Chapter 127: Shameless Bastard

Spiderwebs of cracks raced through the safety glass along the passenger side, shivering as the roof-mounted air conditioning unit rattled violently overhead.

Yet the thunderous clap had merely been the prelude. The moment the initial concussive snap peaked, the true essence of the spell detonated outward into the night.

A dense, invisible torrent of violently agitated soundwaves erupted into the street, woven with chaotic frequencies designed to shred organic equilibrium.

High-pitched shrieks and sub-bass rumbles tore through the air simultaneously, turning the space around the bus into a localized acoustic meat grinder.

Inside the cabin, the survivors who had taken Fredrinn’s warning seriously clamped their palms over their ears with frantic desperation.

Even so, the sheer acoustic pressure that leaked past their knuckles was agonizing. People folded forward in their seats, foreheads pressed hard against their knees as their teeth rattled in their gums.

The vibrations resonated through their very jawbones, leaving half the students gagging from instantaneous, vertigo-induced nausea.

Ash, puffed up on his enhanced constitution, had treated the warning as mere civilian hyperbole. He had kept his hands relaxed, assuming his Awakened physiology could easily shrug off whatever trick Fredrinn was pulling.

The mistake punished him instantly.

A sharp, stabbing spike drilled straight into his eardrums, feeling like molten iron being injected into his skull.

Ash let out a choked shriek as thick lines of dark blood leaked past his ear lobes.

Panic overriding his ego, he slammed his palms against the sides of his head, squeezing his eyes shut as the world spun into a dizzying tilt.

Had his Awakened resilience not blunted the brunt of the shockwave at the very last second, the vibrational burst would have blown his tympanic membranes completely out.

The only ones entirely unaffected by the sonic carnage were Rose, Selene, and Charlie.

Rose, operating at a realm of raw physical power that matched Fredrinn’s own baseline, simply rested her pale hands over her ears without bothering to apply pressure.

A lazy, amused smirk played on her lips as she watched the sheer chaos unfold.

Selene and Charlie, on the other hand, had received orders solely from Rose. Because the command to shield their ears had come from Fredrinn, the mental shackles binding the two undead forbade them from flinching.

They sat in the front bench like frozen mannequins, their faces twisting in silent, grotesque agony as dark streams of tainted blood trickled down their grey jawlines.

"AH, FUCK!" Aadav roared through clenched teeth.

He had kept one hand glued to his left ear while using his shoulder to mash his right against his collar, his boot remaining pinned flat against the throttle.

The instant the heavy drag anchoring the chassis vanished, the bus violently lurched.

Aadav grabbed the wheel with both hands, muscles bulging as he wrestled the heavy steering column back onto the center line.

Fredrinn looked through the cracked pane, a flicker of satisfaction passing through his dark eyes.

The horde hadn’t been wiped out entirely—Earth’s thin mana reserves naturally diluted the lethal edge of the spell—but the entire perimeter had been neutralized.

Hundreds of night-buffed corpses were collapsed across the street, clawing uselessly at their bleeding ears, their nervous systems completely short-circuited.

A few of the tougher Tier 2 brutes were already staggering back to their feet, letting out hollow roars as they gave chase, but with their equilibrium wrecked, they stumbled like drunken fools.

The bus couldn’t reach top speed due to a shredded rear tire thumping rhythmically against the tarmac, yet the gap between the vehicle and the swarm widened by the second.

Stunned disbelief swept through the survivors.

"What the fuck..." Ash muttered under his breath, wiping smeared blood from his neck with trembling fingers. "He has a sound-type skill? How the hell is it that destructive? What tier is that... epic? Legendary?"

"Heh, brother Freddy’s skill is an epic tier," Jacob piped up smoothly from a few seats over, his eyes glittering with undisguised greed.

Until five minutes ago, Jacob had considered Max’s flashy lightning the prime target for his parasitic drain.

But seeing Fredrinn casually dismantle a lethal swarm with an invisible, wide-area sonic blast had completely recalibrated his ambitions.

’It’s fine... I’ll have both of them eventually,’ Jacob thought, his pulse quickening. ’I just need to play the loyal dog a little longer. A versatile trump card like that is worth swallowing every drop of pride I have.’

Further back, Jenny sat frozen, her jaw practically unhinged.

’Wait a second... Didn’t he tell us his power comes from sleeping with women?’

The realization hit her like a bucket of ice water. He had explicitly spun a grand tale about dual cultivation, claiming he only gained supernatural buffs through physical intimacy.

Yet here he was, casually snapping off high-tier sound magic like an ancient sorcerer!

’That bastard... Did he invent that whole dual cultivation story just to trick me into his bed?!’

A furious scarlet blush climbed from her collarbone straight to her temples. Her eyes narrowed into slits, drilling daggers into the back of Fredrinn’s head as her fingers dug deep into the vinyl armrest.

Feeling the abrupt spike of homicidal intent prickling at the base of his neck, Fredrinn turned around, glancing at Jenny with genuine bewilderment.

’Why is she glaring at me like I murdered her entire family?’

He blinked once, thought about asking, and promptly abandoned the idea.

Decoding the inner workings of a woman’s mood was a fool’s errand across every dimension he had ever walked.

Apolasia, Earth—it made no difference.

"Jenny, guide Aadav to the hotel," Fredrinn instructed, keeping his tone crisp and calm, "We’re not taking any more chances on the open road tonight."

The survivors stared at him in dazed silence. The man was speaking as if he hadn’t just blown open a surefire death trap with a single pair of bare hands.

Had they remained stuck for another three minutes, the hydraulic doors would have buckled under the sheer mass of the nocturnal horde, turning the bus into a slaughterhouse.

"Fine," Jenny huffed.

She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and rose to her feet, making sure to sashay down the narrow aisle with an exaggerated, rhythmic sway of her hips.

Every curve was accentuated with deliberate precision, practically daring him to look and silently cursing him for giving Andrea priority tonight.

Reaching the driver’s cab, she subtly turned her head to check if he was watching.

Her jaw tightened in pure fury.

BASTARD HAD ALREADY LEFT!!!

Fredrinn had already turned his back on her, casually strolling back toward the rear where Andrea, Naomi, and Vivienne were waiting.

Rose trotted right behind his shoulder, happily peeling the wrapper off another cherry lollipop she had pulled out of nowhere.

’That absolute, shameless bastard!’ Jenny screamed internally, stomping her foot before barking the next street turn into Aadav’s ear.