A Bit of a Trick

「Kill the intruder first! We’ll investigate afterwards!」

「Yeah! Attack!」

Regaining a little bit of composure, the men started firing attacks at me. But still disoriented from the explosion, there’s no way they’d hit me. Mistimed and uncoordinated spells didn’t even get close to my direction. There were still plenty of them left. Some of them fired spells at me that would surely engulf me.

「Magic Guard. Magic Veil. Holy Breath.」

Before their attacks could hit, I cast two spells. First was Magic Guard, a very basic defense magic. The other one was Magic Veil, a Sage’s trump card when it comes to defense.

「We got him!」

「There’s no way he’ll get out of that alive—」

The enemy were ecstatic after seeing their spells hit their marks. A fire-type spell, Flame Bomb, hit near me and caused a mini explosion, so they couldn’t really see what was happening.

If that was a level two Steam Explosion, I’d be in trouble. But they used Flame Bomb, a very basic spell. It looks flashy, but severely lacks power.

「No way! There’s not a scratch on him!」

「He could’ve cast a single-use spell for defense! Continue firing!」

They kept on firing spells at me, but I received no damage. With the Magic Veil, basic spells were nothing.

「Wh-Who is this guy?! Our attacks have no effect! He’s a monster?!」

「Our attacks are not working… Is it… an illusion? And the real one is hiding somewhere else!」

「Oh, no. Put the barrier up again!」

The immense defensive power of my spell made them think I was an illusion. Indeed. Using an illusion to bait spells and waste their mana is a valid tactic.

But they weren’t attacking an illusion. Their spells did hit. They just didn’t have any effect on my body. Strictly speaking, Magic Veil isn’t a defensive spell. What it does is expand my body in a sense.

Under normal circumstances, their attacks would deal damage to my body. A weak spell would injure my skin, and powerful ones would rip my skin and damage my flesh, even organs.

Magic Veil creates another layer of thin skin made of mana on top of my skin. Just like any ordinary skin, it receives damage, but attacks don’t pierce it easily. Plus it regenerates immediately. That’s why their attacks don’t deal any damage to my actual body.

This magic skin is part of my body and not defensive magic, so spells that destroy defensive magic doesn’t work. They can’t really see it with their own eyes either. To them, it just seems like their attacks weren’t working.

I would be glad if they thought I was an illusion and stopped attacking, I thought to myself as I watched the enemies whose faces were wrought with confusion, despair, and fear.

Magic Veil is an extremely powerful spell, but it also has its drawbacks. It consumes a lot of mana. The spell is almost invincible because the layer of skin keeps on regenerating. Of course, I expend mana every time it does. To put it another way, my mana is taking damage, not my body.

So if they kept firing spells at me, my mana would eventually run out. In fact, I’ve already used up a lot. But—

It looks like I made it.

I was still receiving attacks and not fighting back, not because I was playing around. I was waiting for Holy Breath to activate.

Holy Breath is a type of blessing magic. It takes a bit of time to cast, so I needed to buy time. I was worried that my mana wouldn’t last, but I still had about ten percent left in my tank.

I already achieved my goal today. All that’s left to do is return alive. Easy-peasy.

「What was that? I think I saw the altar shine for a second.」

「Keep your eyes on the target and continue attacking!」

Just like the other two spells, Holy Breath’s effects couldn’t be seen. One of them seemed to have noticed, but he thought it was nothing important.

Of course, I wouldn’t expend a huge amount of mana for a useless spell. Holy Breath would bring about a drastic change to the situation. In fact, one could say this spell was the most important one of them all.

「Magic Wing.」

I cast an aviation-type spell to escape. My business here is done. It’s not like killing these guys will have any significant effect.