Saikyou Mahoushi no Inton Keikaku (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 56

Fifty-Sixth Chapter 

Mad Fanatic 

Weak light shone into the dark abandoned mine from above. 

A huge muscular Magicmaster was on his knees, his head hanging low. With his thick arms outstretched to either side as if crucified, he looked like a puppet suspended by strings. He’d lost so much blood it might put him in a critical state, though the man, Sajik, was unconscious and therefore unaware of it. 

The bright red drops of blood dripped down and were absorbed into the dirty ground. Sajik’s face looked deathly pale, possibly due to the dim light. Thin tubes were stuck into his arms as if they were veins. They wriggled and pulsated as they made their way deep into his arms. 

Yet Sajik didn’t budge. The tubes led to a large piece of leather cloth a few meters away. But that sight felt out of place. 

It was underground and the air was stagnant, and as one could tell from the offensive smell, not even the wind reached down here. But the cloth flapped back and forth like it was moving in the wind. No...it was wriggling like it was alive. 

At closer look, the leather cloth wasn’t connected to either the walls or the ground. It seemed to be floating in the air. The center of the cloth protruded like there was something beneath it. And in fact there was something...a grotesque Fiend. 

The reason it looked like it was floating was because of its thin body. The top of its head was covered with a tattered leather cloth, and beneath that was a thin, sickly figure reduced to nothing but skin and bone. Its knotty joints, sharp claws, and bent legs, were indeed those of a monster. It looked a little humanoid but there was nothing human about it. That would be enough to make most people disgusted and start shaking in fear. It looked like a hanged man, but even for a Fiend it appeared more dead than alive. 

The dark impression it gave off and the peculiar tubes that eerily pulsated made it clear that this was the despicable Fiend that brainwashed its underlings and used them as pawns...the Ogma. 

The tubes extending from under the dried leather cloth to Sajik’s arms wriggled again. They had entered at the wrists and wormed their way to his elbows by now. 

Sajik’s thick eyebrows twitched, his eyes still closed. The next moment, he flexed his arms so hard that veins appeared, and he broke free from his restraints. He grabbed the tubes and pulled them out of his arms. 

What? Fuck, I was dozing off... Sajik slowly and silently raised his head, a fierce anger in his eyes. 

He’d been separated from his comrades when he fell underground, and had finally encountered his target when he’d been hit with a surprise attack from a dark element spell and been captured by tentacles. 

He had been pumped full of anesthetics, and just as he was about to lose consciousness, he woke up. The reason he’d avoided getting brainwashed was because of the signal flare Alus fired. The waves of mana had penetrated the ground and awakened Sajik. It was truly fortunate timing, though he felt he’d only slept a little bit. 

Like Alus had predicted, the Ogma didn’t have much in the way of combat prowess, which was why it hid itself down here. Now that Sajik was awake and using Force, it was no different from a child. In an instant he was right next to it and unleashed a powerful kick into its bony body. 

The Ogma’s body bent in from the impact. Its abdomen burst open and its bones shattered. 

After blowing his opponent into the wall, Sajik angrily fired lightning through the tubes he was holding. Lightning ran through the tubes in each hand, and when they met in the Ogma’s body they burst into violent sparks. The light was so intense and bright that it erased all shadows for a short while. 

Seeing the Ogma burned to a crisp and unmoving, Sajik breathed out. Even for someone as daring as him, having foreign objects enter his arms was very uncomfortable. He sliced off the remaining tubes, threw them to the ground, and pulverized them under his foot. The tubes, having been cut off from their body, soon turned to dust. 

“Damn it, I really let my guard down,” Sajik said in disgust, scratching his head. He then rubbed his neck, as having had anesthetics injected into him, he felt strangely sleepy. Moving to his eyes, he rubbed them too, but suddenly clicked his tongue. “Ouch, I got dirt in my eyes.” He kept rubbing as he cautiously surveyed the Fiend. 

After confirming it was still alive, he walked over to the charred figure. He gathered mana in his hand, which turned into the lightning attribute, and then discharged it. This took place in an instant, not giving the Fiend a chance to escape. 

“It’s time to stop hiding and fight. You sure gave me a hard time for a fake human. But now it’s time for payback... Let’s see how much you can take.” 

Still discharging electricity, Sajik grabbed hold of the dried leather cloth, putting more force into his hand. He ripped it off and clutched the thin, wizened Fiend’s neck. 

Lightning ran through the Ogma’s body. White smoke rose from it and the repeated shocks made its body twitch. With the intent to finish it off, Sajik swung down his hand like an ax and shattered the Fiend’s head. 

“Found it in the first hit.” Inside the skull was a poisonous-looking core resembling a brain. 

Sajik’s lips twisted into a grin. He turned his mana into lightning, his gauntlet glowing white as he poured all of it into the Ogma. The core had no chance of withstanding that dreadful attack and shattered. 

The Ogma’s core was burned away so fast it didn’t even have a chance to scream, and its body crumbled into ash. 

Sajik let go of its head, which was the only thing that remained, and watched it turn to dust on the ground. “Yeah!” he said, his spirits raised. 

“Hey, Sajik!” 

“Sajik, you still alive?” 

He heard the familiar voices of his comrades. They’d split up to wipe out the Fiends as they worked their way through the complex of tunnels, and some of them had finally reached him. 

“I’m here!” Sajik replied in a booming voice, as if to say he was perfectly fine, as his comrades came running up. 

“Did you sense Sir Alus’s signal flare? We need to wrap this up quick,” a squad member said. 

But Sajik just rubbed his chin and laughed. “You’re too late. I just finished it off. Once we get to the surface, we should fire off the signal to show the Ogma’s been killed.” 

There’d been some accidents, but the Ogma had been eliminated in a rather short amount of time. And since Sajik did it on his own that was even better. But as expected from an A-class like the Ogma, even though it was fragile in close combat, it had unexpectedly struck his weak point. 

“This’ll devastate the captain.” A stench was in the air. The source of it was a pile of half-eaten corpses left in a corner. They were most likely part of the advance party. 

Sajik’s heart was filled with burning anger. The leather cloth the Ogma had worn only added fuel to the flame. Dried human skin had a slight insulating effect. Perhaps it was the Fiend’s attempt at resisting the lightning attribute, or maybe it was because it abhorred the light. 

Either way, once Sajik grouped up with his comrades, they turned around to return to the surface. Blood was still flowing out from his arms after he’d pulled out the tubes, without any sign of stopping. “I’m going to have to ask Louise for help with this. She always rats me out to the captain...” 

Sajik had pulled the short straw and would have to report the fate of the advance party to Lettie, so he couldn’t help but feel depressed, and he grumbled with a fed-up expression. 

However, he had no intention of taking even a short break. Once he’d been patched up, he would link up with the rest of the squad. That’s why he wanted to avoid upsetting Louise when he finally met up with her. And that was why he got his complaints out now as he trudged through the dark tunnel. 

*** 

Loki and Mujir were running up a mountain at top speed, their eyes forward, moving as if rushed on by something. But rather than impatience, it was a sense of responsibility that drove them forward. 

“What speed... I can’t keep up,” Mujir said with a troubled expression. As a Double Digit, if he wanted to, he was confident that his instantaneous speed could surpass Sajik’s in normal circumstances and even rival Lettie’s. 

The same went for his kinetic vision. He could even react to Sajik when he was using Force. But now he cast spell after spell as they chased the Lefkis to stall it, but they showed no signs of hitting. After his first shot, the Lefkis seemed to sense them ahead of time and dodged. 

The Lefkis was an elusive Fiend. They wouldn’t have been able to find it if they searched blindly. But thanks to Alus’s plan, they were able to locate it by following the path of the aftermath after the first Demis Brionach. They tracked it down and began pursuing it, but that’s when their troubles began. 

“Mujir, let me do it.” 

Loki was only meant to be support, so Mujir reluctantly accepted her offer. The Lefkis had to be stopped and he couldn’t afford to be picky. “Please,” he said. 

In the same moment as he responded, Loki disappeared in a flash of lightning. Cutting through the air, she closed the distance to the Fiend. Her instant speed was a match for Sajik using Force, which surprised him. 

However, she was able to do it by ignoring the stress it put on herself. Loki’s overuse of Force while her body was still developing would eventually come back and hurt her. But even so, there was no other way. 

Seeing that, Mujir’s expression was conflicted. He’d heard about the painstaking efforts it took for Sajik to learn Force. Even adults could suffer serious damage to their legs if they recklessly continued to use Force unnecessarily. 

Meanwhile, the Lefkis, who had been running from peak to peak, began to charge large amounts of mana into his long horn. It continued to run while charging, narrowing its eyes as if looking at something far away. 

Loki could clearly see lightning converging in its horn. The mystical light was without a doubt a sign of Demis Brionach. ?! It shouldn’t be able to use it repeatedly! 

As that panicked thought popped into her mind, Loki realized why the Lefkis moved around so much. It wasn’t just a means to escape pursuit. Demis Brionach was a powerful spell that gathered the mana in the air and fired it. As a result it used up most of the mana in its surroundings, but by moving to a new untouched area, it would be able to absorb more mana. 

The second shot would be less powerful than the first, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a threat. I can’t let it shoot again. Speeding up even more, Loki pulled out several knife-type AWRs and threw them in a single movement. 

The knives, clad in electricity, had considerable penetrating power. Flying straight as arrows, they looked like they would pierce the Fiend’s head just before it could fire the spell. 

However, all of the knives got repelled by a barrier similar to an electric discharge that had been created by the Fiend’s horn before they could reach it. It was a combination offensive and defensive move. The composition of the spell must’ve included parts of a lightning attribute barrier spell. Like a shield protecting a sniper before they fired, the Lefkis seemed to be able to deploy it at will, in which case novice spells or attacks with a comparable amount of mana wouldn’t be able to stop the frightening attack. 

“Tsk!” Loki reacted, as the Lefkis narrowed its eyes to their limit and fired off the second Demis Brionach as if to ridicule her efforts. In just that moment, the Fiend stopped in its tracks and braced itself with its four legs. 

Loki pushed on even harder with Force as her leg muscles creaked, rapidly closing in on the Fiend. She pulled out another knife, determined to take it down this time, and swung it down like a conductor’s baton. 

“‹‹Lightning Ray››” A thunderbolt shot down from the sky at the point indicated by the tip of the knife, directly striking the Lefkis. An ear-ringing roar rang out. 

She’d tried to brace herself as she cast the spell, but as a result of her acceleration she kicked up a lot of snow. She quickly resumed her posture. 

Even after getting hit by lightning of that magnitude, the Lefkis stood unfazed. The sight of it shocked Loki. All of the energy from the lightning had slid off its body without penetrating it, like rain off an umbrella. It was then transformed into a multilayered web of lightning that stuck to its body. 

The next moment, the Lefkis shook its long mane and body like a wet dog shaking off water. The electricity bounced off of its body and scattered in all directions. 

Did Sir Alus anticipate this too? It was already clear that the Lefkis had resistance towards the lightning attribute. The Fiend’s body and fur were better mana conductors than an AWR. Alus had said that Brionach and Demis Brionach were partly lightning attribute spells, so even if he wasn’t completely sure, he’d at least anticipated the possibility that the Lefkis specialized in the lightning attribute. 

If speed was all it took to pursue and evade the Lefkis’s long-range attacks, then Sajik using Force would be better than Mujir. However, Alus chose to send Sajik to eliminate the Ogma instead. He must have foreseen this situation. 

At the same time, Loki realized she hadn’t been told to support Mujir because she was weak. Alus’s directions and positioning of personnel had been just right. If Lightning Ray doesn’t work, I’ll need to try something else, she thought, biting her lip. It would be mortifying to remain just as Mujir’s support. 

A flash of light appeared above the Fiend’s head. Mujir leaped at the Fiend and swung down his tonfa AWRs. He’d seen what just happened and tried a direct physical attack. Of course, the surface of the weapons were clad in mana, and combined with his trained skills their destructive power was multiplied several times over. A swift and powerful blow was unleashed towards the Fiend’s head. 

From Loki’s point of view, it looked like he’d attacked when the Lefkis was caught off guard. She felt the battle was won. Her Lightning Ray being brushed off was a surprise, but the Fiend’s confidence—typical of high-ranking Fiends—that it had no worthy enemies had come back to bite it. It lowered its guard and Mujir had struck at the opening. 

More importantly, with her liberal use of Force, she’d been able to get this close to the Fiend for the first time. All that was left was to coordinate with Mujir and come up with some kind of countermeasure for its lightning resistance. The Fiend wouldn’t get a chance to fire off a third Demis Brionach and trouble Alus again. 

However, the Lefkis easily destroyed Loki’s naive fantasy. Mujir’s attack was a few millimeters away from striking the back of its neck when suddenly the target disappeared from in front of him. The attack meant to strike at its opening hit nothing but air. 

“?!” The two weren’t as astonished at the attack being avoided as they were at how the Fiend had done it. Thin strands of electricity were left in place of where the Fiend had been. 

“Force!!” The spell name that unconsciously came out of Mujir’s mouth was the same spell Loki had just used. 

“Mujir! Behind you!” Hearing Loki’s warning, Mujir turned and saw the sharp tip of the Lefkis’s horn approaching his neck. 

“Ack!” He bent backwards, the attack just barely grazing him. A splatter of blood flew up in the air from his neck. At the same time he poured mana into his tonfa and swung up at the horn as he fell, putting enough power into it to snap the horn...but the Lefkis used Force and got out of range of the attack. 

Tsk... Mujir put a hand on his neck. Blood was flowing out, but his artery was intact. Since the Lefkis had just fired off a Demis Brionach, its horn was hot enough that the grazing strike burned his skin. After checking his injury, he looked down at his tonfa. 

His eyes shot wide open, but it wasn’t because he’d discovered a way to kill the Lefkis. “Hair...” He was reacting to what had attached to his tonfa in his counterattack. It was a part of its mane but looked completely different from the thick fur the Fiend wore. 

It was thin, lustrous, and of a particular color. Mujir’s discerning eye immediately told him it was human hair. He’d thought he had prepared himself for this, but he knew whose hair it was...the female spotter who had been in the advance party. Moreover, she was one of the rare users of the light element. Unfortunately, it appeared Alus was right on the mark with his cruel explanation for why the Lefkis could use an element normally impossible for it. 

A violent rage threatened to burst from him, but he restrained it with a cold exhalation. It didn’t change the fact that he needed to kill this Fiend, but letting his anger get the best of him was inefficient and went against his way of doing things. He would remain calm, choosing the most efficient and optimum method. 

With silent determination, Mujir focused his mana into his tonfa. If the Lefkis could use Force the situation was considerably worse than before. Humans could only use Force for a limited time, and there was no way to mitigate the strain it placed on the body. If anything, it would be strange for such an intense enhancement not to have any drawbacks. 

Fiends, on the other hand, evolved their bodies to become more suitable to use magic, and they were also far more effective at using body-enhancing magic. 

In that case, it’s a battle of time. A-class Fiends and above were nearly perfectly optimized to use the magic of their attributes. The resistance to electricity that it showed in Loki’s attack made that clear. Knowing that, Mujir wasn’t foolish enough to try and compete with the Fiend in terms of physical strength. 

Loki stepped up next to Mujir to cover for him. She’d more or less reached the same conclusion. However, there was something only she could do. 

Seeing Loki take off, Mujir was shocked for a moment, but then quickly realized her intentions. They wouldn’t be able to eliminate the Fiend if she stayed on support. 

Loki had spent a fair amount of time in the Outer World, and gone through her own life or death moments. She might not understand the squad’s unique sense of cooperation, but she had enough experience in figuring out how to kill Fiends. 

She started by using Force to draw a reaction from the Fiend. The Lefkis was already agile enough as it was, and with Force, Loki was the only one who could keep it in check. She pulled out knives from around her hip, holding them between her fingers, and challenged this Fiend that could resist the magic she specialized in. 

She’d been ready to give her life for Alus’s sake from the very start. But thoughts of Lettie popped up in her mind. 

After all, this place right here is honest. She was like a warrior princess filled with composure and pride, one of Alpha’s two Singles. It can really be such an inconvenience. Loki recalled Lettie’s complicated expression—like a crying smile—as she thought of her fallen comrades. 

Loki liked her. She was a woman who understood Alus, the most important person in Loki’s life, and could maintain a friendly relationship with him. 

She suddenly remembered their farcical sisterhood that they’d played out during the campus festival. Loki didn’t have parents or siblings, but she felt she and Lettie would be able to get along if they really were sisters. The thought of the two being good sisters to each other no matter how old they got came to mind. I should thank her once we get back. 

Suddenly, Loki smiled. Lettie was right. The heart really was honest. Nobody could stop an impulse from the soul. 

Loki felt like she’d been taught something that she’d been lacking. She struggled to put it into words, but Lettie was a different sort of Magicmaster from Alus. She was also convinced that Alus had seen that quality in Lettie and acknowledged it in her. 

Alus was the reason for Loki’s existence, but the path he took wasn’t the only one. This discovery filled her heart with a sense of wonder. It felt like she’d awoken to the truth. Lettie’s path as a Magicmaster was yet another ideal. 

In that case, maybe there were other ways she could stay by Alus’s side instead of just the one... That thought appeared in her mind, and the next moment she was convinced. Indeed, she could possess something that Alus didn’t...and she could use it to support him and stay by his side. 

Loki finally found an answer. And strength unconsciously filled her body. 

Instantly, she shifted to her greatest speed and disappeared, leaving only sparks of lightning and snow in her wake. In the same moment, the Lefkis disappeared as well. 

Occasional sounds of electricity clashing reverberated into the distance. Flashes of light produced by the tip of knives appeared and disappeared, dancing in the air. 

As time passed, the snow was decorated with splatters of blood, which slowly grew in number. It was red human blood. Loki was being overwhelmed. She challenged the Lefkis in super speeds that exceeded the limits of human perception, but was still a step behind the Fiend, despite being prepared to take damage in order to defeat her enemy. 

Loki concentrated on dodging the attacks, and attacking with her knives clad in electricity. But still the Fiend’s horn grazed her cheeks and arms, splattering fresh blood, as the Fiend managed to evade everything. 

From what she could remember, eight knives had already been knocked down. She was fighting at the edge of her limits the entire time. 

Mujir saw this, and sensed the determination in Loki’s way of fighting and her intentions. In order for their coordinated efforts to succeed, he needed to get the timing right. And actually, he was the only one who would even be able to keep up with the situation. At best an ordinary Magicmaster would just see sparks colliding at high speeds. 

He first used his ears. Following the sounds over the snow, as well as the flow of wind, he could distinguish the clashes and gradually his eyes adjusted. Once that was done, Mujir signaled Loki with his hand. 

Loki glanced over at him in the midst of battle, and slowly shifted the location of the fight. 

Eventually, the Lefkis finally stepped into Mujir’s range, and he wasted no time jumping in. He opened his eyes wide, and with an explosive initial speed he closed in on the Lefkis. It was only for a moment, but it was at super speed. 

Mujir’s tonfas flew towards the Lefkis’s head and leg, the tonfas in his two hands attacking both places at the same time. His top priority was the head where the core was likely to be, as well as the leg to remove its speed. If either attack hit, that would be fine. 

At the same time Loki switched over to offense. Both hoped this would put an end to the battle. 

Unfortunately...they didn’t quite make it. Of course there was no way Mujir would easily miss the chance he’d been waiting for. The answer lay in the surface of the tonfa he’d quickly brought up to his face. A specific point on it had been heated, burning the surrounding air. 

That was a surprise. To think it could counterattack in that moment... Mujir was astonished. It was a technical blow with all of his power behind it. He couldn’t believe it had been dodged and he’d taken a counterattack in return. If he hadn’t reflexively taken a shorter step and gone on the defensive, that hot horn would have pierced straight through his throat. 

Even while battling Loki, the Lefkis remained vigilant against Mujir. That meant that Loki alone couldn’t occupy her enemy’s full attention. 

Mujir’s astonishment dulled his movements for a moment, and the balance the two had barely maintained collapsed as a result. Loki, surprised, dodged the Lefkis’s thrust aimed at her, losing her footing in the process. Seeing an opening, the Fiend tackled her, sending her body flying. 

Since she threw up her arms to protect herself, the damage wasn’t that bad, and she landed without further injuring herself. But the attack opened up distance between them, and the Fiend made the first move. 

Its horn suddenly started glowing as mana gathered in it. The image of Demis Brionach flashed in Loki’s and Mujir’s heads. But this attack took much less time to construct. 

A ray of light shot out of the horn. It wasn’t a long-range attack like before, but a simple one aimed at Loki. The range was only around a dozen meters. By the time she realized that it didn’t need a full charge of mana if it wasn’t a long-range high power attack, it was already too late. 

She never would have made it by dodging normally. A cold chill ran down her back and then...she broke through her own limits. She didn’t have time to think about it, using Force to the fullest to get out of the situation as fast as she could. 

The Demis Brionach grazed Loki and disappeared into the mountain behind her. Being a simple version, it didn’t have the ability to track her. 

After moving several meters in the blink of an eye, Loki fell and rolled onto the snow. She took a deep breath. Once fresh air entered her lungs, the realization that she’d made it out alive finally sunk in. 

However, the Lefkis was unconcerned about her feelings and moved to pursue her. As if sensing it needed to be cautious of her, it began its attack on her again. Hoping to crush her skull, it swung down a leg. 

She used Force in the nick of time to avoid it, but was drawn into a life-and-death struggle all the same. The recoil of using Force past her limits was bigger than expected and she couldn’t use her legs properly. 

Loki barely dodged the Lefkis’s charge as it attacked her again. Its long hair grazed her chest. As they passed each other, she poured twice as much mana into her knife than usual and threw it, clad in electricity, at the Lefkis. 

But the next moment...blood poured out of her chest. “What?!” Loki was shocked, wondering when she’d been injured. 

The hair had only lightly touched her chest. Yet each strand was as sharp as a blade and sliced her up. Moreover, they were so sharp she hadn’t even noticed she’d been cut. 

Loki held a hand against her chest and rose onto one knee. She still hadn’t recovered from the backlash from Force either. Her thrown knife had already been repelled by the Fiend’s horn. All it achieved was leaving a small scratch on the horn. 

!!! Seeing the Lefkis ready to charge again, Loki immediately got to work on constructing a spell. Her body was moving faster than her mind. Her legs not being able to move before this enemy would mean certain death. 

She pulled out four knives between her fingers and threw them towards the Fiend. But none of them flew at the Lefkis, instead taking various trajectories. 

The Fiend didn’t so much as glance at the knives, as it closed in on Loki. 

But that was just what she had planned. “‹‹Lightning Bind››” The handles of the four knives sparked, and in an instant lightning connected them into a web of electricity. 

Normally the knives would be embedded into walls to anchor the net and capture its target. But here there was nothing to attach to, so it wasn’t fully effective. If anything it was a conditioned reflexive move meant to stall it. 

Either the Lefkis saw through the effects of the spell, or knew its resistance would protect it, as it didn’t show any signs of running away. In fact, it leaned forward to lower its horn as if to rip through the web. 

The Lightning Bind looked like it was ripped apart. But in the next moment it wrapped around the Lefkis, stalling it for just a moment. The Lefkis seemed surprised and froze for an instant. Shaking its head, it carelessly forgot about the existence of the other Magicmaster. 

And in that exact golden moment...Mujir struck. His habit of calmly observing his prey and seizing any opportunity had paid off. He attacked suddenly and from the Fiend’s blind spot, smashing his tonfa into its head at full force. 

With unerring aim, Mujir’s mana-enhanced tonfa struck the Fiend’s vital point, slamming its body headfirst into the ground. In the process his arm brushed against its sharp hair and was lacerated, but he continued on with another attack. Swinging his tonfa around, he drove it into the Lefkis’s stomach. 

The Fiend groaned, but it wasn’t a fatal wound. It forcefully repelled the tonfa, jumping up and away as blood spurted from its wounds. 

Loki thought they’d missed their chance, but Mujir calmly continued to observe it. “Hmph, you’ve been running around as you pleased...but you’ve finally taken a step back,” he said. 

She gasped. Indeed, it had stopped. And then it fell back. For the first time, the nimble Lefkis was pressured and was faltering. But it didn’t seem like its core had been damaged. And the extent of its self-healing abilities wasn’t clear yet. 

Nevertheless, they’d gotten a hit in. Loki stood, and confirmed that the many wounds on her chest wouldn’t impact her ability to go on. At times like these she was grateful for the special-made military uniform. “I can still fight!” She raised her voice as much as she could, considering her wounds and the aftereffects of Force. 

“Understood. We’ll finish this in the next attack. From what I can tell, it’s reeling. It should be enough to close the gap.” Mujir’s voice was composed and his tone was certain. He wasn’t saying it out of carelessness or pride, but conviction. 

Loki got into position to use Force again. Before she knew it, her calves were wet with blood. It was probably from internal bleeding rather than the wounds on her chest. Frankly, her legs were almost at their limits. In addition to increased physical ability, the repeated use of Force could also cause symptoms similar to paralysis of the senses, preventing the user from recognizing their limitations. When they could no longer move their body, they finally understood what state they were in. 

Of course Loki wasn’t going to repeat her blunder from the Friendship Magical Tournament. She avoided any wasted movements trying to throw her opponent off and took the shortest route instead. 

She closed the distance to the Lefkis and jumped up above it, throwing knives down at it. The knives rained down from the air with incredible force. 

But the next moment, a huge amount of snow was kicked up as the Lefkis disappeared from the spot. It had evaded the frightening rain of knives...but not all of them. 

!! Loki’s eyes focused. Two knives looked like they’d been hit by the horn as they spun around in the air, thrown off from their original trajectory. The knives had come down all over, but two clearly pointed in the direction the Lefkis disappeared in. 

It’s slowing down. Loki landed, then kicked off the ground again. But she didn’t head after the Fiend. Instead she went towards the two knives still spinning in the air, and gave them a good kick to their handles. 

The knives were then sent flying like arrows again. They pierced the Lefkis’s neck, and the Fiend twitched in pain. 

In that moment, the atmosphere around the Lefkis changed. It was a tiny change that might have gone unnoticed if she hadn’t been paying close attention. Its center of gravity changed as if it was looking to escape. 

The Lefkis was a Fiend with very animalistic characteristics. And Fiends that took in the information of animals—especially carnivores—would occasionally show glimpses of those wild animals’ survival instincts. They tended to obey the law of the jungle, so it was only natural that their primitive instincts would lead them to try to avoid death. 

But by the time the Lefkis attempted to obey its instincts, the hunter’s trap had already closed. Its four legs were sinking into the mud. Mujir’s spell, Restriction Marsh, had made the surrounding ground highly viscous. Before long, the Fiend’s ankles sank into the mud. The mud coagulated, which made it unable to pull out its feet. 

Mujir lowered his tonfa and moved to add the next spell onto Restriction Marsh. Suddenly the mud began to move. It crawled up the Lefkis’s legs as if it had a mind of its own. The mud clung to its body, bubbling, like a mollusk refusing to let go of its prey. As the mud entangled itself around the fur, the Lefkis’s body started sinking faster. 

The Lefkis drew violent, heaving breaths with its fangs bared, but it shouldn’t be able to do anything more. 

When Mujir tried to finish it off with a blow from above, he heard a howl. He instinctively controlled the mud, trying to make the Fiend sink down deeper. But before he could... “What?!” 

Lightning suddenly struck the Lefkis from above. A bright light filled the surroundings. He suspected the Lefkis had brought lightning down on itself, but both he and Loki were too busy protecting themselves to find out. 

More lightning roared, blinding Mujir. At the same time Restriction Marsh was blown away, and the bottomless swamp disappeared. 

Normally such a move would be suicidal, but the Lefkis had resistance towards lightning. It was probably a last-ditch effort to take advantage of that property. So it can even do something like that. 

Mujir didn’t have any flashy spells like Sajik. Because he used poison and nature-altering spells, there weren’t many he could learn. Even so, he’d spent a long time at Lettie’s side in the Outer World, and he did have a trump card or two up his sleeve. 

“All that’s left is finishing it off, and it still wants to resist, huh.” The Fiend’s unexpected struggling came as a surprise, but Mujir was still composed. He knew this battle was about to end. 

When he’d slammed the tip of his tonfa into the Lefkis, he’d quickly poured a poison into its body that would make the mana within it seize. It was a spell called Medusa’s Blood. A Fiend’s body was a good conductor for mana and this spell petrified it from within. He’d already injected it into the Lefkis before Loki rained down her knives, and the poison had now fully made its way through the Lefkis’s body. As such, it couldn’t escape. 

“You can’t even use those legs of yours.” By the time Mujir said that, he was already on the move. Without dropping any speed, he pushed towards the Lefkis, which intercepted him with lightning. But he was a step or two ahead of it. 

He unleashed several tonfa attacks, focused on the Lefkis’s horn, in passing. And a moment after he stopped, the horn turned to dust. “Loki, there’s no need to hold back.” 

“All right.” When Mujir turned around to say that, Loki had already moved in front of the Lefkis, knife in hand. Her right hand was drawn back, ready to strike at any moment. 

The spell she was preparing differed from the usual construction process and the rest of the lightning attribute spells. Even including the deceased, there were only a handful of Magicmasters that could use it. I see, so she can use the vertex of thunder. Mujir looked on with admiration. 

Loki’s mouth moved as she muttered something. The density of electricity increased well beyond what normal lightning attribute spells could achieve. “... May the vertex of tempestuous thunder manifest,” she said, thrusting the palm of her hand forward, and then... 

Thunder roared. “‹‹Naruikazuchi››!!” 

The Lefkis howled at Loki, perhaps trying to put up a fight or intimidate her. But the lightning shot down into its mouth. The massive lightning overwhelmed any resistance, and the Lefkis was charred inside and out. 

It didn’t matter where its core had been. It would’ve been a different story if it had been unharmed and could dodge, but taking it directly, as well as being hit inside, its resistance simply didn’t matter. There was no way to resist the vertex of thunder. 

With that, Loki and Mujir were done. 

“Good work,” Mujir praised Loki, as he got ready to fire up a signal flare. 

His words embarrassed her a little. From her point of view she’d only done what she could, which was natural. “No, I couldn’t have done it alone.” 

“That said, it wasn’t a good match-up for you.” He was being considerate, but that only made her feel uncomfortable. His protecting her pride made it seem like he was treating her like a child. Moreover, she didn’t struggle due to a poor match-up. Even she could tell it was also because her skills weren’t up to par. 

“In the end, it was your spell that slowed the Lefkis’s movements, wasn’t it?” 

“Well, yeah...but it’s not like it’s a perfect spell. There are Fiends it doesn’t work against too.” 

“Is it some kind of poison?” 

Mujir nodded with a slight smile. It was actually considered impolite to ask Magicmasters about their trump cards. So Loki didn’t ask any more questions. 

Her chest wounds started hurting worse. When she looked down to check her chest, she blushed a little. Her uniform had torn open from the cuts, and the hole had been expanded from her violent actions. There was a difference in how exposed she was when looking down at it compared with looking at it head on. Realizing that, she understood Mujir’s consideration. It was like he was handling an adolescent daughter. And that he’d been doing it without her knowledge made Loki blush even more. 

Mujir spoke to her without looking her way. “To think Sajik beat me to the punch... Well, let’s send out our own signal.” 

Loki answered with a small nod. They had noticed Sajik’s flare just moments after they defeated the Lefkis. 

Before long, Mujir’s own signal flare went up. After seeing that through, he realized that the snow still hadn’t stopped. It wasn’t a fierce storm, but it was gradually piling up as before. Sajik’s signal should mean that he’s taken down the Ogma. And the Lefkis is dead too...so I suppose the S-class that Sir Alus and the captain are pinning down is responsible for this snow. 

Thinking about it normally, that would be the case; but he recalled that Alus had been strangely doubtful about it. Maybe it’s not even that S-class that’s responsible. Maybe it’s an unknown Fiend still hiding in the tunnels. So perhaps Loki and I should look into it, he thought to himself. The worst-case scenario would be if there’s another Fiend and it’s stronger than an S-class. He wanted to hear Loki’s thoughts on the matter, so he turned to her. 

Loki was pressing down on her wounds and staring blankly into the distance. Mujir immediately understood what she was doing and what she was looking at. The vague wave of mana he felt on his skin was from a mana sonar. However, the strange snow should’ve made detection pointless. So just what was she trying to look at? 

He decided not to say anything and simply watched over her. Spotters typically had a keen sense for mana, and the ones that relied on mana sonar were particularly sensitive. He figured she might be tracking something that even a Double Digit like himself couldn’t sense. 

In fact, Loki had sharpened all of her senses to the point that she felt the cold air with all of her body. She hadn’t noticed it in the middle of battling the Lefkis, but now that she was standing in such an elevated place, there was a clear sense that something was off. 

The noise from the snow blowing around was terrible on the ground, but was somewhat lessened up here. By connecting different kinds of wavelengths into what went beyond a normal mana sonar, Loki was barely successful in extending the range out. 

After she sent out the sonar two or three times, she felt a reaction that caught her attention. That reaction—which was only just within range—greatly shocked her. It was beyond a small mountain. 

“Lo-Loki?!” Mujir hurriedly called out to her as she silently started to run. Sensing something urgent in her expression, he quickly gave chase. 

Loki had been given some emergency treatment, but her wounds hadn’t healed at all. In spite of that she used Force to move from peak to peak at lightning speeds. 

Mujir desperately ran after her, just barely able to keep up because the big strain on Loki’s legs slowed her down. 

But she had a reason for hurrying to that degree.