Please Go Outside!!! (7)
The black mage who took a bear punch straight to the jaw from my Agul Spear sent his teeth flying through the air. I turned my head to avoid the disgusting spray of black blood.
This fucking dirty, tenacious son of a bitch! If I hit his face I might catch his skin disease, so I couldn’t even strike him! Why the hell does a guy with that kind of disease walk around without a mask? No—maybe that’s part of his plan too. It looked like a technique meant to limit the enemy’s attack range by openly displaying his skin condition!
“Tsk!! A barrier?!”
It was literally an infectious atopy barrier!
《Kuaaaaaaaaack!!!》
The black mage thrashed his limbs wildly, spraying saliva everywhere.
I’m the druid here, so why is this bastard the one spreading plague? I pushed through the filth and charged, but spotted the stone spear shooting up from the ground and twisted my body away.
—Kwaaaaaaaaang!!
A rock spear burst from the earth. His plan to gain distance was obvious, but I didn’t have the confidence to tank pitch-black magic with my body. The only saving grace was that it was slow enough to dodge.
—Crackle!
When the black mage retreated, my body slipped out of the blue barrier as well. No effect. As expected, Beast Regression is the best. If I hadn’t been able to transform into Vectorman, I would’ve been screwed.
I settled into a solid boxing stance and called out to the only ally on this battlefield.
“Nefertiti! Can you still fight?!”
“……Cough.”
Our neighborhood’s top adventurer answered with a spray of blood. Fuck. Skin disease in front, lung disease behind. Health really is the most important thing for a person.
“Kuuuugh… hack……”
The black mage staggered too, both eyes swollen shut. Golems poured in from behind. Dozens of them. He had poured nearly every remaining golem core from the giant one into these new ones.
Could I handle that many alone?
My palms grew slick with tension. Then, from behind the giant golem, the sound of marching boots rang out.
“All units!! Subjugate the black mage!!!”
"Be trapped in the glacier's coffin and sleep in the vast sea!"
⟨ Dominion of Permanent Ice ⟩
Tirsi’s magic flew in and froze several golems solid. Reinforcements! The adventurers who hadn’t escaped yet had come to support us.
“Tsk!”
The black mage swung his hand, dispelling the barrier. He was trying to let those who could flee do so and break our teamwork. Even while doing that, the ball-sack bastard never took his eyes off me. It seemed he was deeply impressed that I had torn through his confident barrier like a needle through a condom and beaten the shit out of him.
I kept careful watch over the enemy’s body and mana flow. Thanks to that, I noticed it.
“……Horn?”
—Flinch!
The black mage trembled at my murmur. The lump on his forehead that I had mistaken for a ball sack was actually a horn. A rotten, broken, completely fucked-up horn. It sat on his brow like a tree stump left after being used for firewood.
And that was proof of his true identity.
“This bastard… was a unicorn.”
A unicorn! The ultimate virgin bug, polar opposite of Bicorn! A holy beast that stood shoulder to shoulder with Pegasus.
“So that’s it. ‘Virgin’s Boundary,’ you called it. Powerful holy magic combined with the severe side effects of black magic… If it’s a unicorn transformed into a human, everything makes sense.”
“Transform? Khehehe. Transform, you say.”
The black mage stroked his horn while laughing hideously, as if something was hilarious.
“This is no mere transformation. I have lifted the curse and returned to the body of the divine race—by the grace of that great one!”
“Yeah~ I have zero interest in the personal details of terrorist bastards~. A virgin-bug ada unicorn master is probably ada anyway~.”
“Wh-what?! Who are you calling a virgin?!”
My words must have struck a nerve; the black mage flew into a rage. Oh? This works. I drew my sword and kept provoking him.
“Huk… I really didn’t know you were a virgin… Sorry for the harsh words. I had no idea…”
“Kk! Ha, what a pathetic provocation! A pure body is a dignified thing! What is there to brag about defiling yourselves like you and those guild master bastards?!”
“I see… Does your family know?”
“I told you to shut up!! If I had wanted to embrace a mere woman, I could have embraced as many as I wanted!!”
“Bullshit. With your shitty personality, ugly face, and lack of redeeming qualities, you probably couldn’t manage a proper relationship even after four hundred years.”
“What would a bastard like you know?!”
“No… Isn’t this just… common sense…?”
“This, this, this damn human bastard…!!”
—Tremble tremble!
The male unicorn’s entire body shook. I burst out laughing as I felt the provocation land perfectly.
“Enough. Tell me about your first love instead. I have zero interest in a virgin bug’s backstory anyway.”
The people of this world—even the villains—were fucking evil and clever. The fact that he was blabbering on about his circumstances was clearly just to buy time. His golems were being destroyed in real time, yet he was stalling? It could only mean he was preparing something extremely dangerous.
‘There’s no way this bastard will tell the truth anyway.’
Better to finish him off quickly and ask Nefertiti later!
I cut the chatter short and dashed forward.
“Die a virgin, you bastard whose dick is smaller than his horn!!”
“──I’ll kill only you!! I won’t even use you as golem material!!”
—Fwoooooosh!!
The black mage scattered cores and summoned more golems. Each one surely contained someone’s soul. They would be weaker than the giant golem he had taken time to create, but they were receiving the floor-wide buff he had personally activated. I couldn’t let my guard down.
“Suuuuuuuu……”
I controlled my breathing as I charged. Inhale, exhale, inhale! Reproduce the Korean spirit—the Jajinmori rhythm—inside my lungs!!
‘Even though the mana the soul lent me has vanished, the sense of flame still remains in my hands.’
I recalled the fierce blaze the white flames had shown me. I would reproduce that fire with the magic I cast!
Slrrrng—!
I wrote runes along the blade as if drawing a sword from my waist. The true enlightenment of ᚨ(Ansuz) was engraved in green. The true meaning of ᚨ(Ansuz) is communion and inspiration, magic and creation! Therefore, the forward-facing ᚨ(Ansuz) engraved on the weapon amplifies the effect of any spell cast upon it!!
My sword blazed with golden fire. Mana resembling Beast Regression poured into the spell formula. It was Burning Hand activated without a chant. The enlightenment from the soul flame had raised both the power and level of my Burning Hand!
“Full-concentration Golden Sun Breathing!”
When I poured mana into it, the golden flames greedily licked the air. Good! Eat as much as you want! The fat will burn off once I get into college anyway!
“Secret Sword Style—Three Swords.”
I took an upper stance with the flaming blade and unleashed a secret technique.
A flash like a dragon slicing off an oni’s head!
—Slice!!!
The burning sword severed the gargoyle-like golem’s head in a single stroke. A stench like mud boiling over a campfire filled the air.
—Clang!!
I sliced every charging golem clean in half. The black mage groaned at how easily his instant golems were destroyed. He hadn’t shown it, but he had clearly burned through a lot of mana during his fight with Nefertiti. Just maintaining the barriers here and in Sarport Forest would have consumed considerable MP.
‘Now’s the perfect chance to take his head!’
I swung the sword with Golden Sun Breathing. I planned to shatter the blue membrane with the enchanted blade and finish him. But as expected of Mithril Class, the black mage didn’t go down so easily.
"I decorate my house with gold (iw ir.n.i n.i pr sXkrw m nbw)"
⟨ GOLDEN HOUSE ⟩
—Clang!!
A golden shield blocked my sword head-on. This fucker!! It was the same range-compressed shield from before! The bastard was pulling the basement Yeopo act again!!!
Overwhelmed with frustration, I shouted.
“Go outside!! Mom is a person too, a person!!!!”
“Kuhk! Now I see you’re no different from a madman!!”
“Kuhk! You son of a bitch!! How dare you say that to mom!!!”
This bastard dared to use ‘color copying’—the ultimate taboo of the Power Rangers sentai!! I stepped into the golden shield’s blind spot.
“What the hell is a golden shield?! It overlaps with the color of my sword!!”
—Swish swish swish!
—Spin!
Even as I moved at high speed, the black mage shifted the shield to match my position. Movement that knew how to reinforce the body with mana. It felt like facing a veteran shield soldier. The only difference was that he was a mage! If this continued, I would only lose stamina while giving him time to chant.
‘Should I use on my feet for rapid movement?’
That probably wouldn’t work. He had reacted to Nefertiti’s movements too. His mana was depleted and his movements had slowed, but trying to win with speed would be foolish!
—Rumble rumble rumble!!
While I was running in circles like a squirrel on a wheel, I noticed the anomaly. The barrier in the sky was shrinking rapidly!
‘He’s planning to crush us with that red barrier!’
A suicide attack? No, that couldn’t be it. He was leaving himself a way to survive, buying time to kill us, steal Nefertiti’s soul, and escape!
—Clang!! Claaaaang!!
Having seen through his plan, I hammered the shield repeatedly with my flaming sword. It was disgustingly hard; there was no sign of it breaking. The black mage, seizing the advantage, burst into laughter.
“Kahahahahahaha!! Meaningless resistance!! Die like the bug you are—crushed flat!! The one who survives until the end is the true victor!!!”
“This son of a bitch……!”
I gritted my teeth. If things continued like this, I would die to the barrier after coming so close to victory. Should I try to heal Nefertiti? I didn’t have any high-grade potions. What were the other adventurers doing? They were probably struggling against the golem swarm. I couldn’t expect support.
‘What now? How can I kill this bastard?’
Was it checkmate after coming this far? The moment when my killing intent and the black mage’s mixed together and my wariness toward the enemy reached its peak—
—Thud thud thud!!
Ice arrows flew in and embedded themselves in the black mage’s back. Having focused every shield on me, he had left himself completely undefended. He took every single arrow in his spine. It was modified magic that included pure cold mass, kinetic energy, and physical weight.
“Kuh, huk……?”
—Crack.
With his insides frozen, the black mage looked behind him. Me searching for a reversal, the black mage trying to stop it. The mage who had completely slipped past both of our detection abilities and succeeded in the ambush stood there.
“It’s a slightly modified Ice Missile. I wonder if it was to your liking.”
The mask Franc had made and I had enchanted. Tirsi, wearing it, aimed her wand. One arm was bleeding heavily from a battle wound, yet with the mask removed, Tirsi’s expression looked downright heroic.
《Th-this, this……》
The unicorn black mage whose lips had turned purple from the invading cold burst the blood vessels in his eyes and exploded his mana.
《You trash bastards────────────!!!!》
—Rumble rumble rumble!!
The red barrier shrank as fast as when it had tried to swallow Nefertiti. He had abandoned all future plans and poured everything into mana. Suffering a fatal wound had driven the black mage into desperation.
──However.
He should never have given himself over to rage.
I slipped into the shield’s blind spot while emitting compressed steam. The black mage’s expression changed. My ultra-high-speed movement had momentarily surpassed the top speed he knew I possessed.
—Whoosh!
The shield moved with frantic haste. It was fast, but already one step too late. My foot planted firmly within zero-inch range. There was no space left to insert the shield. I gripped the pulled-back sword tightly and thrust.
Shock’s First Blood!!!!!!
“Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack?!!!”
—Squelch!!!
—Thud thud thud!
The burning sword pierced straight through his solar plexus all the way to the hilt. The black mage lost his lungs and heart and vomited the virgin blood of his organs.
—Thump!
The black mage fell to his knees. I pulled the sword from his chest and smiled brightly.
“Now you’re a paizuri veteran too, you virgin bug bastard.”