—Magic Doesn’t Work
“Right. Let’s do what we can. I’ll go to the people who’ve collapsed first. I need to infuse them with life force.”
Cheon Danbi said, lowering the bag she had slung over her back.
As usual, she had come carrying a peddler’s pack stuffed full of potions, medicinal herbs, and the like.
“Yes. Then I’ll take care of the lizards.”
Gil first sent out concentric waves of mana and checked the lizards’ mana.
The lizards’ mana was not particularly strong. Lizardmen might be another matter, but the lizards themselves seemed easy enough to sweep away all at once.
“I’ll go take a look at the overall situation.”
After saying that, Ren suddenly disappeared into an alley behind a building.
Soon, a crow flew up into the sky. Ren had transformed in the alley, out of sight of the people.
Then Cheon Danbi wrapped a barrier around herself and ran toward the people collapsed on the street.
Left alone, Gil turned toward the passersby.
As the only mage here, he had to protect the people and proceed with the subjugation.
“I’m a mage! Until I take care of the lizards, everyone stay right here inside this barrier and don’t move. You people over there, get inside the barrier too!”
When Gil shouted, the passersby ran toward him and looked at him with sighs of relief.
“There was a mage here. Ah, thank goodness!”
“There’s a barrier here?”
“Please hurry and deal with the lizards.”
But there were also some who complained with utterly pointless remarks.
“Is he really a mage? He’s just a kid.”
“Anyway, hurry up and get rid of those lizards. What are lizards doing in Korea? And what are those lizardmen supposed to be? They’re so disgusting I can’t stand it.”
“Where did all the other mages go?”
Gil’s brow furrowed on its own.
He could endure being dismissed as a child, but hearing them openly call lizardmen disgusting made him angry.
How would Ren have felt if he had been beside him and heard those words?
When Gil looked up at the sky, Ren, transformed into a crow, was already flying high and circling the area.
Ignoring the people making foolish remarks, Gil stepped outside the barrier. They were not people worth dealing with one by one.
As soon as he stepped out of the barrier, the lizards began to swarm toward him. Gil quickly sent out concentric waves of mana.
First, he intended to gather the lizards in one place with wind magic. If he gathered them and confined them, that should do. If possible, he did not want to kill them.
‘Wind, blow! Bring all the lizards here!’
He layered wind magic onto the concentric waves of mana.
It was wind magic adjusted to match the mana waves possessed by the lizards. It merely brushed past the people, while a wind that wrapped only the lizards in whirlwinds began to blow.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Riding the concentric circles, the wind flowed in every direction.
At a glance, it did not look particularly strong, but the lizards were swept up without being able to resist at all.
Some of the lizards that had grown larger struggled to break free, but it was useless.
Gil slowly walked forward, leading the swarm of lizards wrapped in the whirlwinds. He looked just like a flute-playing man driving a horde of rats.
Even as he walked, he continued sending out wide concentric waves of mana around him. He had to gather up as many of the nearby lizards as possible.
“Wow! He really was a mage!”
“Amazing! Only the lizards are being sucked right in!”
“Sweep them all away! Fighting!”
“Please clean up the street!”
Only then did the passersby cheer for Gil.
Some clapped, while others rejoiced in relief, saying they had survived. The complaints vanished completely.
News of the terror attack had spread, so most people had evacuated into nearby buildings, but there were still many who knew nothing and had come out of the subway station.
Those who had been wandering around in confusion stood by the roadside and sent Gil their thanks and applause.
Gil gestured for the people to get away and herded the swarm of lizards toward the open space in front of the subway station.
Once he had gathered all the lizards in the area into one place, there were hundreds of them. But compared to the lizards spread throughout the entire Bundang area, this was probably only a drop in the bucket.
He had to deal with them quickly and move elsewhere.
The lizards were caught in the whirlwinds, spinning round and round in place. They were gradually pulled farther toward the center and clumped together into one mass.
While wondering how to confine them, Gil decided to use freezing magic. To confine hundreds of lizards, freezing them whole seemed more efficient than using snares.
Freezing magic was not Gil’s specialty, but he was a member of Oudin’s team. Following Oudin around, he had seen freezing magic executed more than once or twice. He knew very well how it was done.
A gigantic bizarre life-form might be another matter, but freezing a swarm of lizards would pose no problem.
‘Freeze! Turn the swarm of lizards into one solid mass!’
When Gil overlaid the circuit for freezing magic onto the concentric waves of mana, the wind immediately began absorbing moisture from the surroundings.
A frigid rainstorm of absolute zero swept through, and the lizards froze solid in an instant.
For cold-blooded lizards, freezing magic was even more fatal. Their bodies would freeze all the way through in one breath, forcing them into a deep hibernation.
“Incredible! He froze all the lizards with freezing magic.”
“Now that I look, that mage is from Oudin’s team! I saw him online before.”
“So that’s why it’s freezing magic? Amazing.”
“If he’s from Oudin’s team, we’re safe!”
The onlookers murmured among themselves.
A smile came to Gil’s lips without him realizing it. Hearing that he was from Oudin’s team filled him with pride.
At that moment, Cheon Danbi’s voice rang out.
“Everyone! The situation isn’t over yet. Don’t stay outside—hurry into the buildings!”
At some point, she seemed to have finished treating the fallen people, and Cheon Danbi was walking toward Gil.
Cheon Danbi even waved her arms as she herded people toward the buildings.
There was a reason for that.
Gil finished his freezing magic and looked toward Cheon Danbi when he sensed mana waves from far behind her.
He tried to quickly extend his detection, but there was not even any need. A group of lizardmen approaching this way at a terrifying speed quickly came into view.
“Danbi noona! Strengthen the barrier!”
“Huh? Right!”
At Gil’s urgent cry, Cheon Danbi first turned to look behind her. A group of lizardmen was surging toward them in a blue-green mass.
She had been on guard because she had felt something strange from a moment ago, but she could not help being startled by the sight before her eyes.
“They’re lizardmen, aren’t they? No, when did that many come here?”
“They’re incredibly fast.”
Gil quickly pulled Cheon Danbi behind him to get her out of the way.
Cheon Danbi strengthened the barrier and covered both herself and Gil with it.
The lizardmen, who had already drawn near, glared at Gil and threatened him.
Hiss! Hiss!
They were peculiar, just as expected. Their eyes shone an unusually vivid yellow, and for some reason they had not equipped language chips either, so they could not communicate.
The lizardmen kept hissing, communicating only among themselves.
As Gil watched them for a moment, wondering what to do, the lizardmen stretched their hands out in every direction.
Then lizards once again poured out from their fingertips. Small lizards wriggled and scattered in all directions.
At this rate, no matter how many lizards they swept away, it would be useless. Not unless they dealt with the lizardmen who were the source.
“I’m a mage! I’m warning you! If you continue causing a disturbance, I’ll use magic!”
Gil shouted. There was no guarantee the lizardmen would understand.
As expected, they paid no heed to his warning and approached Gil, thrusting out both arms.
This time, a suspicious yellow gas flowed out from their fingertips.
‘What is that?’
There was no time to analyze it. For now, he had to try something.
Gil activated wind magic again.
The wind carried on the concentric waves spread out, scattering the suspicious gas, and the small lizards were swept up and began spinning around.
However, the lizardmen did not budge even against the wind. As if angered that he had blown away the lizards, they made violent gestures toward Gil and shouted in unintelligible hisses.
When they swung their arms, the yellow gas flowed out once more.
“Gil! Use stronger magic. We have to stop them first.”
Cheon Danbi said from behind him.
She seemed to think Gil was using wind magic that applied only to the lizards and was trying not to harm the lizardmen.
But that was not it.
Since there were no passersby nearby now, he had not placed any restrictions on the wind magic.
Even so, the magic was not working on the lizardmen.
“The magic isn’t working! I don’t know if it’s a barrier or anti-magic.”
As Gil said this, he examined the area around the lizardmen. They did not seem to be covered in a barrier.
Wondering if it was only wind magic, he hurriedly activated freezing magic. He spread the concentric waves of mana wide, made them reach the lizardmen, and carried the waves of freezing with them.
But it was useless as well. The lizardmen did not freeze. Only the small lizards that had been spinning in the wind froze solid as they were.
“What? Magic doesn’t work on the lizardmen? Then what do we do?”
Cheon Danbi said in a panic.
Gil was panicking too. The problem was that he could not even figure out why the magic was not taking effect.
Meanwhile, even more lizardmen flocked around them.
The lizardmen formed a circle and surrounded the two of them. The yellow gas flowing from their fingertips billowed around them like clouds.
Hiss! Hiss!
The lizardmen were still angry.
It seemed to be because Gil and Cheon Danbi were wrapped in a barrier, preventing the yellow gas from invading.
“This really looks like some kind of toxic substance, doesn’t it?”
“Probably, right? It’s a relief there aren’t any people nearby.”
It seemed they were no longer merely releasing lizards to steal life force.
Whatever the components of the yellow gas were, it certainly appeared to be poisonous.
The two of them and the lizardmen ended up simply facing each other down, with neither magic nor poison taking effect on the other side.
“What should we do? We’ve been trapped. Why on earth isn’t the magic applying to them?”
“We have to figure out why. Hold on. First, I’ll see if any of the herbs I have can neutralize the yellow gas.”
Cheon Danbi began rummaging through her bag.
Gil tried to extend detection magic and scan the lizardmen, but that also failed to take effect, leaving him flustered.
Were they really going to be trapped here so helplessly?
Then suddenly, a crow swooped in over the two of them.
Caw!
It was Ren.
Caw! Caw!
Ren said something to the two of them, then soared high into the sky again.
To Gil, the crow’s cries sounded like, “Wait just a moment. I’ll handle it!”