novelraw Chapter 143 : Chapter 143
Chapter 143 : Chapter 143
Chapter 143. Journey to Annihilation(4)
Asura.
The barrage created by the guy's giant six arms burst toward Riman.
Six trajectories, six strikes.
Although it was a chain attack, the speed and destructive power of each single blow were truly terrifying.
CRASH CRUNCH!!
The ground subsides.
The air trembles.
And Riman dodged even these strikes instead of blocking them with his gloves.
Because the six strike trajectories were exquisitely entangled, absorbing one or two strikes could lead to being hit by the remaining four.
It seemed like striking randomly, but in reality, all strikes were under meticulous calculation.
‘Like a wizard.’
Thinking so, Riman widened the distance from Asura for now.
However, naturally, Riman widening the distance was also within the opponent's calculation.
WHIRRR-
“......!”
Riman saw.
Mana being focused into Asura's mouth.
And immediately the next moment, the guy's mouth spat out a thick heat ray.
SWISH-
BOOM!!
Explosion.
And heat waves sweeping everywhere.
High heat enough to make even concrete soft swallowed an entire block.
Riman quickly widened the distance and escaped that superheated zone.
ROAAAR.......
There were no flames.
But just by the furiously distorting atmosphere, one could know how hot that area had become.
A temperature more than enough to turn one into a roasted human alive the moment of entry.
Like that, the front block was entirely blocked off.
At that moment.
WHOOSH-
THUD!
The sound of something cutting through the air in a parabola.
Immediately followed by a roar from behind.
Asura had leaped a long distance and landed behind Riman.
“...Ha, this bastard.”
It was clever positioning.
Blocking the front by turning it into a superheated zone.
Blocking the rear with Asura himself.
Creating a composition forcing close combat on the opponent trying to widen the distance.
“...Burn to death, or confront. Choose one, huh.”
TURN-
Riman turned toward Asura.
“Come.”
THUD!
With a heavy roar, Asura rushed at Riman.
Terrifying weight and speed like a living moving rock running wild.
But Riman didn't move even as much as a pebble.
No matter how fast, no matter how strong.
There was no need to panic in front of a calculated opponent.
SIZZLE-
Cold air began to rise from Riman's fingertips.
Loading of mana ended with this.
Riman scattered cold air on the path the guy would step on.
‘Mason, peak, reverse order of convection.’
[Ice Spike]
CRACKLE CRUNCH!
Dozens of black ice pillars soared from under Asura's feet.
Seeing that, the wizards couldn't help but be astonished.
“Ice? Freeze magic?!”
“How many magics does that bastard use......?!”
“No, rather why is the ice pitch-black?!”
However-
“...No problem. Anyway, it will be difficult to stop my Asura's advance with such things.”
CRUNCH!
CRACKLE!!
Asura advanced while trampling the offensive of ice spikes with brute defense.
The spikes shattered with sharp sounds, and the distance between Asura and Riman narrowed rapidly.
Like that, the ice spikes summoned by Riman scattered as fragments.
And the superheated zone behind remained as it was.
At that moment when death strode closer but there was no place to retreat.
SNAP.
Riman snapped his fingers.
BANG BANG BANG!
The scattered ice fragments exploded all at once.
The ice spikes Riman created a moment ago were items infused with cold air far exceeding normal.
Therefore, simultaneous with the explosion, distant chill covered the surroundings.
However-
“...So what?”
It didn't work on Asura.
Only living creatures feeling pain from cold could be held back by such chill.
Inanimate objects like dolls don't know pain caused by chill or frostbite.
And above all, a high-mass body like Asura was difficult to even slow down with mediocre freezing.
Therefore, in his view, Riman's magic was just flashy but unsubstantial technique.
So he continued to make Asura rush straight toward Riman.
“Die......!”
If you step back, you will burn to death; if you confront, you will be crushed by fists.
You will die like that.
Like that, Asura rushed at Riman with high spirits.
Now the distance between Riman and Asura was merely 2 meters.
However, at that moment.
CRACK-
Asura's movement stopped.
“Wha......?!”
Couldn't budge an inch.
Because it was completely bound by ice covering its whole body.
“Why......?!”
Asura couldn't do anything like an insect caught in a spider web.
Even though the ice wasn't that thick.
Yet the reason Asura couldn't move.
It was because the ice didn't freeze ‘thickly’ but froze ‘deeply’.
A moment ago, Riman detonated dozens of ice pillars simultaneously.
In that process, minute cold crystals spread explosively to the surroundings.
And the spread cold crystals dug into every corner of Asura's body and settled.
Just like scattered pollen digging into gaps in clothes and piling up.
Asura is a doll, and a doll is a mechanism.
Cold crystals stuck deep into every part of the machine.
Toward those crystals, Riman lightly breathed in [Freeze].
The reaction was explosive.
The crystals stuck everywhere began to connect and entangle with each other in an instant.
Countless cold crystals formed a dense freezing net and bound Asura's whole body.
Like that, the guy became unable to budge like a fish caught in a net.
CREAK.......
A bizarre sound flowed from Asura's whole body.
Evidence that the mechanism was malfunctioning.
But both Riman and the opponent knew.
Although this freezing effectively tied Asura's feet, it wouldn't last long.
Because with Asura's strength, it could break free from this level of freezing within a few seconds.
Just a few seconds.
But for Riman, just a few seconds were enough.
TAP.
Riman placed his hand on the stopped Asura's body surface.
The wizard seeing this through Asura's eyes was puzzled.
“What is that bastard doing......?”
His curiosity was resolved immediately.
[Detection]
Riman activated [Detection] through the palm placed on Asura.
WHIRRR!
Riman's magic ran along Asura's body surface.
Riman's [Detection] seemed to scan Asura's surface, then at some moment dug into Asura's body at once.
Was it to grasp the doll's internal structure?
No.
Riman wasn't even curious about Asura's internal structure.
He didn't use his brain to freeze it just to know such a thing.
Riman's target was Asura's background.
The wizard creating and controlling Asura through [Art of Descending Form].
What Riman targeted was exactly that person's location.
All dolls, summoned beasts, and subjugated evil spirits have a link with the caster controlling them.
Therefore, by backtracking that link, one could find out the location of the hiding caster.
Of course, that was strictly ‘theoretically’ speaking.
Puppeteers or summoners aren't fools, and they set up all jamming measures to make such tracking impossible.
But there is a moment when such jamming is released.
It is when projecting a large amount of unrefined mana abruptly into one's summons.
For instance, cases like hurriedly activating [Art of Descending Form] because all dolls were smashed.
At this time, the delicate measures of jamming break, and the link reveals its form.
The current Asura was exactly in that state.
A state where the link with the caster was completely revealed.
Of course, the link is invisible to the naked eye.
But if one can touch Asura's body.
If one can trace the link extended from Asura with mana through this.
Eventually, it was possible to track down the caster controlling Asura.
And for this single moment, Riman had frozen Asura doing all sorts of things.
WHIRRR!
Like that, Riman's mana raced.
Traversing the long link, finally reaching the caster.
At that moment.
PING!
“Argh......!”
The caster controlling Asura felt a momentary headache.
He felt Riman's mana digging in through the link connected to him.
And at that moment, Riman muttered in a low voice.
“Found you.”
ZIP!
Riman disappeared.
Asura started moving again breaking the ice, but Riman was no longer in front of it.
Riman was running toward a certain building about 100 meters away from Asura.
Because Asura's caster, that wizard was in that building.
“Damn it......!”
The wizard turned back holding his head.
Other wizards standing nearby asked in puzzlement.
“What is the matter?”
“I was tracked, damn it!”
“Yes?!”
“That bastard Leman White found out the location here!”
“Good heavens...! How on earth......?!”
“...He hacked my link.”
“What?! H, how on earth......!”
Indeed. How on earth did he do such a thing?
‘That bastard Leman, he knew exactly that the link's jamming was released and dug in......!’
Of course, the primary fault lay with himself who was beaten by Leman.
But he couldn't understand at all.
‘How on earth does he know the mechanism of link jamming release?!’
Information about link jamming and release belonged to considerable classified information magically.
And even if one knew it, digging in and hacking like this required tremendous talent.
Yet a street wizard who didn't even come from a proper Magic Tower, how did he know and perform all this.
He couldn't understand at all.
But he was also a wizard.
Therefore, he knew how to rationally distinguish what to hold onto and what not to.
And in his judgment, now was the time to flee.
The wizards including him headed quickly toward the exit.
All of them were the wizards who attacked Riman.
Just when they were about to reach the exit like that.
SIZZLE-
Some sensitive wizards felt it.
Suddenly the weight of the air changing.
Very minutely, something mixed into the transparent air.
However, before realizing what it was, a spark flying came first.
SWISH!
A pitch-black fireball flew into the place where they were.
And a moment ago, what was scattered into the air was scentless gunpowder.
The gunpowder they scattered to suppress Riman had been sprayed inside this building at some point.
Of course, it was Riman's doing.
Tracking the link to find out this location, spraying the scentless gunpowder sucked up earlier, and then throwing fire.
Like that, finally, black fire caught onto the first particle of gunpowder.
SPARK!
A shortly flying spark.
That was the wizards' last memory.
BOOM!!
Gunpowder in the air exploded all at once.
The wizards hurriedly unfolded barriers, but the explosion far exceeded the barriers' durability.
The explosion swallowed the wizards, broke pillars, and crumbled walls.
One floor of the building was deleted in an instant, and the building began to collapse.
RUMBLE!!
Windows shattered, steel frames bent, and concrete was crushed.
The quiet dawn street filled with the scream the building let out.
CRASH.......
Numerous concrete fragments tumbling on the floor.
And amidst them, one man passed bleeding.
The only wizard who survived in that explosion a moment ago.
Asura's caster.
Thanks to luck piling on luck, he survived even in that great explosion.
However, his luck was exactly up to there.
STEP, STEP, STEP.
In that dawn, Riman was walking toward him.