Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 941

Wizards usually stay perfectly still when summoning powerful beings from other worlds. It’s not because they are lazy! Summoning takes huge effort, even with magic rules and rituals to help. Doing anything else at the same time is very dangerous.

But Ethan wasn’t staying still. He was moving around, trying to summon Perkuntra *again*, like a beginner who had just learned a simple spell. It was risky, even foolish.

He hadn’t fought Transcendents often, but Ethan knew one important lesson:

Use every means possible to quickly subdue them in the early stages!

Ethan had learned the importance of the first attack in magical combat from Professor Voladi. It was deeply learned. Strong wizards are more strategic; weak wizards use all their power in the first attack.

The Beast was about to scold the wizard’s foolishness when Sharkan whined again.

The Beast growled, annoyed by the foolish doppelganger whining inside him.

“-Since it’s come to this, stop whining! Is the fight still alright?”

The Beast was taken aback by the unexpected words.

Surprisingly, Sharkan was shouting for the wizard to fight the enemy, saying he was alright.

Normally, he would have rejoiced that he had finally abandoned the useless mortal, but the Beast sensed that wasn’t the case.

Why was he saying he was alright?

“-Fine! But don’t blame me when you die! Your life is about to go out like a candle!”

“-Dum, beo, ra!” The Defiler shouted, staring at the Beast.

The Defiler’s huge body pushed through the gate, swelling up like a balloon in the empty space.

Shaped like a headless, obese giant, the Defiler spewed out an aura of decay and corruption with each wriggle. From that aura, an army was born again.

The Defiler seemed ready to pounce on the Death Knights, who were equipped with chains and siege weapons, forming a siege, but he was surprisingly cautious.

This was because the Rage Lord was right in front of him, as well as his familiar enemy, the beast of the undead.

“-Rage Lord? Did Gonadaltez summon him? Even so, to entrust such a monster to mere minions?”

Ethan jumped, a jolt of fear running through him.

‘What is he talking about?’ he thought.

“-Bun, no, gong!”

Perhaps thinking it disadvantageous to face two powerful beings while surrounded by Death Knights, the Defiler launched a first attack.

He stopped summoning his army and focused his power to attack the Rage Lord.

“-He’s moving!”

The Death Knights were busy preventing the army pouring out of the void from escaping the palace and sealing the dimensional gate with chains. But they didn’t miss the chance to counterattack the Defiler, who had exposed an opening.

Ballistae, covered in magic symbols, shot bolts. They made a horrible sound as they hit the Defiler.

The Defiler howled as if in pain, but he didn’t stop. He intended to finish off the Rage Lord for sure, even if it meant taking a few hits.

The Beast swelled his body. The darkness of the night dyed his flesh, and in an instant, his size increased dozens of times. He looked as if he could swallow even the moon.

Crack!

It seemed that about a quarter of the Defiler’s flesh had been torn away by that biting attack.

However, the Defiler didn’t stop moving, even as he let out a painful scream. Rather, the injured area regenerated even faster.

“-Prahgal?! His authority!?”

“-Young, ree, hae!”

The Beast couldn’t tell if the Defiler was praising him or boasting about his own intelligence in secretly working with Prahgal.

The Beast had heard rumors the Defiler worked with evil god worshippers. But borrowing power from an evil god was much worse than just working with them.

An evil god was basically a thought-form born from the extreme condensation of evil and negative emotions and grudges. Even if you only looked at the concept, you could say it was a divine being.

All the emotions or declarations that the Defiler offered in order to collude were offered as nourishment to the evil god.

No matter how long he had reigned as a powerful figure in the undead world, one could never know when or how such a contract would return as a danger.

“-What a moronic and undignified bastard! Is there nothing else to believe in but a god?!”

“-Mung, chung, ee!”

Of course, the Defiler did not admit his mistake and declare that he would compete fairly.

Rather, he laughed at the Beast and injected a solution of corruption to deliver a sure fatal blow to the Rage Lord.

It was such a terrible solution that dozens of plague ghouls were born from a single drop that fell outside.

“-…Tto, hwan, sang!!!”

“-??!”

The Beast belatedly realized, seeing the Defiler’s rare rage.

That Rage Lord was an illusion!

Looking at it again, he wondered why he had been fooled, but the Beast tried to soothe himself.

Wasn’t it because the Defiler was so stupid that he was fooled, and he believed it too?

“-Juk, in, da!”

“-You corrupt fatso. Worry about yourself!”

The Beast said that, but still glanced at Ethan.

He was worried because the Defiler’s determination was extraordinary.

Ethan’s situation in the lower palace was not so good either.

It wasn’t because he was badly injured by the magic while summoning Perkuntra…

It was because invaders had appeared.

“-It’s an invasion!”

At Alsicl’s cry, Ethan stopped summoning Perkuntra and immediately prepared for battle.

‘How?!’ he wondered.

Their current location was not one where they should be attacked.

The Death Knights had completely surrounded the area, including the dimensional gate.

It seemed like a passive tactic, but this method was surprisingly effective and normal when dealing with powerful beings from other dimensions.

Since they were summoned by breaking through the wall at a cost, their power weakened the longer they stayed.

As such, the Death Knights’ choice to completely surround the area and confine the subordinates the monster summoned and the minions he additionally called was wise.

Ethan had been counting on that, but he never expected an attack like this to come.

Ethan recognized the situation when he saw the enemies filling the empty seats and stage.

The army had been summoned from the aura and blood flowing from the Defiler’s flesh (though whether it was appropriate to call it blood was another matter).

Just by breathing, a legion was being replicated from his flesh.

‘Even a slime wouldn’t be this bad.’

“Watch out!”

Alsicle shouted a warning, worried about his junior wizard, Lee Han, who didn’t have much experience. But then, Alsicle realized the warning wasn’t needed.

Suddenly, undead creatures appeared in the passage, blocking their way. They were strong and looked like they were made of bones and dark magic.

There was a medium-sized skeleton golem, made from many skeleton warriors. Some skeleton warriors were enhanced with dark and blood magic.

And was that a dragon tooth soldier golem…?

‘Did I see that right?’

Alsicle blinked, looking confused.

It looked like a skeleton golem made with dragon teeth. Lee Han had read about these in books. But it seemed impossible. Could it really be dragon teeth?

Where could anyone even find real dragon teeth these days?

It had to be a new spell from the Einrogard School of Black Magic, a famous school for dark magic.

Maybe they had found a way to make golems that looked the same without using dragon teeth. Or maybe they used just a tiny bit…

-■■■ ■■■!

‘Left, right, below.’

Lee Han quickly looked around to understand the situation. Then, he summoned his own undead.

Alsicle was a better wizard than Lee Han. But Alsicle wasn’t a battle mage, someone who was good at fighting. Lee Han worried about what would happen if they had to fight up close.

He had to stop the enemy from moving forward and fight them directly.

‘Is that a Plague Maw? The one behind it looks like a Rot Fiend. And the stronger one… I’ve never seen that one before.’

Some of the undead Lee Han recognized, and some he didn’t.

But Lee Han could tell that his enemies were strong. The knight wore old-fashioned armor. Dark energy came from the gaps in the helmet.

“In the name of Pengaerin, you shall not pass!”

While Lee Han was doing this, Alsicle finished his first spell.

A ball of icy cold energy appeared, making the air bite at their skin and fogging their breath. It was so cold that it could freeze even the rotting undead.

“Perk… Damn it!”

Lee Han used telekinesis to block the attacks coming toward him. Thick slime and arrows disappeared when they hit the telekinetic barrier.

‘They’re targeting me, not Alsicle!’

Lee Han realized that the undead were attacking him specifically.

He had thought they were busy fighting his summons. But as soon as it looked like Lee Han was going to use powerful magic, they tried to stop him.

But why weren’t they attacking more aggressively?

‘…Are they trying to drag this out?’

Earlier, dozens of undead had been destroyed by Lee Han’s summons.

The dragon tooth soldier golem, summoned with the tooth Zaurin had given him, was especially dangerous. It left terrible wounds on the enemy with each attack.

The enemy couldn’t break through by force. So, it seemed they were trying to get more undead while keeping Lee Han, the most dangerous one, busy.

‘Fine by me.’

Lee Han was confident he could win a long battle. He used telekinesis to make the defenses stronger and quickly chanted a short spell.

Attacks came at him right away, but he could block them.

‘Verdus!’

Lee Han called for Verdus, the undead wizard he had a contract with, not Professor Verdus.

But Verdus didn’t answer. That meant Verdus couldn’t come out right now.

Thud!

Lee Han heard the attacks hitting his telekinetic shield and moved again. Alsicle tried to create an ice barrier for Lee Han, but Lee Han shook his head.

“There are too many, it won’t do much good! Save your mana!”

Lee Han decided to forget about Perkuntra and Verdus for now. He summoned the spirits. The lesser spirits appeared quickly.

He wished Sharkan was here. Lee Han regretted not summoning Sharkan and prepared another spell.

‘Lightning Blast… I might collapse if I use that…’

Since he had summoned so many creatures, support magic was enough.

Lee Han used telekinesis to protect the area, attacked the enemies, and helped the skeleton summons fight. He thought he could hear the enemies shouting and cursing louder.

-■■■■■!

-■■■!

‘Must be my imagination.’

The enemy thought they could win by making the fight last longer. But as time passed, it became clear that they were wrong.

The undead summons Lee Han conjured healed quickly, even when they were melting or rotting.

But the number of enemies kept getting smaller. They were getting more undead from above, but they were losing them faster.

It was like soldiers being worn down in a strong fortress.

-…I. I will step forward.

The knight, who Lee Han thought was an undead he had never seen before, finally stepped forward. Lee Han stared at him, ready to fight.

-You. You interfered with our master’s work before.

“What? When did I…”

Lee Han felt a familiar dark energy coming from the knight’s soul.

It was the same energy he had felt from the cultists who worshipped Prahgal.

‘He wasn’t undead!?’

It was possible for an undead to worship Prahgal, but Lee Han didn’t expect a follower of the Desecrator to be a worshipper.

The Knight of Desecration disappeared and then reappeared behind Lee Han, trying to attack him. It was a fatal sneak attack.

Clang!

But Lee Han was ready. He had used magic to see the future for a short time and to enhance his physical abilities. He stepped back and blocked the attack.

The Knight of Desecration seemed to sense the black obsidian blade absorbing his power and stepped back. A dark aura came from the eyes of the figure hidden by the helmet.

‘What…’

Lee Han saw a vision of the Knight of Desecration sacrificing his soul to explode. He was horrified.

Even if he blocked it with telekinesis and used Lightning Blast to escape, he wasn’t sure if he could protect Alsicle. Many thoughts raced through his mind.

Did Alsicle have a strong protection artifact? How far would the explosion reach? What was this knight willing to sacrifice himself? What other magic could he use…

Then, Lee Han heard a devil’s voice in his ear. It was coming from the Bracelet of the Myriad Fiends, which had been quiet for a while.

-The corruption of disgusting undead awakens me.

“!”

-Decay and corruption, plague calls to me! Fear me. I am Mahu, the demon of undead hunting! If you do not give me a chance, I will never go back inside…

“I get it, so wipe them out!”

-…Thank you!

Mahu was very happy that Lee Han was being more generous than Anpursas, another demon trapped in the bracelet. Mahu leaped out!