NOVEL NEXT Chapter 69: Power
“OOOOOOOHHHHH – hup!”
Whew, landing successful.
In front of me, monsters, monsters, monsters, and… huh, and what’s that?
Goblins are lining up in a horizontal row and shielding themselves with Zombie Lords?
And the Marine Lizards are rushing forward… these aren’t the kind of strategies monsters would employ.
Not in line with any of the ecology documented in my book, the Principles of a Philosopher, either.
And I see some warriors fighting the in the back – one, two… seven in total. And isn’t that Reid?
Well, looks like he’s gotten swollen over the years. That’s what one would get from learning under Ryan for that long.
Whoops – no time to get sentimental now. I have to get a read of the flow of this battle.
“Rise, A-rise, Flash Eye!”
I invoked a Spell Circle, making it display a Monster Board with data regarding all of the monsters within my field of vision.
87 Goblins, 54 Marine Lizards, and 60 Zombie Lords.
The ones to watch out for first would be… the Marine Lizards and their long-range attacks, I guess.
Good thing I’ve got a convenient spell just for this…
“Rise, A-rise, A-rise, Monster Name Lock! Code: Marine Lizard!”
Tūs’ prized spell – he had even named if himself – ‘Lock’.
As long as I had information on those I want targeted, I could gain a degree of control over the magic.
Back when I had used it in the form of ‘Title Lock’ to hold down the Laughing Foxes bandits, I had set their titles as the variable, but names were enough for monster minions… for C-ranked ones at most for now, anyway.
Not much information was publicly available for monsters above that, after all. If I were to know their common title and invoke the Title Lock with it, I would be able to make it work on monsters of Rank B. And if I were to temporarily boost myself with All Up, I would be able to work with Rank A ones.
Back then, I hadn’t expected it to work on Maüs as well, though. Which reminds me, that bomber head Tūs could work on monsters up to Rank S.
Ahh, how I hate him…
If I were to apply some boosts and fulfill some other requirements, the very best I could do now was Rank A. That meant the ones beyond the level of all the ones I will be fighting right now, of course. Man, I really messed up, wasting time thinking about all that.
Right – that didn’t matter now. All one monsters in my field of view were ranked C and D.
So let’s use it. I could see Reid down there, but Mana didn’t seem to be around. I should finish this quickly.
“Rise, A-rise, Magic Convert! Spell Name: Lock to Thunder Lance!”
That was a magecraft for overwriting magic. The Marine Lizards, which had been held down by Lock, were now run through by spears of lightning that protruded up from the earth. The movement restriction spell had spontaneously turned into an attack spell. There’s probably no monster on the lower ranks that could handle this combo. Reid and the brave warriors around him were utterly surprised by the sharp drop of the number of enemy monsters. However, this was not the time for us to celebrate our reunion just yet.
“W-what the… magic?!”
“Rise, A-rise, Monster Name Lock! Code: Goblin!”
“”GIEHHHH-?!””
Now the Goblins screamed in the back row as they were held down.
Statistically speaking, they were more trouble than the Zombie Lords in the front lines.
“Now’s our chance! Dunno who that fool is, but hey, we’ve got some help coming to us here in the sticks! We’ve got to stand our ground! Don’t let any of them through!”
Yeah, right, calling a presumed stranger a fool right off the bat… that’s definitely Reid.
Next, I’ve got to provide them with cover and healing!
“Rise, A-rise, A-rise! All Up: Count 7 & Remote Control!”
I had to prioritize power fortification over recovery for now. Them being able to continue fighting with those wounds meant that their fatigue was building up faster than pain. And that’s why I temporarily elevated their physical abilities, fooling their bodies’ senses of burden!
“Wha – I’m feeling stronger!”
“Now… I can fight!”
“What’s this presence…? …Heh, so that it! It’s got to be him! …Everyone, it’s Asley! That fool is here for us!”
Oh? I thought I was in a blind spot… yet he sensed me? Right – Pochi might have told me a long time ago that she could sense me by my magic, or something along that line.
Is my arcane energy really that quirky or unique?
“Asley, you need to go east! Chief and Reyna are at the east gate!”
“Rise, A-rise, Magic Convert! Spell Name: Lock to Fire Lance!”
The Goblins, rendered immobile, were promptly pierced by bursts of fire.
Now only the Zombie Lords remained.
Seeing that things over here were more or less fine now, I initiated a Telepathic Call with Pochi, seeking an update on the situation on her side.
[“Pochi, how’s it going over there?!”]
[“His blood was mildly tasty!”]
What the hell has she been doing?
[“Ah, please wait! …Oh, no. Sir Ryan’s wounds are deeper than I thought. Please send a big one to where we are now – near the east gate, 250 meters south-east from the place we separated!”]
[“You got it!”]
Having heard Pochi’s report, I cranked up my recovery magic to its strongest.
“Rise, High Cure Adjust! And Rise, Ground Spell Delivery!”
Relying on my instincts and memory, I directed the healing spell toward the east gate.
…All right, I’m sure Pochi can take it over from this point on.
And so I proceeded to plan the process of healing the warriors stuck in combat down below.
Quite a lot of them were already down. I’ll have to prioritize based on the severity of their injuries.
As of now, Tzar is in front of the north gate, and Lala is at the west gate. Those two would most likely be fine on their own, but I can’t help but still worry to some degree.
What to do, what to do…
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
“Goblin detected – harmful creature, count 60. Zombie Lord detected – harmful creature, count 45. Marine Lizard detected – harmful creature, count 71… They are the enemies of the fields!”
(Xem: Pest Control Mode Activated. Initiating purge sequence)
Lala situated herself in the watchtower on Faltown’s west gate. Forming circles with her thumb and index finger of both her hands, she looked through the hoops and counted the monsters down below.
The west gate had already been broken through, with the vicinity being filled with countless dead bodies of the townspeople who hadn’t been able to escape in time.
The Goblins went at length to show the simple-mindedness of their kind in their evil celebration over the dead bodies. The Marine Lizards, on the other hand, rallied their allies with a unified war cry.
The path to the central plaza had been blocked off by all the rubble, preventing the advance of the swarming Zombie Lords and other random monsters.
Lala, as if descending the staircase of her own home, hopped off the wall without a shred of difficulty, the sound of her landing causing a group of monsters to take notice of her. The Marine Lizards bared their fangs, and the Goblins poised for combat with their weapons brandished.
Without any of those elaborate actions, the Zombie Lords started toward Lala, but right then, an intense flash of bluish-white light sparked from the side opposite to her, and after a brief moment, was followed by a thunderous roar. That caused the monsters’ attention to instead stray toward the east. Lala made sure not to let that instant go to waste.
“Ryyyseee, Earth-Control-and-Earth-Needle!”
In an instant, sharp spikes protruded from the earth.
They shot up at the rows of Zombie Lords, piercing them and reaching all the way to the Goblins behind them.
“G-GIEHHHH-?!”
The Goblins, taken by surprise, pushed and shoved among themselves in an attempt to avoid the spikes. As the Zombie Lords fell like flies, the Goblins struggled in vain to deflect the Earth Needles with their weapons – in the end, most of them also dropped to the ground.
The moment the spell’s invocation ended would be their perfect chance to strike. Some of the Goblins and Marine Lizards had waited for a said moment, but Lala’s fingers never stopped. The protruding earth started to move.
Using Earth Control, Lala was controlling the movements of the ground itself. That control also applied to the Earth Needle Spell Circle, which had been set on the ground. As the Earth Needle Spell Circle was absorbed into the earth, she overwrote it with Earth Control, building up a rhythmic ‘fortress’ of the earth protruding, moving, then protruding again, taking out the remaining Goblins and Marine Lizards.
The monsters, unable to get a grasp on the situation, lost their lives not knowing what was up, and even the ones that tried to get behind Lala were pushed back and clumped with the rest of the monsters by the moving fortress. The monsters that tried to get away were killed, and the ones that tried to get close to her also died, only in a different manner.
By the time Lala’s dark green eyes showed their radiance once more, the monsters’ corpses that used to be around her were no longer there.
“…Harmful creatures have been exterminated. Scarecrow Mode disengaged…… AWWWRIGHT!! I HATH CLEANED THE FIELDS!”
At Faltown’s west gate, Lala let out a fierce cry of victory.
Meanwhile, on top of the north gate, a gigantic double-sided serpent has suddenly appeared.