Chapter 330: Innate Strength (3)

Lennok, who had been madly twisting the throttle, paused at the sight of Felix falling right beside him.

Thud!!

“Van!!”

Unable to withstand his own weight and acceleration, Felix left a long gash in the sand, but still stood firm on two sturdy legs, regaining his balance.

As soon as Lennok saw this, he released his grip on the throttle.

Screech!!

Lennok, who had brought the bike to a halt, glanced back at Aris and Hina.

Aris had exhausted all her mana and mental energy from the previous battle. Hina was half-dead from just one kick from Croken.

Both of them were far too incapacitated to join the fight immediately.

Felix also noticed this and quickly nodded.

“Get those two to safety, and come with me.”

“…It’s Croken. Is that possible?”

“If we can’t stop him here, the outcome will be the same. Others would only get in the way.”

Felix, carrying his hammer swirling with jet-black mana, replied.

“Ilya is also on her way here. Until then, we just have to buy time and do what we can.”

“Is it alright to risk your life in a place like this?”

“Isn’t that what mercenaries do?”

Felix patted Lennok’s shoulder and walked forward without hesitation.

“Given who our opponent is, I can’t tarnish the Commander’s name.”

“……”

Just as Lennok, who had been watching Felix stride ahead, was about to follow.

Aris weakly gripped the sleeve of his coat.

“…Van.”

“Professor Aris.”

“Let’s go together.”

She spoke, looking as if she would collapse at any moment.

“My Domain will be helpful. If I’m right, then surely…”

But Lennok silently took her wrist and released her grip on his sleeve.

“You already deployed it once during the fortress assault. Deploying it twice in a row is realistically impossible.”

“…How did you know?”

The conversation between Hina and Aris. The mention of pushing themselves to finish the job quickly. If an Archmage used her full power, it wasn’t hard to understand the implication.

But instead of explaining his deductions, Lennok took her hand and placed it on the bike’s handlebar.

“It’s not far to the fortress. Once you arrive, the Agent field agents can provide emergency treatment.”

Lennok took out half of his remaining mana recovery potions and elixirs from his pocket and put them into Aris’s suit jacket, smiling.

“Professor, you’ve done enough. For the time we have left, I must do my best now.”

“Wait…!!”

Thump!

Aris, who had fallen from the bike, shouted.

“I’m not, yet…!!”

Lennok didn’t look back.

Instead, he only matched pace with Felix, who was ahead, and confirmed the sight of the crocodile-giant approaching from afar.

Aris silently watched Lennok’s retreating figure, his tattered coat fluttering as he disappeared into the sandstorm.

Clenching the sand with her small hand, she muttered with a confused expression.

“Time left…?”

“I feel bad for Antares.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve arbitrarily taken and used a subordinate like you, and now I’m making you fight for your life.”

Felix chuckled at Lennok’s words.

“The Commander will be fine even if I’m gone. It’s something we all prepared for, even before we formed the mercenary group.”

“Still… he would be sad. If it were me, I certainly would be.”

Lennok replied.

“You speak as if you know the Commander well.”

Felix briefly cast his gaze towards Lennok before speaking.

“That’s because you yourself are aware that you have similarities to the Commander.”

“……”

Lennok realized he was momentarily speechless and shut his mouth.

Felix calmly patted Lennok’s shoulder.

“Think positively. There’s no law saying we must die here. Someone who moves by their own whim might withdraw once they’ve had enough fun.”

“Is that from experience?”

Lennok was aware, from a previous conversation with Croken and Dylan, that Antares and Croken knew each other.

That the two had a bond beyond mere comrades, and that it now meant nothing.

If so, it wasn’t strange for Felix, who served Antares closely, to also be acquainted with Croken.

“…Hmm. Well.”

Felix only offered a subtle smile at Lennok’s words, giving no proper answer.

Instead, he just gripped the warhammer on his shoulder as if to crush it.

“You’ll see it for yourself from now on.”

Thud!!

The vibration that echoed whenever the crocodile-giant swayed its tail.

A ground tremor so heavy it was unbelievable that it came from footsteps.

An overwhelming weight that seemed impossible on these sand dunes, which dispersed impact.

It was a perfect amplification and transfer of weight, incomparable to Lieutenant General Treffen, who had merely focused on making his body as heavy as possible.

It was proof of a superhuman who handled their own body more perfectly and transcendentally than anyone else.

Croken, turning his shoulders this way and that, spotted Lennok’s face and grinned.

“What, kid. Didn’t you run away?”

He tossed and caught a cannonball in his hand as he strode forward.

“Good, it’s annoying when you show me something like that and then cut it off. I was just about to smash that toy in frustration, but I didn’t expect you to crawl out first… Hmm?”

Croken stopped talking as he saw Felix’s face standing beside Lennok.

A brief silence passed, and the crocodile-giant, having properly identified Felix’s face, burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha!! Felix, what are you doing here!!”

“……”

Lennok looked up at Felix with a bewildered expression.

Experience or not, Felix wasn’t just acquainted with Croken; it was more than that.

But Felix neatly ignored Lennok’s gaze and respectfully clasped his hands together.

“Lord Asylus. It’s been a long time. I hope you’ve been well.”

“Cut the nonsense. How long are you going to keep up this formality?”

“It never changes, no matter when or where.”

Clang!

Felix, gripping his hammer and stepping in front of Lennok, said.

“Even if we walk different paths, some things never change. It is only natural to respect a warrior who transcends their species.”

“Hehehe… You’re still spouting such dull words. That’s why Antares liked you so much.”

Croken said, then suddenly looked around and smiled subtly.

“I see. I found the scenery oddly familiar. So, the Defense Force really did struggle a bit before they died.”

“……”

“Did you guys come to clean up the City Council’s mess because of the Prohibition Edict? It’s utterly tiresome. Is that all you do after forming a new mercenary group?”

Croken’s lips curled into a long sneer as he faced the silent Felix.

A blunt tone, as if he was just blurting out whatever came to mind.

But Lennok was slightly impressed by Croken’s intuition, which, despite knowing nothing of the situation, instantly pinpointed the core of it.

He seemed to have no interest in what was happening in this city, yet he skillfully pieced together the surrounding landscape and figures to read the situation.

This must be because Croken’s knowledge and experience were so incredibly vast.

The giant, who had lived for decades as a combat mercenary, was already looking at a completely different realm than other people.

“If you’re still with that Antares fellow, there’s only one answer.”

Croken tossed the cannonball in his hand up into the sky.

For the briefest moment, everyone’s eyes followed the cannonball, but only Felix stared directly at Croken.

Clash. With an impact that distorted time, a massive ripple erupted.

Kwawoooong!!!

The two giants simultaneously twisted their bodies and unleashed their first strikes, which intersected, compressing and crushing the air.

Sand dust spread like wings behind Felix, who staunchly blocked Lennok, and Croken, who gripped the flat side of the hammer with bare hands as if to shatter it.

“……!!”

Lennok, his eyes barely wide open, quickly retreated, drawing up his mana.

Felix’s quick wit, reacting correctly while everyone else’s attention was drawn to the cannonball, was astonishing.

But even more shocking was the fact that Felix actually withstood Croken’s full-power strike.

He wasn’t boldly confronting the monster’s formidable brute strength.

Rather, he was barely enduring Croken’s power, maintaining a precarious stance as if he would collapse at any moment.

His thighs, supporting his weight, ruptured and bled profusely, and his elbow ligaments snapped, muscles tearing, yet he persisted.

Lennok, knowing what kind of being Croken Asylus was, understood that this scene itself was nothing short of a miracle.

Croken also saw Felix withstand his attack head-on and rolled his bright yellow pupils downwards.

His gaze, which swept over the bird-headed giant’s entire body in an instant, stopped at the hammer he held, and he chuckled softly.

“The ‘Dorae’ mana, then. I thought it had all disappeared, but it’s still here.”

“…Hmph!”

Felix, unable to even properly reply, endured Croken’s power.

Croken paid no heed to the gasping bird-headed giant and added more power to his shoulder, causing a fierce recoil to surge and explode behind Felix.

Snap!!

Felix’s two legs, supporting the hammer with both hands, dug straight into the sandy ground, then his joints bent backward, spewing blood.

“……!!”

“The fact that you’re still keeping that tells me where you’re headed.”

Croken sneered, laughing contemptuously, and whispered.

“Are you dreaming an endless dream?”

“…Yes, I am.”

Felix, drenched in sweat, grit his teeth and retorted.

“For a little longer than you…!!”

The unusual black mana swirling at the tip of the hammer just before the battle.

Perhaps he was forcibly enduring Croken’s attack by borrowing the rotation of that unknown mana?

His contemplation didn’t last long.

Because the two giants, stepping on the crumbling sand, shifted their weight forward.

A weight surpassing human limits. A monstrous strength whose limits couldn’t even be guessed, simultaneously blasted from completely different directions, grinding together.

With a roar like the earth itself was collapsing, it transformed into a massive storm.

Kwooga-ga-ga-ga-ga!!!

Felix’s fierce onslaught, which he was effectively facing for the first time.

The offensive swing of the hammer gripped in both hands was so ferocious it was barely visible.

The desperate sincerity contained in his movements, as he burned his eyes and mana, cocked his beak, and twisted his waist, was fully conveyed.

But his desperate consecutive blows were all scattered by two slow punches from Croken, inversely shattering Felix’s arms and legs.

Thump, thump!!

Two ripples spread out from mid-air. Dozens of meters of vacuum waves erupted behind Felix, collapsing his body’s balance with disheartening ease.

“……!!!”

A one-sided devastation that could barely be called a fair fight.

But Croken, watching Felix, was impressed in turn.

“Your skill has grown. Did Antares help you?”

Felix didn’t answer. Instead, he gripped his staggering body and once again stood in front of Lennok.

What burst from his beak was no longer words, but the roar of a warrior steeling his heart.

“Ooooh!!!”

“I didn’t think you had great potential… If I’d known this, I would have paid more attention to you.”

He pressed his forearm against the flat side of the hammer, swirling with jet-black mana, bringing it to a halt.

Thud!!!

With a deafening roar, Croken’s body subtly shuddered.

The skill gap between the two was immense, but the hammer in Felix’s hand – or, to be precise, the mana itself – was somehow becoming the driving force to continue the battle.

There was only one reason Felix stood here to block Croken, knowing it was an unwinnable fight.

It was to buy time for Lennok, who stood in the rear.

Lennok had understood this from the start, and from the moment the two spoke, he had been gathering all his remaining mana.

His task was not to miss the brief opening created by Felix, who was削his body to act as the vanguard.

With a lowered stance, Lennok gathered his hands, and the concentrated lightning surged forth from his palms.

Whoosh!!

The swirling torrent of mana in his hands alone violently flapped his coat and swept away the surrounding sand.

His mana consumption was significant due to successive battles and the failed Domain deployment.

Knowing he had only one chance, he had to give his best in this very moment.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!!

The lightning flowing along his arms compressed into his hands like waves, without a single stray spark.

The crackling sound of electricity overlapped hundreds of times, transforming into a sound as if space itself was being torn apart.

Pouring out nearly half of his remaining mana, he created a regular tetrahedron formed by four strands of current.

It was a concentrated construct of power, created by perfectly controlling the power of hundreds of irregular current strands that originally only had a start and end point.

It was a type of culmination point that Lennok, now able to control the three amplification principles of resonance, repulsion, and diffusion to their extremes, measured by borrowing Davi’s computational power.

It was a byproduct of the research Lennok had undertaken to advance beyond the Archmage stage, after completing his Hierarchy and reaching that realm.

This geometric shape, which supported the power erupting from four directions, would unleash all its repercussions through the collapsed direction if it lost even a tiny bit of balance.

A faint, achromatic ripple spread from the center of the regular tetrahedron.

It was proof that a part of his Mind Imprint was contained within this spell, created with Lennok’s full power.

At this point, where deploying his Domain had become difficult, it was the most powerful move Lennok could unleash against a monster that transcended limits.

Tremble, tremble…!!

If he lost focus for even a moment, he felt he would drop it from his hands.

This concentrated construct of mana, perfected through extremely delicate tuning and a sense of balance, would collapse the moment it went even slightly awry.

If he tried to run towards Croken with this spell, its balance would immediately crumble, leading to his self-destruction.

There was only one way.

“Davi… get ready.”

[Calculations are perfect.]

Davi replied through the earpiece.

[Substitute spell casting with pre-received mana from Master. Occupied space confirmed. Leap point detected. Coordinate calculation complete. Required mana configuration deployed.]

Whoosh!!

A tiny ripple appeared beneath Lennok’s feet.

It was Lennok’s first attempt at a ‘step’ since he began to grasp how to manipulate space.

It was the first step to give wings to his magical talent, which had until now been confined within the shackles of this wretched body.

A fragment he grasped from the movement where he succeeded in manipulating space-time within the mechanical sphere created by Lieutenant General Treffen’s metamorphosis.

He added that revelation, without omission, to his existing knowledge and techniques.

[Physical space leap activation in 1.5 seconds. Target point: Croken Asylus’s solar plexus, 3mm above.]

Whoosh!!

[Going.]

Simultaneously lifting his right foot from the hot ground, Lennok’s body leaped through space.

The transfer of spatial coordinates involving his own body. Through that leap, he materialized his body at the coordinates, flying dozens of meters in an imperceptibly fleeting moment.

His destination was between Felix and Croken, where shockwaves continuously erupted.

The very center of the explosion, where he would be crushed into a lump of meat by the aftermath if he were bare-bodied.

But the regular tetrahedron, thrown with exquisite penetration through the flow of power, rose precisely towards Croken’s solar plexus.

[Sasangroe]

Lightning created by dissolving a part of his Domain into the magic system.

Lightning containing his mind.

Lennok’s yearning for life, which he had never forgotten. That earnestness was entirely contained within the landscape of his Mind Imprint, transforming into power.

Lennok, who landed in front of Croken as if time itself distorted, twisted his shoulder all the way.

Within arm’s reach, so close he could touch it. The one chance Felix had created.

Almost certain to hit at this close range. If it hit, it would undoubtedly achieve more than a fatal wound.

The moment Lennok, wishing so, hurled the [Sasangroe] towards Croken’s solar plexus.

His gaze met Croken’s bright yellow pupils head-on.

For monsters like him, even this brief moment would feel like an eternity.

But he knew this full well and did not avoid Lennok’s attack.

Instead, he smiled faintly, merely pointing at his own solar plexus.

There was no time to be surprised or afraid of that absurd reaction.

CRACK!

The moment it struck the hard scales, one corner of the regular tetrahedron immediately crumbled, and a light so blinding it felt like eyes would burst erupted from within.