Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 101: All hell breaks loose

Chapter 101: All hell breaks loose

//\\ //\\ //Two minutes ealrier\\ //\\ //\\

"Everyone ready?" Cassian asked with a soft whisper as he looked over up to cast a sweeping glance through his crew of shadows - a common mistake in the near absolute darkness they were in.

The building currently occupied by the alchemy auction house wasn’t always serving the same purpose.

In fact, it was a building with a long history of changing hands between different companies, only to be outfitted for different purposes, stacking an impressive record of thirteen changes of ownership since the founding of the academy itself.

Those constant changes, renovations and remodeling of the building’s space led to the creation of the gap that Cassian and his men exploited.

Sneaking into the building couldn’t be any easier. They simply entered the place as customers before each of them found a way to enter its deeper parts before finally sinking into the forgotten parts of it and then regrouping right in the randevous point.

From then on, it was only a matter of a short trek through the extremely narrow space of the half-floor, originally designed for the technicians to work the prompts back when the place was still a theater.

"One, green."

In this space, near perfectly devoid of any light, voice was the only way for the group to communicate.

A simple feat for people used to work in the darkness of the night where only the most exaggerated gestures could be seen by the other party and only if they were close enough.

"Two, green."

"Three, green..."

Bit by bit, Cassian’s men reported, all the way to when he himself closed the rollcall with a whisper of his own, "seven green," he reported before pressing his eye over a tiny peephole reaching into the huge auditorium below.

With just a single glance, Cassian managed to confirm the presence of their target.

"Mission is green, go for the breach."

There was no need for spare words between the men. There was no use for Cassian to come up with some kind of a rousing speech to get the morale of his men higher.

No.

As soon as the floor padding, reinforcement and then tiles got removed, the whole structure of the roof started to tremble under the weight of Cassian and his men, no longer structurally sound to hold their weight.

"All green?"

With everything now ready, Cassian called for the rollcall again. ’It’s better to be safe than sorry,’ he thought, patiently waiting as his men counted up one after the other. And then...

"Seven is green. Mission is a go. Men," Cassian, even though he was fully aware he couldn’t see the face of any of his compatriots, took a breath and held it in his lungs for a considerable while. Then, right with the last of his breath, he added, "good luck."

With a simple stomp of his feet, the already fragile roofing gave in under Cassian’s weight, breaking into pieces while depriving the man of his footing and sending him crashing down.

Before that could happen, however, his men joined in on the fray, breaking the roofing as they were only to then fall - seemingly to their deaths - ultimately using a secret shadow art to pad their landing.

Finally, Cassian cast a sweeping glance around, confirming that even with this kind of a drop, his men already managed to stand in the position he needed them at.

All for the sake of the mission, even if it meant giving up their lives for its sake. Such was the degree of danger their target represented, a threat level that would only grow higher the more time the target would be given to grow.

And so, without actually uttering a word, Cassian merely mouthed to himself, more to raise his own morale than to achieve any tangible effect, ’Mission is green, let’s go!’

//\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\

The roof exploded, allowing a bunch of shadows to drop down.

For a moment, everyone remained seated or standing as they were, too taken aback by the moment to even move.

Never before in the history of the auction house has anyone attacked... its west wing!

Regardless of location, regardless of the internal design, the western building always served as a place to trade relatively cheaper items in bulk, offering but a tiny fraction of the booty available in the northern and eastern wings for the price of overcoming the same level of security.

And yet...

The presenter attempted to challenge the assailants, first verbally and then with his own hands after coating them in a thick layer of mana.

For the shadowy figures, however, this clearly was no more than but a child’s play, with just one of them stepping forth... and stopping right in the path of the presenter’s swing.

The hooded man just stood there and took the hit, failing to as much as twitch under its weight, only ever turning his head to the side as if confused by the lackluster strength of the attack.

Still, the moment the presenter made his move, the people inside the auditorium finally lost their cool.

Some rose up while activating their mana, ready to take a stand against the attackers. Others started to scream out, too terrified to move their lazy ass up from their seat. Some were smart enough to just dash as far away from the stage as they could, hoping with all their might they could reach the relative safety of the main hall before anything were to happen to them.

For a moment, the two sides reached an equilibrium.

There wasn’t a single person in the crowd that could stand, with just their own might, to the hooded figures. But what they lacked in quality, the locals made up with their numbers.

The shadow struck out the chin of the first man to stand up and join the fight, only for someone else to leap forth and drop down with their chest to the ground while reaching out and grabbing at the assailant’s legs. A bit to the side, a single shadowy figure was warding off attacks from a total of five cultivators and one mage.

"Guys..." Slowly rising up from his seat, Theo muttered, "get behind me," he ordered sharply albeit in a low, focused voice. "And by no means do look back!"

It didn’t matter if the safety was far-off or close. As long as they could get away from this place...

"There he is!" All the hopes that Theo had for escaping the place unnoticed came to an end when one of the shadows suddenly shouted out loud, breaking everyone’s perception of the attackers being perfect mutes all the while pointing his hand... directly at Theo’s chest?!

In an instant, it felt as if all the strength left Theo’s body as magical chains appeared out of nowhere only to wrap around Theo’s body, forcing him down to his knees. And the next thing he knew, he was already flying towards the attacker, only to feel a familiar sensation in the back of his head as the world around him grew completely still.

The moment lasted only for... well, a moment, only for Theo to get his second rude awakening of the day.

’I’ve got locked out within a formation, didn’t I?’