Unique Magic.
A blessed talent that allowed one to reinterpret an existing spell and use it in an entirely personal way.
Even among Mages, the presence or absence of Unique Magic determined one’s standing.
The same was true in the world of Dark Mages.
Simply possessing Unique Magic granted someone the potential to rise far above others.
Shuran now understood why the police had brought Rud into their ranks.
Zid was originally an instant-death spell that injected Mana into a living body, rapidly accelerated it, and caused it to explode.
In other words, it should have been utterly impossible to use the spell to repel or launch objects.
The fact that Rud could do so effortlessly demonstrated that he existed on an entirely different level from other Dark Mages.
“It seems you possess the same qualifications as I do.”
Rud did not bother responding.
A fierce wind blew across the lakeshore.
The leaves rustled noisily as though foretelling what was about to occur, and more than a dozen birds that had been hiding nearby took flight into the sky.
Shuran remained entirely at ease.
Although dozens of Skeleton Knights still surrounded him, the gaze born from his characteristic arrogance exerted a unique pressure.
Rud felt as though his entire body had been bound by invisible cobwebs.
He solemnly steadied his breathing and drew every muscle in his body taut.
He saw an opening.
In the blink of an eye, Rud closed the distance between himself and Shuran.
THUD!!
Only a single kick against the ground had sounded.
Despite the Skeleton Knights openly surrounding the area in formation, not one of them managed to react to Rud’s speed.
Shuran’s face appeared directly before him.
A Necromancer who fought by employing corpses possessed one fatal weakness: the caster’s Main Body was physically frail.
Rud had been confident that he could win easily by exploiting that weakness relentlessly.
To his surprise, his assumption proved entirely incorrect.
THUD!!
A hard sensation met Rud’s fist.
It was not the familiar feeling he had expected.
Startled, he looked ahead and saw Shuran holding a defensive stance, having blocked the punch.
However, he did not appear to have absorbed the entire impact.
When Rud pressed forward with even greater physical strength, Shuran’s body flew backward as though gliding above the surface of the Lake.
A trace of surprise crossed Shuran’s face.
Although he had blocked the attack, his bones throbbed as though they had been struck by a solid club.
It was a degree of physical strength that did not belong to a Mage who rarely used his body.
Shuran swiftly corrected his overturned posture and placed both feet upon the surface of the water.
At a glance, he appeared to be floating in midair.
‘His control is entirely different from Letra’s.’
Letra could barely lift her own body at a slow pace.
Shuran, however, hovered as naturally as though wings had grown from his back.
Before becoming a Dark Mage, Shuran had possessed exceptional talent in Levitation Magic.
He had certainly enjoyed more than enough time to polish that talent.
WHOOOOOSH!!!
Shuran raised an arm heavily, as though pulling something upward.
The water beneath his feet responded by surging into an enormous Column of Water.
Rud’s eyes widened in disbelief.
‘Was Levitation Magic always capable of something like that?’
Countless people could not lift a large container of water because of its weight.
Yet Shuran had raised what appeared to be several tons of water with a single hand.
“Is this your first time seeing something like this?”
ROOOOAR!!!
Shuran pointed toward Rud.
The Column of Water stretched toward him like well-kneaded dough.
It was fast.
The Skeleton Knights who had been watching from nearby began scrambling away with pale expressions.
They had realized that Shuran intended to attack without regard for whether they were caught in it.
BOOOOM!!
Rud extended an arm and destroyed the Column of Water with a Shockwave.
Violent sprays of water burst in every direction.
His clothes were soaked through.
The Skeleton Knights had already escaped the immediate area and avoided the attack, yet for some reason, they merely stood there and stared at him.
Rud ignored them and flew rapidly toward Shuran.
WHOOOOSH!!
It was a specialized technique that used the recoil of a Shockwave like a booster, launching Rud through the air like a cannonball.
Shuran laughed quietly in fascination and soared high into the sky.
Seeing this, Rud fired a Shockwave against the surface of the water and spiraled upward after him.
A whirlpool churned across the Lake.
Several fish floated to the surface after being stunned by the sudden impact, but Rud could see nothing except Shuran.
Only three meters of height separated them.
It was more than close enough for an attack to reach.
Rud extended an arm, preparing to unleash a Shockwave at maximum output.
At that moment—
WHOOOM!!
His vision suddenly plunged downward.
Shuran had used Levitation Magic to hurl Rud toward the water below.
“Urgh…!”
SPLASH!!
Rud fell into the Lake and expelled the air from his lungs as he struggled to open his eyes.
He could not breathe.
The Lake was so deep that he could not see the bottom.
At least his body was free.
His arms and legs moved without difficulty.
The spell had been released.
Rud did not know why, but he immediately attempted to return to the surface.
WHOOOOSH!!
Shuran plunged beneath the water like a falling Bullet and reached toward Rud with a deranged smile.
If Rud was struck by the same attack again, he would be dragged to the bottom of the Lake and trapped there.
Rud desperately thrust a hand to the side and released a powerful Shockwave.
BOOM!!
The force was weaker than he had expected, but the recoil carried his body away from the path of Shuran’s arm.
A moment later, Rud extended both hands downward and fired Shockwaves as though launching Torpedoes.
His body tore violently through the water and struggled back toward the surface.
A fierce spray erupted above the Lake.
Rud coughed repeatedly as he placed both feet upon the surface.
Mages were generally trained to walk upon water.
It was an application of Levitation Magic, but maintaining it for too long had the serious disadvantage of rapidly depleting one’s Mana.
Rud barely managed to stand upon the water by consuming his Lifespan.
Shuran emerged from beneath the surface and addressed him.
“How does it feel to fall into a Lake? More refreshing than you expected, is it not?”
“Cough, cough……”
Rud answered only with another series of coughs.
How long had it been since someone had thrown him aside without allowing him to do anything?
Shuran had not survived for hundreds of years as a Dark Mage without reason.
The encounter had completely awakened Rud.
Realizing the strength of the opponent before him, he calmly steadied his ragged breathing.
“Whew…… Heh.”
A quiet laugh escaped him without his realizing it.
Shuran looked at him as though he were insane.
“Why are you suddenly laughing?”
“You will find out soon.”
It was a brief answer hardly worth hearing.
Apparently, falling into the water had temporarily driven Rud out of his mind.
That was a favorable sign.
In any contest, the first person whose mind broke was the first to weaken.
For Shuran, who traveled the world collecting corpses, there could be no more desirable situation.
Rud felt the same way.
BANG!
Rud extended an arm and fired an invisible Shockwave.
Shuran’s body was pushed a considerable distance backward.
The force itself was greatly diminished because of the distance between them, but the true attack lay elsewhere.
Violent ripples spread across the previously calm surface.
Water sprayed through the air, and Columns of Water surged upward.
Why had such a phenomenon appeared when Rud had not moved in the slightest?
Shuran had not even blinked.
There had been no reason to.
He had believed he could respond leisurely with his eyes, just as he always had.
Yet he had no idea where the fist reflected in his pupils had come from.
It was far too large.
It was as though the Moon floating in space had been placed directly before his face.
It took Shuran far too long to realize that the fist belonged to Rud.
THUD—BOOOOM!!
A blunt impact stabbed through Shuran’s brain, and his body flew backward as though launched.
Pain surged through his temple as though he had been struck with solid steel.
The Shockwave that followed briefly clouded Shuran’s consciousness.
Had he lowered his guard too much?
For an instant, he had not even managed to react to Rud’s movements.
Shuran struggled to correct his body as it flew across the surface of the water and released a quiet groan.
“Urgh…!”
The edge of his lip had split, and dark crimson blood ran down from it.
Ignoring the wound, Shuran forcibly pulled his wavering consciousness together.
Rud’s speed had increased for an instant.
He had distracted Shuran with the Shockwave before pushing his physical abilities to their absolute limit and closing the distance.
Rud was no longer visible.
That meant he was approaching through a blind spot.
Shuran instinctively raised his head.
As he had expected, Rud was descending with a fist aimed directly at the crown of his head.
BANG—BOOOOM!!!
This time, Shuran saw the attack clearly.
He also used Maktamin and blocked the fist perfectly with both arms.
Even so, his entire body shook violently from the impact.
Rud pressed down upon Shuran with overwhelming physical strength.
The force was tremendous.
Shuran did not even want to imagine what would happen if he relaxed his guard for a single instant.
His gaze remained fixed in one direction.
Rud did not miss the opportunity.
He extended his other hand and fired a Shockwave.
BOOM!
With a heavy impact, Shuran’s body flew backward and rolled across the surface of the water like a ball.
Rud’s Unique Magic was far more troublesome than Shuran had expected.
At first, he had assumed it was nothing extraordinary.
However, because Rud could fire Shockwaves effectively at both close and medium range, responding to him was exceptionally difficult.
Shuran steadied his spinning vision and clicked his tongue sharply.
“Fine. Let us do this properly.”
The Knight knew that this was a reckless battle.
Even so, the sight of them disregarding their own lives and charging forward for the sake of a fallen friend deserved the highest praise.
The Knight fell briefly into thought.
Had he ever felt such fury over someone’s death during his life?
The moment he took up a sword, he had sworn never to care who lived or died.
If he allowed himself to care even slightly, he would be the one left behind on the battlefield.
That mentality had become even more deeply ingrained during an era when war erupted at every opportunity.
The common people starved because they had nothing to eat, while Aristocrats and Mages concerned themselves only with satisfying their selfish desires.
What difference did it make that he had crossed countless battlefields and experienced every kind of hell?
The world was hardly different within the kingdom than it was beyond its borders.
Raising his voice had changed nothing.
Instead, they rejected him and demoted him to another region.
Even the comrades with whom he had survived countless battles turned their backs on him.
Disillusioned by that reality, the Knight resigned as the Knight Commander and became a Mercenary.
Unfortunately, the first opponent he encountered was Shuran.
After Shuran trampled even his soul, the Knight became a cold corpse and his eternal subordinate.
At first, it felt as though everything he had built throughout his life had collapsed in an instant.
Yet life without responsibility, free from the control of the law, had proved unexpectedly pleasant.
He could kill anyone he had always wanted to kill.
Whenever he flawlessly completed an order, he received more than sufficient compensation.
“I merely carry out the task I have been given.”
The Knight muttered quietly as he looked down at the three female Mages lying before him, bleeding upon the ground.