Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau

The blue flames that spread in front of Viscount Barnes equally wrapped the Meisenav soldiers and the mercenaries, who had been going forward on the offensive. The soldiers, who lacked a magic barrier, couldn’t resist the hot air and blue flames, and screams could be heard as their bodies were ignited one after another.

Not only their bodies, but also frustration was ignited inside their mind. Even if some people were accustomed to being slashed or pierced, they had little experience of being in flames, more so being burned to death. And once they experienced it, they couldn’t hide their upset and confusion.

In addition, depending on the amount of mana, which affected the presence and absence of the magical barrier, no, regardless of it, they would be a ball of fire without warning. It happened so naturally that almost no people suspected that it was their turn next.

“Stop, don’t push me!!”

“Aah, aaAHH! My back, it’s burning, move, fast!!”

Soldiers chose a chaotic retreat before the withdrawal instructions were even issued. It was no exaggeration to say that the confusion, had already turned into a full rout. The soldier, who was convinced of the victory, had now fallen into a position of trying to escape successfully from the branch castle.

As they were moving side by side, they pushed each other while sometimes trampling over the wreckages of the wall. The road, which had more obstacles compared to when it was in peacetime, was difficult to pass. Moreover, they needed to escape in that limited space while being repeatedly attacked.

A soldier hindered by the dead Dalimarx soldier, fell and rolled on the ground. He then cried for salvation.

“He-elp”

The outstretched hand could only grab the soil, without being saved by anyone. But, that didn’t last long either.

“Guh, what’s that, don’t joke with me!”

Guisto, the leader of the mercenaries, shouted with a grudge and resentment. He was supposed to be hunting down the hero-wannabe soldier and slowly taking control of his life. But, half of the members had been burned, and the rest continued to be stripped of the magical barrier.

“Don’t run away!! If you couldn’t get close to it, attack from a long distance!!”

Half of the mercenaries had been sunk in blue flames, but they didn’t have a habit of losing. And so, a magic attack was launched to respond to Guisto’s call. It was an attack filled with hope, but it soon turned into despair.

“Ah. Sh*t. It doesn’t work.”

“It’s impossible. It’s too hot, the water’s gone in an instant.”

Water attribute magic evaporated fast, and wind and fire attributes magic would only increase the size of the flames. The earth attribute magic couldn’t catch the man, and would scatter without long. The arrows couldn’t reach him either. Some archers even had their bow strings burned before they could shoot.

There was no hope for long-range attacks. Most of the mercenaries were caught in the fire before they could cause any damage. Guisto calmly made a decision, even though his concentration was reduced by the heat.

“Razzo, Nangi, Meltana, Lycka, Rouvan, get your weapons, attack in close range, and kill him.”

People with an average magic barrier would be burned to death before reaching the target. Guisto called the name of the person who had more than the average amount of mana and survived the blue flame.

“Guisto, are you sane? You want us to go into close combat with “that”?”

Guisto silenced Lycka’s criticism.

“Shut up and listen. If we run away here now, the name of our mercenary would fall to the ground. If the opponent is a large army or the main force, it’s still manageable, but routing in a fight with just one person, won’t we be a laughing stock all over the archipelago, huh?!! By that time, none of us will still have any future as a mercenary.”

Guisto didn’t block completely the road to rout. Only if the enemies were several times more than their force. If they escaped now, when the enemy was only an individual, the fame and trust that they had built would fall to the ground. No matter how many must fall, they must kill the enemy inside the blue flames.

“Look at him. He’s bleeding. He’s not a mythical hero. You could kill anyone who bleeds. He’s the same as us. He’s not special.”

Guisto ran his bloody eyes on the gathered people. Those who stood up regained their composure. Currently, the magic user who scattered the blue flames was paying attention to the attack of the retainers who were trying to escape Viscount Barnes. However, the number left could be counted with one hand.

One thing that Guisto learned from the conflict he had in Labyrinth City was that even the best plan could be a bad plan if the timing was wrong.

“Rouvan, sent golem from the front. You could just draw attention for a moment. When his attention goes to the golem, use “Earth Wall” to break his momentum. With Nangi, attack him from the left. “

Cut the words, Guisto gave them time to chew the words.

“Lycka, shoots wind magic from the right. Doesn’t have to be an effective hit. Just don’t give him time to think. Razzo and Meltana, come with me to attack from the front. Use whatever you can. Attack!!!”

At the signal of Guisto, the mercenaries started to move all at once.

Rouvan poked his knee and used his own blood as a catalyst to create a golem from the ground. According to the order of his master, the clay doll was sent from the front. It started running toward the center of the heat wave, albeit in a stupid way.

Barnes’ retainers had already withdrawn or burned to death.

Really unreliable.

Although they learned military art and were assigned the assistant role, they were aristocrats, and when their life was put on the balance of life and death, they easily changed their minds and pulled themselves from the assigned role.

The golem made of soil reached 3 meters, but the surface layer was burned down by the hot air mixed with blue flames as it was swinging the big arm. By the time the arm reached the target, there was no doubt that it had returned to just soil.

Rouvan, which had moved to the left side, subsequently raised the ground and formed a clay wall at the feet of the one manipulating the blue fire. The man didn’t show any particular fighting stance. The man just jumped normally to escape from the raised ground.

The wind blade formed by Lycka went to the man who had landed on the flat ground, but the swirling blue flame caught it, leaving no damage to the man. Guisto said it was okay, so she didn’t get impatient.

The skin was getting irritated, and somehow it felt as if the viscera were screaming. The instinct flickered the primal fear of fire. Something that they felt many times when they were powerless and struggling alive in the darkness of Labyrinth City.

For Guisto, who had gained power, money, and subordinates, it was an emotion that he had forgotten for a long time, and he was more than happy to never feel it again.

From behind the golem, Guisto rushed in like a fire-breathing lizard, his body barely just above the ground.

It was an effective way of reducing the risk of being found, and absorbing heat, as his body was relatively near the ground with a lower temperature compared to other areas.

Slid the saber against the flank of the burning golem. The target was the neck.

The ambush was good enough, and it might not enough to finish the man with a single blow, but still, things didn’t go so well. The tip of the sword was avoided by slightly moving the upper body.

“Get hiiiIIIMMM!!!”

Still, without a break, Razzo came to swipe the man’s feet with a short spear, and Meltana came to open the man’s head with the war club.

The man received the spear aiming at the ankle with the tip of the halberd, and then deviated the trajectory of the battle club with the bottom part of the halberd. He then took a step back to fully dodged the attacks.

Guisto screamed as he pursued the man. Seeing the man who tried to greet him with an unstable stance, a smile appeared on his face, as he thought that he finally got the man.

Immediately after, the soil wall on the side shattered. Its true identity was the “Earth Bullet” that Rouvan fired through the wall. While sprinkling dust, a deadly bullet approached the man. The man tried to avoid it, but when the bullet struck his right shoulder, his right arm had no choice but hung down helplessly.

“We’ve got one arm!!”

Razzo screamed with joy while approaching to give another attack. Everyone who closed the gap came to assist. Guisto, who was feeling satisfied as he thought that the man must have leaked a groan, caught only a sinister smile.

When the hot air changed its direction, the body of the man rapidly collapsed to the ground. It wasn’t just because of the man’s own weight and gravity. Obviously, there was a force that twisted the reason.

The cutting edge and blunt surface crossed over the head of the body. Guisto, who changed his course of attack in a hurry, his saber only stroked the man’s armor.

The trick the man did was easy. He just manipulated the hot air in desperation while slamming his body against the ground to avoid the approaching attacks. It wasn’t particularly fast, and once you saw the movement, it wasn’t difficult to deal with.

And now, the man, who only had one properly functional arm and laying down on the ground, had put himself into an easy-to-cut position, as if an animal laying itself on top of a chopping board.

So, each of them focused their hungry eyes on the prey.

But, just for a moment, Guisto’s eyes met the man’s eyes. The man’s eyes, which were golden but muddy, were thirsting for blood. As if the man, had anticipated this. Looked so fearless.

“Step back, it’s a traaAAPP!!”

The longsword, which was covered with the body, was pulled out with an arm that shouldn’t be able to move.

The reaction of Rouvan and Nangi, who were paying attention to the whereabouts of the halberd and the movement of the body, was delayed. A longsword extending up from the ground, cut through Rouvan’s ankle and Nangi’s wrist.

Guisto thrust the saber, but the saber only slammed hot air against the ground, while the two got seriously injured and bounced to an empty spot.

“This guy, he slammed his shoulders onto the ground to somewhat heal his arm.”

Instead of the evasive action in desperation, the man actually used the power of the ground to fix his shoulders. If a mistake was made in the process, it would only make the man more helpless and ready to be killed.

How could the man do such a dangerous act without hesitation? Guisto didn’t know.

Blood spouted from the injured Rouvan and Nangi, who were fluttering on the ground.

Just as Guisto vowed to kill the man, the man also decided to kill Guisto and his men.

Guisto, who led the remaining two, challenged the man again. Without long, the cutting edge sipped each other’s blood and carved scratches on the armor through countless exchanges.

One thing was for sure, the man wasn’t invincible.

Obviously, the fineness of movement was lost. But, somehow, the man still had a magical barrier.

Guisto didn’t overlook the gap that had been created while shaving their own lives. He stepped in strongly as he swung the saber.

But what Guisto received, was a numbing sensation he had never experienced before. The blow aimed at the temporal region and the eyeball was received by the surface by the slightly protruding forehead part of the mask.

“You think, I’ll let myself get crushed so many times without a fight?”

The man said so, as if to tell himself.

With the pulled-back saber, Guisto parried the sword that came to slash him.

The man was getting used to the movement, but, if there was assistance, there might still be a chance, was what Guisto thought.

Guisto, felt a sense of discomfort. The saber that should have received the sword, was melting as it got burned, and a big shock ran to his upper body.

“Guisto?!!”

Unlike Digor who had《Strike》 and 《Iron Wall》, Guisto had none. But he wasn’t weak enough to be killed in one stroke, and also his equipment was excellent.

However, Guisto’s body was cut together with his saber. He was now lying down on the ground while being fascinated by the longsword that the man used. The man’s longsword was wrapped in a fire while shining in a different way than when a weapon was used with《Strike》.

As Guisto had gone from the formation, the remaining two were easily defeated.

The man then threw them all into the same spot and burned them with the blue flame.

In the fading consciousness, the magical barrier that Guisto managed to keep was cut off, and his field of vision was wrapped in blue.

Guisto had misunderstood one thing. The man was neither a hero nor some justice believer. The man was a crazy demon that would wrap everyone in blue flames.

After all, the man kept looking down at the ones he had killed with no expression. No joy, no contempt, no hostility, just watching the things in front of him burned to ashes.

“…… mon..ster…”

It was miraculous that Guisto, who had lost half of his body, could spit out any dying words. In the end, his consciousness went to the darkness and never returned.