Chapter 98 October 3, 2022
Chapter 98 – Banquets of Flame (3)
It was only for a brief moment, but Ludger’s body suddenly trembled at Lynne’s question.
The tremble passed through his body so quickly that Lynne didn’t even notice it.
“What are you talking about? Are you seeing things?” Ludger answered calmly.
“Pardon? N-no, just… I have that kind of feeling all of a sudden.”
“Stop with your nonsense. The treatment is finished.”
“Ah.”
Lynne checked her injured feet. Just like Ludger said, the injury had healed right away thanks to the medicine.
“Lynne, you should leave this place quickly. It’s dangerous.”
“Wh-what about you, professor?”
“I’m going to do what my duty as a professor here entails. Since you’re the only one left behind, you should hurry up and go.”
“…”
Lynne was about to say something, but she held it in.
She couldn’t throw Ludger the questions that she was curious about abruptly in that kind of urgent situation.
Even so, what on earth was that feeling?
The inside of her mind roared as it demanded her to ask Ludger everything she was curious about as quickly as possible right then.
‘No. I can’t be a hindrance to him.’
Lynne tried hard to shake off her lingering attachment regretfully while bowing her head toward Ludger.
“Thank you for helping me.”
Afterward, she ran away toward the direction that Ludger had pointed in.
After Ludger confirmed that Lynne had completely gone from his sight, he averted his gaze toward the banquet hall.
Gaaaaaaah!
As the flame giant started to move, the wizards and the guards were hopelessly pushing it back.
Still, even though there weren’t any increasing casualties due to ignorance like what’d happened before, it was only a matter of time.
Ludger examined his body’s condition.
He planned to end the chaos of the banquet hall in an instant.
* * *
A myriad of spells cut through the air.
Their target was the top-level flame spirit who could be said to be the main culprit of the chaos.
Soon after, the spells collided with the flame spirit, then it exploded, and an intense shockwave scattered to its surroundings.
“D-did we kill it?”
As one wizard who was drenched in cold sweats due to his excessive use of mana finished his mumble…
An intact flame giant pushed away the subsiding foggy fumes.
The giant was blazing in a hotter heat instead, as it had seemingly become more ferocious than before.
“Get out of the way!”
At that moment, the spirit summoners in Sören stepped up.
Among them, it was Angela Anderson, who was in charge of fifth-year class, who stood in the lead
“Bite that giant! !”
An advanced-level wind spirit, Ventuswalfe.
The huge wolf with a fluttering white mane followed the order of its contractor and rushed toward the flame giant before biting its neck.
Gaaaah!
The flame giant, who hadn’t budged even an inch after receiving decent magic blows to its body, showed a reaction for the first time.
As it screamed in pain, the flame giant clenched its right fist and was about to swing it toward the wolf who was hanging toward its upper body.
“You can’t do it like that.”
At that time, it was the elf, Vierano Dentis, a professor in charge of fourth-year students, who stepped up.
A small salamander that had a body consisting of pure water was shaking its body here and there behind his back whilst having a swim.
Soon after, as Vierano raised his hand and pointed at the flame giant, the water spirit moved.
The small body rolled into a circle and soon shot out like a cannonball.
Boom!
It collided with the flame giant’s fist that was aiming for Ventuswalfe’s ribs.
No one there thought that such a small lizard could block the giant’s attack.
But the result of their collision was surprising. The flare of the flame giant’s right fist up to its elbow was extinguished and turned pitch-black.
An advanced-level water spirit, .
If compared to the advanced-level wind spirit Ventuswalfe, it had such a tremendously small size that it seemingly became insignificant.
But its power was rather stronger than most other spirits.
It was especially powerful when its opponent was a fire spirit that had an element contradictory to Unsilane.
“Good! We did it!”
“We’ll be able to win like this!”
Some of the people who had been watching the situation from behind yelled out a cheer.
But unbeknownst to others, Unsilane’s contractor, Vierano, frowned.
‘It was an attack with a lot of strength put into it, yet it couldn’t knock down the giant completely.’
He didn’t know about the others, but he could see it.
Unsilane, who signed a contract with him, couldn’t maintain its shape properly after the clash.
It was only bouncing off a mere fist, but it got outstandingly pushed back.
‘As expected, does it mean that an advanced-level spirit can’t fight against a top-level spirit?’
A top-level flame spirit who’d shown up in the center of the banquet hall out of thin air…
Moreover, it’d taken the shape of a human being, unlike most spirits, and it even emanated a severe murderous intent and hostility toward its surroundings.
It couldn’t have been an ordinary spirit.
‘If the principal was around in this kind of situation, the story would be different.’
The principal had left the banquet in a hurry shortly before the spirit had appeared.
Since the flame spirit appeared after her leave, the principal wouldn’t be able to come to help them.
Perhaps…
The person who was commanding the flame spirit had probably aimed for the chance when the principal emptied her spot.
Because the timing was so coincidental that it made him think if the person was exactly aiming for it.
Even so, that place was where Sören’s professors had arrayed their forces to battle, and the summoner of the flame spirit had started their rade while knowing that.
Was it because they had that much certainty in their power?
‘Seeing as they handle a top-level flame spirit, they had the right to be like that, but who the hell is the person who possessed that much talent and triggered an attack on us?’
But he didn’t continue his thoughts for long.
The top-level flame spirit, who had been slowed down for a moment, started to move again.
Roarrr!
The extinguished flame in its right hand’s fist burned hot once again.
It was a damage that was dealt by Unsilane in a full-on attack, but was even that nothing for a top-level spirit?
Vierano thought that he needed to make a bold decision.
“Professor Angela! Please order Ventuswalfe to step back!”
“Understood.”
Angela listened to Vierano’s words and ordered Ventuswalfe back right away.
Immediately afterward, the fire giant spread a burning heat around its body.
If she had been late in ordering Ventuswalfe back for even a moment, the wind spirit wouldn’t have been able to stand the heat and would have been unsummoned.
“That’s… the power of a top level spirit,” Professor Angela mumbled with a wonderstruck expression.
“Defeating it immediately is beyond our capabilities, but we can buy some time. Let’s combine our strengths.”
If they bought a bit more time, Leathevelk’s police would move anyway.
To be exact, the city Knights.
If they stepped forward, it would be a bit easier for all of them to defeat that flame giant.
‘But that giant is currently in a properly heated situation. Even if we combine our strength and concentrate on defense, how much longer can we endure it?’
Since it became like that, even though he had prepared for an aftereffect, he didn’t know if they should squeeze out all of their strength.
It was the moment when he came to a decision and was about to convey his idea to the others…
Vierano discovered a black shadow gushing over the top of the flame giant’s head.
“Oh?”
“That’s…?”
The reaction was the same for other guards and wizards.
A man glared down at the flame giant from a place high up near the cealing.
His coat was fluttering as he held a sword up above his shoulders.
The man was gripping the cane-like blade in both hands as he was drifting through the air.
“Ludger… Chelysie?”
He was a famous person whose name was often mentioned the most in Sören lately.
Such a person stepped forward in the fight right then.
‘But why does it have to be now?’
He’d acknowledged Ludger’s ability well enough through witnessing the magic duel that was held at the start of the banquet.
But the flame giant was a different scenario.
The opponent was a top-level flame spirit. No matter how great the ability that Ludger Chelysie possessed, he couldn’t fight against such a giant recklessly…
‘It saw him!’
The occurrence that Vierano had been worried about happened.
The flame giant was aware of Ludger’s existence.
The two eyes that contained an essence of burning-hot flame were looking up and staring at Ludger.
Ludger stared at the hideous monster without saying anything.
Grritt.
It seemed that the giant didn’t like that stare—it distorted its face and rolled up a fist.
At that moment, Ludger cast a spell.
It was a combination of third-tier spells using Source Code. The spells went beyond rapid speed and were spread one by one toward his surroundings in a second.
A myriad of spears that were made of an element each and had appearances akin to clock hands emerged in Ludger’s surroundings.
But as the number was still small, the strength looked ridiculously lacking compared to the opponent in front of him.
Soon after, the cane that he clenched in his hand aimed at the flame giant.
At the same time, the spells moved.
‘There’s no way the giant will be damaged…’
All the professors who were watching the scene had the same thought.
The flame giant received Ludger’s attack with its body, and thus a fire calamity was triggered and it devoured Ludger just like that.
It was the exact scene that had been imagined within everyone’s mind.
But…
Gaaaahh!
The flame giant suddenly screamed and curled his body up.
It looked exactly like it was protecting something from Ludger spells.
Ludger’s spells struck the flame giant’s back.
Even the people who had been watching it were confused at the giant’s sudden behavior.
‘Why the hell? The flame spirit who has been alright until now is suddenly hurt?’
Vierano recalled one thing that he had overlooked.
“…Medium? No way, is he aiming for it?”
“Pardon? Professor Vierano. Are you perhaps talking about a spirit’s medium?”
Vierano nodded his head at Angela’s question.
Since he had been certain, he started to see what couldn’t be seen beforehand—the reason for why such a huge spirit had been able to suddenly appear in the center of the banquet hall.
It had been summoned using a top-class medium.
Since most spirits were summoned using only the contractor’s mana, he forgot about the other method.
“Right now, Professor Ludger is aiming directly toward the medium that was used to summon the spirit. That’s why the spirit reacted like that and curled its body,”
“If it’s a medium, does it mean that there’s something else?”
Angela answered with a hardened expression at Partoña’s question.
“Even though there is, there’s a big problem. Right now, that flame spirit appears to be protecting the medium with its body. It’s going to be impossible to pierce through such a huge amount of power.”
It was according to what she’d said.
All the attacks that Ludger had shot at the flame giant were blocked by its body and had disappeared.
No matter how many spells he poured out, he wouldn’t be able to pierce through the flame giant and reach the medium.
Ludger also had the same thought.
‘The power is lacking. Even so, it’s honestly going to be hard to use another spell here.’
It was just a moment ago that he was almost exhausted due to an excessive use of mana.
If he consumed a huge amount of mana once more right there, he wouldn’t be able to recover, even by pills, for some time.
Moreover, there were a lot of eyes watching him in the surroundings.
If he used ‘Real Magic’ in that place, the aftermath would be so enormous that it wouldn’t be able to be compared with the time when he’d shown Source Code.
‘Then…’
It would be ended if he used a spell that could break through the situation most effectively and could be cast with a small amount of mana.
Ludger stopped his floating magic right away and went down onto the floor.
He stood right in front of the flame giant, who was crouching its body.
The giant looked up and stared at Ludger.
“Your fun ends here.”
After Ludger responded with a small voice that could only be heard by the flame giant…
He cast a spell.
Since he didn’t use a Source Code spell when he was casting it, the process was extremely slow and didn’t look fancy.
But the moment when it was completed…
The flame giant seemingly felt something strange, as its body trembled.
The metal tray which was the summoning medium that it had been hiding under its body…
The tray was suddenly split in half with a clanging sound.
“You can’t protect it completely, no matter how much you surround it with your body.”
That attack was the one that reached the opponent and leaped over space.
—The casting of a Coordinate Designation spell.
The spell that Ludger had used was something insignificant.
But if that leaped over the huge wall of the flame giant and even jumped over space itself and aimed exactly at the targeted object, then the story would be different.
Roaarr!
The flame giant widened its eyes, as it seemingly couldn’t believe it.
But now that the summoning medium was gone, there was nothing it could do.
The mighty heat that could melt everything in the surroundings gradually disappeared.
The flame giant glared at Ludger as if it seemingly wanted to kill him and opened its mouth wide.
Did it attempt to spout out some blaze as its last desperate act?
When everyone thought so, what came out of the spirit’s mouth was something completely unexpected.
[Humans… Loathful bugs…]
Those were words.
And a language…
A spirit that could be said to be a part of Mother Nature shouted a volition at the world itself at the subjects in front of its eyes.
[I will, obviously, burn all of you.]
Even in front of the spirit, who spoke the hateful words with its mouth, and even when he saw such an unbelievable sight, Ludger’s expression didn’t change the slightest bit.
“Go ahead and try.”
He only spoke those provocative words. The giant couldn’t argue anything anymore and ended up being unsummoned.
Countless dying embers fluttered through the air.
Like a burning blaze that didn’t even leave any ashes.
“Oh, my God.”
And the people in that place who had been watching the scene were bound to be astonished.
A top-level spirit who even numerous wizards and Knight-class guards couldn’t defeat…
Such a spirit could be overpowered by Ludger Chelysie’s strength alone in an instant.
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