C152
The leader's eyes were bulging with disbelief. Even a formidable siege weapon couldn't penetrate these iron gates.
"Damn it! Shoot directly at them!"
Instructions were issued that were almost like a temporary measure. Since the castle gate had already been breached, if they couldn't stop it here, the battle would quickly turn in their favor.
The subordinates, knowing this, also aimed directly at Shirone and pulled the bows.
"Fire!"
Forty magic projectiles fired with all their might and flew toward Shirone.
Even after seeing the swiftly approaching arrows, Shirone did not move. This is because it is impossible to escape the explosion range with just the radius of Teleportation.
However, Spatial Shift was a different story.
The moment the forty arrows fell, Shirone's body turned into a flash of light and soared into the sky.
Kiiiiiiing!
The sound of Spatial Shift echoed as a powerful explosion obliterated the spot where Shirone had been standing.
Tess gazed at the explosion in disbelief. The echoing sound of thunder made it feel like they were at the center of a battlefield.
"Shi- Shirone...."
The magnitude of the explosion was enormous, and the blast was enough to rattle one's senses. Therefore, no one knew that Shirone had cast space movement.
However, Amy was an exception. It is said that for archers, the sound of arrows being fired is the clearest, and for swordsmen, the sound of swords clashing is heard most clearly.
Therefore, Amy, as a mage, could clearly hear the unique sound of space movement even amidst the roar of the explosion.
“Shirone is safe. Let's go in too."
Amy moved forward, cutting through the smoke. As expected, when they left the explosion site, we saw Shirone standing in front of the fortress.
Spatial Shift bends light, so it looked like she soared into the sky when it was actually an optical illusion.
In reality, Shirone was not soaring into the sky, but rather bending the space.
Moreover, such an illusion can only be observed from a distance, and if you see it from a close distance, it is normal to feel as if one just suddenly disappears.
This was the reason why mages used sound to determine whether space movement was being used.
“Fuhahaha! It's over! Completely over!"
“There wasn’t even a trace left! There's nothing to fear now. Guys, prepare to charge!”
Falkoa's men put down their bows and took up their weapons. Now that the mage who showed the most threatening power was dead, they had nothing to fear anymore.
Tess, who was watching this, tilted her head. It was clearly a situation where Shirone was standing in front of the iron gate like the Grim Reaper, but the enemies were cheering.
"What the, what's going on with them?"
"They didn't hear the sound of the spatial teleportation like I did. They think Shiro-ne is dead."
It didn't take long for Falkoa's men to correct their mistake.
As Shirone slowly retreated and appeared outside the square of the fortress wall, everyone was shocked as if seeing a ghost.
"Le- Leader! There....!"
The leader's face turned red. Shirone, who must have been dismembered by the bombing, was looking up at the castle wall defiantly.
"You, you bastard!"
Before launching a full-scale siege, Shirone decided to give his enemies one last chance.
"Release Jis' sister. Then we will leave."
The leader looked at Shirone blankly. Leave after causing all this mess? Where to? Do you think this is some kind of amusement park that charges admission?
"Do you think we'll let her go? The real face of a siege starts when the gates are breached. Do you know how much the magic circle you ruined cost? You can't repay it even with your life. We'll torture you until you beg to die."
"I don't want to engage in a meaningless fight. It's you who made the mistake from the beginning. I wish you'd stop now."
“Fuhahaha! hat? You want us to stop? Do you know who we are? We are the Parrot Mercenary Band that lives and dies on the battlefield! Guys, let's go! Slaughter them!"
“Uaaaaaa!”
The subordinates lifted their swords and shouted spiritedly.
Seeing that words were of no use, Shirone sighed and walked to the blind spot of the fortress wall.
"How considerate of you to come in yourself! Guys, get down there right now... huh?"
At that moment, the leader stopped talking. In an instant, a scene flashed through his mind.
It was a strange magic that shattered rocks falling from the cliff into powder. Can they truly say that the walls here are harder than rocks?
"O- Oi, wait a minute...!"
The leader ran to the stairs and checked the fortress gate. Just as he expected, Shirone was breaking through the metal gate, punching it downwards.
“Oi, oi, this punk, he’s joking, right? You can't possibly..."
The leader's voice trembled in horror. He felt his face go pale.
"Hey! Stop doing it! Do you know how much effort it took to build this wall? Hey!"
Shirone completed the magical preparation and briefly glanced at the leader standing on the staircase.
The leader who faced those gazes finally realized that the decision had already been made.
"Evacuate! Everyone jump down!"
The moment the leader went up the stairs and shouted, Shirone muttered quietly.
“Photon Explosion.”
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!
A 20-meter-wide Photon Explosion pulsed at 15 times per second. The fortress wall shook like there was an earthquake, and Falkoa’s men lost their balance and fell down.
As expected, being a massive structure, it had exceptional durability. However, Shirone did not stop his Photon Explosion. After all, the law of physics says that material durability has a limit. If you keep pounding, it will eventually break.
The iron gate made a loud clang as if hit by a hammer, and cracks like lightning raced across the fortress wall.
The cracks continued to branch out and infiltrate the entire castle wall until the ground began to shake and signs of collapse began to appear.
The leader was at a loss.
He was a veteran and had quite a bit of experience in siege warfare, but although he had witnessed a destroyed fortress before, this was the first time he had ever seen such a brute force method of collapsing an entire fortress.
"Arghhh! Okay, we lost! Stop it!"
The leader screamed, but his voice couldn't even spread one meter due to the photons packed with mass pounding on the fortress like a drum.
'Shit! 'This can't be happening!'
This was really dangerous.
If the fortress collapsed like this, the fate of 40 lives would have been left up to God.
“Uuuuu!”
Shirone frowned and concentrated on his Photon Explosion. He was knocking everything around him out in a uniform rhythm without any acceleration or deceleration.
From a vantage point where the fortress walls were visible, Tess just stared blankly at the scene.
At first, part of the central part of the wall was destroyed, followed by hysterical cracks that spread along the wall. The left side seemed to sag slightly, and then the right side sank to balance it out.
And finally...
Kureureureureureung!
The entire fortress collapsed.
"My God... He's a human weapon, isn't he?"
Rian agreed with Tess' sentiment. Until now, Shirone had tended to use magic to protect others.
When he really set his mind on destroying something, they realized again how different the results could be even with the same magic.
"He's definitely amazing. I guess I didn't fully understand Shirone either."
Amy said, smiling in agreement. While combat isn't everything for a mage, it was their pride.
"Shirone usually doesn't escalate things. However, when he puts his mind to it, his fighting ability itself is extremely outstanding. At this level, he could easily rank at the top in the graduating class."
Tess burst out laughing. She seemed to know what Amy was talking about.
'No doubt she's been caring, consciously or subconsciously. Anyway, appearances can be deceiving.'
Amy was genuinely pleased with Shirone's growth. At this rate, graduating together might not be just a dream.
‘I see you followed me well, Shirone.’
When the storm was over, the walls had completely collapsed. While the wall built near the valley still somewhat retained its shape, the center was as if a huge rock had rolled over it, completely flattened.
"Ugh..."
The mercenary buried in the stone groaned and wriggled.
Not a single person was unscathed. Even the squad leader who had tried to stop Shirone couldn't avoid the collapse and had a broken arm.
But he was so devastated that he couldn't even feel the pain.
The five years of hard work that went into building a hideout in the north passed by like a flash.
"It can't be. Destroyed by just one person? The Parrot Mercenary Band?"
The squad leader was startled by the sound of Shirone's approaching footsteps. As he faced Shirone's intense gaze, he felt an uncontrollable surge of fear.
“Bring Jis’ sister in now! Otherwise, you won't be spared!"
“Hiiiiik!”
The leader covered his face without realizing it. Then his broken arm fell like a pendulum and swung before his eyes.
"Ugh...!"
The leader, who discovered his grotesquely bent arm, rolled his eyes back and fainted.
Shirone and his group.
First checkpoint passed.
------------------------
"Wow. That’s amazing, Shirone.”
Marsha had been watching Shirone's combat from a spot 200 meters away from the wall.
Sitting on a handkerchief spread on the ground, she looked as leisurely as if she were on a picnic.
It's sad what happened to her subordinates. But wasn't enduring such sorrow part of being a mercenary? She herself had lost hundreds due to the schemes of politicians.
“You’re so strong, but you’re so clever at deceiving people. No, was it because you were strong that you had plenty of leeway?” (“저렇게 강하면서 감쪽같이 사람을 속였네. 아니, 강하니까 여유 만만이었던 건가?”)
She knew the child had a talent for magic, but she hadn't expected this level of performance.
What was most impressive was that all of Shirone's magic was applied from his own original pool of mana.
‘Unlocker….'
Marsha was in a good mood.
She liked the fact that Shirone was strong and also appreciated that he was a hypocritical person who pretends to care about the pain of others.
What was more exciting than anything was the fact that sooner or later, such a pure and beautiful boy would turn into a black bowl in his hands.
"You're a decade too young to catch me, kiddo."
Marsha stretched and rose from her seat. Her bracelet shone brightly and whisked her away to a cliff in the north.
The Second Meeting (1)
Shirone and his group continued heading north. Because most of Falkoa's men were injured at the first gate, no battle took place.
"This way."
Finding the path in the forest was Amy's responsibility.
Running aimlessly in a natural maze could easily result in losing one's sense of direction.
But that common sense did not apply to Amy. Tess, following behind Amy, realized that she had the potential to shine in intelligence operations.
'Sure enough. You can use Red Eyes like this.'
Amy's self-image memory perfectly restores a specific state at a particular time. Therefore, as long as she didn't lose consciousness, she could accurately determine the direction no matter where she was transported to.
"Amy, there's a mountain trail over there."
As soon as she heard Shirone's words, Amy changed direction and left the forest.
The winding mountain trail led up to the summit.
Tess checked the condition of the ground. Although it looked like quite some time had passed, there were signs that carts had gone through.
"From here on, it's their territory. In siege warfare terms, we've entered their inner walls, haven't we?"
It was a welcome relief for those who were tired from running through the forest.
But it wasn't a situation where they could relax yet. Although they had decimated most of the troops, the leaders, the so-called executives, were nowhere to be seen.
"If we follow this road, we'll reach their hideout. Let's hang in there just a bit longer."
Amy said as if she was certain, but she wasn't actually sure. She simply felt an obligation as a leader to boost her friends' morale.
Based on her self-image memory, the sum of the movements and the distance covered in the battles indicated they had moved approximately 12 kilometers from the starting point. Converted to a straight line, they had advanced more than 7 kilometers on the map.
---
Tags:
Infinite Mage (Novel)
