Wolf Monsters
With a single strike from Ferda, the wolf monster became a corpse.
Those watching could not hide their astonishment.
“The monster… in one hit…”
They had heard that magic was effective against monsters, but few had ever witnessed it firsthand. Even for a mage, finishing one off in a single blow was no common feat.
Ferda looked at the man standing there with a blank expression.
“What are you dawdling for?”
“Sir?”
“The rift is still open.”
He was right. Even after the wolf monster died, the rift had not closed. That meant more monsters remained inside.
“Anyone who can draw a sword—prepare for battle! Protect the citizens!”
“Call for reinforcements! Summon the guard!”
“Not the guard—mages! Call mages who can pour magic into these things!”
Shouts flew chaotically from every direction, but a rough chain of command was forming all the same, so Ferda paid it no mind.
At the boundary line, the limp corpse twitched.
“I-it moved!”
“Is it still alive?”
Someone cried out. But that wolf monster was already dead. Movement like that meant another one was preparing to emerge.
Ferda immediately began preparing his next spell.
Beyond the space where heat haze shimmered, something took form.
Another wolf monster, identical to the first.
It tried to burst free, but Ferda was a step faster.
“Lightning Spear.”
He hurled the chanted spell at the monster emerging from the rift. The spear of lightning struck the wolf as it came out.
—Kruk!
Lightning Spear was a fourth-circle spell. It possessed excellent penetration; if aimed at a vital point, it could deal fatal damage. Miss the vitals, however, and the creature would not die—as with the one before him now.
Still, not bad.
The one that had been trying to come out flinched in panic and tried to retreat. It could not. Other wolf monsters were already thrusting their heads into the gap of the rift. At least four more, by the look of it.
Their panic bought a temporary halt to the flood. In that brief window, those capable of fighting took up their positions. Knights drew their swords; the handful of mages present began preparing their chants.
Mages were the most effective counters to monsters. Everyone knew it. But how many of them had ever actually faced one? The higher a mage’s circle rose, the more their world turned from magic to politics. With the forces present, there was no chance of victory.
“What about us, then? Do we evacuate?”
Jed asked. This was Halim’s affair; there was no need to risk their lives.
“No. We join the fight.”
The only mages of any real use here were Ferda and himself. There was no need to gamble their lives, and the odds of winning were high.
Fighting here is more profitable than running.
Having made his decision, Ferda scanned for what he needed.
What I need is mana.
What he needed were mana reservoirs to fill the shortfall in his own reserves—mages who could serve as fuel. For that plan, he called a single name.
“Malcolm!”
“Yes, Lord Regent!”
Malcolm answered smartly. His body, however, was fidgeting as though he had no idea what to do with himself.
“Bring me every mage you can find. Even if they can only produce a Mana Shot, gather them all.”
“W-what if they refuse?”
Was that even a question?
“Then kidnap them and drag them here.”
“Yes, sir! I receive your orders!”
Malcolm flailed off at a run.
“Mind if I go collect some too? I’m pretty good at persuasion.”
Jed ventured carefully.
“You’re a knight. Do a knight’s work.”
“Damn it.”
Jed let out a sigh and drew his daggers.
—Grrrr!
In the meantime, the wolves’ panic ended. One forced its body through the gap, and the ones waiting behind it poured out in a flood. Whether every wolf monster inside had come through or not, the rift sealed itself shut again.
Seven in total?
A single one of these was already a heavy burden for ordinary knights, and seven had invaded the building.
I can handle about two myself. If the rest have to face five…
Ferda rapidly assessed the available forces and matched them against the threat.
Impossible.
The monsters would hunt them one-sidedly, and that hunt would lead to annihilation. Once the first domino fell, nothing would stop the rest.
“Sir Jed.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need you to step up. Can you buy time against about two of them?”
“Two of them, you say?”
Jed swallowed hard. They looked like wolves, but their means of attack were not limited to jaws and claws. Spiked tentacles sprouting from their tails floated menacingly in the air. And he was supposed to stall two of those?
“Can you do it?”
After long, hard deliberation, Jed answered.
“The pay’s going to be steep.”
“Have I ever shortchanged you?”
“No, you haven’t. In that case…!”
Jed adjusted his grip on his daggers and moved off. He approached Penelope. In a situation like this, there was only one thing she could do.
“Waaah! I don’t wanna dieee!”
“Hey, Pepe! Get a grip, you idiot!”
Slap!
“Urgh!”
“Stop blubbering and do your job. You can use magic too!”
“W-what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fight something like that?!”
“You don’t have to fight. Just help me out. Make my body lighter somehow—you know, that spell! That one!!”
“That one? Tsk, hang on. Haste!”
Penelope’s magic washed over Jed’s body. He felt himself grow distinctly faster and loosened up.
“Yeah. That’s the feeling.”
Jed grinned and muttered as he eyed the wolf monsters.
“I’ll go take a little walk, then.”
With that, he moved to draw the attention of two of them. That left Ferda with two, and the rest with three.
Ferda turned and picked out the man who looked the most seasoned among those who had drawn their swords.
“You there!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good spirit. We’ll take four. You and the people around you will somehow deal with the remaining three. Can you do it?”
“H-how exactly, sir?”
“Order them to fight as defensively as possible. Form a shield wall.”
That was what he said, but whether they fought defensively or offensively hardly mattered. So long as they did not lose their will and flee, it was enough. That was all Ferda asked of the man.
“Lord Regent!”
Malcolm, who had received his orders, came sprinting back. Ferda was about to ask why he had returned so soon when the sight of what he was carrying left him speechless.
Draped over both of Malcolm’s shoulders were two men in robes.
“Here—mages!”
“You actually kidnapped them.”
“I’m not confident in persuasion, so…!”
Ferda regarded the panting Malcolm steadily.
“You’re smarter than I thought.”
“Sir? I’m smart?”
“Knowing yourself is no easy thing. Keep doing exactly that.”
“Understood!”
Malcolm went off to kidnap more fresh mana reservoirs. The men who had been seized without the faintest idea why stood frozen stiff. They had been running for their lives only to find themselves dropped into the middle of a battlefield.
Ferda gave them no time to think.
“You. Can you cast Mana Bomb?”
“S-sir? Ah, yes…”
“Then prepare a Mana Bomb. When I give the order, throw it toward me. And you?”
“I-I’m not there yet…”
“Then prepare Mana Shot. Get it ready and throw it to me on my signal. Easy enough, yes?”
“Yes, sir!”
“And when that kidnapper brings more mages, give them the same instructions. I don’t want to explain twice. Understood?”
“Y-yes, sir!”
In the urgency of the moment, they could not possibly have absorbed every word. Ferda did not expect much; he simply prepared for combat.
I must refrain from black magic as much as possible.
In the larger picture he was painting, black magic would brand him with a fatal stigma. He already knew Erdes was using it, but what the public saw was an entirely different matter. He had to avoid it as far as he could.
But that doesn’t mean I can refuse to use it at all.
He would employ it secretly and quietly, so that no one noticed. That was why he had mastered Barbatos’s shadow magic.
At Ferda’s feet, the shape of his shadow stirred. It slipped unseen to the feet of a wolf. Ferda chanted the spell.
“Bind.”
A hidden hand stretched out from within Ferda’s shadow.
—Grrrr!?
It seized the wolf’s ankle in a crushing grip.
A binding spell of the fourth circle among Barbatos’s shadow arts. Its true name was Shadow Bind, but Ferda omitted the word “Shadow.” He had not needed to chant at all. That alone was enough, and outwardly the effect resembled ordinary Bind closely enough.
The wolf floundered as though its feet had sunk into a sticky mire, unable to pull free.
Finish one quickly.
He rapidly sketched a magic circle he held in memory and chanted the spell.
“Lightning Spear.”
The spear of lightning left his hand. With the creature unable to move, striking the heart was as easy as taking candy from a baby.
Zzzt!
The spear of lightning flew true, piercing hide and flesh. Where the heart had been, only a pulp of green blood sprayed out, and the wolf collapsed without strength.
“Good heavens—one hit again…”
A fresh wave of admiration rose.
—Grrrr!
The other bound creature sensed its kin’s death and bared its fangs. It thrashed violently against the restraint, and in the instant the hold slackened it clamped its jaws around the black form.
“Ugh.”
A cry of pain escaped Ferda’s lips. The moment the wolf bit down, he felt a severing sensation near the little finger of his right hand.
The shadow was treated as part of Ferda’s body. When the shadow was cut, he felt the pain of flesh being cut as well.
That is the condition.
Fail to take care and one could be seized by the agony, condemned to a lifetime of phantom pain. Ferda severed the connection with practiced ease and escaped the phantom sensation. The moment he cut the link between shadow and mind, the spell’s power weakened. The wolf monster broke free.
“Lord Regent! Where should I throw the Mana Bomb…!”
The timing was good.
“Throw it toward me!”
The mage hurled a large blue sphere at Ferda. Ferda did not turn around. Instead, a fragment of black fingers rose from his back, sprayed a thread of mana onto the Mana Bomb, and snared it.
To any onlooker, it seemed as though the moment the sphere entered Ferda’s radius it simply and naturally settled into his grasp.
“Hah!”
“Magic Intercept…!”
Experienced mages doubted their eyes at the difficult technique only the skilled could perform. Ferda had no time to care either way. His full concentration poured onto the target.
He flung the Mana Shot and Mana Bomb into the wolf’s face.
Boom-boom-boom—!
A hundred percent hit rate. The explosion of mana slammed into the creature’s muzzle. Beings of reverse principle that lived by spewing junk mana, the moment they met the proper order, found their regeneration slowing. And the instant regeneration halted completely, the wolf monster staggered like a dog in midsummer heat.
“Lightning Spear.”
Thus Ferda finished the two wolf monsters before him.
Without a moment to catch his breath, he surveyed the battlefield.
The knights and soldiers’ side.
The line of knights and soldiers looked hard-pressed. Their faces were pale with fear. Jed, by contrast, was drawing the attention of two wolf monsters without a single wound. The creatures’ attacks were sweeping wide arcs as if hurling their entire bodies into every strike. Astonishingly, Jed was moving faster than the monsters could attack, dodging every blow.
I need to support Jed.
He looked the most composed, yet he was the one in the greatest danger.
“Jed!”
“What is it!?”
Jed snapped back irritably.
“Lure them toward where my shadow is!”
“Understood!”
Jed’s eyes, mid-somersault, rapidly located Ferda’s shadow. Then, with acrobatic grace, he sprinted in Ferda’s direction.
—Kung! Kung!
The two thoroughly enraged wolf monsters charged after him. The instant they tried to cross Ferda’s shadow, hands erupted and seized their ankles.
—Kyaang!?
Caught by the sudden obstacle, the wolf monsters’ bodies tumbled.
“Bind.”
Ferda used the Shadow Bind he had prepared to restrain both of them once more.
“Throw them!”
On his order, the mages Malcolm had supplied hurled the Mana Bombs they had prepared, one after another, toward Ferda. Some worried it looked as though they were attacking the Regent. But Ferda skillfully wound threads of mana around each sphere and made them his own spells.
Boom-boom!
Mana soaked into the bodies of both monsters. Just as intended, both staggered.
My mana reserves… are borderline.
Without the Red Circle spinning taut, additional supply was difficult.
Enough mana left for about three Lightning Spears?
If he spent them on these two, what remained for the rest would be tight. How to finish them?
“Lord Regent!”
Jed called out to Ferda. Fighting spirit burned in his eyes. Ferda looked into those eyes and thought,
Useless.
Spirit might mean something to knights armored in will, but to Ferda it was worthless. Yet he saw the cold light gleaming on the daggers. Aura.
That is useful.
Grasping the intent, Ferda nodded. In a brief exchange of about a second and a half, they designated each other’s targets.
“Lightning Spear.”
Ferda’s flash of an arrow pierced one monster between the eyes and burst its heart.
“Go take a nice long walk in hell, you bastard!”
Jed’s dagger punched through the monster’s belly hide. The tough hide sank like jelly, and the blade drove straight between the ribs.
Thud—!
With the sound of thick, hard muscle parting, the wolf’s carcass slumped lifelessly. Even the two Jed had been leading around were dead.
Three remained. Those three were being held by a ragtag army.
“Ack! That one shot me!”
“Don’t fall back! Hold the formation!”
The commander’s charisma had at least locked their feet in place, so the three wolf monsters could do little more than probe for gaps in the lines.
Ferda aimed for those gaps. He shouted toward the mages.
“Mana Bombs!”
Malcolm had supplied a total of ten mages. Twelve spheres in all came flying toward Ferda at once. The fingers of his shadow snared every last one without missing and made them his own. He targeted the openings around the wolf monsters.
Boom-boom-boom—!
Mana drove into their torsos, dense enough to pierce hide and sink into flesh. The wolf monster struck squarely staggered; the two that had been moving aggressively also took meaningful damage and pulled back.
“Now! Bring them down!”
“Waaaaah!”
With a roar they thrust their blades into the reeling creature and counterattacked. The wolf monster resisted, but its swings were as feeble as those of a dying old man.
—Kung kung!
The remaining two wolves fixed their gazes on Ferda. Wild instinct had identified the core of this human pack. Their eyes rolled back with murderous intent, and they charged him.
“They’re going for the Regent! Protect the Regent!”
In a situation where each man could barely look after himself, the soldiers could not possibly react in time.
Two of them.
Ferda lacked Jed’s flashy body control for dodging. He had already begun preparing magic before he even felt the killing intent.
“Lightning Spear.”
The spear of lightning punched through one creature’s torso. It missed the heart, but it succeeded in stopping the beast. The remaining one charged Ferda without a shred of fear.
“Lord Regent!”
Jed threw himself in front of Ferda to shield him.
“Gahk!”
In agility he might outmatch a wolf monster, but in a head-on clash he crumpled like a scarecrow stuck in soft earth. Ferda used the opening Jed had bought him and began to unfold a magic circle, intending at least to drive a Lightning Bolt into the creature.
“Lightni—”
He never finished the word. The wolf monster slammed both of its forelegs onto Ferda’s shoulders and mounted him outright.
—Kheong!!
Its jaws yawned wide. It looked like a wolf, but the inside of its mouth was nothing of the sort—sharper teeth still, and a tongue split into dozens of tentacles. Those razor fangs sank toward Ferda’s throat.
He felt death approaching.
Baaang—!
A sonic boom that shook heaven and earth. At the same instant something small and fast streaked through the air, and the wolf monster’s body heaved violently. The fangs that had already half-buried themselves in his neck lost all strength, and the creature collapsed on the spot.
Having escaped by a hair’s breadth, Ferda examined what had killed the monster.
Small, fast, and powerful magic…
A sense of familiarity stirred. Ferda looked for the benefactor who had saved his life. The direction the shot had come from was the stage. Standing upon that stage was none other than Burnel.
He was breathing hard, and something rested in his hands. It was the Magic Engineering Rifle that had been scheduled for introduction after Director Bernard. The long pipe he held was still trailing pure white smoke.