Water Magician

Editor: Tseirp

At a distance of about 200 meters, the assailants fired their arrows all at once.

Some of them penetrated the carriages, but there was no human casualty.

Others were perfectly obstructed by the knights’ shields without doing any damage.

However, the aim was not the damage inflicted by the arrows.

Several clouds of white smoke billowed out from lumps attached to the tip of the arrows, half the size of a clenched fist.

The white smoke was the signature tactic of the Order of Assassins, they would approach their target and take them down in the confusion of the white smoke.

However…

“This again?”

(<Squall> <Freeze>)

At the moment he chanted, rainfall so dense that one could not even see the road ahead hit the entire area, washing away the white smoke that had been drifting in the air.

The tips of the arrows that had been spewing white smoke were all frozen, and the white smoke stopped gushing out.

It was a tactic that Ryo had encountered on several occasions, whether it be the time with Sharfi, or when he barged into the village of the Order of Assassins.

Enough for him to think if ‘It’s the only tactic they know!’ even….

But in fact, it’s a very effective tactic considering the nature of assassins.

To begin with, it’s rare to find magicians who are beyond first-rate like Ryo, who could wash it away with rain, or Rin, who could blow it away with wind.

When the white smoke was washed away by the squall, the attackers were already less than a hundred meters away.

Suddenly, the white smoke was gone. It was only natural for them to be confused.

But these were trained assassins.

They hesitated for only a moment, but then they charged forward.

They were no longer at a distance where they could turn back.

There was nothing else to do but to defeat the enemy in front of them and make a triumphant return!

Almost everyone made that decision, even Natalia.

Only one person, a female assassin following behind Natalia, was clearly slowing down.

Natalia immediately sensed this weakening of her will and immediately called out to her.

“Rosalia, it’s too late to turn back now. We’re going in.”

“Yes, Lady Natalia.”

Rosalia was filled with anxiety as she replied.

Rosalia was a well-trained first-class assassin.

Even if she were to take on two knights at the same time unarmed, she would defeat them.

However, Rosalia’s greatest strength was not in melee combat as an assassin.

She’s the only one in the Order of Assassins who could manipulate dark-attribute magic.

On 『Phi』, there are certain magic attributes that one is born with.

It’s difficult to find people with the ability to handle dark-attribute magic, and moreover, there are no known ‘chants’ to manipulate dark-attribute magic.

As such, there are almost no one recognized as dark-attribute magicians in the central nations….

With no chants and no one around to call a mentor, the only way to use the attribute is through repeated trial and error to figure it out …

In that sense, it’s no exaggeration to say that Rosalia, who was able to manipulate a wyvern of all things, was a genius in dark-attribute magic.

However, she was terrified.

Even the wyvern that she had enslaved was defeated without the slightest resistance.

She didn’t know why, how, or by whom it was defeated.

Although wyvern subjugations are carried out several times a year, there was still no established method for defeating them.

Each time, the wyverns were defeated at great cost. And naturally, it took a lot of time.

This time, however, it was defeated too quickly.

That is what frightened Rosalia.

Along with the conviction that ‘There’s something horrible out there’….

Going in under the cover of white smoke was one thing, but now suddenly it became a head-on confrontation, it was no wonder her leg froze.

But there was no turning back now.

They had no choice but to defeat them!

Abel, the A-rank adventurer, is likely a tough one to crack, but the others are all C-rank.

In addition, the twenty knights hail from the Kingdom’s Knight Order, which was reputed to have become lax in recent years.

Thirty assassins should be enough to defeat them.

Rosalia convinced herself not to think about the wyvern.

Since there was no other way to go about it but to go in head-on and defeat them.

As soon as the white smoke that covered the area dissipated and the attackers were in full view, the long-range attacks from the mission began.

The squires used their bows, and the adventurer magicians their offensive magic.

The squires’ arrows were all cut down by the assassins.

If it came from skilled 『Archers』 or ‘Elves’, they might have been able to wound, if not kill, the assassins.

But that was impossible to achieve with the bows of the squires, who were not professional archers.

It was the offensive magic of the magicians that inflicted any damage.

The speed of the offensive magic was much faster than that of the squires’ arrows.

Many of the assailants were unable to avoid the high-speed magic attacks because they came after the ‘sloppy’ arrow attacks.

Of the thirty attackers, none were killed instantly, but five were wounded to the point where they were put out of the fight, and another five were so deeply wounded in the legs that they could not proceed any further.

The diplomatic mission had succeeded in reducing one-third of their forces using long-range attacks.

It was a more successful strike than had been anticipated.

“This is amazing…”

Abel, who was in a perfect position to observe the battle, was able to observe the results of the battle in detail.

The effective use of bows and magic on the battlefield…were part of the things Abel was lacking in experience, and Abel himself was aware of it.

In fact, in large-scale battles, they do not pose much of a threat as there are well-established methods of dealing with bows and arrows.

Except, however, concerning their use in chaotic situations.

“Wow, the smoke dispersed all at once…come to think of it, I remember Rin did the same thing at that inn. First Rin, and now Ryo, what clever bunch these magicians.”

Abel was honestly impressed by the deftness with which the smoke was dispelled.

Although Abel was saying such carefree remarks, the battle immediately in front of him had shifted to close combat.

The assassins had lost one-third of their strength just by getting closer, but they were still top-notch assassins.

Some were trying to flank around the perimeter of the shield wall to take their rear.

Some were avoiding the knight shields to aim at the magicians and priests at the back.

Some even jumped over the vanguard altogether and aimed directly for the carriages.

Although there were all kinds of tactics in play…

“I call on wind, gush forth <Wind Pressure>.”

A wind attribute magic <Wind Pressure> was performed with a very short chant.

The effect would have simply been a gust of wind.

However, if it is a C-rank magician’s <Wind Pressure>, it becomes a very powerful wind.

Moreover, all four wind-attribute magicians unleashed the magic forward at the same time.

For the assassins, they were suddenly facing strong wind out of nowhere.

Just as it is impossible to walk properly amid a typhoon, all the assassins could do was keep themselves from being swept along.

Then the spear-wielding adventurers and knights joined in. Their joint attacks were frighteningly effective.

Within the storm of the <Wind Pressure>, the assassins were knocked down one after another.

After a minute or so of the storm caused by the wind pressure, the battle finally shifted to full melee.

The adventurer swordsmen led by Showken and the knights excelling with their swords led by Captain Dontan attacked the assassins.

As was expected, the diplomatic mission couldn’t remain unscathed having progressed to this stage.

Their adversaries were all skilled assassins.

However, the wounded knights and swordsmen were healed by the priests as they retreated, and they were back at the front line.

On the other hand, the assassins had to rely on potions to recover.

It seemed only a matter of time before all the assassins were killed.

However, one person stayed back and did not take part in the attack, but instead observed the diplomatic mission with a keen eye.

It was Natalia.

(We only need to strike a blow to the target. The target is a magician…woman…with brunette hair…small in stature…gotcha! )

At that moment, Natalia’s expression twisted with delight.

Then she produced in her hand an extremely thin, stone spear so slender that if hurled at high speed, it would be impossible to trace with the naked eye.

Natalia then released the stone spear, confident of success.

Just as she had once done to their ‘Chief’.

Just as it was about to reach the heart of the target magician.

Clang.

As if it had hit an invisible wall, the stone spear was repelled.

“Impossible!”

“Whoa, that was close.”

Natalia heard a man’s voice right next to her ear.

She tried to turn around, but she could not.

Natalia’s entire body was already covered in ice.

“That thin stone spear looks familiar. You are the one who killed ‘Hassan’ aren’t you…if I remember correctly, I believe your name is, Natalia.”

The voice said and moved right in front of Natalia.

“It’s you…why are you here…?”

Natalia recognized the owner of that voice.

He was the water-attribute magician who once stood beside the merchant Gecko and even attacked their village all by himself.

The man who witnessed the last moments of their ‘Chief’.

How could he possibly be here….

She memorized the entire list of personnel in the mission.

Even the names of the adventurers, the magicians’ attributes, and the characteristics of each of the knights.

She also knew that there were two adventurers besides the escorts, one of whom is an A-rank swordsman with extremely high combat ability.

The other is only a C-rank adventurer. And that he goes by the name Ryo.

Oh no, no…

“It’s you…Ryo.”

But Natalia’s words were unspoken.

She had completely frozen over.

“You ought to learn to match a name with the face, or you end up like this?”

Ryo lightly patted the ice that was just formed with his hand as he strutted on.

“Anyway, I guess I’ve finally avenged ‘Hassan’.”

“So they failed after all?”

“That only goes to tell you that even the Order of Assassins are only human. That’s all there is to it.”

“At any rate, we’ve established the fact that the Kingdom’s diplomatic mission was attacked in the Twilight Land, so that’s good.”

“Now then, what do we do about the diplomatic mission that has now arrived in the country?”

“Well, whatever you do, just keep in mind, they’ve got one hell of a nasty water-attribute magician with them.”

The last voice was female, but the remaining four were male.

The five were on a hilltop more than a kilometer away from the diplomatic mission.

The five of them seemed to have been watching what was going on from that distance.

As might be expected at a distance of over a kilometer, Ryo’s sonar did not pick them up.

“For the ‘Duchess’ to consider him nasty…is that water-attribute magician that much of a threat?”

“Yeah. If I were to fight him one-on-one…the odds of winning would be less than fifty percent. For a water-attribute magician, he’s certainly not ordinary.”

The woman called ‘Duchess’ replied with a slight shake of her head.

The other four were surprised to hear this.

They had never seen the ‘Duchess’ this on edge about anything before.

“I can’t believe it…. This coming from a fellow water-attribute magician…to think that we would commit such a blunder in our preparations. This means we’ll have to take care of that magician before we can do anything. Since that’s the case, how about we go with ‘that’.”

The other four, including the ‘Duchess’, nodded in agreement.

Since he’s a nuisance, then they only need to take him out of the picture….

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