Black Badger

Chapter 406: Grand Magus (3)

Wind burst from the center of the flowers and flowed along the petals.

A cool gale surged up past my knees.

Cecil was now crying from both eyes.

Her gaze was unfocused, staring at somewhere in empty space.

Just as my chest was about to tear apart at the sight, the spheres that had been forming above her palms lifted, floating gently upward.

Wooooong....

Cooldown complete.

Whum!

BOOM!

Two blue spheres traced parabolic arcs through the air and slammed into the ground.

The one that struck between me and the flowers exploded into a blue scatter, its shockwave lashing out in all directions.

Toppled utility poles and streetlights scraped along the asphalt as they were dragged across the ground.

A sharp jolt rushed in.

It felt like the air itself was being shoved forward.

BOOM!

I swung my sword, canceling out the attack that came surging in.

The wind split to either side and swept past my body.

As I narrowed my eyes to track the wavering afterimages within it, a familiar voice rang out behind me.

“Captain!”

Yoow.

“Hold out, then go in when her mana cools down!”

“Stay hidden next to Shu.”

I answered without looking back.

I didn’t have the leeway to see his face. The Grand Mage was already firing clusters of light into the sky.

From her cupped, layered palms, beams of light sprouted like blades of grass.

I remembered this spell too, with painful clarity.

‘A Thousand Meteor Showers.’

A thousand spells streaked upward, carving white lines through the air.

Elegant streams of light soared skyward like a bundle of fireworks.

I lifted my head to follow them—and saw a sky blanketed in white points.

They’re coming down.

“Heads up!”

BABABABANG!

I clenched my teeth and fired sword slashes into the sky.

“Yoow! Above you!”

“Get down!”

Shu’s sharp shout followed immediately.

“Get under me! I’m a Badger!!”

BOOM!

BAM! BOOM! BOOM!

The successive slashes I sent out exploded as they intercepted the falling attacks.

I couldn’t stop everything.

But I could stop the ones that would have hit Yoow, Shu, and my own head.

The attacks I failed to cut down fell into empty space.

CRRRASH!

The road cratered in scattered pits.

When the meteor barrage ended, the area was riddled with holes.

What’s next?

I scattered the smoke rising from where the acid rain had fallen and braced for the follow-up.

“Comms!”

The tactician shouted.

“Put the comm in your ear!”

I heard the communicator thrown by a subordinate hit the ground.

Judging its position by sound, I jumped back twice and positioned myself behind it, then drove my sword into the ground in front of the device to keep from being swept away by the wind.

I crouched, grabbed the comm.

As I pulled my sword free and slid the device against my ear, a familiar voice came through.

[Hilde.]

Aide Gilbert.

[Support?]

“Don’t send any.”

I replied briefly.

“They’ll get in the way.”

The aide didn’t get angry.

He didn’t try to persuade me.

Instead, he gave a short sound of acknowledgment and said evenly,

[I figured as much. The ones who already rushed out can’t be helped, but I won’t send more.]

Much appreciated.

[I’ll stay here and be your eyes.]

That’s good to hear.

[I’m mobilizing every drone inside Center Core.]

So that’s why, even as drones kept dropping under Cecil’s attacks, I could still hear propellers nonstop.

Not that drones would help against this.

When is her mana going to drop?

Now Cecil was suspending dozens of luminous bows in the air.

Light arrows, floating without archers like holograms, all aimed precisely at me.

She’s not giving me a single opening.

Ping!

The bowstring released.

Ping! Pibibibing!

I swung my sword heavily, splitting the incoming arrows in half.

A sparring pattern I’d used countless times with Nol.

But Cecil didn’t give me a moment to dwell on that memory. As soon as the arrows were cleanly severed, the fallen light gathered on the ground, curling into rings.

At the same time, dozens of different types of light projectiles flew toward me.

No gaps.

I kept cutting down the blinding tide of attacks.

It was grueling.

Pressed nonstop, I lost the rhythm.

Ever since recovering my stamina thanks to the Ice Dragon, I hadn’t felt this strained.

Even against Meierbold, I’d thought of him as an equal—never felt myself being pushed back.

But now, I was losing ground.

She was overwhelming me with firepower. It wasn’t visible retreat yet, but I didn’t hold the initiative.

I was stuck on defense.

Not good.

If I slip even once—

BOOM!

“Kh—!”

“Captain!”

I was struck by a light projectile that fell right at my feet.

Missing just that one carried a heavy price. The shockwave from the blast in front of me slammed into my body and tore past.

For an instant, I couldn’t breathe.

Internal injury.

Probably the stomach or intestines.

I propped my staggering body up with my sword.

Blood flowed up my esophagus—I spat it out.

But as I tried to steady myself, another attack dropped from above.

BOOOOM!

“...Igor.”

I gave a thin smile at the contractor who’d grabbed my arm and tumbled back with me—and the knight who had leapt out in front.

“You’ve improved.”

The big man swung his sword with crushing weight.

Looks like he doesn’t have the spare breath to answer.

He’d entered cleanly at the right timing, but since the mage’s mana wasn’t dropping, he’d be pushed back soon. Three minutes would be his limit.

Part of the renewed meteor shower slipped through and punched holes into the ground.

The earth trembled.

I pulled my arm free from Kairos’s grip.

“Thanks, Kai. Now go stay with Yoow.”

“Am I just in the way if I join?”

“Pretty much.”

After exhaling, I stepped forward.

“Go.”

Normal monsters couldn’t even exert real strength in front of her before being pulverized.

Kairos had been the Empire’s greatest contractor, but he wasn’t someone who could defeat a Grand Mage one-on-one.

Contractors, by nature, showed their true value in large-scale battles, not duels.

Fortunately, Kairos didn’t argue.

He silently helped me to my feet, then vanished from my side.

He couldn’t stop Cecil with monsters, but he could protect Yoow and Shu.

Honestly, I wished he’d withdrawn completely...

“Absorb it!”

The tactician shouted at the top of his lungs.

So loudly that his voice cut through the chaos with clarity.

“Trauma my ass—absorb it, absorb it! You’re in front of a rampaging Grand Mage, and trauma’s the problem now?! How the hell are you supposed to win that while coughing up blood?!”

“Still hot-tempered.”

As I moved closer, Igor grumbled while slowly stepping back.

I stood beside him, smiling. Even after fifty years, this subordinate remembered the method we often used in joint assaults.

When I advanced, Igor would deflect attacks while retreating. The key was firing sword strikes while gauging where the opponent would move.

I’d wondered if he’d forgotten the paths of my slashes.

But he swung his sword perfectly, avoiding exactly where I needed to plant my feet.

Thanks to that, I could take position without getting hit by the falling attacks.

His blade and slashes were far more precise than before, cleanly cutting through the onslaught.

If only those slashes were refined just a little more.

Igor muttered,

“If I could just decide to do that whenever I wanted, they wouldn’t call it trauma in the first place.”

I snorted.

“Looks good on you—having all that strength back.”

“That bastard still hasn’t apologized, has he?”

Igor dragged up something he’d forgotten amid the noise.

“Captain, you might’ve forgiven him ages ago, but I want to see that son of a bitch apologize properly.”

He really is stubborn about the strangest things.

But the conversation couldn’t continue.

Aaaaaagh!

KRRRUMBLE!

The wind surged.

A crushing gale, close to hurricane force, slammed into us. Streetlights and cars that had been rolling along were blown away. Even heavy trucks scraped across ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the asphalt as they were shoved aside.

I thought I heard Tom screaming.

But I didn’t have the capacity to care. Just holding on with my sword planted in the ground was everything I had.

No chance to swing.

But wait—does a rampaging mage even need a mana cooldown?

With absorption constantly replenishing her fuel, it’s possible she doesn’t need downtime at all.

To check that thought, I lifted my head slightly within the raging gusts—and saw a light source twisting inside the corkscrewing wind.

Shit.

“Brace for impact!”

That was all I managed to shout.

“It’s about to explo—”

BOOOOM!

It detonated.

Drawing my sword in the final instant was a godsend. Otherwise I’d have lost the blade and been flung away.

Sword in hand, my body took the impact and was hurled backward.

Thud!

Only after slamming into something did my flight stop.

I let out a small groan, squeezing my shut eyes.

Damn, that hurts.

My body won’t move.

Looks like I’ll have to stay like this for a moment. I couldn’t even twitch a finger.

I endured the pain, waiting for it to be washed away by adrenaline.

Thankfully, the wind had weakened somewhat.

Partly because I’d been thrown farther from Cecil.

“...Igor?”

“...Neck’s still attached.”

Good.

As I caught my breath, my fingers started to move.

Slowly, I pressed my hand to the ground and raised my upper body.

Then, gripping my sword tightly, I got to my feet at a sluggish pace.

The area was even more devastated.

The few buildings that had still been standing were collapsing now, belching smoke.

Shu, Yoow, and Kairos’s cover was thankfully still intact.

But the wind hadn’t stopped, and Cecil was hunched over, clutching her head.

One by one, spheres of light appeared beside her—an ominous sign.

So there really is no cooldown.

“Ha....”

I readjusted my grip on the sword and leaned forward.

I’ll have to rethink this entirely.

The fact that no attack was coming down right now—that’s the cooldown.

I pushed through the heavy wind and ran toward the flowers.

Yoow roared,

“I told you to go when her mana cools down!!”

This is it.

I planned to drag Cecil out of the flowers first.

I didn’t know if I could pull her out normally—but I ran anyway.

I ignored the body screaming in pain and sprinted.

Rampage, by definition, means never stopping absorption—aggressively burning through the gained fuel until the body itself begins to burn.

But she was inside the flowers.

Like other rampagers, she was probably using her feet like roots to absorb energy.

It felt like she was absorbing fuel from another world.

If I pull her out, maybe it’ll stop.

She’d lose the fuel source immediately...

“Cecil!”

Huh?

As I closed the distance, I widened my eyes at a figure bursting out from behind a building.

Kairos.

Carrying Shu in his arms.

“Cecil!!”

Before I could stop him, the red-haired man charged toward the flowers with the senior in his arms.

Shu’s voice rang out.

“Cecil, snap out of it!!”