Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Wolf Monster

The wolf monster became a corpse from Ferda’s single blow.
The people witnessing the scene could not hide their astonishment.
“A monster in a single blow…”
They had heard that mages were effective against monsters, but few had actually seen that effectiveness.
Bringing down a monster in a single strike was an uncommon thing, even for a mage.
Ferda looked at the man putting on a stupid expression and spoke.
“What are you standing there for?”
“Eh?”
“The rift is still open.”
His words were true.
Even though the wolf monster died, the rift did not close.
That meant monsters still remained inside.
“Everyone who can wield a sword, prepare for battle! Protect the citizens!”
“Request reinforcements! Call the guard!”
“Not the guard, call a mage! Summon a mage who can cast magic!”
They shouted everywhere in a disordered chaos, but a sort of chain of command had formed, so Ferda paid it no attention.
The corpse stretched out on the threshold shook.
“I-it moved!”
“Is it not dead yet?”
Someone said that.
However, that wolf monster was dead.
Yet for it to move like that meant another bastard was preparing to come out.
Ferda immediately prepared the next spell.
Soon, something revealed itself beyond the space where the heat haze shimmered.
An identical wolf monster.
It attempted to pounce outward, but Ferda was one step faster.
“Lightning Spear.”
Ferda launched the conjured spell toward the monster pouncing from the rift.
The spear of lightning struck the emerging wolf monster.
“Kreuk!”
One of the Fourth Circle spells, Lightning Spear.
It possessed excellent piercing power, so if one could aim at a vital point, it could inflict fatal damage.
However, if one failed to aim properly at the vital point, one could not kill the bastard.
Like the bastard right before his eyes.
‘Still, not bad.’
The bastard that tried to come out lost its balance and attempted to back away.
Yet it couldn’t.
He saw the heads of other wolf monsters peering through the opening of the rift.
At least four or more.
Thanks to the panic, the stampede was temporarily blocked.
In that time, those who could participate in combat prepared their stance.
The knights drew their swords, and the few mages prepared their incantations.
Mages are effective when dealing with monsters.
Everyone knew that, but how many mages had actually faced monsters?
The higher the circle, the closer the society of mages became to politics rather than magic.
With this fighting force, there was no chance of winning.
“What about us? Do we evacuate?”
Jed asked.
Since it was a matter of Halim, there was no need to risk their lives unnecessarily.
“No, we will also join the fight.”
The only useful mage here was Ferda himself.
However, there was no need to risk his life, and the probability of winning was also high.
‘Fighting is more profitable than running away from this job.’
Having concluded his judgment, Ferda searched for what he needed.
‘What I need is mana.’
What Ferda needed were mana containers to fill his lacking mana.
In other words, mages to serve as fertilizer.
For that plan, he called out a name.
“Malcolm!”
“Yes, Regent-nim!”
Malcolm answered promptly.
Unlike his response, his body language did not know what to do.
“Bring me all the mages. Even if they can only create Mana Shot, it doesn’t matter, just gather them all.”
“A-and if they say they don’t want to?”
Was that even a question?
“Then kidnap them and drag them here.”
“Y-yes! I shall obey your order!”
Malcolm flailed his arms as he ran off.
“Can I go after them too? I have confidence in my persuasion.”
Jed asked slyly.
“You have to work as a knight.”
“Damn it.”
Jed exhaled a sigh and drew his dagger.
“Kreung!”
Meanwhile, the wolves’ panic ceased.
One wolf squeezed its body outward and charged, and the wolves lying in wait gushed out like a flood.
Whether all the wolf monsters inside had come out or not, the rift sealed itself again.
‘A total of seven?’
When even one was difficult to handle for ordinary knights, seven had invaded the building.
‘I can take care of about two. If the remaining five are held at bay…’
Ferda checked and quickly calculated the fighting strength.
‘Impossible.’
They would hunt them unilaterally, and that hunt would lead to annihilation.
Like falling dominoes, it wouldn’t stop.
“Sir Jed.”
“Yes.”
“You need to step forward. Can you buy time against about two?”
“You say two?”
Jed swallowed hard.
They looked like wolves, but their attack methods were not just snouts and claws.
Sharp and pointed tentacles on the tail floated menacingly.
Buying time against two of those things?
“Can you do it?”
Jed, worrying again and again, replied.
“The extra pay will be high.”
“When have I ever swindled you out of money?”
“Never. Then…!”
Jed readjusted his grip on the dagger and moved somewhere.
He approached Penelope.
In this situation, there was only one action she could take.
“Waaaaah! I don’t wanna diiiiie!”
“Hey, Pepe! Snap out of it, damn it!”
Slap!
“Ugyak!”
“Don’t whine, do your job. You use magic too!”
“W-what do I do?! How do I fight those things?!”
“There’s no need to fight, just help. Make my body lighter somehow, you know, that thing!”
“That thing? Tsk, wait a second. Haste!”
Penelope’s magic enveloped Jed’s body.
Jed felt himself become even faster and relaxed.
“Yeah, this is the feeling.”
Jed smirked and muttered while looking at the monstrous wolves.
“Then I’ll go for a walk.”
Jed moved to draw the attention of two.
With this, Ferda would take care of two and the rest would take three.
Ferda turned his head and picked the most veteran-looking man among those who drew their swords.
“You, the one over there!”
“Yes!”
“Good spirit. We will take care of four, so you deal with three somehow with the people around you. Can you do it?”
“Uh, how exactly?”
“Instruct them to move as defensively as possible. Form a battle formation.”
He spoke that way, but defense or offense didn’t matter.
As long as they didn’t lose their fighting spirit and flee, that was enough.
That was all Ferda expected of him.
“Regent-nim!”
Malcolm, who had received the order, came running back urgently.
He was about to ask him why he had returned, but the words got stuck in his throat at what Malcolm was carrying.
On both shoulders he carried two robed men.
“Here they are, they’re mages!”
“You actually kidnapped them.”
“It’s just that I don’t trust my persuasion…!”
Ferda stared at Malcolm, who was panting.
“Smarter than I thought.”
“Eh? I’m smart?”
“Knowing oneself is not easy. Keep doing exactly that.”
“Understood!”
Malcolm moved to kidnap fresh mana containers.
The men dragged here without knowing why were paralyzed with fear.
They were fleeing just fine and suddenly landed in the middle of a battlefield.
Ferda made it so they couldn’t think.
“You, do you know how to use Mana Bomb?”
“Eh? Ah, yes…”
“Then prepare a Mana Bomb. When I give the signal, throw it at me. You?”
“I, I still…”
“Then prepare Mana Shot. Prepare it and throw it at me when I give the signal. That’s easy, right?”
“Yes!”
“And when that kidnapper brings more mages, instruct them the same way. I don’t want to explain it twice. Understood?”
“Ah, understood!”
Given the urgent situation, there was no way they could have understood all of that.
Ferda didn’t expect much and prepared for battle.
‘I must refrain from black magic as much as possible.’
In the big picture he was painting, black magic brought a fatal stigma.
He knew that Erdes was already using black magic, but what the public saw was a completely different story.
He had to avoid it as much as possible.
‘But that doesn’t mean I can’t use it.’
Use it secretly and quietly so others don’t notice.
That was why he learned the Shadow Arts of Barbatos.
At Ferda’s feet, the shape of a shadow moved.
Secretly touching the wolf’s feet.
Ferda chanted the spell.
“Bind.”
A hidden hand extended from Ferda’s shadow.
“Kreung?!”
It firmly gripped the wolf’s ankle.
A binding spell corresponding to the Fourth Circle in the Shadow Arts of Barbatos.
Its original name was Shadow Bind, but Ferda did not add the word Shadow.
He didn’t even need an incantation in the first place.
That alone was enough, and outwardly it had an effect similar to Bind.
As if falling into an adhesive, sticky swamp, it couldn’t lift its feet and flailed.
‘Quickly, first one bastard.’
He quickly drew the magic circle stored in his mind onto his hand and chanted the spell.
“Lightning Spear.”
The lightning spear left his hand.
Striking the heart when the body couldn’t move was a piece of cake.
Zap!
The lightning spear flew fast, piercing through the fur.
Where the heart was, only green pulp-like blood gushed out, and the wolf collapsed limply.
“Heavens, bringing that down in a single blow…”
Exclamations broke out again.
“Kreung!”
The other bound bastard sensed the death of its kin and bared its teeth.
The bastard resisted violently, then used a momentary opening to bite the black shape with its snout.
“Ugh.”
A groan of pain escaped Ferda’s mouth.
The moment the wolf bit, Ferda felt a snapping sensation near his right pinky finger.
Shadows are treated as part of Ferda’s body and utilized.
Therefore, when a shadow breaks, he too feels the pain of flesh tearing.
‘That is the condition.’
If he wasn’t careful, he would be overtaken by pain and live a lifetime of agony from phantom pain.
Ferda skillfully disconnected his mind and escaped from that phantom pain.
Severing both the shadow and his mind simultaneously, the power weakened.
The wolf monster broke free.
“Regent-nim! Where do I throw the Mana Bomb…?!”
Good timing.
“Throw it at me!”
The mage threw a large blue sphere at Ferda.
Ferda did not look back.
Instead, from Ferda’s back, part of a black finger appeared and sprayed mana threads toward that Mana Bomb, catching it.
To others, it looked as if the sphere had naturally fallen into his grasp the moment it entered Ferda’s radius.
“Ahg!”
“Magic Interception…!”
They doubted their eyes at the difficult technique used by veteran mages.
Regardless, Ferda had no room to worry.
His mind was entirely focused on the target.
He hurled the Mana Shot and Mana Bomb at the wolf’s face.
Boom-boom-boom—!
100% hit rate.
The explosion of magical power struck the wolf’s face.
The moment Reverse Order Entities that live by spewing Waste Mana encounter Natural Order, their regeneration slows down.
And the moment regeneration stopped completely, the wolf monster wobbled like a dog in the middle of summer.
“Lightning Spear.”
Thus Ferda took care of the two wolf monsters before him.
Without a moment to catch his breath, he examined the battlefield.
‘The side with the knights and soldiers.’
The side where the knights and soldiers were holding out seemed to be struggling.
Faces pale with fear.
Meanwhile, Jed diverted the attention of two wolf monsters without a single scratch.
The attacks of the two wolf monsters were literally throwing their entire bodies, devastating a wide radius.
Jed moved astonishingly, faster than the monsters’ attack speed, dodging everything.
‘I have to help Jed’s side.’
Even if he looked relaxed, it was the most urgent.
“Jed!”
“What is it?!”
Jed answered with irritation.
“Lure them to where my shadow is.”
“Understood!”
Jed’s eyes, flipping in mid-air, quickly confirmed the location of Ferda’s shadow.
Then, with acrobatic movements, he dashed toward where Ferda was.
“Keng! Keng!”
Two wolf monsters, infuriated, charged at Jed.
The moment they tried to cross over Ferda’s shadow, hands erupted and caught the wolves’ ankles.
“Kkeuk?!”
The bodies of the wolf monsters tripped over the sudden obstacle.
“Bind.”
Ferda bound the two again with the Shadow Bind he had prepared.
“Throw them!”
Matching the signal, the mages supplied by Malcolm threw the Mana Bombs they had made one by one toward Ferda.
Worry that it might look as though they were attacking the Regent.
However, Ferda skillfully enveloped them in mana threads and converted them into his own magic.
Boom-boom!
The mana seeped into the bodies of the two monsters.
As expected, both wobbled.
‘My mana reserve… is ambiguous.’
Since the Red Circle was not spinning tautly, additional supply was difficult.
‘Is the remaining mana around 3 Lightning Spears?’
If he cast two, the mana to handle the rest would be ambiguous.
How to handle this?
“Regent-nim!”
Jed called Ferda.
Fighting spirit dwelled in his eyes.
Ferda looked into those eyes and thought.
‘Useless.’
It might work on knights armed with mentalism, but to Ferda it was useless.
However, the dagger was seen holding a cold light.
Aura.
‘That is useful.’
Ferda, grasping the intention, nodded.
In a brief 1.5-second exchange of opinions, they designated each other’s targets.
“Lightning Spear.”
The flash of an arrow from Ferda pierced the space between one’s eyebrows and burst its heart.
“Go to hell and walk all you want, bastard!”
Jed’s dagger pierced through the monster’s belly.
The tough leather sank like jelly, and the dagger drove into the inside of the ribs.
Thud—!
With the sound of thick, hard muscle tearing, the wolf’s corpse went limp.
The two that Jed had been dragging along died just like that.
Remaining: 3.
Leading the attention of those three was a small-scale force.
“Ack! That bastard shot at me!”
“Don’t retreat! Hold the formation!”
However, thanks to the commander’s charisma holding their feet in place, the three wolf monsters could do nothing either and only aimed for gaps in the force.
Ferda aimed at that gap.
Ferda shouted toward the mages’ side.
“Mana Bomb!”
A total of 10 mages supplied by Malcolm.
A total of 12 created spheres flew toward Ferda all at once.
Ferda’s shadow fingers caught every single one of those spheres without missing any. He aimed at the openings of the wolf monsters.
Boom-boom—!
The mana embedding itself into the bodies.
Concentration high enough to pierce the outer hide and enter the body.
The wolf monster directly hit staggered, and the two wolf monsters moving aggressively also took significant damage and retreated.
“Now! Bring them down!”
“Waaaaah!”
With a shout, they counterattacked, driving swords into the staggering bastard.
The wolf monsters resisted as well, but they were no different from a dying old man, only continuing weak swings.
“Keng keng!”
Two wolves turned their gaze toward Ferda.
Wild instinct identified who the core was in this human group.
Their eyes rolled back violently and they charged at Ferda.
“The bastards are heading toward Regent-nim! Protect Regent-nim!”
In a situation where they could barely manage themselves, the soldiers could not react immediately by any means.
‘Two.’
Ferda lacked the physical capabilities to dodge flashily like Jed.
Ferda had prepared the magic before even feeling the murderous intent.
“Lightning Spear.”
The spear of lightning pierced through one fellow’s torso.
It didn’t pierce the heart, but it managed to stop it.
The remaining one charged at Ferda without fear.
“Regent-nim!”
Jed stepped in front of Ferda, trying to protect him.
“Keuk!”
He might have won in agility, but in a head-on collision, he crumbled like a scarecrow driven into soft dirt.
Ferda tried to plant a Lightning in the opening Jed made, deploying the magic circle.
“Lightning…”
He couldn’t even finish the incantation.
The wolf monster pinned down both of Ferda’s shoulders and mounted him just like that.
“Kreung!!”
The bastard opened its maw.
It looked like a wolf, but the inside of its mouth was not that of a wolf.
Even sharper teeth and dozens of split tentacles on the tongue.
Sharp teeth sink into Ferda’s throat.
He feels death.
Bang—!
A roar that shook the heavens and the earth.
Simultaneously, something small and fast flew inward, and the wolf monster’s body shuddered tremendously.
The teeth that had buried themselves halfway into his throat lost strength and it simply collapsed.
Ferda, barely surviving, examined why the monster died.
‘Small, fast, and powerful magic…’
Déjà vu.
Ferda searched for the benefactor who saved his life.
The direction from which it flew was the stage.
The one standing on that stage was none other than Vernel.
He was panting heavily, and in his hand he held something.
The Magic-Technical Rifle that was to be presented after Director Bernard.
The long barrel he held was exhaling white smoke.