Chapter 23 | The Assassin Challenges the Beast God
The demon’s underlings had been managed without issue.
I used wind magic to lift the ferocious stench that had filled the surrounding area into the sky, finally enabling us to take our masks off.
We’d employed weapons of light, sound, and smell. Against such strong opponents, these tactics were far superior to conventional attacks.
“All right, let’s gather them up and burn them,” I instructed.
Ferocious flames consumed the pile of corpses and thoroughly incinerated them, cinders scattering on the breeze.
“That’s one part taken care of. I know I made it myself, but Stun Flare was so much more amazing than I thought it would be,” Dia remarked.
“I was surprised as well. I have always been unhappy with light magic’s attack power, but I never thought to use it this way. Rendering opponents helpless without killing them is such a brilliant idea! I can think of so many uses for this,” said Nevan.
The weakness of light magic was its lack of raw strength. A tremendous amount of light was needed to kill, which demanded a proportionately massive amount of mana.
Light magic was also poorly suited to wide-range attacks, because the user needed to concentrate the power as much as possible to make up for its poor efficiency.
Stun Flare compensated for light magic’s failings by forgoing the usual method of striking at an enemy.
“There’s no time for idle chatter. We only have five minutes before he comes back down,” I stated.
I understood from the feeling when I blasted him into the sky that the demon weighed over four hundred kilograms.
Gungnir’s formula was designed for lifting a mass of one hundred kilograms. I’d created it that way because that was the most I could manage with my instantaneous mana discharge at the time. The amount of magical power I could output had increased since then, but I still couldn’t lift the demon as high as I had the spear.
Also, I’d had to perform a quick calculation the moment after discerning Liogel’s weight from the feeling of lifting him, making my aim less accurate than usual. Thus, I’d prioritized safety and targeted the middle of an expansive wasteland eighteen kilometers northeast of here.
Even if I was a little off, no damage would come to Jombull.
“We need to hurry, then,” responded Dia.
“Yes, he might run away!” agreed Tarte.
“I don’t feel like he will. I only caught a glimpse of him, so I’m not sure, but I don’t think killing his underlings is enough to frighten him. I think he’s the type to be filled with hatred and seek revenge,” I explained.
I’d met the demon’s eyes for an instant and saw the true nature of the Beast King.
“Whatever the case, we need to make haste. We should seize the first strike,” stated Nevan.
“You’re right,” I answered.
We needed to run… Actually, that wouldn’t get us there in time. I elected to use wind magic instead.
“Everyone, grab on to me… Tighter. There, that’s good.”
“This is really embarrassing,” Dia confessed.
Flushed, Tarte asked nervously, “Hwaahhh… Are you sure this is okay, my lord?”
“I wonder how you’re going to surprise me next?” Nevan pondered aloud.
Dia was on my right arm, Tarte was on my left, and Nevan was clinging to my back. It would have undoubtedly been a strange sight had there been any onlookers.
As each of the girls threatened to steal my attention with how their bodies pressed against mine, I focused on an incantation. Thankfully, I managed to finish it.
“Ride Wind!”
A gust of air carried us up and propelled us forward. I manipulated the wind further to accelerate.
I was moving slower than usual because I was carrying three people, but we were still gliding at about 120 meters per second, or 430 kilometers per hour. At this rate, we would cover twenty-nine kilometers in just over four minutes.
I could never have maintained this pace running, no matter how much I raised my physical abilities with mana.
“What the heck is this spell?! When did you make this, Lugh?!” Dia screamed.
“When I had a spare moment. It’s fun, right?” I answered.
“It is, but that’s why I’m upset! I wanted to come up with something like this!”
“Wooow, this is so amazing. We’re flying through the air!” exclaimed Tarte.
“This feels so good,” Nevan added.
I would have crafted a hang glider using earth magic and manipulated the wind to gain speed in the past. Over time, I’d become capable of skipping that first step and simply riding the air itself.
A physical mechanism was still preferable for long-distance flights, but this was simpler for something quick.
Looking confident, Dia said, “This is going really well. I feel like killing the demon is going to be easy. He’s strongest when he’s in a pack, right? If we took out his underlings that easily, the head honcho himself should be a piece of cake, too.”
“…I’m not so sure about that,” I cautioned.
There was one thing I was still apprehensive about. Mina had claimed that Liogel was too powerful for me to beat alone, even admitting she’d prepared someone to aid me for that express purpose.
So far, I hadn’t seen anything to make me fear Liogel’s strength, and there was no sign of any help arriving. Still, I didn’t think she had been lying to me.
I couldn’t help but think that Liogel was concealing some hidden ability.
We arrived about five kilometers from the spot where the demon was going to land. We were in the southwest of the wasteland that was located to the northeast of the city.
I had aimed for the center of this region, but because my calculation wasn’t exact, I decided it was best to keep our distance. While monitoring the area with my Tuatha Dé eyes, I kept myself prepared to start running at any moment.
I expected the demon to make impact after twenty more seconds. I wanted to look up, but Gungnir moved so fast that not even Tuatha Dé eyes could perceive it. All I could do was wait for him to land.
Liogel landed three seconds later than I’d expected, and he was around four kilometers south of the spot I’d aimed for and a kilometer from where we were.
It was fortunate that I’d thought to keep some distance.
A boom sounded, and dirt was kicked high into the air. A giant crater formed in the ground, and the collision caused a tsunami of mud to rush forward.
I hadn’t achieved the same altitude as usual, but the demon’s greater mass resulted in about the same power level as a regular Gungnir.
I finished an incantation I had started before he met with the ground and created a metal barrier in front of myself and the girls. It was the same Steel Rampart Dia had used to stop the monsters earlier.
The wave of dirt and rock weakened considerably before it reached us, but it still struck hard against the barricade.
“Let’s get moving. He’s going to revive soon,” I said.
I was sure Liogel had died, given the force of impact, but demons would always revive unless we killed them within the Demonkiller field.
“You’re fighting up front this time, Lugh?” asked Dia.
Nodding, I replied, “Yeah. There’s something I’m worried about.”
If Mina was right about Liogel being stronger than me, Tarte would die if she tried to take him on alone.
Because I would be in the vanguard, I had to entrust the responsibility of smashing the Crimson Heart, the demon’s core, to Nevan. I passed her the item she would need for the task.
“I wish you luck,” she stated before walking away from us and donning a cloak.
It was a mantle I’d made beforehand. I’d colored it to blend in with the surrounding environs and designed it to mask human odor. It also had high defensive capabilities. The cloak was a gift to help her perform the sniper role.
Dia, Tarte, and I stood at the edge of the crater and peered down at Liogel.
The demon was sitting on the ground and howling.
“GROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!”
Something about the cry sounded mournful. Perhaps he was saddened by the loss of his lionesses.
This was no time to feel sympathetic, however. Liogel was wide open to attack, and I wasn’t going to hesitate to take advantage.
I signaled to Dia with my eyes, and she began a chant. Demonkiller’s range was short, and if she moved any closer, the demon might notice her before she could hit him. That was why she was preparing Stun Flare to blind him instead. Dia could use it from as far as one hundred sixty meters away.
I began intoning Demonkiller at the same time.
The plan was to confuse the demon by rendering him sightless, then hit him with Demonkiller.
“Stun Flare!”
Dia had finished her spell. Her working of Stun Flare was even more skillful than Nevan’s. Radiant globes sped down toward the demon and expanded.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!”
Liogel roared just before the glowing spheres burst. Unbelievably, that roar twisted the very air itself, bending the light away.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if Liogel had merely defended himself, but he displayed a full understanding of how Stun Flare worked and chose the perfect response. He was more intelligent than I’d first believed.
The demon turned toward me.
“I CANNOT HEAR VOICES OF FEMALES. YOU ALL DO THIS?”
Malice lay heavy in his voice.
My biological instincts were ringing alarm bells, and I subconsciously took a step back.
I’m an assassin. I’ve trained my mind thoroughly and mastered arts to control my instincts. Yet he’s making me feel fear?
“POWER IS RETURNING. EVERYONE IS GONE.”
Liogel’s body began to swell quickly. His muscles bulged, miasma and mana began to pour out of him, and his mane grew even longer.
What in the world is happening?
I needed to do something. I reflexively drew my gun and opened fire.
Obviously, Liogel would recover from any injury I inflicted. Even still, I had a feeling this fight could be over for us if he finished this transformation.
All of my bullets hit the mark, but they didn’t penetrate Liogel’s bulging muscles.
Finally, the demon stood. His back legs had grown to the size of logs, while his torso had shrunk. His front legs sprouted fingers and came to resemble human hands. The claws on his digits thickened and sharpened, each now resembling a black sword.
He looked somewhere between beast and man.
Liogel jumped, displaying speed that put him on par with Epona.
He was aiming to strike me with his right knee, and the attack was too swift for me to evade.
I performed a quick draw and tried to dodge while firing all the remaining bullets in my magazine. The shots bounced off, but the collisions reduced Liogel’s speed and allowed me just enough time to get away.
His momentum carried him far past me.
“You’re going to pay for this. I’ll kill you last. I’ll rip off your limbs and make you watch as I defile and eat your women one by one.”
The demon had been speaking broken language before, yet now he articulated fluently.
…I see what happened.
The theory that he wasn’t too strong himself but was a threat with his pack wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t right, either.
Liogel had divided up his strength and shared it with each of the females in his pack, sacrificing his own might in exchange for making the group stronger. Now that the lionesses were dead, the power he’d shared had returned. This was Liogel’s true form.
Mina must have known this and hidden it from me.
“Well, this throws a wrench in my plans.”
That meant I needed to amend them. I had the ability to cope with any problem, after all.
There was also a chance we could receive an advantageous wild card. Considering Mina’s personality, she’d likely withheld information on Liogel’s true strength to create the best possible timing to send in her plaything.
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