Chapter 290
Chapter 290
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 290
Chapter Title: Seamus (1)
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“I was wondering whether to let you go or not, curious about your true identity. ‘Great One,’ huh... Now it’s clear. Looks like I’ll have to take you down too.”
Seamus charged forward, muttering something incomprehensible.
Green natural energy erupted from his entire body.
He looked a bit unstable from the overwhelming power, but otherwise resembled a solid mass of pure energy. Oliver unleashed his black magic toward such a Seamus.
He drew out the emotion mass wrapped around his body like a robe, converting it into particles linked to his hand, then shoved it forward.
A massive hand-shaped cluster of emotion particles hurtled toward Seamus, who countered with a fist compressed from natural energy.
쾅———!!!
The collision between Seamus’s fist and the emotion particles ripped through the air with a shockwave.
The blast was so immense that nearby trees snapped and blue leaves rained down in droves.
“Impressive.”
Oliver sincerely admired as he swung his hand down from above.
쾅———!!!
The enormous hand of emotion particles swatted Seamus like a fly, shaking the ground as he dropped to one knee.
Oliver and Seamus’s eye levels flipped—Oliver now looking down.
“You...!”
Seamus felt intense rage and tried to force himself back up.
Oliver raised his hand again and brought it down.
쾅———!!!
Unable to withstand the second blow, Seamus buckled onto both knees.
He barely clung to his senses and planted both hands on the ground.
The natural power overflowing from Seamus’s body surged into the earth upon incantation, spreading outward. An enormous mass of grass and trees sprouted like weeds in an instant, growing densely without gaps.
The space between Seamus and Oliver was no exception.
Every new plant brimmed with compressed natural energy, briefly blocking the black mage’s line of sight.
Seamus shouted.
“Annihilate the enemy!!”
The grass and trees infused with natural power obeyed the shaman’s command.
Freshly sprouted plants creaked like living humans with wills of their own, encircling and pressing in on Oliver.
Oliver’s shadow morphed into tentacles, blades, and stakes, slicing through the encroaching trees in all directions.
Though the plants possessed unnatural strength from natural energy, Oliver wielded an unusually vast amount of emotion this time, so it posed no issue.
Chop-chop-chop-chop—!!
Amid the shredded leaves and splintered wood, Seamus’s figure came into view.
Oliver marked Seamus with Targeting, overlaying a dartboard on his body, then applied the same to the scattered wood fragments around.
The obsession woven into Targeting drew them together, sending countless wooden shards flying toward Seamus.
콰과광——!!
Seamus collided with incoming logs from all sides, like magnets slamming together.
Oliver pressed the advantage, drawing out his circulating mana to unleash a massive blaze.
Aiming to incinerate Seamus along with the logs.
But something unexpected happened.
The logs hurtling toward Seamus clung to him like mud via natural energy, hardening into armor.
Seamus swung his arms, tearing apart the mana-fueled flames, then charged at Oliver once more.
Oliver infused his quarterstaff with obsessive emotion and mana, instantly forming a house-sized mud ball and hurling it at Seamus.
Seamus enlarged the wooden armor on his fist to shatter the incoming mud ball head-on, but Oliver remained unfazed and deployed his next black magic.
The emotions embedded in the mud shards responded to Oliver’s will, binding Seamus from all sides like living restraints.
Seamus struggled to break free, but shaking off formless mud was no easy task. In that interval, Oliver layered multiple Black Armors onto the end of his quarterstaff, forging a massive weight, and swung it at Seamus with full force.
———!!!
Wooden armor shards exploded outward with the deafening crash, sending Seamus flying far away.
Not lethal, but a solid hit nonetheless.
Oliver infused mana into the ground, crafting numerous spears from soil and stones. He levitated them with emotion particles, coated them in Black Javelins, and hurled them at Seamus.
Pew-pew-pew!!
The black javelin-clad stone spears pierced the air, but fresh trees erupted from the earth, obstructing Oliver’s projectiles.
Oliver tried to slice them with shadow tentacles, but wooden spears shot from between the trees a beat faster.
Oliver caught one midair with emotion particles, but at that instant, a seed embedded in the spear sprouted into massive thorny vines.
Rustle-rustle-rustle—!!
Fist-thick thorny vines bound Oliver with chain-like strength, their dagger-sized thorns shredding everything nearby.
Fortunately, Oliver’s preemptive Black Suit and emotion robe spared him direct harm, but it was too soon to relax.
The vines obeyed the shaman’s will, tightening around him relentlessly.
More wooden spears flew in, exploding into thorny vines that crushed down on Oliver.
Squish-squish…!
Like an ant trapped in an antlion pit, Oliver was buried under colossal thorny vines.
The surrounding trees piled on, intensifying the pressure. At this rate, the sheer mass would crush the life from him.
“Will this work?... [Devouring Fire]”
Under nature’s squeeze, Oliver clasped his hands, blending emotion and mana to ignite black flames.
This Devouring Fire’s prey: natural energy itself.
A first-time attempt, but it worked.
Black flames flickered small between his palms before leaping to the vines, devouring natural power and consuming all surrounding plants.
콰화화화화화하하하하하항항———!!!!
The towering black inferno incinerated everything around Oliver like oil-soaked flames, leaving only ashes from what Devouring Fire had devoured.
Devouring Fire... seemed to have excellent synergy against druids.
“Black flames? So that lightning earlier was your doing too?!”
Seamus cried out, summoning a tidal wave of earth.
He unleashed a massive landslide with maxed-out power, aiming to bury Oliver and Devouring Fire entirely.
Earth’s properties and overwhelming scale put Oliver at a disadvantage.
Oliver considered clearing the landslide with emotion particles but changed plans upon spotting Seamus monitoring from atop it.
Fragmentary techniques wouldn’t suffice—he needed chained combos.
With that in mind, Oliver swirled mana and rage emotion in one hand like a vortex, activating a hybrid spell between magic and black magic.
A black whirlwind erupted around Oliver, merging instantly with Devouring Fire into a colossal vortex of ravenous flames.
A massive fire pillar visible from beyond the horizon.
The Devouring Fire, which devoured and burned all, surged several-fold in power while gaining physical force to shatter surroundings, smashing the oncoming landslide head-on.
The churning earth parted like the Red Sea in waves of soil.
A scene as astonishing as two natural disasters clashing.
With momentum reversed, Oliver focused his eyes to locate Seamus.
To press the assault.
“......?!”
Oliver tilted his head sideways.
At some point during the Gale and Devouring Fire fusion, Seamus had descended the earthen wave without hesitation and closed in on Oliver.
When his shamanic suppression turned disadvantageous, he’d instantly switched tactics. Impressive.
His arsenal wasn’t just vast—it adapted fluidly to his advantage. No wonder he was Randah’s living legend.
Seamus thrust his elongated, deer-like muscular arm, aiming to finish Oliver before Devouring Fire fully manifested.
Oliver countered by wrapping Black Armor around one hand like a gauntlet, throwing a punch right back at Seamus.
———!!!
Their fists clashed, unleashing another air-tearing shockwave.
Oliver’s Black Armor shattered, sending him reeling backward.
“Gaaargh...!”
Seamus, sensing victory, roared and charged again.
Oliver marked both Seamus’s hand and his own with Targeting, using rejection emotion as fuel to repel him at maximum output.
A powerful repulsive force surged between them, halting Seamus.
Normally, he’d have been flung far to crash into a tree or wall, but his fortified physique, ultra-compressed natural energy, and unyielding spirit held firm.
Nay, he advanced slowly beyond mere endurance.
His limbs gradually reshaped into deer-like forms, and the small antlers sprouting from his head grew to adult size.
Astonishingly, he had evolved in that moment.
His once unstable natural power stabilized in a vast new vessel, seamlessly integrating as if always his own.
“Strike him down.”
Oliver swept his hand downward.
The Devouring Fire whirlwind, having shattered Seamus’s landslide and swelled by devouring nearby trees, writhed like a serpent before slamming its “head” toward Seamus from above.
A calamity from the heavens.
Devouring Fire engulfed Seamus with a horrific roar.
쿠와아아아아아아아아아앙———!!!!
As Devouring Fire sought to incinerate Seamus completely, the ground suddenly quaked.
The earth had trembled many times from potent shamanic clashes, but this was different.
A vibration deeper than skin—resonating in the bones.
From below emerged enormous arms of trunks, roots, soil, and grass, shielding Seamus as a colossal giant rose to the surface.
The ground and even the sky shook with an indescribable roar.
Seamus, who had grown mid-battle, conjured a giant worthy of Oliver’s admiration.
A titan forged from earth, rock, and wood—nature incarnate.
As the giant manifested, druids within the wooden ramparts gazed in awe, while the anti-Seamus coalition outside recoiled in shock and terror.
Their fighting spirit broken by its overwhelming size and power.
The giant rose on two legs with Seamus on its shoulder, seizing the predatory Devouring Fire in both hands and twisting it apart, snuffing it out.
A mythic tableau. Oliver silently extended his hand and whispered.
"Extract."