Chapter 165.
“Open Magic Circles 1, 2, and 3!”
A pure, powerful ma.s.s of mana formed in the mouth of the Turtle Carrying a Mountain, and the great demon breathed it out toward Warrant.
The Magician Corps managed to activate the magic circles just as the great demon’s breath struck, enveloping Warrant in a ma.s.sive, powerful barrier with three layers. Each barrier was a spell that had protected Warrant for years, and even one of them was at a sufficient level to be considered a great magic.
Despite that, the st.u.r.dy barrier was ripped apart like a sheet of paper by the great demon’s breath and just barely managed to alter the attack’s trajectory.
"Magic Circle 1 has been completely ruined! Restoration is impossible!"
"Magic Circle 2 has partially disappeared! It isn’t available for use right now!"
"Magic Circle 3 is nearly out of mana! It needs to be recharged!"
"Magic Circle 7 has had most of its chains severed by the impact!"
"Magic Circle 9 has had half of its chains severed by the impact!"
William clutched his head when he saw the pile of reports.
"Open Magic Circle 8!"
At William"s instruction, another ma.s.s of magic chains rose from the demon territory, binding the great demon.
"How much has Magic Circle 4 charged?"
"It’s about seventy percent charged! Charging is expected to finish in five minutes!"
"Use the mana in Magic Circle 3 for Magic Circle 4, and prepare to open Magic Circle 6!"
The aide-de-camp was shocked by William"s instructions. "But Magic Circle 3 is like our safety net!"
"You just saw that attack and you"re still saying something about a safety net?! We can"t withstand it anyway, so just speed up the charging!"
"Yes!" The aide-de-camp immediately understood and followed William’s instructions. It was hard to accept emotionally, but he had accepted the cold fact that putting mana into the last remaining defensive barrier would be a waste.
"b.l.o.o.d.y, get ready to attack," said William.
b.l.o.o.d.y smiled deeply as he warmed up. "All right! I"ve been waiting for this!"
"Be careful, you can"t escape into the air like Orphina,” William advised him.
b.l.o.o.d.y smiled and held his arm out with his sleeves rolled up. “Alright, so just undo the seal."
b.l.o.o.d.y"s arm was covered in the runic writing of a magic formula. It was a leash the n.o.bles had put on him, claiming that b.l.o.o.d.y was too strong and could cause an accident in the imperial palace. In truth, it was due to political reasons; the n.o.ble faction had done so to suppress the power of the emperor’s faction.
William sighed and undid b.l.o.o.d.y’s seal. "Don"t go too overboard."
While William was unsealing b.l.o.o.d.y, the Red Dragon Knights led by Orphina took more lances out of their bags and shot downward. They charged together and stabbed the great demon’s wound, which had only shown minor signs of bleeding. The demon screamed in pain as holes were torn in the wound and blood gushed out.
The Red Dragon Knights abandoned their broken lances again and flew back up. At the same time, William activated Magic Circles 4 and 6 at the same time.
With Magic Circle 6, he froze the legs of the great demon to slow down its movement, and with Magic Circle 4, he aimed for the great demon’s head.
The great demon had slowed down due to the sudden severe cold and its wound, so it couldn’t avoid the beam. Instead, it again tried to gather mana for another breath attack like before.
Suddenly, it felt a powerful force striking its chin. The great demon turned its head toward the right in a hurry to avoid as much of the beam as possible, but it was. .h.i.t directly in the back of the head.
The Turtle Carrying a Mountain defended itself as much as it could with mana and looked down at the presence that had interfered with it. Under its chin, a person wearing heavy armor was aiming a wand that emitted an unusual aura of mana..
* * *
Wow! I inwardly clapped with admiration. William and the other members of the Magician Corps had faced the turtle by spending ma.s.sive quant.i.ties of mana stones without regard for the cost.
It was a simple yet effective tactic, where the Red Dragon Knights distracted it with guerilla warfare and money-sucking magic was used to attack it. From the time it took to ready the spells, it could be seen at a glance that they were fueled by lots of mana stones.
I really liked the tactic of solving everything with money. Still, most of their preparations had been blown away by the attack containing all of the turtle"s strength. If they were lacking mana stones, they should have checked to see if they had enough money...
Despite that, the turtle seemed to have had half a taste of unfamiliar pain.
"Hi, nice to meet you, friend!" I said.
After I’d hit it in the chin, it had taken a direct hit of the beam and couldn’t even spit out the mana it had planned to unleash, so it had ended up sustaining internal injuries.
The turtle looked down angrily at me. I waved my hand brightly. "I came to get the mana stone in your body!"
Perhaps because it understood what I was saying, or because it knew it had been hurt by me, it emitted killing intent toward me.
"Of course, if I take the mana stone you"ll die, but you"ll obediently give it to me, right?”
"Krrrrrr!"
"You won’t? Okay, then I"ll take it by force! I"m not the kind of person who looks for permission to do things, anyway!"
The great demon began to gather mana all throughout its body.
"Oh, this is dangerous. Are you perhaps angry?"
"Krrrrrrrrr!”
"Oh, so you really are angry..." Time to run. I fled quickly without looking back, and the great demon released the mana that it had been collecting across its body all at once.
I was caught up in the ma.s.sive mana storm emanating from behind me, and got blown away like autumn leaves.
"Uaaahhh!" It was like riding a roller coaster and a rodeo at the same time. In other words, I felt like throwing up.
The great demon used the mana storm to cut the countless mana chains that surrounded it. At the same time, most of the Red Dragon Knights circling the area were caught in the storm like me and were blown away.
I managed to land on the ground, and while enduring the mana storm, I took off the helmet I was wearing and vomited. “Uwack!”
How many years had it been since I’d thrown up from motion sickness? As far as I could remember, I had still been in my hometown, receiving my father"s education.
When the mana storm ended, the great demon cried out in pain. "Kaoohhh!" Blood poured out of its wound like a waterfall due to the strain from emitting the mana storm.
It was a natural result. That stupid great demon had basically strained as hard as it could, instead of stopping the flow of blood when it had holes in its head and shoulders.
Perhaps it had acted that way because it had never been so injured before, but its actions were no different from suicide.
"Aigoo, you"re spilling all the precious catalyst." I couldn’t help but click my tongue. The blood of a demon that powerful was a great magical catalyst in and of itself.
While I was feeling sorry for the wasted resources, I heard a familiar sound of cutting air from the direction of Warrant’s fortress wall.
As I looked toward the sound, an arrow loaded with mana ruthlessly flew toward the wound on the head of the great demon. The arrow precisely hit the center of the wound and blew it open once again.
Wait, you hit with an arrow from over ten kilometers away?! As far as I knew, there was only one person who had such crazy skills.
Sure enough, the gates of Warrant opened and Mac hyung, along with the Black Water Buffalo Knights, could be seen with a nocked arrow as he sat on a distinct green deer.
Wait, then are Little Sister and Lancelot in Warrant, too?! d.a.m.n, I shouldn"t have released the chirps. My small sister would have noticed right away that I was in Warrant.
While I was seriously considering running away, the great demon began to move. It was bleeding profusely, but the blood from the wound was gradually decreasing. It really had a monstrous capacity for regeneration.
The Black Water Buffalo Knights scattered and spread out wide to either side of the great demon’s head. Meanwhile, Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y, Mac hyung, and Lancelot charged toward the front.
Wait, there was one more person running. Was it Little Sister? No, it couldn’t be. With my uncle"s personality, there was no way he would bring a magician to the front line.
"Kaoohh!" The great demon roared and started to charge quickly.
I stopped thinking and considered the status of the people trying to hunt the great demon. If I were alone, I would run away without looking back. But the monster was hurt and weakened, and since it wasn’t just me attacking, it wasn’t impossible to defeat it.
I flew up in the sky. Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y and Orphina seemed to have noticed my presence ever since I’d fired magic at the jaw of the great demon. Then, should I cast a spell instead of saying h.e.l.lo?
"Incantation omission! Lightning that races across the sky! Fire!"
The mana stones floating at the end of my magic wand spun fiercely and fired a large beam. Compared to the beam emitted from atop the fortress, it was only half as large and powerful, but it was enough to deal a serious blow to the demon.
The great demon tried to avoid it by turning its body around, but my magic wasn’t slow enough for such a huge body to avoid it.
"Who are you?!" Orphina flew up to me and asked before I knew it.
I answered in a sincere-sounding voice, "I"m Sol****, a warrior of the great sun! Praise the sun!"
If the sun had been out, I would have made a gesture of praise toward the sun, but unfortunately, it was midnight.
"A warrior of the sun? I"ve never heard of such a thing! And you say you’re a warrior, but you’re using magic?" Orphina shot me a suspicious look.
I replied with an exaggerated shrug, "Haven’t you considered that somewhere in the world, magic warriors might exist?"
Orphina tried to say something, but stopped as she heard William cry, "Orphina! We have to deal with the great demon first!"
"Tch, I know!” Orphina grumbled. “b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I won’t leave you alone if you try to pull anything," she warned me as she flew her red dragon toward the great demon.
The Black Water Buffalo Knights climbed atop the turtle"s body and began to mutilate it with sword aura, and the Red Dragon Knights obstructed its view by moving back and forth near the turtle"s head.
The Magician Corps led by William used mana stones like water, and took charge of supporting the knights with ranged attacks.
At the same time, from the direction of Warrant, Guild Director Glont commanded the artillery and began bombarding the turtle from far away.
Since the turtle was so big, it was fascinating to see that there was no friendly fire despite so many people being atop the turtle.
However, the turtle resisted, shaking its body and spewing mana to avoid being attacked. Every time it struggled, it felt as if an earthquake had occurred, and the Black Water Buffalo Knights were unable to properly steady themselves.
Their first goal was to keep the turtle from moving, though. The giant’s movements alone were powerful. At the same time, there were useful magic circles all throughout the area.
"Mr. William, let’s use the magic circles together!" I called out.
"What did you say?" William looked at me while launching piles of ice spears at the turtle.
I casually ignored his gaze and charged my magic wand to the fullest extent. The magicians stared at me, surprised at the vast amount of mana spewing from my wand.
"Interference! Contact! Interpretation! a.n.a.lysis! Approach! Failure, Detour! Approach! Success!"
I successfully hacked into the magic circles that were scattered in the area and gained control. I then took the sealed magic stone from Lotten"s ruins out of my pocket s.p.a.ce and opened the seal slightly.
Then, mana that had acc.u.mulated for more than five hundred years began to pour out. It was only a slight opening in the seal, but it was such an intense stream of mana that my hand quickly became numb before starting to hurt.