Hermit Wizard

Hunting Time (4)

She sharply shot her thoughts.

=What bullshit!=

In an instant, the instructor combined spells and hit the place where she heard the voice from. However, the black acidic liquid poured on the wall without any interruption and burned it in the bubble.

And that time, a voice came from the opposite direction.

The enemy was still invisible.

“… There is a lot of evidence of lies in your thoughts. I checked just in case, but it’s you.”

She didn’t have to turn her head thanks to the convex eyes above her head. She turned her eyes to a 360-degree plane and checked the landscape of the room. Windows and doors were locked tightly—a closed room with only two Kaifus.

She recovered her composure and found something strange. Even if she couldn’t see it because of the invisibility magic, there had to be a hole in the first place. But there couldn’t be anything like a secret passage in this room. She had thoroughly examined it when she was assigned to a private house.

To locate the enemy’s location, Atellamd quietly sprayed Mana into the room. She slowly explored until she found a reaction. Unsure if the opponent moved again, somewhere completely different from where she heard the voice, she felt a Mana shape similar to a human figure.

As soon as she realized that, she prepared a spell. The 7th class decomposition magic that she had never used since coming to Earth.

=This guy…!=

Atellamd turned and activated her magic. The air was distorted, and the crystallized sand of Mana swirled. A storm of black and blue particles poured ahead.

-Swiiiiiiing!

-Khrrrrrrrrrh!

The sand breeze of black and blue rubbed with a sharp sound. Everything that had been swept away was eaten, decomposed, and destroyed. Her magic broke through the wall and erased a whole part of the building. The side of the house collapsed, and a night breeze blew into the room with dust.

There was no reaction from the enemy. It probably avoided the offensive.

‘Let’s run away!’

The room was connected to the outside. Atellamd’s choice of that magic was to secure an escape route.

She struggled to remove her eyes from her attendant’s body. She killed her emotions and turned outside. The moment she put strength on her legs just to escape, she noticed something strange.

The outside scenery caught her eyes. Flames were burning everywhere. Convection of hot air was felt outside. Screams and explosives were the noise in the air.

‘… What’s going on?’

For a very short moment, she paused because of the unexpected sight. The intruder didn’t miss the gap.

-Wheeck!

‘Gosh!’

Atellamd moved as soon as she heard a sibilant sound, quickly inflating the muscles in her legs and jumping up. As long as the walls had collapsed and space was secured, it was possible to escape using her body’s leap power.

She jumped up quickly, but…

-Thug!

=…Eaaaaahhhh!=

Both her legs were caught in burning pain. The scream of thought continued for a long time through the mind she left open. Atellamd fell to the floor, holding her ankle. She struggled in her pain with her body stuck on the floor.

“Where are you going to run away?”

A dry voice was heard in the air.

Instead of responding to it, she barely lifted her upper body and twisted it. Her opponent was invisible, but she could feel the sensation of two hands holding her ankle. She also checked the shape and size of the enemy’s body with her Mana.

The opponent who used the magic of invisibility was obviously a human or a human-like race.

Atellamd changed her mind while trying to shoot her magic near her ankle, which was held. Even her own feet could get caught up in her magic.

=Die!=

She fired her magic at the height of the chest, where the vital organs would be gathered. It was an angle calculated by guessing since she couldn’t see the enemy.

-Wheeing!

Again, the storm poured down, but…

Her chin was stiff. The magic she created passed through the wind in vain.

=It… it’s ridiculous!=

From the angle, she had to be right—the shape of the fingers holding her two ankles and the tilt of the body. The enemy must be standing right behind her, where the magic swept away. But… even so, Kaifu’s magic couldn’t hit anything.

Just because the enemy uses the invisibility magic, it didn’t mean that the body would return to nothing. Judging by the sense of how he was holding Atellamd’s feet, he was clearly a being with a physical body.

But why…

In the air that just swept away by magic, she heard the voice again.

“The timing was close…”

-Thug!

=Keaaaaahhhh!=

Her ankles were crushed once more. Atellamd screamed, feeling the ankle that changed like a straw that had been bitten and chewed. It was so painful that she couldn’t prepare the spell. She realized her own fate and trembled.

Atellamd slammed her head as she struggled. Her protruding eyes allowed her to see the landscape towards her back, even with her head down. She crawled on her floor and looked behind her back because of fear.

As her magic broke the bed, water was flowing all over her room. She saw a strange scene, and suddenly, a human’s bare footprint appeared on the room’s floor where the water had accumulated. The sense of the hand that grabbed her ankle remained unchanged.

Was that transparent entity floating in the air for a while and then descending to the floor? High enough to avoid magic?

No, it wasn’t. The moment the footprints were taken, the hand’s height that caused her pain remained unchanged at all.

All of those facts resulted in an incomprehensible conclusion. The human body right behind her disappeared for a while and then reappeared. But, even in the meantime, the two hands, which were squeezing her own ankles, remained.

Looking into Atellamd’s eyes sobbing in panic, Noel, the transparent man, said.

“Your bodily liquids… are really sticky.”

As soon as he spoke, Noel raised one leg and brought it down with all his strength.

-Crack!

=Keaaaargh!=

Her shoulders were broken, and her whole body wa stunned. Noel lifted the drooping body of Atellamd with his arms and hung her over his invisible shoulder.

“What a pity. Not you, but all the people here that are running hard now. We opened the retreat and drove them in one direction after all.”

It was a necessary step to make them not join the wizards. The man spoke toward the wriggling Atellamd.

“They are all the same. When something happened, instead of getting entangled, they didn’t even look back and ran away. Even before they scaled the power, they don’t even care whether the human disciples they taught die or not.”

Perhaps there was a protocol for a course of action in a different dimension regardless of race. Was it common sense for the disparate races of civilizations who had cross-dimensional experience?

If left unchecked, the alien race chose to escape instead of resist, so they didn’t touch each other, but that alien race was different. The boss wanted to talk with the Kaifu.

With Atellamd on his back, Noel came out of the building. The surrounding area was empty without any people or aliens.

Noel asked a question in his mind.

How on Earth did she teach a human to achieve such high achievements in such a short time?

It wasn’t just because he was a genius, but the boss suspected that maybe he had other factors involved.

Instead, it was understandable that the natural qualities were excellent just as long as he learned the teaching spells quickly since he had good Mana as in the case of the United States and some other countries. But it was said that the guy named Kim Kyung-hwan made a new spell by combining what he learned, right?

Perhaps they had done something to his mind to speed up acquisition and understanding or engraved magical principles and enlightenment in deep consciousness, or they might have the ability to intervene in the human mind somehow.

It seemed like the boss wanted to kidnap all the Kaifu instructors here. Still, if that happened, it might lead to retaliation from the whole Kaifu race. It would be better to leave only one or two objects missing.

Noel hurried to walk with the Kaifu instructor on his shoulder. If there were any witnesses, they might’ve seen a large frog with a crushed ankle and shoulder floating in the air.

Every time he stepped, the injured alien’s body shook helplessly.

‘Where… the hell… are you going to take me?’

Atellamd was losing consciousness in pain. Before she lost her mind, she recalled the landscape of her hometown. She even remembered the face of her attendant who died before her.

***

-Wheeeing!

Flying through the air, I reached the sky above the center of Hun-neung.

“We’re going down,” I said while watching Seol and Mrs. Pearl.

Seol nodded calmly, and Mrs. Pearl replied with a slightly pale face.

“… Yes, Yoon.”

We flew pretty quickly, but the distance was relatively short. Maybe it was because she was nervous in advance that Mrs. Pearl didn’t faint as she did back then.

I descended slowly, and we stopped just before the barrier of the Mana they laid out.

Mrs. Pearl muttered.

“Barrier…”

I searched for intangible barriers with subtle Mana. When they retrieve the wizards, they often use a blocking access method by surrounding the building with flames. But, the view unfolding in Hun-neung today was different.

I quickly found out what the barrier was. A detection-type barrier that delivered information to the caster if anyone was approaching it. I looked around. Its scale surrounded the entire base.

“They are accompanied by a wizard who can maintain this barrier…”

The barrier unfolded with pure magical power without any separate physical medium. It was much more difficult to activate.

In the magical message I had stolen, only the date and preparation required to execute the plan were given. It wasn’t possible to know what kind of skills the executives had. It probably was because it was a piece of information that didn’t need to be given to the apprentices planted in Hun-neung.

“That’s a detection-type.”

“Ah… then what should we do? Yoon?”

“What should we do?”

I continued the descent casually. A complex technique unfolded in my head. Mrs. Pearl’s complexion, who didn’t know the situation, hardened. Meanwhile, Seol was looking down silently without any changes in his facial expression.

“But if it’s detection-type… just touching it will make our position…!”

But she soon stopped talking. Even though my toes touched the barriers they unfolded, the Mana was calm as the surface of a peaceful lake. I lowered my altitude more like that and entered the barrier quickly without any alerting reaction.

“… not be discovered?” She muttered as if she were despondent.

“They made it with great care… but well?”

Having made the barriers useless, I looked down. I could see the air defense unit on the roof of the building. The bodies of soldiers who had to operate it were scattered throughout. Looking at the traces left, it seems that there was a firefight.

“The apprentices have already swept them away.”

We sat down on an empty rooftop. I took out some artifacts from my backpack, sprinkled them on the floor, and drew a magic circle. Thanks to breaking through the detection barrier without being noticed, we earned some time to build an informal altar there.

After a few minutes, I finished my preparations without any interruption. There was no indication that our location had been discovered yet. Surrounded by a pile of artifacts, I threw a glance at Mrs. Pearl and Seol.

The things laid around me at that moment were items that would act as the core of a huge barrier. There were no defensive artifacts on my body and around me to avoid interference with those. If I get beat, I’ll die immediately.

So, I needed Mrs. Pearl and Seol. I wanted to bring dozens of people, but it wasn’t easy to move secretly and decisively. Many people had to work hard to draw their magic.

Moreover, I discovered unexpected facts from the residents of White Deer. Despite the long years of training and strengthening their power, those who specialize in combat could be counted with fingers. I could see why they had no choice but to lose the war against Dragon in the old days. Well, these two were selected, at least.

Yes, it made rain even on dry skies—the ability to predict the future from an unspecified point of view and make a river path. Everything was great. It was magic that I couldn’t even use at that time. But what was the use of that power in the midst of the death and a murder right in front of you?

I told them.

“Please…”

The two who nodded at my words protected me. The Mana emitted by the White Deer residents during the spell creation would gather to the place where I stood. As soon as they felt it, they would come after us. Mrs. Pearl and Seol could buy me time before my spell is invoked.

I whispered in my heart, “Just hang in there for a second. Don’t die.”

[Do as you practiced before.]

In the backpack, Parvache said with its will. Instead of answering him, I opened my lips and said.

“Let’s get started.”

Mrs. Pearl sent a signal to the ring in her hand. It was delivered at the same time to the residents distributed across the altar.

Branches of Enchanted Wood trees were inserted in the twelve magic circles surrounding the Hun-neung. Among the materials used by the Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest to trap the Heart Fish, the core component enchanted its own Mana. I got some of them.

That kind of preparation was necessary for today’s barrier.

-Woooong!

I did the technique on the roof. The air shook, and enormous power began to flow from the altar.

I couldn’t even handle the amount of Mana I needed that time alone, and if I poured that amount myself, I wouldn’t have any fuel left to fight after completing the barrier.

I decided to borrow power from others. From the only friendly force from my perspective, White Deer’s inhabitants had accumulated Mana by devoting themselves to training for many years. They were now putting Mana into the barrier tree with all their might.

-Rumble! Rumble!

“Ugh…!”

Mrs. Pearl looked overwhelmed by the breathtaking density. Mana flowed down like a sticky swamp in all the spaces the eye can see, and I stood in the center of the enormous power that created the barrier.

The Mana absorbed by the Enchanted Wood was circled mainly, and its radius was approximately 2km. The detection barriers they made were lightly overwhelming. It was a larger barrier that enclosed the barriers they had constructed entirely inside.

Yeah, speaking of barriers, shouldn’t it be in kilometers by default? What if it only covered a few buildings and left even a few of them?

-Brrrrrrrrrrhhh!

The force stretched, shook, and revealed its existence. There was no way they couldn’t notice that flow.

A strange shadow flew over the rooftop.

“What are you guys doing? No, that’s not important. Thanks to you, I won’t be bored today.”

A strange voice resonated in the night air. It was a reluctant voice like the noise of a violin that made fun of a bow.