My Disciples Think I’m Strong – Chapter 130

“Enough with the jokes!”

Peremus gathered strength in his legs and jumped. As he soared nearly 30 meters into the air, he clenched his fist downward.

“I’ll smash this rotten forest area to pieces!”

Magic surged throughout Peremus’s body as he emerged from the forest. Ariel and Maria, facing Pero, also spotted Peremus hovering above them.

Only Praus, who couldn’t sense mana, was fixated on Pero.

“Praus! Peremus is!!”

At Ariel’s delayed shout, Praus turned his head, and the moment he saw Peremus, he was taken aback.

‘He plans to destroy this entire forest. But… it’s not like there’s no way to stop it. The problem is that Tina holds the key…’

The All-Cutting Sword could only cut real entities when swung normally. However, if used as a skill, it could slice through the invisible and the unreal.

He had already hinted at this, and knowing that Tina had become accustomed to the All-Cutting Sword, Praus pushed aside his worries.

“Ariel, let’s trust the others over there and deal with Pero first.”

Praus drew his Revenge Sword. Instantly, he activated the ‘Wraith’ skill, possessing Pasma.

“…I don’t think I can show you proper magic here. I’ll move.”

As he snapped his fingers, the ground beneath our feet crumbled, creating a black hat.

“What is this…!”

Before he could leap, the ground collapsing caused Praus to miss his timing, plummeting as if sucked into the hat, watching Maria and Ariel grow distant.

‘Damn it, this will take too long for Orient to arrive!’

A moment later, Maria and Ariel followed Praus into the hat.

When Praus finally regained his senses, he found himself in a demon territory just beyond the border.

It wasn’t too deep, but he knew that when the Demon Tribe was in the Demon World, their stats increased significantly, making them difficult to contend with.

Knowing this, he couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat as he looked around.

“This place….”

While Praus surveyed his surroundings, his ears were tuned to any sounds beyond the border. Fortunately, the shockwaves of battle emanating from the border showed no signs of danger, confirming that Tina had successfully held her ground.

“Teacher, why didn’t you dodge?”

‘How could I have dodged with the ground suddenly collapsing?!’

Praus couldn’t voice that thought; instead, he began to search for Pero.

He quickly spotted a man nervously scratching his head above him.

“Ah… I felt like bugs were crawling all over my body. I can’t fathom how you all manage to use this disgusting mana so well.”

Pero hovered in the air, shaking his head vigorously.

“Having no magic to use means I must absorb mana to compensate. It’s an experience I never want to go through again. I’d love to show my magic to that Spirit King Orient, but… for now, it seems I should entertain all of you first.”

With his relaxed demeanor, Praus’s thoughts raced.

‘My being in the Demon World isn’t that crucial.’

With two people capable of using Teleport, he figured that taking down Pero would make their escape easy.

‘The problem is it’s going to take time to deal with Pero….’

While contemplating how to contact Orient, he recalled that the Spirit Kings exchanged signals and turned to Ariel.

“…Ariel, send a signal to Orient. Tell them to search for us in the Demon World.”

“What? Call Orient?”

“If Iris said so, Orient should be looking for me by now.”

“As nice as it is to have a casual chat, the land you’re standing on is my territory. In other words, it’s more than suitable for magic.”

As he reached beneath his clothing, a flurry of black playing cards scattered throughout the sky.

As they spread, they grew until they had the same stature as Pero. The cards, which had been easily spread out, suddenly fixed themselves in the air as if defying gravity.

“From now on, I’ll make the images on all these cards move. This isn’t an ‘illusion,’ so you’d better watch closely—”

“Shut up.”

Kaboom!

The cards fixed in front of Pero exploded without resistance. Maria had blown them up with a Fireball. Caught off guard, Pero fell silent in shock.

“I have no interest in you and even less in your magic. Whatever you do, you can’t capture my attention, you moron.”

Maria stepped forward, standing a step ahead of Praus. But the stunned Pero, caught off guard by the unexpected counter, breathed heavily.

“How dare you…! Magic is meant to be watched! Not interrupted!”

Skipping the first pattern resulted in a backlash.

He emanated a tremendous Killing Intent, spreading the magic around them while weakening the mana surrounding Praus and his party.

Reflexively, the three of them covered their mouths and noses against the encroaching magic. Despite Pero’s aura, Maria nonchalantly conjured a massive ice spear, easily over ten meters long.

“Truly, you lack the qualifications to understand the mystery and beauty of magic. Please die here.”

“You’ll be the one dying! 「Ice Sphere!」”

“Wait, Maria!”

“「Face-to-Face Mirror!」”

As Pero clapped, a multitude of glass mirrors manifested.

The ice spear, propelled by Wind Magic, shot toward Pero with incredible speed. In an instant, the spear aimed for his torso was thwarted by the mirrors.

“Pierce through him!”

However, contrary to Maria’s expectations, the spear never broke through his body. The spear disappeared into the mirror, causing her magic to cancel out.

“Mirrors are truly fascinating, aren’t they? Just because they face each other doesn’t mean what they reflect is the truth.”

Pero laughed gleefully.

“Let me return that to you.”

Ping!

As Maria grimaced, readying her magic, she switched her spell to counter the oncoming black spear. But due to its speed, the spear reached her before she could erect a defensive barrier.

“「Phantom Wave Slash!」”

As a gap opened, Pasma stepped in, slicing at the spear with his sword. The black spear was sliced into perfect halves and vanished.

“Impressive. Have you come to understand a bit about magic?”

Magic, my foot.

Praus internally grumbled.

‘Those developer kids really came up with some bizarre concepts. This is merely magic disguised as sorcery….’

“But a little understanding is far from enough!”

From the mirrors emerged a slew of black spears, glistening and more finely sharpened than Maria’s.

Not only reflecting Maria’s skills but absorbing and enhancing them.

‘Letting my magic be absorbed will only raise the difficulty. I can’t let that happen.’

However, even if absorbed, there was a way to prevent Pero from using the skills he had absorbed. This was by shattering the mirrors that had absorbed the skills.

“Maria, refrain from excessive magic. It’ll only backfire on us.”

“What should I do then…?”

The way to break the confronting mirrors was with ‘physical attacks,’ not magic. This was the very reason he had come along.

“Ariel, set up a foothold for me with Wind Magic where I’m going to leap. Maria, I’ll destroy the mirrors, so block the spears and cards heading towards me.”

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

Praus felt no signs of anxiety from their responses.

“Prepare your highest-level magic while I break all the mirrors. With your ability to cast multiple magic, it should be possible.”

“Yes.”

Getting into a jump stance, Praus prepared himself. Ariel and Maria gathered their mana in their grasp.

“I’m going, Pasma.”

“Right.”

There were currently twenty mirrors floating in the air.

Utilizing his experience, Pasma quickly pinpointed their locations. He leaped right before the nearest mirror, bending at the waist.

Crack!

His Revenge Sword sliced through the mirror in half precisely. Seeing Praus deftly grasp his technique, Pero’s expression turned urgent.

“Do you think I’ll let your plans come to fruition?!”

Black spears and cards rained down upon Praus. As Pasma attempted to take a defensive stance, Praus evaded all the incoming attacks.

“Praus?!”

“Trust Maria and Ariel.”

As Praus’s foot touched something solid, he realized Ariel had perfectly set up a foothold with her wind. He pushed off the ground, boosting his momentum.

He surged through the torrent of attacks.

“「Lightning」!”

Zzap!

Lightning erupted from Maria’s fingertips, obliterating the approaching spears and cards.

However, due to the sheer number of attacks directed at Praus, Maria couldn’t block them all. Several cards grew near him, and from the card illustrations, figures emerged.

‘The card illustrations…!’

A joker donned half black-and-white masked and a knight clad in armor wielded swords.

They struck down towards Praus.

Clang! Clang!

Pasma swiftly deflected the scythe and sword, yet the recoil pushed him away. Seeing himself drift from the approaching mirrors, he clicked his tongue.

As he fell, something soft touched his back and soles.

Ariel had been continuously supporting Praus with wind. Holding tightly to his sword, Pasma shouted his skill.

“「Phantom Dance!」”

He leaped again.

Crack!

Just narrowly avoiding the joker’s scythe, he cut through the second mirror. Utilizing the wind, he advanced toward the next mirror and sliced it.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

In the blink of an eye, Praus had sliced through all the mirrors and landed on the ground, shouting.

“Maria!”

At his call, Maria stretched out her hand filled with mana towards Pero and released her magic.

“「Hellfire Technique!」”

Blue flames surged towards Pero. He swiftly released magic in response. However, Maria’s power pierced through his magic, scorching his skin.

“Ugh! You pierced through my magic!”

He landed on the ground, panting. Clutching his blackened Pierrot mask, he revealed his murderous intent.

His previously worn hat had flown off, exposing his slicked-back hair.

“Ugh…! The pain won’t cease! It feels like I’ve brought fire from hell…!”

With Pero lamenting in agony, Praus charged forward.

“Now that you’ve come upon the ground, we must strike!”

Hearing Praus’s words, Pasma took a thrusting position with his sword.

“「Phantom Charge Slash!」”

An aura shot forward. Just before it was about to reach Pero, it rebounded with a thud.

“Damn it….”

Realizing that Pasma’s attack hadn’t connected, Praus understood he had fallen into Pero’s domain.

“How dare you inflict pain on me. I guess I underestimated you. I’ll show you my true capabilities.”

Recognizing that it was Pero’s phase two dialogue, Praus clenched his teeth.

‘It doesn’t seem like I took much damage. What do you mean phase two?’

“Ariel, haven’t you seen Orient’s signal?”

“They said they’re on their way!”

Far too late.

Once again, Pero floated into the air, opening approximately fifteen doors around him.

From these opened doors, familiar figures emerged.

They were Praus, Maria, and Ariel.

Out of the fifteen, five were Praus, five were Maria, and the remaining five were Ariel.

Seeing the evenly divided headcount, Maria and Ariel were taken aback.

“How do you like seeing your own face? Isn’t it more intuitive than a mirror?!”

“This worthless trick…!”

“You mustn’t attack!”

As Maria created sharp blades of wind, she launched them against herself. Pasma cut those with his aura.

“Why can’t we?”

“While the domain is active, any damage inflicted on them will hurt us as well.”

‘This is quite the nuisance.’

This pattern had forced them to fight five of the same person apiece until Pero’s domain deactivated, and they were sealed off from attacking as well.

But it wasn’t impossible to break the pattern.

Praus knew that while five copies of each were up against him, the original’s hundred percent power was split into twenty percent for each.

In other words, individually, they weren’t that strong. If they focused on defense, they could hold their ground. However, that didn’t mean he could rest easy.

Given that Praus had civilian-level defense, even the twenty percent strength of Ariel or Maria could pose a significant threat.

“Time for me to watch. Let me hear your screams.”

Moreover, this pattern was one of the worst he had encountered, dying countless times and cursing continuously during his gameplay.

“Hahaha… Damn it.”