Chapter 158 (1/2)
Chapter 158 – Great Plains of Barrastan (9)
[Active skill ‘Desperate Maneuver’ applied.]
Sungjin kept his gaze fixed on the Dragon as he kept an ear open for the Operator’s voice. He would decide his strategy based on what the Active Skill was.
[Desperate Maneuver: When MP is completely exhausted, consume HP instead of MP.]
‘What?’
Sungjin was surprised but did not let it show.
‘Consume HP instead of MP? Then when I use magic…’
All sorts of plans appeared in Sungjin’s mind. However, he did not have the time to review them one by one. Instead, Sungjin made a simple decision.
‘In any case, I can only win by using magic.’
For the moment, Sungjin threw out both of the spells stored in Artemio.
“Expel Magic!”
“Expel Magic!”
Giant ice spears flew out from Artemio. The Dragon held out his hand and absorbed them just as he had done before. However, that did not matter since, from the beginning, Sungjin was only aiming to buy time.
“Pa!”
After expelling the spells, Sungjin shot Artemio at the Dragon like he did earlier at Commander Zeratar. The Dragon struck the approaching Artemio with the end of the staff and deflected it high into the sky.
‘Clang!’
Afterwards, he grasped Artemio, which was spinning in the sky, by its handle. This was impossible unless you could read its trajectory and velocity, and precisely read the amount of strength required when parrying it.
The Dragon glanced at Artemio and examined it closely. As befitting his nickname ‘Magic Researcher’, he seemed to have a lot of interest in magic related items.
“Hoh, this… Is this a sword that can absorb the power of magic and then expel it? This too… I’ll have to take it with me and study it.”
Saying that he’ll take someone else’s sword and what not, the Dragon was maintaining quite an arrogant attitude.
‘Arrogant bastard. Let’s see you stay cocky after this.’ cursed Sungjin as he took out and held Ariane with his empty hand. Though the Dragon did not know, taking out Ariane was no different from indicating that Sungjin would use the ‘Ring of the Great Sage’. Sungjin first ordered Ariane to handle half of the mana cost.
“Mana Flow”
Ariane, the sword made from a Dragon’s heart, began to quietly cry out.
‘Oooom’
Sungjin continued and initiated the Active Skill of the ‘Ring of the Great Sage’.
“Amplify Magic”
Soon, the ‘Ring of the Great Sage’ gave off a bright light. The Dragon saw Sungjin doing this, yet still looked at him with eyes filled with curiosity and not fear.
“Hoh… So, you know how to use that?”
Sungjin immediately launched a spell at him.
“Fireball!”
It was not just a fireball. It was a fireball after Sungjin’s Magic Power had been amplified by five times. This incredibly huge fireball had completely destroyed the Ice Palace of the Ice Witch. The Dragon Archae’ard, who had been relaxed until just a moment ago, showed a flustered expression for the first time after seeing the fireball.
“What? Arise! Ice Wall!”
“Arise! Ice Wall!”
It seemed that the Dragon was not satisfied even after creating two layers of ice walls as he cast a defense spell on himself.
“Protect me! Anti Magic Shell!”
The Dragon’s calculations were right for the most part once again. The flame that Sungjin shot broke through the Dragon’s ice walls one by one and then crashed against his Anti Magic Shell.
‘Booooooom!’
The Dragon Archae’ard was astonished. Even though he had been able to roughly guess the power of the fireball after seeing its size, it had been several hundred years since his magic defense had been damaged.
‘No way… Had there been a time when a human’s spells have been this strong?’
While the Dragon was surprised, Sungjin charged at it with an unbelievable speed. Flustered, Archae’ard urgently held up his staff and began to block Sungjin’s attacks.
‘Clang Clang Clang!’
Having perfect proficiency with both hands thanks to an item allowed Sungjin to make unpredictable and flashy dual-sword style attacks. If it had been an inexperienced Dragon, then he would have already turned into minced meat.
However, Archae’ard was different. He had already regained his composure before even a few seconds had passed.
‘Clang Clang Claaang!’
This was because he had already received Sungjin’s attacks dozens of times. The Dragon Archae’ard was a scholar. Having read thousands of books on magic and combat and having fought tens of thousands of times, he was akin to a living avatar of war.
The level of Sungjin’s attacks was something that he could perfectly defend against with his experience. However, he had a small lingering doubt.
‘Why did he stop using attacking with magic and return to hand-to-hand combat?’
It was obvious that the spells cast using the Sky Gem were threatening even to him. But the human came charging back with the same swordsmanship which had previously failed to work against him. Now that he thought about it, he really began to wonder. However, shortly after, Archae’ard was able to come up with a reason.
‘This guy. He doesn’t have enough mana.’
The fireball that he had just shot out was a spell that was obviously beyond the what a human was capable of. Even if he used the ring embedded with the Sky Gem to drag out his Magic Power, he was incapable of doing anything about his mana.
‘Since he can’t use it many times, it seems that he wanted to create a diversion to end it with his sword.’
With this in mind, Archae’ard began to look for a chance to counter attack as he used his staff to block Sungjin’s swords. His sword technique was impressive, but there were still portions that were somewhat predictable.
At the perfect moment, he would stop the human’s attack with his staff and counter with magic. This was the Dragon had planned.
Meanwhile, Sungjin was doing his best to try and memorize every swing of their weapons as they continued to duel.
He never counted on defeating a dragon with a mere fireball. It was used to draw its attention away.
‘The real fight begins after the time reversal.’
That was Sungjin’s true aim. Because the opponent was a blue dragon, he was worried that the dragon might notice his time reversal magic.