Chapter 48 Volume II - 14: Changing the Tide
Chapter 48 Volume II - Chapter 14: Changing the Tide
I quickly turned to the creatures that were the real danger and surveyed the situation there.
Celine and Julian are fighting against the scaly mammoth at the same time. The archer, whose name is Alice, and Lucia, who is normally a swordswoman but has a flame attribute, are taking care of the red-feathered bird, while Adrian is fighting the monkey alone.
I first looked at Celine and Julian and observed their movements, and then I saw Julian throwing ice spears he had formed in the air at the mammoth.
"Julian! Use your ice magic on defense, not offense!"
Julian was confused as I suddenly shouted at him, but he quickly understood what I meant.
The mammoth's scales have a durability above his level. So he can't damage it with ice magic unless he makes an extreme move. Besides, the ice attribute is not something that has a lot of damage... It's more of a restriction of movement and, as I said before, it can show its full potential when focused on defense.
Unlike Julian, Celine seemed fine on her own, so I ignored her and looked at Lucia and Alice.
They didn't seem to have a problem either. They were just having a hard time hitting the arrows and spells because the bird was moving so much. On top of that, Lucia's main skill was the sword, so she couldn't show herself much unless the bird was diving to attack.
Then... we came to Adrian.
The monkey's snake-headed tail hissed viciously and shot a green liquid at Adrian that looked quite acidic. Adrian dodged the acid and lunged at the monkey, but the monkey defended his attack with its claws.
In fact, all three groups seem to be okay for now. But of course, the key word here is 'for now'... Because the creatures are much stronger than them and this is not something that is easy to overlook.
Even if they are good at defending themselves, after a few minutes the advantage will slowly start to shift to the creatures.
I have to take matters into my own hands...
Ahh...! It's going to hurt too much, but I can't risk it.
Damn it, I have no choice.
I took a deep breath. After mentally preparing myself, I called out to the presence that had been silently watching the events from inside me until now.
'Sith, get ready.'
Right after I thought that I heard a chuckle echoing in my head.
'Finally!'
Despite my unwillingness, Sith reacted with great excitement. Because for the first time, we were going to do something together, technically 'he' was going to fight too, and unlike me, he wouldn't suffer at all, so he had nothing to worry about.
I pulled myself behind the front line of students blocking the creatures. Then I closed my eyes and focused completely on the mana inside me.
No lie... I am a statistical weakling. If I dueled someone without mana, it would take me less than a minute to get down, but as the only person in the world who is contracted to a spirit and has the passive skill [The One Who is Close to Spirits], there are a few things I can do, even if it puts a lot of strain on me.
Sith is contracted to me as a spirit. So even if he can't interact with anything in the world, I'm an exception, and so is my mana... What we're about to do is based on that logic.
I exhaled the breath I had just taken and immediately felt the mana in my body bubbling like boiling water, my whole body burning as if on fire, and a sharp pain in my heart.
As Sith merged with the mana in my body, giving it direction, the barrier to our access to his mana slowly disappeared. This meant... a near-limitless amount of mana.
Nearly unlimited mana that I could only use for wind magic.
I felt like I was in a furnace, and soon I tasted the metallic liquid in my mouth, but I swallowed it back before I vomited blood.
I had even less time than I had thought.
I opened my eyes and slowly raised my sword, and then the mana that had been bubbling in my body began to seep out.
The teal glow that would normally form around my sword now enveloped my whole body. A crown of strange-looking tree branches appeared above my head and my mana began to spread wildly into the atmosphere.
All eyes in the area suddenly turned to me. I had attracted their attention because of the mana concentrated in a single area, but I ignored them and poured all the mana boiling in my body into my sword.
Of course, I didn't push the mana so that it perfectly wrapped around my sword like I normally would, but rather left it unstable, open to interacting with the atmosphere, and my sword slowly blurred as the wild mana surrounded it.
Occasionally I saw Celine's eyes widen, but I didn't have time to pay attention to her. I was using more mana than my body could handle in one go, and I was in great pain because of Sith who had become one with the mana.
I took another deep breath to regain some focus, slowly exhaled it back, and quickly brought down my sword, which was trembling from the mana over-concentration.
The teal-colored wild mana separated from the sword the moment I brought it down and flew with great splendor toward the monkey Adrian was fighting.
When the monkey saw the attack, it did not retreat, but instead folded its arms in front of it, choosing to defend him directly.
"Idiot."
The moment my attack hit the monkey, it raised a huge cloud of dust. There was a loud roar and wailing in the area. Even the creatures stopped fighting and looked at the dust cloud.
As the dust cloud began to dissipate, the monkey hiding behind it appeared.
Its eyes were darting here and there. It looked mad and one of its arms was on the ground, not where it should have been. On top of that, there was a not-very-deep wound on the other arm.
"What the... what the fuck did he do?"
As the crown on my head slowly disappeared and the enormous amount of mana I could feel in my whole body was once again out of my control, I thought only one thing.
Huh... I wonder what would you think if you knew I couldn't even stand up...
Still, I didn't have time to say it out loud.
"Adrian! Attack!"
Adrian was frozen in place in the shock of the situation, but when I called out to him, he realized his opportunity.
He twirled his spear in his hand, then stretched it and threw it at the monkey with great force. The monkey, which was focusing frantically on me, did not even notice his attack.
The spear entered the monkey's chest and left its back. The creature roared in pain and looked around as if it wanted to attack something, but then the light slowly faded from its eyes. It took a few steps forward, almost refusing to die, but finally reached its limit. His body, stretching almost three meters, slowly collapsed to the ground.
"It's dead!"
"We have a chance! Come on!"
The creature's death was a great morale booster for the students. Adrian looked at me and smiled as he pulled his spear out of the monkey.
"Take care of the bird first, Adrian."
The mammoth doesn't have much offensive power compared to its defense. We can take him down anyway, but the bird is a bit troublesome.
Adrian simply nodded, turned back to the bird covered in red feathers, and went to help Lucia and Alice.
With Adrian helping them, the battle would probably be over in a few minutes. So I was relaxed, but then, after an explosion that took my eye, I saw a shadow flying at me.
I clicked my tongue and strained to catch it, and I even managed to catch it, but the impact knocked me off balance and I collapsed. As if that wasn't enough, I hit my head on the ground.
With the sharp pain in my head, I cursed inwardly and looked at the figure I had caught. Then my eyebrows rose.
Because in my arms was a girl with wavy silver hair and coal-black eyes.
This girl was the archer who fought with Lucia against the bird, Alice...
"Are you o-"
The girl didn't even listen to my words. She jumped up quickly, completely ignoring me. Her eyes were completely focused on the bird she had just fought.
It was clearly the bird that had caused the explosion and Alice seemed to have lost her temper.
Alice put her hand on her bow. Then a blue arrow slowly formed in her hand, growing erratically as Alice poured mana into it.
I frowned as I watched this.
"You shouldn't do that, or you'll hurt yourself."
Even though I warned her, she paid me no mind.
"Arrows made of mana give you a great arsenal, but if you make them unstable like that, the fingers that hold them will be damaged. Instead of dividing the same mana into one arrow, divide it into two or three. You'll control them more easily and you won't lower your damage."
Alice turned her head to me and looked into my eyes.
She was beautiful for a girl, even if not as beautiful as Lucia. Of course, there are other reasons for that, but...
Whatever, I'm thinking nonsense again.
"When overloading arrows with mana, put mana into your bow and fingers, not just the arrow. Draw the bow even more than you can draw it, and don't just shoot the arrows. If you make them particularly unstable as they approach their target, your damage will increase several times over."
Alice sighed lightly and turned back to the front.
Adrian and Lucia were still trying to deal with the bird, and the bird was not even aware of Alice, so this was a good opportunity.
Alice took a deep breath. Then the single arrow in her bow slowly split into three.
She's following my instructions, good.
Of course, even if the bird didn't notice her, I didn't want to take any chances, so I approached her from behind, calling out to my mind in the process.
'Sith, that technique just now did a lot of damage to my body. I can't feel my mana, but I'm sure I still have some left. Transfer it to the arrows to speed up the attack.'
'Are you sure?'
He looked a little worried, but I was confident.
'Yes.'
Sith sighed deeply at first. Then he nodded at me. So I smiled and put my hand on Alice's back, but she, who had ignored me until now, reacted suddenly.
"What are you doing?"
Alice stepped forward and released her back from my hand, but I approached her again.
"I'm supporting you, because I don't want to take any chances, so keep doing what you're doing, and don't worry about me."
She was silent for a while, but then she sighed and focused in front of her again. I put my hand on her back again, thinking I had permission.
Alice strengthened her bow and her fingers, just as I had told her. She drew the arrows in a way that the bow could not normally handle and I felt the mana painfully leaving my body.
My whole body was on fire, but I ignored it as much as possible, and then Alice let go of the bowstring holding the arrows.
The three mana-charged arrows, which sounded as if they were slicing through the air, quickly approached the bird, and when they were only a few meters away from it, all three exploded in a flash of brilliance.
The bird was too preoccupied with Adrian and Lucia to notice the arrows. It had taken a direct hit and when the dust cloud caused by the explosion dissipated, its riddled body was revealed.
Everyone's faces showed shock again. Even Alice, who had remained calm until now, was surprised by the power of the arrows.
I tried to smile, but then I suddenly realized that my vision was blurred.
Ah... How wonderful...
The screams of the last few creatures and Adrian calling my name were the last things I heard before I collapsed.