Ch.278278. Goden Mikhail Likhabart (10)

# Mana: Humanity’s Weapon Against Magical Beasts

Mana, humanity’s weapon against magical beasts.

Those who consistently train it to reach a certain level, or renowned masters, stand at a particular threshold.

The Empire’s notable figures—Muniher, Jake, Denis, and Dalia—all say the same thing:

“Well-trained individuals can physically sense the magical energy emanating from magical beasts. For such people, mana intuition becomes their sixth sense.”

The influence of mana circuits extends to the other five senses, allowing one to detect mana and gauge an opponent’s strength—a sixth sense. They say some can possess this ability.

Goden was one of them.

For Goden, who had been consistently training his body and developing his sensitivity for years, the sixth sense was a real perception. When he detected something unusual from the Devourer, his intuition had automatically responded.

That’s why he could tell even now.

That this one was different. That the concentration of magical energy it emitted showed an overwhelming disparity compared to ordinary magical beasts.

‘Is it beyond even other Lord-class beasts, surpassing even Shanbereshu or Depornice?’

Dangerous.

It could communicate, use magic, and possessed intelligence—the most troublesome element for humans—allowing it to form strategies.

No wonder the Talon unit was annihilated. If this creature headed toward Levrant, irreversible consequences might follow.

He had to end it here, at all costs.

But he wasn’t the only one present.

“Ugh…! Don’t fall back! They’re not opponents we can’t handle!”

“Even if magic comes flying, it’s not that strong. Grit your teeth and endure!”

Just turning his head slightly, he could see the soldiers. Even if he had a trump card, could they survive if he used it directly against a named magical beast?

No.

They would be 100% caught in it. The moment he unleashed his full power, they would be swept away, unable to respond, just like during the magical beasts’ surprise attack.

He needed to change tactics. He needed to form a formation that would minimize damage while maximizing attack power, even if his strike landed just once.

‘The Welperis First Formation? Or perhaps the Celteria Fourth Formation…?’

However, the perfect formation for both offense and defense, one that would ensure the soldiers remained unharmed, didn’t readily come to mind.

Because the enemy could use magic. Because it could unpredictably alter the movements of the magical beasts. And because the one that was still watching, waiting for the right moment, might make its move.

There were too many variables to attempt complex formations with inadequately trained soldiers.

Reluctantly, Goden had to make a decision.

“Change formation! Everyone listen carefully!”

He had no choice but to reach that named magical beast himself, even if it meant taking some risks.

“Right flank, Kenik Sixth Formation; left flank, Celteria Fourth Formation with cover…”

Just as he made his decision and shouted—

—Everyone, Hasirt Third Formation!

A familiar voice reached his ears.

Inwardly, he complained with a hint of resentment: Why are you coming only now?

But the resentment was momentary.

“Don’t confront them head-on! Fold both wings once and break through from the left!”

“Break through from the left? Don’t you see that’s where most of them are?”

“Do as he says!”

“Y-yes?”

“If you do as he says, you’ll definitely survive. I guarantee it!”

Even as they were on the defensive, just hearing his voice made the corners of Goden’s mouth rise involuntarily.

He was certain. They would win this battle.

“Offense wizards, use control magic, summon thorny vines, or whatever you can to cause bleeding on the left flank beasts! Vanguards, their weak points are where bleeding occurs, so thrust in just once. That’s how we’ll break through from the left!”

“Right flank! We’re being pushed back! Need support…!”

“Left flank! As instructed, causing bleeding and opening a path!”

“Attack the right flank beasts with the wings we’ve spread. Avoid electrical attributes; use physical or radiation-type magic for direct hits!”

The flow of battle changed with the intervention of just one person.

The soldiers, who had been in disarray from the surprise attack, folded and spread their wings as if it were second nature, breaking through the horde of magical beasts.

The unit, which had lacked experienced personnel to command the battlefield or determine appropriate strategies based on each magical beast’s weaknesses, followed the newly arrived man’s instructions and immediately overcame the crisis, prancing like colts freed from long restraint.

It was because of the clanking sound of those chains restraining the magical beasts’ bodies.

It was because they could hear the sound of the magical beasts’ mana circuits bursting from within due to anti-cast.

Switch. Pairing. Rotation. They were defeating the magical beasts in rapid succession through actions that filled gaps at the right timing.

The morale of those who had been unable to respond to the surprise attack and had been barely defending was created by the intervention of one person.

Now, Goden had his chance.

‘Good. If I can just explain to Junon how to make my attack reach that lizard…!’

But no matter how much he looked around, Junon was nowhere to be seen.

He had expected him to be watching his back from somewhere nearby.

Then he realized that the position of one entity—the one that had been sitting with crossed legs, resting its chin on its hand, showing contempt for humans, and hadn’t moved at all—had changed.

-Clank!

The sound of chains wrapping around a spear.

A precise assault kick landing on scales.

And the magical energy concentration beginning to waver.

“Junon!!”

He had gone to directly take down the enemy commander.

***

While all the charging magical beasts headed toward the Duchy’s army, Junon boldly rushed straight at the enemy commander, who had no knight guards.

“You, human.”

Perhaps annoyed by the fact that he was being underestimated, Ashpern glared at him with an unpleasant expression. Regardless, Junon was sprinting at full speed from a distance of about 30 meters.

For a magical beast that drew magic circles and used mana to cast spells, such a reckless charge was truly suicidal.

-Whoosh!

At a distance of about 25 meters, a large pillar of fire erupted right where Junon was about to step.

Flame Strike. A magic with tremendous power and heat capable of thoroughly cooking anyone inside it.

“…!”

However, before the fire pillar touched his feet, a shield that had been dragged along by chains wrapped around the pillar.

He had seen that one could create cover and avoid it this way, but there was something strange about this human.

He was emerging from the fire pillar while the heat was still rising. Even knowing that the flames would catch onto his clothes, he revealed himself before the pillar disappeared.

What on earth did he do?

Looking closely, black smoke was rising from parts of his body. Seeing a water flask rolling on the ground that wasn’t there before, it seemed he had doused himself with water.

So he had planned to jump into the fire pillar from the beginning?

A crazy thought.

What living being would deliberately put their life in danger?

Even magical beasts never ignore damage accumulated on their bodies, so they either release magical energy or use similar powers to neutralize magic.

But this human was charging in while knowing his body would burn, taking minimal damage? With that fragile human body, no less.

“!!!”

But there was no time for such questions.

Far from being cooked by the heat, the situation had actually given him a running start. The distance had been closed in an instant.

-Clang!

The gauntlet and Ashpern’s magically generated spear collided.

A resonant metallic sound echoed from that point.

‘I need to end this in one go. In one go!’

He couldn’t fight leisurely as he usually did against other magical beasts.

Even against a magic-using beast, he shouldn’t attempt a spell break.

It was extreme, but with only one chance, Junon had to make the most of it.

To ensure he wouldn’t fail. To ensure he couldn’t fail. He had no choice but to conserve his mana.

Now, while the beast wasn’t wary of his power. He needed to thrust his mana spear at point-blank range.

-Whoosh!

“Kuk!”

But Ashpern didn’t give him an opening.

He barely ducked to avoid it, but immediately an electric spell flew at him, and an ice wall rose.

After that, as the price for closing the distance, he was exposed to elite close-combat spells like physical and radiation types.

Focusing on physical techniques with barely any mana infused, his vulnerabilities were fully exposed.

The moment he was hit by that spear, which contained Ashpern’s full power, he would collapse like Ronelion or the other soldiers.

Although he prioritized offense over defense, he still had to deflect the enemy’s attacks—it was a battle with unfavorable conditions from the start.

“────!!”

A roar loud enough to deafen ears. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a howling?

Ashpern, thinking he couldn’t handle it alone, began to summon more magical beasts.

“Ha… Damn it.”

Even at a glance, the numbers were incomparable to before.

Enough to make the soldiers fighting in the back cry out in dismay.

There was no more time to wait for an opportunity.

-Sssssss.

With his magical power, the earth began to vibrate. An invisible resonance changed even the flow of the atmosphere.

In the past, Tembris couldn’t inflict damage no matter what he tried.

If he used his main spells, they would be neutralized; if he tried to weaken or apply debuffs with holy power, they wouldn’t work on a creature that could use magic.

Inducing status ailments was futile against Ashpern with his dense magical energy, and control magic didn’t work either.

But Junon remembered. He could land an effective hit.

He clearly knew that the mana spear he had fired with all his might couldn’t be neutralized by Ashpern’s other magical energy.

“!!!”

He had already closed the distance anyway.

At this range, it would definitely hit. If it had enough power to completely pierce through Shanbereshu’s body, it would inflict effective damage even on Ashpern’s robust body.

His hand holding the mana spear descended.

-CRACKLE!!!!

─WAAAAAAH!!

The mana spear swept through the area. A storm of mana flowed outward, devastating everything. The soldiers had to grip the ground to withstand the sudden gust, and even Goden could barely squint his eyes to gauge Junon’s position.

Amidst the distortion of heaven and earth, the one who created the storm knelt at the center, exhaling labored breaths.

“Huff, huff…!”

When the dust cloud from the mana storm that had shaken the Rilkran Mountains cleared—

“Impossible… It can’t be…”

A silhouette visible through the dust cloud sent a chill down Junon’s spine.

Why was a silhouette visible at all? And why, of all things, was that silhouette still intact?

He had definitely hit it directly.

There was no way it could be unharmed after taking such power head-on.

He had been certain.

It was because he had been bait before. Alone, drawing attention and moving, he had encountered Ashpern and fought desperately. Even then, when he had landed the mana spear, he had succeeded in incapacitating the beast, if not killing it.

Even if he hadn’t received confirmation of its death before his own demise, he had at least incapacitated it enough to return to the cave.

“You, human. Different. Different, human.”

Ashpern was standing perfectly fine after being hit, with magical beasts positioned as shields in front of him.

“You, dangerous human. Need, eliminate.”

-Thud!

Even with his awkward pronunciation, Junon could understand what he meant. It meant he saw him as a threat. He was pointing his spear at him, preparing to leap and strike him down.

Junon gritted his teeth and tried to move, but he couldn’t do anything.

Not only had all the magical power drained from his body, but as a consequence of drawing such power, he could barely move a finger.

Just as he thought his breath would be cut off—

-Clang!!

A few steps ahead, another metallic sound resonated.

After exchanging several blows and creating distance, Goden caught his labored breath.

“Huff! Indeed, you faced this alone.”

“Goden…!”

“Don’t try to get up. Your condition is clearly not normal.”

“Kuk… No. I must stand…!”

“I’ve already had all the soldiers retreat. By now, they should have covered enough distance to deliver the message.”

“…What?”

For a moment, he doubted his ears. Looking back, indeed, not a single soldier was in sight.

What was chilling was that this scene was familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

Goden’s back visible. Him protecting Junon. No other soldiers in sight.

And Goden’s magical power all channeled into his weapon…

“Channeling all your body’s mana, huh? It seems different from my power, but yours is much more potent in terms of force. In that state, you should be on the verge of collapse, yet you’re still sitting. Is that so impressive? I’ve tried it a few times, but I’ve never thought of using Blushuar Arc to block the recoil from forcibly drawn mana.”

Realizing what Goden was planning to do, Junon immediately tried to stop him.

“If we had sparred, I think I wouldn’t have won a single round—”

“Stop it.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You’re planning to channel all your mana into that thing! Do you think I can’t tell that all your mana is being used in your sword’s technique?!”

“Haha.”

Even in this situation, Goden laughed, saying, “So you could sense it too.”

“…I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. If we don’t completely neutralize it here, we’ll both die.”

“Stop talking nonsense! Tembris will come and can handle it! They must be on their way here; if we just buy time…”

“We’ll die before that. And even if all of Tembris arrives, they can’t handle that thing.”

-‘Even if all of Tembris were at full condition, they couldn’t handle that thing, Junon.’

“…!”

It was identical. Goden’s words, predicting an impossible subjugation, overlapped with his voice from the past.

“But if I buy a little time here, you’ll survive. If you hadn’t briefly taken command here, we wouldn’t have even broken through and would have been annihilated. We can’t lose a capable commander.”

“Don’t be foolish, kuk…!”

Screech- Thud.

An armband with Tembris Party’s symbol was thrown to Junon.

Goden glanced back and smiled.

“It’s fortunate, isn’t it? That at least one person can definitely return alive. With Blushuar Arc, Professor Muniher will surely come for you.”

“You…!”

“Ah, I should stop the idle talk here. It seems the beast is waiting too.”

The bulky man’s head turned forward again.

Another scene identical to the past.

Now, he knew what words would come next.

But he couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t prevent it.

Because his body wouldn’t move. Because his eyes were slowly closing.

“Let me ask you one favor, Junon. Our party, though famous, is actually quite unstable. So…”

“Go, den…!”

“Our party. I’d like you to take charge of it. Please.”

-‘Our party. I entrust it to you, Junon.’

In the end, before Junon completely closed his eyes and collapsed, he couldn’t stop Goden’s final words.

He must have known that one of the Rilkran Mountain peaks would split. By the power of the man who had lived with the epithets of “Great Mountain” or “Giant Mountain.”

But he, too, was a mountain. A mountain that, when its layers are shaken, can split or crumble.

The mountain that crumbled today caused an immense landslide to protect the returner.

Just like in the past.