Chapter 22 | The Assassin Shows His Real Power
I ran toward the army of monsters, Epona following behind me silently. She wanted to make sure I could keep my oath.
In the middle of my sprint, I began an incantation.
Engaging such an enormous army head-on was suicide. That’s why I was going to use the most destructive magic I had.
The rods from God—Gungnir.
Gungnir’s biggest weakness was that it took ten minutes to land because it had to free-fall from one thousand kilometers up in the air. That long timer made precise aiming impossible. Unless the target was someone as powerful as the hero, a direct hit wasn’t really required.
I released a tungsten spear into the sky in preparation.
My inexhaustible supply of mana was enough to allow me to fire multiple spears. I continued to launch god spears into the air as I ran toward the enemy army.
I came to a stop about four hundred fifty meters away. Any closer than that, and I risked getting caught in my own attack.
The orcs and goblins continued their advance on the academy, unaware of my plan.
While it was risky, I needed to attract their attention toward me. If the monsters pressed any closer to the school, my attack could harm those defending it.
This is the most power I can wield without harming my allies.
“I won’t hold back!”
I pulled a Fahr Stone out of my pouch and filled it to its critical point. I produced a bow and some arrows with magic, attached the Fahr Stone to one shaft, and fired.
“Take that!”
I pulled hard on the tough bowstring explicitly made for use in my physically enhanced state and launched the Fahr Stone arrow over four hundred fifty meters. It landed in front of the advancing monsters and exploded.
The Fahr Stone was filled with 70 percent fire mana, 20 percent wind mana, and 10 percent earth mana. After it detonated, flames burst forth, wind fanned the fire, and iron shrapnel flew in all directions.
Dozens of orcs and goblins were slaughtered. Any explosion brought about by mana equivalent to that of three hundred ordinary mages combined was going to cause some real damage.
Remaining in place, I fired one Fahr Stone after another. All of them were aimed at the enemy’s front line, just like the first one.
Shots toward the center of the army would’ve killed more monsters, but my goal was to slow their advance, not wipe them out. The loud bursts were also a warning for everyone at the academy to stay back. If they got any closer, they were going to die to Gungnir.
Just as I’d intended, the monsters and the academy forces stopped in their tracks. While crying out in strange voices, the orcs and goblins turned toward the source of all this destruction—me.
I’d used up all of the Fahr Stones in my pouch. I needed to replenish them with more from my Leather Crane Bag. More importantly, however, the time for my trump card had arrived.
“Eat this! The rods from God… Gungnir!”
A spear sped down from the heavens. Upon landing, it tore apart the earth, creating a radial impact crater with a bottom deeper than could be seen with the naked eye. A tsunami of dirt poured out from the point of collision.
If an object with a mass of one hundred kilograms fell from a height of one thousand kilometers in the sky, it would accelerate to a speed of four thousand kilometers per second, making it the ultimate projectile.
America had once attempted to develop such a weapon as a successor to the nuclear bomb. I’d successfully realized that theory using my magic. It was my most potent killing move.
Not even scraps remained of any monster caught within a one-hundred-meter radius of the spear. Even those orcs and goblins farther away were swept up by the shock wave and crushed beneath waves of sediment.
And that was only the first blow. Down came a second, third, fourth, and the rest of the remaining nine god spears I’d fired into the sky. The impact points had been calculated such that none of the monsters would be able to escape.
“So this is Lugh’s true strength. Not even I can do anything like that,” Epona said from behind me. I even sensed some fear in her voice.
Now there’s something to brag about. Not just anyone could’ve gotten the hero to say something like that.
Unfortunately, it’d taken exposing the most powerful attack I had to do it. Everything I revealed was only going to make assassinating Epona more difficult in the future.
There’d been no other choice, though. I had to protect those dear to me, and I was still hopeful I could find a way to save the world without killing Epona.
I could handle the small fries myself. But demons were another story. If Epona didn’t recover, the world was doomed. I wanted to safeguard Dia, Tarte, and this academy.
“How in the world did those monsters survive that…?”
When the aftermath of Gungnir cleared, I spied eight figures slowly clawing their way out of the dirt. All it took was a look to know they were superior to average orcs.
These might be the rumored Elite Monsters. Considering we hadn’t seen them until now, it seemed like General Orc had been saving them as a last-ditch effort. Only a direct hit from Gungnir could’ve killed them.
I’d been expecting as much, however.
I took out my Leather Crane Bag.
“Arrange!”
From its depths, I called up multiple giant cannons.
These cannons made the guns I’d used to rescue the hostages look like toys. Their 120 mm barrels were the size of tank artillery, and the pedestals they were sitting on were spiked into the ground. Rather than Fahr Stones broken into powder to lessen their force, the massive cannons were filled with full-size Fahr Stones, each containing the mana of three hundred ordinary mages.
As thick as it was, my prototype cannon couldn’t handle the explosions of full-size Fahr Stones. But these new models were different. I’d increased the thickness, improved the alloy, and used some spells to strengthen them. They were durable weapons capable of enduring Fahr Stone explosions.
The cannons took time to produce, but with the Leather Crane Bag, I could prepare them beforehand and carry them around, enabling me to use them in battle.
“Aim!”
At my magical command, my battery leveled its barrels at the eight surviving Elite Monsters.
The dim-witted orcs faced me. As if confident they were impervious, they didn’t try to dodge.
…It does make sense that they would have that level of confidence in their defense. They survived Gungnir, but only because they weren’t hit dead-on. They’re overestimating themselves.
“Cannon Volley!”
The cannons fired simultaneously, using entire Fahr Stones as gunpowder. In other words, three hundred mages’ worth of mana was converted directly into a destructive force. Rather than a bomb, that energy was concentrated into individual cannon shells. The area of effect was slimmer than Gungnir, but cannons were more suited for picking off a few targets anyway.
Among my easy-to-use spells, this one boasted the most force. The proof of that was right before our eyes.
Each of the eight Elite Monsters was pierced through its abdomen, and the force of the impact ripped them all to shreds.
In mere moments, they were dead. I alone had eradicated an entire army that had caused terrible pain and suffering for the academy.
I turned around and smiled at Epona.
“Certain circumstances had forced me to conceal my strength previously, but this is the real me. Allow me to make the promise from that day one more time. You won’t kill me. If you start to rampage, I will use my full strength to stop you. Do you trust me?”
Epona opened her mouth to reply.
Then…I leaped backward as far as I could.
A giant metal club swung down onto the spot where I’d been standing. General Orc was the one wielding it.
Despite his fearsome size and strength, he’d managed to hide his presence, dive into the dirt, and travel underground to take me by surprise. He may have looked like an orc, but he was quite the clever foe.
“Aww, I thought I was going to kill you there. Do you ever let your guard down, you little brat?”
“You could learn a thing or two from me in that regard.”
Assassins never let their guard down. General Orc could try to hide as much as he liked, but my eyes could see mana. I’d spotted him slinking toward me from below the earth. I’d even had time to prepare a counterattack.
The moment I dodged his metal club, I threw a Fahr Stone at its critical point into his dumb, gaping mouth, where it promptly exploded.
No matter how strong this demon was, he couldn’t endure the force of a Fahr Stone detonating inside his head unharmed.
General Orc’s head was blasted off his shoulders.
However…
“You almost got me there. If you’d been the hero instead of that pathetic female, you probably would’ve killed me. But unfortunately for you, you’re just a lowly human.”
His head regenerated an instant after I’d blown it up.
It wasn’t just some cheap healing factor; there was something unusual about it. Whatever it was, it seemed only the hero could kill a demon.
Demons had bodies, but their own essences sustained them. Their physical forms could regenerate endlessly unless that energy was snuffed out. Only Epona was capable of such a feat.
“Epona, you need to fight! Do you still not trust me after everything I just showed you?” I asked.
“But I…”
“You’re acting quite calm for being in the middle of a battle. You’re going to regret that.”
With the characteristic strength of an orc, General Orc began to swing his tree-trunk-sized club around.
The speed of his attacks defied common sense, and despite being able to see them, I could only barely dodge them.
While General Orc’s strikes appeared crude, nothing could’ve been further from the truth. Despite the excessive force of the demon’s downward swings, he was still able to stop in the middle of them and change his club’s direction. Such an ability made General Orc’s movements challenging to predict and nerve-racking to deal with.
I would’ve been hit long ago if I was only relying on my own power. The only reason I was able to evade was that I’d taken a drug to remove the limiter on my brain. My physical capabilities had been boosted by a combination of a particular chemical and a mana supply that was a thousand times as much as the average person.
That medicine was yet another one of the secrets I’d been hoping to save for the hero.
I’m not going to be able to push myself like this for much longer.
General Orc’s club landed right at my feet. I’d skirted death, but the rush of air knocked me backward. In response, I hurled an envenomed titanium knife, and it stuck into the demon’s thigh.
“Ooh, I didn’t think there was a poison that could render me immobile. But all I have to do is remove the affected flesh. Like so.”
General Orc tore off his leg. A new one quickly sprouted in its place, and the demon charged at me.
This is getting bad. Rapid Recovery kept me from being physically exhausted, but I didn’t know how long my concentration was going to last.
I wasn’t fighting to defeat General Orc. I was fighting to gain Epona’s trust.
Before I got beaten to a pulp, I had to show the hero I was strong so that she’d choose to fight.
This isn’t going to be easy.
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