Chapter 0347 Magic Warfare
Translator: Jay_Forestieri
Editor: Tseirp
((Five people… and they’re the same five from that time…))
((Okay… so what do you hope to achieve by telling me that…?))
((I’m telling you because I thought an adventurer as experienced as Abel would have some useful advice for me!))
((O-Oh…. Well, if it were me, I’d try and create a one-on-one situation and take them down separately.))
((Divide and conquer you mean. It’s certainly by the book, but that’s kind of tedious, so I’ll just take them out altogether!))
((…Then why bother asking me?))
((Cause I respect Abel’s opinion! But let’s just say that it’s not really fitting this time…))
Ryo dropped a line sounding like some human resources manager.
A little open space on the outskirts of the city.
Ryo stopped there, turned around, and said:
“The five of you over there, come out.”
Five people wearing military-looking robes stepped out, with Cesare in the center.
“He knew we were trailing him?”
The man to Cesare’s left said.
“He saw through our concealment? That’s ridiculous…”
The woman to Cesare’s right muttered.
(That’s right, I am very much interested in exactly what that is. What kind of technology is it… is it magic, alchemy, or some other means I don’t know about?)
Ryo was also very interested in their ‘Concealment’ techniques.
Yup, he’s ‘also’ interested in their ‘Concealment’ techniques.
And since they’re likely to have some goodies on them, he’s interested in those as well.
His ‘interest’ in these things was, of course, synonymous with wanting to get his hands on them.
And to do that,
(I have to secure them without killing them…)
The problem was that all five of them were magicians.
Magicians cannot be trapped in the <Ice Coffin>.
It is not entirely impossible, but it is quite tricky.
Even if they’re captured alive, it would be useless if they fought back or escaped.
The surest way was to incapacitate them.
However, in reality, that was very difficult to carry out….
A chop to the back of the head hardly knocks people out… he couldn’t say how effective sniffing chloroform was since he didn’t have any to begin with… and a punch to the gut would surely leave them writhing in pain, but they won’t pass out…
The most reliable way to knock them out was with a stranglehold.
A hundred percent sure-fire method.
In judo, mixed martial arts, and even professional wrestling in some cases, pressure is applied to the two carotid and vertebral arteries of the neck to make the person pass out… that is a sure-fire way but… doing that to all five would be a little difficult.
Ryo was thinking about that as he confronted the five of them.
Yet he had already decided what he needed to do once they were incapacitated…
“I’ll just have to give it a try.”
Ryo muttered.
“Cesare, I’ll go.”
The man to Cesare’s left said and stepped forward.
Did he perhaps want to take him one-on-one?
“No, Bartolo, we’ll all go at him together.”
Cesare declared in the same monotonous voice as before.
To which the man called Bartolo was surprised.
“Huh? This guy is a magician from the Central Countries, isn’t he? We all know that magicians from the Central Countries are severely lacking…”
“He blocked our attack the last time.”
“No, that must have been some kind of tool the two from the Secret Services used…”
Magicians of the Central Countries are considered inferior to magicians of the Western and Eastern Countries.
They go to the trouble of chanting and still end up manifesting weak magic…
A magician from the Hero Party from the Western Countries once said something like that…
All of that was just as the Lord Progenitor of the vampires had envisioned…
Confining the magic culture of a particular region to the level he set… quite frankly, it was outrageous.
Ryo knew of no one in history who had succeeded in doing such a thing… in the history of Earth, of course.
But the Lord Progenitor went out of his way to make the magic used by humans in the Central Countries require chanting and yet be less powerful to allow vampires to live in the Central Countries in peace.
It’s simply shocking…
Well, the result was thus being ridiculed like this.
“This man in front of us is strong. Don’t underestimate him, we’ll confront him together and give it our all.”
Cesare seemed to think highly of Ryo.
“What Sir Cesare said is true.”
Ryo intentionally provoked them.
“What?”
The man called Bartolo replied.
“As expected of one of the four bishops of the Pope. What keen observation.”
Ryo bowed deliberately as he said that.
“For a mere adventurer from the Central Countries, you sure seem to know a lot.”
Cesare said.
(Huh? Could it be that they don’t know that I am the Duke of Rondo?)
Ryo was a little surprised.
Even the Republic’s Secret Services Agency was able to dig out his status, but it seemed that the assassination squad in front of him did not know about it.
Or perhaps they weren’t informed on purpose…
“I’m particularly interested in that brooch though.”
When Ryo said that, the countenance of the four people, except for Cesare, clearly changed.
“I had no idea that fusion magic had already been put to practical use. I would love to know who created it.”
Ryo smiled as he said.
After he said that, even Cesare seemed surprised.
He didn’t seem like someone who wore his expression on his face…
“Well, can’t say I’m surprised, being Andersen’s acquaintance and all.”
Cesare’s murmur wasn’t that loud, but it reached Ryo’s ears.
(Andersen? Mr. Neil Andersen? Why him?)
The uneasiness that Ryo had felt grew stronger.
Something about Neil Andersen was bugging him, but… he was not sure what it was.
However, it wasn’t the time for that.
Focus on the issue at hand.
He wasn’t able to get much information from the conversation, but it couldn’t be helped.
He intentionally had a conversation before the fight because he was hoping to get some information out of it.
If he was an elimination target, they might let slip some information, right?
Since they were going to kill him and a dead man tells no tales, he thought they wouldn’t mind revealing some stuff…
As it turned out, it didn’t amount to very much…
Nevertheless, from the reactions of the five, he learned that the fusion magic brooches were still not very common in the Western Church.
That alone wasn’t too bad.
His target was the fusion magic brooch and the secret behind their ‘Concealment’.
Those two things, pretty much!
Now, Ryo, although a magician, had actually never engaged in pure magic warfare.
At best, he had only fought against ‘Hassan’, the leader of the Order of Assassins.
And, last but not least…
Leonor, the Explosive Blaze Magician, and other so-called strong opponents, he usually engaged in close combat…
It’s strange.
And so, this time, he decided to go with magic warfare.
“Like I said, we’re attacking together. Just follow my lead.”
“Copy!”
Cesare said, and the other four answered.
“<Fire Cannon>”
“<Fireball>”
The four of them matched their fireballs to Cesare’s Fire Cannon.
Countless flames flew toward Ryo… and he stared at them unimpressed.
“<Dynamic Steam Mine>”
The steam between Ryo and the five turned to mines….
Countless of them.
There, the flame attack magic encountered them and dozens upon hundreds of mutual annihilation occurred… and the light from the mutual annihilation flashed wildly.
It was blinding…
“<Icicle Lance 5> <Icicle Lance 5>”
They were all ice lances with rounded tips.
The first blow was aimed at their guts.
As they bend over from it, the next blow was to their jaws from below… like an uppercut in boxing.
Then again, they may not pass out from those two strikes.
The blow to the guts would make them expel the air in their lungs, and the one to the jaw would shake their brains, causing a concussion and stunning them, and then… finally, the real deal.
“<Water Collar 5>”
Water Collars descended upon them.
Steam around his target was combined to form water, which was then used to strangle the target.
Simple but effective.
He succeeded in putting Water Collars on four of them and knocked them unconscious.
Yup, four.
Only one person, Cesare, was unharmed.
He had dodged the first <Icicle Lance> to the gut, as well as the <Icicle Lance> to the jaw.
As for the last <Water Collar>, he swept it away with his arms covered in flames.
“Only one of them is outstanding.”
Ryo muttered.
“<Fire Dragon>”
Cesare chanted, and flames pulsated from his hands.
Then, like a dragon, it attacked Ryo, dodging the steam mines drifting in front of him.
“No way…”
Ryo muttered involuntarily but quickly chanted.
“<Ice Wall 20 Layer Package>”
He erected ice walls not only in front but in all directions around him.
The moment they were fully erected…
Boom.
Flames burst not in front of him, but on his left side and the ice wall up above him.
It was a spell that allowed him to move the flames as he pleased and attack from different directions.
“<Icicle Lance 128>”
In return, Ryo sent ice lances directly from the front.
“<Magic Barrier>”
Clang, clang, clang…
The magic barrier that Cesare cast was evidently thick and solid.
Ryo’s <Icicle Lance> couldn’t penetrate his barrier.
However, as expected, it didn’t emerge unscathed from 128 ice lances.
It cracked.
“<Icicle Lance 128>”
Then, another 128 ice lances materialized.
“<Magic Barrier>”
He put the barrier up again.
That was repeated five times.
“<Icicle Lance 128>”
At the same time that Ryo chanted, Cesare chanted without putting up the magic barrier again.
“<Fire Cannon Full Boost>”
Masses of flames, clearly different from the previous ones… and numbering no less than a thousand, formed and shot out from his hand.
128 of the mass of flames disappeared as they were annihilated by the ice lances, but the rest struck Ryo.
“Finally! <Laminated Ice Wall 20 Layer>”
Ice walls were erected in front of Ryo facing Cesare, as if piled on top of each other.
Even if the masses of flames were strengthened by fusion magic and were probably the strongest attack using the last bit of his magic power… it was impossible to pierce through all of the ice walls that were stacked on each other…
The information he had gotten from Kenneth came in handy.
Increasing instantaneous firepower at the expense of endurance… such is the use of fusion magic.
If it boils down to a game of endurance, he got it in the bag… Ryo knew from the start.
Cesare, who had used up most of his magic, fell silent.
“<Water Collar>”
Strangled by the water, Cesare passed out.
Just like the other four.
“Phew, I succeeded.”
Ryo said and waved his hand widely.
At Ryo’s signal, five people came running from afar.
“Incredible…”
One of the five who arrived muttered.
It was Captain Bangan.
“I can’t believe he actually captured them alive…”
Vice Captain Amalia also muttered, shaking her head.
The other three, unknown to Ryo, deftly held the hands of the five assassination squad members behind their backs and put some kind of handcuffs on their wrists.
“What are those?”
Ryo looked at them with interest.
“They are magic-sealing shackles. With those on, they won’t be able to use magic.”
“Whoa…”
He had never come across such a tool in the Central Countries.
When put on, they glowed slightly. The light emitted by alchemy tools… in other words, their magic was sealed through alchemy.
(I must learn how it works! )
Ryo swore firmly in his heart.
“You said you had an idea as to how to transport them…?”
Captain Bangan looked at Ryo and asked.
“Yeah. <Wagon 5>”
The five members of the assassination squad were each placed on an ice wagon and followed Ryo to the headquarters of the Secret Services Agency.
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