Ch.159Tower of Magic+++

# 159. Magic Tower Battle+++

A true man, no, a true woman’s specialty.

Strike first, ask questions later.

“Die!”

“Oh, no!”

Crack-crack-crack—clang!

The battle began in earnest as the defensive barrier the mage had prepared shattered instantly under Yuri’s full-power axe swing.

‘Of course. There’s no way they wouldn’t be prepared for battle.’

Was it too much to hope otherwise?

Anyway, the battle that began with Subin’s surprise fireball turned out to be more intense than expected.

Being a mage of the Magic Tower, especially one with the title of executive, wasn’t something earned by picking your nose, apparently.

“You foolish! You’ll regret this bitterly! And it will be your final regret in life!”

“They say there’s no order to who goes first, but I think I’ll live longer than you…!”

The elderly mage, his formerly gentle appearance nowhere to be seen, swung his staff in rage.

Despite shouting about making us experience our final regret, all ten of them were focusing extremely heavily on defense rather than counterattacking.

‘It could be because we stole the tempo and space with our surprise attack, but they were probably planning to stall for time by holding out from the beginning.’

Giving up the distance we’d secured and backing off would be foolish.

It was truly a battle between spears trying to penetrate and shields trying to block.

‘Just one spot, if we can break through just one spot.’

The defensive formation of the ten high-level mages who were committed to defense was frighteningly effective. There were no blind spots, and they had enough people to buy time for anyone who seemed vulnerable.

“Think you’ll win by just defending? You cowards!”

“Such low-level provocation won’t work anymore!”

Countless invisible barriers broke and were quickly restored. I could feel the magical pressure weighing down on my body gradually intensifying, and though the mages were on high alert, their expressions seemed relaxed.

“Subin unni! Something bigger! Try throwing something bigger!”

Yuri, who had broken through the barriers more than ten times, shouted with urgency in her voice, but Subin didn’t seem to have any good solutions either. One-on-one might be different, but I could see with my own eyes how she was being interrupted whenever she tried to cast a longer spell… It was already impressive that she could continuously launch harassment attacks.

The unpleasant magical energy filling the space seemed to prevent Yehyun noona’s spirits from using their full power, and Arang also couldn’t fully demonstrate his strength due to the spatial characteristics.

‘There’s no gimmick we can break quickly or we don’t know it. They fill the gaps as soon as we break through. Time is running short. Then…’

Boost raw stats.

That was the only answer. At least, the only one I could think of right now.

‘I wondered when I’d get to use this skill, and here I am using it already.’

The raid members might get angry later. But if not now, when?

‘One for All. The stat to raise is… magical power.’

The power to fundamentally resist the unpleasant magic controlling this space. To do that, I thought raising our magical power itself would be most effective.

Soon, to raise everyone’s stats except mine, my own stats began to decrease rapidly.

The reaction was immediate.

“Hey! You!”

Perhaps thanks to the test we did in Edenguard, the raid members immediately felt the effects of One for All and were shocked, but we were already engaged in battle so they couldn’t even turn their heads, and the skill had already activated.

As my magic power decreased and the magical pressure on my body intensified, I gritted my teeth and shouted:

“It won’t last long, so hurry!”

Since everyone already knew very well that we needed to break through at a single point, my detailed orders weren’t necessary.

Fortunately, my decision to activate One for All to boost our raw stats and forcibly overcome this frustrating situation proved effective.

“Wh-what are they doing! Why aren’t you blocking properly!”

“Their attacks suddenly became much more fierce!”

“Huk!”

As Subin and Yehyun noona, pumped up with magical power, began to show off their skills, the attacks on the barriers more than doubled, and because they had to defend against both magical attacks and spirit attacks of different natures, their defense against physical attacks became relatively weak.

And our three close-combat fighters wouldn’t miss such an opportunity; with their attacks becoming even more powerful, the barriers began breaking faster than they could be restored.

Even so, the ten mages desperately tried to regenerate their barriers rather than counterattack, trying somehow to defend and stall for time, but…

“Pierce through—!”

“Ttangttang! Barang!”

“Just! Die! Already!”

With the raid members’ breathless dealing—knowing that One for All wouldn’t last long and would take a heavy toll on me—the connection between the barriers finally broke completely.

“N-no!”

“Block it!”

“In that case—”

In that moment, Yuri and Arang, who leapt forward faster than anyone else, cut the throats of one mage each in the blink of an eye, causing the remaining mages to momentarily panic and completely lose their balance.

Sensing they would all die without accomplishing anything if this continued, they tried to counterattack instead of defending, but…

‘You should have done that from the start.’

No barriers, no time to chant spells, no guards to protect them, and with their space taken over, the mages were utterly powerless.

In the end, we managed to take down all the mages in less than 30 seconds after activating the skill. Of course, there was a price to pay.

“Sunghyun!”

“Oppa!”

“Captain!”

“Sunghyun!”

“Move forward!”

Seeing how these supposedly powerful high-level mages of the Magic Tower focused on defense, I wondered if they had some belief that they just needed to stall for time.

I shouted to the raid members rushing toward me. Even that short distance felt like a waste, and the time these guys had stalled felt much longer.

“I’m fine, so only Danya stay here and the rest go up to the next floor under Subin’s orders. I’ll follow soon.”

“But—”

“Every second counts. Go now!”

“Let’s go. Quickly!”

Watching Subin lead the raid members toward the fifth floor after our eyes met, I finally stopped pretending to be okay and collapsed flat on the ground.

More precisely, I could no longer stand.

“Sunghyun!”

“I know I shouldn’t be like this, huff, huff, but I feel like I’m dying.”

Danya, who had returned to her cat form to reduce my burden, changed back to her Ayor form and cradled my head. I could feel her firm thighs, but with the world spinning around me and my body feeling like a wrung-out wet rag, there was no room to enjoy it.

‘The side effects are worse.’

It was probably due to my magic power falling below the threshold, plus the unpleasant magical energy filling this space, but there was nothing I could do about it.

The situation was so bad that I would pass out if I lost focus for even a moment, and though part of me wanted to do just that given how painful it was, I couldn’t.

I needed to somehow endure, drinking health potions if necessary, and make it to the upper floor in a better state than I was now, even if I had to rely on Danya’s help.

So I took out a health recovery potion from my inventory, but I couldn’t open the cap. Fortunately, before I could say anything, Danya opened it and poured the potion into my mouth, but I spilled more than half of it outside my mouth. Worse, some of what I did swallow went down my windpipe, causing me to choke badly.

“Cough, this isn’t working…”

“Don’t talk.”

As I writhed and coughed violently, Danya held me tightly, then told me to take out more potions. When I barely managed to pull myself together and take out more potions, she uncapped one, drained it in one go, and then…

“Mmph.”

Gulp— Gulp— Gulp—

…She fed me the potion bit by bit directly. Mouth to mouth.

“One bottle isn’t enough, right?”

“Ah, y-yes.”

“Take out more.”

I was so flustered I forgot the situation and tried to drink by myself, but.

“Don’t be embarrassed by something like this, male who keeps multiple females.”

“No, Danya, cough, it’s not like that.”

“You’re not the kind of foolish male who confuses priorities over something like this.”

“…”

“Just focus on recovering quickly now.”

Looking at Danya’s stern expression, I obediently accepted the potion she passed to me with her mouth, like a baby bird.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes. But I think I’ll still need your support.”

“That’s nothing. But are you sure? In your current state, just having me in this form must be difficult.”

“I don’t want to be the foolish male who confuses priorities, as someone said. No matter how much I trust Subin and the raid members, completely dropping out of combat after using just one skill wouldn’t be right as a man. So I have to endure.”

As I gritted my teeth and pretended not to be in pain, Danya put my arm around her neck to support me and smiled slightly.

“That’s why you’re the male I chose.”

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Supported by Danya, whose slender frame somehow seemed stronger than mine, I hoped nothing would happen before we arrived.

**

“Fuck…”

“…”

“Unni. What do we do?”