At Damon’s warning, the guards tensed, tightening their grips on their weapons. There were
guards belonging to other mages as well, gathered there and waiting. The assembled guards
stood in three horizontal ranks, ready to meet the enemy. Every one of them was rigid
with tension. Who could possibly remain calm at the sight of nearly a hundred ogres and trolls
surging toward this place?
Having already launched one round of magical attacks, the mages were busy replenishing their mana,
their faces pale. They had realized at a glance that the scale of the mid-sized monsters rushing
this way was beyond what the guards could handle. If so, they had to inflict damage on
the creatures before that happened. Yet among them, there was one person alone who remained at ease:
Doyle.
“I suppose I should help Damon handle this.”
The more powerful the magic attack, the longer the casting time inevitably became. Glancing at
the other mages as they focused on casting with all their might, Doyle unfolded the spell he had
prepared in advance. It was by no means an offensive spell.
“Earth Shake.”
Ruuuumble.
With a roar, the ground began to shake violently. The solid dirt floor started to heave as though
it were waves.
“Kraaak!”
Because of it, the mid-sized monsters that had been charging fiercely lost their balance and toppled
over in heaps. Even those fortunate enough not to fall could not possibly keep their footing and
were forced to stagger about disgracefully. Running, of course, was out of the question. The nearby soldiers
also staggered from the tremors, but fortunately they did not suffer as great a shock as the ogres
that had been sprinting at full speed.
Doyle’s magic had precisely severed the middle of the charging ogre formation. Although
the ogres in the vanguard, unaffected by the spell, continued their charge,
Doyle paid them no mind. In the meantime, the mages who had finished casting began their attacks
one by one.
Whoooosh—boom!
Fireballs flew chaotically and exploded. Ogres whose bodies had caught fire roared
and thrashed about. Since friend and foe were densely packed together, unlucky allied soldiers
were caught in the flames as well.
“Aaagh!”
“S-save me!”
Because ogres possessed resistance to magic, this magical attack instead inflicted heavy damage
on their own side. At the sight of soldiers dying, the mages’ faces went pale. They could no longer
bring themselves to attack. One sorceress, abandoning her casting, hurriedly approached
Doyle.
“We should leave this place to the guards and withdraw.”
In such a situation, withdrawing was normally the planned course of action for mages. While the guards
held the mid-sized monsters back, the mages would retreat to safety and prepare their next attack.
If that happened, however, the delay between magical attacks would become extremely long.
Even so, since there was no other way to respond, the mages hurriedly prepared to withdraw.
Unexpectedly, however, Doyle, who was serving as the leader of the mage unit, did not permit
a retreat.
“If we do that, our allies’ casualties will be too great. Only by swiftly preparing the third volley
can we reduce the damage to our own forces.”
“B-but how are we supposed to stop those things?”
“They’re being stopped just fine right now.”
At Doyle’s carefree words, the sorceress turned her head and had no choice but to gape.
“H-heavens…”
An utterly unbelievable sight was unfolding there.
“Kwau!”
Two ogres collapsed helplessly in the very posture they had been running in. They had been struck
with a fatal blow at the outer corners of their eyes and had fainted. The outer corner of the eye was where
the Dongjaryo point, a vital point of the gallbladder meridian, was located.
It was one of the fatal acupoints that could make one lose consciousness outright from even
the slightest impact.
With a tremendous thud, an ogre sprawled onto the ground. There was no way the soldiers would
let such a fine opportunity pass. From every direction, soldiers swarmed in like bees.
“Haa!”
Because they had fainted, the fallen ogres could not even feel the pain of spearheads piercing
their skin. They literally departed this world while unconscious. Damon’s body was moving like the wind,
threading between the ogres that were charging toward him.
“Haat!”
Each time a flash of light flared from his hand, without exception, one or two ogres collapsed
helplessly. It was as though sheaves of millet were falling before a farmer’s sickle. The falling
ogres themselves had their eyes, as large as brass bowls, opened wide as if they could not believe
they had been taken down so absurdly. But since they had been struck squarely in the Yepung acupoint,
a vital point no less potent than Dongjaryo, there was no way they could remain standing.
Damon was now using Magic Missile in earnest. Dazzling light kept flaring from his right hand.
The light was bursting from the crystal orb embedded in the back of the gauntlet.
Thud.
Yet another ogre collapsed. Damon had merely brushed past and fired lightly, but the Magic Missile
had mercilessly suppressed the ogre’s Yeomcheon point.
The gauntlet he wore was one of the artifacts Doyle had poured his heart and soul into completing.
Though it was being used in actual combat for the first time, its power exceeded imagination.
It was Doyle’s masterpiece, created by cutting off the shaft of a magic staff and attaching
specially treated leather straps to it so it could be used as a substitute for a magic staff.
Of course, its magical power was inferior to that of ordinary magic staffs, but that was not
much of a problem for Damon. Having already reached the realm of the 3rd Circle through his contract
with the Demon King, Damon possessed sufficient ability. He had the ability to imbue even
an inefficient, modified magic staff with enough power for a Magic Missile to suppress acupoints.
After making his contract with the Demon King, Damon had become able to use dark mana as well,
and because of that, the power of his Magic Missile had improved by leaps and bounds. Moreover,
because the attacks were delivered in quick, glancing strikes from the closest possible range,
the ogres could not even think of dodging. They were, literally, helpless. Of course, because
Haste had been cast on him, the ogres could not even catch Damon’s shadow.
Under Damon’s ruthless hands, more than ten ogres lost their combat ability in an instant.
Although around thirty ogres and seventy trolls had charged in at first, considering that most of
the trolls were being held back by the soldiers’ desperate resistance, this could truly be called
an astonishing achievement. Of course, since half of the ogres had been delayed by Doyle’s Earth Shake,
Damon was able to act with relatively more ease.
“Haat!”
Once again, two ogres rolled across the ground. There was no need to strike death points and kill them
outright. If he merely suppressed points that induced unconsciousness and made them fall, the soldiers
arrayed around them would finish the job cleanly. By now, the soldiers were no longer recklessly
blocking the ogres from the front, but simply waiting for the creatures to fall.
“You can lie down too.”
As Damon approached with terrifying momentum, one ogre stopped its charge and hurriedly raised its hands
to cover its face. No matter how low an ogre’s intelligence might be, there was no way it had not seen
and learned how its companions had been dealt with until now. But the ogre’s body was far too huge.
Unfortunately for it, in Damon’s eyes, there were vital spots everywhere.
“Kuuuu.”
The ogre, which had taken a Magic Missile to each Yugeun point located at both nipples,
stiffened upright where it stood.
“You shouldn’t be standing, should you?”
As Damon lightly struck the back of its knee while passing by, the ogre’s massive body collapsed
just like that, and behind him the spearheads of soldiers, their courage redoubled, drove in again
and again.
“H-how can he do that…?”
The mages around Doyle had forgotten even to cast, their mouths hanging open at Damon’s performance.
Of course, the guards under the mages were the same.
What kind of monster was an ogre? Its hide was absurdly tough, and on top of that it had resistance
to magic, making it famously difficult to deal with. No matter how they thought about it,
it was absolutely not a monster that should be defeated so meaninglessly by a human. And yet
a mere guard was neutralizing ogres with such ease…
Doyle’s somewhat irritated rebuke reached their ears.
“What are you doing? Pour out the third volley.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
The mages hurriedly began casting attack spells. Even so, they were busy glancing sideways
at the sight of Damon cutting down ogres as though mowing grass.
The ogres that had been held back by Earth Shake were just then rushing toward this place, but from
the start, they were nothing more than prey for Magic Missile. While Damon held back the mid-sized
monsters in that manner, the mages finished preparing their third attack.
“Attack.”
At Doyle’s command, all kinds of magical attacks poured down simultaneously toward the orc army’s camp.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
A great explosion that shook the earth followed once again. Under the concentrated bombardment,
hundreds more orc infantry were slaughtered en masse. In a sense, mages might be even more efficient
than Sword Masters on the battlefield. No matter how outstanding the martial prowess of an individual
Sword Master, he could not inflict this level of damage on a multitude of enemies.
Having suffered grievous losses, the orc army sent all remaining ogres in this direction.
They had instinctively realized that unless they dealt with the mages, they had no chance of victory.
“Kyaooo!”
The ogres that had been locked in battle with the soldiers all pulled away at once and began sprinting
toward this side. But the watching mages were not particularly worried this time. Naturally, it was
because they trusted in Damon’s performance.
“Damon will stop those. Therefore, all of you, prepare the fourth attack.”
After giving the command in a low voice, Doyle hurriedly tried to begin casting a spell. At that moment,
his senses detected an enormous flow of mana. He felt an unimaginable amount of mana concentrating
on one spot within the orc army’s camp.
“W-what is this?”
Doyle’s eyes widened. For this much mana to gather meant that some tremendous spell was being prepared.
The problem was the scale of the mana being gathered. Even the mana the mages had drawn together
was being sucked toward the orc army’s camp. At this level, it could not possibly be human magic.
Doyle hurriedly abandoned his casting and shouted like a thunderbolt.
“Cease your attacks and scatter in all directions! Now!”
Perhaps she had not grasped the situation, for the sorceress from before wore a puzzled expression.
“But your guard is blocking them well, Mage-nim… Why?”
“Can you not feel the flow of mana gathering in the orc army’s camp?”
“Surely not… Hah!”
Only then did she seem to sense the flow of mana, and the sorceress’s face turned pale. Because her level
was lower than Doyle’s, she could not help but notice the presence of mana later than he did.
The mages, terrified out of their wits, hurriedly began scattering. Judging by the amount of mana gathering,
there was no telling what level of attack would be unleashed.
“Why are they doing that?”
Damon glanced back, and his eyes widened. After repelling the entire first attack group,
he had been waiting for the second wave of monsters to arrive when he happened to look toward
where the mages were, only to witness an unexpected scene. The mages, including his master,
were not even thinking of attacking and were fleeing in every direction. By all rights, they should have
been in the middle of launching the fourth volley. Yet far from attacking, they were scattering
in all directions, looking like a herd of rabbits ambushed by a lion.
But before he could even voice his doubt, he felt an immense presence of mana behind his back.