Ch.288288. Six Clock Hands (8)

CRASH!

The earth splits mercilessly under the impact of the spear. The power that cleaves the ground like a knife cutting through radish sends chills down my spine.

It’s just a spear made of magic stone. It doesn’t look any different from spears made by vanguard students who know a bit about magic power, yet somehow it possesses enough force to shatter the ground.

As I pull the spear from the ground, debris falls away with a clatter.

Despite its ordinary appearance, it’s clearly not something to be taken lightly. This is the weapon that faced the entire Tembris party and even stood toe-to-toe with Goden. One moment of carelessness could be fatal.

But that’s not all.

WHOOSH!

A scale filled with ice picks tilts from above, scattering them in all directions.

Below, the water-soaked soil turns to mud, grabbing at my ankles.

‘Damn, did it learn that quickly?’

This is the tactic the Imperial Army used to trap the Halfs. When I fought the Tembris party, it couldn’t use magic like this at all.

I never expected Ashpern to master such a high-difficulty tactic, especially given how it’s been learning and countering our strategies one by one.

Either way, it’s dangerous. If I take the full brunt of those ice picks while my feet are trapped in mud, I’ll be stuck like in a swamp with no way to resist.

There’s no way to neutralize the scale floating in the air. I need to deal with the water magic creating this mud swamp.

Junon takes out an artifact, drives it deep into the increasingly squishy soil, and infuses it with mana.

Ashpern’s swamp begins to bubble.

The once-slimy clay lumps lose their stickiness and quickly separate.

CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG!

After deflecting the falling ice picks from the tilted scale, I start moving. Ashpern, as if it had been waiting for this moment, charges in from outside my range.

But Junon, seemingly anticipating this, retracts the chain on his shield and raises the back of his hand holding the spear.

The spear guard’s stance collapses immediately. As I approach to exploit the opening for an anti-cast, Ashpern quickly creates a gust of wind at its feet to widen the distance.

‘Damn it.’

It’s incredibly annoying how this magical beast freely uses magic and has mastered tactics and strategies.

I was waiting for just one chance.

My plan was to continuously give ground where ranged magic would be advantageous, luring Ashpern in, then forcing it into close combat with an anti-cast when it tried to chain attacks from outside the magic’s limited range.

But the creature was quick.

Not only did I fail to land an effective hit, but it noticed the timing of my counterattack and widened the distance.

Now I’m out of options.

I’ve reached the limit of my artifacts and magical tools, and my body is so exhausted that I can taste the sweetness of fatigue in my mouth.

I have nothing left to evade this creature and reach Michelle.

‘…This is all I have left.’

This time, my body might truly break down.

This time, I might completely lose the ability to handle mana.

But I have to throw everything I have into this charge. I must reach Michelle and use the magic injector in this small medical kit to save her.

Sssssss—

This time, it’s flowing properly.

Thank goodness.

At least it’s not unresponsive like it was with Goden.

“…! You still have such power!”

Ashpern, who had been confident I couldn’t fight back anymore, is startled by the fact that I still have mana left and raises its guard.

But it must be my last attack. If the beast can block this one strike, it can finish off the troublesome human who leads the Imperial Army.

So Ashpern stands its ground.

Creating a magic stone spear in the same shape as Junon’s.

Gripping the handle as if to demonstrate it can shatter mine head-on.

-SWISH!

-SHEEEK!

The two spears clash.

The spears wielded by the magical beast’s hand and the human’s hand create a tremendous storm with a massive splash-out effect.

Delicate undergrowth is torn away, and the mud-separated water and soil turn to steam and fine dust, vanishing before our eyes.

This massive storm wouldn’t subside unless one of us completely depleted our mana.

But then.

-CRACK!!

“!!!”

The clash of the two spears, which seemed like it would lead to a long battle, surprisingly showed the boy’s spear having superior power.

Despite Ashpern being expected to have the advantage based on remaining mana reserves and the amount poured into the spear, the magical beast’s red magic spear broke in two against the human’s white magic spear, its center collapsing.

Sensing danger from the destruction of its red magic spear, Ashpern’s eyes flash wide as it layers defensive barriers.

-BOOM!

Nevertheless, Junon’s magic spear shatters them all and pierces through.

Finally, a direct hit. The magic spear reaches right up to Ashpern’s face, looking as if it might impale the magical beast’s body.

“Kuk…!”

But Junon staggers and grits his teeth.

Because in the silhouette, the dragonkin’s form is still clearly visible. Despite pouring out all his magic power, Ashpern hasn’t been destroyed.

‘Fuck… It took that hit… and still lives?’

This is the same magic spear that erased Pimpert without a trace and dealt a critical blow to Shanbereshu. Even for named magical beasts, it should have caused significant damage.

The fact that even this doesn’t work reveals a truly desperate power gap.

Yet, Ashpern, its entire body scorched, looks at Junon with surprised eyes and then steps back as if terrified.

“You… monster…!”

The dragonkin says this.

Looking at Junon still standing in that state, it calls him a monster.

***

“…What?”

“I will return. When I… when I become stronger, I will surely erase you from this world…!”

Realizing it can’t face Junon now, Ashpern backs away further and begins to flee on limping legs.

With incomprehensible words promising a future confrontation, the magical beast flees without looking back, having just faced a life-threatening situation.

“It’s… running away? Why?”

Junon was puzzled by the ironic scene of Ashpern fleeing when even a weak ranged spell would be enough to make him collapse in his current state.

But the puzzlement didn’t last long.

“No, whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. If it’s going to disappear like this, that’s fine by me.”

Though Ashpern’s words were ominous, Junon had recovered the medical kit.

Getting this to Michelle to save her was the priority, so there was no need to question why the beast was running away.

Besides, the consequences of using the magic spear would soon hit his body. Even if he struggled to hold on, he would inevitably collapse, so he needed to hide before then. There was no time to track Ashpern, and if magical beasts showed up, it would be suicidal.

While he still had some consciousness left, Junon glanced around the devastated surroundings for a place to hide.

Then he spotted a rock cave among the undergrowth.

The cleverly concealed cave seemed like it would be invisible even to the magical beasts’ eyes.

Planning to rest there briefly before returning, he moved toward it.

“…!”

As he approached, a subtle scent began to spread.

“Smells like… blood?”

Indeed. The cave already had a visitor.

Entering the cave, he saw a person wearing a hood. The source of the blood scent became clear—blood was flowing freely from a leg with a crudely applied cloth that wasn’t properly stopping the bleeding.

Though he was in no position to judge, the amount of blood soaking the floor suggested a serious injury.

‘A wound like this can’t be left untreated.’

Though he hesitated to touch someone who was sleeping, he had no choice. They might die from blood loss otherwise.

As he removed the crudely tied cloth, he saw a deep wound that belied the amount of bleeding.

But he felt a strange incongruity.

The body was burning hot, just like when he treated the wound on Michelle’s back.

‘Could it be.’

With this suspicion, he was about to channel mana but stopped himself and used the meter from the medical kit instead.

The meter confirmed his suspicion was correct.

‘This person also… needs surgery…’

The burning hot body, excessive bleeding, accompanying dehydration, and magic circuits that had stopped circulating mana and were overheating.

In other words, it was exactly the same situation as Michelle’s.

“…”

Junon clutched his throbbing head and bit his lip painfully.

The medical kit was originally meant for one person—a single-use kit for self-treatment in case he was seriously injured.

Therefore, there was only one magic injector.

Only enough for one person, but now two people needed it. It was necessary both to save Michelle and to save the hooded person before him.

A choice.

It was an unbearably painful moment.

***

Before falling asleep, she had felt suffocated.

Even when exhaling, hot air escaped, and her body felt heavy and uncomfortable, as if submerged in hot water.

After sleeping in the cave where she had hurriedly hidden, her body felt inexplicably lighter. It was even refreshingly cool.

But none of these physical changes mattered. The strangest thing was that she had fallen into such a peaceful sleep.

‘Huh?’

Opening her eyes to this incomprehensible change, she found her white hand firmly grasping something.

It was a man’s hand.

“…Are you awake?”

“Ah, yes…!”

The girl reflexively pulled her hand away and answered when the man sensed her stirring. Then, worried that her face might have been seen, she quickly turned her hooded head away.

‘He, he probably didn’t see my face, right?’

She knew the Imperial Army was stationed in Sirach.

If her face had been seen here, they would quickly identify her as the missing person and take her there, so she could assume the man still didn’t know her identity.

Contradictorily, despite being potentially valuable to the Imperial Army, she didn’t want to return.

She wanted to personally avenge her one remaining family member.

As she carefully moved her body, she noticed her knee. The leg that had been streaming with blood was now neatly bandaged.

“Did you…?”

“…Yes. I had to intervene because I was concerned about symptoms of excessive bleeding. Also, you had symptoms of magic circuit overload accompanied by dehydration, so I used a magic injector and also—”

“I… see.”

She wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, but it seemed he had given her water after the magic injection.

He had helped her, so she should thank him first. But this person would probably be like all the others—materialistic.

The girl, keeping her hood firmly in place, removed the Badlight necklace she had treasured and handed it over.

“Please use this to forget what you saw.”

“What?”

“You must have seen my face. You said you gave me water…”

It was obvious he would spread rumors that Renias of Arcab, whom the Imperial Army was desperately searching for, was here.

“Take this, and please just let it go.”

Even in the midst of a war with magical beasts, there were plenty of people who wanted money.

No, at times like these, even more people revealed their materialistic nature. So she offered the expensive accessory to silence him.

However, the person before her was completely different from what she expected.

“I don’t need that. And I didn’t see your face.”

“What? But earlier…”

“Why would I look at someone’s face while desperately trying to save their life?”

He even explains that he didn’t need to use his optic nerves—he just needed to check the arteries, so he had no time to look at her face.

“What I saw before me was a badly injured girl, a person whose life was in danger. Why would I need complicated reasons to save someone’s life?”

“…”

Surprisingly, he didn’t care about her identity at all.

He had focused solely on saving an injured person.

‘It was… my prejudice.’

He wasn’t materialistic at all.

The image of herself in his eyes was completely different from what others had seen before.

Not a member of the Arcab party, not from the Lantana ducal family, not Lord Alcaide’s daughter.

Just an injured girl. A person whose life was in danger. That was all.

Feeling unburdened by his straightforward perspective without any flowery words, Renias asks:

“What’s your name?”

The name of the man who helped her and saw her as just an ordinary girl.