Chapter 738: Low-Altitude Flight (6)

KWA-BOOM!!

The Clown’s act of terrorism utterly demolished the audience chamber on the top floor of the Giant’s Fortress. In its wake, the entire fortress shook violently, and a massive mushroom cloud billowed skyward.

Ordinary humans would have been incinerated instantly by the superheated blast wave that swept in all directions.

Yet, from the very epicenter of the explosion, Lennok turned to The Clown with an expression of annoyance.

“There are far more efficient methods. What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, was it not to your liking?”

Fwoosh!!

The Clown brushed off the embers clinging to his body with bare hands and shrugged.

“That Resonance Incendiary Bomb you showed me before. I tried it because I thought you liked it.”

“……”

“Seems your tastes have changed since then. Well, it’s not like Manipulation Wizards aren’t known for their fickle whims.”

It took Lennok a moment to understand what The Clown was talking about.

He had indeed used several similar explosives in front of The Clown when they entered the Well of the Codex.

They were advanced weapons from the Machine City, acquired from the Gearsides’ database.

Mana Resonance Area Control Resonance Incendiary Bomb (MAPHI). Commonly known as ‘Mafia’.

It was an explosive designed to trigger an initial fire, then amplify and expand its destructive force using internal magic.

Perhaps The Clown had been somewhat impressed by the incendiary bombs Lennok had tossed around to deal with those pursuing him in the Well at the time.

“Well, if you didn’t like that, I have plenty of other methods prepared.”

The Clown stretched out his arms and yawned, speaking with a wide grin.

“Since Agneta is here anyway, we can afford as much trial and error as needed. See over there?”

The Clown kicked aside a pile of rubble that obscured their view, pointing at the chaotic scene revealed below.

“Our audience is heartily welcoming us, it seems.”

“Do those look like an audience to you?”

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Hundreds of knights were galloping towards them from all directions around the fortress.

They seemed to have immediately launched follow-up measures after the audience chamber explosion, their murderous mana radiating as they glared at the two superhumans.

“The fortress audience chamber has been attacked!”

“From now on, seal all passages within the fortress and begin the encirclement!”

“Raise the drawbridge! Seal all gates leading outside!”

Dozens of knights patrolling along the outer wall simultaneously charged forward, and the outer and inner gates of the widely open fortress slammed shut at the same time.

Archery units burst from the inner courtyard, drawing their bowstrings, and dozens of ballistas positioned on the ramparts turned their aiming points towards the audience chamber.

Thump! Thump! Thump!!

Even the mana cannons, originally meant to protect the outer fortress, reversed the direction of their muzzles.

Not only were they surrounded in an instant, but their escape routes were rapidly cut off and blocked.

“Look at this. These guys haven’t practiced for this kind of situation just once or twice.”

But The Clown openly cackled even as thousands of murderous intents instantly converged upon them.

It was as if the swiftness of their reaction, more than the chaotic situation itself, was too amusing to bear.

“Unless they had something incredibly shady to hide, why would they practice tightening a siege within the fortress?”

The Clown pulled a curved dagger from his waist, gripping it in a reverse grip, and turned to Lennok.

“There must be a secret in this fortress or ruin that they absolutely cannot let be exposed. They seem to have been practicing very diligently to weed out internal whistleblowers.”

“……”

Lennok inwardly admitted that The Clown’s words accurately pinpointed the essence of the situation.

While the security had been lax before the audience chamber exploded, the speed with which they surrounded and pressured the fortress was excessively fast.

It was a contradictory reaction, even if The Clown had blurred the fortress’s defenses with illusions beforehand.

It was proof that the Kabahim knights stationed in the fortress were protecting something more important than the audience chamber.

However, instead of agreeing with The Clown’s words, Lennok slowly turned his gaze down the ruined fortress corridor towards the knights rushing from afar.

The fortress’s outer walls extended on both sides of the audience chamber, and the knights were approaching along the path atop the ramparts.

He didn’t like The Clown’s impulsive action, but now that things had come to this, what needed to be done was clear.

“I’ll take the right.”

“Yep. Then I’ll handle the left.”

Smiling brightly, The Clown nodded, then turned and lowered his stance.

“Then, let’s meet at the top.”

“The top of this fortress is right here.”

Simultaneously with Lennok’s curt reply, the two figures shot away from their positions in different directions.

The Clown, scuttling forward with two daggers, and Lennok, gripping his flowing Mana Threads, instantly collided with the knight order.

Scattering various screams and spurting blood, they began to dismantle the formation.

D-d-d-d-drrrip!

“Aaaargh!!”

Sharp Mana Threads were cast over the rubble of the rampart, cleanly slicing through the bodies of the charging knights with the force of their own momentum.

Innumerable fine lines intersected and glinted, binding and severing indiscriminately through blades and human flesh.

“Haaah!!”

Lennok hooked a Mana Thread around the waist of a heavy-armored knight who charged head-on, relying on his bulk.

Changing the Mana Thread’s properties and stretching it like a rubber band, the knight’s massive body was launched in the opposite direction like a slingshot stone.

That single shot, using his immense bulk as a projectile, crushed and exploded his fellow knights.

S-s-s-snap!!!

“Dodge! Dodge!!”

“Haaaaah……!!”

Even while manipulating hundreds of Mana Threads simultaneously, he individually interfered with and altered the properties of each thread.

They were honed sharply to cut through even armor, clung stickily to obstruct movement, and stretched like rubber bands to fling targets away.

Blood scattered from severed bodies, armor flew off the ramparts, and corpses adhered like gum to the ruined corridor below.

It was an incredibly diverse and complex application, almost unbelievable that it was wielded by manipulating only Mana Threads as a medium.

Agneta, who had been watching breathlessly, inadvertently let out an exclamation of admiration; there was no hesitation whatsoever in his mana manipulation.

[……I’ve truly never seen a human handle Property Transformation with such versatility. You’re truly a genius, aren’t you?]

“Be quiet. I need to focus.”

Combat using manipulation spellcraft was impossible even for Lennok without extremely precise mana manipulation.

To wield Mana Threads, whose sensation fluctuated wildly depending on the environment and conditions, required constant attention.

That’s why Agneta, also a Manipulation Wizard, was probably observing and admiring rather than directly participating in combat.

Shwaaaak!!

Lennok extended his index finger and fired a Mana Thread like a bullet. A thin line pierced the knight’s shoulder and seized his body.

He then swung the knight, still clad in armor, like a massive club at the end of the Mana Thread.

Bwaaaaaang!!

The violently spinning, centrifugal force-amplified physical power directly struck the outer rampart.

With an indescribably gruesome sound, it shattered and crushed all the ballistas installed on the rampart.

KWA-BOOM!!

At the same time, Lennok caught and bound dozens of arrows fired by the archery unit from below the fortress with a single Mana Thread.

[Wow, you’re loosening and bending just the middle of a single Mana Thread? You could go join the circus right now!]

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”

Ignoring the spider’s easygoing whispers, Lennok continued to smash the ballistas and mana cannons to pieces.

After snatching cannonballs fired from the edge of the fortress and flinging them to the ground, Lennok finally turned his gaze to the opposite side.

Unlike Lennok, who had forced his way through the rampart in various ways, The Clown’s combat was entirely different.

“Yee-haw~ Hee-yah, hee-yah~”

The Clown swung his daggers with strange, drawn-out battle cries.

His face, painted stark white, was heavily splattered with blood as he crawled like an animal on all fours beneath the rampart, weaving through the knights.

The Kabahim knights, too, unleashed their mana to their fullest, swinging their swords to kill this single person, but instead, countless piles of corpses accumulated on the rampart.

Lennok, observing from a distance, narrowed his eyes at The Clown’s extraordinary movements.

‘His combat artistry is considerable. Is this how he performs even without properly using illusions?’

The Clown’s combat style, involving daggers, bombs, and decks of cards, didn’t feel like a straightforward exchange of blows.

If anything, it was close to acrobatics. It relied on spontaneous, split-second judgments, using incredible flexibility and balance to avoid direct power clashes and engage in psychological warfare.

He was repeating this complex process against dozens of knights at astonishing speed.

Chwaaaaaak!!

“Hoo…!!”

The Clown, covered in blood, rolled out from between the piles of corpses, then casually brushed his shoulders with a refreshed expression, before grinning awkwardly at Lennok.

“Huh, I thought I arrived pretty fast. You’re already here?”

“This should be enough, right?”

“Just a moment. Since we’re here, wouldn’t you like to watch me clean up the fortress?”

“What?”

“If the Archduke still doesn’t intend to crawl out of his nest, I’ll just have to force him out.”

The moment The Clown snapped his fingers with a smiling face.

Koo-wooo-woooong…!!

A faint vibration rumbled beneath their feet, and at the same time, the sound of water began to fill their ears.

KWA-BOOM!!!

It wasn’t just the sound of water being drawn from a canal; it was the violent roar of a waterfall, like a river overflowing.

“You, no way…”

“Fortresses situated in mountains like this always have a dam built to store water for emergencies, you see.”

The Clown smiled and turned his gaze.

“Now that I’ve sealed all the passages in the fortress with my own hands, what do you think will happen if I blow that up?”

Swaaa-aaaaah!!!

At that moment, a massive gush of water, explosively bursting forth from beneath the main hall of the castle, rapidly began to fill the inner courtyard.

The flood, rising from underground, had nowhere to go but to fill the inner spaces of the fortress, forming a gigantic lake.

“Hoo-ah, hoo-ah!!”

“Damn it…!!”

The surviving knights and archers hastily abandoned their heavy equipment and swam to cling to the ramparts.

Yet, they dared not climb onto the ramparts, instead remaining vigilant from within the water.

They, too, recognized just how absurd the overwhelming power Lennok and The Clown had displayed in their massacre was.

But The Clown, knowing this, didn’t stop and suddenly extended his hand into the air.

“Agneta. Scalpel.”

“……”

“……Agneta?”

“What on earth are you talking about right now?”

When no reply came, The Clown awkwardly flapped his hands.

“Come on. In a scene like this, we should be perfectly in sync!”

[No, what is that…]

Agneta retorted with an exasperated look.

[Did you entrust me with money or something? You have to tell me what you want.]

“That thing I won with my stake back in Torquepaz, you know. Just a little ‘click and connect’, come on!”

[……Ah.]

Only then did Agneta seem to recall something. She opened a subspace and took something out, placing it down.

Something long wrapped in thick silver foil. Its size was considerable, almost the size of an ordinary human.

[You’re not talking about this, are you?]

“Yes. This is it!”

With that, The Clown dramatically ripped off the silver foil packaging.

Lennok, confirming the identity of the object revealed within, shook his head in exasperation.

What The Clown had asked Agneta for was, in fact, a dead body with its eyes rolled back.

“You won this kind of thing as a gambling prize-”

As Lennok spoke, he stopped mid-sentence upon seeing the violent electrical currents surging around the corpse.

It was a clear surge of electrical discharge, too strong and thick to be dismissed as mere static electricity.

Moreover, it was a powerful Will-thought of Thunder, potent enough to envelop a body that was already dead.

“I knew you’d recognize it immediately. Quite an interesting item, isn’t it?”

“……A lightning-type wizard, then. And a considerable one.”

“It’s the corpse of a Thorben Magic Tower wizard.”