Chapter 120
Druid.
Otherwise known as Nature Mage.
Mages who chose to ride the laws of nature, abandoning the principle of magic that twisted natural laws to enforce their own rules.
Therefore, they were affected not only by their own skills but also greatly by the environment.
And from what I could see.
This place was already like Baltren's workshop.
Rumble—!
The ground writhed simultaneously with the declaration of being a druid.
The rising earth eventually took shape, creating a massive body.
Golem!
This move dispelled the question of why a mage was traveling alone.
Unless it was the extremely rare type of Battlemage specialized in close combat, mages were ultimately weak in the vanguard.
However, Baltren negated this weakness by directly creating his own vanguard.
"Dodge well. If you're hit, you'll be crushed along with your defensive magic."
The massive body made of stone and earth moved nimbly, unfitting its ponderous weight.
Thud—! Thud—!
The vibrations from the floor as it took two steps resonated through the body.
The heartbeat resonated with it, circulating mana fiercely through the bloodstream.
Whoosh—!!
The golem's fist sliced through the wind, striking down.
The air pressure felt like it would tear the cheeks.
There was no time to respond at all.
It was such a swift and accurate attack that even the introduction of "I am a Druid" seemed like a ploy to momentarily distract and land this strike.
It's absolutely impossible to withstand with defensive magic. At this point, trying to intercept with Smite would lack the built-up output. No choice, I guess.
I didn't want to use it this early.
Just a moment ago he was speaking like a senior giving teachings, but once the battle started, he went all out without hesitation?
Boom—!!
The massive sound proportional to the destruction caused by the golem's striking fist spread waves, even settling the dust cloud.
"Hmm."
An ambiguous hum escaped Baltren's lips.
"Illusion magic? The level of leaving afterimages is quite good."
He didn't fully grasp it.
The method by which I escaped the golem's attack.
Dream of Illusion was a feint.
By the time the illusion of Dream of Illusion created the image of me being crushed, my real body had already escaped with Blink.
But he probably couldn't imagine that I would use space magic.
Even a mage with excellent imagination would have to think that way.
Rather than thinking a mere Senior would use spatial magic, it was more understandable to conclude that my proficiency in illusion magic was unexpectedly deep enough to fool him.
My specialty was illusion magic.
Letting Baltren’s misunderstanding fester, I opened my mouth, "Then did you expect this?"
The timing for my counterattack must be immediate.
A magic bullet of Smite, following Blink and Dream of Illusion, formed at my fingertips.
Whizz—!
The magic bullet, shot with fierce rotation, raced through the air.
The magic bullet applying Smite, sacrificing some power for stronger propulsion, boasted speed rivaling an actual bullet.
However, Baltren was already prepared.
"Roots, envelop me."
With the incantation uttered just before the magic bullet's firing, roots extending from the ceiling and walls blocked his front like a fortress wall.
Crack—!
The tree roots that collided with the magic bullet burst like rotten wood.
Perhaps he hadn't anticipated the roots would break with just one attack.
Baltren's eyebrows twitched upward.
It didn't stop at one shot.
The firing speed of magic bullets without Smite applied was beyond ordinary magic.
The extremely simple mechanism drastically shortened the casting time of magic bullets.
The rapid fire of magic bullets, impossible to keep up with unless it was a magic structure that bundled continuous attacks into one, rushed in like dozens of catapults firing at once.
Crack—! Snap! Thud! Pop!
The roots completely absorbed the rain of magic bullets rising from below.
Tree roots protected Baltren while destroying themselves.
The loyal roots' sacrifice raised the earth's mace.
Whoosh—!
The golem's fist compressed space as it struck at me.
This time I was expecting it.
It was an attack I had seen before.
Unlike the roots that blocked all interceptions of magic bullets with all sorts of bizarre movements, the golem's movement was fast but simple and linear.
If one could predict the timing of the attack, avoiding it itself wasn't difficult.
It was just that the pressure of it being a fatal blow that left no chance for the next move if one failed to dodge made movements sluggish.
"Capture him."
Baltren wouldn't be unaware of such a blind spot.
The root fortress that was protecting him now transformed into ropes to capture me.
Shooting out like spears, cutting off movement paths.
Roots driven into the ground become walls, blocking my routes.
Feels like being in a driven hunt.
Even if I deployed illusion magic, the real body was still affected by reality.
Though I might be able to deceive the senses, the intention to eliminate all escape routes was clearly conveyed.
The problem was that I had no means to counter even while knowing this.
It was truly a situation of having one's eyes wide open while being robbed.
If Dream of Illusion was the only card I held, that is.
Whoosh—Boom!
By dodging this strike, I newly grasped one fact.
Baltren didn't perfectly manually control the golem.
He must have given it a kind of pseudo-personality.
It was an extremely tricky task to handle the golem's body while thinking about his own magic and thoughts with divided consciousness.
If thoughts got tangled and the golem's actions misaligned with his own, it would be a disaster.
The recent Dream of Illusion was at a level that Baltren, who already knew about it, wouldn't fall for.
However, the golem was fooled.
Secured a means to mislead the golem.
What was left were those annoyingly persistent roots.
Swish—! Crack!
The roots that broke through the hard stone floor and drove into the ground were more like harpoons.
If I was hit directly by those, my autonomous defensive magic would be torn like paper and the flesh underneath would be penetrated as well.
Maybe it’s better to remove them completely rather than just dodging.
Guess I'll just have to break through.
From a one-sided defensive, I looked for an opportunity.
There would be a chance.
It must come.
It has to come at least once.
Because of ignorance.
If Baltren had been from Frontier or Conquerors, I wouldn't have attempted this.
But because he was from Enigma.
Because he was an opponent who didn't know about the existence of Blink.
Regardless of carelessness, purely because he didn't know, a chance for an unavoidable attack would come.
I'll seize that.
One strike.
That was all I needed.
After that...
"Your judgment is somewhat disappointing."
"Huh?"
"If you can come down from above, you should have considered that you could also come up from below."
Whoosh—!!
They surge up.
Like sprouts breaking through the ground, wooden stakes that could no longer be called roots rose from the cracks in the split earth everywhere.
Driving roots into the floor all this time wasn't just to eliminate escape routes, but also...
To dominate both above and below.
It's over.
The moment that thought crossed Baltren's mind.
That moment was my opportunity.
Here I go.
The spatial dominance of Axis was maintained even now when Baltren had covered the area with his tree roots like swords and spears.
Physical Enhancement accelerated thought beyond just enhancing physical strength.
In the instant that splits seconds, the accelerated consciousness did what needed to be done.
Calculate coordinates.
Load magic bullet.
Compress with Smite.
Add Exhaustion.
Deploy Dream of Illusion.
Blink, activate.
As soon as the momentarily blacked-out vision recovered, fire the magic bullet.
In the slowing world, I directly faced Baltren showing faint bewilderment.
The time our eyes met was brief.
A multicolored barrier unfolds between Baltren and me.
Artifact? Magic?
Though uncertain which, it was clear this was one of Baltren's trump cards.
Crack!!
A faint crack appeared as the magic bullet collided with the translucent barrier.
That crack wasn't limited to just the barrier.
Shock spreads across Baltren's face, which had remained unchanged throughout the overwhelming situation.
"You... are surprising."
Baltren seemed to want to express his impressions, but unfortunately, I had no intention of listening.
Whizz—
He was a Master-class Explorer.
Even if I could perfectly exploit a blind spot with spatial movement, I figured he'd definitely have a means to block it.
So this was also a feint.
The real one is...
"Remote manifestation?"
It was a remotely formed magic bullet cast from the outside.
Checkmate.
While the golem was still aiming for the Dream of Illusion, and Baltren was deploying frontal defense, a magic bullet formed behind his back shot at his rear!
One shot.
Two shots.
Three, four, five shots.
Endlessly, I poured in all the mana I had and kept firing and firing again.
I didn't give him any chance to deploy magic.
Baltren, too, instead of using magic clumsily, raised mana and poured it into autonomous defensive magic.
This was my final gambit.
I won't lose in mana quantity.
I used everything.
Seir's mana, Leraje's mana, Procell's mana.
Everything.
All I had.
At the end of this chaotic mana battle.
The victor was me.
One shot.
Just before Dream of Illusion disappeared and the golem returned, the final strike finally connected.
This reckless mana battle finally ended only when the golem, which had been acting as a mace, now wrapped around Baltren to act as a fortress.
Leaving one strike on Baltren.
"...Answer just this one."
Dejection.
And slight relief.
These were the emotions mixed in Baltren's words.
"Is there more? Illusion magic, curses, and even spatial magic... you must have already paid an enormous price. If you have anything left to offer as the price, show me."
"There's nothing."
This was the end.
From the start, I never thought I could win one-on-one.
My goal was this from the beginning.
To embed Exhaustion.
By doing so, I could know where I stood.
If this was achieved, I was confident I could never be caught with Blink.
"Time's up."
Cordelia wrote this in her journal.
To create a body that could withstand the Divine Blood Serum, she researched homunculi.
One of those research facilities was here.
And here there was.
A guardian left to ensure the legacy would be passed on to the rightful successor.
[Intruder confirmed. Verification of succession rights. Multiple unqualified judgments. Qualified... one subject for examination.]
A mechanical voice faintly heard from the other side.
[Eliminating intruders.]
Unlike the half-baked homunculi or monsters or whatever they were that we faced earlier, this was on a different level.
It was the turn of the real homunculus created by the pioneer of alchemy.
"Subject for qualification examination...? Not Blobel, but you?"