"Since you did so poorly against purely physical attack, I wonder how will you fare against a magical one?" By the ti I said those words, nearly half of the monster's long-haired head managed to regenerate. At the sa ti, most of my companions was already standing up to their feet and grabbing their weapons. Yet, it was pretty obvious that if I were to wait for them to gather up and attack the maere, it would be way too late.
So I pulled out one of the fancy stones prepared by Sander, pressed the activator, and threw it towards the monster. At first, it was clearly wary of the projectile, jumping away. Thankfully, its female part hampered its escape, dragging it down. Yet, instead of smashing the monster apart, the stone just fell to the forest bed in front of it, doing absolutely nothing.
Surprised, the maere showed the hints of surprise for the very first ti since it appeared. Lowering its head as if it was looking at the stone despite not having any eyes to speak off, it then raised its male head up at only for a small, dark rift to appear where its mouth should be once again, instantly curving in a devious smile.
:FOOLISH:
It wasn't words. The way this being passed its ssages was akin to etching an incredibly powerful emotion to its attack before sneaking it through everyone's defenses to pass said ssage.
"I wonder who was the truly foolish one, between you and . Dare to take any guesses?" This ti, I didn't pull out any gun. Given the kind of stone I just placed right at the monster's feet, it would be completely and utterly stupid to do so. Because the stone I used right now, was a reflector.
So instead of using guns, I pulled out what was officially called a smoke grenade. From what I heard when it was recomnded to by one of the Baskar's veteran rcenary, while officially being a smoke grenade according to all ans and purposes, the actual soldiers believed that it earned its na in a slightly different way.
By turning everything in a small area around it into smoke. Baskar's Veteran claid to use it to clean up the ssy scenes of conflict, confident that not even bones would remain afterward. And right now, this kind of funny grenade just happened to be right at the foot of the monster who already proved to be quite fragile when it ca to chanical attacks.
"It's over." Counting the ti in my mind, I smiled as soon as the instructed ten seconds passed. Right at the sa ti both the stone and the grenade activated.
At first, as if it was just a simple barrier like many that I used in this world so far, a magical veil covered a sphere around the stone, including both the monster and the incinerating elent. Then, a cloud of smoke started to escape from the tal container, fulfilling its original role before the chemical reactions inside brought the temperature inside of it to its upper limit.
Then, all the negativity that constantly surrounded the area even when the maere wasn't attacking, vanished. Looking around, I could see how everyone was staring intently at the cloud of smoke, trapped within the spherical barrier. At this point, the amount of smoke inside the barrier made it impossible to see even a hint of the maere If not for the fact that it suddenly attempted to free itself from the carnage within the barrier.
For a mont, a burning flesh pressed right against the transparent wall Only to be instantly thrown back by the reflective properties of the barrier. Yet, it wasn't the end of the magic of the stone. While I couldn't test it out myself, I was told that the heat attempting to escape from the barrier would also be reflected, making up for most of the mana usage of the stone in this precise scenario.
"Everyone, step back. It's about to explode soon." Moving back myself, I made sure to grab Teria's hand before pulling her along with . In terms of the wingless humans, I could tell that they were already full of respect towards the ans I used to deal with the monster even if they weren't going to show it due to still being shocked by the fact that it could actually be defeated. Yet, the sa clearly wouldn't apply to the winged girl, given how she was willing to go against it in the first place.
"Explode?" When Teria finally gathered her wits to ask, the smoke within the barrier no longer clouded anyone's view. Under the insane temperature that the spherical part of this world reached, the composites that made up the smoke could no longer remain in their natural pairings, dissolving into the basic atoms on the micro-scale, replaced by nothing but an intense redness of the heat trapped inside on the macro scale.
Then, right when I managed to escape about twenty steps, the stone within the barrier finally lted, breaking the chains that held the magic power in place and directed it in a very specific way. At the sa ti, an intense wave of heat instantly set a huge chunk of the forest alight, while smashing my back with an intense, seeing pain. My clothes had no chance. My back was slightly burnt. Thankfully, the catastrophe didn't last long.
Following the simple laws of nature, the heat quickly dispersed. Even the fires that initially threatened to spread out and consu the entire forest died off in just a few monts, proving that the wet fabric of the trees wasn't that good of fuel for them. Looking to the sides, I could tell that outside of Teria - who cleverly shielded herself with her own wings - most of the wingless companions of mine received varying degrees of burns.
"Anyone seriously hurt?" Standing up, I took a quick glance towards where the maere used to be. There was no worry in my eyes. Given how at least a part of its body was physical and could be hurt, there was no way it could survive the insane heat of the combination of reflecting stone and smoke grenade. While it was quite risky, I even dared to unlock my own witch perception for a mont to make sure the intense negativity of this monster was no longer a threat, only to realize that it was actually nowhere to be found.
"I'm okay!"
"It hurts like hell, but it's nothing serious."
"Hurt? By such a little thing?"
"To be frank, it was just a wave of warmth, how could I be hurt?"
As expected, the further one managed to escape from the wave of the heat, the lesser the degree of their injures were. Out of the entire group, Longinus was the only one to actually protests about his pain. Yet, when I looked at his state, the reason for that quickly beco apparent. "Guys, take this fucking armor out of him. Cut the wraps that keep it together unless you want him to fry inside this damned furnace!" Clad in his tal armor, it was no wonder that the young rcenary took a heavy hit from the wave of heat. Even though the tal easily shielded most of the youth's body from the heat, by absorbing it itself, it quickly beca the real source of injuries to Lonignus skin and muscles.
"DISARM!" Startled by the sight, Arsha almost tripped while rushing forward, yet she still managed to shout out her spell.
//Alert
//Detected potential harm to the system!
Once again, the sa ssage. But given the situation, I couldn't really pay it any mind, as sothing strange happened right before my eyes.
As if the magic that the girl invoked followed so insanely complicated thod, all the straps that held Longinus armor suddenly ca undone. But that wasn't all that hard to achieve. As long as one was either patient or quick enough, achieving the sa result with a small knife would also be possible But not for the parts that were simply pulled on the man's body, sticking to it not thanks to so wraps,, but because of the friction itself!
Yet, denying all the physic and laws of magic that I knew about, the tal was torn apart, freeing the rcenary from the hold of already red sheets of tal!
"Ah! That's a relief" Before Longinus could even fell to his knees, the healer of the party quickly jumped towards him before whispering sothing under her nose.
"What?" This ti, there was no system alert. Yet, the hands of the girl started to suddenly shine in bright, greenish light, before this strange shine moved from her hands and sunk into the young rcenary's body, instantly putting an expression of relief on his face!
"If I may ask" Now that the pain of the most injured person in the entire group was subsidized, I could finally ask about the one thing that bothered to no end ever since we first encountered the other group. "Just what kind of magic you are using?!"
Directing my words to Arsha, I could see a montary confusion appearing on her face only to be replaced by a proud smirk the next mont.
"Try to guess it yourself, you idiot." Turning her head away while uttering a cliche harumph, Arsha was clearly unwilling to give the answer. What she didn't know though, was that this kind of behavior was making inch closer and closer to the idea of getting rid of her in order to make sure no harm would co to my system.
"Shut up!" Contrary to my expectations, before I could react, Longinus stepped forward. While the pained grin that appeared on his face whenever he made even the smallest move proved that this healing magic wasn't as efficient as I initially expected, the look of clear respect and reverence on his face that appeared whenever he looked at was even more interesting.
"This man just killed a maere. A maere that should be long extinct and that was clearly set loose on us by the fucking governnt." Suddenly revealing quite a lot of information, Longinus went for the extra mile and actually send a crispy slap in Arsha's cheek way. Only when the girl's face was thrown to the side did he move his eyes on before lowering his head.
"Sir, for the deed of killing this monster You have my utmost gratitude. By doing that, you proved to be an ally not only to our tribe but to all the humans of this world. As such, I believe you are worthy to know that this idiot" placing his hand atop the fuming girl's head, Longinus forced her to bow her head as well, "is actually a saint, bestowed with her powers by the God almighty himself."
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