NOVGO.NET Chapter 33: The Tunnel Run
Chapter 33: The Tunnel Run
Overhead sodium lamps flickered along the ceiling of the western highway tunnel, casting pale orange pools over the cracked asphalt roadway.
The two municipal transport trucks rumbled through the gloom, their suspension springs groaning beneath crates filled with false medical supplies.
"Three kilometers inside the mountain and the ventilation fans already stopped spinning," he muttered from the rear transport truck bumper.
’A half-million credit bounty for driving through an empty tunnel is a transparent execution trap,’ he thought, testing his hatchet balance.
Ruby sat braced inside the passenger cabin of the lead transport, resting her spear across her knees while monitoring side mirrors.
"Keep your eyes on the overhead gantries," she called back through the open cab window, her voice steady despite her bandaged ribs.
"The gantries are quiet, but the ceiling wiring carries fresh cuts," he answered, pointing toward severed power cables dangling above them.
The tunnel lighting died in a rapid falling domino sequence, plunging two kilometers of enclosed roadway into absolute pitch darkness.
"Brace the steering wheel!" the convoy driver shouted in panic, slamming his palms against the dashboard as emergency brake lines hissed.
Eight silhouettes dropped from the dark ceiling girders like hunting spiders, landing across the hood of the lead truck with drawn weapons.
Ignis heat crawled along the serrated edges of their machetes, glowing with malevolent orange embers that illuminated their blank masks.
"Target confirmed inside the cab, sever the spear!" the lead proxy bellowed, ignoring the cargo containers to attack the passenger door.
’They came to butcher my partner and leave me signable,’ he thought, feeling his bone density harden with violent kinetic mass.
Fin vaulted off the rear bumper across fifteen meters of road, releasing every shred of physical restraint he held for cameras.
[ Active skill: Overclock initiated ]
[ Stamina: 100 → 60/100 ]
[ Agility: 78 → 234 (temporary surge) ]
’Twelve seconds to clear this entire platform,’ he thought, watching the world freeze into a crisp still frame of suspended dust motes.
His hatchet flashed through the dark air, biting through the wrist joint of the first assassin before the blade could swing.
"Agh!" the masked proxy screamed in agony, his severed hand and flaming machete clattering onto the hood with a dull clatter.
Fin caught the falling man’s collar, throwing him through the second truck’s windshield to stop its advance.
He stowed his hatchet before turning toward the next pair of assassins.
He drew both daggers from his inventory pocket, spinning on his sneakers to drive the dark points through two throats simultaneously.
The kinetic shock detonated through the narrow tunnel, cracking the tiled side walls as his unrestrained Rank D density impacted stone.
"Three down, five standing on the dark asphalt," he counted aloud, pulling his blades free with a sharp mechanical rhythm.
Two proxies unleashed a twin wave of celestial flame spells, washing white-hot fire across the road to consume his charging silhouette.
’Your divine patron sells cheap fire to cowards,’ he thought, ducking beneath the flame front while his resistance reduced the heat reaching his exposed skin.
He kept a wrecked truck between himself and the second caster, crossing when the flame swept past.
He stored the daggers, drawing the hatchet as the fourth killer lunged.
Its reverse spike broke through the breastplate, crushing the assassin’s sternum beneath it.
"These masked proxies fight like sponsored trainees with borrowed courage," he muttered, parrying a swinging machete with his left forearm.
’Their technique is rigid and textbook, relying on flame enchantments to terrify lower-ranked free agents without patrons,’ he thought calmly.
The fifth assassin lunged from his blind flank, thrusting a poisoned dagger toward his lower kidney with desperate, trembling combat speed.
He caught the descending wrist with his bare left hand, crushing the assassin’s forearm bones until the weapon dropped into the dirt.
"Agh... impossible! Divine magic cannot bite his skin!" the trapped killer shrieked, kicking wildly as he hung suspended by his arm.
"Your magic is just an expensive payday loan," he answered, driving his knee upward into the man’s chin with concussive force.
The sixth and seventh proxies attempted to scramble backward toward the ceiling gantries, but his spatial inventory daggers flew like thrown bolts.
Both thrown blades found their marks between shoulder blades, dropping the fleeing assassins face-down onto the cracked asphalt twenty meters ahead.
He recovered the daggers as he passed the fallen men, wiping their grips before facing the commander.
The proxy commander backed against the tunnel wall, his crimson broadsword vibrating with dying sparks as his boots scraped the curb.
"Who... what kind of monster are you?" the leader gasped, clutching a fractured collarbone while his cracked mask slipped sideways.
"A packaging line worker finishing his shift," he answered in a flat monotone, stepping past the smoking wreckage of the convoy.
"The Hand of Ignis will scour your home to ashes," the commander spat, coughing black bile against the scorched wall surface.
"You already spent your eight lives on that threat," he replied, driving his hatchet poll through the leader’s visor with finality.
The last assassin collapsed limp onto the pavement, his flaming broadsword sputtering out into grey smoke in the quiet tunnel air.
[ Hostile hunters downed: 8 (divine proxy) ]
[ EXP reward: +21,500 EXP ]
[ EXP: 52,900 / 2,500,000 ]
[ Status: hand of Ignis frontline brigade liquidated ]
’Fifty-two thousand points banked,’ he noted, staring at the golden status window hovering calmly before his soot-stained face without pride.
The passenger door of the lead transport groaned open on warped hinges, Ruby tumbling out onto the asphalt with trembling hands.
Her spear clattered onto the road as her knees buckled, the fresh venom burns along her ribs screaming with agony.
"Agh..." she wheezed in the pitch darkness, her vision tunneling as she reached blindly for support against the crumpled truck fender.
Fin blurred across the space between them, catching her frame before her injured knees could touch the oil-slicked road surface.
His hands were slick with dark proxy blood, but he held her gently, pressing his forehead against her temple in silence.
"Nobody touches you," he whispered in a voice that shook with quiet, absolute conviction, holding her against his broad chest.
"Ever," he added, feeling her rapid heartbeat gradually slow against his ribs as the adrenaline of the slaughter began fading.
"You are covered in their blood," she murmured weakly, resting her forehead against his jaw while closing her burning eyes.
"None of it belongs to you, so the shift was clean," he answered, lifting her into his arms with careful balance.
He guided both drivers toward the exit before carrying Ruby past the disabled trucks.
One driver called for medical transport while the other marked the tunnel entrance for approaching traffic.
The western exit revealed ordinary afternoon daylight, pale sunlight washing over the highway where green pine trees lined the distant ridges.
He sat her gently on a roadside milestone, pulling a clean white rag from a medical crate to wipe his daggers.
"Hand of Ignis... corporate syndicates love printing private death squad titles on cheap brass insignias," he murmured in the afternoon sun.
’Jolly would classify this entire convoy contract under bad debts and uncollectable corporate liabilities,’ he thought with a faint smirk.
The dark enemy blood refused to lift from his fingers, staining the cotton cloth with dark rust-colored circles of violence.
’Gage just spent eight elite hunters to test our perimeter,’ he thought, tossing the soiled rag into the ditch gravel.
He looked back at the dark tunnel opening, knowing that every corporate war began with ambushes and ended with broken doors.