Ch.74Break through the perfect defense

‘Bang!’

‘Ratatata!’

“Ha!”

Mina, Phyllis, and I were engaged in a grueling battle against a giant skeleton that stood over 3 meters tall.

The giant skeleton’s skill was incomparable to the low-level undead we had defeated before, as it skillfully switched between attack and defense with a large longsword in its right hand and a round shield in its left.

Adding to our difficulties, the ice spears occasionally launched by the lich were hard to counter while facing off against the skeleton.

It was no exaggeration to say that we were only able to continue our desperate struggle in the midnight darkness thanks to Phyllis, our sniper, who had taken on close combat despite it not being her specialty.

‘Swish’

“Ugh!”

“Phyllis, are you okay?”

“No problem. It just grazed me.”

Phyllis grimaced momentarily as an ice spear grazed her arm.

She had volunteered for unfamiliar close combat so that Mina and I could focus on attacking, and thanks to her dedication, our two pistols were able to consistently deal damage by penetrating the skeleton’s defenses.

However, since the enhancement magic that Jessica had cast on us had worn off, we could no longer break the skeleton’s stance with just the power of our guns, and that burden was falling entirely on Phyllis.

Of course, the passage of time wasn’t working entirely against us.

Phyllis’s rifle, which had been rendered unusable due to the Lightning Bolt, had been back in perfect condition for a little while now.

If we could find the right opportunity to land a Lightning Bolt or Fire Ball, it would be possible to take down the giant skeleton.

The reason we hadn’t done so was because we couldn’t guarantee that the lich wouldn’t summon another identical skeleton.

We couldn’t afford to waste Phyllis’s trump card magic carelessly; we needed to save it for a decisive strike when a definite opportunity arose.

“Hup!”

‘Bang!’

After parrying another attack from the giant skeleton, Phyllis immediately turned her gun and shot the skeleton’s head to pieces.

Unlike zombies, skeletons don’t lose their tracking ability when their heads are blown off since they have neither eyeballs nor eardrums, but even they couldn’t ignore the impact of a point-blank headshot.

After exchanging numerous attacks and defenses, Mina and I unleashed a barrage of magic bullets at the lich once we confirmed that the exhausted giant skeleton had collapsed to the ground.

‘Ratatata!’

‘Bang!’

The lich, withdrawing its hand that was about to launch ice, successfully defended against our magic bullets and stared at us with blazing eyes.

It was irritating how it seemed to mock us, as if saying, “Your attacks are useless against me.”

“We need to somehow break through that defense…”

“Phyllis, how did you destroy the staff earlier?”

“Even then, I couldn’t penetrate that barrier. I was able to destroy the staff because the lich was holding it out in front of the barrier.”

“So the tip of the staff was sticking out beyond the barrier. Then that means the barrier itself is impenetrable, an impregnable fortress.”

The lich’s barrier, which had blocked even Seti’s earth-attribute enhanced charging thrust without taking a single step back, was nothing short of a human-sized mountain.

This wasn’t just a matter of comparing attack power and defense; we might not be able to break through without grasping something fundamental.

‘~~~!!’

The lich, which had only been launching passive ice spear attacks since summoning the giant skeleton, changed its tactics once again.

It raised the crystal orb in its left hand to chest height and began drawing more than ten magic circles in the air.

This suggested it was about to demonstrate the true power of an undead mage, unlike its previous passive attacks.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!’

The ominous magic circles began to glow and fire thick magical bullets in succession.

Faced with this fierce attack reminiscent of a shooting game boss pattern, Mina, Phyllis, and I could only focus on evasion, unable to even find a moment to counterattack.

It was a struggle just to reload our guns, but amidst this desperate situation, a ray of light shone down.

“Yaaaah!”

‘Crash-!!’

Seti’s jumping attack from above was blocked by the barrier, and the lich stopped its barrage of magic bullets to attack Seti at close range with lightning magic.

‘Rumble!’

But as Phyllis had predicted, Seti wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice. Seeing the sparkling light—electrical particles—appearing around the lich’s body, Seti quickly dodged to the side.

While skillfully avoiding the second and third lightning spells, Seti quickly dove in for a thrusting attack, then avoided the fourth lightning bolt with a back somersault. In that moment:

‘Huh!?’

On the ground where the lightning had struck were small fragments of broken stone, and as Seti’s back somersault caused some of them to fly up, they hit the lich’s shoulder and fell.

They had passed through the invincible barrier that had been blocking both physical and magical attacks, with the lich itself being the only exception.

“Flame…”

“Jessica! Stone Bullet!”

“Eh? Oh, got it!…Stone Bullet!!”

‘Crash!’

Jessica, who had returned with Seti and was about to use Flame Lance, quickly switched to Stone Bullet after hearing my words.

The fiercely rotating Stone Bullet couldn’t penetrate the lich’s barrier either, but I clearly saw the broken stone fragments, having lost their attack power, pass through the barrier and hit the lich’s robe.

If we could figure out the exact conditions for what the barrier could block, we could win this battle.

‘The lich’s staff passed through, but Seti’s spear was blocked. The Stone Bullet was blocked, but stone fragments passed through. Is it a matter of power? Or speed? Or the presence of hostile intent?’

Does it unconditionally block anything that could harm it, regardless of whether it’s physical or magical?

Even so, that would be too much of a cheat magic. If that were really the case, our only option would be to run away.

So, setting that possibility aside, I decided to try a test with the means available to me. I tucked my revolver into my waistband and picked up a reasonably large stone from those lying around.

“Will? What are you doing?”

“Just trying a little test.”

Recalling the form of a Major League pitcher in my mind, I turned sideways and took a pitching stance.

I don’t have much experience playing baseball, but the distance to the lich is only about 10 meters at most.

With my enhanced physical abilities since coming to Grantis, it shouldn’t be difficult to hit the motionless lich.

“First pitch windup…!”

“Eh?”

“Stoooone Bullet-!!”

‘Thwack!’

The stone I threw forcefully passed through the barrier as if it didn’t exist and hit the lich squarely in the head.

Of course, a simple thrown stone without magical power couldn’t deal proper damage to a monster.

The lich’s head wobbled for a moment after being hit by the large stone, but it nonchalantly launched an ice spear toward me.

However, what I saw in that instant was enough to fit the last piece of the puzzle that had been swirling in my mind.

“I got it! That barrier blocks attacks using magical power! Both spells and magic bullets…!!”

As I barely dodged the ice spear, I shouted this realization, and only then did I understand that I had been trapped in a ridiculous preconception all along.

The people of Grantis use magic and magic bullet guns to overcome monsters’ physical resistance.

But only the beastfolk can imbue their close combat weapons with their own magical power to harm monsters.

In other words, the spear wielded by Seti, a beastfolk, is categorically a ‘magical attribute attack.’

The lich’s barrier has never once blocked a ‘physical attack.’

“B-but how do we defeat a monster without using magic-imbued attacks?”

“That guy just showed us the model answer earlier! Ancestor!”

“Neeeigh~~!!”

I mounted Ancestor who came running at my call, and took out the rope hanging from his harness as I charged toward the lich.

If I approach the lich like this, the lightning spell will strike down, and even if I detect the danger with my skill, I won’t be able to avoid it while on horseback.

But that doesn’t matter. I never intended to get within range of the lightning spell anyway.

“Will! Danger!”

“Whoa! That was close.”

After barely avoiding an ice spear launched by the lich, I approached to about 5 meters away from it and successfully threw the coiled rope, lassoing the lich.

“Good, let’s go Ancestor!!”

“Neeeigh~~!!”

As I drove Ancestor sharply to the right while pulling on the end of the rope, the noose tightened and caught the lich’s body.

The rope was hooked in front of Ancestor’s neck, forming a V-shape before reaching my hand.

If we continue running like this, it won’t be my weight or strength pulling the lich’s body, but the explosive 8-horsepower force of Ancestor!

“Let’s see if you can stand firm against this!”

The moment the rope pulled taut, the lich, which had been standing firmly in place without moving a single step, disappeared from view.

Like a victim being dragged by a heinous criminal, the lich was pulled along with the noose around its neck.

No matter how high-ranking an undead mage it might be, it couldn’t cast spells while being dragged by a horse.

After making a wide turn around the ancient ruins’ courtyard with the lich in tow, I drove the horse toward Phyllis.

After barely brushing past her, I let go of the rope, and the dragged lich came to a stop right in front of Phyllis.

As the lich, which had been rolling on the ground, painfully lifted its head, the cold muzzle of a rifle touched the center of the skeleton’s expressionless forehead.

“Fire Ball {Incendiary Grenade}!”

The Fire Ball fired at point-blank range couldn’t even singe the edge of Phyllis’s clothes standing right in front.

The red grenade pierced through the skull, shattered the neck bones, and reached the center of the ribcage before causing a massive explosion.

The explosion was blocked by the perfectly intact magical barrier 1.5 meters around the lich, burning white-hot and incinerating everything inside without leaving even ashes.

It was the same method the lich itself had shown at the beginning of the fight—firing magic through the barrier from the inside.

“Once you know the answer, there’s always a way.”

“Phew~ I really thought we were done for this time. Honestly, I don’t have enough magical power left for even one Stone Bullet.”

“I thought so. You used a lot of magical power on healing spells when I was seriously injured by the Tyrant Worm. If this plan had failed, I was going to suggest we all retreat.”

“Would we have been able to retreat?”

“The lich didn’t move an inch from its initial position. It would have kept launching spells from behind, but I think once we went down the hill and out of sight, it wouldn’t have pursued us.”

“But why didn’t it move at all? Even when Seti or Phyllis approached, and honestly, Will’s lasso was obviously coming—it could have easily dodged by just stepping aside.”

“That I don’t know. There’s not even a corpse left to examine, let alone anything else.”

“I apologize. If I had used Lightning Bolt, we could have preserved the spoils intact, but I thought it had to be completely eliminated, so…”

“No, it was a good decision. It’s a hundred times better than giving the enemy a chance to counterattack because we were greedy for loot.”

Considering how it seemed to use the crystal orb when casting lightning spells or firing magic bullet barrages, that crystal orb was probably some kind of medium similar to Jessica’s grimoire.

If we could have obtained it intact, it might have been an even better growth opportunity for Jessica, Mina, or Phyllis than the Demon Rose’s magic stone, but that’s meaningless now.

No matter how great a treasure might be, it’s not worth exchanging for one’s life.

“Now that we’ve defeated the lich, I’d like to start investigating the ruins properly… but can we rest a little until our magical power recovers?”

“That would be best. There’s no guarantee that there aren’t traps or enemies remaining inside the ruins.”

“Can you use Repellation Field?”

“I think I can manage that much. Once I engrave the characters, the rest of the magical power comes from burning the magic stone.”

“Good. Since we’ll need to rest here after finishing the ruins investigation anyway, let’s set up the barrier magic and rest for about an hour before going in. Meanwhile, we can keep watch for any monsters coming up the hill or approaching the ruins entrance.”

I took out the firewood I had prepared yesterday evening from Ancestor’s bag, piled it up, and used a magical igniter to light it.

The barrier magic Repellation Field would be complete once Jessica engraved magical characters on a spare magic stone and threw it into the bonfire.

However, this time, the magic stone began to glow suddenly even before it was thrown into the fire.

“Eek?”

“What’s going on?”

“Uh, strange… The Repellation Field activated before the magic stone was even burned.”

“What does that mean?”

“Did the barrier magic fail?”

“No. The spell activated normally, but magical power is being supplied to the Repellation Field formula from somewhere other than the magic stone.”

“Somewhere else? Where?”

“Wait. The magical power detection pendulum… here it is.”

Jessica took out a diamond-shaped crystal with a long string attached from her pouch and brought it close to the magic stone. The blue crystal at the end of the string began to emit a soft light and sway, and a similar blue aura started to seep out around the magic stone.

Like blue ink dropped into clear water, the slowly spreading blue light colored the space around the magic stone before leaving a thin trail that extended into the ground at a certain point.

“Is it there?”

“Huh? Isn’t that where the lich was standing earlier?”

“That means…”

There’s something down there.

We looked at each other, nodded, and took out shovels and pickaxes from Ancestor’s luggage.