Episode 263: The Evolution of Fire Magic
Just as he was about to draw his katana, a scream came from behind.
“What’s that?” Rui wondered, turning around to see the men who had been opening the containers collapsing, blood spurting from their necks.
Beside them stood a black, humanoid monster. Its limbs stretched like thin swords, and it had a featureless, inorganic face.
“That’s—”
The same monster they had just defeated. Rui drew his katana and charged at the monster.
Then, screams erupted from another location.
He stopped and looked around, spotting nearly twenty monsters surrounding them. All were the same humanoid type, walking with a swaying gait in their slender, black bodies.
“Hey! What is this!?”
Yuma shouted. Rui nodded, biting his lower lip. They must have gathered because of the loud noise, but how could they not have noticed them getting so close?
The men who noticed the monsters screamed, panicking in confusion.
They were clearly not Seekers.
“Everyone, fall back! We’ll handle the monsters!!”
Rui called out, “Yuma!” Yuma responded with “Okay!” and readied his pickel.
The two of them charged forward simultaneously, launching their attacks on the monsters.
Yuma’s pickel glowed green. As he swung it down before the monster, an explosive gust of wind erupted, blowing away two of the monsters.
Another monster attacked, but Yuma blocked it with a [Wind Barrier].
He concentrated Magical Power into his pickel, creating a mass of “Vacuum”. When he swung the pickel imbued with Vacuum Magic, the black monster’s body was gouged out and blown to pieces.
Yuma felt confident in his power.
“Alright! I can fight well enough without [Metallization]!”
Rui, who had been watching him out of the corner of his eye, felt relieved. It was his turn next, and he drew his katana.
He dodged the enemy’s attack and slashed the monster’s torso with a returning strike. The black monster’s abdomen dissolved in red and split in two.
Rui looked at the monster lying on the ground and realized something.
“I remember! These guys are called ‘Marionettes’, monsters that live in the [Black Dungeon]!”
“Marionettes?”
Yuma, while defending against an attack, looked puzzled.
“Yeah, I heard they’re not that strong because they only move in fixed patterns, like dolls… but the monsters here are pretty strong!”
“So they’re the ‘Enhanced Species’ type!”
Yuma fended off the monster in front of him and readied his pickel again. At that moment, another scream echoed.
“Gyaaaaaaaah!!”
One of the men had his chest pierced by a monster and let out a deathly shriek. His companions responded with gunfire, but the bullets bounced off the monster’s body, having no effect.
“This is bad! They’re going to kill everyone!!”
“I know. I’ll go help them!”
Rui lowered his stance and ran forward. Even if they were villains, he had to save them to get information about the situation in Germany.
Rui stopped where he could see the monsters and swung his fire-lit katana three times.
The scattered flames took shape, transforming into three Birds. The Birds spread their wings, gliding towards the enemy.
They collided with the black monsters in a massive explosion, instantly killing three of them. Rui, with his katana still lowered, narrowed his eyes at the power of the technique.
“Fire Third Stratum Magic. — [Flying Swallow], it seems practical enough for real combat.”
Feeling confident, Rui moved towards another monster. This Marionette was emitting a blue light from its entire body.
An individual that could use Water Magic, huh? Troublesome, but he just needed to hit it with even stronger Fire Magic.
With that in mind, Rui ignited a fierce flame on his katana. He dodged the attack from the opponent’s swinging hand and raised his katana overhead.
The flame burned even brighter, taking the form of a ferocious beast’s face.
“[Lion’s Blaze Dance]!!”
From the swung sword, a Lion of Flame appeared, biting down on the Marionette’s shoulder. Breaking through the opponent’s Water Magic, the Lion tore the monster’s body apart.
Ignoring the dissolving and disintegrating monster, the Lion of Flame ran towards another monster.
Caught off guard, the monster couldn’t evade, was bitten by the Lion, and died in a massive, burning explosion.
Yuma, who had been watching, blinked in astonishment.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you’ve gotten incredibly strong! I can only use Wind Second Stratum Magic…”
Yuma was disappointed. He had been happy that he could fight with Wind Magic, but Rui was far ahead.
He didn’t feel like he could catch up to Rui as a Seeker.
As he was thinking about that, the men were trying to escape as fast as they could. It seemed that defeating the monsters had created a hole in the encirclement.
One of the men trying to escape shouted.
“H, hey! Those guys are Seekers. They were still alive. Let’s get out of here!!”
Everyone scattered like spiders. Yuma tried to chase after them, shouting, “Hey! Wait a minute!” but Rui stopped him.
“Yuma, defeating the monsters comes first! Let’s chase them later.”
“Ah, yeah, you’re right.”
The two cooperated and defeated the remaining monsters.
◇◇◇
“Phew… that’s finally taken care of,”
Yuma threw away a severed monster arm. It crumbled into sand the moment it hit the ground.
Watching the sand blowing in the wind, Yuma sighed as he looked at the deserted road.
“They got away after all. It’s going to be tough to find them.”
Rui, who had sheathed his katana, nodded, saying, “Yeah.”
“But we know there are people here. Let’s search steadily.”
“Still, those guys were awful. They were no different from bandits.”
“It can’t be helped. Just living must be tough for them. More importantly, they said something that caught my attention.”
“Ah, indeed.”
Yuma recalled the men’s words. ‘Those guys are really Seekers. They were still alive,’ they had said.
That meant there were no more Seekers left in this country.
But could that really be the case? Yuma tilted his head in doubt. There were many excellent Seekers in Germany, and there were even training institutions.
He couldn’t believe that everyone had died.
As he was thinking about that, he noticed a round ball lying on the ground.
“This is…”
Yuma crouched down and picked up the ball. It was a rusty, brownish color and felt very rough to the touch.
“A Marionette’s Demon Ore! But it looks kind of dirty.”
If the opponent was a monster from the [Black Dungeon], Yuma could drop it 100% after defeating it.
Normally, he would throw it into his mouth without a second thought, but he hesitated because of its dirty appearance.
“Hey, do you know what kind of effect this Marionette’s Demon Ore has?”
When Yuma asked, Rui pondered, “Hmm.”
“I’m not very familiar with Demon Ore… but I think it was ‘makes body hair grow a little faster’. I remember it because it’s an interesting effect.”
“What’s that! No way, no way. I don’t need that kind of Demon Ore.”
Yuma threw away the rusty Iron (Metal) ball, stood up, and clapped his hands.
There seemed to be a few other balls lying around, but Yuma didn’t care. He and Rui checked the condition of the truck that had been shot. After confirming that it was still running, they closed the container doors and got into the truck.
Rui started the engine and slowly stepped on the accelerator.
“The sun will be setting soon, so we need to find a place to sleep.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Normally, they would stop the truck on the shoulder of the road and sleep inside, but if they did the same thing here, they would be attacked by monsters.
The two decided to look for people while finding a place to sleep tonight.