I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 108: A Magical Lightshow

[All bounty points earned will also count toward professors as a special metric for promotion.]

[Thank you and good luck.]

Well...

Shit...

[Soul Sense]

I could already see silhouettes approaching the dormitory district; they were fast, like sports cars going top speed on an empty highway.

Most of them were professors, some were students, hoping to pick off anyone who was too distracted by the bounty to check their backs.

[!]

To make things worse, a literal hovering exclamation mark appeared in front of me, formed from compressed air by multiple observers as an improvised signal so anyone, even those without strong magic sensitivity, could find me and claim the bounty for themselves.

[Profane-CRACK

W-What?

That’s odd... why was the spell formula so complex?

I don’t even know why I asked. Of course, it would be the observers, using annoying artifacts specifically designed to target teleportation spells.

They wouldn’t let me teleport freely around the map and render the bounty useless.

And unfortunately for me...

[Dark Step]

[Dark Step]

[Light Displacement]

[Earth Platform]

[Lightning Speed]

[Speed Boost]

The rest were free to use their own mobility spells. In an instant, several professors closed in around me, their spells already primed and ready to fire.

"Shi—"

[Profaned Guardian]

[Profaned Serpent]

"Fire!"

The world turned white.

Not bright.

Not flashy.

Just... white.

Like someone erased the concept of color for a second.

BOOM!

My ears rang as half a dozen spells collided with my barrier at once.

Lightning speared down.

A compressed lance of wind drilled into my chest.

Ice detonated across my shoulders.

Something gravitational tried to fold my ribs inward like paper.

[Profaned Guardian]

CRACK—

The barrier spider-webbed instantly.

Right.

These weren’t normal professors.

These were the greedy ones.

The promotion-hungry ones.

The kind that saw 100 points and decided their careers were worth gambling their lives for.

Not even my profaned guardian would be able to intercept what I could only estimate as a thousand spells raining down on me all at once!

[Profaned Recovery]

The cover was gone. Everywhere I moved, buildings caved in around me. If I fought back, more sprang up to replace them. And if I wiped everyone out now, it would only make the nights ahead even worse.

I had to get through this without using up too much good fodder for the final night. My only option now was to hope I could get out without taking down too many people.

And well...

That was easier said than done!

BOOM!

ZIP!

CRACKLE!

I sprinted for my life, unable to use any mobility spell to save me.

I vaulted through the rubble, shrugging off blows that would have killed any normal human. Even the observers hesitated, unsure whether to rush in and save me or just stand back and let my regeneration handle it.

It was a shit show.

Not the organized kind either, not the tactical kind where both sides knew what they were doing.

This was pure, unfiltered greed.

Spells weren’t even aimed anymore.

They were just thrown.

The sky above the dormitory district looked less like a battlefield and more like someone had kicked over an entire warehouse of magic and let it spill.

Lightning spears, wind cannons, shards of ice the size of carriages, compressed gravity wells, firestorms — everything overlapping, colliding, detonating without any regard for friendly fire.

BOOM!

The street behind me simply ceased to exist.

Not destroyed.

Not cracked.

Fucking gone! 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

A clean crater swallowed it whole like the ground had been scooped out with a spoon.

I didn’t even bother looking back.

If I started checking every explosion, I’d break my neck before someone else did it for me.

"Are you all insane!?" I barked, ducking as something the size of a small meteor screamed overhead and smashed straight into three other professors instead.

Nobody cared.

Not even a little.

If anything, that just meant fewer competitors for the bounty.

Which was honestly way more terrifying than if they had been coordinated.

At least coordinated people hesitate before nuking their coworkers.

These guys?

They saw a hundred points and collectively lost their minds.

ZIP!

A blade of compressed air skimmed across my ribs.

ZIP!

Two more spikes of darkness punched through my thigh.

Cold.

Sharp.

Annoying.

[Profaned Recovery]

The wounds sealed before my next step even landed.

Echo stacked the effect automatically, multiplying every bit of regeneration until it felt borderline unfair.

If this had happened yesterday, before I fused the artifacts?

Yeah. I’d most likely be dead.

No debate. No heroic comeback.

Just paste on the sidewalk after the five hundredth spell hit me dead on.

CRACK!

A gravity spell suddenly slammed down on my shoulders mid-stride.

My knees buckled, and the asphalt beneath me shattered like glass, the weight forcing me halfway into the ground.

"Tch—!"

I drove my fist downward.

BOOM!

Echo repeated it twice more.

The street detonated under me, and the gravity anchor collapsed instantly, giving me just enough freedom to launch myself forward again like a cannonball.

Running wasn’t exactly my preferred method of transportation after learning magic.

But considering they completely cut off that method, well... guess it’s time to let my legs finally do their job again!

"Sighting confirmed!"

"Don’t let him get away!"

"Box him in! North side!"

Some weren’t even chasing blindly either. Others actually had brains.

They were funneling me. Cutting off routes.

Forcing me toward tighter streets where I’d have fewer angles to dodge from.

With how messy the entire situation was, most spells weren’t even hitting me anymore, even the huge marker on top of my head was no longer visible through the oversaturation of spells.

Too many attacks, and such a small target, they didn’t know where they were aiming anymore.

Who knew being surrounded by hundreds of mages all at once would be the reason why I’m actually surviving!?

[Soul Sense]

I expanded it as far as I could.

Dozens of signatures.

Then more.

And even more.

Students too. Hiding behind buildings, waiting like vultures for me to get weakened so they could swoop in and steal the last hit.

Unbelievable.

A hundred points really did turn people feral.

"Greedy basta—" I muttered, but even then, they didn’t allow me to complete my sentence as a huge piece of rubble completely obliterated my right cheek.

[Profaned Recovery]

I knew I could handle pain.

But this...

I clenched my teeth so hard I tasted blood.

If I don’t get out of here now, this pain will grind me down. Sooner or later, I’ll snap and lose what’s left of my sanity.

"Don’t worry."

A voice, more refined than the others, one that somehow managed to pierce through the sheer volume of the spells around me.

Evelina...?

[Cry of Hellfire]