As A Mafia Boss, I Refuse To Be An Extra - Chapter 252: Imperials Show Their Power
Chapter 252: Imperials Show Their Power
The stench was overwhelming – burning flesh that smelled like burning plastic mixed with rotting vegetation, chemical and organic simultaneously.
Light spread across the battlefield, showing clearly for the first time just how many enemies surrounded them.
Hundreds visible in the firelight.
Thousands more suggested by movement in the fog beyond where illumination reached.
A sea of blank white eyes and knife-claws and wrong dark flesh, all pressing inward with mindless hunger.
****
“Formation breaking on the south side!”
Edrin’s voice carried tactical assessment without panic.
“Alexander, we need shields there! Jonathan, air support! Cassius, their flanks are exposed!”
No one questioned Edrin’s commands or how he even knew what they could do.
Clearly this smart guy had already memorized all of their abilities for tournament purposes.
Jonathan Thorne responded instantly, his golden hair and eyes blazing.
First, he activated his weapon art – Divine Severance. His longsword became pure cutting light, each swing leaving trails that lingered, creating barriers of light-energy that sliced anything touching them.
He carved through twenty creatures in seconds, his B+ rank Aura making even casual swings lethal.
Then, his Aura solidified into divine constructs.
“Imperial Blessing of House Thorne – DIVINE AEGIS!”
Golden Aura began to solidify, taking physical form around his body like armor made of pure light. His eyes glowed with inner radiance.
Golden wings erupted from his back – not decorative, but functional, capable of actual flight through Aura manipulation.
His longsword blazed so brightly it hurt to look at directly, light-principle energy making the blade essentially a cutting laser.
He launched skyward, wings carrying him above the formation, giving him a clear view of the entire battlefield.
“DIE!”
Then he dove, blade leading, golden light carving through creatures like they were nothing.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Each swing vaporized entire sections of the horde, light-energy burning through their natural armor and dark flesh with contemptuous ease, his aerial position making him impossible to counterattack.
But more came.
Always more.
****
“West side collapsing!”
“I can’t hold this position!”
“Someone help! They’re getting through!”
“I can’t–HELP ME!”
A boy – Noble family, maybe eighteen – went down as three creatures dragged him backwards.
He clawed at mud, trying to find purchase, his fingers leaving trails as he was pulled into the horde.
“NO! PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO–FATHER! FATHER HELP M–”
CRUNCH!
A creature’s jaws closed over his head.
Not biting it off.
But Engulfing it completely.
His entire head disappeared into the thing’s mouth as it bit down slowly, savoring, the boy’s body convulsing as his skull cracked like an egg, brain matter squeezing out between the creature’s teeth.
His hands kept grasping at air, nervous system still firing even though his brain was being consumed.
“!!!”
Students nearby froze, minds unable to process what they were seeing.
****
“Someone help! They’re getting through!”
A girl – commoner, Republic Academy – stumbled as mud betrayed her footing.
Five creatures swarmed her.
One grabbed her left arm.
Another grabbed her right.
They pulled in opposite directions.
“NO! STOP! PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUCH!”
Pop! Pop!
Her shoulders dislocated with wet pops.
They kept pulling.
Her skin began tearing at the joints, muscle and tendon visible as her arms separated from her body with sounds like wet fabric ripping.
“MAMA! MAMA I WANT TO GO HOME! MAMA PLEASE!”
Blood fountained from the wounds as her arms came completely off, the creatures immediately beginning to eat them while she was still conscious, still screaming, watching them consume her own limbs.
She died screaming for her mother, eyes locked on her own severed arm being devoured.
****
Alexander Vance moved without hesitation.
His B+ rank brown Aura flared, defensive techniques creating walls of solid energy.
His SS rank weapon art – Bastion Eternal – made his shield the greatest defense present.
Then he activated his Imperial skill.
“Imperial Gift of House Vance – AEGIS ETERNAL!”
Brown shields materialized across the failing sections – not single barriers but overlapping layers that could absorb tremendous punishment, allowing him to maintain multiple constructs simultaneously.
BAM BAM BAM BAM
The creatures slammed into his shields and stopped, physically incapable of breaking through defensive structures backed by Imperial skill.
“YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
He held three collapsing sides alone, his face showing strain but his shields never wavering, buying time for others to reposition and reinforce.
Cassius Eckhart’s grey eyes assessed the battlefield.
Their defensive circle was holding, but barely, and the constant pressure would eventually exhaust their Aura reserves.
They needed to reduce enemy numbers faster.
His SS rank weapon art – SPEAR OF DARKNESS – made his spear ignite with black flames that devoured light itself, each thrust leaving trails of void in the air where reality briefly forgot to exist.
He tore through the creatures with elegant precision, their flesh parting like water before the dark flames, the atmosphere of the portal only amplifying his power.
His black Aura exploded outward, colder and denser than anything around him.
“Imperial Curse of House Eckhart – SHADOW LEGION!”
His shadow stretched beneath his feet, then split. Once. Twice. Four times. Eight.
Eight figures rose from the ground around him – perfect silhouettes of Cassius, each wrapped in the same black flames, each carrying a spear of darkness identical to his own.
They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to.
“KILL THEM ALL!”
The clones moved.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
They scattered through the horde like loose hounds, each one striking with surgical precision, their dark spears punching through creature after creature without resistance.
Each one killing tens in a single strike.
Raymond Kingsley’s blonde hair whipped in winds he generated, his bow already drawn, an arrow of condensed air forming at the string.
His SS-rank weapon art – TEMPEST SOVEREIGN – turned every arrow into a storm given direction, each shot erupting into expanding blades of compressed wind the moment it left his bow.
He loosed one arrow.
TWANG!
The arrow shrieked through the air and detonated mid-flight, unleashing a thirty-meter arc of razor winds that carved through dozens of creatures per pass, their natural armor parting like paper before the compressed pressure.
His B+ rank Aura made each gust sharp enough to split bone, each arrow a storm waiting to happen.
He drew again. And again. Arrows forming from the air itself between heartbeats, his hands moving faster than the eye could follow.
But it wasn’t enough.
For every ten he killed, twenty more emerged from the fog.
