First Victory Against a Mage
A strangely lukewarm wind drifted through the air — an atmosphere conjured by the woman standing before me. Seranea. I clenched my fist, then opened it again as I looked at her.
It was the first real tension I'd felt since becoming a mage. A sensation entirely different from anything a monster had ever given me.
Her flame is crimson.
Until moments ago, Seranea's flame had burned with a pure, white light. Now color had bled into it. Was something like this even possible? The very essence of a person's soul... changing?
The forest wardens had gone silent, crushed beneath the oppressive weight of her presence, and Wolfgar had his guard raised to the limit. I was the only one here who could talk to whatever that thing was.
"Who are you?"
I put the question to Seranea, whose head hung low. She held her silence, then slowly raised a single finger. And I saw mana begin to move.
Seranea had been an ordinary person until mere moments ago. I could hardly believe mana was pouring out of her. Could a regular person suddenly become a mage?
In that instant, I saw the mana stretch toward the forest warden beside her. The moment I registered it, I instinctively wrapped mana around my hand and lunged.
A sharp clang rang out as I forcibly severed the mana before it could reach him. Seranea's shoulder twitched.
She finally lifted her lowered head, slowly. Crimson eyes shimmered — a color completely different from Seranea's original brown. The moment she looked at me, she bit down on her lip.
"Did the schools send you?"
Words I hadn't expected at all. The mage schools. I had no idea why their name had suddenly come up.
"Playing dumb, are you?"
In that interval, Seranea glared at me with murderous eyes.
She had something seriously wrong.
"Would you believe me if I said no?"
"Silence!"
She wasn't going to listen at all. If I wanted to talk, I had no choice. She was already radiating killing intent. I wrapped mana around myself and aimed my fist forward. I'd just knock her down, then we'd talk.
"I knew it!"
Mana began pouring out around her. This was the first time I'd ever faced a mage, and tension coiled through my body accordingly.
Her total mana is actually less than mine.
But she had the ability to manifest mana into reality. She was at least a Neophyte or higher.
A rush of heat bloomed around her as small crimson flames took shape. They're coming. The instant I sensed it, the flames bent in different directions and came flying. I wasn't the only target — they were going after Wolfgar and the forest wardens too. I couldn't protect everyone by myself.
"Don't you dare look down on me, Haren!"
Wolfgar roared and charged straight at the flames instead. I wondered if he'd lost his mind, but his eyes were dead serious. I decided to trust him and block the ones coming at me first.
The Third Eye flashed. I'd lived with Zorbanof, a mage, but this was the first time I'd been on the receiving end of magic. Maybe that was why — right now, in this moment, I could see the mana seated inside the flames with perfect clarity. Even the principle by which the mana formed and sustained the fire. I could see through everything.
This is...
A power I hadn't anticipated. Could the dragon's eye — a Primordial Fragment — see through magic itself? Now that I'd become a mage and could understand magic, a new landscape had begun to unfold.
The essence of magic is mana. Just moments ago, I'd severed her mana on something close to instinct.
That's probably why she mistook me for the Dawn Constellation.
Mana is a power each individual handles differently. Just as every person's personality is unique, the mana born from a mage's inner world is unique as well. As a result, the flow of mana can be infiltrated and blocked by another mage's mana. That was what I'd realized when I severed hers a moment ago.
And besides.
The Third Eye could see through mana itself even when magic was being used. I'd never heard from Zorbanof that mages possessed a power like this. Which meant it was likely a unique ability of the Primordial Fragment.
Just as it could see through the life flame a person possessed. To a mage, mana was like a primal life force. Which meant Instant Death Magic worked on magic too.
I swept my hand toward the incoming flames, then extinguished the form of the mana embedded in the fire with Instant Death Magic. A faint hiss — and the flames that had been flying at me simply went out and vanished. I didn't stop there. I extinguished the ones heading for the forest wardens as well.
It works. Instant Death Magic works on magic.
In the distance, Seranea's eyes went wide. It was a move she hadn't anticipated at all. The instant I snuffed out the flames, Wolfgar charged toward the remaining fire. He slid across the ground and crossed his long spear and short spear to meet the flames head-on.
A thunderous crash. Then he whipped both spears and sent the fire ricocheting violently upward. Parts of his body were singed by the heat, but he'd blocked it.
"I am a monster hunter who takes down mages!"
Wolfgar bellowed. A roar I could trust. Of course, the flames Seranea was using now were far weaker than a normal mage's firepower. The one wielding the magic wasn't in a normal state. We could win this.
"What kind of grotesque trick is that?!"
Seranea shouted as she worked her mana. The tips of her brown hair flushed red and rose upward. At the same time, even more of those flames from before took shape. I couldn't let her magic go after the others again.
Now that I knew I could erase magic with Instant Death Magic, there was no reason to be afraid. I slammed my mana-charged legs into the ground and my body shot forward explosively. Seranea must have recognized me as the most dangerous enemy — she gathered the flames toward me.
Six flames came flying from different directions. I saw through every last bit of mana seated inside them. I thrust the edge of my hand forward, made contact, and extinguished the flames. In an instant, I wiped out the fire magic one after another.
"What..."
Seranea let out a breathless gasp.
"What are you, some kind of monster pretending to be a mage?"
Even to her, my fighting style must have looked nothing like a regular mage's. But it couldn't be helped. The only magic I could use was still Instant Death Magic.
Her mana moved again, and more flames took shape. This time the number had doubled. I could feel her total mana dwindling once more. She was pushing herself too. As long as I was using Instant Death Magic, it didn't matter how many spells she threw at me.
So I went to pierce through the fire magic without hesitation once more. Then, just before my hand made contact, a flash of light bloomed in front of my eyes.
The explosion tore through my body.
"Haren!"
Wolfgar shouted from where he'd been waiting behind me. He'd realized he was being protected and had deliberately stationed himself in front of the forest wardens.
She condensed the mana and detonated it before I could touch it.
Just explode it right before contact. That simple. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of such a basic counter.
The arm caught in the explosion was charred black, and I couldn't put any real strength into it. I was protecting my body with mana, but my opponent was a mage too. The shock had punched through my mana barrier and reached my flesh. The firepower was weak, but magic was still magic. Its power was tremendous.
This was why no matter how hard a regular person tried, they could never beat a mage. I'd thought about it too simply. Even if Instant Death Magic worked, it was useless if I couldn't reach the source of the mana. A trick like that would only work once.
Seranea's laughter rang in my ears. The flames flickering around her had, at some point, shifted from crimson to blue.
"Will-o'-the-wisps that explode before you can even touch them. From the looks of it, you're a mage who handles mana in a rather unusual way."
Seranea pressed her hands together into a triangle. Following that motion, the mana took on a strange flow, and the will-o'-the-wisps began to waver unpredictably.
"You should never have had the gall to act so bold in front of me."
The will-o'-the-wisps began to move, slowly. They would clearly explode before I could touch them again. This was a domain I currently had no way to handle.
And yet... why? Right now, in this moment, my heart was pounding without restraint. Excitement. Exhilaration. Two unpredictable emotions had every one of my senses standing on end.
"...Are you smiling?"
Seranea's laughter cut off, and she spoke with a cold face. At some point, the corners of my mouth had lifted, just as she'd said.
Yeah. I was incredibly happy right now. Even if she wasn't a mage in her right state, I was standing against a mage. That thrill was a sensation no one who'd lived their whole life as a mage could ever understand. And this moment would also be the first time I brought a mage down.
I clenched my charred-black fist. If I could still put strength into it, that was enough. I wrapped mana around my entire body and honed my senses to their limit. The reflexes and physical ability I'd built up by consuming countless monster mana stones — I fused both with mana and created a state of extreme concentration.
"Let's see how long you can keep smiling."
The will-o'-the-wisps came rushing in. Each one was like a beast packed with killing intent. And because of that, my senses pierced through every last one of them.
I can see it. The path connecting them to Seranea.
From a lowered stance, my legs — swollen to their limit — launched me forward. My body began racing through the gaps between the will-o'-the-wisps. The moment Seranea saw my movement, she swung the wisps. The mana in the one right beside me began to condense. The instant I saw it, I stomped the ground with everything I had and accelerated.
The explosion right beside me swept through the air and shook the earth. But I was already gone from that spot — just outside the explosion's lethal range. The distance my instincts had learned from taking that first blast.
"What—"
Seranea's face showed shock. She'd clearly assumed I'd be caught in the blast. I didn't waste the opening. I started sprinting.
Seranea hurriedly swung the will-o'-the-wisps. The incoming wisps exploded in a chain, crashing over me. But each time, I evaded with movements bordering on artistry. The distance between Seranea and me closed in an instant.
She must have decided she couldn't give me any more distance — she brought her hands together once more.
"You reckless fool!"
Mana surged through her entire body as she shouted. She'd wrung out so much that blood burst from her nose and eyes. What the mana created was a massive wall of flame, carrying a ferocious heat that felt like it would cook my face in an instant. The wall erased everything around it as it came charging at me.
The Third Eye captured the scene and flashed. As I'd said before — magic is ultimately a phenomenon born from the source that is mana. A flame wall this massive couldn't be severed as easily as before. It was like trying to put out a fire that was too large when hunting a giant monster — it would take too much time.
So what I was aiming for in this moment wasn't erasing the entire wall.
The contact surface that touches my body.
I would deftly extinguish only a portion of the mana composing the flame wall.
My leaping body met the flame wall. It was heat that should have burned my flesh and melted my bones. But the Instant Death Magic I activated in that moment erased a portion of the wall. My body punched through the flames and arrived in front of Seranea.
I met her stunned eyes. The look of someone who'd just witnessed something she couldn't possibly believe. A look I didn't mind at all.
The moment I was right in front of her, it was over. The tip of my finger touched her and scattered her life flame. The rebound forcibly severed the connection between her body and mind.
"Ghk— uh."
I caught her as she collapsed and finally caught my breath. At the same time, a thrill shot through my entire body.
My first victory against a mage. There had never been a better feeling.