Pressure, Compulsion, and a Gamble (4)
I wanted to cast some buff spells on the unit members, but I didn’t even have the luxury to do that.
The female knight who’d been called ajumma seemed seriously triggered by the provocation.
…Honestly, she didn’t look that old. Maybe she’d missed her chance to get married? Since this was the Middle Ages, the proper age for marriage was much earlier than in modern times. If she really had missed her window, the stress must have been crushing. Maybe her obsession with money was a kind of backlash from that.
Whoosh!
Yikes. I almost lost my head while I was lost in thought. Time to stop the random musings and focus on the fight.
First, I needed to gauge the enemy’s strength.
Whoooosh!
This time it was the male knight’s attack. The blue mana rippling along his blade glowed with menacing light.
Swish!
But once again, I barely managed to dodge it.
‘Looks like both of them are mid-tier Sword Experts.’
Thanks to growing up under my father, the commander of the southern knight order, I’d seen countless knights and developed an almost supernatural eye for their skill. As the saying goes, even a dog that’s studied at a temple for three years can recite poetry. I could tell their level at a glance.
‘If they were high-tier, I wouldn’t be dodging this comfortably. They’re definitely not low-tier either. Both of them are using aura quite skillfully.’
The biggest difference between low and mid-tier was whether they could use aura. It was the technique of drawing mana outside the body and wrapping it around a weapon to dramatically increase its cutting power and durability.
‘Of course, circulating mana inside the body to strengthen it comes first. Just blindly pumping out aura isn’t exactly smart.’
In that sense, what the female knight had said about the male knight’s poor skill seemed to contain some truth.
‘He’s not wrapping his blade in aura only at the moment of attack, nor is he using it to set up feints. There’s way too much waste to call this efficient mana usage.’
It looked like he was just showing off. Like a kid who got a toy for his birthday and was dying to brag about it.
‘The way he kept bringing up knight orders in front of her might have been his inferiority complex exploding.’
Alright. Enemy psychological analysis: more or less complete. Now, how should I deal with them?
On the other side, the rest of the mage unit was fighting one of the knights.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Helmut and Bruno stood at the front, taking turns blocking the knight’s attacks. But then—
Clang! Boom!
A sudden heavy strike sent Bruno’s upper body reeling, putting him in immediate danger. The enemy’s sword came swinging in right after—
Thud!
Helmut’s shield barely managed to cover him in time.
“With these muscles of mine, that much is only natural.”
Even in this desperate situation, Helmut was still cracking his usual muscle worship jokes. Hans knew it wasn’t just random nonsense. After spending over a year with the guy, he understood it was Helmut’s way of dealing with tension and pressure—trying to lighten the mood with awkward humor.
‘…Though sometimes he really does get lost in his muscle mania and does stupid shit for real.’
Still, he was a reliable comrade who never lost his composure even in moments like this.
While his comrades bought time at the front, Elena quietly gathered her mana and cast the spell with a gentle chant. But—
Whoosh!
The knight kicked off the ground and instantly widened the distance. This was already the third time it had happened.
‘Looks like a single Fire Ball won’t be enough to hit him.’
The problem was speed. By the time the spell flew, the knight’s reaction time was more than enough to dodge it.
‘Isn’t there some way to make this work?’
If they could just land a Fire Ball, they’d be able to deal meaningful damage. But if this turned into a battle of attrition, the mage unit would inevitably be the ones to fall.
Elena tried casting Flash and launching daggers with Telekinesis, but the enemy knight simply dodged them with ease and kept his distance, as if he found it all amusing.
‘We’re going to dry up and die at this rate. How the hell do we break this stalemate?’
There had to be some groundbreaking method. Anything.
In the equation of a fight between mages and knights, the core factor was simple.
Pshing!
Man, what a filthy mouth. Calling people bugs over and over. Did this guy learn his manners in a three-minute curry crash course? His tongue sure is loose. What? I shouldn’t be talking? Nah, when I do it, it’s legitimate provocation. When others do it, it’s just vulgar insults.
Anyway, the important thing was distance.
If the knight closed the distance, he won. If the mage kept the distance, the mage won.
Then why not just use flight magic? In most situations, no matter how fast a knight was, they’d still be slower than flight magic. That would normally be the correct answer.
Whoosh!
…The problem was that the enemy wasn’t giving me any room to cast it. Damn, that was close. I nearly died.
Up to 4-circle spells, I could somehow cast while dodging. But starting from 5-circle magic, it wasn’t so easy anymore. Part of it was the massive increase in mana consumption, but ultimately it came down to my own proficiency.
And there was another problem—
Shooook!
Kiiiiing! Boom!
Landing damage wasn’t easy.
The knight met my spell head-on with his aura-covered blade like two kids pressing their noses together, then casually flicked it away, sending it flying off in some random direction. And then he came charging straight at me like a madman.
Didn’t I say before that when a knight sprints at full power, it’s basically like a horse? Roughly sixty kilometers per hour. From a modern person’s perspective, that might sound like “Wait, that’s it?”
Whoosh!
The female knight closed in instantly and unleashed a fast diagonal downward slash from the upper left.
Swish!
I barely avoided it by rolling to the left, but—
Whoosh!
This time her sword, wrapped in green mana, came in low with a horizontal cut.
My stance had collapsed. I judged that I wouldn’t be able to dodge it in time—
Fwoom!
I used Blink as a desperate last resort. Of course I hadn’t designated an exact location, so it was extremely dangerous, but since I’d cast it while looking at empty air, I didn’t end up embedded in the ground.
“Ugh!”
Instead, I fell about a meter from the air and landed flat on my back. The impact felt like I’d been smacked in the spine with a wooden bat, making it hard to breathe.
Since we were in a forest, if I’d landed on tree roots it probably wouldn’t have been much different.
‘Fuck, they’re disgustingly fast.’
It felt like being charged by a cheetah wearing full plate armor. I knew it was actually more than half as slow as a real cheetah, but subjectively it still felt insanely fast.
In this forest terrain where even running at full speed I probably couldn’t reach thirty kilometers per hour, they were coming at me at over fifty. It was nothing short of terrifying.
“Huff… huff. You damn bastards.”
About a second after casting Blink, the impact on my back still left me breathing hard. But if I just lay there catching my breath, it was obvious their swords would turn my body into a tombstone.
I somehow forced myself up.
‘Huff… huff. Let’s analyze the situation.’
A wide-area attack spell that the enemy knights couldn’t dodge? I hadn’t learned anything like that yet. There were plenty of 5-circle spells that could do it, but if I couldn’t use them now, they were useless.
What about using Fire Ball like a contact-detonation grenade?
‘Might work on the male knight, but I don’t think it’ll work on the female knight who’s been the real problem.’
I could already picture her deflecting it with aura just like she had the Fire Javelin.
‘So in the end, the only option is to create blind spots.’
There was no answer from the front. These monster-like knights could handle that level of attack with room to spare. But a sudden attack from the side or rear should work. No matter how skilled they were, they didn’t have eyes in the back of their heads.
‘Of course, if they sense too much mana, they’ll still have time to react.’
Therefore, the only choice was to hit and run like a diversion tactic, striking repeatedly while staying mobile. Looks like I’ll be playing the drum, the janggu, and the kkwaenggwari all by myself. Sigh. If this isn’t a one-man pungmul performance, I don’t know what is.
Shwooooong!
The moment the Fire Ball I threw at the male knight touched his sword—
Boom!
It exploded immediately.
Since the mana meant for explosive force had been used in a different way, its power was naturally reduced. It probably couldn’t deal fatal damage. However, it was more than enough to throw the male knight—who had been about to cut the spell in half—into confusion.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The instant the Fire Ball stole the male knight’s attention, I sprinted toward him at full speed. By the time it detonated, I was already right next to him.
I spread my hand right in front of his face and released the spell I’d been preparing.
A fierce storm of wind exploded right before the enemy’s eyes. The compressed air detonated like a bullet at point-blank range.
Pfffft——! Kuuuugwaaaaang!
The Wind Blast that struck the male knight’s face mercilessly smashed into him, crushing his nose, skin, and everything else. The energy of the compressed air that hadn’t been fully released turned into pure physical force and sent the male knight flying far away.
Thud!
The male knight, his face mangled, was embedded in a tree and didn’t move an inch. He had to have at least a concussion. Or maybe he was already dead.
Whoosh!
Along with open mockery of her already fallen comrade, a lethal strike came flying in.
My reaction was too slow. I couldn’t dodge the attack. The price was a long slash across my right thigh.
When had she gotten so close?
‘She must have hidden her footsteps under the roar of the Wind Blast.’
Limp.
It looked like running around wildly like before would be impossible for a while.
I urgently tried to pull out a potion and drink it, but—
Whoosh! Clang!
The female knight’s sword strike came flying in, forcing me to frantically parry with my dagger. I had no time to drink the potion.
Whoosh! Clang! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
I tried to fend off her attacks with my dagger, but I couldn’t keep up with the relentless barrage that felt like she was toying with me. My wounds only kept increasing.
Whoosh!
Fwoom!
This time I’d used it with proper focus, so the cast was stable. But how many more times could I dodge like this? Two? Three? After that, my mana would probably be completely drained.
‘I need to find a way.’
Wasn’t there some groundbreaking method that could flip this entire situation in one go…?