Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 510

The Sniper’s True Worth (1)

“……!!!”

Vernon’s face turned pale as he realized he had narrowly avoided death.

This wasn’t a reaction from the realm of reason and judgment.

A chilling snipe, almost accidental, that he couldn’t perceive until just before it nearly pierced his heart.

The opponent was almost certainly aiming to kill Vernon with a single shot.

“Damn it, what the hell…!!”

Vernon cursed, his hand trembling faintly, as a long harpoon pierced through his entire shoulder.

“What is this? A javelin? Or a harpoon?”

“It’s an arrow.”

Soryu muttered, lightly touching his own neck.

“It’s just been amplified by massively increasing its size and strength. It’s definitely something used for sniping.”

He nodded, approaching Vernon without hesitation and touching the skewer that was lodged in his body and the floor.

“There are traces of friction from being drawn on a bowstring. It’s definitely been shot from a great bow.”

“Damn it, then that means….”

“It’s an archer with incredible skill.”

Soryu glanced back and said.

“Moreover, they are skilled at concealing their killing intent, to the point where none of us here could perceive their presence until right before the hit.”

“An 8-level monster, then.”

“You’re saying an archer who has reached the pinnacle is aiming at us right now….”

It was only natural that the atmosphere of Pandemonium changed subtly upon realizing that fact.

No one was unaware of how dangerous it was to be subjected to unilateral sniping without knowing the opponent’s location or abilities.

Lenok, who recognized who the opponent was as soon as he saw the first shot, felt much the same way.

‘I never thought I’d run into her here.’

He hadn’t imagined that the foreign power cooperating with Aegis’s operation would be her.

He thought she was living a semi-unemployed life after being fired from the Agency, but had she taken on a new job in the meantime?

Regardless of her situation, her skill was undoubtedly that of a master archer.

If the green-gem archer that Lenok knew was the one who had come as reinforcement, it was best to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Even in the Hangha Saimi Palace, where she couldn’t unleash her full power, Ivelyn had shown tremendous combat prowess.

Now that the stage was set for her to unleash her archery to its fullest potential, it was obvious how powerful her sniping would be-

Whoosh!!

At that moment, a sharp noise echoed in everyone’s ears.

A powerful presence, almost identical to the one that pierced Vernon, was now blatantly directed towards them without any attempt to hide it.

“A second snipe…!! What’s the direction?”

“Towards the statue!!”

“Are they targeting the Doctor?”

Unlike the first snipe, which was so silent that they didn’t even hear it, a black radiance flared, as if shaking the entire sky.

Maiya, who had been silently looking up, moved immediately.

Kiiing…!!

Three strands of mana, formed at Maiya’s fingertips, rotated and collided, becoming a pale flash, with the second arrow aimed at the statue’s head.

Maiya’s microcosm [a small, self-contained world created by a mage], which pierced through space, and Ivelyn’s snipe collided, creating a tremendous roar, and the surrounding air twisted and tore apart.

“……Hmph.”

Maiya snorted and exerted her power, causing the thick harpoon, which had been twisted once, to deflect and fly towards the back of the theater.

Boom!!

The power of the arrow, which fell diagonally, creating a huge circular hole and disappearing into the distance.

Even though Maiya had directly intervened, she could only manage to deflect its direction.

“Considering the term ‘Broken Arrow,’ the next target is probably….”

Soryu, realizing that the Aegis members, including the black visor, had retreated in an instant, raised his gaze towards the theater ceiling.

“The entire theater.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than an incredibly dense stream of mana began to rapidly enter everyone’s sensory range.

Black arrows, about the size of a forearm, smaller than the one that pierced Vernon, fell from all over the ceiling.

Thud thud thud!!!

The barrage of shots accurately struck the theater ceiling.

The impact tore off the entire streamlined roof of the theater, instantly revealing the dark night sky above the main hall.

“Shit!!!”

The statue’s arm, reaching up to the sky, withstood the impact, but even that wouldn’t last long.

As the statue’s arm vibrated and shook violently, as if it would break and fall, the Doctor immediately turned his gaze.

“Sabrina, Chebien. I’m counting on you.”

“Until the settlement is complete… there’s no other choice…”

“I came back after a long time, and this is what I get…!!”

At the same time as Chebien’s mannequin opened its mouth wide, countless threads burst out from within, heading towards the collapsing theater ceiling.

These were threads of thought, used for puppet manipulation, a concept different from the mana manipulation used by Lenok.

By attaching the threads to the collapsing theater ceiling, they temporarily maintained its shape.

And by borrowing the power of the language magic within the theater, Sabrina activated her language magic again.

[Bind together.]

The theater roof, collapsing under the indiscriminate rain of arrows, began to be restored in real-time with the power of the two mages.

Crack!!!

They couldn’t completely restore or block the entire theater, but it was enough to offset the immediate rain of arrows to some extent.

However, Soryu shook his head coldly even as he watched.

“It’s just a barrage with reduced power to spread over a wide area. It won’t hold for long.”

“If they start shooting javelins again, it won’t hold at all.”

“Range, power, speed, and precision. It’s an absurd level of archery. Do you have any idea who it is?”

“There’s only one monster with that level of skill among the archers active near Vulcan.”

Maiya said, lightly jumping down from the cracked theater ceiling.

A faint smile, which had never been seen before, appeared on her face.

“It seems the Agency’s Master Archer has come as reinforcement.”

“Oh, so it’s Ivelyn Marcia….”

The Doctor also immediately understood Maiya’s words and let out a meaningful smile.

They had faced each other once in the Hangha Saimi Palace and competed for the Cradle.

“The foreign power we heard from him was two people. It’s safe to assume that there’s at least one more superhuman with tactical value equal to the Master Archer.”

“……You’re saying there’s another monster like the Master Archer outside this city right now?”

“…….”

Whoosh!!

The arrow that landed at Maiya’s feet pierced the hard floor of the hall, twisting and splitting the stone as it spun.

Hundreds of arrows rained down relentlessly on the theater. The power of just one of them was this much.

Everyone fell silent at the sight of the rain of death falling from the night sky, relentlessly pounding the area around the theater.

The power exerted by an 8-level marksman after sufficient preparation and warm-up.

Everyone was acutely aware of how absurd their power, range, and firing distance were.

Logier and Chebien silently looked at each other and nodded.

“A monster. Let’s get out of here.”

“I wholeheartedly agree….”

Now that the interim settlement was over, there was no reason to stay here and fight against the Special Task Force Aegis.

Moreover, the one supporting them was an archer who could fire a shot sharper than any sniper the members of the Demonic Labyrinth had ever faced.

The current situation was nothing less than a stage set for Ivelyn Marcia to unleash her full power.

“Maiya, how many times can you block it?”

“The one that was shot at Vernon? I don’t know.”

Maiya shrugged and replied indifferently.

“It’s different from the Labyrinth. The firing range where the Master Archer can unleash her full power. If I try to block it head-on, I can’t guarantee even ten shots.”

Regardless of how versatile Ivelyn could be in close combat, her essence was undoubtedly that of an archer who had reached a transcendent level.

The snipes fired from an immeasurably distant range, where even her location and distance were unknown, were powerful enough to be difficult for even Maiya to block head-on.

“It’s best to avoid them at all costs, but I guess that’s going to be difficult.”

Maiya’s gaze turned towards the huge statue where the Doctor was sitting.

What did it mean that she was pouring such powerful archery into this theater?

A declaration of war that she would completely destroy the statue that the Doctor had made himself. They couldn’t just run away knowing that.

The Doctor, who had been deep in thought after hearing Maiya’s words, spoke.

“Open a gate.”

“A gate? Can you do it?”

“If I consume the karma of the old world that I’ve settled so far, I can do it once. But it will take time.”

The tuft of fur’s bright blue eyes scanned the room.

“Someone has to step up and draw their attention. Can you do that?”

* * *

Whoosh!!

A cold wind blew through the early morning.

A wide-ranging rain of arrows, covering the entire theater, was relentlessly pouring down on the bombed area.

Two men were walking down the main street in front of the theater, which had become a path of thorns.

A masked mage covered in a black robe and a young man with an icy expression.

“Blood-Nose and Logier are at the back gate, Sabrina and Chebien are doing maintenance, Maiya is responding to the snipes….”

Soryu said, dodging the arrows that grazed his ear without even looking at them.

“Excluding the injured Vernon. Our role is to draw attention by pretending to break through.”

Drrrrk!!

The arrows that grazed their feet pierced and shattered the pavement like drills.

The environment had become so harsh in an instant that it felt like a bombardment rather than arrows falling from all directions.

“…….”

“What are you looking at?”

Soryu asked, having snapped another arrow he had caught in half.

Lenok put the small piece of paper he had been staring at into his pocket.

“It’s nothing.”

Information about the famous martial artists of the 1st world that he had obtained through a deal with Vernon.

He had been looking at it briefly, but there wasn’t much he could learn from just skimming it in such a short time.

For now, he had no choice but to focus on what he had to do.

They walked out of the theater’s main gate and stood on a bridge over the river that ran through the satellite city of Beirut.

As they stood on the bridge with the cold water flowing beneath them, the visor-wearing members revealed their presence, as if by appointment, surrounding the two men from all over the bridge.

[A manipulator-type special mage and a royal of Kabahim.]

The black visor, perched on the edge of the bridge, tilted his head slowly and spoke through a voice amplifier.

[You’re moving slower than I expected. I thought you’d crawl out much faster than this.]

Soryu replied with a cold expression.

“You know about us.”

[Do you really think your identities wouldn’t be revealed when you walk around so openly?]

The black visor said, tossing and catching something that looked like a syringe in one hand.

[It’s the same even if you cover your faces. The really important and core information can’t be hidden.]

“…….”

[Unless you’re a monster who can calculate, judge, and act on everything in every moment, or a psychopath with multiple personalities inside you. Expressions, tone, gestures, breathing, footsteps, minor habits, and routines can sometimes be more accurate than biometric information when identifying someone.]

The black visor slowly turned his gaze, emanating a tremendous amount of compressed mana from his body.

[You came out here to find out the sniping position of the Broken Arrow, right? If you don’t observe the position of the arrows from all directions and measure the distance, it’s hard to even guess the coordinates where the sniping is taking place.]

At the same time, the members slowly closed the distance towards Lenok and Soryu.

[So, we’re just going to hunt down the scattered members of Pandemonium one by one here.]

Aegis thought they had deliberately come outside to track Ivelyn’s location.

If they didn’t anticipate the Doctor’s plan, that was fine too.

“It seems like we don’t have anything more to say to each other, but let me ask you one last question before we start.”

Lenok asked, glancing down at the river flowing below.

[I’m listening.]

“The foreign unit you brought. I heard there were two of them, where is the other one right now?”

Silence fell.

The black visor stood up and tilted his head slightly.

[Shall we leave that as a pleasure for later?]

“A pleasure for later….”

Lenok quietly mulled over those words and chuckled.

“I guess I asked a useless question.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the river flowing under the bridge exploded.

Kwaaaang!!

The explosions that erupted from under the river, as if a series of planted bombs had detonated, surged up as dozens of huge water spouts.

Before the Aegis members could react to the sudden explosion, Soryu immediately followed up by drawing up mana and releasing a powerful chill.

Crack!!!

The huge water spouts that had risen from all directions froze, creating countless ice flowers all over the bridge.

Seeing the huge ice sculptures that had filled the area in an instant, Lenok clenched his fist once more. The ice flowers burst out again, scattering countless ice fragments.

Thousands upon thousands of ice fragments poured down, covering the bridge’s sky.

Amidst them, Soryu’s body melted away, turning into a handful of ice and disappearing. He instantly stirred among the members standing on the bridge.

Kagagak!!!

Lenok connected the ice fragments with his mana threads, and Soryu used his bloodline ability, ice manipulation, to control the fragments attached to the mana threads.

He attached them all over the bridge, covering the battlefield with mana threads and clusters of cold fragments, instantly taking control of the battlefield with their power.

[He’s an ice ability user, everyone focus!!]

[He’s a bloodline ability of the Kabahim royal family. It’s said to be a power passed down from a different realm than magic, a realm of supernatural abilities.]

[Were you aiming for a chance to change the game from the beginning? Could it be that we were deliberately lured near the river…!!]

The Aegis members also quickly assessed the situation and tried to respond to the two men’s actions.

However, it was impossible to dodge all of the cold storms that Soryu was unleashing as he melted his body, and the movements of the mana threads he was wielding.

[Ugh…!!]

[It’s over, give up on this side!!]

In an instant, they swallowed up three or four members on both sides of the bridge, cutting off their limbs and freezing the wounds.

Their combat skills were so refined that they wouldn’t easily give up their lives in the face of Lenok and Soryu’s sudden preemptive attack.

Nevertheless, the wounds they had created in a brief opening quickly froze and began to paralyze the members, making it difficult for them to participate in the battle for the time being.

Soryu and Lenok’s figures crossed, and the flow of cold and mana threads spun and burst wildly on the bridge.

Hot blood splattered from all directions, freezing and shattering under the bridge.

A beautiful illusion of a scene where blood-stained snowflakes fluttered and fell.

However, the two men were not just focused on maintaining their breathing and stalling for time.

“I’ll take the black one.”

Chiiik…!!

Soryu said, turning half of his body into a block of ice and stepping forward.

“You take care of the bugs.”