I Never Run Out of Mana

216. Their End, My Beginning (2)

“First, I’ll be eliminating the enemies outside.”

“Yes. Then what will you be doing after that?”

“We need to avoid fighting within the castle. There are those captured held inside after all. I will be bringing out their top 5 you’ve informed me of before outside.”

“Do you think that they’ll just follow along with your plan that easily?”

“Think about it. If an intruder invades your headquarters and is causing chaos, do you think they’ll just ignore it and stay inside? They’re already on alert due to my recent ambush on them.”

“It does make sense. However, other than the top 5, what will you do about those left inside the castle? If they find out about what is going on outside, they’ll be doing everything they can to scurry away.”

“That’s why your role is important here. I’ll be leaving them to you.”

“Huh? But… They will be a lot stronger than I am. As I’ve explained to you before, I’m more of an overseer who uses their head…”

“Do not worry about that. I’ll have some bodyguards for you.”

“Huh? Bodyguards?”

Dan looked around while asking.

It seemed that he was looking for those bodyguards I mentioned.

However, I knew that none would be found before his eyes.

It was because the bodyguards I mentioned would appear out of thin air.

“What are you looking around for? No need to doubt. I have everything planned out.”

“Yes… I understand!”

“Wait here and enter the castle after confirming the situation. Enter when their top 5 come out. Understood?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Then wait until I give you the signal. I’ll be going ahead.”

“Yes!”

I left Dan behind and charged in first.

Since it hadn’t been long since I had faced the hunters from the pub, those at the headquarters wouldn’t have been able to hear about their demise yet.

To be more accurate, there weren’t any alive to bring the news.

They would only be able to guess about their group disappearance after time had passed.

I had expected only the remaining 10 hunters taking care of the nearby surroundings, but there were quite a surprising amount of personnel defeating the monsters outside.

‘What’s going on. Were they able to obtain reinforcements that quickly? That’s good. It doesn’t matter how many are here after all.’

I didn’t bother casting either of the Stealth Jutsu or Silent spells.

I even took off the raincoat that uncomfortably blocked my field of view despite the heavy downpour.

Without any hesitation, I approached them with confidence.

“New faces, huh?”

“Intruder! Hurry up and report to the higher ups!”

“Sure. Take your time. Don’t trip. And please inform them that the intruder who had completely wiped out all the guards is here.”

“Stop him! We have to buy time!”

“Buying time? No. I’ll be playing with you all for a bit. Until the five eagle brothers from the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman or something comes out that is.” 1

“Attack!”

“Hm… That’s not it. All of you have to just stand still like extras. You’ll be dying soon afterwards.”

“Urgh!”

“It’s because it’s your first time. It won’t take long. Just sit still. Isn’t the sound of the rain nice? Don’t you think it’s a nice sound to hear before dying?”

“Hurry up and cast Cleansing!”

“I cannot move my body. And it seems I can’t cast any skills either!”

“Damn it!”

Their eyes were wide open with shock after becoming completely bound still by Hold and Bind.

Sitting in front of the gathered group of enemies, I waited for their top 5 to come out.

Also, I gave the signal to Dan who had been looking at me for it.

It wasn’t that much of a distance to cover, but he ripped a scroll to sneak into the castle from the side.

It was the ideal method to quickly, accurately, and safely sneak in.

After confirming that he had successfully teleported using the scroll, I summoned my clones next to Dan and quietly whispered.

“Guard Dan and assist him to rescue the people inside. They cannot die or get hurt. While dealing the least amount of collateral damage possible, annihilate all members of Swesi other than Dan.”

As if understanding my command, the clones nodded their heads and surrounded Dan to begin guarding him.

Was it because Swesi had recently suffered from an intruder before?

It didn’t take long before one of the guards who had ran inside to report the current situation came back outside with the enemy generals.

As Dan had told me before, there were 5 of them, and the aura of power they exuded were vastly different from the rest as expected.

After the 5 came outside of the castle, Dan accompanied the clones in heading inside the castle.

It really was perfectly timed.

No matter how well tuned someone’s senses were, they would be completely focused on the amount of killing intent I was letting out in front of them.

It seemed that none had noticed Dan’s movements.

The person who looked like they were the overboss of Swesi approached me and spoke.

“On whose orders are you here doing this?”

“It really is the five eagle brothers. There’s no one who commanded me to. It’s because I just don’t like you all.”

“Even after all of this, if you reveal your identity and stop your attacks, we will provide you with the goods. Isn’t that what your master wants! If you do not stop, we will defeat you and kill the master you serve.”

“…”

“Are you aware that the organization you are fucking with without any fear is Swesi? To think that a noble dares to mess with an organization that even the castellan has permitted. This is our ultimatum. Answer.”

“Aren’t you going to fight? It’s raining so let’s hurry this up and get inside. I think we might catch a cold.”

“You fool! Strike him down. However, leave him alive. We’ll get a confession out of him on who had commanded him to do this. Whoever that gave the command will strike the ground and regret ever doing so!”

“Yes!”

“Yes.”

“No matter where I go, the bosses never fight together with their subordinates. Even though it won’t be enough if they all come at me together. Even though they’ll be left alone and meeting a pathetic end… If you really want it that bad, then guess I’ll have to do so.”

“Shut up!”

“Before that, let me take care of those bound by me.”

The skill’s destructive power after absorbing the hunter’s power as well was great.

With a single Meteor Call, those all bound under my spell had been wiped out.

Other than the power of mana, magical energies, and the power of the gods I had obtained, the destructive force of the skill was determined only by the skill’s level.

I had poured down the same magic on the hunters before, but this time the number was far less due to the lack of clones present.

Despite that, surprisingly the skill had become far stronger than before I had defeated the hunters from the pub.

It seemed that the power I obtained here had a direct correlation to the destructive force of skills.

I hadn’t noticed it before because I had been using the skills on the monsters without knowing about how strong they were when hunting.

Other than the overboss, the four generals retreated backwards to avoid the Meteor.

My attack spell wasn’t something so slow as to be avoidable. As expected, these enemies weren’t to be underestimated.

The four of them attacked in pairs of two.

Each of them had different methods of attacking, and the combination was rather difficult to deal with.

In the frontline was a brawler trying to catch my attention, and behind the brawler was an archer, a mage, and a priest.

The priest casted healing and buffs nonstop on the brawler, and the mage casted shields, attack speed buffs, and attack damage buffs on the archer while also partaking in the attack.

Because I had casted a lot of shields, the damage wasn’t something I couldn’t handle, but it also prevented me from attacking back.

It wasn’t easy casting magic while also avoiding the attacks that came without missing a beat.

Giving up on retaliating against the brawler, I only focused on defense.

While doing so I casted a skill against the enemy priest and mage.

“Urk!”

“Heali-…”

2 huge Icebergs crashed into them.

Because they did not expect any attacks to come at them, they were helplessly trapped inside the Icebergs.

Normally their bodies should’ve been twisted apart and killed, but they were holding on.

Even though Iceberg normally twisted apart anything inside into puzzle pieces, this wasn’t the case now.

However, it also wasn’t accurate to say that they blocked the attack completely.

Both of them had received a ton of damage, and were barely holding on right now.

“Oraaa!”

After confirming what had happened to the priest and mage, the brawler’s attack increased in ferocity.

They must’ve realized that if any attacks followed up on their comrades right now, the situation would become far more difficult.

As if to buy time for the two to recover, the archer also pulled out a dagger and approached me.

The archer’s main weapon was a bow, but depending on what stats the archer had invested into, the dagger could also be a powerful weapon after all.

“It’s rather annoying how you all are sticking to me!”

“Urk!”

Because they were tenaciously sticking onto me, I casted Chain Explosion.

My entire body was covered in explosions in an instant.

This was a skill that dealt damage to me as well, but it wasn’t that dangerous if I used my shields and controlled the amount of power output.

However, that wouldn’t be the case for my opponents.

These explosions dealt all sorts of elemental damages.

On top of that, one of the powers granted by the Piece of Space and Time allowed my attacks to bypass all resistances.

After losing their resistances, my enemies would be unable to handle all the various elemental types of explosions.

“Wide open.”

“Ugh!”

“Damn it! Block it!”

The brawler and the archer retreated back to avoid the explosions.

Now I had the window of opportunity to attack the priest and the mage.

There was no need for me to cast Meteor, a spell of the complete opposite attribute, because it would cancel out the Iceberg.

I had to defeat these two only using ice and electric magics.

Lightning struck down the Icebergs.

As the electricity dug into the Icebergs, shards of ice shattered outwards.

On top of that, chunks of ice the size of cannonballs were falling down from the sky.

It was because I had casted In Storm and Blizzard.

I did not know if it was the same for the In Storm spell, but the combo with Blizzard and Iceberg was amazing.

The chunks of ice falling dug into the Icebergs and stopped near their bodies.

And then.

-BOOM!

The second part of the Blizzard’s attack effect, the explosions.

The spell Blizzard had shattered the targets the spell Iceberg had failed to do.

Without even time to recover, their forms were torn apart inside the ice to the point of not being recognizable.

Since the explosions from Blizzard let out frost, the giant blocky iceberg had become bigger unevenly.

The translucent ice had changed into the color of blood, and became solid like a well made statue.

And as if I had been waiting for this moment, I swallowed a King’s Marble at the same time.

It wasn’t because I had received any damage. It was because I had obtained a massive amount of power.

If I was able to defeat 4 of the generals charging at me at the same time, I would be able to save one marble, but the situation didn’t allow me that leisure.

And perhaps because the clones had assisted Dan in the operation, I felt decent and small bits of power less than what I had obtained from the two I had just slain flow in.

It was because if the clones defeated any Protectors, the power would directly flow into the caster.

“You bastard!”

“Master!”

“Yeah. They’re calling for reinforcements. You should fight too. Why are you fighting separately, making me waste my precious marbles?”

After acting as if to be a cut above the rest and holding their ground, the overboss finally realized just how serious the situation was and prepared to battle.

In their hand was a sword the shape of a half a circle.

The sword looked like the crescent moon or perhaps like a rocking pizza cutter.

With this, there were two who would attack in melee range, and one that was capable of attack from both short and long range.

Those responsible for healing and defense were no longer present.

This meant that the longer the fight went, the more advantageous it would be for me, and they would collapse from exhaustion.

However, there was no need to drag this on. It was because I could defeat them immediately if I wished.

“I shall make you thoroughly regret going against Swesi!”

After confirming them charging at me, I empowered the Butcher’s Sword in my hand.

I also formed another sword in my other hand.

It was with the intention to pour out all of my physical attack skills like the Formless Sword Aura.

Both swords were letting out a bright light as I prepared to attack.

“It’s only right for the end of a fight to be close quarters. Come!”