Chapter 122: The Tollbearer (3)

"Round two!"

"No!" Misha shouted.

Gerbaut heard her but Hiiro, unfortunately, he did not so he charged anyway.

Misha hovered several feet above the street in her displaced soul form and stared toward the gray sky for one deeply spiritual second. "Why is he like this?"

The Observation Channel stirred at the edge of her awareness but she ignored them. With all these Awakeners around her, she could already tell how chaotic the chat would be between Observers from different channels.

Below her, Hiiro slipped under one of the Tollbearer’s chains. Then he planted his foot and drove his shoulder into the Tollbearer’s already damaged side. It was not enough to knock the Aberrant down but it was enough to force one massive foot backward.

Hiiro grinned. "There."

Gerbaut moved with him as he swept Stormpiercer low in a brutal silver arc and struck behind the Tollbearer’s knees. The spearhead bit through gray flesh, exposing black parasite strands beneath.

The Aberrant buckled, one head screamed while the other whipped toward Gerbaut.

Misha felt the shift before she understood it. The Tollbearer was adapting.

One head watched Hiiro, the second followed Gerbaut. Its third arm began moving independently of both since apparently, two heads meant multitasking.

Somewhere behind them, Alaric stopped singing.

Misha glanced toward him and he looked personally wounded. Not physically, but spiritually.

Hiiro had called him a healer and apparently, it was worse than the undead army. So Alaric stared after the boy as though someone had reduced a masterpiece to ’nice painting.’

"I am not merely a healer," he muttered.

Carl stood beside him and looked up. "But you healed them..."

Alaric glanced down. "Yes, but with artistry."

"So you’re a healer."

The insult landed twice for this grown man.

Misha would have laughed if her body was not currently carrying a chain that could probably remove a horse from existence.

Alaric opened his mouth then noticed. A Vestige turned its head toward him so he froze. The corpse changed direction and before it got close, Astrid fired.

Bang!

The ice-coated round went straight through its forehead. Frost bloomed across its face before the body fell forward and struck the road.

Alaric stared at the back of her head. She did not even glance toward him. A slow, interested smirk formed across his face. "Well, I do admire a woman who understands when to shoot so when this is over, I wouldn’t mind buying you a–"

"Seventeen."

"Seventeen."

Misha stopped. For one very strange second, she stared at Caius. He had said it at exactly the same time she had.

Of course nobody except Gerbaut could hear her.

Lighting erupted along the street and caught two Vestiges mid-charge. Both bodies seized so violently their weapons flew from their hands.

Alaric blinked in confusion. "Hm?"

Caius did not even bother looking toward him. "She’s seventeen."

The flirtation vanished from Alaric’s face with astonishing speed.

Misha almost respected it. Almost.

He physically leaned back. "Then I withdraw whatever sentence I was about to say before it was born."

Astrid’s brows furrowed. "Misha’s going to–"

"I value my limbs." His retreat was immediate. He made no argument and no attempt at clever justification. One second he had been interested. The next, Astrid might as well have transformed into a decorative lamp. His gaze moved past Astrid and straight toward where Misha’s body was.

Gerbaut was currently using that body to drive Stormpiercer straight through the Tollbearer’s chest.

’"And besides," Alaric continued smoothly, "my preferences fortunately run toward adult women who threaten me with knives."

Misha stared blankly at him from less than six feet away. "This bastard..."

He could not hear her. Worse, he could not see her. That meant she had the deeply unpleasant privilege of watching him flirt with her body while someone else was driving it.

Alaric’s smile widened. "So my attention remains devoted to one terrifying woman."

Misha rolled her eyes and floated away. She had no energy to participate in this conversation spiritually.

Caius glanced toward Alaric, his face remained calm but the lightning surrounding his weapon cracked a little louder.

The man did not miss it. His mouth curled with faint satisfaction of someone who had found a button and was already considering pressing it again. But then, seeing Hiiro and Gerbaut focusing on the Aberrant, he decided that could wait.

"♪ Now then, I signed up to sing–♪" Alaric continued, clearing his throat dramatically. "♪ To heal, to inspire, perhaps look attractive nearby–♪"

Astrid closed her eyes for half a second then sighed to which Misha did the same.

From his place beside Alaric, Carl stared at the man. His grief had left his eyes swollen and red, but apparently even mourning had limits when faced with this much nonsense.

"Do you have to sing what you’re thinking?"

Alaric faltered. "My songs require sincerity, kid."

Carl looked toward the battlefield then at him. "Maybe think less..."

<The Saint Buried Upside Down> The little mortal has struck the Bard in a place no blade has reached.

<White Silence of Eternal Rest> Children are merciless because they have not yet learned to decorate truth before handing it to the other.

<The Prisoner of Floor One Hundred> Give the boy a weapon. He already knows where to aim.

Misha would have paid more attention if the Tollbearer had not tried to flatten Gerbaut against a building.

Stormpiercer caught a descending chain. The impact traveled through Misha’s body even though she could not feel it directly. Her boots slid backward, one meter, then two. The pavement cracked.

A normal Vestige would have been easy enough to deal with, but with Aberrant was another matter entirely. Its classification might have remained the same, but the variation made it far stronger. Fighting it was like dealing with a monster that had been forced several steps higher without the System bothering to change the label.

The Tollbearer leaned forward, both mouths opened but Gerbaut who was inside Misha made no change in her expression. That was almost insulting.

He twisted Stormpiercer, redirected the chain, then drove the spear butt into the Aberrant’s knee. Bones cracked and one of its legs buckled.

Hiiro appeared from the side. "Got you!"

Misha’s eyes widened. "Hiiro–"

His heel crashed into the Tollbearer’s human-looking face. The head snapped sideways and the Aberrant staggered.

For the first time, Hiiro managed to shift its full weight now that his injuries were no longer slowing him. He could finally put his entire body behind the technique. He wasn’t overpowering it outright. He was catching its momentum and redirecting it, using the Tollbearer’s own monstrous weight against it.

The enormous body slammed shoulder-first into the wall. The stone split and the dust burst outward.

Hiiro landed and grinned like he had just won something. "This is what I’m talking about! See?"

Misha folded her spectral arms. "I see an overdeveloped newborn."

"Now we punch everything that tries following them."

Gerbaut looked toward him then toward the road. "Go after them."

The boy’s grin vanished. "What?"

"Leave."

Hiiro straightened. "But we can definitely defeat this thing!"

Gerbaut turned her head, that was all he did. He did not need to raise his voice. Just one flat stare through the glowing eyes of Misha’s mask was enough to shrink Hiiro’s confidence by several measurable degrees.

"I..." He glanced at the Tollbearer then at the masked woman in front of him. He wisely reconsidered his relationship with authority. "I-I can cover Caius instead."

Gerbaut gave one short nod. "Go with him." Then he rotated Stormpiercer once. "I’ll create a path."

Misha stared at the side of her own masked face. There was something almost offensive about how much more easily people obeyed Gerbaut when he used her body.

’I say the same thing and everyone negotiates. He says two words and suddenly obedience is fashionable.’

Hiiro moved as Caius had already begun preparing something larger.

Misha noticed the change in mana before the lightning appeared. Purple current climbed from his hands along the length of his staff-spear, winding tighter with every breath.

Caius lowered his center of gravity then drove the weapon into the street and purple-white lightning exploded forward. Not in a wide uncontrolled burst, he compressed it and forced it into the street.

The first corpse seized, the second caught the current through its cleaver, then the next, and the next as lightning jumped between weapons, wet stone, and exposed metal.

The road became a violent web of violet light. Vestiges convulsed in place, and several dropped immediately. Others remained standing with muscles locked, black filaments writhing beneath burned skin as the parasites tried to force their bodies back into motion.

For several precious seconds, the street opened, a straight path west toward the Central Crematorium.

Caius gritted his teeth, the veins along his wrist stood out beneath the glow. "GO!"

Misha turned immediately. "Astrid!"

Apparently, she forgot the others couldn’t hear her. But with Caius shouting, the red head girl reacted instantly.

She bolstered her firearm long enough to seize Carl’s hand. "Come on!"

Carl looked toward Misha’s body, his feet hesitated.

Astrid tugged. "She’ll follow."

That was enough to make the boy run with her. Meanwhile, Alaric remained behind the stone buttress for only a second. Still–

Misha’s soul rounded on him. "Move, you cowardly peacock!"

The man studied the several Vestiges twitching on the ground, smoke rose from scorched bodies. He looked at the road, then at Caius, whose jaw had tightened from the effort of maintaining the current, then back at the road.

Astrid soon noticed he wasn’t following. "Mister!"

He didn’t have a choice so he sprinted after her. "Please keep that blond boy alive!"

Caius’ eye twitched. "I don’t–"

"I’ll cover you!" Hiiro said as he reached him.

"I can manage."

"That’s what people say right before they dramatically collapse."

Caius looked personally offended. He did not need to hear that, especially from Hiiro.

A Vestige pushed through the lightning. Noticing it, Hiiro punched it in the head. "See? Helpful."

Caius gave him a look that somehow managed to carry both exhaustion and reluctant fondness. "Just watch the right."

"Yes, Captain!"

Gerbaut remained behind, alone. Well, except Misha who was floating all over the place then coming back to him.

The Tollbearer pulled itself from the damaged wall, one head hung at an unnatural angle from Hiiro’s kick. Then the other screamed. "KWAUUUA!!"

Chains snapped outward. Gerbaut stepped through them. Stormpiercer stabbed a Vestige approaching from the flank.

「 You have killed a Vestige!

EXP +75 」

Then another window struck across Misha’s vision.

「 〔LEVEL UP〕

Lv. 19 —> Lv. 20 」

Warmth surged through the spiritual tether connecting her to her own body.

Gerbaut felt it since his next step became sharper and more stable.

「 〔ATTRIBUTE GROWTH〕

Strength +2

Agility +2

Vitality +1

Endurance +2

Perception +1」

「 〔TRAIT ADVANCEMENT〕

Analytical Thinking Lv. 7 → Lv. 8

Sleep Deprivation Resistance Lv. 4 → Lv. 5

Steady Hands Lv. 5 → Lv. 6 」

「〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

Class Development Detected.

Soulbinder proficiency requirements have been met.

New Subskill Unlocked:

"Soul Marionette"

Skill information has been added to the User’s Status Window. 」

’Soul Marionette?’ Misha’s eyes widened in disbelief.