Chapter 512: Counterattack (3)
Nopton, one of the countless small cities gradually being decimated by Randa…
An unexpected battle was raging in the outskirts of the city. This wasn’t the kind of gang warfare often found in alleyways. It was a war between the mages of the Tower of Magic and those of the Traditional School—a topic that had long fascinated countless bystanders.
The question persisted: Who was the strongest among the mages? Was it the Tower mages, born in the new era? Or was it the Traditional School mages, carrying on hundreds of years of history?
This was a challenging topic. While it was the young blood of the Tower of Magic that ushered in the era of magic and industry, the Traditional School held the weight of history and legacy. Since both sides had strong claims, no matter how much people debated, they couldn’t reach a conclusion.
There was only one way to know for sure—by having them actually fight.
But, realistically, such a battle was impossible. Political, economic, and diplomatic reasons would prevent either side from ever engaging in full conflict.
Unless they were in a truly mad situation, it would never happen.
Ironically, however, there was now a chance to indirectly see the answer here in Nopton.
The stronger side was proving to be the Tower of Magic.
“Argh!”
A mage from the Skadi School let out a scream.
Derek appeared out of nowhere, creating a massive explosion. Using the force of the blast, he closed the distance instantly, severing the mage’s arm in a single swift motion.
The severed arm spun in the air, scattering the scent of burnt flesh and blood into the atmosphere.
“Shut it.”
Derek Redhill extended a hand towards the screaming Skadi School mage. In the next instant, another explosion erupted, leaving the mage burned but alive, just barely.
“You bastard…”
Seeing their comrade fall, two other Skadi School mages summoned ice beneath their feet and approached with a speed ill-suited to their large builds.
The speed was indeed intimidating, and their magic was not lacking either. Yet Derek, far from being startled, simply gripped his longsword more firmly and summoned an immense flame.
A curtain of fire, tinged with yellow and red, obscured the Skadi School mages' vision, and Derek dove into the flames, concealing himself entirely.
Even an Agni School mage, with their natural resistance to flames, would find such an action reckless. But Derek, using his refined magic control, contained the heat of the fire as he lunged towards the Skadi School mage who had let their guard down.
“Urgh!”
Alarmed at Derek’s sudden appearance through the flames, the Skadi School mage raised an ice weapon to defend. But Derek’s searing blade, having absorbed intense heat, sliced through both the ice weapon and the mage with ease.
The sound of burning air and flesh being sliced echoed, and Derek unleashed another fiery, crescent-shaped slash at a mage approaching from behind, taking them down.
The timing of his strikes, the chaining of spells, and his confidence—all were essential to execute such relentless attacks, and yet Derek did it all with ease.
If his peers could see, they would be in awe. But Derek himself wasn’t surprised.
After all, he had been trained by Kevin in real combat scenarios and had sparred twice with a monster far beyond these mages. It would have been strange if he struggled with this.
‘Zenon…’
Advancing forward, Derek thought of Zenon Bright, the name Oliver had taken as his Tower of Magic alias.
The fact that Oliver could scan the entire city and pinpoint enemy locations—Derek had always known he was a monster, but now he understood the full extent of his power.
Moving forward, Derek encountered more Skadi School mages blocking his path.
“Damn it… just how many of you are there?”
Without waiting for an answer, Derek sprinted toward the Skadi School mages.
Spears of ice flew at him, attacks imbued with both physical force and cold. But Derek, his body enhanced by magical power, dodged and sliced through them, closing the distance.
Then, as if waiting for this, sheets of ice crept towards him from the ground.
A typical tactic of the Skadi School—outdated and predictable.
Instead of engaging in a battle of magical power, Derek leaped, lifting both feet into the air, and ignited a powerful fire behind him, using it as propulsion to rapidly close the gap between him and his opponent.
The Skadi School mages were taken aback by his unexpected, flamboyant move.
“Traditional School, my foot…”
With a sneer directed at those stuck in the past, Derek thrust his blade forward, delivering a fitting blow to those who had grown complacent under the banner of tradition.
Thud!
The opponent, pierced through, felt both the agony of his body being impaled and the searing pain of fire, screaming in agony. This, however, was just the beginning.
Derek began to channel a technique he had learned from Kevin.
Rather than infusing fire with magic, he invoked a flame that consumed magical power on its own.
When Derek unleashed this unique flame magic, the Skadi School mage was set ablaze, becoming a towering fire that even surprised Derek.
Fwoosh—!!
The fire grew as high as a two-story building, melting even the ice that had filled the area with its overwhelming heat.
Understandably, the flame was consuming an entire mage, so the intensity was no surprise.
‘Even so, this guy’s no ordinary mage. To have enough magical power to create such intense fire… How interested is the Skadi School in the World Tree to send such a powerful group?’
Watching the mages deployed to capture Eve, Derek was briefly puzzled. But he quickly set those thoughts aside when he realized the fire, which could consume magic itself, was beginning to consume his own flames as well.
If he lost focus, Derek himself would become fuel for the insatiable flame.
‘What kind of maniac came up with this spell!?’
Despite his silent complaints, Derek controlled the flame with intense concentration.
One slip, and it would be over, yet he couldn’t completely hate this ravenous flame—it was unmatched in sheer destructive power.
[Waves of Flame]
Derek sent the flames, with the mage as fuel, surging forward.
Skadi School mages launched ice walls and blasts of cold to extinguish the advancing wave of flame, but it was futile.
The overwhelming heat melted away the ice and cold, pushing forward relentlessly...
[Pulsation of Water]
A chant echoed from the depths below.
With a rumbling, a manhole exploded skyward, and a massive pillar of water surged up.
It was a powerful water magic, one of the Skadi School’s secondary branches. Despite its strength, it required water as a medium, which placed it lower than ice magic.
Now, water from the sewers surged up, dousing Derek’s flames.
Hissss…
Though powerful enough to consume magical power, it was still fire. With a mass of water covering it from all sides, steam rose as it gradually began to extinguish.
But that wasn’t the most important thing.
While water was indeed required for water magic, it also created an environment where ice magic could be used with ease.
“Damn it!”
Soaked and ankle-deep in water, Derek cursed.
He had hoped otherwise, but here it was. As the steam clouded his vision, ice began to close in, intending to freeze him on the spot.
He was aware of their intent, but with his body drenched, escape was difficult—unless he could fly.
“Pardon me for a moment.”
Something shot down from above, grabbing Derek.
With wings of blood unfurled behind her, Ünner, despite her frail appearance, displayed tremendous strength, lifting Derek and soaring into the sky.
Thanks to her, Derek escaped from the deadly cold.
“You see, I did say I’d cover the main route, didn’t I?”
“You got cocky!”
“Yes, you did—”
Splat!
As Ünner responded, a giant ice spear tore through the steam, shredding one of her wings.
With a wing lost, Ünner began to descend slowly to the frozen ground, and at that moment, two Skadi School mages skated rapidly across the ice to close in.
[Ice Shot]
[Snowstorm]
[Icicle]
Ice bullets, a snowstorm, and sharp icicles flew toward Ünner from three directions.
Releasing her single remaining blood wing, Ünner wrapped it around her hand, preparing for a counter.
[Blood Blade]
With a swift swing of her blood-clad arm, the intense bloodthirst and magic within her transformed into countless bat-shaped blades that flew in all directions.
The bats, composed entirely of blood, behaved like living creatures as they intercepted every incoming attack, clashing with a series of resounding impacts before tearing into the approaching enemy mages.
Slash, slash!
The air filled with the sickening sounds of limbs being severed, abdomens and necks being ripped open.
Exhibiting remarkable control, Ünner commanded the bats to absorb the spilled blood, creating an even greater pool of resources to fuel her blood magic.
[Blood Flame]
The blood began to bubble, igniting with a viscous, crimson flame that clung like oil.
This ominous flame, sticky and red like blood, emanated a tremendous heat, rapidly evaporating the surrounding steam and clearing her line of sight.
Directly in front of her, the Skadi School mages stood atop a vast layer of ice, preparing a complex formation using materials they had pulled from the sewer water.
[Moirai School: Memory Reconstruction]
[Life School: Body Composition]
[Skadi School: Blessing of Cold]
The three spells from separate schools combined into an intricate ritual, and ice on the ground gathered around the spell’s core, taking the form of a colossal figure.
The moment Ünner and Derek saw it, they instantly recognized it as a giant.
This was a being that could only be summoned through spatial magic—a creature from another dimension.
The ice-formed giant’s form was crude and only consisted of an upper body, yet even that was enough to be a threat.
The giant’s massive arms crashed down on the advancing blood flames, extinguishing them in a single blow.
These flames were no ordinary fire; they were fueled by blood, magic, and raw animosity.
“Haaah…”
The ice giant, unsatisfied, inhaled deeply, preparing to unleash a blast of freezing breath that could instantly kill its targets. With the power shown in its arms alone, it was evident that this attack would be lethal. Ünner and Derek, however, showed no signs of fear as they gathered their magical power to counter.
Just as they were about to clash, a massive iceberg burst forth from the ground, and Yareli appeared.
Using the momentum from the iceberg's creation, Yareli landed on the giant’s head, imbuing her magic into it to seize control.
Crack, crack!
Cracks spread across the ice giant’s body as Yareli’s magic forced its way in, an astonishing feat that left Derek momentarily shocked, though he quickly understood.
After her battle with the Flesh Chef in Gallos, Yareli had returned with the title of Hero, having fully awakened the power of her magical eye.
A gaze alone could freeze anything it fell upon—an eye of miraculous power.
But that wasn’t all she had gained. Her reserves of magical power, her control over it, and her general prowess had all increased.
Proving her might, Yareli wrested control from the ice giant, forcing it to turn and face the opposite direction. Although Skadi School mages tried to interfere, Yareli repelled each of their attacks with her magical eye and defensive spells.
Derek and Ünner rushed to support her.
Igniting flames at his feet and back, Derek accelerated forward with incredible propulsion, slicing through the distracted Skadi School mages with his fire-imbued strikes.
A massive, crescent-shaped arc of flame hurtled toward his opponents.
Just then, a hulking figure standing in the background swung an ice halberd, extinguishing Derek’s flames before launching the weapon forward, shattering Yareli’s ice giant with a single strike.
With just two attacks, it was clear that this figure possessed remarkable skill. Instinctively, Derek realized this was their leader.
“Guh!”
The bear-like brute inhaled sharply, raising his massive arms and slamming them down onto the ice-covered ground.
[Swirl Snowstorm]
As the bear-sized figure’s fists collided with the frozen ground, a powerful snowstorm began swirling around them. This wasn’t just snow and cold air; it contained deadly ice shards, sharp as blades.
Faced with the snowstorm, Derek, Yareli, and Ünner hesitated. Taking advantage of this, the brute dug his hands into the cracked ice on the road, flipping it as if upending a table.
“No way…”
Bad predictions rarely miss. Using pure brute strength, beyond anything normal, the brute literally flipped the paved road.
It was so unreal that even after seeing it, their minds froze, paralyzed by the sheer impossibility of it all.
Taking advantage, the massive brute lunged forward with his clawed hands reaching for Derek, who, caught mid-air and defenseless, seemed unable to escape.
“My name is Viktor! Die, whelp of the Tower of Magic…!”
Caught off guard, Derek had no way to dodge or defend. Just as Viktor’s hand was about to grab him, a brilliant light flashed to Derek’s right, and another hand reached out, intercepting Viktor’s grasp.
“My name is Zenon Bright.”
It was Oliver, his mechanical arm gleaming with magic as he wielded his quarterstaff and pocket watch.
Holding the brute’s hand that had flipped the road, Oliver turned to Derek.
“Are you alright?”
“Not really. It’s embarrassing.”
…
Face down on the ground, Derek looked up at Oliver with an embarrassed expression before asking a question.
“More importantly, how did you get here so fast? Are you capable of spatial magic?”
“No, I used a captured item from the Road Gang.”
Oliver held up the pocket watch—a spatial magic device from the Ilmarinen Workshop originally used by Hog. Normally, the device stored a fixed location to return to, but Oliver had modified the formula to track and return to a specific person—in this case, Derek’s shoulder.
It had been a challenging alteration, but it worked, allowing Oliver to arrive quickly.
“You’re a real lunatic.”
Derek responded with a smirk, just as a third voice interrupted them.
“You bastards…!”
It was Viktor, seething with rage as he looked between Oliver and Derek. The audacity of chatting in front of him filled him with fury.
With an indignant roar, Viktor tightened his grip on Oliver’s hand, intending to crush it.
Crrrkkk…
The sound of intense pressure reverberated as if space itself were being squeezed, but Oliver’s expression remained unchanged.
In fact, Viktor was the one taken aback, despite exerting enough force to crack the ground underfoot. Oliver’s hand remained unaffected.
For someone as thin and frail-looking as Oliver to withstand his grip was impossible to fathom.
“Are you wearing some sort of item?”
“No… but it seems you are.”
Struck by Oliver’s observation, Viktor clenched his jaw, then attempted to freeze Oliver’s hand using ice magic.
If strength wasn’t enough, then he would smother him with freezing cold.
But Oliver dissected and reconfigured the spell embedded in the ice magic, merging it with his own body like armor.
This fusion of elements with flesh was achievable only by those who had mastered Elemental Magic.
Using this to his advantage, Oliver countered by freezing Viktor’s hand instead, sending Viktor scrambling back in shock.
This guy knew more about ice magic than he, a Skadi mage, did.
“This belt… it’s made from the tendons of a giant, isn’t it?”
As Viktor backed away, Oliver held up a belt, muttering to himself.
Realizing his waist was now bare, Viktor roared in frustration.
“When did you…?!”
“Just as you took a step back. I borrowed it for a moment.”
“Where I’m from, we call that theft.”
As Derek got to his feet, he chimed in. Behind him, Yareli and Ünner had returned, appearing mostly unharmed from their earlier ordeal.
Before Oliver could greet them, Yareli spoke.
“It’s theft. Derek’s right; you stole the belt.”
Making a point of correcting him, Yareli’s words, though light-hearted, took on an unsettling tone when said by Oliver, who had intended them as a joke.
“Where I come from, we’d call it borrowing.”
“…”
“Just kidding.”
“Ah…”
Everyone let out a breath they hadn’t realized they were holding. For some reason, it had been genuinely terrifying.
Watching this, Viktor felt his rage flare again, humiliated by being ignored. Enlisting his allies’ support, he summoned the sewer water, constructing a massive glacial mountain range that he sent charging toward Oliver.
If precision couldn’t win the fight, he would overwhelm them with sheer volume.
It was a decent plan. When mages of the same type worked together, their power could increase exponentially.
In response, Oliver channeled his stored magical energy, summoning ice spikes from the ground.
Though minuscule compared to Viktor’s glacier, they were strategically aimed to exploit the mountain’s weak points, as Oliver accurately targeted its vulnerabilities.
As anticipated, Oliver’s ice spikes shattered the glacier.
Yet Viktor, unfazed by the collapsing ice, pushed forward, forcing his way through the rubble to launch an attack.
In a swift move, Oliver condensed the ice armor around his hand and struck, freezing Viktor and sending him flying.
The disparity in their skills was undeniable.
Viktor screamed in fury, shame, and frustration.
“Argh…!! Lilith, how much longer?!”
Screaming into the communicator on his chest, Viktor’s question was soon met by a soft, feminine voice.
“Yes.”
Alongside her response, powerful waves of magical energy spread across the ground, forming a magic circle under Oliver. In an instant, Oliver vanished from sight.