Chapter 237: An Unexpected Family Reunion (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 237: An Unexpected Family Reunion (5)
Early dawn.
Dozens of robed figures stood atop the towering defensive wall.
They were the mages dispatched from the Magic Tower, led by Han Ju-hee.
They stood upon that high wall for one purpose: to fire a signal flare.
A flare to announce the start of the Kraken raid.
And how would they announce it?
「Group Magic, A Thousand Bolts of Lightning.」
From the sky thick with dark clouds, hundreds of lightning bolts rained down.
Their target: the sea below.
The unleashed electricity coursed through the seawater.
Crackle-crackle!
CRACK!
The tremendous noise traveled along the defensive wall, reaching all the way to us.
I couldn't be sure, but that single strike must have killed or incapacitated at least a third of the hundreds of Kraken Jrs. that had infested the sea.
The Hunters around me began to stir.
“Mages, as expected… They’re annoying, but you can’t deny their firepower.”
“Group Magic… They had something like that?”
Group Magic.
A combined technique where multiple mages simultaneously draw a magic circle to manifest a single spell.
It was an incredibly difficult skill that required every participating mage to be perfectly in sync, from the speed, shape, and size of the magic circle to the amount of mana consumed.
The fact that dozens of mages could satisfy all these conditions was thanks to the skill of their commander.
S-rank Hunter and Archmage, Han Ju-hee.
After all, she was the one who had developed this Group Magic.
“She said she’d do it… and she actually did.”
For the past seven or eight years, she had talked about it.
About finding a way for multiple mages to combine their strength to cast spells that were impossible for a single person to achieve.
What she had just shown was an achievement born from sheer, brute-force effort.
She had reached this point through her own research and trial and error, without any foundational knowledge to build upon.
Someone muttered in a disgruntled voice, “If the mages can just keep throwing stuff like that into the sea, what do they need us for?”
“Yeah, really…”
Hmm.
I’d rather not put it this way, but that’s just plain stupid…
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
…What?
I hadn’t said that out loud.
It turned out the words had come from a mage standing near the grumbling Hunter.
“Do you really think we can fire a spell of that magnitude multiple times?”
He was right.
That was a finishing move, something they could only show once.
To cast that single spell, the mages on the wall had completely emptied their mana reserves.
While there were minor differences in the amounts used, as they all had to match the total, the remaining levels were negligible.
To unleash that attack several more times, they would need hundreds of intermediate-or-higher-level mages, at the very least.
“Three minutes until the operation begins!”
“Please do your best at your pre-assigned positions!”
“Good luck, everyone!”
The man who seemed to be the leader of the assembled group shouted, boosting morale.
The mages on the defensive wall staggered down.
And then.
Rumble-rumble-rumble…!
With a rough groan, the defensive wall began to split in half.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
The plan was simpler than I expected.
First, the Magic Tower’s Group Magic would reduce the number of Kraken Jrs. Then, the defensive wall would be partially opened, and the waiting parties would hunt the remaining creatures that came ashore.
Wouldn’t there be significant collateral damage if they came onto land?
Of course there would.
Once the fight between Hunters and monsters began, all the buildings in the vicinity would probably be destroyed.
But this was unavoidable damage.
We couldn’t fight sea creatures in the ocean just to save a few buildings, could we?
“They should be coming soon.”
THUD!
The opening in the defensive wall was about forty to fifty meters wide.
Through the gap, giant squids began to leap out of the sea one by one, setting foot on land.
“Ugh… so gross.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to eat squid for a while.”
Hmm.
I had to agree with that.
Just watching those tentacles squirm made my appetite vanish.
“They’re c-coming!”
Having spotted the humans, the Kraken Jrs. unleashed their hostility and charged.
Despite not being land creatures, they scurried across the ground with their countless legs.
Swish-swish-swish-swish!
Swinging, stabbing, coiling, throwing.
A torrent of attacks using every possible tentacle pattern rained down on the parties that had engaged them in battle.
And on me, as well.
Whoosh-!
“Whoops.”
I lightly hopped over a tentacle trying to wrap around my legs as if I were jumping rope, then prepared a spell.
A flame ignited at my fingertips, quickly swelling in size before racing across the ground.
「Flare.」
A small wave of fire engulfed the creature’s body.
Sizzzzzle!
The water covering its surface evaporated, and soon its body began to burn.
Every time it thrashed, the smell of grilling squid filled the air.
The smell was definitely the same as squid, but…
“Hmm… still a no.”
It wasn’t a Kraken, just a Kraken Jr. I couldn’t bring myself to eat the leg of something like this.
There was no time to stand around watching a squid get roasted.
I immediately drew the sword from my waist and sliced its body open.
Slice!
Gushing black ink, its body split in two and collapsed to the ground.
It had been a while since I’d used a sword, but my senses were still sharp.
The only disappointing thing was…
“The feel of it is… lacking.”
Not particularly good, not particularly bad.
I guess even the Association couldn’t procure a quality sword in a single day.
“Ah, well. I should be grateful for what I have.”
Until the day before yesterday, I hadn’t even planned on using a sword.
But I had a change of heart yesterday.
In a chaotic battle, you never know what might happen. I had to use everything at my disposal.
The creature, which had been twitching even after being split open, finally stopped moving.
At that moment, I shifted my gaze back to the battlefield.
“Hyaah!”
“We need support over here!”
“Is that spell ready yet?!”
The situation wasn’t too bad.
With the B-rank Hunters gradually syncing up around the A-rank cores, it seemed we could claim the upper hand.
However…
“Healer! Healeeer!”
“What’s the point if the tanker dodges the tentacles?!”
“So you want me to just take the hit and die?!”
“Are you saving that shield to use as a dinner table, you blockhead?!”
Where there is light, there is also shadow.
The parties with no teamwork whatsoever were, on the contrary, on the verge of being wiped out.
They were my target.
「Aegis.」
A massive shield, emblazoned with the vivid head of a snake that looked ready to leap out, materialized in front of them.
At the same time, a bundle of tentacles slammed into it.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
If the shield had appeared even a moment later, two of them would have been seriously injured.
The shield, battered by the tentacles, opened its eyes.
To be precise, the snake head embedded in it—Medusa—did.
FWOOOOSH!
A formidable blast of cold air erupted from its mouth, freezing the squid solid.
The party, having narrowly escaped the crisis, hesitantly bowed their heads.
I offered them a few harsh words.
“If you don’t want to die, work together. Got it? Or I’ll stuff all of you into one coffin and hold a funeral.”
Moved by my heartfelt advice, they all nodded eagerly.
Yes, just as I thought.
Sincerity always gets through.
“Now then… which ones should I go wreck… no, I mean, save next…”
This is pretty great, yeah.
I get to do a good deed and relieve some stress.
It was a situation where I could kill two birds with one stone.
As I moved across the sprawling battlefield.
Swish-swish-swish-swish!
Slice!
Slice-slice!
In a secluded corner, I spotted a swordswoman locked in a one-on-one struggle with a Kraken Jr.
From her slender frame, she was clearly a woman… but her face was covered by an incredibly clumsy-looking mask.
“Hah…!”
With brilliant swordsmanship, she sliced off all its legs, then ruthlessly plunged her sword into the body of the creature as it flailed on the ground, its means of movement gone.
After sheathing her sword, her eyes met mine.
“…What are you doing here, Seo-yeon Sunbae.”
You call that a disguise, you idiot?
* * *
“Everyone worked hard.”
After escorting the mages from the Magic Tower, whose mana had been completely depleted by the Group Magic, to the rear.
She immediately flew back to the command center at the surveillance post.
The state of the battle was displayed on a screen that covered an entire wall.
It was footage sent from drones flying high above.
“What’s the situation?” she asked, looking at the screen. Kim Seong-tae quickly turned around and answered.
“Not bad. At this rate, we expect to achieve victory without any major losses.”
“Is that so.”
As she scanned the multiple screens, one person caught her eye.
‘Kim Do-jin…’
Her brow furrowed slightly.
He wasn’t exactly someone she wanted to see.
But he was a man who held more abilities and secrets than anyone else.
That made him a difficult person she had to see periodically, whether she liked it or not.
“……”
Watching him in action on the screen, her first thought was ‘as expected.’
The way he charged his magic faster than anyone and unleashed it upon his enemies was nothing short of marvelous.
Once he caught her eye, her gaze kept drifting back to him.
Before long, her eyes were following his every move.
And then, she witnessed a shocking sight.
“…A sword?”
Kim Do-jin, whom she had firmly believed to be a mage, drew a sword and sliced a Kraken in two.
“Again…”
Again.
Just when she thought nothing about him could surprise her anymore, he did it again.
Though she was ignorant about swords, there was one thing she did have: an eye for swordsmanship.
It wasn’t something she had sought to acquire.
From their dating days to their married life, she had naturally developed it by watching the growth of her husband, a man second to none when it came to the sword.
And from her perspective, that swordsmanship was… extraordinary.
Extremely so.
She couldn’t guess how many years he must have diligently swung a sword to reach that level, but she knew it was a realm unattainable unless one was truly serious about the blade.
That made it all the more incomprehensible.
“How…”
How could a young man, only twenty-one years old, so freely wield two disciplines that were difficult to master even with a lifetime of dedication?
She thought to herself that she had experienced a month’s worth of surprises all in one day.
She believed there couldn’t possibly be anything left to be surprised about… but she was wrong.
“……?”
Kim Do-jin, who had been moving all over the place, met a woman whose face was hidden by an incredibly clumsy mask.
But Han Ju-hee had a feeling she knew who that woman was.
No, it was impossible not to know.
Because she was…
“…Son Seo-yeon?”
Her own daughter.
The moment she confirmed it, the temperature in the room began to rise rapidly.
“Hey, why is it suddenly so hot…”
Just as Department Head Kim Seong-tae started fanning his collar due to the sudden heat.
「Fly.」
Han Ju-hee, levitating with flight magic, shot straight up into the sky.
CRASH!
Smashing right through the perfectly good ceiling.