Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 364

Fwaaaang!! The power within the statue was so intense that cracks spiderwebbed across the evil god statue’s limbs, and its body crumbled. The statue, dormant for so long in the Ascendant’s maze, had reached its breaking point.

“……!!”

Only then did the others, finally grasping Jaun’s plan, gape in shock.

Breaking ahead on this vast bridge wasn’t easy. Its width made blocking one side impossible, and the individuals gathered were not to be underestimated.

That’s why Jaun Audiss had teamed up with Balak, the level 8 esper, to take the lead. Balak would feign blocking the way, engaging Maiya, making passage difficult due to the ensuing chaos.

Meanwhile, Jaun would subtly weaken the gravity field he’d set up, clearing a path for himself. He’d then use the evil god statue’s momentum to surge ahead.

Realizing the full picture, Maiya glared at Balak, her gaze icy.

“You were in league with that gem mage from the start. You, who claim to be beyond rank, have no pride, ceding the vanguard to that guy?”

“Isn’t that a bit rich coming from you, milady?” Balak said, smiling as he dusted off his sleeves.

“After all, you didn’t enter this maze of your own free will.”

“…….”

“If I remember your personality correctly, you wouldn’t have come all the way to the Northern Continent just for the Ascendant’s relics. And I don’t think you’re desperate enough to seek answers from the Ascendant now…”

Balak sneered.

“That friend said if I helped him take the lead, he’d find the relics and tell me separately.”

Huuuuuung!!

With those words, a purple light erupted from Balak, forming a massive pillar. A powerful vortex of gravitational pull spun around him. Amidst the fierce storm, enough to make Maiya’s expression change, Balak continued.

“If I get that information, I don’t care if the maze collapses or not.”

“You crazy bastard… that gem mage is half-consumed by resentment!! Do you think he’ll keep his promise even after he enters the cradle [a metaphor for the final stage or goal]?”

“It’s a gamble worth taking if I can get all of the Ascendant’s legacy.”

Balak replied, slowly getting into position. He was completely different from before, when he was barely fending off Maiya’s attacks.

“Although Jintun was frugal in life, there should still be artifacts he used after challenging the Ascension. The vanguard needs such symbolic items.”

“You… you’ve changed.”

Maiya muttered.

“You, who only cared about yourself, are now talking about sacrificing yourself for the group?”

“We are all human beings.”

Balak replied.

His eyes now held a depth of weight that was impossible to fathom.

“I realized too late that for humans to be human, to live as people, they must dedicate themselves to a goal greater than themselves.”

“…….”

“All of this is atonement for my foolishness.”

“Ha, your mouth is just full of sage-like words.”

Maiya gritted her teeth and stepped forward.

“If you had thought even a little bit like that before the Ascension Gate!!!”

Kwaaaang!!

Amidst the shattering fragments of magic, Balak shouted.

“It’s too late! Once Jaun Audiss passes through the gate, there’s no more business in this maze…?!”

Balak, who had turned his head towards the gate with a triumphant shout, suddenly stopped speaking.

“Wait, what is that… ?”

“What?”

Maiya, following Balak’s gaze, unknowingly opened her mouth slightly.

Jaun was flying through the air above the bridge at incredible speed, propelled by the evil god statue’s throw. Right behind him, an arrow of a different color was chasing him.

Swaeeek!!

The faces of the two people riding that arrow looked particularly familiar to Maiya.

“Ivelin…?”

[Hmm, this is unexpected.]

The furball, who had been rolling around below the empty ballista [a large crossbow-like weapon], sighed.

[95 points. An idea that is not only bold but also extremely radical. But… it’s incredibly effective.]

They had tied themselves to the arrow shot from the ballista and launched themselves. The ballista’s arrow, timed perfectly with the weakening gravity field, was now catching up to Jaun at supersonic speed.

Kugwagwagwagwa!!!

The power to draw the ballista’s string was a combination of Lenok’s shooting support magic, Ivelin’s longbow, and the monster bike’s engine power. The resulting throwing power far surpassed that of the evil god statue used by Jaun.

Thanks to that, Lenok and Ivelin, who had started two breaths after Jaun, were now exceeding his speed.

“Ugh…!!”

Lenok, clinging to the carapace spear launched from the ballista, felt nauseous but channeled his magic power. He continuously applied common magic like air resistance reduction, throwing acceleration, and friction reduction to maintain the initial throwing power as much as possible.

Ivelin had landed lightly on the carapace spear, glaring at Jaun with sharp eyes.

Jaun, flying towards the gate at a terrifying speed, using his robe as a glider, glanced back, his expression twisting like a demon.

“Annoying bastards… how long are you going to keep following me!!”

“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ivelin replied nonchalantly, rummaging through her waist.

“You were the one who approached us first with a deal. We just want to finish the conversation we couldn’t have back then.”

“Ha, damn it…”

Jaun, letting out a hollow laugh, clenched more than five colorful gems between his fingers and replied.

“So, what’s your answer?”

“Negotiations failed.”

Kkiiiiik!!

Ivelin, nocking an arrow on her short bow and pulling the string with all her might, smiled.

“It’s an agent’s policy not to negotiate with terrorists.”

There was no reply.

The gems Jaun scattered exploded with a dazzling light.

Kwagwagwagwang!!

Ivelin broke through the colorful gem dust and released the string. The arrow turned into a streak of light, drawing a sharp trajectory.

Swaeek!!

Aimed shot that curved down below Jaun’s flight, targeting his back. The polygonal barrier created by breaking the gems tried to protect Jaun’s body, but it wasn’t enough.

With a sound like a drumbeat, a shockwave occurred, and Ivelin’s arrow, penetrating the barrier, pierced Jaun’s body.

Puuuk!!

Jaun’s flesh was torn apart, scattering blood. But immediately after, his corpse disappeared as if it were fading away.

Ivelin’s expression faltered slightly as she realized she’d been deceived by an illusion, and Lenok, hanging on the arrow shaft and feeling nauseous, shouted.

“Further ahead!”

“……!!”

Was scattering the gem dust to deceive Ivelin’s senses? Jaun, reappearing unharmed at least tens of meters away, mocked her.

“Archers rely on their sight at the last moment. If I can just blind your eyes, it’s my victory. It’s not much further now!”

Swaeeeeeek!!

The bridge, which had seemed endless, was now close to the gate, a huge gate connecting the sky and the earth. The three figures, shot out at near supersonic speed, were rapidly closing the distance.

“…….”

Ivelin’s eyes cooled down. Lenok was already struggling to maintain the speed of the huge carapace arrow. Intercepting and stopping Jaun was solely her responsibility.

Having even modified her longbow into a ballista, all that was left were a few arrows and a short bow attached to her forearm.

Even though she clearly recognized that all conditions were overwhelmingly unfavorable, Ivelin calmed her mind instead of panicking.

Jaun was wrong. For someone who wields a bow, what was important was not eyesight, but the composure to not be shaken in any situation.

The process of aiming at a target and pulling the string was a kind of spiritual practice. Only those who understood the essence of knowing the shaking and then not shaking could firmly pull the string even when a blade was right in front of them.

Ivelin, taking out four arrows at once from her waist, rotated her waist firmly.

Kkiiiiik…!!!

The short bow bent sharply until it broke, and the veins popped out on her forearm, which was brushing against her expressionless face.

After nocking four arrows between her pale fingers, she fired them.

Kwajik!!

As the short bow shattered, four streaks of black light crossed the air.

“It’s useless…!!”

Jaun, gritting his teeth and twisting his body in the air, crossed his arms and scattered more than a dozen gems into the air.

Kugugugung!!

Two explosions, three layers of barriers, a boost to add propulsion, and the summoning of armor to protect Jaun’s body. Even the appearance of a golem that had risen from the fragments on the bridge.

The true nature of a gem mage who can freely cross various systems if he has gems as a medium. Various spells that crossed attributes and systems in exchange for rarity and capital were deployed to interfere with Ivelin’s concentration.

No matter how elegant and precise the trajectory of the five arrows was, it would be impossible to break through this level of defense in a short time.

‘If I can just get inside the gate first, I’ll win. If I can just hold out until then…!’

It was practically the last chance for Ivelin. To make even that one move futile, he forcibly used more than half of his remaining gems.

That was what Jaun thought as he crouched down and tried to accelerate further.

At that moment, the four streaks of light, which had been shot in one direction, began to rotate in different directions.

Kiriririk!!

Each of the four streaks drew different trajectories, accurately targeting only one point of the barrier. The four streaks of light, bending in a long way, broke through the gem spell’s explosion and the barrier like paper, squeezing through the gaps in the armor with a time difference.

Kagagagak!!!

“………!!!”

An unbelievable precision shot that manipulated the direction of the already fired arrows. Jaun’s face began to turn pale at the fatal concentrated attack.

An unbelievable archery that accurately targeted and chipped away at only one point of the barrier he thought was thorough. And to possess this level of accuracy and penetration while flying through the air at incredible speed, was it even possible?

“Damn it…!!! Just a little more!!”

Jaun, taking out the remaining gems from his pocket, desperately tried to block Ivelin’s arrows by quickly deploying a gem shield.

Eudeudeudeuk!!

The last arrow finally broke against the series of hard gem barriers.

Jaun’s face filled with joy as he confirmed the shattered arrow shaft was quickly scattering and disappearing.

“It’s over… Hahaha!!”

He had definitely confirmed that Ivelin’s short bow had broken the moment she shot the four arrows, so what was there to fear?

Jaun, bursting into laughter, was about to accelerate forward, fluttering his robe with the flight spell on it.

“Not yet.”

Huuuuung!!

In the meantime, the carapace spear, having caught up to Jaun’s speed, quickly closed the distance between Ivelin and Jaun. Lenok, focusing on accelerating while hanging on the spear, had finally caught up to the distance Jaun had created.

Click!

There was no longbow, and the short bow was broken, but there were still arrows left. If there was one arrow left, held in his bare hand, it was enough.

In the sensation of the arrow shaft brushing past his hand, he scattered it as if he were possessed.

The arrow shaft, having reached the limit of the small universe’s inertial bias, left Ivelin’s hand and flew slowly.

It slipped through the arrow fragments that had been scattered after breaking, heading towards Jaun, and accelerated four times. The black streak of light, drawing four reflection angles, pierced Jaun’s left shoulder and reached beyond it.

Pueok!!

The exact same area Ivelin had pierced when they first encountered each other in the maze. Jaun’s expression twisted like a demon as he realized he had accurately broken the joint of the robe that maintained the lift.

Jaun, losing the robe’s flight ability and beginning to fall rapidly, roared.

“Marsiaaaaaaa!!!”

“Aja!”

Ivelin, clenching her fist and rejoicing, then picked up Lenok, who was on the verge of fainting, and pulled him onto the spear.

Lenok, trembling with a nauseated expression, smiled weakly.

“You… did a good job.”

“Hehe, it’s nothing.”

While Ivelin was giving a sheepish smile, Lenok, taking an ampoule from his pocket, plugged it into his shoulder and sighed.

“Huu… Now that the flight spell has been broken, it will be hard for them to catch up to us. Trying to fly again with pure magic power is too inefficient.”

Even Jaun, possessing a variety of gem spells, had to borrow the boost of the evil god statue and the gliding ability of the robe to fly at that speed.

That’s how difficult it was for humans to fly in the sky with their bare bodies in this world’s spell system. To be precise, it wasn’t impossible, but high-speed flight suitable for an esper was so inefficient in terms of magic power that it was ridiculous.

To fly at near supersonic speed and nullify the related side effects and resistance, there were more than one or two things to deal with.

“We’ll probably be the first ones to go inside.”

Lenok, turning to look at Ivelin, nodded while catching his breath.

Lenok’s judgment, accurately targeting the fleeting gap amidst the fierce fighting of all the espers, was not wrong.

If he didn’t have a secret plan to break through the maze, he would carefully observe the person who had obtained that opportunity and catch up at the end.

Lenok had never forgotten that Jaun had a different information advantage in this maze from the beginning to the end, and he had done his best to exploit it.

Because he had not forgotten the most important thing, he was able to make wise decisions without being shaken even amidst the clash between Balak and Maiya.

In the process, he had taken a gamble by dismantling not only Ivelin’s longbow but also Lenok’s bike, but at this point, could it be said that it was wrong?

At that moment, when Ivelin was about to nod with a bright expression.

[No, not yet.]

A leisurely low-pitched voice echoed in the ears of the two.

[There’s still one chance left on this side.]

“……!!”

Above the carapace spear that was accelerating without rest. Lenok and Ivelin’s gazes simultaneously turned towards the back of the bridge they had passed.

In that view, already thousands of meters away, Ivelin’s excellent eyesight accurately confirmed the appearance of the furball that had spoken to them.

Maiya, clutching the limp furball, was looking this way with a dagger in her hand.

Puuuk!!

She stabbed the dagger into the furball’s heart.