The Magic Tower's Tracker
Somehow, I couldn't shake the bad feeling. Even after watching Leoniss take that blue lightning head-on, it lingered.
My body, already beyond human limits, responded to the mana and began to change. Senses sharpened in its wake, and a new perception I had never known stirred awake.
Dissonance. And danger.
A sensation like foresight of the future seeped through every inch of me. The moment the horn sprouting from my head started to prickle, that ominous premonition became reality and showed its face.
“Hmm…”
Leoniss rose with a faint groan. The white that had bloomed over his eyes was swept away by the wind.
What covered his body was a thin, pyramid-shaped barrier. Through it I could still make out his form. The slender metal rod in his hand glowed with an eerie light.
“Good thing I saved it.”
The follow-up Chain Lightning had failed to land. He had activated that tool the instant before the bolt struck. The same capture device he had used to pin Nightmare in place, turned now to shield himself.
Leoniss rolled his shoulders as if working out the stiffness and tossed the rod aside. The mana barrier wrapping his body faded at once.
I frowned and settled into stance. My sword drew back, tip leveled at him. When the gleaming edge sliced through the sunlight pouring down, Leoniss spoke.
“You… are you even human?”
His gaze brushed my eyes and the horn before sliding away. My hands had left human shape as well, but the gauntlets hid them from view.
Why? Why wouldn't the unease leave me? He had taken a clean hit of Balgyeong. His insides should have been wrecked, mana unusable.
A mage without mana was easy prey. I knew Leoniss had tempered his body differently from ordinary mages, yet in the end he was still a mage who fought by wielding mana.
“Thinking too much.”
That was when Leoniss moved. His speed was nothing like before—slow enough to match an ordinary grown man at a run.
The sight only tangled my thoughts further. Feint? Or pure recklessness?
There was only one way to know. A faint flame flickered on the low breath that left me, and I swung my sword at the closing Leoniss.
Starlight mana laced the blade as it cut the air. The sword stretched forward, trailing light like a comet's tail. Just before it touched him, Leoniss vanished from sight.
Instant high-speed movement. He had milked my carelessness to the last second, then driven his enhanced body off the ground. Had my form still been human, I would have lost him completely.
Not now. Dragon traits surfaced across my body; the senses they sharpened might have lost his silhouette, but they never lost his presence or the flow of his mana.
Upper right. The instant I locked onto his position and the angle of the strike, I wrenched the sword's path. Mana clinging to the edge burst free in a flash, adding speed.
Shiiing!
Torso and legs twisted the same way. A stance that should have held little power—yet this body beyond human limits was different.
The wide arc of the blade carried force enough to threaten.
Just as the redirected cut was about to land, a sudden surge of mana flared. Between sword and body it coalesced, swift and precise, into a clear shape.
Thud-thud-thud-!
The Magic Missile Leoniss formed slammed hard against my blade's edge. The sword's speed dropped sharply. In the next heartbeat his heavy fist crashed into my face.
Thud-! Thwack-!
Three blows in a blink. The mana barrier sheathing me kept the damage light, but the feeling was foul.
My left hand shot out and seized his arm. Surprise flooded Leoniss's face—as if he had never imagined I would snatch his wrist while absorbing the hits.
I tried Balgyeong again. Mana raced from my heart down the arm. The moment it left my palm and sought entry into his body—
A violent surge of mana flared in the arm I held. Blue mana burst outward from Leoniss; the two forces met outside his flesh instead of within, birthing a savage repulsion.
Bang-!
We were hurled apart almost as one, forced to break the grip by the shock.
“You use quite a frightening technique.”
Leoniss muttered it like a sneer. He kept running his mouth through the fight, clearly bent on needling me however he could.
I scowled. Balgyeong had been dismantled far too easily. Yet in a way it was only natural. The moment a mage like Leoniss took the hit, he would have grasped exactly how the technique worked.
Force mana into the opponent's body and let the repulsion deliver the shock. So simply keep foreign mana from entering.
Should I ready a heavy spell? No—Leoniss was a mage. The instant he felt my mana stir he would seize the opening and come on like a storm.
Close combat it had to be. I set my feet shoulder-width and leveled the sword. At the same time, starlit Magic Missiles rose around me. When those floating stars held a faint warmth—
Leoniss moved again. Our styles were similar, but my durability far outstripped his. He maintained a mana barrier as well, yet beneath it lay only soft human flesh.
Thud!
Fist met fist. My wide sword swing was checked by his leg. Tiny bursts of mana chained through the air a heartbeat later—two spells shaped the same way colliding and snuffing each other out.
Physical specs favored me, yet I could not seize the upper hand.
Leoniss wielded Magic Missile in endless variations: hiding a round inside his fist, using airborne missiles as stepping stones to leap.
He was simply that accustomed to this kind of fight. Unlike other mages, every spell he cast bent toward reinforcing his body.
As the seconds stretched, Leoniss's face grew pale. He eased back a step; red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Delayed shock from Balgyeong? Or another feint meant to lure my guard down?
I could not tell. He had shown too much; my thoughts tangled.
His heavier strikes still came close enough to threaten. When every Magic Missile vanished, spare mana flooded into his arms and legs.
Even with flesh harder than any human's, I had to dodge then. Those blows punched through the mana barrier and stacked dull impacts deep inside me.
Long-cast spells were out. I needed something instant, something with enough force to end him.
My sword carved a small star through the air—and Leoniss suddenly drove inside my guard. His body spun; a rough wind howled in.
Strange footwork. His leg bent at an impossible angle, then kicked the pommel, jarring my wrist.
Pak-!
The small shock sent the sword flying. It spun high, mercilessly slicing the golden sunlight.
Shattered light brushed my face again and again.
A tight pressure began to gather in my chest. The knot of tangled emotion yanked every scrap of mana in my body into one point. The instant it concentrated, Leoniss's barrage began.
Most human vitals cluster along the centerline. His fists hunted them all—brow, philtrum, chin, throat, solar plexus, chest, gut. Fast, heavy punches hammered every one.
Vision shook; my body reeled. Impacts stacking from within brought a surge of nausea. In that moment I unleashed the mana I had been hoarding.
Kwaaaaa-!
Flames erupted in a radial blast, shoving everything away. Leoniss, still inside my reach, had no choice but to be swallowed by the fire.
The flames of ruin that burn all things. The mana shielding his body began to peel away.
Yet instead of retreating, Leoniss drove even deeper. Completely opposite the distance I had expected him to take. A brutal impact slammed up under my chin.
Thud-! Kwaaaaa-!
My head snapped skyward. The breath followed, and crimson fire painted the blue heavens.
In the scarlet afterimage Leoniss looked ruined. His entire arm was cooked raw, red flesh exposed; part of his face had been seared by the heat.
His complicated gaze touched me and fell away. A strange pulse of mana rippled around him—and he vanished in an instant.
As if the space itself had been torn out whole. With the target gone, the flames spilling from my mouth scattered emptily.
But vanishing from sight did not mean he was gone. His presence flared hundreds of meters distant.
Leoniss, suddenly revealed far off, launched into high-speed motion. I swung the breath after him at once.
Hwaaaaaak-!
I closed my mouth a fraction, compressing the fire. When the white-hot stream thinned to a line, his presence winked out completely.
“Kek…!”
I coughed blood and scowled.
At the edge of the snowy mountain where ice and snow had melted, no corpse waited. He had slipped away.
Pursuit.
I shook the thought off as soon as it formed. My body was a wreck, and using the breath had left me empty of mana.
I worked the stiffness from my limbs and walked toward Nightmare, who was letting out mournful little whinnies—puihing, puihing.
Puiheheng-!
His great head kept battering the mana barrier. Tears stood ready to fall from glistening eyes.
“Wait a moment…”
I yanked the metal rod free of the ground. The barrier binding him vanished at once.
Purrruk-!
Nightmare came to me on rough breaths. His broad tongue slathered my cheek, then he clamped the nape of my neck in his teeth and started down the pure-white snowy mountain.