A War Wizard.
Oliver saw one for the first time, yet he could sense it.
The fear veterans felt towards war wizards, unconsciously.
It was not clear if it was natural or honed, but the wizard before him radiated a strong aura of mana, compared to any other wizards Oliver had encountered.
‘More than Mattel wizards, less than Elder Merlin.’
And his mastery of mana was exceptional.
The wizard radiated immense mana, not just from his hands, yet he skillfully managed it without any gestures.
Impressive, Oliver thought, observing the graceful manipulation of mana.
Whoo! Whoo!
The red-skinned wizard wielded his mana, manipulating the surrounding flames into living beings that sealed all escape routes.
His mana amplified the power of the flames, striking fear into the party.
Willes and the War Wizard in front of him. They both understood the Fire Wizard's combat style.
Amplifying the existing fire with magic to create a powerful inferno, then harnessing its power repeatedly, it was truly a battle.
A prolonged battle was not favorable to the side that wanted to run away immediately.
BOOM!!!
As if thinking the same, Willes' team swiftly collected the flames, molded them into their swords, and combined their efforts to strike the ground.
The flame, fueled by the mana of three wizards, surged through the earth, hitting the opposing War Wizard.
A massive explosion erupted, a towering pillar of fire reaching toward the sky.
The blazing flames, capable of eclipsing even the darkest night, were like a natural disaster on the ground.
The heat wave from the power ironically extinguished the nearby flames.
It was an incredible sight, a fire that snuffs out the light.
But even more impressive was the War Wizard, facing such an attack head-on.
"What?!”
"How!?"
"That's ridiculous”.
Arthur's party, Willes' subordinates, paled with shock.
The War Wizard stood undaunted, his cloak fluttering the only movement after blocking a barrage of attacks.
The allies' spirits, boosted by the attack, were now shaken.
Anxiety, fear, and nervousness filled their emotions.
These negative emotions were not beneficial for the fight and were slowly taking over.
This was not a good turn of events.
Wrrr… Wr… Wr… Wr… Wr!
Willes, the leader of the Kell Liberation Army and a temporary ally, swung his fiery sword, splitting the air.
Fire erupted from the smoldering sword, encasing Willes in fiery armor.
"I'll handle this, you guys retreat with the others."
Willes' men tried to stop him, but he was resolute.
"Just do as I say… this is not a typical war wizard. And you guys… things went south. Forget about the information for now and prioritize your safety."
Willes told Arthur.
It was a difficult situation.
Only Willes knows the information that Hewitt discovered, but they had to part ways with him.
But arguing wasn't the solution.
As Willes said, the war wizard in front of them was not ordinary.
The problem wasn't the information, it was getting out safely.
If they were caught, they would be linked to the Kell Liberation Army and labeled as rebels.
Or worse, they could be used as a weakness of the city, taken away from the city's view and used as leverage, or even executed.
No matter what, he wanted to avoid that.
So, Arthur had no choice but to bite his tongue.
He had a serious expression and Oliver asked amidst it.
"We'll fail our mission without the rest of the info, right?"
"Yeah, that's how it is," Arthur nodded.
Oliver stepped forward, readying himself.
He strengthened his black suit and, with a sudden burst of speed, charged toward the war wizard.
"What!" both Willes and Arthur shouted in surprise, as did the war wizard.
Ignoring their reactions, Oliver leaped high, brandishing his quarterstaff, and brought it crashing down with all his might.
The war wizard was unimpressed.
“What a fool.”
Along with that, he extracted mana from his body, condensed it in the air, and ignited the flames by endowing it with will and mana.
BOO BOOO BOOOO
Six flame spheres were created in an instant.
It was small on the surface, but Oliver could see the huge mana condensed within it that could not be compared to its size.
The war wizard lifted his finger and tried to attack Oliver, but at that moment….
The war wizard turned to the ground and threw the flame balls.
The flame balls flew in a red line and exploded as it collided with six shadow spikes that quietly extended.
BOOM! BOOM!
Oliver's attempt to end it with shadow spikes while drawing attention pretending to make a big attack failed.
However, Oliver didn't mind.
He didn't expect to defeat the war wizard with one move anyway.
Oliver hit the war wizard with the quarterstaff.
"…Um."
The war wizard ran out of flames, but he did not panic, gave mana to the ground through his feet to create a huge wall of soil to prevent Oliver's attack.
BOOM!
A wall made of clay materialized.
And, as mana was added, the intensity far exceeded the normal level.
It was more than just clay, it felt like hitting the steel.
Fluffy on the outside, hard and dense on the inside…
Thanks to this, Oliver's attack was dispersed and did not go in properly.
It was not just the end.
"Um…."
The clay wall that blocked Oliver's attack started swallowing Oliver’s quarterstaff like a swamp before he knew it, and it hardened like a rock with a squeaking sound.
SNAP
The war wizard snapped his finger, and with it, the clay wall exploded.
In that short time, it emptied the inside of the dirt wall and caused an explosion.
The solid debris of the clay wall splashed sporadically everywhere, hitting Oliver's body indiscriminately.
Head, side chest, arms, knees, etc.
He managed to prevent direct damage with his black suit but could not stop the shock, so eventually, Oliver fell down.
But this was fine in a way.
Oliver grabbed the leg of the war wizard to the ground with his hand and extracted mana while he was down.
As soon as the mana touched the soil, it clung like cement and held the war wizard like a tough tree root.
"Ho…..you use magic too?"
"Yes."
At the same time as the answer, the ground around the war wizard fluctuated, and a huge clay wall rose up, attacking the war wizard in all directions and devouring him.
Oliver clenched his fist in that state.
WUFFFF
The soil gathered so strongly that it could be heard even in the ears and put pressure on the war wizard, strong enough to make him a meat dumpling.
Oliver stood up with his mana-covered hand on the ground.
"Now is the time. Run away, everyone."
"What?! Then you…!”
Oliver answered Arthur's question.
"I'll follow you soon. I'll stall him for a while, so run away first. Isn't this the original plan?"
Everyone hesitated and couldn't even act because they couldn't believe this situation.
At that time, the ball of dirt surrounding the war wizard fluctuated a little, and grains of soil started falling.
Surprisingly, even though he injected a considerable amount of mana and exerted maximum pressure, the war wizard not only held out but conversely tried to take control of the mana that Oliver was controlling.
It was pretty amazing.
Oliver has taken control of a wizard’s mana, but no one has ever tried to take Oliver's.
Oliver felt a personal curiosity along with a sense of duty to work, stopped the encroachment of the wizard, and increased the intensity of the pressure.
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZ.
With a small but dense sound, the lump of dirt crumpled to a noticeable extent.
In that state, Oliver looked at Arthur and said.
"Job. . . Isn’t this an important job? And Mr. Willes?"
Oliver saw Willes.
"Mr. Willes is not in a position to be relaxed, right? Mr. Hammersh and everyone else died believing in Mr. Willes, can you stay like this?”
Willes' eyes grew wider at the words, as if in shock
Arthur and Willes, who came to their senses by Oliver's words, looked at each other and left the place with their colleagues.
Willes said, walking past Oliver.
"Thank you… Let's have a conversation later.”
Willes left looking at Oliver with a really strange expression on his face.
As everyone left in a rush, Oliver and the war wizard were left alone in the dark midnight mountain.
"All right, I'll admit…."
said the war wizard, trapped in a ball of dirt.
His voice was calm.
"…I can't take away the mana you're in control of. It's very interesting."
Along with the words, the lump of dirt that was pressing him as hard as a rock exploded like a rotten tomato.
Along with the intense explosion, something flew out of the high-temperature flame that was hard to see.
It was a spear made of stone, soil, and flame, containing a tremendous amount of mana– to the point of penetrating a black suit.
Oliver quickly moved his body to the side and avoided the spear, which then flew forward and collided with a tree causing a huge explosion, and burning the surroundings.
“Not only can you control magic, but you also have good reflexes. You must have a lot of experience in combat?”
The war wizard spoke as he walked leisurely out of the bright red flame.
Despite the flames engulfing his whole body, he did not even get soot, let alone burn.
An action that was possible because he was controlling the surrounding flames one by one.
It was similar to Hammersh, the fire wizard who Oliver fought in the abandoned incinerator, but the size and level were incomparable.
‘He seems more powerful than I thought.’
Oliver thought as he looked at the huge stone pillars rising all around him.
It wasn't just some stones protruding, each one of them had mana, and they were sharing and exchanging mana with other stone pillars around them before he knew it.
The mana mixed with blue and red lights was connected to each other around the pillar, surrounding Oliver like a huge fence, separating the space inside and outside.
It looked quite dangerous and at the same time felt familiar.
Distributing vast amounts of mana using a medium. Exchanging and sharing it at the same time.
It felt like he had seen it somewhere before.
‘Where was it?’
The war wizard took the communication device out of his pocket, using the flame burning behind his back.
"Ah. Ah. Can you hear me? ….The Red Wizard missed the rebels. It's a powerful Warlock. I request the pursuit of the remnants of the fugitive. Please refer to D-12 for the travel route."
A panicked voice came out from the other side of the communication device, but the war wizard ignored it and turned it off, and then trampled the communication device with his foot.
Looking at the communication device shattered with a crackling sound, Oliver tilted his head.
"Is it okay to do that?"
The red-skinned war wizard pushed back his thick black hair and replied in a stiff tone.
"… This is not something I do because I like it in the first place. I've found something more interesting.”
"That's why you waited until everyone ran away. That's kind of you."
"Just my curiosity as a scholar,"
"By any chance, is it because of handling mana?"
Oliver remembered that it was rare for warlocks to handle mana. This was why the innocent Rossbane was captured by Mattel. It wasn't a very pleasant thing.
However, the war wizard shook his head saying he was wrong.
"No, it's because my mana control didn’t work on you… There was no case like this except for my teacher. What trick did you use?"
Perhaps it was his intention to fight properly, his sincerity and willingness to fight shone in his emotions.
In response to the war wizard's emotion, the stone pillars around Oliver and him released mana, intensifying the surrounding fire.
The war wizard then grinned and said,
"Don't go down easily, Mr. Warlock."
(To be Continued)
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