"Damn it—" he hissed before detonating a fireball at close range. Using the recoil of his fireball to gain distance was the only thing he could do.
Bouncing and rolling backward, Lian managed to move dozens of ters away. But he was at his limit; he could not withstand more self-inflicted explosions so easily, his body teetering on collapse.
"Damn it, Lian, think—" One gargoyle used an impalent spell to summon a spike from the ground, while the other was pushed back by the fireball’s explosion.
The gargoyles’ spikes were nothing like those of the golems. Though similar in size, their force was not.
Lian had taken a hit earlier that made him vomit the pancakes Seline had kindly offered.
"I can’t hold on anymore—" he thought, rolling on the ground to dodge yet another blow. Thanks to his recent advancent to Iron 3, combined with his mana-enhanced Bronze 2 body, Lian had lasted this long, but continuing was becoming impossible.
"Geotric Spell, Circle"
Drawing a quick circle in his mind, Lian launched another fireball to generate recoil. But this would be his last fireball. His body had reached its limit; he could not continue.
"So this is the end..." he murmured before closing his eyes. He was too exhausted to do anything else. He had tried every way to resist, but nothing worked.
He had never understood the difference in ranks. He had always fought conceptually weak monsters, winning against the odds. But this ti, facing serious monsters, Lian understood.
He had always been a frog in a well, just as Sera always said. mories of her calling him "froggy" were still vivid in his mind.
His thoughts drifted, awaiting death, but nothing happened.
No sound of shattering stone, no scraping on the ground, or flapping wings.
Nothing.
Curious, Lian opened his eyes, only to see no one beside him.
The tower was no longer nearby; he had managed to get away. Lian hoped to escape as he had against the Bronze 2 golem when he failed to create the square, causing backlash.
Though he had not achieved his strategic retreat, getting far enough from the tower had allowed Lian to survive. The gargoyles, after all, were guards. They could not stray too far.
"Maybe I really am lucky..." he thought with a smile before collapsing on the ground, exhausted.
---
Outside the Gate...
Inside a room, a figure sat calmly on an ordinary chair, eyes closed, mind elsewhere.
The room was simple. A desk, a chair, and two bookshelves behind the man. Despite being an important person, he had never cared for ostentation, preferring modesty over grandeur.
Suddenly, a loud knock echoed at the door. Without waiting for the man in the chair to respond, a figure burst in with excitent, as if nothing mattered but what they had to say.
"Headmaster, the Gate has entered phase two; we can finally go in!"
The excited figure could not stop bouncing around the room, circling the seated man.
Opening his eyes slowly, a sigh escaped the man’s lips, as if he were accustod to the boy’s behavior.
"Yes, I know—" the headmaster was interrupted before he could continue.
"And when were you going to tell ? You knew I’ve been waiting for this mont for a whole month!" The excitent on the boy’s face faded, replaced by a scowl.
A month had passed since the Gate first appeared, and in that short ti, many things had happened.
"Bibo, stop acting like a child. You are no longer fifteen; you are a man. A man behaves with restraint and calm." The words of the headmaster, George Pegasus, sounded chanical, as if he had said them countless tis before.
But the boy had no interest in listening. His behavior remained the sa as when he was younger, despite the years that had passed.
"Stop lecturing ; I’m not a kid anymore!"
George looked at the boy before him with resignation. Even he, a Platinum-rank mage, could only sigh helplessly.
Bibo, after all, was his only disciple. He had turned eighteen this year, yet had already reached Silver rank, making him a talented mage even among the best.
After a few seconds of silence, Bibo spoke.
"I ca all the way here to tell you I’m leaving!" he shouted, excited again, as he exited the room. "See you when I get back; try not to get killed in the anti, okay?"
The headmaster nearly choked on his own saliva at the boy’s words. But Bibo was not entirely wrong.
For the past month, things in the empire had not been going well. The monsters in the Wildlands, the areas beyond the empire’s borders, were rampaging more than ever.
At first, no one understood why, but after a brief eting with the kingdom’s major powers, the cause beca clear.
Four Gates had appeared, one in each kingdom of the empire, but not simultaneously.
The first Gate appeared in Silverlake Kingdom, inside one of the rooms of Aetheria Academy.
In Dawnspire Kingdom, in a small town called Windfrost, and in Emberfall Kingdom, right under the king’s nose, two more Gates appeared. It was unclear which appeared first, as Windfrost was an isolated small town.
Finally, the last Gate appeared in Grimreach, at the gates of Astralis Academy, in Ironridge Kingdom.
The empire was in turmoil, not only due to the appearance of these four mysterious Gates but also because of the instability they brought to the Wildlands.
The Redphoenix Empire had deployed countless resources, as well as high-ranking Mages and Knights, to address the threat at the borders.
In the borderlands, the Wildlands, the situation had beco desperate.
Countless monster armies continued to assault the border cities of the four kingdoms, with Gates forming constantly, spewing monster after monster.
Grimreach, being a border city, actively dealt with the threat of monstrous invasions, with alarms now a daily occurrence.
The headmaster, George Pegasus, one of the strongest beings in the kingdom, handled the most dangerous threats. Among the monsters that appeared, so had raw power comparable to his own.
Fortunately, he was not alone in defending the city. The empire had sent so figures to support the kingdoms, but that was all.
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