Chapter 8: Storm Mountain (3)
Swoosh…….
‘Hoo.’
Unlike the surprised Rowokeu, Sideu’s gaze was fixed on the open door.
Looking out at the pouring deluge, the boy swallowed.
Surely, besides this thrilling raid, there were still weapons the two had prepared.
[The weather grows increasingly fierce.]
“Lightning Bolt!”
Sideu unleashed the bolt magic.
The current bursting from his hand struck Rowokeu, and though he did not collapse like the other bandits, his expression twisted.
No matter how high one’s magic resistance, pain was still pain.
“Hurk!”
As Rowokeu staggered, the boy closed the distance.
The hand-to-hand combat all monks learned as a basic.
Of course, the monks who had fled had learned the same techniques, but learning them and leaping into live combat were different matters.
Drawing a sword and cutting with it are not the same, after all.
Huff, hook!
Sideu threw fierce punches like a hornet.
If Diallo’s fists were longswords, Sideu’s fists were closer to shortswords.
Fists flying back and forth across a short distance.
Rowokeu’s eyes narrowed as he tracked these punches.
Tak, swish!
A fist flying through the air was caught midway.
Then, in an instant, a sword swept past, grazing his hair.
“Hurk! Hup!”
The merciless onslaught of a former knight descended.
Perhaps judging that ordinary force could not subdue him, fierce wind clawed at the surroundings.
From a blow that could split his head open to blade work sweeping from shoulder to flank.
Heavy sword winds lashed without cease.
Yet all of this missed by a hair’s breadth.
Thanks to movements unbelievable for a fifteen-year-old.
Crack!
“Urk!”
In the very moment he thought, ‘Oops,’ the chapel’s thick candlestick was snapped in two.
Though he maintained the best possible distance and defended, Rowokeu’s skill was not something to be ignored.
Two steps, three steps.
As the distance closed in an instant, Sideu ran toward the rain-soaked outside.
Of course, Rowokeu did not simply stand and watch.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Lightning Bolt!”
“Kuh!”
Relentless Lightning Bolts continued.
Whatever he was thinking, Sideu was luring the man and subtly provoking him.
The chapel’s pews were scattered by magic and sword strikes, and fiercely shattered fragments of wood flew through the air.
The abbot would have been shocked to see it, but since it was already full of astonishing sights, there was no need to hold back.
“Lightning Bolt!”
“How long do you plan to keep repeating that!”
The man wielding the longsword roared.
Backpedaling from the sword swung again, Sideu finally reached the threshold where rain was pouring down.
Though he dodged this way and that like a monkey, his opponent was a young boy.
He might have better stamina than his peers from monastic life, but it was not comparable to a man of knight origins.
Rowokeu’s wolf-like gaze, now somewhat serious, turned to the boy.
“Tch!”
Shouting loudly, Sideu dashed out into the open yard.
His ash-gray monastic robes grew heavy with rain, stained a dark color.
Thick sheets of rain struck his face, but the boy did not retreat.
Sighing, Rowokeu also shed his outer garment and stepped out bare-chested.
Stinging raindrops struck his body.
“I’d hate to get my barely dried clothes wet again.”
A hairy brute chortling stepped into the rain.
He had not wanted to get serious against a young boy, but with the alcohol wearing off and his body growing tired, the man wished to rest right away.
He rested the longsword on his shoulder and furrowed his brow.
“Whew… You and your brother both. Is this monastery that precious? Truly a strange place. If it were any other monastery, they’d be grateful just to have their lives spared.”
Thick raindrops beaded on the man’s lush chest hair.
Sideu widened the distance, focusing on the dark sky and the tip of the sword.
Continuing to dodge would only be more disadvantageous for the boy…….
He was tired of playing along when he could not fathom whatever scheme the boy was harboring.
“Haht!”
The man leaped again in a short bound and flew at him.
Like when he had cut down Diallo before, a wind-fast sword dug in a crescent arc.
The invisible sword wind revealed its form clearly between the cloven raindrops.
Puwack!
“Kurk!”
Struck by the sword, Sideu was sent flying.
Even though a thick Magic Sword was wrapped around his arm, Rowokeu’s blade displayed crushing power.
“Lightning Bolt!”
“Kkueuk!”
Sideu’s magic erupted while still touching the sword.
As current flowed along the rain-soaked longsword, Rowokeu grimaced.
There was no major harm, so he endured, but the electricity stimulating his veins was hardly pleasant.
Clang!
A sword flying from mid-air swiped at Sideu.
The moment the blade tried to bite in by the width of a finger, the elastic mana of the Magic Sword repelled it.
At the same time, a blue flash flared and the distance between the two widened.
‘What is he scheming?’
Warm droplets flowed down his body from his heated temperature.
Rowokeu was growing impatient at the fight that seemed about to end yet would not.
From swinging his body so violently, white steam was even rising from his shoulders and head.
Moreover, as the boy who had been pushed far away stood up, his expression hardened.
“Hoo.”
Rowokeu wrung out his rain-soaked hair.
A thick beard and tangled, seaweed-like hair exuded middle-aged charm.
“Hey, you little shit! You think I’m going easy on you? If I were serious, you’d be dead already!”
The bandit chief resting the longsword on his shoulder swept back his hair.
A sturdy upper body and broad shoulders.
Well-defined abs without an ounce of flab evoked envy in the beholder.
But since he had tried to seize the monastery and kill Diallo, no such sentiment existed in Sideu’s head.
He was only watching for the perfect opportunity to bring this man down.
“Then you should have killed me when you had the chance.”
“Heo!”
The immature habit of mouthing off that he used to provoke Diallo and the other brothers erupted.
At this cheeky tone, Rowokeu’s eyes widened as well.
He had thought he was going easy and playing along—who would have expected such an ungrateful provocation?
The bandit readied his sword again and stepped forward, the corners of his mouth rising.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.
“Fine. Killing a monk is bad luck, so I’ll hurt you enough to wish you were dead.”
Swoosh…….
In the fierce rain, the sword-wielding man and the bare-handed boy clashed.
In weather where it was hard to keep one’s eyes open, the raindrops grew thicker, and heavy thunder and lightning began to streak across the black sky.
“Paha. What ruckus weather. I luckily found a place to rest, so what’s this bother…….”
As the weather intensified, the bandit’s gaze turned to the dark clouds.
While wandering after losing his mountain stronghold, he thought he had occupied a place to shelter from the rain—who knew he would get tangled up with two monks and end up drenched instead.
At that moment, the man’s expression, which had remained composed throughout, hardened.
“Don’t tell me you……”
“Mister. Do you know the saying about those who get struck by lightning? They say if you’ve sinned much, you get struck by lightning.”
From the boy’s words, he realized that what he had been thinking was true.
The thunder crashing and lightning falling upon the high mountain until now.
With a preposterous plan, the boy was trying to ‘drop lightning’ upon him.
“Haha! This kid’s more fun than I thought!”
Realizing this, Rowokeu threw away the longsword he was holding.
Of course, lightning striking him was truly ‘lightning-strike odds,’ but something felt ominous.
The man who had thrown the longsword narrowed his eyes.
“Hey, brat. If that were possible, I’d have seen mages dropping lightning on the battlefield all the time! Even a 6th Circle mage couldn’t do that! What makes you think you can!”
“Then why did you throw away your sword?”
“You never know! Like you said, I’m a man with many sins! Pahaha!”
The man’s hearty nature could be felt in his loud laughter.
If he had not come to seize the monastery, they might have become good friends.
Correcting his stance again, Sideu raised one fist high.
One arm to the sky, one arm to the abdomen.
With legs spread slightly, as if displaying a monk’s martial arts, his appearance was almost comical.
In the very moment one might wonder if he planned to pray for lightning like a monk, the boy opened his mouth.
“Mister. Just like I told my brother, if I take you down, you’ll leave on your own, right?”
“What?”
At the boy’s short question, Rowokeu felt something suspicious.
His cheeky actions and words had been repeating since earlier, and a strange sense of discomfort settled in, as if he were intentionally buying time.
Was there really a mage who could drop lightning?
He had seen powerful electric magic like ‘Chain Lightning’ or ‘Thunder Strike,’ but he had never heard of or seen a mage who wielded natural lightning.
Knowing it was impossible, Rowokeu’s thoughts deepened as he tried to figure out the boy’s scheme.
If the boy before his eyes truly wielded lightning, it meant he was witnessing the birth of an incredible mage.
If he died that way, it would not be a laughable dog’s death.
“Fine! If you take me down, I’ll leave without a word! A man must keep his promises!”
“Great! Come at me!”
Rowokeu finished speaking with a flourish and took a step.
As if waiting for lightning to fall, the boy stood in place, ramrod straight.
Rowokeu, who had no intention of waiting for lightning to strike anyway, closed the distance.
‘Hoo. Let’s end this quickly. My bad premonitions are always right!’
Rowokeu grinned, recalling his senses from his active days.
His eyes flashed—he had saved his life countless times thanks to such premonitions.
The man leaped toward Sideu.
And in the instant a suddenly closed fist was about to touch the boy’s stomach.
Flash enveloped the surroundings.
Flash!
As the surroundings lit up entirely, Rowokeu’s mouth opened.
In that moment, something soaring high into the sky entered the eyes of one who had dodged swords and arrows on the battlefield.
Above his raised arm, mana soared to the end of the heavens.
The mana hidden by the dark sky and thick downpour revealed itself between the flashing lightning.
Who knew he would extend his mana like a lightning rod?
The boy, extending the Magic Sword long like a lightning rod, had been drawing lightning until now.
‘No……’
As the unavoidable disaster approached, his heart seemed to stop.
And the boy who had called down lightning met Rowokeu’s eyes with a triumphant gaze.
However, the two could not leave any impression of that moment.
Because the moment the light flashed, the lightning had already arrived.
KWA-BOOM!
After the flash, a massive roar echoed.
The lightning that fell before the monastery chapel would have been visible even from far away.
The mage who handled lightning that Rowokeu had thought impossible.
In truth, he was not wielding lightning but had made himself a lightning rod to ‘guide’ it—but so what?
In his eyes, it looked as if such a mage had been born!
[Synchronizing the lightning-struck electric shock and Circle.]
[Synchronization Rate 56%]
‘Huh?’
At that moment, strange words rang in the ears of the collapsing Sideu.
It was the passbook’s voice, tickling his fading consciousness.
[Your Circle and electric magic are showing good compatibility. We will complete sufficient synchronization before you wake. Thank you.]
[Synchronization Rate 58%]
[Synchronization Rate 59%]
[Synchronization Rate 61%]
…
- To be continued in Episode 9 -