Ch.79Giant (2)

In this medieval fantasy world I’ve been reincarnated into, society tends to value mid-level magic users slightly higher than warriors (knights) of the same rank.

This is partly because humans with innate magical talent are rare, and to the common masses who make up the vast majority of the population, shooting fire seems more impressive than swinging a sword.

While knights develop their combat abilities as pure fighters, magic users wield “magic”—a skill with overwhelming utility.

Because of this, combined with their mystique to the uninformed, mid-level and higher mages are commonly believed to be powerful beings who can easily dispatch knights, but…

This is only true among the general public who can’t distinguish between mages and other magic users due to their ignorance about magic.

Most magic users actually struggle to defeat knights in combat situations of this scale.

Knights possess magic defense and resistance at levels incomparable to before through the power of Aura, along with reflexes and physical abilities that operate on a completely different level from mages, making them formidable opponents.

To cast a spell powerful enough to kill a knight, a mage must use incantations, and attempting to leisurely chant in front of a knight will only result in being neatly dismembered.

If this is the case for ordinary magic users, what about the black mage sweating profusely before my eyes?

People tend to think of black mages as practitioners who have become stronger than ordinary magic users through dark arts, but the reality is quite the opposite.

Black mages are closer to a group of losers who resort to highly dangerous and unstable black magic because they could never reach the higher realms of magical mastery through conventional methods.

To the uninformed, black magic might seem like a convenient way to get maximum returns by offering sacrifices, but naturally, the world doesn’t work in ways that favor specific individuals.

It’s essentially like taking an advance. Unless demons are willing to do business at a loss, they insert traps into contracts so that no matter how beneficial it may appear, the contractor ultimately loses while the demon profits.

Talented and competent mages who are educated about this at magic towers generally don’t seek to achieve levels they could reach with their own power by going into debt to others.

In the end, those who turn to black magic are, with extremely few exceptions, practically predetermined:

Talentless, mediocre mages. Fools who ignorantly fall for the temptation of magic and rashly enter contracts. Those willing to do literally anything for their goals, or those who belonged to the realm of evil from the beginning.

Except for the rare genuine article, most black mages are ultimately ordinary beings who don’t come close to the “real deal.”

That’s why I wasn’t particularly wary when I saw someone openly advertising themselves as a “black mage.”

I was merely angered by the horrifying black robe dyed with the human skin of victims and the preserved heads hanging from the end of his staff like a flail.

‘…At most, 10 years old?’

Judging by the size of the dangling heads and the youthfulness of their faces, the owners of those three skulls seemed to be children no older than 10.

Their faces were contorted with pain no child should ever experience, amplifying my disgust.

How many lives had those blackened, withered hands taken? How many evil deeds had been committed to gain power that turned those eyes black?

I had no intention of asking questions that wouldn’t be answered anyway. With cold contempt, I looked at the creature and tried to move Gus by kicking his belly, but…

“…Gus?”

For some reason, Gus showed no reaction when I touched him as I always did. No, that’s not right.

“Wake up—!”

“—Prrrr!!!”

He was temporarily out of his mind, to the point where he couldn’t regain consciousness until I injected Aura into his head.

In the current situation, the cause was obviously that the black mage had attempted to cast some spell.

Though I don’t know the exact principle, it seemed to be a power based on some form of mental intervention. While Gus was deflecting it, the black mage used this time to swing that disgusting head-flail through the air.

And… that’s when it happened.

[—That won’t work on me!!!]

As the “ogre skin,” known for its high magic resistance, combined with Aura to deflect the magical power, I shouted with Aura-infused “strength” to repel the invisible magic attacks flying toward me.

-Crack! Crack! Crack!

These deflected invisible magical attacks, which had been emanating from the skulls with each swing of the flail, now left marks on the ground as if something had bitten into it.

It was the effect of the black magic from the ‘Gluttony’ lineage, ‘Biting Maw.’

The effect, as you can see, was to fire formless magical bullets that “bite” into materials within a certain range from the point of impact.

Of course, someone like me could easily withstand such single-shot non-incantation attacks, but the problem was Gus, who despite borrowing Aura, was still a lower-rank being.

If his neck got bitten, he would die instantly. So in this troublesome situation, I could quickly make a decision.

“—Forward!”

“Heehee—!”

The best choice was to end this situation by quickly cutting down the enemy.

[Bite… tear… eat…!!!]

Perhaps thinking I was moving to protect Gus, the black mage blatantly targeted him, but thanks to the enemy focusing only on Gus, I could move freely.

-—Clang!

Moreover, with my active protection allowing Gus to move without interference, he began to run quickly, enabling me to close the distance in one breath. I swung my Basilisk Bone Zweihander to cut the enemy in half—

-—Whoosh!!

Just then, from behind me came the sound of something cutting through the air.

Noticing the ominous sound, Gus and I dodged, and where I had been just moments before, a massive boulder crashed down.

-Kwaaang!!

The ground shook as the boulder—clearly thrown by a giant—hit the ground and bounced up again.

In that moment, Gus and I approached the black mage and I swung my Zweihander.

-—Slash!

The magical flail, more ritual tool or magical catalyst than combat weapon, was split in half.

Though it was an extraordinary weapon whose ‘Gluttony’ magic burst forth, annoyingly, it couldn’t exert its power properly against me, a spiritual descendant of ‘Gluttony.’

“Gus, fall back!”

Thanks to this, I could leisurely signal Gus, and after infusing Aura into the now powerless enemy, I made him retreat to the rear.

‘I cut—’

-—Slash!

Excluding all distracting thoughts, I swung my blade, maximizing the power of the ‘Sword Demon’ factor to bisect the black mage’s body.

However, what happened after cutting his waist in half was… beyond what I had vaguely imagined.

“…Huh?”

The corpse of the black mage, now literally split into black/mage, was suddenly engulfed in a sticky green liquid, then abruptly turned into some kind of mass.

-—Whoosh!

When I experimentally swung my sword at it, I felt no sensation of cutting anything, nor did any liquid stick to the blade. Moreover, my intuition told me that no solid mass existed within it.

So I had no choice but to simply observe the situation. The green mass suddenly rose into the air and began flying toward the distance…

“Over there…!!”

Only then did I realize that the direction the mass was flying was where that mindless giant was, and my intuition told me that the giant must not be allowed to live.

But it was already too late. By the time I hurriedly returned, the green mass was already seeping into the dying giant’s body, and…

-…Twitch.

Before I could even intervene, the “mutation” had begun.