Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 204

“You impudent brat, you don’t know your place and talk too much. Let’s see how long you can last…!!”

The bearded man, drawing a long, curved sword from his waist, stepped towards Wayan. At that moment,

Derron’s blade, moving as if on ice, sliced through the dark night air.

Whoosh!

The moment their bodies brushed past each other was instantaneous.

As the two men’s backs rotated, their knees twisting and their breaths intermingling, sparks flew with dazzling intensity.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Even a graze could tear off chunks of flesh, and the relentless assault aimed precisely at vital points made it difficult to stop the bleeding.

The moment one of those magic-infused strikes landed squarely, balance would be lost, and life would be forfeit.

However, instead of retreating from the onslaught, Wayan moved deeper inside, bending his knees and twisting sharply.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

As Wayan’s body spun, two flashes of light flickered around him, and the barrage that had been rushing towards him ricocheted in all directions, drawing chaotic arcs.

“Ugh!”

Wayan accelerated, having deflected all of Derron’s double-edged blades that had been launched with a time difference.

He swung his arm to cut down Derron’s exposed body, breaking through the space where his blade could reach, but.

“Too late.”

Thwack!

Derron, who had punched Wayan in the side, stuck out his tongue and grinned.

“…!!”

“You realized you couldn’t win a head-on power struggle, didn’t you?”

Crack!

Derron twisted his fist, slamming Wayan’s body into the ground.

Thud!

“Ugh…!!”

“I know you don’t want to clash blades, but you shouldn’t have dodged. A swordsman needs to be cocky. You know why?”

Stab! Stab! Stab!

Derron said this as he repeatedly stabbed at Wayan’s body, which was rolling on the ground, as if skewering it.

Wayan could only grit his teeth and block the blows from where he had fallen.

“If you show you’re scared, your options will be reduced on the spot. Hehehehe!!”

Whack!

Derron laughed and then kicked Wayan in the side, sending him flying.

It was a blow that would shatter ribs, but in a way, it was an attack that gave Wayan an opportunity. He was kicking himself out of a perfectly mounted position. It was arrogant confidence.

“…”

Renok, who had been carefully manipulating his magic while crossing his arms, spoke with a calm expression.

Wayan had indeed improved enough to fight against the Cartel’s members, but when he met a strong opponent among the top-tier members, he began to fall behind in basic stats.

Even in this situation where he was being pushed back relentlessly, the fact that he hadn’t lost his cool was admirable, but…

There was no need to hold back advice in the current situation.

“I think I told you about this before.”

“…Cough! Wh-what?”

Wayan, who was getting up while coughing dryly, turned his head sharply at Renok’s voice.

Renok ignored his gaze and glanced at Iola, then continued to speak.

It seemed that she hadn’t yet realized what Renok was doing, so if he gave Wayan advice while stalling for time, it would be fine.

Renok looked down at Wayan, subtly adjusting the direction of his voice.

“It’s about the sensitivity you possess.”

“…”

“For most people, simply realizing their talent wouldn’t dramatically increase their combat ability, but your case is different.”

It wasn’t for nothing that Renok had given him advice when he first met him and recognized his talent.

A talent where only magic sensitivity was dramatically developed.

Unbalanced talents can easily ruin the body, but Renok, knowing this, fearlessly instilled confidence in Wayan.

He could tell.

The senses that Wayan was experiencing through his sensitivity were probably on par with Renok’s.

If Renok’s assumptions were correct, Wayan’s combat sense could take another step forward.

“Because it’s a battle between skilled individuals using high-level magic, your talent can shine even brighter.”

Wayan listened to Renok’s words with a blank expression, then slowly took a stance.

Renok continued to speak, watching his back.

“Not trusting your senses in battle. It’s not a bad attitude for a mage, but it’s a completely different story for a warrior like you.”

“…Okay.”

Wayan gritted his teeth, lifted his head, and replied.

“If anyone else had said that, I wouldn’t have listened, but… since it’s you, I’ll trust you.”

He relaxed his body and narrowed his eyes halfway as he began to stare at him.

Derron’s mouth twisted into a vicious smile as he saw the stance that, at first glance, seemed to lack any fighting spirit.

“Let’s see if I really have that much talent.”

“You’re just spouting nonsense.”

Derron sneered, seeing his determined gaze.

“Even if a brat like you has a chance for a comeback, you don’t think I’d wait for that moment of awakening, do you…!!”

Derron roared and swung the blade in his hand.

However, Wayan’s reaction was completely different from before.

He waved the two swords in his hands as if they were swaying in the air, then instantly slipped past the shockwave and countered Derron’s attack.

Clang!

“…!!”

Unlike the previous surprise attack, it was a perfectly blocked blow.

Even though he had swung with all his might, Wayan’s expression remained unchanged.

It was proof that he had perfectly deflected Derron’s light, passing strike by twisting the angle.

It was a completely different combat technique than before.

As Derron’s expression slightly hardened, the two clashed.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A series of deafening sounds, incomparable to before, echoed continuously.

Along with the sounds of explosions like gunshots, the blades wielded by the two swordsmen struck and parried wildly in all directions.

Wayan’s head, swaying back and forth in the process of exchanging blows, was eerily grotesque, as if possessed by a ghost.

Only then did Derron realize how Wayan was engaging in combat, and he burst into maniacal laughter.

“Are you not relying on your senses at all and just swinging your sword… you crazy bastard!!”

‘He realized it after just a few exchanges. He has a good eye.’

Renok had noticed how Wayan was fighting as soon as he saw it, but even so, Derron’s perception was commendable.

Instead of waiting for luck and awakening, Wayan had chosen to completely rely on Renok’s advice.

Now, Wayan was no longer relying on his own five senses.

While continuing to fight Derron, he had completely abandoned his sight and was purely pushing everything into his talent of magic sensitivity.

It was a reckless act, but Renok had a certain degree of confidence in the process.

Sensitivity was essentially a power specialized in sensing magic.

The closer the distance, the closer the opponent, the more power the sensitivity gained and the more sensitive it became.

If the opponent was a powerful warrior like Iola, there was no need to say more.

Wayan was pushing all of his consciousness into the sixth sense of magic sensitivity and using all of his other physical functions to react according to that sensitivity.

A method of combat that transformed his five senses into something close to automatic reflexes within the realm allowed by magic sensitivity.

It was a fighting style that would be impossible without truly trusting one’s talent to the extreme.

“It’s been a while since I’ve met an interesting brat… Here I come!!”

With Derron’s words, the magic that rose from his body like wildfire engulfed the two of them.

The blade in his hand, which had been lightly tapping the air, accelerated so quickly that it was barely visible.

In response, Wayan’s body also convulsed violently.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The noise, which was unbelievable for the clash of two blades, relentlessly scratched at their eardrums.

Cracked and crushed cement powder flew in all directions from the ground, and the shockwaves that spread out in various directions pounded the air heavily.

A fierce exchange that did not allow even a moment of breath.

However, within that fierce battle, it was not Wayan, who had been beaten until just now, but the swordsman wielding the double-edged blade whose hands were gradually becoming more and more flustered.

“Ugh…!!”

The movements that had been so clear and easy to read until now were no longer visible, and the patterns he was initiating were being thoroughly countered.

The sword strikes that extended from his fingertips were blocked by Wayan’s counterattacks before they could even begin, and they threatened his neck instead.

Derron’s face, which had been full of composure, gradually turned pale, and his thick beard began to tremble.

He didn’t want to admit it, but his body had already begun to accept reality.

The fact that this young man, who was swinging his twin swords in a trance before his eyes, was completely changing into a different person with just a few words of advice from that mage.

“Aaaah!! Nuniim!!” [A term of address for an older sister or female superior]

What came out of his mouth, which was wavering between his pride as a swordsman and the crisis of death, was a cry close to begging.

Stab!

As the blade pierced Derron’s chest, who was shouting for Iola’s help at the top of his lungs, Iola moved.

Her fist shot out like lightning.

If Wayan had activated his magic sensitivity to the extreme, it wouldn’t be too difficult to avoid it.

However, at the same moment that Iola raised her fist, Wayan’s body stiffened.

Immediately after, Iola’s fist landed squarely on Wayan’s abdomen.

Thud!

“…!!!”

Even though Renok had deployed a shield right before to reduce the impact, it was still considerable.

He had only allowed a single attack, but Wayan’s injuries were significant.

“Cough…!!!”

Wayan, covered in blood, staggered while panting.

As Renok stepped in front of Wayan, Jordan immediately began to check Wayan’s condition.

“His nerves are numb from the accumulated pain… We need to stop the bleeding and normalize his pulse right away.”

“…I know you’re tired, but please do the first aid right away.”

Without a word, Renok took out another medical kit from his pocket and handed it over, then slowly turned around.

Iola, her suit disheveled, was staring at Renok, leaking magic.

“I didn’t know you could change a person so much with just a few words of advice.”

She wiped the sweat that was dripping down her forehead, spat out dust-mixed saliva, and swept her hair up.

“I already knew you were a mage of a completed level, but you also have a knack for being an educator.”

“It’s because he’s a bit similar to me.”

Renok also hadn’t expected Wayan to turn the situation around with just a few words of advice.

It was just that Wayan had taken Renok’s words in an extreme way and had surpassed his limits in an instant.

In other words, it was the same as saying that it would have been difficult to find a breakthrough on the spot without taking a gamble of completely abandoning his five senses and relying on his sensitivity.

However, it wouldn’t be strange for Iola to see it as Renok completely changing a person with just a few words.

“You’re a kind teacher. You’re the kind of talent our organization is always desperately looking for. But…”

She chuckled and slowly lifted her head.

Iola’s right eye, which was slowly turning to look at Renok, was glowing with an unfamiliar purple light that even he was seeing for the first time.

“Business is business.”

Renok muttered as he confirmed her eyes, which were drawing a strange ripple as if being sucked in.

“Those eyes… Is that why you were covering your face?”

“…”

It was the first time he had seen it in person, but he could tell by the magic that was concentrated in her eyes to a bizarre degree.

A mystic eye.

Even for a mage, it was rare to obtain, and it was a unique constitution that mostly depended on innate talent or environment to awaken.

Iola was a mystic eye user who had obtained such a mystic eye.

Renok moved his feet, looking at Iola with an interested gaze.

“Seeing that only one of your eyes has changed color, it wasn’t originally your eye. And looking at the prominent blood vessels around your eyes, it seems you’ve succeeded in a physical transplant?”

Instead of answering, Iola twitched her lips silently.

Renok had some knowledge of the unique constitutions of those who possessed magic, as he had studied the theories and literature.

In addition, in the case of relatively well-known unique constitutions like mystic eyes, they tended to remain in his memory for a long time.

Basically, when mystic eyes were awakened, they were mostly generated in both eyes, and unless it was a really unusual mystic eye, it would not leave traces outside the eyes.

However, Iola’s mystic eye was not only open on one side of her right eye, but the blood vessels around her eyes were strangely prominent, as if they were about to burst.

It was the clearest indicator that her eyes were not originally mystic eyes.

“I thought Wayan’s reaction was strangely slow, but I didn’t expect you to be a mystic eye user. If it’s someone who uses magic sensitivity to the extreme, I knew he would be helpless against the power of the mystic eye.”

Iola, who could visualize the flow of magic to some extent with her mystic eye, would have grasped how Wayan was using his magic sensitivity.

Moreover, if Wayan, who had fully opened his sensitivity and was actively accepting external stimuli, would not be able to resist the power of the mystic eye, she must have calculated that as well.

However, instead of talking about those circumstances, Renok brought up a completely different story.

“You. You deliberately let that man die just now, didn’t you?”

“…”

“There was definitely a gap to intervene before Wayan’s last attack landed, but you didn’t move… I guess he wasn’t a very favorite subordinate.”

The reason why Renok’s intervention was ambiguous at the moment Wayan was attacked was also because of that.

He had waited for the moment when Iola moved to save Derron and tried to end the situation at once, but she watched Derron’s death and moved two beats late.

“Well, I guess you didn’t want to save a guy who likes killing? I’m not very fond of the Cartel’s organizational management style.”

“Haa… Let’s stop with the baseless slander.”

She let out a light sigh as she stared at Renok, who was provoking her without hesitation.

“What kind of subordinates I like is not an important issue right now.”

Iola replied and slowly lowered her stance, drawing up her magic.

Whoosh!

Her internal magic rotated at a fierce speed and spread throughout her body, surpassing the limits of her physical strength.

Crack…!!

At the same time as her foot twisted and stepped on the ground of the training field, the dirt floor caved in and raised dust.

Although she had maintained her composure until now, Iola had never taken her eyes off the mage in front of her.

A Cartel’s deputy-level executive and a simple freelancer. The difference in the positions of the two was significant, but Renok’s status more than made up for that gap.

A supernova who had built up his reputation by successfully completing a series of large-scale requests in just over two years.

A mysterious mage who had appeared in the 49th district overnight, whose origins and lineage were all shrouded in mystery.

A monster-like combat sense that preferred to act alone, yet whose combat power was not inferior to that of warriors of the same level.

Even the calmness to maintain reason in precise mind games and on the front lines where lives were at stake.

He was a talent who could easily take a position in any organization, including the underworld’s leaders, the Three Heads, as well as agents and conglomerates.

According to the data investigated by the Cartel’s intelligence department, he was at least level 5, or perhaps even higher. A genius.

Considering the treatment that mages above level 4 receive in this world, it was strange that he was still working alone, a bizarre talent.

Fighting head-on was a bad idea. Iola was also planning to test the waters and retreat if possible, but… the scene reflected in her mystic eye made her turn back.

‘The flow of magic seems quite unstable.’

She swallowed and slowly clenched her fist.

‘Perhaps, it might be a coincidence, but… if he’s not in a condition to participate in combat right now.’

If he was just putting on a ridiculous bluff in this place.

It was just a possibility, but Iola never let it go to waste.

The mystic eye embedded in her right eye was one of the biggest helpers that had brought her to this position.

The moment she made up her mind, there was no need for further hesitation. Stalling for time against a mage was a mistake.

Her body moved before she thought.

Whoosh!

At the same time as she turned her back, Iola, who had closed the distance of tens of meters in an instant, looked up at Renok right in front of her.

Immediately after her abnormally enlarged pupils accurately captured Renok’s precarious appearance.

Iola’s fist, which had lowered its stance in place, pierced Renok’s stomach with utmost sharpness.