Chapter 1904 – 1904. Dark Moon
Barbara feigned a thrust, then swung her spear wide.
It was a simple feint. But the weak lost their lives to such simple tricks. Of course, Yuria saw through the attack without a flinch and dodged it.
‘Ice.’
Barbara muttered inwardly. One of the spears to Yuria’s right vanished, and a burst of cold erupted. The cold swept in all directions. Yuria was no exception. Her body didn’t freeze instantly, but the cold had a dulling effect on her muscles.
‘Let’s see if you can dodge this.’
Barbara was a spear master at heart. Summoning magic? That was just a side gig. Her true strength lay in the spear techniques she had honed since childhood.
Whoooom.
The spear vibrated, and mana coated it. The spear became an extension of her.
‘Azure Dragon Ascends.’
Barbara’s movements were rough, but her spear was precise. The combination of the two created an elegant yet dangerous spear technique. However, Barbara’s spear didn’t reach Yuria.
So close.
It seemed like it would connect if it just went a little further, but it never did. That closeness gradually faded over time.
It was being analyzed in real-time. And it was being countered in real-time.
‘…What is this?’
The tip of her spear trembled slightly. Yuria didn’t miss the opportunity and slipped inside Barbara’s guard.
Shadow Heaven Style Secret Technique.
A silent strike was unleashed. Usually, when a weapon was swung, there would be sounds from the air’s vibrations. But this strike was different. It had no presence at all. Barbara was only able to avoid this attack because she could see it. It was a stealthy strike that she would have only realized after being hit if it had targeted a blind spot.
She rotated her spear. She forcibly bent its trajectory for an unorthodox movement. But even this was dodged as if it had been anticipated.
She hated to admit it. Her opponent had instantly grasped her spear techniques, and even her movements.
‘My 20 years of training, countered in 20 seconds?’
Her face contorted. Rage surged within her. Talent. The overwhelming difference in talent fueled her jealousy.
‘Explode.’
She consumed one spear to create a shockwave. This time, she aimed for the back of Yuria’s head, just like before. But Yuria dodged it lightly, as if she had known it was coming. Her silver hair fluttered under the moonlight.
Barbara gritted her teeth.
‘Let’s go all the way. In the end, I’ll be the one who wins.’
Barbara used Solid.
If mages had Astral, warriors had Solid. Solid was mental acceleration. It was a technique that forced the user into an awakened state by accelerating their mind. It was a technique that almost all warriors above the 3rd rank learned as a necessity.
Barbara’s movements became faster, and her spear techniques became sharper. Every time she swung her spear, blue flames flared up.
In the Solid state, some of one’s potential and latent abilities were unlocked. That potential included not only physical abilities but also powers and factors. The blue flames were Barbara’s potential and latent abilities.
The intense heat of the blue flames burned a part of Yuria’s skirt. Yuria’s eyebrows twitched. Barbara smiled at that.
“What? Are you getting nervous now? Do you feel like you’re going to die? Why don’t you act all cocky like before!”
“I don’t believe I was ever acting cocky.”
“That’s what being cocky is!”
Four spears vanished and became twenty arrows, which were fired at Yuria.
In front of her was Barbara in her Solid state. To her sides and behind her were twenty arrows.
Yuria jumped upwards.
‘You stupid bitch. I got you. I knew you’d jump up to dodge. Most of those who move quickly dodge upwards.’
Barbara, who had already anticipated this, immediately jumped up and chased after Yuria. Her spear was engulfed in blue flames, taking the shape of a dragon.
Thud.
“Huh?”
Knives simultaneously pierced Barbara’s thigh, abdomen, and chest. The spear that had been moving forward abruptly lost its power. As she fell, Barbara wondered what had happened. She saw the knife holster on Yuria’s left thigh, hidden beneath her skirt.
‘When did she take out the knives and throw them? I didn’t see it?’
What came to mind was when she had thrust her spear. She had been so focused then that her vision had narrowed. But it had been less than a second. Was it possible to perceive and utilize that?
Barbara, who had fallen to the ground, looked at Yuria’s face. It was emotionless. As if this outcome was only natural. She was certain. It was no coincidence. It was intentional.
‘…That monster. She didn’t just counter my spear techniques, she countered me.’
She had lived a turbulent life, traveled to many places, and fought in countless battles. In the process, she had seen many so-called geniuses. Most of them had withered and disappeared on the battlefield without ever realizing their potential. It was because they had risked their lives for achievements, not for survival, like Barbara.
But the geniuses who had survived had risen to a position that Barbara could never reach.
‘This one is exceptional among those bastards. From the first time I saw her this afternoon, she didn’t pay any attention to the likes of me and only looked at her master… She’s not even looking at me now.’
This was a good opportunity to land a blow on this woman. She tried to grab the spear shaft that she had somehow dropped, but… she didn’t have the strength to wield it. And so, Barbara died.
• • •
Kwaaaaaang!
A boulder fell onto the abandoned building. The old walls and ceiling were easily crushed, and the floor couldn’t withstand the weight of the boulder and collapsed.
In the underground workshop, Gillian sat with a nonchalant expression. He had a barrier around his body, so the thick dust that was rising couldn’t touch him.
“Ah, damn it. The workshop’s a mess. It’ll take half a day to clean up, shit.”
“There won’t be anything to clean up. Because you’re going to die.”
Whoooom.
Mana flowed out, deploying the spell he had prepared.
[Thunder Bolt]
The compressed lightning that fell from the sky with a thunderous roar easily tore through Gillian’s barrier and brought death to his body. His body was charred black, broken, and fell apart.
‘Is it over?’
For a mage with a huge workshop, his end was too anticlimactic, but he had been hit directly by a 5th-grade spell, Thunder Bolt. He had also confirmed the corpse with his own eyes.
‘I killed him, so this workshop is mine now.’
He was about to go down when he paused. The 300 beasts around him were still growling. When a mage controlling minds died, the beasts would return to normal. They should either fight each other or scatter according to their instincts. But they were still glaring at him.
Step, step.
A man walked out from among the beasts. It was Gillian.
“Haha. I like your surprised face.”
“…Was the one who just died a puppet?”
“Did it look like a puppet to you?”
A clone? No. There was no reason to create a clone in a place like this. It wasn’t quite a puppet either. Gillian was a summoner, not a puppeteer.
“A chimera. Whatever its inner form, its outer form can be changed as desired.”
“That’s right. A 5th-grade mage should be able to notice that much. It was a carefully crafted sacrifice, but it was worth it to have taken a Thunder Bolt once. How much mana do you have left?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I have plenty to spare.”
“Then I’ll have to take more.”
Snap.
Gillian snapped his fingers. The 300 beasts charged at him all at once. He deployed overlapping barriers. The beasts pounded on the barrier with their claws and teeth. Seeing the barrier rapidly breaking, he shaped a spell.
A magic circle was instantly drawn in the air beneath his feet and activated.
[Electric Field]
An electric current flowed along the ground, electrocuting the beasts. Unless they were undead, no living creature could escape electrocution. Normally, beasts like these would have their brains fried and die instantly, but the beasts were only trembling, not collapsing or fainting.
“Did you gather and modify the beasts?”
“It’s perfect for experimentation. Oh, and by the way, they’re all successful experiments. The failures are all dead.”
Gillian, who was wrapped in a barrier, answered calmly. It was impossible to break that barrier with the output of the Electric Field.
He narrowed his eyes and analyzed Gillian’s barrier. Unlike his rough language, the barrier was layered to increase its defense.
‘He’s playing defensively. Is it because he’s a summoner?’
It would take more than a typical attack spell to shatter that layered barrier. The easiest thing to do would be to cast Thunder Bolt, but considering the casting time, he wasn’t confident he could hit him. It wasn’t like he had prepared it in advance like before.
‘I have no choice. Should I take care of the annoying beasts first?’
Thud!
Suddenly, some of the beasts collapsed. Dozens of them fell at the same time, and their bodies disappeared somewhere.
Immediately after, he felt an enormous flow of mana behind Gillian. He couldn’t let this go.
[Electric Whip]
In a hurry, he pulled out a whip of electricity from his palm and swung it behind Gillian. It was to interrupt the spell. The larger and more elaborate a spell was, the more it would be affected by physical impacts.
However, the beasts jumped up and blocked the Electric Whip.
[Ice Spear], [Fireball]
The spells he fired without pause were the same. The beasts jumped up and blocked them with their bodies.
“There are different types of magic. Simple but powerful elemental magic, dark magic that is as bizarre as it is dark, alchemy that manipulates matter as one pleases… So, do you know what the characteristic of summoning magic is?”
“Is it contracting with creatures from other dimensions? I heard you don’t even need to study separate incantations. It’s called a freebie magic.”
Gillian chuckled at his words. The provocation didn’t work.
“That’s right. If you only look at the incantations, it’s a freebie. The summoning incantations for phantasmal beasts are all the same. But why don’t mages choose the freebie summoning magic?”
“I heard that managing summoned beasts is difficult.”
“That’s right. Those phantasmal beasts all demand different things. The stronger they are, the more demanding they are, so it’s quite a headache. But if you ask if they’re not worth it, that’s not true either.”
The summoning circle was completed. He had tried to interfere by sending out mana waves in the middle, but it didn’t work.
What appeared from the summoning circle was a tree.
A maple tree with red leaves. It was a maple tree of such a size that it was breathtaking just to look at. The red maple leaves glowed faintly, illuminating the surroundings.
He was momentarily captivated by its beauty. But he soon noticed the anomaly. The temperature around him had risen.
“Usually, summoners can’t fight directly. That’s the common perception. I’ll show you that it’s just bullshit that ignorant people spout.”
A fireball blazed on Gillian’s outstretched palm.
