Ch.613Chapter 23. Patriotic General Do Ji-hwan (17)

The opponent is a specialist in cold weapons.

The reason they specifically use cold weapons is because they are physical enhancement-type ability users.

Their common characteristic is that they find it extremely difficult to release mana outside their bodies.

So they fight by either extremely enhancing their body’s recovery ability to fight like zombies, hardening their bodies to make attacks ineffective, or using their bodies as weapons by swinging them around.

And when these types use weapons, they learn to treat the weapon as an extension of their body.

They consider their primary weapon as their “beloved weapon,” thinking of it as their own body, as a part of themselves.

Whether coating mana over the weapon or extending mana inside like blood vessels to strengthen it internally, they practice hardening their mana over the weapon’s form 24 hours a day, over and over.

The so-called Aura Blade.

What martial arts novels call “sword energy” is what physical enhancement-type ability users practice with all their might.

They’re different from flame sorcerers or ice sorcerers who can release magical power very easily.

Even among ability users, even among S-class users, it depends on which direction their talent lies.

If this world were a hunter story with monsters and raids, physical enhancement-type ability users would be popular, but this world is just a nationalistic ability battle story.

A world where those with more magical power, with stronger egos, win.

More precisely, a world where you win by depleting the mana in your opponent’s body first.

No matter how much mana a physical enhancement-type ability user has in their body, if you deplete all their mana from a distance, they’ll just die taking hits without resistance.

Just like now.

Ta-ang!!

I fire a mana bullet from the end of my Goblin Club.

Yoo-hyun, the master, and Jangdeok all stop in their tracks as they rush toward us.

“Kugh!”

Yoo-hyun deflects the mana bullet by swinging her twin swords.

The mana bullet, shaped like a sphere the size of a baseball, bounces off Yoo-hyun’s twin swords and flies into the sky.

“Kuugh…!”

Yoo-hyun grits her teeth and raises her swords upward.

Though she’s already deflected the mana bullet once, they’ve already taken one “effective hit” from me.

“Fall.”

Swish!

As soon as I give the command, the mana bullet that had risen into the sky plummets vertically.

The mana bullet, imbued with gravity along with magical power, was aimed precisely at Yoo-hyun’s head, and Yoo-hyun aimed her twin swords upward with a tense expression.

[She’s open in front.]

“I’ll hit her!”

Yoon Yi-seon extends her hand diagonally.

Simultaneously, flames shoot like shells from all nine of her tails.

Whoosh.

The fox-fires flying in an arc aren’t just flying randomly.

After flying a bit into the sky and stretching horizontally, the curve suddenly straightens as they rush toward the Peach Sisters.

“Where do you think you’re aiming!”

The master jumps forward and swings her crescent blade widely, sending out a slash.

The slash, tracing moonlight with mana infused in it, cuts down seven of the nine flames in one strike.

Whoosh.

However, two flames scatter up and down, grazing the master.

“Sister, I’ll handle the rest!”

Jangdeok swings her four-pronged spear horizontally beside her, destroying the two fox-fires.

Bang.

The sparks of fox-fire that burst around them flashed for a moment, and blue lightning rose before the two.

Clang, clang, clang!!!

Thunder Empress’s sword pressures the master.

Blue sparks fly each time the lightning sword and crescent blade collide.

“Kugh!”

The master frowns each time the weapons clash.

She knows she shouldn’t clash directly, but Thunder Empress’s swordsmanship is no joke.

“This one…! She’s really as strong as Thunder Empress…!”

“Even though you’ve never fought her.”

No, she’s overwhelming her.

As Thunder Empress enters inside the crescent blade’s range and swings her sword wildly, the four-pronged spear silently extends like a snake toward her, but Thunder Empress deflects the crescent blade while twisting her body.

[Where are you stabbing? That.]

“That’s just my afterimage.”

Zap!

The four-pronged spear pierces Thunder Empress’s chest.

But her body immediately disperses into blue current, and in less than a second, she appears behind the Peach Sisters.

“Sister!”

“Not yet!”

Thunder Empress is about to swing her sword right behind Yoo-hyun, but Yoo-hyun is still looking up at the sky.

“Eek…! When are you going to drop it…!”

[Who knows.]

The mana bullet that Yoo-hyun is trying to intercept falls from the void-

[It’s not just falling straight down like a meteor pulled by gravity.]

It entered the range where Yoo-hyun was waiting to swing, then immediately shot back up into the sky.

Clang!

Blue lightning flashed again behind Yoo-hyun.

“Aaagh…!”

Jangdeok deflected Thunder Empress’s sword aimed at Yoo-hyun, but she lowered her four-pronged spear with a pain-filled scream.

[Not many can handle Thunder Empress in close combat. Especially those who wield cold weapons.]

“…Because she runs electric current over her weapon to shock opponents.”

[She seems to be using it quite well?]

“Why did you teach her such a thing.”

Electric current transmission.

A technique that sends current through the opponent’s weapon each time weapons clash.

It’s a new technique that Thunder Empress has learned.

Not a technique of the Thunder Empress alter, but one that Thunder Empress herself has mastered.

Ironically, it’s first being showcased by the Thunder Empress alter as a Syndicate collaborator fighting villains, but such a technique doesn’t quite fit a hero’s image.

But that ability is clearly working now.

Though it’s current created by an ability, to block it requires defensive barriers all over the body.

[Well then, I’ll drop it.]

I lowered my Goblin Club.

At the same time, the mana bullet floating in the void fell vertically again, and Yoo-hyun jumped up from below.

“I’ll cut you!”

[Too slow.]

Just before Yoo-hyun’s sword could reach, I lightly pulled my Goblin Club back.

Bang!

The mana bullet moved in an arc toward me, following my Goblin Club’s movement.

Narrowly avoiding Yoo-hyun’s attack, at the exact moment it was horizontal with her abdomen.

Whack!

I thrust my Goblin Club forward, and the mana bullet hit Yoo-hyun’s abdomen precisely.

“Kuh, huk…!”

“Sister!! Kugh?!”

Gwanun tried to support her from the side, but the mana bullet that hit Yoo-hyun’s abdomen bounced off and flew directly toward Gwanun’s face.

Swoosh.

She barely avoided the attack by tilting her head back, but fox-fires that had been running along the ground were already waiting there.

Whoosh.

“Aaagh!!”

The moment one fox-fire bit onto Gwanun’s hair, dozens more fox-fires simultaneously attached to her.

She probably missed the timing to properly counter due to the wound on her shoulder.

“One ally draws attention from the front while attacking the enemy from a distance…”

[That’s combat basics.]

“Sister!”

“Where do you think you’re going.”

Zap!

Blue lightning flashed again in front of Jangdeok as she tried to swing her four-pronged spear at the fox-fires covering Gwanun.

“E-eek…!”

“Just because your concept is based on a historical warrior doesn’t mean your skills reflect theirs.”

With her sword against the tip of the four-pronged spear, Thunder Empress blocked Jangdeok’s path.

“If you surrender quietly, I’ll knock you out painlessly.”

“As if I’d surrender!”

“Then just pass out.”

Zap!

Electric current sparked.

Thunder Empress leaped backward and thrust her mana sword into the fallen Gwanun’s abdomen.

Zzzzzap!!

Blue electricity sparked from Gwanun’s body along with the fox-fires covering her.

The fox-fires popped one after another, and Gwanun’s body trembled underneath.

“Sister!!”

[You keep saying “sister” whenever one of them goes down, but you never actually save them.]

“You, you-“

[Too late.]

The moment Jangdeok gripped her four-pronged spear, I pulled my Goblin Club rather roughly.

Whack!!

The mana bullet that flew toward the back of Jangdeok’s head hit her hard.

With greater speed and force than before, Jangdeok, struck by the mana bullet, lowered her head forward and collapsed.

Thud.

Jangdeok fell, planting her face directly into the ground.

“…….”

Yoo-hyun was still trembling, holding her twin swords.

Her eyes contained various mixed angers, but at the core of that gaze was “resentment.”

“Y-you’re toying with us…?!”

[We gave you a chance, but if you couldn’t win, you should accept defeat.]

We already gave them a chance.

Under the pretext of being alters, we fought in a way we don’t normally use.

[If you wanted to win, you should have won when we were going easy on you.]

Or prevented Ji-hwan’s will from taking our side.

Even in a fair fight, victory would have been ours, but by messing with Ji-hwan’s will, it naturally became even easier to win.

[What? Never seen someone control a fired mana bullet before?]

Of course not.

They probably haven’t seen fired mana bullets being remotely controlled before.

[Let me explain the principle. It’s a toy. It just happens to be in the simplest spherical form.]

While making Yoo-hyun despair, I also reveal the basis of my technique to the other two.

[With overwhelming mana, you can freely control a mana bullet at a distance like this. Just keep supplying mana to the bullet, that’s all.]

“H-how…!”

[If you can’t see it, you’re just going to get hit.]

Though it’s a very long distance, there’s an extremely thin line of magical power connecting between the sphere and my mana bullet.

[Now, quietly accept it. My golden orb.]

The mana bullet glows golden and rushes toward Yoo-hyun again.

Yoo-hyun swings her twin swords to deflect the orb flying toward her, but-

[It’s useless.]

I swung my club in a large circle, turning my body with it.

At the same time, the mana bullet, ignoring inertia, spun in place following the trajectory of my swinging club and-

Whack!!

Hit Yoo-hyun on the back of her head.

[Today, that’s about seven hits.]

The mana bullet hit Yoo-hyun’s head again.

Unable to endure anymore, Yoo-hyun fell forward on her knees.

“…H-how do you control it remotely like that?”

[I told you. It’s a drone.]

It’s just a drone in the form of a mana bullet.

[I just used the Goblin Club as a controller to control the mana bullet drone.]

Nothing particularly surprising about it.

[Controlling a mana bullet’s trajectory is actually a fairly common technique?]

“…How do you do it?”

[Well.]

If you do it well, you can hit an S-class’s head seven times and give them a concussion like this.