her!

Victor assessed his surroundings, preparing to give chase again—only to realize his situation.

“Wait… my clothes…”

The bathrobe, already barely functional, had been reduced to strips. The absence of anything covering his lower half was… troubling.

“The final attack… was it to steal my clothes?”

Victor’s face reddened as he looked around for anything to cover himself.

But there was nothing nearby that could even pretend to be clothing.

Victor imagined the headlines:

“Double Number Fixer Runs Across Rooftops Naked in the Dead of Night.”

He shuddered at the thought.

“Hahahaha! If I keep running around like this, I’ll end up arrested instead of catching the Ghost. I’ve lost. What an absurd opponent!”

Victor admitted defeat with surprising grace.

Despite his loss, he couldn’t help but marvel at the creativity of the Ghost’s tactics.

As he reflected, however, something nagged at him.

When the Ghost had thrown off her cloth, there had been a brief glimpse of her underneath.

Victor’s memory was sharp, and he was certain of what he had seen:

She looked like a child.

“Don’t tell me… another victim of the city’s darkness?”

Victor’s expression grew somber as he gazed at the night sky, lost in thought.

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