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nTrap (3)

nI kicked the ground and dashed.

nIn front of the swung devil’s sword trajectory, the face of the wizard preparing a spell was seen.

nHowever, right before the sword touched…

nClang!

nMetallic friction noise rang through the air.

nThe only swordsman among the Matap party was standing in my way.

n“Faster!”

nHe desperately shouted at the wizards standing behind him.

nIt was all in an attempt to buy time for them to complete a new spell.

nBoosh!

nOur sword blades clashed tautly.

nHe must’ve been confident that he wouldn’t be easily defeated in a battle of strength because he was also an SS-Class.

nHowever, it was all meaningless.

nThe blue sword entangled in his sword was quickly buried in the purple flash I caused.

n“Keuup!”

nThe total amount of Mana didn’t guarantee an absolute win.

nIf it’s a one-on-one Mana battle like that, it was meaningless.

n“Kaaargh!”

nThe swordsman slowly got pushed back while screaming.

nThe point of contact between the two swords, which were crossed in an “X” position, was gradually leaning toward him.

nHis face distorted, predicting the bleak future that awaited him.

nThe man who faced the blazing flash that was right in front of his nose eventually let go of my sword.

nClang!

nHe managed to shake off my weapon and aimed for a counterattack, but it didn’t work out as he intended.

nSwish!

nThe moment the devil’s sword fell off, the purple sword energy that had wrapped around my sword remained as if it were an afterimage in the place where the two swords were clashing though nothing should have been left in that space.

nThe afterimage then became real. Instead of moving with the devil’s sword, the remaining sword energy was shot forward as if it found the right timing to strike.

nIt directly struck the swordsman’s face in that manner.

n“… Huh?”

nHe mustn’t even have realized how he died.

nThe swordsman’s head split horizontally.

nThe top of his head, including his eyebrows and forehead, shot up into the sky.

nThe sharp attack cut through close to the top of both eyes.

nThud.

nThe swordsman fell onto the icy floor.

nHis oozing blood froze rapidly because of the cold air.

nInstead of flowing, it left a dark-red-ice puddle on the ground.

nAbove the corpse, red snow fell all around.

n“Keup!”

nOn the other hand, the wizards didn’t lose focus despite their colleagues’ death. They still managed to complete the spell.

nThey were veterans, after all. They’ve reached a point where instead of completely relying on the system, they started to enter the state of practicing Mana control.

nConditional Barrier (Rank: S)

nWhat the wizard on the front that first completed was a defense spell.

nWoong!

nGolden steam came out of the wizard’s body. It formed a shape that turned into a dome, which then surrounded the three of them blurrily.

nIt was a conditional field that perfectly defended external shocks but never interfered with the forces that shot outward.

nWhen a colleague was in danger, they created a shield to protect themselves instead of helping him or taking the enemy’s head by looking for a window. That was Arthur’s way of fighting.

nBefore the other two could activate a spell, I had already rushed in on them.

nPaht!

nThe surface where my foot touched was leveled down. The air burst forth along my movement trajectory, causing shockwaves to resonate. With acceleration beyond human limitations, the distance was narrowed in an instant.

nWhen I entered the neared space where the golden dome was surrounding them, the wizards completed their spells by a hair’s breadth.

nAnger of Thunder (Rank: SS)!

nLighting Vortex (Rank: S)!

nZaaaaap!

nRumble! Ba-ba-bam!

nIn that extreme situation, the spell they chose was electrical magic that instantly reached temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees.

nA straight line of lightning passed without resistance even when it collided with the gold barrier.

nThe whirlwind that embodied intense bolts of lightning stormed towards me. Amplified currents, lightning, and heated air expanded and rushed in.

nHowever, the disastrous sight they would have waited for didn’t turn into reality.

nRumbleee!

nThe river of currents that pierced through the distance between us caused the winds to grow hotter as it rang with the vibration from the blast.

nThey believed that would have turned me into a pile of ashes as I would have been caught up in the devastating flash.

nHowever, I rushed in without any scratch despite being wrapped with millions of volts around my body.

n“No… wa-!”

nCrush!

nThe barrier broke a little against the might of the sword I struck down.

nThe reason why I chose to push forward with strength was for the simple reason that magic efficiency was much better by amplifying the sword energy with the devil’s sword than De-spell.

nBut for them, who would have no idea what was going on, froze as if they had seen a ghost.

nFor an ordinary Hunter, breaking the S-Class defense spell with sword energy was out of the box.

n“Fucking… Monster!”

nCrrrack!

nThe barrier started to crack.

nClatter!

nIt didn’t take long after that for the barrier to shatter into fragments like glass.

nWith a roar, a gold-white halo and fluttering dust of light scattered all over the place.

nThe wizard’s expression stiffened as he shook in the vibrating air.

nCrush!

nAs his neck was sliced open, his face became static as if he was petrified as his head soared into the air.

n‘There’s only two left, including Arthur.’

nAt that moment, I saw a strange pattern of Mana.

nAs I turned my gaze, I almost laughed in vain.

n‘… Indeed, it never disappoints.’

nThe remaining SS-Class wizard stared at me with a blazing glare as if he was going to take revenge.

nAt the same time, he concentrated on reciting an attack spell.

nArthur was behind him, pretending to invoke magic, putting his hands in his arms and injecting Mana.

nLooking at the reaction pattern, what he was holding was a returning stone.

n‘He’s quick on his feet.’

nSeeing how he decided so quickly that there was no chance of winning, he must’ve swiftly finished his calculations.

nHe understood that my Mana capacity was beyond human limitations, considering I used S-Class De-spells several times.

nThe fact that I was fine in lightning and that the freezing storm didn’t hinder me meant that I used SSS-Class electrical resistance, heat resistance, and cold resistance magic, which were all a card rank that even the Matap couldn’t get their hands on.

nFurthermore, Arta’s Sword Dance moved in unpredictable shapes.

nArthur himself, on the other hand, was rapidly losing his Mana in the freezing storm.

nAlthough he was quick to judge that he couldn’t win like that…

n‘Well, he’s still the same.’

nHe was thinking of running away while leaving his subordinates at the forefront.

nIt took time to activate the returning stone. The reason why he secretly prepared alone instead of ordering his subordinates to run away with the return stone was…

n‘He needs the other guy to buy time while he’s trying to escape.’

nI couldn’t let him be.

n“Snake 3!”

nThe snake, which loosened from its bracelet-like shape, lifted its head and opened its mouth wide.

nWhen it spat out the item in an instant as it was trained, I snatched it.

nI grabbed the whip handle.

nDain-Snu Family Slavemaster’s Whip (Rank: SS)

nWhoop!

nPaht!

nThe thin metal-covered whip lashed at them, leaving a silver afterimage.

nWith the sound of tearing up the air, it wrapped around Arthur’s body.

n“Graaaargh!”

nWee-ing

nIt was as intended by a family’s slave master in the past, who was in charge of controlling the Awakened slaves.

nThe whip that restrained Arthur absorbed his Mana without leaving any leftovers.

nSince he had already lost a considerable amount of Mana, it devoured all of it before he could even resist.

nThat caused the blue waves that seeped out of his body and flowed to the returning stone to dissipate.

n“E-eeek!”

nArthur tried his best to struggle.

nDespite his efforts, the whip remained still, tying him up.

nArthur was caught, but the other SS-Ranked invoked magic as if it were an opportunity.

nI didn’t think he had many options left because he knew that I was immune to heat, electricity, and cold.

nSo the spell he chose was–

nAcid cloud (Rank: S)!

nTssss!

nAcid started to spew out from his hand, but…

n“No way!”

nThe green mist couldn’t spread far.

nInstead of liquefying continuously, it completely froze and dispersed in the air like snow sleet.

nOf course, that wizard didn’t use that magic in that situation because he was a dumbass.

nTheoretically, the boiling point of the acidic substance produced by magic was minus 120 degrees, and the melting point was far lower than that.

n“… Ah!”

nOnly then did he realize the problem.

nHe didn’t expect that the temperature had dropped to that extent.

nDue to the cold storm, the current temperature had fallen to a level that humans had never experienced before.

nIt had reached the point where the acidic mist froze even though it would’ve remained unaffected even in the coldest region of Earth.

nFurthermore, Arthur’s SS-Class Cold Resistance spell had been suspended due to the whip, so the wizard’s protection was handled entirely by his own Mana Barrier.

n“No!”

nOnly then did he notice that his Mana was rapidly being consumed while he was focused on the battle.

nHe took out a Mana potion from his arms in a hurry, but my spell was faster.

nEnhanced Gravity Field (Rank: SS)

nShatter!

n“H-huh?!”

nThe wizard, who was creating a flame in his hand to melt the frozen Mana potion, panicked when the bottle suddenly broke.

nThe material’s durability couldn’t hold out due to the glass bottle’s density, which increased more than a thousand times due to the magic effect.

nMy magic didn’t stop at just breaking a small bottle.

nRiiip!

n“A-Arrrgh!”

nA strong force crushed the Mana barrier and drilled its way in all over his body.

n“Keup!”

nNo matter how strong the SS-Class hunter’s body was, it wouldn’t have been able to withstand its weight that had been increased to more than 100 tons.

nHis body started to crumble because of its own mass.

nPuhk!

nCrush!

nSoon, the figure of a human disappeared where the wizard once stood.

nInstead, the entire body’s bones were twisted, and the organs were crushed, leaving a flattened flesh on the ice.

nThe bitter cold quickly froze it.

n“What the hell are–!”

nArthur’s eyes, which were staring at me, were dyed with despair.

nUsually, people would lose their minds due to the Mana exhaustion at that level, but he managed to hold on.

n‘If he’s that strong-willed…’

nI went up to him and put the handle of the devil’s sword on his tied hands.

nAs I waited for a while, his face displayed shock and surprise.

n“This voice is?!”

nIt’s not the reaction I wanted.

nAs I took back the handle of the devil’s sword and held it in my hands, the cognition in the sword spoke even before I asked the question.

n‘I can’t do it on this man.’

nThe Whisper of the Sword, which had a 50% success rate against hunters, failed.

n“I got no choice then.”

nI pressed the edge of the sword against his neck.

nArthur began to shout as he struggled even harder.

n“W-w-wait! Wait! Wait! Please!”

nI looked down at the man struggling while he’s tied up.

n“Don’t kill me! No! How I managed to survive until now–!”

nIt was greed that drove him there, after all.

nDue to his vigilant nature, the moment he identified the environment there, he was more likely to give up chasing inside the dungeon and go back out of the gate.

nThat’s why I purposely set up a fake Vital Flame.

nIt was all to bring him to the perfect battlefield I had prepared.

nThe only thing that could beat Arthur Clifford’s vigilance and carefulness was his greed.

n“Wait for a moment!”

nHe panted and continued.

n“I-if you kill me this way, the secret of the Matap guild will also be blown away!”

nI ridiculously laughed and answered him.

n“You mean the Shepherd 2 Dungeon?”

n“Yes! People only know that there’s something special about the dungeon that allows us to get our hands on an S-Class card easily. The ‘exact location’ and ‘method’ are known only to a few in the guild!

nHe started begging me for his life with that as his reason.

nHe must have thought I would fall for it, so he was also mixing up lies.

n“If you spare me, I will supply you with all those cards from now on.”

nI tilted my head.

n“I don’t need S-Class magic cards, though?”

nHe must have already seen the scene where I demonstrated SS-Rank magic.

n“N-no… If there is an SS-Rank or higher ranked card, then–!”

nHis eyes shone.

n“Yeah! You surely know how to get your hands on even SSS-Class magic cards, right?!”

nIf it was resistance power that could overcome SS-Class electricity magic, there was only SSS-Class. That was a natural analogy.

nKnowing that I couldn’t ‘copy’ that from anywhere, Arthur seemed already convinced.

nHis eyes were bloodshot.

nHe spoke as if he didn’t want to miss that opportunity.

n“In Shepherd 2 Dungeon, there is a treasure that can upgrade all magic cards to the next level!”

nHe begged and cried out in a hoarse voice.

n“If you ever get another SSS-Class card, imagine what it would be like to upgrade it through ‘Shepherd 2 Dungeon!’ You’ll be able to get your hands on a level of magic that no one has ever experienced! I’ll help you with that!”

nHe mentioned an EX-Class card that had never been revealed globally and had never been proven.

n‘That’s a trap, considering that I would suck up all the information and leave him dying.’

nAt that moment, getting out of that position and saving his life was the priority.

nI softly spoke.

n“Oh, yeah? There is such a treasure in the Shepherd 2 Dungeon?”

n“Yeah!”

n“Not really.”

n“… ?!”

nHe made a face as if he couldn’t comprehend.

n“There was a treasure in there in the past.”

nI held my sword up again.

n“There was, but there isn’t anymore.”

nHe looked blankly into my eyes.

nAnd it seemed like he realized something.

nHow would I have known from the beginning? About the victims of the sacred beast trapped in the basement of the Matap headquarters.

nHis face, as he grasped the situation, became distorted like a demon.

nHe intuitively sensed that I had touched his treasure in Shepherd 2 Dungeon in one way or another.

nHe struggled crazily while still wrapped around with the whip.

n“Y-you! That thing! No way… You bastaaaaaaaard!”

nI fired the sword energy towards the shrieking man’s throat.

nPshk!

nArthur Clifford’s broken head soared into the sky amid the bitterly cold storm.

nI retrieved the whip and threw the beheaded corpse far away as if I was spinning it in the air.

nArthur’s body swirled around in the gust of wind like a pinwheel missed from hand.

nBlood splattered like black and red ice crystals, spraying along the body’s path before falling gently on the white ice and leaving a shiny trail.

n“Now, then.”

nThere’s one that was waiting in front of the gate.

nThere were also four remaining members of the Matap Guild on their way towards the house.

nI could finish the guy at the door off quickly, but it’s the ones at home that left me a little concerned.

n“There wouldn’t be anything wrong if they did as I prepared them to…”

nThose who were handling the four Matap members on the other side were only Nate and Hibiki.

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