[148] Compulsory Breakthrough (3)
“Whoops, I still wish I could come this far. Is that Yuna? I’m dying to know what that kid will look like when he sees me.”
“Help me. Please send me home.”
Yuna knelt down and begged Marsha. It was clear from the attitude of her subordinates that she was the number one person in the organization.
“It’s okay, don’t be afraid.”
“Then will you send me home?”
“of course. It’s noisy outside right now, so I’ll send it to you when it’s all sorted out. Speaking of which, can I ask you for one thing?”
“yes? What do you want?”
Marsha approached Yuna and stroked her hair. Then Yuna’s eyes gradually closed and her focus began to wander.
“uh? uh?”
Yuna didn’t even realize that her eyes were closed. He heard tinnitus in his eardrum and unconsciously lost consciousness.
Accepting Yuna, who was about to fall forward, Marsha looked down at her affectionately, then turned her head and smiled coldly.
“Hehe, we’re going to start having fun from now on.”
* * *
Falcoa’s men were wild and violent. As if fear did not exist in the first place, he was swinging his sword while dealing with mediocre attacks with his body.
“Attack with a thunderbolt! charge!”
The main offensive strategy was guerrilla warfare. They were distributing stamina by alternating air and water in a zigzag order, but it was a terrible level for Sirone and the others who had never experienced war.
However, the essence of guerrilla warfare was retreat, not surprise. They seemed unwilling to engage in an all-out war.
“Release the thunderstorm! Retreat at once!”
“Where are you going to run away!”
Amy hurriedly fired a series of flame strikes. At that moment, the bodies of the enemies glowed and turned into flashes of light, soaring into the sky. A high-pitched voice that shook the air pierced the sky.
“Aw, that sucks! You missed it again.”
When Amy stamped her feet in pity, Lian comforted her by placing her shoulder on her shoulder.
“But the enemy is also an all-out war. Their numbers are increasing, so Yuna should be all right right now. That’s good for us.”
Sirone looked back at her friends and said.
“Let’s start by figuring out the situation. Who is injured?”
Injuries must be checked visually. If it was a town fight, you’d only need a nosebleed to notice it, but in a fight for your life, you might not feel pain because so much endorphin is released to counter the adrenaline.
The four of them were relieved to realize that there was nothing wrong only after checking each other’s physical condition.
However, there was no damage to the enemies as well. Even if he tried his best to drive him away, he was running away like a ghost at the decisive moment.
“I haven’t been able to knock down a single person so far. This could adversely affect future battles.”
Amy confessed what she had analyzed so far.
“I’ve been watching, and maybe there’s a secret in the bracelets they’re wearing. It must be a magical device that activates space movement.”
Sirone asked with a skeptical expression.
“Is that possible? It’s different from magic bullet. Space movement is magic that moves wizards. Without a spirit zone, you wouldn’t be able to set a destination, and it wouldn’t be possible to activate it.”
Amy was also suspicious about that. However, strictly speaking, it was not completely impossible.
“Maybe… there’s a possibility that it’s interlocking with the magic circle.”
The magic circle is a scheme that imprints a special image in space and emits magic itself. Therefore, by borrowing the power of the magic circle, it was possible for non-magicians to use magic as well.
“Of course, you can’t cast space movement with magic weapons. However, if it is linked to the magic circle recorded at a specific location, it is theoretically possible.”
Understanding the concept of magic, Sirone nodded. But Tess was on the other side.
“Is this possible in the fallen mercenaries? As far as I know, the magic circle requires a lot of money as well as manpower. Besides, space movement is high-level magic, isn’t it?”
“that’s right. It’s probably an intermediate level magic circle. Even if you want to draw just one magic circle, you need at least 5 wizards all day. But with them, it’s possible. Falcoa has a monopoly on Loop. The mercenaries I met at the ruins were like that too. The loop’s margin is huge. After all, they fortified the base by selling drugs. If so, this whole situation can be explained.”
“How much money did those bastards get from selling drugs? Isn’t it a radius that can’t be reached with just one magic circle?”
There was some truth in Tess’s words. Based on her question, Sirone reviewed the battles so far.
The first enemy fled from the valley where the first battle was fought. There was also a retreat in the forest, and here we cast space movement again.
“I think if you count the distance we have to travel, there must be at least hundreds of magic circles drawn.”
“How many hundreds?”
Tess’s mouth fell open in a daze. An intermediate magic circle that requires 5 wizards to cling to it all day long. If there were hundreds of them, how many gold coins were scattered on this land?
“You couldn’t have spent that much money? Just looking at the distance, dozens are enough. If there are really hundreds of magic circles, you can’t catch them under any circumstances.”
At that moment, Tess realized what she was saying and slammed her palm down.
“ah! I see!”
“that’s right. Do you understand now? As you said, it was made so that they could not be caught under any circumstances. Networked the entire northern forest. Fighting like this will exhaust us first, as we are outnumbered. You won’t even get to the top and you’ll collapse.”
The hostility towards those who strengthened the base by selling drugs intensified. But now was the time to come up with a cool solution rather than emotionally.
“Then what now? How about erasing the magic circle? No matter where you fight, if the enemies run away, it’s not something that can be done by rushing into it.”
Amy shook her head. Tess’ opinion made common sense, but another problem remained.
“It is difficult. A magic circle is a record engraved in space. So, to get rid of it, you don’t just erase the picture, you have to devastate the space. Doing hundreds of them that way could take days.”
Tess finally understood the situation and bit her lip. When a minority is dealing with a group, it is important to somehow reduce the number. But they were blocking that method in advance.
Sirone unexpectedly raised his hand to Tess’ opinion.
“No, it might be worth a try. Let’s erase at least one.”
“Let’s try it? It wouldn’t change anything if I erased one of the hundreds.”
“Our position is the same, but they may think differently. If you put so much effort into building a network, wouldn’t it be a waste to lose even one magic circle? Maybe they’ll come in to defend the spot.”
“ah-ha, I see! Advanced psychological warfare!”
Tess quickly recognized Sirone’s plan. It is often said that war is a power game played with money, but the side with superior funds was not always the winner. This is because human psychology works in a complex way in war.
The more things to protect, the weaker the psychology. For example, even if you raise one elite soldier with a ton of money of 100 gold, if you can’t use it, it’s a joke.
This kind of situation actually happens in war.
Even though they poured money to start a war, the money was rather wasted, so they couldn’t put in elite soldiers, and in the end, there were many cases where the castle was captured by cheap soldiers.
Amy analyzed Sirone’s strategy. It was said that if you can’t chase the enemies, you can rather pull them. It was true that this was the most feasible strategy to come up with in this situation. But that didn’t solve the original problem.
“This time, we have to look at efficiency. Actually, I didn’t say it because I thought destroying the magic circle wasn’t an option, but neutralizing the effect of the magic circle is much more difficult than you guys think.”
Lian grabbed the straight sword in reverse and drove it into the ground with all his might.
“Wouldn’t it be fine if I plowed the ground with my sword? Until the magic circle completely disappears.”
“It’s not even close to that. The magic circle we see with our eyes is nothing more than a sign that embodies a concept.”
Sirone understood what Amy was trying to say and gave a clear definition.
“You mean the concept of a magic circle won’t disappear unless the space itself is destroyed enough to be erased?”
“That’s right. So, there are two main ways to destroy the magic circle. Neutralize the concept itself with clear magic, or destroy the magic circle until the concept disintegrates. The former is impossible for us and the latter takes time.”
Tess realized why Amy was questioning this method.
“It is like this after all. Are you saying that the labor required to destroy a single magic circle is less efficient than recklessly advancing?”
“that’s right. If you don’t destroy it in at least 10 minutes, I think it’s better to just go to your destination in this state. Of course, the basic intention itself of using the psychology of the enemy is a good idea.”
As soon as all the information necessary for the operation was shared, the number of words decreased. In this case, it was better to follow one opinion. Rian looked back at Sirone and asked her thoughts.
“What do you want to do, Shiro?”
Sirone was also bound to be in conflict. As long as the hostage is being held, it is good to go as soon as possible, but there is room for failure in the rescue mission itself if you are too greedy for it.
“Let’s destroy the magic circle. I’ll try.”
When Sirone, who had finally made up her mind, spoke out her thoughts, Amy looked back at him in surprise.
Sirone, whose strong point is insight, is not a person who is bound by odds, but he doesn’t disregard odds at all. In her opinion, the probability of destroying the magic circle within 10 minutes was less than 10%.
“Are you really okay? Isn’t there any magic that can be done in time?”
Of all the magic Sirone could use, the most powerful was definitely the Photon Cannon. However, it was difficult to bear the weight of the earth to the extent of putting mass in light.
Of course, if it was fired at high speed, it would be possible to destroy one of them in 10 minutes. However, it was clear that the exhausted mental strength would make future battles unfavorable.
Another possibility would be lasers, but Amy was skeptical about that too.
Magic that causes molecular vibration by concentrating energy locally has the advantage of destroying matter regardless of durability, but the range itself is bound to be limited.
“I’ll try. I have an idea.”
Amy couldn’t imagine how she would destroy the magic circle, but it was better to follow Sirone’s words for now. This is because Sirone’s insights, which intuitively calculate various variables, are rarely wrong.
If I wanted to draw a more accurate conclusion than that, there would be someone like Iruki, but since he wasn’t here anyway, if Shirone’s expectations went wrong, it had to be regarded as force majeure.
Concluding her thoughts like that, Amy nodded and said.
“good. Then me and Tess move into a group, and Sirone and Lian move into a group. 50 meters apart from each other. Let’s search the surroundings with teleportation. I’m looking for a magic circle.”
“okay. But be careful. If you only care about spacing, you can run into other cover. Teleporting in the forest is dangerous.”
Even Sirone, a teleportation specialist, needed a high level of concentration to cross the forest. However, Amy said bluntly, as if she was offended by Sirone’s old age.
“Who are you worried about now? Surely you don’t think of me as the supernatural or something?”
It was said to lessen Sirone’s worries, but it wasn’t exactly wrong. Amy was also a senior who had mastered the bridge she couldn’t cross, and she also had red eyes, so we had to assume that accidental collisions were rare.
—————————————
