-Team Raid
“Mr. Mage! I’ll help too.”
Gil spoke up. It seemed he wanted to play a role again this time.
I turned to look at Gil. I tried detecting the fluctuations of his mana.
I could feel lively mana waves from him. But he was not yet immediately extending those concentric waves outward.
“Don’t think about absorbing the mother jellyfish’s mana. It isn’t safe until we’ve completely destroyed the magic circuits of its mental magic.”
“Yes. I won’t. Then should I send mana to you like before instead, Mr. Mage?”
“Yeah. Add your mana when I cast my spell.”
It was a good suggestion.
In truth, even without that, I currently had several spells activated at once, so the mana consumption was severe.
I had placed a barrier over the entire National Cemetery, and I was constantly expending mana to pressure the jellyfish trapped inside it with atmospheric pressure.
But the mother jellyfish’s toxicity alone was no joke, and on top of that, its instinct to produce baby jellyfish like a machine was extraordinarily powerful.
I needed a great deal of mana. I decided to borrow Gil’s.
Perhaps because he had absorbed the tentacle monster’s mana, the amount of mana he held was far from ordinary.
“Then I’ll focus on the barrier. There’s a forest here, so I can use the forest’s life force. You two take even the mana I used on the barrier and focus on destroying that thing.”
Cheon Danbi stepped forward as well. She, too, seemed to have sensed that the mother jellyfish’s mana was no ordinary amount.
“Good. Do that. Then does that mean this raid is something our whole team is doing together?”
“Wow! A team raid! I like it.”
“That’s right. This will be our team’s first raid together. The monster we have to kill is the mother jellyfish!”
At the word team, Gil and Cheon Danbi grew excited again.
Seeing how happy they were that we were a team made me chuckle.
Even with a terrifying monster hunt before us, it was good to see Gil and Cheon Danbi standing proud instead of shrinking back in fear.
“All right, then. Everyone focus.”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
As soon as I spoke, Cheon Danbi immediately closed her eyes and concentrated on communing with the forest’s life force.
Gil slowly began extending the mana waves inside his body in concentric circles. The edge of those circles brushed softly against me.
I felt the mana waves quietly thrum against my heart. I had already drawn up my mana and gathered it there.
I checked once more which spell I would use.
The mother jellyfish was a monstrous life-form holding an immense amount of mana. I did not think I could deal with it simply using ordinary elemental magic.
Since my analysis was not yet complete and I had not found a way to break its mental magic, I had to kill the mother jellyfish in a single strike if possible.
Because of that, I decided to use the freezing magic I was most familiar with.
Concentrating my mind, I stirred up a vortex of mana waves around my heart.
In an instant, my body grew light and my mind became clear. The vortex of waves grew fiercer and fiercer as it rose toward the space between my brows.
My dulled mind was honed like a blade, and the spot between my eyebrows grew hot as if it were burning.
‘Freeze!’
I focused the vortex of mana waves swirling between my brows into a single point. I calculated the spell’s target point without the slightest margin of error.
Then I poured the mana waves out through my fingertips.
The wave energy that had felt only scorching hot, as if it would burn my forehead away, turned cold as the breath of a glacier the moment it extended from my fingertips.
‘Freezing of absolute zero, exterminate the mother jellyfish’s life force and freeze all its movements and mana activity in a single breath!’
I sharpened my intent like an awl.
The frost-like energy of freezing poured from my fingertips toward the mother jellyfish at the speed of light. It aimed precisely at the creature’s red opening.
Whoooooosh!
The moment the cold energy poured into the mother jellyfish’s red opening, the mother, which had seemed to possess no consciousness at all and had only focused on generating baby jellyfish, finally reacted.
Its pitch-black body surged like a violent wave. The forest floor writhed all over and poured out venomous mana waves.
It was resisting. Just as strong as its will to reproduce was, its resistance against the magical attack that interfered with it was overwhelmingly fierce.
Ziiiiiiing!
A deep, heavy sound like a gong rang out. That wave paralyzed everything nearby in an instant.
The waves pressed in from every direction with crushing weight, and a pain like having my skull struck by a blunt weapon swept over me.
It felt as though even space itself had been paralyzed and was sinking down.
Only the transparent baby jellyfish were alive and blazing, flying about in a dizzying swarm.
It felt as though countless jellyfish had flown all the way into my head and were stirring it up wildly.
As if they were burrowing into every fold of my brain and clinging there.
“Ugh… Did the attack fail?”
Unable to endure it, Cheon Danbi was pushed backward and asked.
“No! Its resistance is fierce, but hold out just a little longer!”
Even through the numbing pain that surged over me, I continued pouring out freezing magic.
I drew up even more mana. Through the jellyfish scattering in every direction, I poured out blue cold energy. I had to seal the mother’s red opening.
“Gil!”
“Yes, Mr. Mage! I’ll send you mana now!”
As soon as I called out, Gil understood and began sending mana to me. It must have been hard even to remain standing, but he was overcoming it.
Soon, the concentric circles of mana waves Gil extended wrapped around me in several layers.
Just as a soft sensation enveloped me layer upon layer, an enormous amount of mana began flooding into me.
Empowered by that mana, I restructured my freezing magic anew.
‘Freeze!’
Freezing energy poured from my fingertips once again. Cold air like a snowstorm on a snowy plain swept forth at a ferocious speed.
The swarm of jellyfish drifting about in confusion froze solid on the spot and fell with a clattering rustle.
The frost-like aura of freezing covered the mother jellyfish’s body.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The creature resisted again. As it shook its enormous body, the forest floor overturned, dirt shot into the sky, and trees snapped this way and that.
From the red opening, an aura as hot as lava surged up and swallowed the freezing energy.
“Gil! Water! Raise water with elemental magic!”
I shouted to Gil again.
“Yes! Got it!”
“I’ll try too. We just need to bring in water, right?”
Gil immediately used elemental magic to raise water and scatter it thickly through the air. He seemed to understand what I was trying to do.
Cheon Danbi also gathered the moisture of the forest, turned it into droplets, and scattered them.
In an instant, rain began pouring down inside the forest where the mother jellyfish was spread out.
At that moment, I turned all the water molecules into ice with freezing magic.
Each falling droplet transformed into awl-sharp shards of ice and drove densely into the mother jellyfish’s body.
Kyaaaaaaaak!
A scream like it would tear the ears apart rang out.
As the mother jellyfish writhed in pain and twisted its body, the trees in the forest collapsed with a cracking roar.
Long conifers fell in every direction.
“Everyone, be careful!”
But thrashing could not stop the freezing magic.
The mother jellyfish’s body was gradually covered in bluish ice, and the red opening that had boiled like lava rapidly cooled and froze over.
The forest floor turned into a thick sheet of ice.
Whoooooosh!
Even so, I did not stop pouring out the energy of freezing.
Not until the very last strand of mana waves held by the mother jellyfish was severed and frozen.
Not until, at last, everything around us froze and held the silence of the Arctic.
I froze it, and froze it again.
I poured out every last bit of my mana.
“Mr. Mage.”
I heard Gil call softly.
I emerged from my deep state of concentration, came sharply back to my senses, and looked around.
The mother jellyfish, covered in sharp icicles, could no longer be recognized in its original form. There was no red opening to be seen—no trace of red at all.
Everything was white and blue.
It was completely frozen. The mother jellyfish was dead.
“I think it’s completely dead now.”
At that moment, I let out a long sigh and sank down onto the ground.
“Mr. Mage!”
“Huh? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Gil and Cheon Danbi quickly came over to me and asked.
“I’m fine. I scraped my mana down to the bottom, so even my legs gave out. Are you two okay?”
“I’m fine. It’s not like I did anything in particular. I only added my mana. You fought the whole battle by yourself, Mr. Mage.”
“I’m fine too. You worked hard. The jellyfish’s mana was something else, wasn’t it? It was incredibly stubborn.”
Gil and Cheon Danbi spoke modestly.
“Yeah. It looks like the black magician set some pretty powerful conditions on it. Anyway, I didn’t do this alone. I was able to kill it thanks to you two.”
“What did we even do?”
“What are you talking about? Both of you did your parts well. This was a raid our team completed together.”
When I told them the team had done it, Gil and Cheon Danbi’s faces brightened again, and they grew excited.
“Ah, right? We did do a bit, didn’t we?”
“Right? This was a raid our team completed, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. It was our team’s first successful raid.”
I dusted off my pants and got to my feet. Seeing their expressions made me feel as if strength I hadn’t had before was returning.
Then Cheon Danbi took something from her pocket and held it out to me.
“Hurry and eat this first. It’s a medicinal herb that restores vitality. You should at least eat this and regain your strength until your mana fills back up.”
I accepted the herb without refusing, put it in my mouth, and chewed.
After chewing for a moment, sure enough, I soon felt mana waves begin circulating through my body.
“It’s already taking effect. My mana has started moving.”
“Really? That fast?”
“I’m telling you, it’s true.”
“Wow! Is the medicinal herb amazing, or are you amazing, Mr. Mage?”
We looked at each other and burst into laughter.
After laughing heartily, we began walking out of the forest.
The National Cemetery was sunk in cold, quiet darkness.
“Mages! Are you all right?”
“Is the battle over?”
After we had walked a little way, the police saw us and ran over.
Their faces as they asked whether we were all right were filled with worry, and their bodies were trembling.
While we were fighting the mother jellyfish, they must have seen the forest shaking and trees crashing down even from afar.
“We’re fine. It’s all over.”
Only then did the police let out sighs of relief at my words.
But at that very moment, the alarm on the communication device I wore on my wrist began to ring.
It was an alert from the Hall.
Tension settled over everyone’s faces once again.