Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 31

Instead, Gail’s eyes began to glow with a fierce, blue light.

Watching Gail, who had become enraged in an instant with just a couple of words, Lenok sensed that he had hit a nerve.

“Ggrrr… You… you son of a bitch…”

Crack! Crunch!! Thud!!

With the gruesome sound of bones breaking, his body, hidden under his tracksuit, began to swell rapidly.

Long fangs jutted out, and saliva dripped from his mouth.

His messy gray fur was tangled, and a vivid, wild bloodlust flowed subtly between the strands.

A monster, transformed into a beast, stood there.

Gail, having completed his transformation, growled as he glared at Lenok.

“…D-don’t even think about dying with all your limbs intact.”

Lenok nodded as he watched the werewolf, who was crouching as if he would pounce at any moment.

Lenok knew about werewolves to some extent, as they were a species that existed in WORLD 2.0 [a fictional game or virtual world].

They were demi-humans born with wild instincts and the body of a beast. They had an innate ferocity and tended to rely too much on their instincts, but their power was unmatched.

However, the Gail in front of Lenok was a little different from the complete werewolf he knew.

His eyes were excessively bloodshot from the transformation, and his bite force was so uncontrolled that he couldn’t even manage the saliva coming from his mouth.

His claws were twisted and digging into his flesh on both legs, and his skin was showing through the gaps where fur had fallen out.

It was a mess of a body, an insult to even compare it to the perfect sculpture that was Kroken Acilus.

He was a mixed-blood werewolf who couldn’t even control his own transformation due to his excessively impure and degraded bloodline.

Lenok looked at Gail, who had even started to stutter, with pity.

“You probably can’t think straight in that state. Come on.”

Whoosh!

A strange noise, like wind escaping through a gap.

Immediately after, Gail’s figure disappeared like smoke from that spot.

Thud!

He stopped abruptly right in front of Lenok, his jaws wide open.

Crack…!

Lenok could see Gail’s snout twisting in a strange direction, along with the sound of skin tissue being crushed.

Gail’s body, which had charged head-on with immense force, had simply collapsed in front of Lenok’s shield.

Bright red blood dripped from his moist nostrils.

“…E-eek!!”

Gail, staring blankly at the blood as if he couldn’t believe it, gritted his teeth and moved his body.

Gail disappeared from Lenok’s sight again in an instant, circling around before charging again, leaving only the sound of the wind behind.

The same frontal attack as before. It wasn’t just stubbornness, but the result of his own meticulous psychological warfare.

However, the result was not much different from before.

Crash!

Lenok didn’t care about the sound of one of his shields breaking from Gail’s attack.

The direction from which the attack could come was limited anyway, and for Lenok, who had entered combat, there was no option to evade.

Therefore, he would simply face it head-on, trusting in his own magic.

In a focused state, he layered five shields that could even temporarily block heavy weapons.

Under these conditions, he was confident that he could survive and escape even from the explosion that had destroyed the factory.

However, Gail and Grime seemed to have never imagined that Lenok would block their attacks, especially head-on, and their expressions changed drastically.

There was no need to give them time to understand the situation.

Lenok turned the revolver, looking at Gail, who had become as stiff as a stone with his jaws stuck in the shield.

“My turn, right?”

The center of the werewolf’s empty chest.

Right into the middle of it.

[Recoil Control]

[Impact Enhancement]

[Trigger Acceleration]

The distance was so close that there was no need to use aim correction.

Bang!

The bullet, infused with three auxiliary spells in a single moment, accurately buried itself into Gail’s chest.

Thud!

The werewolf’s massive body was thrown backward as if it had been hit by a giant fist.

“Kk, heeik…!!”

Gail, as if he had truly become a beast, let out a shrill scream and trembled violently, clutching his chest.

With just one attack, Gail seemed to have lost all will to fight, as if he had fallen into a panic, but Lenok did not stop.

The cold reason of a mage constantly whispered within him that he should not hesitate here.

Once you make a move, do it decisively. If you have seized the initiative, never let it go.

For Lenok, who could not guarantee mobility during combat, this was the most important combat method.

Crackling…!

He pulled out two strands of blue current from his gaping jaws and plunged them straight in.

There was no need for incantation.

Thud!

“Kaaaak!!”

Gail let out a shrill scream, along with the unpleasant smell of burning flesh.

Lenok indifferently watched his face contorted in pain, then swept his foot once to freeze Gail’s two legs, which were bent in the opposite direction, and then raised his magic power once more.

[Thunder Calling]

Thud!

A flash of light that illuminated the dark night sky, and the lightning that arrived after smashing through the warehouse roof struck Gail’s head precisely.

Disappointment.

The overwhelming firepower. The result of Lenok’s ruthless barrage, which struck all of his vital points without discrimination due to his meticulous magic power distribution, was revealed in an instant.

Gail’s body turned into a tattered rag and slowly collapsed.

Thud!

The heavy body slammed its head into the ground powerlessly, emitting a loud noise.

Only then did Lenok, who had calmed the magic power he had been releasing, turn his head toward the mage.

While dealing with Gail, he had been thoroughly dispersing his consciousness, expecting him to intervene, but there was no counterattack.

Could it be that he was still chanting a spell?

Right. If they had this much time, they would have prepared a decent spell.

Let’s see what you’ve got.

Lenok’s gaze, filled with anticipation, went straight to the mage.

Grime, who met his gaze, flinched, but as if he hadn’t been idle, he immediately began to unleash his prepared magic power.

Flash…!

The magic power emanating from the staff in his hand instantly dyed the surroundings brightly.

At first glance, it was so intense that it seemed to be simply glowing, but the texture itself was already complete.

‘A magic that emits a circular shockwave centered on himself. The casting time is long, but the power is considerable… He left the bald guy to deal with and was quietly chanting alone. It’s not that I don’t understand.’

The moment Lenok saw Grime’s magic, he easily grasped its principle and structure.

A shock-type magic. In WORLD 2.0, it was a popular type among players who chose mages because its power was quite decent compared to the difficulty of learning it, and it had a considerable visual intimidation.

The direction he chose was omnidirectional, excluding himself. Is he planning to sweep this entire area and start anew?

Of course, he had no intention of letting that happen.

Whoosh…!!

Lenok extended his magic power to Grime’s magic, which had begun to unfold in front of him, and instantly grasped and took control of its flow.

Lenok’s magic, which had penetrated so easily, instantly stole all of Grime’s control and completely changed its direction.

At that moment, the movement of all magic power within this warehouse was under Lenok’s control.

He lifted it up.

Boom!

The shockwave, which had risen above Grime’s head, escaping his will, disappeared uselessly through the warehouse roof that [Thunder Calling] had smashed.

Just one exchange of attacks. A one-sided advantage.

It took quite a while for both of them to understand the result.

“Hehehe…”

Grime, who had been silent for a long time, let out a sinister chuckle.

“It’s an artifact, isn’t it?”

“…What?”

The mage gave a twisted sneer as he looked at Lenok’s dumbfounded face.

“I knew it from the first time I saw you. There’s no way a drifter who just cleans up after a pharmaceutical company would have this kind of power…!!”

“……..”

“You must have gotten lucky and found some incredible relic, but I’m not fooled. By now, all of your pathetic magic power must be depleted… Now it’s my turn.”

Lenok seriously considered for a moment whether he was spouting such nonsense to deceive him.

Was he mistaking the power of a treasure like an artifact, even after seeing him summon lightning and turn Gail into a rag?

‘But… his expression doesn’t lie.’

Lenok slowly scrutinized the mage’s face and finally realized the meaning of his words.

At least he might have believed it at first, but it was definitely not the case now.

Contrary to Grime’s confident tone, cold sweat was dripping down his forehead, and his eyes were shaking like crazy.

Even if he had dismissed Lenok’s magic as the power of some artifact and underestimated him, after experiencing the exchange just now, he would have no choice but to doubt it.

If the lightning he had just dropped on Gail’s head was actually his full power.

If the shock magic that had suddenly flown into the sky, deviating from his intention, was not actually a coincidence.

He was pushing that question to the back of his mind, still unable to be certain and feeling uneasy.

No. He was afraid.

The moment he realized that, the strange competitive spirit that had been burning in Lenok’s heart disappeared like a lie.

A proper mage? Wrong.

What stood before him was just a fool who couldn’t even trust his own senses and judgment.

A loser trapped in prejudice, who had an unknown sense of belonging and superiority, and who was only looking down on others from birth, without even trying to understand his opponent.

There was no need to listen any further.

Whoosh!!

With a blank expression, Lenok silently tilted his palm and seized the magic power he had laid down in advance.

The magic he had prepared solely to deal with the gang’s leader activated, and the darkness laid out inside the warehouse stirred.

Immediately after, the shadows that had been cast inside the warehouse, hidden by the dark moonlight, twitched greatly and then instantly bound his limbs and severed both of his wrists.

–Swoosh!!

The mage couldn’t even react.

In the blink of an eye, the staff he had been holding tightly fell to the floor uselessly, making a pathetic metallic sound.

He stared at his empty wrists with an unbelievable expression and then wailed.

“Kkyaaa!! Ah, ah, aaaa!!!”

There was no reason to drag it out.

Lenok calmly reloaded the revolver and placed his finger on the trigger.

Grime began to struggle as he watched Lenok slowly walk towards him.

His face was now filled with only the bewilderment of facing the reality he had been ignoring.

“U, ugh…!! H-how could this happen…!!”

They didn’t know, but from the moment Grime and Gail had followed him into the warehouse grounds, Lenok had been preparing this move.

The shadow-type common magic [Shadow Raid].

It exerted its most secretive power in the deep darkness, but the conditions were quite demanding in low-level Dexter [a term likely referring to a game or magic system].

It had the demanding conditions of only being able to manipulate the shadows extending from the caster’s feet and having a very slow deployment speed, but inside the warehouse, which was almost fused with the darkness, it would be the perfect means of ambush.

Grime’s preconceived notion that he was a lightning-type mage, and Lenok’s choice to appropriately utilize the surrounding environment, had perfectly aligned, ending the match in a single moment.

Grime might have thought he had grasped all of his capabilities, but in Lenok’s eyes, it was not the case at all.

For Lenok, who had been unconsciously expecting a fierce battle of wits and attacks from the moment they entered the warehouse, it was an anticlimactic ending.

Click.

As he brought the muzzle to his forehead, a clear emotion of fear finally appeared on his face, which had been arrogant throughout.

Only after seeing that did Lenok realize why he had not been shaken in this battle, and why he had been able to achieve such a one-sided victory.