The man who wore a mask swung his sword once again.
By the looks of it, his sword appeared to be an ordinary iron sword without any special magical device attached to it.
The black lights floating in the air shook for a moment.
‘No. Beta believes in me. I must return the favor. I must endure this…’
A narrow stream of black blood was flowing down from her lips.
Looking at the situation, she realized that, instead of shooting a powerful magic, it might be more effective to shoot smaller magic attacks in large numbers at once.
“Magic Missile.”
Numerous Magic Missiles appeared everywhere, not just in front of her hand, but also behind her. They looked like black, semi-transparent arrows.
If felt like her burnt face, which was from a chemical when she was at the Magic Tower, was hurting more than usual. The parts of her hand where her fingers were cut off were hurting as well.
‘Eat this!’
The situation changed.
Despite this,
“Is it a different magic this time?”
Nainiae’s masked opponent was not startled at all by the change in numbers. He was still calmly swinging his sword.
For the ones he deflected, he deflected them toward other magic missiles to change their trajectory so that they would not hit him.
“…”
‘Is she trying to figure me out? Or…’
The masked man stopped talking. Instead, he looked at Nainiae’s chin.
On her chin, there was still a bit of stain from her black blood.
“Nainiae. You can win, right?”
”Nainiae! Answer me! You can win, right?!”
From hearing Beta shouting from behind, Nainiae said,
“… Yes.”
She answered in exhaustion.
It felt like she was about to collapse to the side, but Nainiae answered,
“Trust me. Beta, the favor you asked me… I will make sure to get it done.”
Along Nainiae’s cheek, which was red from the burn injury, a stream of pitch-black tear flew down.
She was bent on taking that man’s life.
***
‘Something… is not right.’
Riley sharpened his eyes. He thought about all of the magic attacks he deflected or dodged so far, and he suddenly turned his head.
Riley learned about the basics of magic from books.
They were colored pictures.
‘But these…’
Riley looked around to see the aftermath of the places struck by the girl’s magic attacks.
Long magic icicles nailed to the Main Plaza’s brick-patterned walkways were exuding cold air from their black surfaces.
Everything was black.
‘Is it a special type?’
This was like what Riley observed in his past life.
Those people, just like the girl under the rag he was facing right now, had unique colors or ways of movements.
‘Somehow, the situation is not looking good.’
Riley was looking at the aftermath of the magic attacks, but then he turned his head back toward the girl.
It wasn’t a rich or classy black. Instead, the color felt disgusting.
He guessed that she is coughing blood because of this, although there must be a different reason for her blood being black.
“Um?”
Riley looked at the girl under the rag.
It was because there was yet another black line being drawn toward her chin.
Even at a glance, Riley could tell that it was not normal.
‘I think I better not leave things like this.’
He could not afford to let things get out of hands from his plan.
Based on the atmosphere, Riley was certain that the next one was going to be an extremely powerful one, far beyond the magic attacks launched at him so far.
“Look over there.”
“Does that mean… we don’t have to run away now?”
Riley corrected his stance to be ready for the next magic attack.
Now Riley had foolish spectators who do not value their lives.
‘God damn it…’
Under the mask, Riley’s face cringed as he remembered something from the past,
‘… Over there! Look! It’s a brave warrior! A brave warrior appeared!’
Riley was certainly aware of people starting to gather to watch, one by one after the other.
They were hoping that Riley would stop the girl under the rag.
She was in the middle of preparing a shot of a giant magic, but suddenly, her shoulders were shaking.
“… Beta.”
“What? Nainiae? What do you mean…”
It looked like she finished preparing the magic.
“When I signal… You must run. You can survive. You, at least.”
“It is all right, Beta. As for me, even if I died here…”
“…?”
Because of an unexpected yelling from the woman, the girl’s shoulders were shaking even more.
“No way! You still have a job left to do! You can’t die already! Before you finish your job, you can’t die. If you died already, you… you will become just a trash that couldn’t return my good will of having faith in you! You got that?”
The little girl’s delicate lips started to tremble.
“Bu… but Beta, this is because you said you believe in me… That is why I…”
“No, it is not true… I’m…”
Under the rag, on the girl’s face, a sense of panic could be felt.
No matter how she appeared to be on the outside, the girl was still not even in her twenties.
“Ugh… Ugh… You disgusting bitch… It is no wonder why you were thrown out from the Magic Tower as w…”
The woman that had been pouring out horrible words suddenly stopped.
Because she could not use her hands, she fell down hard. Tears were forming in her eyes.
In order to take the woman’s life, Riley raised his sword.
He figured that killing her now would also help him fall asleep at night better.
The girl under the rug was in a state of panic, but she bit her lips and blocked Riley’s front.
“… Pillar of Fire!”
Before Riley could even say ‘Out of my way,’ the magic that the girl under the rag prepared was activated.
After lowering his upper body by a little, he swung his sword like a windmill. With a small shouting, he straightened up his body.
“…?!”
WHOOSH!
It was because, along with a gust of wind blowing toward her face, there was a sudden and blunt impact at her stomach.
“Please…”
The girl under the rag abruptly collapsed to her knees. While grabbing on to a tip of Riley’s pants fabric, she fell forward.
Riley knocked her out carefully so she would not be able to regain her consciousness for a while.
“Ah…”
Watching the girl helplessly faint in front of her, the woman gave a blank stare with her mouth open.
As if it was obstructed by something, the sword that Riley swung made a ‘TING!’ sound as if it struck a layer that was invisible. His sword was not able to cut off the target’s head.
“…?”
As he realized that his sword was blocked by something, Riley narrowed his eyes and started to look for the man who shouted ‘Stop!’ a moment ago.
Wearing a robe with purple and dark green colors properly mixed in, the old man was holding a yellow staff with a blue orb embedded in it. He was staring down at Riley from above.
“Tsk…”
Riley kicked his tongue.
That was not all.
‘Did I drag this out for too long.’
It wasn’t just the old mage.
Their energies were at a caliber that was on a whole another level from ordinary guards.
That wasn’t all.
In his dignified appearance and attitude, the old man floating in the air asked,
“Who are you?”
As if he decided that the silence was the answer, the old man pointed his staff toward Riley and continued,
“If you won’t open your mouth, then I have no choice but to demonstrate my power.”
In front of the staff that the old man put forth, a red-hot flame appeared.
It was a Fireball.
“I, Astroa the grand mage, shall handle this personally.”
The old mage flying in the air, Astroa, was smiling with arrogance.