Chapter 133: Dawson Reveals Himself (1/2)
The bandits minions immediately fanned out and surrounded me, slowly closing in on me with blades pointed forward and ready. One by one, their blades swung down on me without any reservation, their aim, to kill me. Thankfully, my identity had already been exposed so there was no longer a need for me to hold back.
The moment the bandit troop leader barked out that command, I had already begun channelling my mana into a spell. As cold steel rained down on me, a bone wall rose out of the ground beneath my feet and propelled me into the air in a burst of dust and soil. With the rising momentum and the bone wall as a stepping stone, I kicked off into the air and flipped over the bandit encirclement.
With my body slightly curled up, I drew my enchanted straight blade mid-air and swung downwards on a bandit minion who just happened to be in my flight path, cleaving through the unfortunate minion in a ruthless chop boosted by the momentum of my fall. Straightening up my crouched posture, I turned around to face the remaining minions, their comrade’s corpse crumpling to the ground behind me with a thud as I began channelling my mana once more.
The flames roared to life in my right hand and engulfed my straight blade in an instant as I willed my mana to materialize. In less than 2 seconds, a 7 meter long whip born of the flames crackled to life and flew out towards the minions. As the flames seared through the air, it carved out a fiery line across the battlefield that scorched the air itself along its destructive path.
Having been strengthened by the enchanted blade, the flame whip not only grew two meters longer but had its offensive power boosted significantly as well. Those unfortunate enough to stand in the way of its serpentine body instantly caught fire and in just a few moments, were burnt to a crisp. It didn’t take long before the clearing was polluted with the acrid smell of burning flesh and blood.
Perhaps they chose this clearing as it made it easier to surround their target but this bit of cleverness ended up backfiring on them. With no trees and foliage standing in way, there was naturally no need for me to hold back on my fire attacks out of fear of causing a forest fire.
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Truthfully, the moment I discovered that my enchanted straight blade had a fire enhancement property, I immediately began formulating a new battle plan. This whip attack was definitely not something I did in the spur of the moment but was instead a tactic I had deliberated on.
Like the fireball, the flame whip was, strictly speaking, a growth type spell which meant it grew stronger the more mana you spent on it. However, unlike the fireball, the flame whip was all about sustained control while the fireball was more about a sudden and explosive burst of power. If one was to channel a fireball for too long, it would most likely cause a magical backlash from the volatile buildup of fire elements.
In short, the flame whip was easier to control and was perfect for such close quarters combat.
Speaking of which, close quarter combat was the common weakness of all mages especially when fighting against an assassin who could take advantage of his weak physical defenses. Even so, this weakness wasn’t enough to cancel out the sheer power magic afforded oneself.
Mages were after all, an occupation of the nobility while warriors were merely commoners. Nowhere was this difference in power more apparent than in their range capabilities. A warrior had to close in on his opponent before he could harm him while a mage merely had to fling a spell.
Not only that, a mage of equivalent stars was significantly more powerful than a warrior, not to mention that a mage was able to control the weather and terrain once he reached the higher stars. Thus, a mage was in every way, a more superior occupation.
Right now was a textbook example of how a mage was stronger than a warrior. Thanks to my sword training before reincarnating as a devil, I was more of a magister now (TL reminder: warrior+mage) and had both close and long range capabilities. With my snaking flame whip, I was able to easily keep the bandits at bay with a flick of my wrist. Even in the face of their throwing knives, I was able to rely on my warrior background to nimbly avoid their projectiles.
In just under a minute, over half of the bandits were downed by my flame whip. As the flames licked their bodies, all they could was roll around on the floor while screaming in pain. Yet no matter how much they tried, the flames simply couldn’t be put out.
Seeing their encirclement fail spectacularly, their morale swiftly plummeted. Knowing that this mustn’t continue on any further or he risked losing the remaining half of his troops, the bandit troop leader finally took to the battle himself.
“Move aside you lot, I’ll deal with this demoness myself…die devil!” With his long blade raised high into the air, he broke into a sprint and lunged at me. Noticing this newcomer, I immediately lashed out at him with my whip yet his furious charge wasn’t one to be stopped so easily.Ignoring the coils of my whip, he broke through the fire while swinging his blade downwards at me with his all his might.
Given my horrendously low strength which was barely able to defeat a human agility focused warrior, strength type warriors like this troop leader were clearly opponents I couldn’t take head on. In fact, that thought didn’t even cross my mind as I promptly back stepped while attacking once more with my flame whip. With a flick of my right wrist, I swung the flames back towards the bandit in another coiling attack.
Naturally, the troop leader was able to react to this and immediately tried to deflect the whip with his long blade. However, the flame whip was made of pure fire energies and naturally couldn’t be damaged by such physical attacks. The flames wrapped around blade, dancing around its steely edge as it wrapped its crimson tendrils around the troop leader.
Being a strength type warrior, agility clearly wasn’t his forte. At this distance, there was simply no way for him to prevent the flame whip from coiling around him.
“AHH….” yelled the man as his body burst into flame right away. As the scorching pain tore through his body, it instantly robbed him of any ability to fight back. All he could do was roll around desperately and hope that this would put out the flames. Unfortunately for him, his minions had already tried this and that didn’t work for them.
In the end, the bandit troop leader was merely a two-star warrior and two-star warriors weren’t able to wrap their bodies in Fighter’s Aura like the three-stars. This meant that they basically had no defenses against magical attacks and could only soak the damage with their bodies; last I checked, humans weren’t born with an innate fire resistance.
“How…RUN…” Seeing their leader get taken out in a move, the remaining minions immediately fled, leaving their leader to fend for himself.
Magical attacks were the biggest weapons in a mage’s arsenal so the outcome of this fight was essentially decided before it even began. Without the ability to wrap oneself in Fighter’s Aura, a mage could easily dominate a warrior.
Assuming, of course, that there was sufficient distance between the two parties and that there was enough time for the spell to fire off and hit its target…mhm, hitting a target is important as well…don’t forget, most mages were basically geeks.
With that, those that could still move, fled while those who couldn’t were basically dead or crippled.