How a Wizard Survives (37)
How a Wizard Survives (37)
You can tell when you fight him directly.
This one's weak.
And I don't mean merely his physical strength or mana.
The Enfeeblement Demon Diego was an idiot who couldn't even properly use what he had been given.
Yet my sword barely grazed the fool's shoulder.
My aim wasn't off.
Dual-wielding didn't throw off my balance, either.
The culprit was none other than my left arm.
Just before my blade reached him, the strength drained from my arm against my will.
I'd never intended to hold back, even against a Lowest-Rank Demon.
Truth was, I'd been using Rejection Magic the whole time.
Subtle Rejection Magic wouldn't raise much of a problem even if an Einhold noticed.
If it came down to it, I could just fumble an excuse about my adamantite sword.
But...
The demon's trickery pierced straight through all my defenses.
My adamantite sword, the Rejection Magic I'd wrapped around myself as a protective barrier, and even my own Magic Resistance...
He plowed through every layer with brute force.
'So this is what happens when the other side gets serious with their magic.'
By my own rough estimate, the three stacked defenses reduced his power by about ninety-eight percent.
But the remaining two percent was more than enough to affect the fight.
Lowest-Rank or not, a demon is still a demon.
I'd grasped that winning a simple contest of strength was hopeless.
"You insufferable Wizardvein vermin!"
Diego, who seemed to have mistaken me for a Wizardvein, countered. Fortunately, I didn't feel like I was struggling to breathe the way those soldiers did earlier.
My whole body just grew heavy, as if someone had strapped weights to every limb.
'Good. I can still handle this level.'
As I steadied my roughened breath, I spun my twin blades.
I jabbed at his joints, deflecting or sealing every attack.
Joint locks can ignore a certain amount of raw power disparity.
Just as I'd exploited against the Demon Thrall before, this method leverages the structural limits of the body, forcing him to fall for it with his eyes wide open.
"Graaagh!"
I judged that staying in place was too dangerous and pulled back.
Katrina, who had just cleaved through a Demon Thrall with her greatsword, sprinted toward me.
The Einhold commando had finally shaken off her opponent as well.
"Jaeger!"
"Einhold! Go! Complete the mission!"
"What..."
The Einhold mage faltered at my shout.
But she quickly hardened her expression and brushed past me and the demon.
Our mission wasn't to engage the demon; it was to destroy the catapults.
Besides, someone had to report what was happening here.
"Hold out just a little longer! I'll call for reinforcements..."
"Where do you think you're going!"
Fortunately, the demon didn't have the leeway to catch her.
Diego made a belated attempt, but Gravity Magic was handy for movement, too.
I watched her go with a light heart and reset my stance.
Now that the eyes on me were gone, I could use more serious magic. That didn't mean I started hurling Gravity Magic around from the get-go.
'He'll believe I'm a Wizardvein. Better save magic from other schools as a decisive blow.'
Were the demon's thralls weak because their master was weak?
Once Katrina finished roughly cleaning up the remaining Demon Thralls and ran toward me, Diego flared his mana across his whole body in a rage.
"To think I... must use my full power against mere humans!"
"Hey, you should really be grateful to humans."
"...What?"
When I couldn't hold back and chimed in, not only Diego but even Katrina stared at me as if wondering what nonsense I was spouting.
Still, I had to point this out.
"You're a Lowest-Rank Demon. If humans hadn't propped up the bottom of the food chain for you, you'd be the very bottom of the food chain, you—aack!"
"I am not Lowest-Rank!"
Diego flew into a fury at my words and charged.
To be fair, the whole Lowest-Rank, Mid-Rank classification system is just something humans slapped onto them.
The Demon King-Class, though, is different.
Those ones really do go around calling themselves Demon Kings or whatnot.
I tried to respond by swinging my twin blades, but Diego had altered his tactics.
Instead of recklessly aiming to grapple like before, he switched to a striking-based approach.
It was cowardly, but it was the correct choice.
'He's got a knack for bullying the weak.'
Until now, he'd been trying to grapple to finish things definitively, wary of my armor and Rejection Magic...
But now he also knew about my adamantite swords.
Adamantite is a lethal poison that works perfectly well on demons, too.
So he had no choice but to fight cautiously.
Firmly grabbing a violently resisting person versus grazing them even once.
I don't need to explain which is easier.
In truth, though, his hand-to-hand combat was laughably clumsy.
It couldn't even compare to Chainfist, the demon who'd appeared in the middle of the Reshutal Royal Palace.
I made full use of the Spider Boots and my swordsmanship to toy with him.
"Scurrying and running away... Then how about this!"
As if growing impatient from taking a one-sided beating, he abruptly whirled toward Katrina, but we'd already anticipated that.
Heretics all tend to think along similar lines.
Honestly, I wasn't especially worried.
Katrina was wearing adamantite armor, so her resistance to enfeeblement magic was higher than mine.
Besides, could she not also use Rejection Magic? Diego's wretched combat skills helped too.
'Still, maybe I should let him fall for it once?'
"No!"
I shouted in apparent desperation and hurled the adamantite blade in my left hand.
The sword struck true, lodging squarely in his shoulder just as I intended.
He stumbled in agony, then whipped around toward me with an enraged expression.
Katrina was still some distance away, late to rejoin.
"You fool! This ends now!"
Diego raised his uninjured arm high and charged at me triumphantly.
I swung the sword in my right hand loosely, preparing a finishing blow.
Opponent's mana signature analyzed.
Mana Modulation...
Infiltration, begin!
I coolly stepped through the process in my head and drove a single fist into his chest.
With his attack delayed by the sword still lodged in his shoulder, the demon took my punch and let out a snort.
I'd put my body weight and Gravity Magic into it, but the force was still far too weak against a demon.
"Lowest-Rank is what you—guhack?!"
"...You were hurt by that earlier, weren't you? Sorry."
'Ultimate Mimicry!'
Having successfully executed my teacher's secret technique, I swiftly pulled away.
What I'd forcibly triggered inside his body was Rejection Magic.
A demon's physical form is so unstable that it cannot sustain itself without mana, so this was more than enough.
His heart crushed, the demon spewed black blood from his mouth.
"This isn't... Rejection, or Gravity... is it? You, don't tell me..."
Slick.
I retrieved the blade still embedded in his shoulder and cut his throat, severing his labored voice.
As the demon's corpse crumpled lifelessly to the ground, Katrina made a fuss.
She'd recognized it as Ulysses's technique.
"Jaeger, that... that technique was..."
"It was tough. This is the first spell I've practiced over and over until total success."
I smiled wryly and gave my honest impression.
Ever since the visit to Winter Fortress, I'd trained with my teacher every chance I had.
Thanks to all the effort I'd put in, the result was a success.
Being able to deal a fatal wound to a demon with my bare hands was immensely satisfying.
"I-is that so."
"We finished it before reinforcements even got here. Let's hurry. The operation isn't over yet..."
"Wait. We have to guard the demon corpse here. If we leave it unattended, other demons might retrieve it."
"Ah, really?"
Guarding the corpse was the job the soldiers who'd accompanied us were supposed to do...
But they'd all been killed earlier in the battle.
Just as I inclined my head briefly toward the fallen in acknowledgment, a whitish smoke-like substance rose from the Demon Thralls' corpses.
The souls of the mages who had long been bound to Diego.
They had been set free the moment their master died.
The souls looked down at me as though they could scarcely believe it.
"You... really killed a demon..."
"Incredible. To think I'd be released like this."
"Thank you, Heretic Inquisitor. I never thought I'd express gratitude to your kind... but thank you, all the same."
The mages freed from their contracts thanked me again and again.
Even for lawbreakers who ignored human laws, life as a demon's slave must have been hideous.
Feeling a bit awkward, I returned the sentiment.
"Next time, be a bit more careful when you make a contract."
"Of course."
"If you'd like, take all of my mana. I no longer need it..."
As the mages finished speaking, refined mana rose from their bodies.
I accepted it without refusing.
With all lingering attachments released, they silently scattered into the air.
"Phew, it's done. Still, the Einholds are late. Too late, if you ask..."
"Not late."
It wasn't Katrina who answered my grumbling.
I spun around, startled.
I had relaxed after taking down a demon, only for someone to get behind me.
The owner of the voice had positioned himself on a large boulder further off.
He leaped down lightly and strode toward me, already in a combat stance.
Katrina barely managed to recognize him, and her face stiffened.
"Luft... Einhold?"
"You aren't a Wizardvein."
Luft Einhold brushed Katrina aside cleanly and focused on me.
Thankfully, I couldn't see anyone else around...
But he alone was more than enough trouble.
'This gentleman, a member of the Eight Swords of Einhold, specialized in assassination and infiltration? Though it does fit his look...'
If he decides to run right now, catching him will be hard.
Luft leveled his sword at me, where I stood rigid with tension, and asked a question.
"Back in Reshutal, you kept watching me. What exactly are you? Why is a Wizardvein person tolerating your existence?"
"Th-that is..."
I held up my right hand, cutting off Katrina as she struggled to protest.
Should I attack right now?
No. Against someone of this caliber, there's bound to be insurance in play.
Besides, I had more than a few things I was curious about regarding him, too.
'Should I gamble?'
There was still plenty of time.
Combat was always the last resort.
Trying to talk first wouldn't be a bad move.
If worst came to worst, I could pin it all on the demon.
With that thought, I carefully spoke a single word.
"Green."
"...What?"
Luft's longsword wavered hard.
For a swordsman of his caliber to lose composure was no small thing.
So this was the right answer.
Ready to go for broke, I kept talking.
"Green is my real name."
"You..."
"I was born in a nameless village near Ravenhill. I barely escaped before a Fire Mage burned it to the ground. I was too afraid the mage would hunt me down, so I never reported it. I had nowhere to report it anyway."
As if making excuses to Katrina and him at the same time, I recited the scenario.
I still couldn't reveal information about my teacher or Ash.
"After that, a blacksmith took me in..."
"S-stop!"
Horrified, Luft quickly moved his longsword.
But contrary to my fears, it wasn't an attack.
He nicked his own wrist lightly, drawing a little blood.
"Prove it!"
Does he already know that I'm an Einhold?
As I thought, this man also knows enough to be dangerous.
But... since I'd already laid my cards on the table, I might as well turn them all face up cleanly.
I made a matching cut and used magic.
Blood from both sides rose into the air and merged into one without any resistance at all.
"This... can't be..."
"Jaeger... you were from the Einhold Family?"
"I only found out myself quite recently."
As I hurriedly made my excuses to Katrina, Luft Einhold's body sagged heavily.
The moment he'd confirmed it, he sheathed his sword without hesitation and dropped to both knees.
Complete submission, leaving no room for doubt.
As Katrina and I stood there, thoroughly thrown off by the sight, an address I'd never imagined came flying at me.
"...Young master."
"Excuse me?"
"Your disloyal squire... offers his greeting at last. The allegiance I could not finish giving your father, I shall now devote to you without reserve, young master."
A sudden oath echoed across the desolate rocky crag.