The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 124

The nine of them positioned themselves as if to surround the three of us.

We stood back-to-back, ready for battle.

“It seems you have no intention of handing over the glass flower peacefully.”

The man who appeared to be the leader of the coalition, Paul, a 4th-circle mage from the Canadian team, said in a cold voice.

“In that case, we’ll take it by force.”

As Paul took a step forward, the other eight also stepped forward simultaneously.

Two steps each.

After positioning themselves to somewhat surround us, they began to manipulate their mana.

The spells were rapidly taking shape.

I moved my mana to counter their spells.

Not that I was trying to defend, exactly.

What I was doing was, literally, countering.

In other words, a counterattack.

Defense wasn’t my role in this party.

“Soon-chan.”

“Got it!”

Soon-chan lowered his stance and slammed both hands onto the ground.

Kooong-!

The sound of the impact between Soon-chan’s palms and the floor echoed loudly.

Woong, woong!

The resonance of mana.

The mana flowing from Soon-chan’s palms soon enveloped the three of us, forming a sphere.

“Do you really think you can stop us with such a simple defensive spell?”

Paul laughed mockingly.

His expression clearly scoffed at the idea that their combined attack could be stopped by a mere 4th-circle defense spell.

“Yeah. I think I can stop you?”

Soon-chan smiled, just like Paul.

His expression seemed to mock Paul for underestimating his magic.

“…You’re being cocky, merchant.”

“What? You even investigated me? That’s kind of nice, actually. It means I’m on the list of people you need to watch out for, right?”

Whirr, whirr!

Whoosh-!

At that moment, the nine mages completed their spells.

Four fire spells and five wind spells.

Perhaps because they had put time and effort into it, the 3rd and 4th circle spells were quite powerful.

‘The synchronization rate is considerable.’

The spells seemed as if they were designed to be used together from the start.

They didn’t feel like spells hastily prepared by a coalition formed by chance today.

‘Did they form a coalition before the match started?’

It’s not easy to cast spells with that level of synchronization.

Judging by the completion of the spells, they must have prepared for at least two days.

In other words, there’s a high probability that they formed an alliance two days ago.

‘If that’s the case…’

My eyes flashed sharply.

All sorts of hypotheses flashed through my mind regarding this situation.

But that was only for a moment.

‘No, it could still be speculation. It’s not too late to draw conclusions after observing the situation a bit more.’

I temporarily erased the hypothesis that had just come to mind.

Dealing with this situation was the priority now. Organizing my thoughts could come later.

Whirr, whirrrrrrrrr!

The wind and fire spells combined to form a storm of flames.

A spell containing the mana of nine people.

It was a powerful spell with a force that couldn’t be stopped by a normal 4th-circle defense spell.

No, it would be difficult to stop even with a 5th-circle spell.

The combined spell contained that much high-level mana.

“Impressive. It might be slightly more powerful than Hayul’s magic.”

But.

That was only true for the defensive spells of ordinary mages.

“But that’s all it is.”

That didn’t apply to Soon-chan.

Soon-chan grinned and manipulated his mana.

At that moment, the barrier, which had been in the form of a sphere, changed.

It became angular in places, and the contrast between light and shadow deepened.

Woong!

Soon-chan’s barrier soon transformed into a 24-sided polyhedron.

The amount of mana it contained was the same, but the density was completely different from before.

Kwaaaaaang-!

The 24-sided barrier and the coalition’s magic collided, creating an ear-splitting roar.

“The only thing that’s better than Hayul’s magic is its power.”

Soon-chan’s barrier, which I thought would be shattered to pieces, remained unmoved.

Its appearance was like a solid fortress.

“…It’s holding?”

“Everything else is inferior to Hayul’s magic.”

Soon-chan smiled from the center of the solid fortress.

He looked like a capable general defending a castle all alone.

“Your magic can’t break through my shield.”

The storm of flames gradually lost its momentum and disappeared.

Quickly, very quickly.

The coalition’s combined magic turned into mana debris and scattered into the air.

“Senior Shinwoo.”

“I know.”

At that moment, Senior Kang Shinwoo and I moved.

Koo-oong-!

Senior Kang Shinwoo’s Shin-yeong [a martial art technique] shot out like a bullet, piercing through one side of the coalition’s encirclement.

“Ugh!”

“Cough!”

He delivered two punches and four kicks in succession to the three who were half-dazed.

The three screamed and flew into the air.

“!”

“You bastard!”

The coalition, now regaining their senses from Senior Shinwoo’s counterattack, moved to respond immediately.

However.

‘Earth Spikes.’

My actions were faster.

The mana I had scattered in advance while Soon-chan was focused on defense became earth spikes and attacked the invaders.

“Kuaaaak!”

“Kkeueup!”

The invaders screamed as they were hit directly by the earth spikes.

The earth spikes, fired at point-blank range, completely neutralized them.

Swish!

In the meantime, Senior Shinwoo moved again.

He lightly delivered a punch to the solar plexus of each of the invaders writhing in pain.

“Kkeueuk!”

“Keok!”

The invaders lost consciousness one after another.

“This is… !”

Perhaps he had read the earth spikes in advance.

Paul avoided the earth spikes by jumping into the air.

Paul’s Shin-yeong, floating in the air, free-fell towards me.

At the same time, mana was concentrated in his right hand.

It seemed he intended to fly towards me and then slam a spell into me at close range.

“Die!”

My vision was filled with red.

The red of the flames and the subtle red emitted by the fire-attribute mana created a rather dreamlike scene.

“Even so, telling me to die is a bit much.”

I extended my right hand towards the ball of fire flying towards me.

‘Targeted magic, Flare Buster.’

Just as the magic was about 3 meters away.

‘All the conditions for interference have been met.’

I moved my mana and transmitted my will to the Flare Buster that Paul had unleashed.

‘Interference.’

The processing ability of interference, which had evolved further after weaving the ring of truth, made even this possible.

‘Twist the trajectory of the magic by 150 degrees.’

At that moment, the direction of the Flare Buster was twisted by 150 degrees.

“… !”

The magic flew towards Paul, who was falling towards me.

Paul’s eyes trembled in shock, as if he had never imagined that his own magic would come back to him.

“Kuk!”

He somehow tried to manipulate his mana to block his own Flare Buster that had returned.

‘Too late.’

There was no way to block the Flare Buster in that situation, at that timing.

Kwaaaaaang-!

In the end, Paul couldn’t do anything.

He was hit directly by his own magic and flew back into the sky.

“Cough… cough.”

He crashed to the ground and rolled wildly.

Thud!

After rolling on the ground several times, he slammed into a wall.

He didn’t move.

He must have lost consciousness and fainted.

“This side is finished too.”

Senior Kang Shinwoo approached me and reported, as if he had confirmed that the other eight had fainted.

Beep!

[Canadian team eliminated]

[Competition score +30 points]

[Portuguese team eliminated]

[Competition score +30 points]

[Dutch team eliminated]

[Competition score +30 points]

A notification appeared on the terminal, announcing the elimination of three teams.

It was a notification like a buzzer signaling the end of the battle.

My tension eased somewhat.

“Hoo. They’re coming at us hard from the start.”

Soon-chan approached me with a look of utter exhaustion.

The defensive magic Soon-chan had just used was a kind of ultimate move that consumed a considerable amount of mental strength and mana.

It was only natural that he would be tired after using such a technique at maximum output.

“Hmm.”

Senior Kang Shinwoo frowned with a strange expression.

He looked like something was bothering him.

“That’s strange.”

“What’s strange?” Soon-chan tilted his head.

“Plunder is the act of literally ‘plundering’ the materials held by the opposing team. As such, battles for plunder usually occur in the later stages, not the early stages.”

“Because that’s when there’s more to take?”

“Right.”

It makes no sense to plunder in the early stages when you don’t have much.

It’s just a waste of time.

It’s more beneficial to collect or hunt to accumulate points during that time.

“Moreover, our team’s power is currently the strongest among the participating teams. It doesn’t make sense to target such a team from the very beginning.”

“It is strange when you think about it.”

Soon-chan’s expression also became serious.

“What do you think?”

Senior Shinwoo turned his gaze to me.

“I have the same thought as Senior Shinwoo. This attack is strange.”

I quickly organized my thoughts, recalling the information I had gained from the attack a moment ago.

“This is just my personal speculation, but the coalition’s goal is probably to hinder our team. Not to gain points by plundering.”

“…Hinder. Indeed. Was that it?”

Senior Shinwoo’s eyes lit up as if he understood immediately.

Having been born in Shinmugang [a powerful clan] and experienced all sorts of politics, he would have understood immediately.

“Hinder us? Why? What grudge do they have against us?”

On the other hand, Soon-chan still had a clueless expression.

For Soon-chan, who was not born into a mage family, such a political situation would have been difficult to understand.

“In short, they can’t allow us to break the record. That’s it.”

“Ah.”

Soon-chan’s eyes widened.

“They joined hands and formed a coalition to hinder us in order to prevent us from breaking the record?”

“Yeah.”

They wanted to avoid becoming the sacrifice for a new record at all costs.

That was the strong intention I felt from the attack.

“That’s a plausible hypothesis, but isn’t it a bit premature to conclude based on just one attack? They might have just thought they could handle a 9-on-3 situation…”

“There’s more evidence.”

I turned around and looked at the glass flower floating on the swamp-like ground.

“Earlier, those guys asked for the glass flower, but they didn’t even care about it.”

Soon-chan’s expression turned to one of realization.

“Come to think of it, that magic from earlier… the glass flower was also within the range of the attack.”

Would those who were trying to steal the glass flower not care if it was damaged?

“Right. They didn’t care whether the glass flower was damaged or not.”

“The fact that they didn’t care if the glass flower was damaged means they weren’t interested in the points. That’s it.”

“That’s right.”

The early attack that yielded no gain.

The fact that they asked for the glass flower but didn’t care if it was damaged.

Based on these things, it was clear that their goal was not to gain points, but to hinder us.

“Then, we’re in a rather difficult situation.”

Senior Kang Shinwoo’s expression became even more serious.

“Why? We’ve already defeated the coalition. Isn’t it all over?”

“Why do you think there’s only one coalition?”

“…There’s more?”

“Yes. There will definitely be more.”

Soon-chan frowned.

“In my opinion, there are at least ten more teams. There’s no way that only three teams would have formed a coalition when a powerful nation like Canada is involved.”

It was a fairly reasonable deduction.

But it was a bit clumsy.

“No. It’s not just about 10 teams.”

Kang Shinwoo missed the biggest piece of information that could be obtained from this attack.

“The coalition of attackers targeting us will be at least 20 teams… no, more than 30 teams.”

If my guess is correct, this situation is not a trivial matter.

There’s someone behind this.