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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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In fact, if I were alone, I would just fly up high, look down at the surroundings, and leisurely fly towards any side that encountered magical beasts, and that would be enough.
Unfortunately, Serin, who was chosen as my escort, was a pure martial artist knight who couldn’t use magic.
Naturally, in terms of physical abilities alone, she would be far superior to me, but the problem was that if I flew into the sky, she had no way to follow.
Unable to avoid it, I ended up in a slightly strange situation where I just floated and flew, while Serin was busy keeping watch of the surroundings next to me.
“…The 1st Squad headed northwest, so we should be able to catch up with them soon.”
“Actually, there isn’t much difference in the time we started compared to them, right?”
“Yes. There isn’t much difference in time, so we should start seeing them soo… I can hear sounds.”
“Pardon?”
I listened carefully at Serin’s words, but I couldn’t hear any odd sounds.
I was puzzled about how far away she could hear sounds from, but for now, I obediently followed Serin for a few minutes since she said she heard them.
As the distance narrowed, I also started to hear the sounds of fighting.
The clashing sound of blades, and clearly inhuman roars were faintly heard.
Grrr!
Kyaaaak!
It was the roars of magical beasts that I heard for the first time in my life.
Although our territory was located in a remote countryside, the public order wasn’t so bad that dangerous magical beasts would roam around.
At most, the magical beasts that could be seen in the surrounding areas were low-level ones like goblins.
Even those were rarely seen near the village after the guards regularly cleaned them out, so it was a completely new sound to me.
“It just sounds similar to animal cries?”
I had expected a more monster-like sound from a monster movie, but it wasn’t much different from the cries of predators like tigers or lions that I had seen on YouTube in my previous life.
Tilting my head, I pushed my face through the dense thicket, and I could see the knights fighting a building-sized magical beast that I had never seen before.
“Maintain formation! If you retreat, it’s not you but your comrade behind you who will get injured! Keep that in mind and fight!”
It had a huge body that seemed to be well over 5 meters.
And from its dark green skin, it was bleeding green blood from wounds inflicted by swords and stabs.
It wasn’t similar to commonly seen animals but had a completely different, aberrant appearance.
And the decisive feature was that the wounds that had filled its skin were healing so quickly that it was visible to the naked eye.
“…Is that a troll?”
“That’s correct. A single squad of the Imperial Knights can take it down without any casualties, but…”
Serin, who answered my mumbling, trailed off.
The number of magical beasts that Serin confirmed as trolls was not just one.
There were a whopping three monsters with huge bodies.
In terms of simple numbers, it was a fight of twenty against three, so the number of humans was much greater, but the problem was that the three creatures fighting against twenty humans had incomparably huge bodies compared to humans.
“The odds are not good. If we hadn’t arrived, there might not have been any fatalities, but there would have been serious injuries.”
“Well, let’s just say it was fortunate that we arrived here.”
I replied and glanced sideways at my sister.
Although it was the first time in ten years that I had seen her face, she was fighting with an unprecedentedly tense expression, being careful not to get caught up in the troll’s monstrous strength.
Even though at least six or seven people were clinging to each one, the trolls kept regenerating from their wounds, so the fight was dragging on in a tedious manner.
Even to me, who was a layman in physical combat, it was obvious enough to see.
“The conditions are too unfair.”
“Pardon?”
“Even a graze is fatal for humans, but the trolls don’t even bother blocking most attacks and just rely on their regenerative power.”
“I think it can’t be helped since they are born as different species, but will you intervene?”
“I have to.”
“I will protect you. I can sufficiently block a single troll, so rest assured.”
As soon as I heard Serin’s bold declaration, which was even more believable because she didn’t mince her words, I stretched out my hand and began to concentrate mana.
This was the first time I would be using magic against an enemy in actual combat.
There was nothing more troublesome than allies getting hurt by a stray magic spell, so rather than focusing on output, I was putting my heart and soul into controlling the power.
‘…To be honest, I don’t know if it will work properly.’
Now that I was in actual combat, the anticipation I had felt before had disappeared, and it was replaced by tension and worry.
But if the Imperial Court Mage himself had praised me as having the potential to be a great mage, I thought that if I had such talent, I would somehow make it work.
According to what I had read in books when I started self-studying magic, magic was the act of manifesting the image in one’s mind into reality through the medium of mana.
Then the first thing to do was visualization.
Slowly draw the image in your mind.
If you asked me what I needed right now, I could answer without a moment’s hesitation.
A powerful spell that could penetrate the troll’s absurd level of regenerative power, which was rampaging with monstrous strength over there, and leave a fatal wound in a single blow.
Power, in other words, destructive power.
‘There’s no need to even say it, it’s fire.’
I had already reached the level where I could cast magic without being bound by attributes, so it didn’t matter.
The first “fire” that came to my mind was a huge flame that blazed up as if to engulf the world.
‘…This won’t do. The knights might get caught up in it.’
But I didn’t have the confidence to control that power, so I passed.
The next image that came to my mind was a huge spear of fire descending from the sky.
The spear of fire, like the flame gifted by the gods to humans in mythology, fell straight towards the ground and pierced through the head of the imaginary troll.
The fact I had confidence that I could sufficiently pull it off was a bonus.
‘Good.’
I chose the image I had just visualized in my mind.
I immediately started the process of manifesting that picture into reality.
The mana circuits that had been quiet until now began to rotate fiercely.
Condensation, transformation, and manifestation, the three stages of magic.
The enormous amount of mana residing in my body gathered towards the circuits and condensed, undergoing the process of refinement and transformation for the mana to manifest in the form of magic.
Although it might sound lengthy when explained like this, it was a process that actually happened in the blink of an eye.
Even though it was self-study, it had been almost ten years since I started learning magic, and as Princess Elena had said, my skills had greatly increased after coming to the capital and learning the lacking parts from my mentor.
The final process, manifestation.
“…!”
As soon as I opened my closed eyes, I stretched out my hand.
And then.
Boom!!!
The spear of fire that descended from the sky instantly pierced through a troll from its head.
The troll, pierced through like a skewer, let out a roar as it was stuck in the ground.
Kuaaaaaak!
It wasn’t the roar it had been making while attacking the knights, but a scream that sounded like its final struggle before death.
However, as if that roar was its last struggle, the troll, whose entire body had been roasted, twitched and then stopped moving.
“Yes!”
I unconsciously clenched my fist at the single strike that I had successfully pulled off in real combat.
But before I could even feel a sense of accomplishment…
As if the first strike was just a precursor, the spear of fire that had pierced the troll didn’t scatter back into mana and return to the atmosphere, but instead exploded violently.
Kwaaaaaaang-!
Along with a deafening boom that made my ears feel stuffy, a storm of flames swept in.
The scorching heat mixed with the wind swept towards me, even though I was at a bit of a distance, but there was no time to avoid that heat.
“…No, I didn’t intend to use it this strongly.”
The picture I had clearly drawn in my mind wasn’t this…
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To put it simply, a single use of Rudrick’s magic was enough to deal with the three magical beasts, and not just ordinary ones, but trolls that were clearly high-level magical beasts.
The spear of fire that had fallen first pierced through the initially hit troll and incinerated it, while the subsequent firestorm that swept in cleanly burned the other two trolls nearby.
Their dark green skin wasn’t just scorched, but completely charred black as if burned by fire, so even the trolls’ boasted regenerative power was meaningless in the face of the power of this flame magic.
However, there was a slight problem.
The power of that magic was too strong even though he had tried to control the output.
“It stings…”
“…Sis, I’m really sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose. My magic came out stronger than I thought.”
Serilla, who had applied ointment for burns and was wrapping a bandage over it, frowned.
The total number of injured in the 1st Squad, which had engaged in a fierce battle with the three trolls, was six.
Fortunately, there were no seriously injured, and everyone had minor injuries.
The nature of the injuries was burns caused by the scorching heat.
Until Rudrick arrived, no one had been hit by the trolls’ attacks, but after Rudrick arrived and used magic once, six knights who were close to the trolls suffered burns from the heat.
Among those six was Rudrick’s older sister, Serilla.
“Rudrick.”
“I’m sure the image I imagined ended with just the spear, but I don’t know why it exploded again… I’m really sorry… Sis, does it hurt a lot?”
As a result, Serilla had a peculiar feeling.
Her adorable little brother, whom she wouldn’t trade for the world, was apologizing with a tearful face.
Her burned arm did sting a bit, but…
Seeing her little brother, whom she had only exchanged letters with and hadn’t seen since he was young, suddenly grown up and not knowing what to do…
‘He’s going to make many girls cry.’
Serilla, who had briefly and unintentionally harbored an inappropriate thought as an older sister, shook her head.
…In reality, until recently, there had been a rare sight of five women clinging to Rudrick alone, but still.
Serilla, who tried not to show it, chuckled and ruffled Rudrick’s hair.
“It’s okay. It just slightly stings at most. It’s not like I have blisters or am seriously injured.”
“…Sis, give me your arm.”
“Huh?”
The emergency treatment was done for now, as she had applied ointment and wrapped a bandage.
Serilla asked with a puzzled face, but Rudrick firmly grasped her arm. And then, mana flowed in.
A cold sensation touched her burned arm, followed by the flow of cool mana. And as the feeling of the burn on her arm slowly healing began…
“…Rudrick, you know how to use healing magic too?”
“Yeah. I found it necessary to learn.”
Serilla asked softly with a surprised look, and Rudrick nodded.
As soon as she confirmed that fact, Serilla scanned the surroundings with her eyes.
The other knights had also only suffered light burns that would heal on their own as long as they applied ointment and prevented infection with bandages.
“…By any chance, Rudrick, do you have to hold the injured part like this to use healing magic?”
“That’s right. That way, the mana can directly flow in.”
“…For now, let’s keep this a secret.”
As soon as Rudrick affirmed the question she had asked for confirmation, Serilla made a gesture as if telling him to keep his mouth shut.
If it were a serious injury, it would be unavoidable, but everyone had only minor injuries anyway.
To be honest, as an older sister…
She didn’t really want to see her little brother holding another woman’s arm and having physical contact.
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Lol