Chapter 66.
How strange!
Every time I wore this mask, I’d killed my presence as much as I could. So, on the off chance that someone did see me, they wouldn"t think much of it. Besides, I had put magic on this mask so that I could visit the n.o.bleman who’d sprayed muddy water on me with his carriage to take my reve... Hmm, I mean, it was meant for a goodwill visit, so he wouldn"t even remember me properly unless he was a very competent person.
Upon the words of the masked person who had pointed out my mask, this group of masked people was exuding a nefarious aura.
What?! Did I do something that deserves such resentment?
There was no way an upright young man like me could do something like that. Clearly, they were mistaken. I know not why, but I didn"t think I needed to bother with provoking them.
"Die evil!"
At the cry, the masked septet simultaneously attacked. When I dodged the sword that stabbed towards my right shoulder, another sliced towards my head from behind. At the same time, two others swung their swords trying to slice at my legs.
I slightly jumped and lifted my whole body. Then, eluding the sword aiming at my right leg, I stepped on the sword aiming for my left leg and turned my body to the right, lightly pulling back as I did to avoid a spate of swords from above.
Following up, I used the recoil from pulling back to bounce forward into a front flip like jumping over a horizontal pole, while using my back foot to kick the chin of the masked person aiming for my left leg. Then I put both legs on the shoulder of the masked man who was aiming at my right leg, tightened my legs around his neck, and fiercely rolled to the right.
Kw.a.n.g!
With my legs still wrapped around the masked person, I smashed his head into the roof, rolled away, and quickly moved towards the one who had recognized my mask first.
I regretted not taking out my sword from the pocket s.p.a.ce before coming here. I felt like I was going to die trying to deal with them without a sword. However, even if I wanted to open the pocket s.p.a.ce and take out a sword, these guys were rus.h.i.+ng at me like crazy, so there was no way I could do it now.
These guys were stronger than I expected. Who the heck are they? They seemed stronger than my big sister too. So let"s just take away their swords first.
I swiftly arrived before the masked man, he swung his sword at me unsurprisingly. It was an excellent blow without unnecessary movements. However, I think I picked the wrong person.
"Restrict!"
"Keuk!"
The masked person’s movements were easily restrained by my magic. Using that gap, I quickly stole the masked person’s sword.
Well, you had to at least greet the person who gifted you a sword!
"Thank you, Mario. But the princess is in another castle."
It was good manners to stick your middle finger up when you said this sort of thing, but unfortunately, my hand wasn’t free due to the sword I had been gifted. Instead, I sliced off his right arm.
"Ahhhhhh!"
He was the most skilled and annoying guy, so I had to retire him before he got another sword from someone else. But then, I remembered there was a guy using healing magic, so I kicked his right arm far away from the roof. This way he wouldn"t be able to reattach it immediately. Even if reattached, it couldn’t be used immediately. On the other hand, if I hadn"t tossed it afar, he would reattach and use it to balance himself to wield the sword with his left hand.
In my hometown, it was quite common to lose an arm hunting demons. So even if an arm was lost, they were trained to reattach the arm using Elder Mirpa’s special potion and keep fighting.
"Sir Eagle!"
Oh, considering the honorific, it seemed the one with the severed arm was No.1. I kindly kicked him, in order to return him to his subordinates.
Go back to the flock, Eagle.
Ugh!
With the sound of air escaping his lungs, the leader settled in the arms of his subordinates.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
“How did he find out who we are?”
“Keuk, how is the princess in another castle!!”
Their reactions were more intense than I had imagined. And speaking of your ident.i.ty, what are you talking about? I was just joking. You don"t have to be so discouraged!
The masked leader treated his sliced shoulder with magic. As expected, that magic was somewhat different. Nevertheless, it seemed as if I had seen it somewhere.
"Don"t make a fuss! The princess is certainly down below! Don"t be fooled by the enemy"s false information!" the masked leader shouted.
The other masked people stopped wavering and nodded. Then, they took up their swords again. Now, there were five people with swords including the one I had briefly taken out of the line after striking him on the side. The one who fell after the first hectopascal kick, another whose head was embedded into the roof at the onset, the one that got hit on the chin, and the second one with the head in the roof. Lastly, excluding the leader with the severed arm, five remained.
"Here we go!"
At the same time as the cry, the five masked men charged towards me. Approaching from all sides, they aimed at my neck, heart, solar plexus, and both sides. If they were to attack at once, they could only do so by stabbing.
I leapt high and easily dodged. I expected them to stab each other since they were closing in from all sides, but they just pierced the empty air as if in sync.
"Answer my prayer! Destroy my enemy!"
When I leapt high and put some distance with the masked group, their leader attacked me with magic. It must be hard to concentrate because of the pain, but he used the magic well. Inwardly admiring, I cast a defensive barrier around me.
"s.h.i.+eld!"
The arrows of light struck the barrier I had laid out like rain. The attack magic stopped when my body was pulled down by gravity. Falling amid the masked people, this time I took the initiative.
I listlessly slashed at a masked person with a sword. That one didn’t try to dodge instead attempted to thwart with his sword.
"Get away!" The masked leader shouted as he eyed for an opening.
Too late!
However, my sword was instantly wrapped with a strong aura and cut through both the sword and the masked person.
Kang! Pook!
First came the sound of the sword breaking, followed by the sound of flesh being cut.
I escaped before the blood splattered and pounced on another masked person. Although he was momentarily surprised, he must have been well trained for he responded with his sword. However, without any willpower backing it, the sword lacked proper strength.
Clang!
I easily struck it away. Now that his stance was broken, I started swinging my sword down at his neck. But then, thinking that I was a little too excessive, I changed my trajectory and decided to cut his shoulder.
If something went wrong, he wouldn"t be able to lift a sword for the rest of his life, but at least he wouldn’t die.
Aaack!
Behind me, the masked person I cut with the sword screamed, spouting blood. Judging by the sound of that ear-piercing scream, he probably wouldn’t die.
A few seconds later, the masked man with the slashed shoulder, shrieked, clasping his cut shoulder.
Keeuuk!
One of the other masked sword-wielders approached his injured comrade and tried to cast a healing spell.
How dumb! I should have been dealt with first before they started treating their allies, but the priority was reversed.
The masked person, who had grabbed the opportunity to chant a healing magic spell, spewed blood as he received a strong kick from me and fell off the roof. It was eight stories high and my hard kick seemed to have ruptured some of his internal organs. But since they"d been trained like this, he likely wouldn"t die.
Of course, if he were unlucky, he would die.
In an instant, there were only two left, so the masked people backed away. Then he cast a spell on me.
"Come! Chains of sin bind the person!"
Following the chant, a magic circle spread out on the floor, and a chain of white mana popped out of it and wound around me.
"You fool! In the city of sin, rain of fire will pour down!"
Another masked person chanted, and I was bombarded with blazing arrows.
"h.e.l.l is the only place for an unbeliever! Oh, G.o.d! Punish the wicked man who insults you! Heavenly punishment!"
The leader, who was constantly vigilant of me from afar, kept shouting chants and fired a bolt of white lightning at me.
Aha, I"ve seen this magic somewhere!
The chant was long and the power remarkably weak. But it was definitely the same magic used by the old man called cardinal when I stole the golden G.o.ddess statue about a month ago. I thought their magic chants seemed awfully religious. But apparently, these masked people were the ones who had chased me back then.
These few people panicked when the dust settled after their various attack spells demolished the roof.
"Ho-how could you be fine after being hit by so many spells! Are you an anti-magician from the legends!?"
It would have been nice to have such a legendary body, but all I did was merely dispel the magic before it touched my body. No matter how unique the mana pattern, if you keep showing it, I would get used to it even if I didn’t want to.
"Yes! I’m an anti-magician!" I shouted as I posed like a mad scientist. It would have been nice if my white clothes were fluttering in the wind, so it was a bit disappointing.
"That... that can’t be! How could there be an anti-magician who has such a tough body and can even use magic!"
"G.o.d! Who made such a horrific hybrid!"
Hey, isn’t that a little excessive? The reason I told unnecessary lies was not only because I didn’t need to tell the enemy actual information about myself but also because giving false information could prove useful for finding weaknesses.
It’s definitely not because I have eighth-grader syndrome!
I decided to quickly take care of the trio that was still standing in front of me. Thanks to the soundproofing magic cast on the magic school, those in the banquet hall didn’t seem to know of this commotion.
On the other hand, I didn’t think that the masked people who were fighting against Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y and those at the back gate would not have noticed either.
"Now, let"s finish this. Heavenly punishment!" I appropriately copied the masked person’s magic and cast it.
When white lightning emerged from my hand, those masked few were so shocked that they got hit even before they could react properly.
“Such a... Aah!”
“No, no way! Kuaaah!"
A pair of masked people collapsed after getting electrocuted, but the leader managed to fend it while holding on to his severed right arm.
"Ugh! How can you have G.o.d"s grace!"
But, blocking the magic just now, he must have used up all his mana as he fell on one knee gasping for breath, and stared at me.
How very persistent.
I looked down at him and said, "I told you. G.o.d is with me."
Then, I kicked his chin. He rolled along the roof over to the edge and stayed down.
Let’s see. I took out a watch from my breast pocket and checked the time. About 10 minutes had pa.s.sed since the first hectopascal kick. Things had been delayed far longer than expected. To take care of things with ease, I had to deal with it in two minutes, but it took five times longer than expected. It was partly because I had rushed in carelessly, but also because the skills of these masked people were unexpectedly good.
Thanks to this, the masked people from the rear entrance of the magic school noticed and were now coming over while giving off a furious aura. In short, it was too late now to settle the matter quietly.
"Phew--"
I sighed and changed my plans of handling the matter of kidnapping the princess quietly. If I were to make a mistake, the ones from the back door and where the explosion happened could arrive at the same time. If that happened, there was a high possibility that I would suffer some damage unless there were two of me.
There was uncle b.l.o.o.d.y at the explosion site, but it was also important to consider the possibility that some masked people might hold him up. If so, this place would become a battlefield.
I jumped down to the terrace below the roof. There was a girl named Arelia out on the terrace where I landed.
"Oh, long time no see, Ms. Aria?"
I greeted casually and observed the magic circle laid in the banquet hall. It looked very secretive and powerful.
What"s this?
The magic circle was linked to the princess. To be exact, it was linked to the bracelet that the princess wore. But this magic circle was vicious. It was thoroughly guaranteeing Arelia"s safety.
No, I was ‘only’ guaranteeing Arelia"s safety.
I was about to vomit from anger, but I calmed myself, came down from the terrace railing, and grabbed Arelia"s hand.
"Or shall I call you Arelia?" I asked with a smile.
As I spoke, I removed Arelia’s bracelet with my middle finger and modified the magic circle linked to it.
I didn"t know how many rabbits the guys who planned this were trying to catch, but since they dared to use my safety as collateral without my knowledge, they had better prepare themselves.