The Sword Genius of the Magic Empire - Chapter 95



Only Noblemtl

Crimson gunfire sprays out in all directions, and lead bullets, which begin to rotate in a spiral shape due to the rifling inside the barrel, cut through the midnight air and rush toward their target.

April’s pink mana-dyed bullets flew through the darkness, leaving bright trails like tracers.

The bullet that flew at a speed exceeding the speed of sound hit the front windshield of the driver’s seat of the lead vehicle.

This is a perfectly identical return sniping attack, conscious of the scavengers sniping this side first earlier.

The bullet flew straight through the window and accurately penetrated the scavenger in the driver’s seat.

Squeak!

The driver fell down immediately, and there was a loud screeching noise of tires. But that wasn’t the end of it.

“If it’s like this, I’ll just give it a shot… ”

Crunch, crunch.

April quickly pulled the charging handle with a natural movement, ejected the cartridge, loaded the next round, and aimed again.

“This is a return with interest!”

The tip of the rifle’s muzzle pointed at the enemies once again glowed with the color of her mana, and the second bullet pierced the darkness, releasing a powerful gunfire.

The bullet that flew through the air at a terrifying speed landed on the tire of the lead vehicle.

Paddudududuk!!

Suddenly, frost rose up like white flowers blooming on the tires of the hit vehicle, freezing the part of the truck that was penetrated and the ground around it.

A truck with its tires frozen to the ground.

In an attempt to apply the brakes, another truck rear-ends the truck that was stopped in the middle of the road.

I noticed the bikes following me scattering and stopping abruptly.

“Phew.”

Checking it through the scope, April let out the breath she had been holding, reloaded her grenade without any gaps, and glanced this way.

“I’ve already completed the order. How is it?”

“Good.”

Enoch looked at the frozen truck and answered briefly.

Among the powerful elemental magic, it was [Frost], a cold magic specialized in holding back enemies and slowing their movements.

If you cast it on a bullet and fire it, it can have a significant effect like that.

The reason I ordered April to tie up the enemy’s ankles with a sniper shot is because I knew that it was the greatest advantage of a firearms user combined with the power of modern weapons.

In particular, its greatest feature was that it could strike the point of impact with magic without loss of power, even from a considerable distance.

But April seemed dissatisfied with the compliment, sticking out her lips slightly.

“… … Chet, thank you very much. If you were to elaborate on your compliments, would that be more appropriate?”

“We’ll deal with that later.”

Anyway, with this, the scavengers’ convoy was completely blocked. Enoch glanced to the side.

We had already made plans on how to deal with the enemy after the raid.

Arcto, who was receiving his gaze from the side, smiled with his arms crossed.

“Ah, if my colleagues have laid the groundwork for me like this, even I have time to work hard.”

He watched as the scavengers poured out of the car, then grabbed the saddle, drew mana, and jumped out the window.

Kuuuung!!

Arcto lands on the 5th floor, smashing a vehicle on the ground using it as a buffer.

“I guess I’ll go say hello to the scavengers after a long time.”

As he drew a circle in the darkness, a halo of light appeared and soon, satellite-like fireballs formed around him.

It seemed to be Arcto’s main magic.

[Pyro Satellite]

The fireball’s satellites began to move freely around him, jumping around like will-o’-the-wisps.

He shouted, spitting out the cigarette in his mouth.

“Come at once, you scavengers!!”

As he stretched out his hand, with a sharp crackling sound, fireballs began to dance and fly in all directions to the movements of his horse.

Arcto seemed to be trying to keep an appropriate distance from his enemies, so he got out of his car and charged at the enemies head-on, and shouted with a twisted smile.

“Please, don’t come closer than 5 meters to this old man. He’s a burden to me!”

He immediately jumped into the middle of a line of stopped vehicles, more than a dozen scavengers, measuring the distance.

He started to run wild, wielding a fireball in the middle of his enemies and manipulating it freely.

It’s true that he said earlier that long-range combat isn’t his specialty, but it seems like he’s not treated well among freelancers for nothing.

Enoch, who was staring blankly at it and trying to understand the situation, slowly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and focused, raising his senses.

Before I knew it, a sound was coming into my ears.

“That building! It’s a building!!”

“They’re attacking from the building, kill them first!!”

In the first place, Arcto can’t deal with all the scavengers. So naturally, there will be a move to deal with the snipers on this side first.

In that case, the only thing we need to do is block it.

First of all, as soon as the scavengers’ long-range magicians tried to deploy their magic there, April shot them first and eliminated the threat.

“Tch, that level of skill is out of the question.”

But even ignoring such sniping and arcto.

The Scavenger fighters who were running towards us approached us, shouting loudly.

“Get those bastards out!”

“It’s the 5th floor! There’ll be a sniper there, let’s go!!”

They had reached the entrance of the abandoned building and were just starting to climb up. This was the start of the real battle.

Enoch glanced back.

“Let’s start too.”

“Okay, I’ll go first.”

Skia nodded next to Enoch, then slowly raised her short wand in front of her eyes and concentrated for a moment.

[cognitive impairment]

[Suppressor]

With a magic circle rotating around Skia.

There was a small, crackling noise, as if a transparent noise was forming around her, and Skia’s figure became faint.

Not only that, she also cast a double spell to block out noise.

Even Enoch, who could see Mana, would miss her silhouette if he didn’t concentrate. The enemies’ vision would probably already be unable to detect her presence.

WHEEK!

She quickly prepared for battle, then raised her short wand, kicked the railing with a light movement, jumped up, and leaped straight down.

He landed straight away and glided towards the rear of the enemies, quickly and silently approaching them.

“It’ll hurt a little.”

Then, he gets close to enemies who are running around in confusion and uses his short wand to cast lightning magic.

Immediately, a blue current formed at the tip of her wand, enveloping her opponent like a net and subduing him.

“Eugugugugugug!”

“What, what! Kyaaaaak!”

There was a reason why Enoch had been keeping an eye on her from the beginning. The performance that Skia showed based on the stealth magic was quite remarkable.

A character definitely close to level 10.

Especially, it was because the unique characteristics of the stealth series magic, which is difficult for enemies to deal with, were clearly being utilized well.

By using cognitive impairment magic to confuse enemies, he continuously approached them while targeting their blind spots. He then single-handedly took down the enemies one by one.

Above all, magic is considered to have great advantages in terms of survivability and fatal blows through powerful surprise attacks.

‘It’s fortunate that we’re allies now.’

It was clear that she was a veteran freelancer.

Maybe even stronger than Arctona April.

From the beginning, the magician who used the stealth series of magic that had reached the realm of complete unique magic was known to be difficult even among the strong characters of the original work.

It is not hard to understand such an evaluation, especially since sorcerers who specialize in assassination or raids have a particularly bad reputation because of their methods.

As Enoch had expected, it was definitely a solid force.

Iron fist!

And then, something strange happened in one of the scavenger trucks that had been quiet.

The vehicle container behind them suddenly opened with a sharp metallic sound.

“… … ?”

Enoch glanced over at the sudden event.

As the back door of the truck opened, masked scavenger fighters poured out from inside.

A mask with a square piece of cloth covering the front of the face. The lower part of the cloth flapped, revealing the mouth.

“Kkaaaaaaah!!”

About twenty screaming men passed by Arcto, who was standing with his mouth wide open, dealing with the other gang members.

Arcto glanced at the masked gang members and shouted loudly as he took down one of the regular gang members who had just rushed at him.

“Watch out! Masked, elite scavengers!”

In fact, they are the main body.

But before Enoch could think, April put her finger on the trigger and shouted loudly.

“Ha! What can you do if I shoot from far away!”

In that moment, the rifle’s gunshot ripped through the air again, and the bullet flew straight through the darkness, piercing the enemy’s chest.

But that’s when something strange happened.

“What, what, you’re not falling?”

At April’s words, Enoch glanced back at the place. Even though the bullet had clearly hit them, they continued to run without paying any attention.

They charged towards the building at incredible speed, staggering about uneasily.

Enoch slowly drew his sword.

“Tch, I’ll go upstairs and take a seat.”

April quickly retrieved her rifle from the side and exchanged glances with me. She then started running upstairs to secure distance for the next sniping shot.

Suddenly, a strange screaming sound was heard from the lower floor of the abandoned building that was now engulfed in darkness.

“Kuaaa …

The guys who were running like animals quickly ran through the fourth floor landing and started jumping in.

The one at the forefront of them rushed toward Enoch in the darkness with his bare hands.

Enoch’s eyes narrowed when he saw that.

The movements look a bit strange. He’s not even holding a saddle in his hand.

But, as an enemy, we can only deal with them.

Enoch immediately deployed his magic towards this side and swung his sword to cut off the waist of the one rushing towards him.

But when the creature began to roll around on the ground, cut in two, Enoch was sure something was wrong.

‘I don’t die?’

The scavenger elite clearly had their upper bodies still moving despite having their waists cut in two.

Ta-da-da-dak!

Then, the severed upper body quickly crawled towards me with both arms, and jumped into the air with its arms outstretched like a broken doll.

In an instant, the mask on his head fluttered, revealing his gaping mouth and teeth, drooling from it.

Of course, it wasn’t rigor mortis or anything like that. It was an abnormal movement that clearly had murderous intent. Watching it, Enoch remembered one thing.

A body that is not subdued even when cut off.

I clearly remember that there were some wizards who used this type of magic.

‘Necromancer.’

If so, the way to deal with it was also clear.

Enoch immediately raised his sword and stabbed the head of the flying Scavenger Elite member, who was dragging only the upper body.

Phew!

As the sword pierced his head, the body, which was reduced to only the upper half, began to twitch violently and then fell limp.

Enoch looked at it for a moment, then retrieved his sword and calmly looked at the elite Scavengers who were continuing to run towards him.

And then.

With an ear-piercing rifle shot, the head of one of the running scavenger elite was shattered, sending shards of flesh flying out of the darkness.

And then he fell limply to the floor.

“I just saw it well, I’ll take note of it when dealing with you!”

April’s scream as she aims her gun at the fifth floor through the collapsed floor of the six-story abandoned building.

And the other freelancers who quickly confirmed that also started aiming for the heads of the elite members running towards them from their respective positions.

***

The battle ended shortly thereafter.

Not a single member of the Scavenger elite survived.

At first, the freelancers were surprised by the strangeness of those who seemed to ignore death, but after learning how to deal with them, they didn’t have a hard time.

“… … .”

But immediately after the battle ended, Enoch stood silently for a moment, looking down at the fallen Scavenger elite.

An enemy that moved even though only the upper body remained.

It was clearly not something out of the normal category.

Even in the world of wizards, it is extremely rare for a human to be able to move even if half of their body is blown away.

There are probably few cases where that would be possible.

Suddenly, what Elena had said earlier flashed through my mind.

─ [… … The Scavengers even have a rumor that a recently-raised battle mage of the 10th rank has joined as their leader… … .]

Clearly, the main force had been subdued. However, something ominous was felt somewhere. There was something to check first.

Enoch immediately activated the device by manually pressing the button on the earset.

Communication is probably being made through the line that Elena connected earlier.

As expected, as soon as I pressed the button, I heard Elena’s voice, as if she had been waiting for it.

[Ah, Enoch! Are you okay? I’ve been trying to contact you for a while now, but none of the freelancers have responded, so I’m sure you’re in the middle of a battle… … !!]

Her voice was trembling. As expected, she also seemed to know that news from the PMC had been cut off.

However, no one was able to communicate as they quickly prepared to counterattack by moving to the abandoned building.

Because the scavengers had already traced the PMC and its location by communicating with it.

In order to eliminate the risk of having their location discovered during the counterattack, it was impossible to communicate rashly. Now that the main force had been subdued, it didn’t matter anymore.

“A 10th-grade wizard who recently joined the Scavengers.”

Enoch asked calmly.

“When is the approximate time of joining?”

At his words, Elena calmed her trembling voice and spoke as calmly as possible.

[I know this is a very recent event, so there is virtually no data collected.]

“Then when did the Scavengers become stronger recently?”

[Yes? It may not be exact, but I think it’s probably a good match. However, for some reason… ]

Enoch, having heard that, became convinced.

The time when the 10th-grade wizard joined coincides with the time when the Scavenger group members became stronger overall.

If that’s the case, then these bizarre units that move even when their bodies are cut in half must also be related to the 10th grade.

Then suddenly someone came up next to me.

“hey.”

It was Arcto. He spoke in a serious tone.

“These guys. They clearly didn’t die even after being hit with a fatal blow.”

Arcto, who had been dealing with the elite members, glanced at his clothes and wounds that were a mess from the battle.

“Besides, they’re definitely not just elite members of a gang. If I had made a mistake, I might have died.”

“I agree, but what’s the bottom line?”

April, who had come down to this floor without me noticing, nervously tapped the butt of her rifle.

“I think we need to find out your identity first.”

Arcto floated a fireball over his finger, shrinking it, and hurled it, burning the mask of the fallen Scavenger.

And in that moment, April’s gaze froze.

“… … !!”

Whoosh, whoosh.

The face of a Scavenger Gang member is revealed from within as the flames burn away the mask.

That wasn’t the face of a normal person.

A human whose skin is torn here and there, as if preservatives had been poured over an already decaying corpse.

“……zombi.”

April muttered quietly.

That was the identity of the elite scavengers revealed from inside their burned masks.

April glanced at it with a weary look on her face.

“Anyone can tell that this is the work of a warlock. This? I’ve only heard about it so far, but what happened?”

April muttered with a tired expression, as if she had never seen black magic firsthand.

Even for her, a veteran freelancer in the outsourcing industry, it certainly didn’t seem like something she’d experience often.

“I thought that the elite members didn’t feel any pain, unlike the regular members we faced earlier.”

Skia also spoke stiffly.

“If you don’t break your head, it will keep moving.”

“Yes. And they used the magic they used as their main during their lifetime. I know a few magicians.”

Skia nodded lightly to Arcto’s words and added:

“I have also confirmed that it is a zombie that uses magic just like it did in its lifetime. It has no magic. It seems that it carries out battles under the orders of a black magician.”

At her words, April turned her head to the side and asked Arcto.

“… … So, didn’t you say earlier that there would be a 10th-level wizard among them?”

Everyone in the room had a feeling what was going to happen. The zombies were the work of that person. Enoch concluded their conversation.

“To begin with, these elite zombies are strong, but they don’t have the power to wipe out the PMC all at once.”

“… Are you saying that the main body will be there somewhere?”

April asked back with a slightly shaken look in her eyes.

“But, he wasn’t seen at all in this battle, right? He wasn’t in the follow-up force this time─”

And the moment she said that, Enoch quickly turned his gaze to the side and drew his sword.

[Countercurrent]

The trajectory of the dark blue sword, which swung like a current in the air, cut through the air in an instant and hit the enemy’s large rock spear that was shot out.

Kaaaaah!

The sword swung diagonally straight ahead of Enoch, grazing the spear and sending blue sparks flying into the air.

The sword that had been spinning around flew straight towards the enemy, but the critical blow was deflected to the side.

The rock spear that bounced off the sword he swung struck the pillar next to him. It went straight through the concrete and crashed down, causing the room to shake violently.

Enoch’s spine went cold as he swung his sword.

It’s clearly fast enough that evasion is impossible.

Moreover, the trajectory was so precise that it could pierce not only Enoch but also April, who was next to him, in one shot.

If I hadn’t instinctively avoided the [backflow], my heart would have been pierced and I would have died instantly.

Although it was called a surprise attack, it was a fast and precise attack that left me unable to react even though I had been sharpening my senses during the battle.

“Ah─?”

And Enoch, who instinctively defended himself from the attack,

At the same time, April opened her eyes wide in shock at the fact that she had just almost died, and let out a single scream.

The first to realize that the enemy had attacked was Skia, who reacted quickly.

[cognitive impairment]

[Suppressor]

A transparent noise spreads around her, and Skia, her figure now transparent, dashes into the darkness towards the direction from which the rock spear came.

I ran straight ahead to assassinate the enemy who was attacking me as quickly as possible.

Skia, who was searching for the enemy while holding the horse, suddenly noticed a shadow across the passage and opened her eyes wide.

A new type of enemy standing tall like a shadow in a place where no light reaches, due to the shadows inside the abandoned building.

Skia ran back, gliding straight towards the square of the silhouette, raising her short wand.

When she leapt and jumped towards the newly appeared enemy in the darkness.

Paaaaaaaang─!!

In an instant, a slimy, cracking sound of flesh being torn apart echoed through the warehouse. Blood spurted out in all directions, creating a sticky spray of blood.

The smell of blood spread everywhere.

What was torn off was Skia’s head.

For a moment, a cold silence fell over the room. The sound of dripping, sticky blood rang out.

“Ah, ahh… … .”

April let out a strange sound with a blank expression. An expression that seemed like she couldn’t believe what was happening before her eyes.

Even though he was clearly using a stealth spell, Skia was struck down in one blow as he attempted to make a surprise attack.

That moment.

The moonlight of the midnight sun shone through the building hidden in darkness.

A man stood there, one hand clutching the empty neck of a Skaia whose head had been torn off, the other hand shoved into his pocket.

“… … .”

He held the limp corpse in one hand, seemingly unconcerned that his sleeves were soaked with blood.

A man silently looks up and down the corpse he is holding, through the mask he is wearing like a veil.

For a moment, a stabbing sense of oppression pierced through Enoch’s entire body.

A wizard who came here as if it were a given, killed a veteran freelancer with one blow, and then looked at the corpse with a twisted expression.

Suddenly, his sharp gaze from under his mask, oozing with murderous intent, glanced to the side and fixed his gaze on Enoch.

-10th level wizard of the Scavenger.

Enoch stared at him for a moment, then dropped his sword and walked straight towards the enemy in the darkness.

Before I knew it, the dark blue mana that had begun to rise from the sword began to hum and drive away the darkness.