The 3-meter tall creature swung its claw down.
Valenciaunos took a step back to evade, stabbing the red muscle between the claws with his sword enveloped in flames and mana blades.
However, the creature, resembling a pine cone, did not shrink back; rather, it used its protruding ribs like an open mouth to charge forward.
Its delicate and vicious swordplay remained powerful, but fighting in a way that focused on defense and endurance was impossible.
The ribs, resembling small claws and tentacles, surged forward.
Beneath the white exoskeleton, the red muscle wriggled.
“d*mn it!”
He cursed in unmentionable terms as he shot flames.
The ivory-like ribs blazed as they rushed him, hitting his solid body forcefully.
The liquid metal uniform tore like paper, and the impact penetrated his reinforced body from the ritual.
But the weight of responsibility was heavier than the creature’s claws.
‘There must be no collateral damage today. It’s all my responsibility.’
“It’s a creature!”
“Ahhh!”
“Cover your ears and run!”
“Let us out!”
The remaining tourists screamed as they flocked towards the eastern gate.
“Are we trapped? Are we trapped?!”
“Did they close the door for this? Those bastards!”
The security guards trembled at the yells of the angry crowd but ultimately did not open the door.
Because their families were with Solentalouon.
Even if it meant d*ath, they could not allow even a slight chance for the creature to head towards the capital.
Siiiiii-!
The creature charged at Valenciaunos, sputtering foam.
The massive claw and sharp rib tentacles surged toward him.
He raised the mana blade several times more to counter, but he could not prevent his feet from being pushed back.
‘Blocking head-on isn’t my forte. I need to dodge and cut behind the legs.’
But doing so would surely send the creature charging towards the crowd at the eastern gate.
He couldn’t just let it trample people when he could stop it but didn’t want to endure pain.
He could not bring damage to the citizens who faithfully paid their taxes.
‘Are they really paying it honestly?’
Valenciaunos shook off his wandering thoughts and focused on the creature.
Its left claw was thick and sturdy like a shield, while its right claw jutted out like knights’ lances.
The white exoskeleton shone vividly under the light of the setting sun.
Crash!
The lance-like claw swept through the carriage.
Countless wooden boxes spilled out towards Valenciaunos.
He quickly stepped back, but what was inside those boxes were magical potions.
Boom!
The flaming flower oil that spilled onto the road ignited all at once, exploding in a wave.
It felt as if it would burn the entire street.
Valenciaunos recalled that the construction costs and materials had risen due to the slum redevelopment.
‘Half could be paid by the Ivory Tower, the other half could fall on me. Even if I split it with Sererassie, it would be bankruptcy.’
“Flame that follows and rises.”
His mana control, having handled incantations, had multiplied in power and could absorb the inferno threatening to consume the street.
The roaring flames coalesced into a spherical shape.
However, the creature took that chance to charge.
It sensed Valenciaunos’s attention was diverted with innate malice.
In battles, the cowardly often emerged victorious.
Valenciaunos pushed down the urge to unleash a vortex of flames on the creature time and again.
Releasing such an explosion would surely spread sparks everywhere.
“Mom!”
“Don’t let go!”
Then those fleeing and the expensive shops would surely ignite.
“d*mn it!”
He once more cursed as he watched the lance-like claw hurtling towards him.
Thud!
Valenciaunos’s spirit soared into the air, and the creature began to chuckle mockingly before dashing towards the east.
In battles, the more cowardly often held strength, and he lost his unique advantage when he could not be cowardly.
As his control wavered, the fireball he had barely kept in check threatened to explode.
“Attribute bestowal. Flames, roll hot and become lightning.”
At that moment, the fireball froze in the air.
Transforming into a thick shape and spiraling furiously, it crackled in accordance with the incantation.
The thick wheel of flame and lightning swept through the legs of the madly charging creature, striking it.
Boom!
The satisfying sound came as all four of its legs buckled at once.
Valenciaunos sighed in relief at the sight of the collapsed creature.
“I avoided the lawsuit.”
“Is that all you can say? The people you protected will weep.”
“I was thinking of protecting my wallet, not those people. I thought I would hear you apologize for being late.”
“You rushed out alone, didn’t you?”
Sererassie heaved heavily, leaning on her staff.
Next to her, the red cream-haired Niar also caught her breath.
“It came out faster than expected. They’ll open the door and let everyone out, so you can fight to your heart’s content now.”
“And the destruction of the street and the shops?”
“The street can be restored with a single spell by the Earth School. As for the shops, it’s a long explanation, but it’s fine for now.”
Valenciaunos shook off the dirt and picked up his dropped sword.
“Alright. That makes it worth fighting.”
The creature was getting up again.
“Sharp piercing flames.”
He shot a lance of flames and charged forward at the same time.
The moon rose high over the eastern city wall, people flocked out through the city gate, and the creature rose to its feet.
Sererassie and Niar recited their spells while watching Valenciaunos’s back.
“Senpai, shall we use the ‘Lightning Lance’ spell together?”
“Can’t you sh**t that by yourself yet?”
“Isn’t that a spell you can use alone?”
“Become a line with an end and dig deep.”
“Even an improvement too?”
The lightning slowly rose into the air, taking shape as a lance.
Sererassie shrugged her shoulders while her golden robes glimmered.
“Of course. Whose disciple am I?”
With a flash, the ‘Lightning Lance’ shot out, piercing the creature’s ribs faster than Valenciaunos could react.
“Kiieek!”
Simultaneously, Valenciaunos’s ‘Sharp Piercing Flames’ struck the creature’s opposite flank.
Whoosh!
“Sieek?”
The creature trembled from the electric shock and could not escape from the blaze.
The creature, devoid of tough skin, was vulnerable to electricity and heat.
“You were laughing before.”
Wrapping his elongated sword in mana blades and flames, Valenciaunos spoke.
“Try to laugh now, you pine cone b*stard.”
The creature lunged at him with its lance-like claw.
Valenciaunos pivoted on his right foot and dodged, aiming for the joint behind the right foreleg.
Imperial Swordsmanship, First Level, All-Unity Strike.
Imperial Swordsmanship, Third Level, Place Switching.
In a flash, his sword accelerated deeply, stabbing the joint behind the leg.
The flames enveloping the sword sizzled and burned through the creature’s leg.
The creature opened its pine-cone-like mouth wide and released a psychic pulse.
Kiiieeiiiii-!
The gathered ivory tower mages staggered, seeing strange hallucinations and vomiting, and the tourists and hotel guests who were still fleeing fainted on the spot.
Those who heard that psychic pulse, stray dogs and cats, ended up with some growing extra tails, ears, or legs, while others transformed into the creature alongside bubbling noises.
No ‘people’ had been mutated, as the power was focused on subduing rather than securing kin.
In other words, it was that powerful.
Even Valenciaunos, who had completed the rituals, felt a wave of nausea.
Nevertheless, he focused on summoning the golden flames of incantations and regained his composure.
After pulling the sword from the creature’s leg, he thrust towards its neck.
Clatter!
The white pine cone-like exoskeleton was too tough to be easily cut even with a mana blade, and the red muscle was tough as well.
But he was a swordsman who had fought dragons.
With delicate and brutal precision, his sword cleaved deeply through the red muscle of the neck, stopping the endlessly flowing psychic pulse.
In that moment, the creature looked directly at Valenciaunos with its eight eyes.
“!”
A wave of existential pressure transmitted, but he gritted his teeth and endured.
The creature raised its huge claw, and he took a step back to dodge in advance.
As the creature swung its raised claw, it spat white foam.
Bubbling, bubbling…
The foam spread out like soap bubbles, swelling up and sticking to Valenciaunos’s body.
‘Petrification?’
Based on his long experience, he recognized that this foam was like the creature’s shell.
He hastily conjured flames, but the already exoskeleton-coated foam did not easily wane and grabbed hold of one of his legs.
‘It’s trying to deprive me of mobility.’
The creature’s claw rose high again.
Seeing Valenciaunos unable to flee, Sererassie fired the Invisible Lance Lightning Lance.
“Now you intend to d*e in front of me and leave behind a guilty conscience?”
Niar gasped, mouth agape as she observed the wave of dark blue lances slicing through the air.
Neither speed nor power had any flaws.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
The creature, struck consecutively by the Lightning Lances, trembled and staggered.
However, it did not fall or back off, approaching Valenciaunos.
As Valenciaunos drew the golden essence of incantations like mist, flames began to erupt.
It was a strike that had incinerated the jellyfish legs emerging endlessly from the core of the magical realm.
Now everyone had evacuated, and no matter how expensive the shops were, they were worth less than his life.
Just before he released the flames, the creature opened its ‘mouth.’
Not the pine cone-like mouth on its head, but the one that extended from its chest to its abdomen; the ivory-like white ribs opened wide.
“Insane.”
The ribs spread sideways, and the red muscle wriggled, revealing something.
Valenciaunos looked inside the creature’s belly, feeling as though he might lose his mind.
‘Is the core itself its existence?’
Inside was a deep, pitch-black color as dark as the hair of Saint Matheos.
Gritting his teeth, Valenciaunos unleashed the flames of incantation.
Simultaneously, the red mist and white foam that emanated from that ominous maw blocked Valenciaunos’s flames.
Moreover, since it was also a ‘mouth,’ it could unleash psychic waves.
Kiiieeeiiiii-!
“World!”
The power was several times stronger than when it shot from the small pine-cone-like mouth.
Dogs, cats, and rats across the entire special zone of the Ivory Tower swelled to ten times their size, their skin melting away, and their bones merging to become creatures clad in white exoskeletons.
Mages among the apprentices fainted, and those who came to help swore as they saw the creatures appearing from all directions, turning their rucksacks and flying broomsticks against them.
“Senpai.”
Niar spoke with difficulty.
“Call the Duke.”
Sererassie replied, feeling nauseous.
“At this rate, my junior won’t last long. Buy some time. We need to bind its body.”
“How?”
“I can’t rain down electric strikes like you with Invisible Lance, but I have something I’m good at.”
Sererassie stared at Niar intently.
Her golden robes and Niar’s cream-colored eyes mixed with red met.
“Alright. I’m sure the master wouldn’t allow petty people to interfere. How much do you need?”
“Three minutes.”
“Three minutes?! Why didn’t you prepare for duels beforehand?”
Sererassie sighed.
Right now, three minutes felt longer than three days.
“I have good potions in my robe’s inner pocket. Use them. You won’t cut a second?”
“Thank you, Senpai.”
Sererassie did not respond but began to gather mana.
‘It’s not enough.’
The dark blue essence of incantation rose like mist, gathering the mana of the area around her.
“Solidify and repel with lightning.”
Crackle!
Electricity arced through her dark blue hair, and hundreds of orb-sized strikes shot up into the air.
The orbs rising from the Magic Street looked like festival lanterns.
“I will cover it.”
With a flash!
The spell with the effects of rigidity and repulsion mercilessly battered the creature’s head and legs.
While a dozen should have been enough to hold it off, hundreds were too much to withstand, even for the creature.
In the meantime, she was keenly redirecting all orbs to ensure not to strike Valenciaunos’s back.
“……Sererassie.”
Valenciaunos muttered her name.
The magic that had rained down on him before his reincarnation was now directed at his enemies.
He called upon mana until scales rose to his skin.
His flames, nearly extinguished, began to push back the creature’s red and white mist little by little.
“Senpai! Are you ready…?”
Casting completed, Niar turned to Sererassie in shock.
She was bleeding from her nose and eyes.
Sererassie shouted at the petrified Niar.
“What are you doing not to use it?!”
“Eek!”
Coming to her senses, Niar stretched out her hands toward the creature and chanted the spell.
“Bind and suffer in eternal pain. Servitellium!”
From between her fingers, a long chain of lightning arose, swirling and flying towards the creature.
Valenciaunos ducked just in time to avoid it.
Rrrrring!
Niar’s spell entangled the creature’s gaping ribs.
The blue flames scorched its flesh, the thorns from the chains pierced into the creature’s body, and the exploding lightning hardened its muscles.
Shiiiiiik?
The solidified body could not resist the tightening chains, and that only led the thorns to dig deeper.
“How do you like it, Senpai? I’m also a disciple of Gestarte.”
It was an attack infused with triple attributes.
Sererassie felt a fresh shock and smiled.
“This is quite… impressive, junior.”
“A!”
As the creature’s mouth began to close, the waves of red mist and white foam naturally diminished in quantity.
Finally, the balance tipped between Valenciaunos and the creature.
“Laugh. If you don’t want to, I will laugh.”
The flames of incantation engulfed the creature clad in its exoskeleton.
