Chapter 113 – Counterattack

Time to go wild.

I snuck into Cardinal Georgis’ domain, where the ritual was being held, to expose his evil deeds. I managed to pass through the heavy security and record the actual ritual. But then an alarm rang and a light shone in my location. That means they were wary of the magic recorder from the start.

Thanks to my Mana Invisibility, they can’t really see me, but their alarm device pointed right where I was. I may as well have been spotted. The enemy started moving in a hurry to capture me.

There’s more than a hundred of them. I have to somehow get through all of them alone.

But I didn’t feel hopeless. In fact, I thought things would be easy. It’s time for me to go all out.

「Magic Barrier, fully deployed!」

The enemy prioritized creating the barrier rather than attacking me. After all, as long as the barrier holds, they can all just gang up on me.

Not a bad idea. Since they can’t see me, they might miss. But their move gave me time to launch a counterattack. There’s three seconds after the barrier’s been deployed and before they could fire spells at me. In a battle, three seconds is too long.

They’re probably aware that a few of them will die. Even if I killed a few of them, they’re only a small fraction of the total number of enemies. Heck, if I attacked, they’d find me right away and then they can simply go on me all at once.

I can understand why they chose this tactic. They don’t want even the slightest chance for me to escape. I’m guessing they’re trained to respond like this once a magic recorder was detected.

None disobeyed orders. Each one followed what they rehearsed. It shows just how skilled they were. But that was a bad move.

If they can’t see me, they should just fire AoE spells at random to prevent me from attacking. To be honest, I thought they would attack me straight away. I even prepared for it. They just saved me the trouble.

Once I used magic, Mana Invisibility will be dispelled. So I just have to win in one spell. And I have the perfect one for that.

「Steam Explosion.」

Before they could attack, I chanted my spell. The next moment, an explosion occurred near the altar where the enemy clustered together. With a thunderous roar, the force of the spell blew every enemy away, uprooting even the trees.

My Mana Invisibility was now deactivated, exposing myself to the enemy. But those who didn’t die — those who could see, couldn’t move.

「My arms!」

「What happened?!」

「Was that magic just now?!」

The men near the altar were killed instantly. The ones in the distance were sent flying, and were either out cold or severely injured. Either way, they were in no condition to fight back. Those who were farther away, at a distance where they could barely see where I was, had their sense of balance taken away by the loud explosion.

I dropped to the ground, so I’m pretty much unscathed. The shock wave didn’t hit me, and I covered my ears against the sound of the explosion. Still, it did affect my sense of balance a bit. That’s just what happens when you use Steam Explosion at point-blank range.

There’s no way their well-ordered chain of command can still function after this kind of surprise attack. Besides, their commander was positioned near the altar, so he should be dead as well. All part of the plan, of course. Taking out the commander is one of the basics in battle.

「There’s no way something this powerful was caused by magic! Something must’ve gone wrong with the ritual!」

「Did the magic barrier provoke the evil spirit?」

It sounds like they’re mistaking my Steam Explosion as the ritual going awry. I just used an ordinary spell, one barely enhanced. But I understand why they thought that way. The spells they were used to seeing were completely different from what transpired.

After all, the Steam Explosion just now was considered a broken spell in BBO. It has its drawbacks, but there’s not a lot of spells more powerful than this one.

This is what happens when you use a Wisdom Stone to enhance a spell to level 2.