My Entrance.
I had a hunch about what was going on.
Honestly, I didn't have any reason to go out of my way to protect Baruk.
Unfortunately for me, I had bought a house in Baruk.
So I had no choice but to help.
“...I have to help.”
If I had to guess, the situation was simple.
That Andromalius I saw in the forest last time must be approaching the wall, hence the commotion.
“Ugh, why Baruk of all places…?”
There were plenty of other castles, why did it have to be Baruk?
It wasn't like it was particularly wealthy or had a larger population than other places.
Sighing, I spoke.
“I guess this is the end of our card game. Something’s come up.”
“Yeah, I think we should.”
“Alright.”
“Yeah.”
We decided to stop the card game there.
There was no time to waste.
It was best to do what I could, quickly.
With that in mind, I headed towards the wall.
“Hmm, I can smell mana.”
The smell of mana was incredibly strong.
It was so potent that I didn't even have to concentrate to sense it.
This meant that there were a lot of monsters ahead.
It was enough to make me tense—
Not really.
They were just monsters, after all.
No matter how strong they were, they were still monsters.
It was difficult for them to defeat humans.
With that thought in mind, I made my way to the wall—
—ROAR…!
—Growl!
—Screech…!
I could see all sorts of monsters tangled in battle with adventurers.
It was quite the spectacle.
I wondered if it was worthy of posting on the forum.
Of course, I had seen similar scenes in Koruntum, but the scene in Baruk was somehow more impressive.
As I was thinking about it, I listened closely.
I could get a rough idea of the situation just by looking, but it was different from actually knowing what was going on.
So I listened to the voices of the people around me.
And then—
“Kill them!!”
“Damn it, they're relentless!”
“Argh…!!”
I could hear the voices of the adventurers battling the monsters.
After listening for a while.
“Hmm, my guess was right.”
My hunch that Andromalius was attacking and it was dangerous was correct.
It wasn’t easy to see from where I was standing, but far in the distance.
A monster with a snake wrapped around one of its arms was staring in this direction.
And then.
“Hmm?”
Andromalius turned its head to look directly at me.
As if it knew I was watching.
“...How rude.”
What, was it glaring at me?
[Tsar Bomba]
My magic could reach as far as my vision.
So I immediately cast the spell formation and used [Tsar Bomba] on Andromalius.
It was a bit stronger than last time.
I guess my magic skills had improved.
It seemed that practicing magic whenever I had the time was paying off.
BOOOOM—!
After confirming that the more powerful [Tsar Bomba] had landed on Andromalius’ head, I turned my attention back to the battlefield.
The important thing now was the battlefield right in front of me.
“Hmm.”
There were countless monsters on the battlefield.
There were monsters I had seen before, and there were monsters I had never seen before.
And most importantly—
They were all mixed in with the adventurers.
It was not an ideal environment to use magic.
The last thing a mage wanted was for their allies to be mixed in with the enemy on the battlefield.
Of course, I could ignore them and use magic anyway… but my conscience wouldn’t allow it.
“...I'm not a beast.”
There was no need to choose that option.
With that thought in mind, I cast the spell formation.
And poured mana into it.
[Haste]
It was slightly different from the existing spell formation.
While the existing spell formation increased the movement speed of both allies and enemies, this spell formation only increased the speed of humans.
In other words—
Clang!
Ching!
It meant that allies had more opportunities to be active on the battlefield.
With just that simple [Haste] spell, the tide of the battle began to turn.
It had to.
Increasing movement speed on the battlefield was like giving them a second life.
Speed was life.
As if to prove that point, the adventurers who had received Haste were rampaging across the battlefield.
“Oh, this is great!!!!”
“I know, right!!”
It would be great if they could fight a little more quietly.
As I was thinking about it, supporting my allies.
BOOM—!
“Argh!!!”
Suddenly, explosions could be heard everywhere, and adventurers began to fly through the air, blown to pieces.
Frankly, it wasn't a pleasant sight to see.
It was hard to describe the feeling of seeing people I had passed by and greeted a few times turned into chunks of meat.
But I endured it with superhuman patience.
“...Phew…”
If I got angry now, there would only be more casualties on the battlefield.
So, I had to get to the bottom of this.
What in the world caused the sudden explosions?
With that thought in mind, I observed the battlefield closely.
And a moment later.
“Ah. That’s what it was.”
I figured out what was going on.
It seemed like the lower-level Greenskin monsters, like goblins, had implanted some kind of bombs inside their bodies and were continuously launching themselves at the adventurers, kamikaze-style.
What was even more vicious was that they didn't care about their own lives at all and just clung to the enemy before exploding.
As if there was something even scarier than death itself.
“Oh, man… This is going to be tricky.”
Of course, I could cast a wide-area healing spell.
But that would drain my mana too quickly.
It would be highly inefficient.
So I had to come up with another way.
After racking my brains for a while, a good idea came to mind.
An idea that might sound a little strange to others.
*
My idea was simple.
There was a reason why those low-level Greenskin monsters were throwing themselves at us without regard for their own lives.
It was because something even more terrifying awaited them if they didn’t.
And that something was probably Andromalius.
And my thought was—
“I just need to eliminate the cause.”
It was strange that so many monsters were attacking together in the first place.
There had to be a focal point.
My guess was that the focal point was Andromalius.
So, I figured that if I went and took care of Andromalius myself, everything would be fine.
It didn't look that strong anyway.
“In that case…”
I cast [Haste] over the entire battlefield and immediately activated the spell formation.
[Teleport]
Woong—
I immediately teleported to a location near where Andromalius was.
I always had my barrier up.
Just in case something unexpected happened.
But at that moment.
Thud—!
I felt a blunt impact from behind, as if something was striking my barrier.
So I turned around—
And saw Andromalius, its face contorted with rage, pounding on my barrier.
To be honest, I was a little surprised.
I didn't expect it to be so close and attacking me like that.
BOOM—!
BOOM—!
And its attack speed was incredibly fast.
As it pounded on my barrier with tremendous speed, cracks began to appear on the surface.
No one had ever cracked my barrier before.
“Hmm.”
But I wasn't particularly worried.
There was a simple reason why Andromalius was attacking me as soon as it saw me.
“I guess that hurt.”
It must have been really hurt by my [Tsar Bomba].
There was no way it would be this angry otherwise.
I felt a little sorry, though.
Using magic just because it glared at me.
But it couldn’t be helped.
What was I supposed to do about its lack of manners?
With that thought in mind, I put up another layer of barrier.
And at the same time—
Shatter—!
With the sound of my barrier breaking, I braced myself for Andromalius’ fist to connect—
But it was blocked by yet another barrier.
In reality, the winner had already been decided.
“...Why is it so weak?”
I had expected Andromalius to be strong.
But it seemed weaker than the Cthulhu I had encountered before.
Or maybe it was just that I had attacked it first, so it seemed weaker than it actually was.
I had been so nervous coming here, but now I felt deflated.
My motivation was gone.
With that thought in mind, I activated the spell formation.
[Dark Spear]
Woong—
A spear of darkness was summoned in midair.
And the [Dark Spear] shot straight towards Andromalius.
But at that moment.
Woong—
The [Dark Spear] that was flying through the air was stopped in its tracks by someone.
“Ah, hold on a second.”
And a woman appeared.
She was different from the Necromancer I met before, but they had some similarities.
It was like they were both involved in similar fields.
Suspicious, I quickly cast a spell formation.
[Electric Chain]
Crackle—!
The [Electric Chain] shot towards the woman—
Woong—
And disappeared into thin air.
That’s when it hit me.
“Ah, a Dark Magician.”
She was the infamous Dark Magician.
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