Chapter 12 (1/2)
Mightiest Melee Magician
Chapter 12
It was only natural that ogres couldn’t speak the human language.
However, the Ancient Ogre Kingram was a special case.
Even amongst the myriad of ogre tribes, as the chieftain of the Sky Phoenix, the oldest ogre tribe, no one knew how, but Kingram could command the human language and perform ancient magics from the first times he showed himself on the continent.
Similarly to nowadays, monsters did appear, but they were much more commonly sighted back then.
Possessing a gifted bodily constitution paired with outstanding intelligence, the ogre Kingram’s existence was quite a threat to humanity.
In the end, the Archmage Frolian Ignit personally went to suppress the ogre.
That’s how Kingram got to stand here as an immortal entity through becoming an artifact.
This was his 500-year history.
And I,
“Hello.”
[Hm…?]
The piece of living history that had witnessed the ages more than any other living being.
And I stood in front of this Kingram.
“Haha… I’m shaking a bit from nervousness. This is my first time seeing you. My name is ‘Ruin Ardell’.”
A huge statue that was at least two times bigger than the average ogre.
Towards that statue, I greeted it politely.
At that moment, the eyes of the statue flared open.
It meant Kingram was looking at me.
[You… I haven’t seen your face before.]
I shrugged my shoulders as a response.
“I had some circumstances. It’s a bit long, but would you like to hear it?”
[…I’ll refuse.]
Not amused, Kingram activated his Target Magic with a neutral expression.
A door opened up in thin air and a huge money bag appeared.
This was the target that the students hit with their magic, and through this bag, Kingram absorbed the magic and fed himself.
It was a sign to shut up and quickly take the test.
“I understand. You want me to get it over with?”
As I looked directly at the indifferent Kingram, I clenched my fists
At the same time, as my Force Circle twitched a bit, ‘Strength’ began pouring into all the muscles in my body.
I opened my clenched fist.
My palm now held the most dangerous magic I could cast.
“That’s ‘Mana Burn Explosion!”
“Woah! Isn’t that a 4th-class Master magic?”
Mana Burn Explosion.
It was a 4th-class Master magic that used a magician’s ‘key’ as a catalyst to rapidly ignite the mana dispersed in the air in a fiery explosion.
The small key that was fired at the target acted as a sort of trigger to instantly kill them in an explosion.
I’d known how to cast this spell for quite a long time.
I just couldn’t use it.
Well, I had recently found a way.
[…Hm?]
Kingram’s eyes opened again when I crouched down and went into a charging stance.
[What’s that posture?]
It was a gaze of interest.
Of course, I planned to satisfy that interest.
“I’ll be starting.”
As I finished talking, I recklessly rushed towards Kingram.
I moved the ‘key’ from my palm down to the tip of my foot, and just as I reached the target, I leapt and spun my hips 180 degrees.
With a fast spin of my body, I kicked with all my might against the target.
Pang!
The tip of my foot had directly hit the target.
It was the influence of the ‘Body Arts’ skill.
With the heavy sound of me hitting the target, the ‘key’ simultaneously exploded and started indiscriminately burning the mana around me.
Fwhoosh!
As the mana started burning, the spell acted as the catalyst to cause a huge explosion.
B-B-B-BOOM!
The funny thing was, because of skill, my body was unharmed from the effects of the magic.
“Woah!”
“That’s insane…”
The students couldn’t hold in their excitement from seeing my performance.
The ‘Mana Burn Explosion’ would look like a new stage of magic to my peers.
As soon as one became a 5th-class magician, they had the option to become a court magician, or even just a powerful magician that any territory lord would give respect to.
And this ‘Mana Burn Explosion’ didn’t use the collected and processed mana inside one’s body, but used the mana dispersed in the air, a high-level magic that required one to be able to control the supply of mana for the spell.
As a 4th-class spell at the cusp of 5th-level, using this spell was like announcing my current level in magic.
“R-Ruin is a 4th-class master?”
“No! He’s 5th-class!”
A thick smell of sulphur filled the testing rounds.
After I landed, I took a deep breath and looked up at the statue.
The bright eyes of ‘Kingram’ could barely be seen through the dense smoke.
‘Maybe…’
I was curious what Kingram’s assessment of my magic would be.
But then,
‘Eh?’
Kingram’s reaction was a bit odd.
His bright eyes blinked a few times, and then blinked a few more times.
Like he was taken aback.
This was the truth.
And then after blinking, Kingram asked in a shaky voice I had never heard before,
[You… Who are you?]
“Eh? Ah. I am called Ruin Ardell…”
[Are you Draka?]
“…Eh?”
What did he say?
I wasn’t the only one who was surprised.
[I was waiting.]
* * *
“Draka? Who’s that?”
“Dunno. Didn’t he just get his name wrong?”
“Quiet!”
At the unexpected reaction of Kingram, the students started discussing amongst themselves while the instructors called for attention.
But I wasn’t listening to any of that.
Because of that one phrase Kingram said, the name I was looking for so long, the name I searched for for the last two months as if I were insane.
‘Destroyer of Worlds, Draka.’
The original owner of my power.
I didn’t even think of the possibility of hearing that name from Kingram’s mouth.
I cautiously asked him,
“Is he… someone you know?”
Kingram snorted at my question.
[Hm! Of course.]
“……”
As I looked at him with a dazed expression, Kingram laughed loudly at my expression.
[This is very interesting. Haha! For me to meet his incarnation! What did you say your name was?]
“Ruin… Ruin Ardell.”
[Sure. It seems I’ll have to talk with you later since there’re too many ears here.]
The assessment had ended.
Kingram lifted his gaze away from me and shouted to the instructors who were helping with the procedures,
[This isn’t magic I can judge.]
The instructors became flustered.
“Eh, what?”
The impact of his statement was immense.
* * *