My intuition began pounding like a drum. Of course it did—right now, the splitting jellyfish filled my entire field of vision.
My intuition was so accurate that I felt like I could tell exactly how many there were.
Roughly 128. Ah, one just got killed by its own kind, so 127.
“Whew... Is there no way to avoid this fight?”
“With this much aggro drawn, not a chance until it wears off.”
At my voice, heavy with a sigh, Eosollujeun answered while drawing up her mana.
Eosollujeun didn’t lament, nor did she scold me; she simply did her best with what had happened. Magic rose from her body.
Seeing that, I stopped complaining too.
Since it had happened, all that was left was to deal with it.
Click.
A magic bullet slid into the pistol with a crisp loading sound. The jellyfish were quite large, so I wasn’t sure how effective it would be... but it was still better than nothing.
In any case, my main weapon was the mana rifle.
The rifle that had been slung across my back was somehow already in my hands, aimed at the multiplying jellyfish.
“What support magic are you going to use?”
“A thin barrier to block their approach. It won’t stop them completely; it’ll just get in their way and slow them down.”
“...Sounds like tower defense.”
“It should serve as reliable support.”
In tower defense, you needed a good ability to stall the enemies swarming in.
And among those, anything that slowed enemies was always evaluated as a broken character...
Eosollujeun was definitely a great help. To begin with, there had been too many crises where I would have died without her.
Somehow, I felt reassured. Should I say I felt like I could fight with a little more peace of mind?
“...They’re coming.”
ㄴTruth Scholar: Do you have a plan?
A plan... I thought about Truth Scholar’s words, but there was no way I had something like that.
But I did have my intuition’s whisper.
“For now... I’m going to fire the rifle at maximum output.”
ㄴTruth Scholar: As you know, the rifle won’t even hold out two more shots at maximum output now. With the mana distribution from just now, the total amount has increased even more.
Seeing Truth Scholar’s chat, a corner of my chest ached.
The materials for the mana rifle weren’t difficult to gather, but... even so, using it once and throwing it away consumed far too many materials.
To the point where it would be hard to use mana rifles from now on.
That thought only lasted a moment. Soon, the swarm of jellyfish came surging in.
Blue-glowing jellyfish filled my vision. Eosollujeun immediately stretched out her hand and murmured softly.
“...Activate.”
Wooooong—!!
With a sound as if time itself were slowing, the jellyfish pressed in more slowly than before.
Among them, toward the very front, where the greatest number of jellyfish had gathered. I stretched out my hand.
The black muzzle on the white barrel pointed at them.
Whiiiiiiir—!!!
It compressed mana even more violently than before, and in even greater quantities. Even without firing, the mana rifle shone green.
‘Not yet... Not yet.’
The distance was a little too far. At this rate, it would inflict less damage.
When they came a little closer, I would erase every jellyfish in a straight line.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Aurora?? That thing... is going to explode!
ㄴHealingIsViolence: Wh-what are you doing? That thing’s gonna blow!
Even as the chat window rapidly scrolled up, I focused on my intuition.
The situation where it would explode, and the situation where I would sweep away as many jellyfish as possible. I sensed those two possibilities.
And then, how much time passed?
The timing aligned. And what followed was—
The trigger pull.
Kwaaaaang!!!
“Kgh...!”
A green beam, more violent and destructive than before, surged forward.
It burst through the soft flesh of the jellyfish and advanced without obstruction.
And the mana beam did not simply move forward.
It refracted through the jellyfish flesh, branching out like tree limbs.
As it refracted, refracted, and refracted again, some of it lost its power, but...
“...With that attack just now, roughly sixty percent of the jellyfish died.”
“It was certainly... strong.”
The center of the jellyfish swarm had been hollowed out. The jellyfish pierced by the refracted beams seemed to have lost vital organs, drooping and melting away.
With a single blow, I had killed nearly seventy of them.
However...
ㄴHealingIsViolence: You okay?
“...No, it hurts like hell.”
The right palm that had been gripping the rifle was completely burned. With an intense searing pain, blood dripped down.
I should refrain from doing something stupid like blasting at maximum output... This time couldn’t be helped, but if I did this again, I doubted it would end well.
My hand throbbed with pain... but the battle still wasn’t over.
There were still forty left.
“Whew... Guess I’ll have to give up on the Heizen Style.”
My dominant hand was my right, and I had injured that right hand. I couldn’t even grip the scabbard properly... The swordsmanship I’d manage would probably be worse than not using it at all.
With that judgment, I drew my sword with my left hand. Should I be thankful it was a one-handed sword?
If I combined the acceleration assist device, Heizen Style Form Three, and precision magic...
“I can make it work somehow.”
“...Aurora, please don’t get hurt any more. ......Please.”
“What did you say at the end?”
“Nothing, I said to do your best.”
It felt somewhat strange, but now was the time to focus on the splitting jellyfish.
They were still floating toward me. No, they seemed faster than before.
Had they sensed danger, or was it anger at their kin being struck down?
I didn’t need to know. In this place, if you didn’t kill, you died.
“I’m going.”
Mana began circulating through my entire body. My sleeping muscles awakened one by one, and strength naturally filled the hand gripping my sword.
Form Three was a sword technique that could be used even with the sword already drawn.
Form Three, Supernova.
Kwaaaang!!
An explosion of mana erupted from the back of the blade, and the distance to the jellyfish closed in an instant.
The jellyfish did not think, but that did not mean even their instincts were dull. They did not miss prey that entered their range.
The tentacles that had instantly killed the Cyclops rushed toward my neck.
Swaaaak—!
They moved as fast as poisoned needles, but—
“Accelerate, Supernova.”
Kwaang!!
With the acceleration device and the explosive force of the sword added together, before the tentacles could even reach me, every last one was sliced away.
A jellyfish with no means to attack. That was just a lump of flesh.
With only a few simple swings, what had been a jellyfish returned to being chunks of meat.
“...Just a few more times.”
The acceleration of the sword, the acceleration of the device. With those, I flew between the jellyfish like an eagle.
The tentacles were far too slow to touch anything; instead, the tentacles blocking my path were cut apart.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Huh... You’ve gotten way too strong, haven’t you?
ㄴHealingIsViolence: No doubt, she has gotten stronger.
But... even picking off the jellyfish one by one had its limits.
“Whew... whew...”
ㄴKkukku: You’re surrounded. You’d better be careful.
Damn, I hadn’t thought about an escape route... Since I was acting according to my intuition, I’d gotten absorbed in nothing but sweeping away the jellyfish faster.
Around me, the jellyfish tentacles hung down like the curtain of a circular stage.
If I got caught in those tentacles... I’d die. My body wasn’t stronger than a Cyclops’s, after all.
I racked my brain. I thought of the means I could use.
‘...Magic bullets!’
I had a magic bullet that could grind down enemies behind me. A weapon that could at least break through one section!
I immediately groped at my waist, where I had holstered the pistol...
Groped, groped...
“Huh, where is it?”
It had definitely been at my waist.
As that question wrapped around my mind, a memory flashed past.
ㄴTruth Scholar: You dropped your pistol!
“Ah...”
The chat that had appeared when I fired the rifle at maximum output.
The explosion must have knocked the gun loose and sent it rolling away.
Now... I had to find another way. If I couldn’t, I’d die.
Even as my thoughts spun, the jellyfish kept approaching me.
Soon, they would enter the range where their tentacles could reach me. If I couldn’t think, I’d die.
A way, a way...
“Ah. There was that way.”
The very cause that had brought this swarm of jellyfish to life, and the thing that had guided me to the next stage of magic.
Precision magic.
The moment that thought flashed through my mind, I immediately began weaving threads of magic.
Since I had no time, I started weaving the most basic and simple magic. A foundational fire-attribute spell.
Mana began gathering to the point where the magic circle was visible to the eye, and soon it became tangible enough to touch.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Be careful!!
Swaak—!
The tentacle lashed out like a ghost the instant it reached range. However—
Tang!
ㄴHealingIsViolence: Wow... She used magic as a shield?
The magic circle containing fire-attribute magic knocked away the rushing tentacle.
But at this rate, I would eventually be surrounded and face death.
That was why, following my intuition, I moved according to the most perfect way to break the situation.
“Explode...!!”
I threw the magic circle at the jellyfish as though throwing a shield.
The materialized magic circle had acted like a shield, but at its root, it was still magic. Naturally, it activated.
And... that was precision magic. Compared to ordinary magic, its power was greater.
The magic circle began flashing with mana.
The instant that flashing reached its peak, my intuition rang out.
“Run, run!!”
Tadadak!!
Through the small gap created when the magic circle struck them, I sprinted at full speed.
According to my intuition, that thing would explode properly. And with an enormous blast radius.
That intuition was correct.
Puhhhng!!!
“Kgh...!”
Even though I had gotten as far away as possible, I could still feel the heat from the point of the explosion.
After the entire blast settled, I looked back.
ㄴTruth Scholar: There’s nothing but ash left...
“If I use that at close range, I’ll be the one who dies.”
The jellyfish that had been gathered there had all turned into heaps of ash. With nothing but a basic spell.
The strange sense of accomplishment lasted only a moment. Now it was time to clean up.
I roughly gathered up the jellyfish nearby. There were so many that I felt like I had to use them for something.
And so, after returning to the submersible and searching for equipment that used jellyfish—
The weapon that seemed the best caught my eye.
It was...
“A mana rifle... V2?”
A mana rifle capable of accepting even more mana.