Chapter 18: Ascendant Ranked

The air in Rayleigh’s lungs had been knocked out completely due to the force of the impact of whatever had just hit him.

Rayleigh’s body moved through the air, free-falling from a height of almost 30 meters.

That attack had sent his body through a few-inch-thick reinforced window from the seventh floor of the Silver Tower.

At this point, gravity was Rayleigh’s worst enemy.

Falling from the seventh floor of a high-rise building was a rib-cracking and gut-punching experience for any individual. It spelled instant death for a regular human without the perks of having abilities. But fortunately for Rayleigh, he had abilities of his own.

Rayleigh hadn’t anticipated that attack, and that left him in a daze. Unable to quickly access the system in order to use a defensive ability, Rayleigh braced for impact.

CRACK!

► [ -5 HP ]

Rayleigh’s body met the concrete floor with a loud crack. He gasped for air, but even breathing seemed like a harder task than running from a Lesser Beast.

’That one attack caused this much damage? What the hell? I guess that’s what being a Threat Level C Ascendant-Ranked Runer can get you. Damn!’ Rayleigh cursed internally, amidst the burning pain coursing through his body.

A strange, rhythmic sound suddenly reached Rayleigh’s ears.

It started as a low, pulsing vibration, almost like a distant mechanical hum buried beneath the concrete. The sound grew steadily louder, each pulse coming in rapid succession as the air around him seemed to tremble with it.

Then came a sudden, violent burst.

The vibration beneath Rayleigh intensified, and a figure shot downward from above, surrounded by an invisible force that distorted the air around her.

The pressure of the vibration met the ground just before she landed, dispersing the force of her descent across the concrete.

BOOM!

Concrete cracked beneath Cassandra Moon’s feet as she landed several feet away from Rayleigh, her impact created a spiderweb of fractures across the ground.

She had used her vibrations to cushion her landing.

She glared at Rayleigh, who was still recovering on the ground. "Now why would a non-runer like Rayleigh Pierce be trying to steal classified information?" The Silvered agent, Cassandra Moon, asked.

"And how did you survive that fall? Any non-runer would die on impact with the ground. Unless you aren’t really a non-runer. And the fact that you blew The Vortex to hell just proves that even more."

Her voice was completely calm as she spoke, as though Rayleigh wasn’t even worthy of being considered a threat to her, even though she knew, to an extent, what he was capable of.

The fact that she hadn’t attacked him again showed that she believed Rayleigh wasn’t a threat to her; not on the Academy grounds, he isn’t.

Rayleigh grunted hard, blood dripping from his mouth. "You said bait. What does that mean?"

"Oh, that?" Cassandra’s voice sounded too casual. "We knew there was a mole in the Silver Corp. We just needed to find out who, and we got that chance when we discovered a system. Only a handful of agents knew about it, and we made up a story about how we chose to store it in a physical file. We expected someone to take the bait, but what we hadn’t expected was you, Rayleigh Pierce, to be the one taking the bait."

Cassandra paused for a while, thinking deeply about something. One could tell she was connecting the dots, piecing together the information she had gathered and comparing it with everything she already knew about Rayleigh.

"I know for a fact that you needed a job after you were released from prison. The Academy refused to accept you back, and having awakened your Rune Genetic Code, you decided to work for someone who gave you a task that you completed rather efficiently."

"You broke a prisoner out of The Vortex, and now you’re here to steal intel." She tilted her head slightly. A smile formed on her lips.

"I figure that the person you work for is connected to that prisoner you broke out of The Vortex. So that means when we find Ron Kol, we will be able to track down whoever sent you here."

’Well, damn, professor! You’re smart. Not many people could have pieced something like that together.’ Rayleigh thought.

"The mole is working with The Vortex’s attacker and the prisoner known as Ron Kol." Cassandra muttered to a device on her wrist. "Find Ron Kol and find that mole!"

The transmission had been sent, and now, the Silver Corp knew what Elias was up to.

"Ugh!" Rayleigh groaned as he pushed himself up from the ground.

’This has been fun and all, Sherlock Holmes, but I’ll need that file, the actual file. Now where could it possibly be?’ Rayleigh wondered. ’Something that valuable wouldn’t be kept in a safe; she proved that with the bait. I deduce that something of high importance can’t be trusted anywhere she didn’t have her eyes on at all times, and what is the one place that a person has their eyes on at every moment of their life?’

Rayleigh tilted his head, his gaze settling on Cassandra Moon.

’Ten million Nexels says she has the real files on her at the moment.’

His eyes roamed her body, searching for what he believed to be the actual classified file that Elias needed.

His eyes landed on something hanging loosely around her neck. It certainly looked like a compact storage device.

The device was about the size of a small USB drive, but its design was far more advanced. Its silver casing was almost seamless, with no visible ports or buttons anywhere on its surface.

A faint blue light pulsed beneath the device at regular intervals, indicating that there was an information being stored within its microscopic memory core.

It looked more like a piece of futuristic jewelry than a storage device.

"Unless that’s a pretty necklace some guy gave to you,..." Rayleigh, now standing upright, said, pointing at the device hanging on her neck. "...I’m going to be needing it. Would you mind handing it over?"

"I am going to allow you the courtesy of surrendering. It’s protocol. I offer you two options; one is the easy way and two is the hard way. I myself prefer the hard way," Cassandra said.

Suddenly, the ground trembled.

The sound came from directly beneath Rayleigh’s feet, deep and guttural, as though something enormous had awakened beneath the earth.

Cracks began forming across the concrete floor, branching away from his feet as dust rose from the fractured surface.

Rayleigh felt the vibration travel through his boots and into his bones.

An Ascendant-Ranked Runer wasn’t simply someone who possessed a stronger ability. Their control over their Rune Genetic Code had reached a level where the environment itself could become an extension of their power.

Cassandra stood completely still, yet the earth beneath them continued to tremble.

Rayleigh knew she was strong, probably stronger than him, but he believed strength wasn’t the only thing that one needed in a fight.

Wit and decisiveness were important factors, and luckily for him, he had cultivated a lot of that during his time as a runeless human fighting beasts with nothing but a Dune Sword.

’Open Weaponry System!’ Rayleigh commanded with his mind.

►[ Weaponry System Grade 3 ]

►[ Plasma Stun Gun ]

►[ Gamma Requiem ]

Ding!

► [ New Objective Received: Defeat the Ascendant-Ranked Runer known as Cassandra Moon ]

► [ Objective Reward: Exponential Attribute Points and + New Energy weapon + 100 Level-Up SP ]

Rayleigh’s eyes turned dark. "I chose option three. The option where you’re no longer standing in my way."