Chapter 72

The two moons had to meet in order for the steel shells to fall.

Currently, Eldeno was the only moon that shone brightly in the heavens.

“I can’t see a thing. How far does this black mist go?”

The Shadows wouldn’t be able to see through the mist either.

So if they wanted to avoid attacking each other, they wouldn’t enter the mist.

In that case, I didn’t have to worry about them.

And so I melted into the shadows.

This was good. I could stay calm and think.

There had to be more to this magic than just mist.

Besides, it made no sense, as it would negatively impact both sides.

“So, what is the enemy trying to do?”

It wasn’t as if Makoku was crawling with magicians.

In order to become a magician, you had to drink a certain medicine.

It was made from the juices of a plant that could only be found in the Canopied Mountains. As they were very difficult to reach, they could only gather a small amount every year.

Not only that, but even if you did drink it, being able to do magic after that was mostly up to luck.

Children of magicians were more likely to be able to use magic, but it wasn’t a sure thing.

Still, there were old families of magicians who were careful to not let their bloodlines die off.

Magic was said to be able to materialize your subconscious.

Just like Shadow Crossing, it often resulted in creating things that you wished for.

This was why many of the magicians in Makoku had great, powerful magic, that was suited for fighting Moon Beasts.

Big or small, it was almost always with the Moon Beasts in mind.

However, there were exceptions.

Because there was also a need for magicians who fought other humans.

“This black mist…it started to surround me. And it felt heavy and sticky.”

I moved through the shadows.

Once I was out of it, I checked to see how much ground it covered. And I saw that the area of mist was hundreds of meters in size.

“That’s bigger than I thought.”

The wind was blowing, and yet the mist hardly stirred.

And as expected, none of the magicians had stepped foot into it.

As for my backup, they were going around it.

Out of nowhere, something came flying towards one of the Shadows, and he was covered in liquid before half of his body froze.

So, it was ice.

It was water that was starting to freeze over as it flew.

By the time it landed, it had frozen completely.

A magician with ice magic, huh.

Being subject to one-sided ranged attacks was worrying.

I still didn’t know where the magician who was creating the black mist was, but I found the one that was using ice magic fairly quickly.

And since I was the closest, it would be best if I did the job.

Thankfully, the ice magic user was towards the back of the enemy formation.

As he was using ranged attacks, he didn’t need to come forward.

I remained in the shadows as I moved and came up behind him.

“They’re being cautious, huh.”

To the far left, there was a magician who was looking at the entire group. He was keeping watch.

If I showed myself now, I would get caught immediately.

And so I decided to take care of him first.

The two sides would clash very soon.

Twelve shadows would be joining the fight.

We had the advantage of numbers.

However, some of us were lost in the mist, and at least two had been frozen with ice magic.

So there weren’t many of us left. Things were not going well.

I had to end the battle quickly. First, I had to take down that watcher.

I looked around and made sure that no one else was looking in our direction. Then I showed myself.

“…!?”

The man I was targeting turned around immediately.

Damn it. How had he noticed?

A thin knife flew from his hand as he swirled around.

He was fast. One knife. And then another. They came flying.

The blades came straight towards my throat and stomach.

Judging by his aim, it was clear that throwing knives were his expertise.

But my father had been brutal when he trained me to deal with projectiles.

And so I had no trouble hitting them out of the air, but that gave him enough time to back away.

“One of them can appear out of nowhere! He got through the detection barrier!”

Oh, so this was the one who made the barrier.

So, I had been detected because I came out of the shadows.

The other enemies now turned in my direction.

My initial target had already moved to the center of the group now. Had he wanted to get away from me?

Damn it.

This meant that no matter who I targeted, I would be detected the moment I came out of the shadows.

I had to switch gears here.

The enemy formation changed.

They must have seen me as highly dangerous, as two of them came towards me at once.

A shortsword…and bow?

Now that I think about it, they had intended to sneak in at night and kill us in our sleep.

They would have likely killed the guards with ice magic or that bow.

One of them came charging.

I tried to block his attack with my own shortsword, but then an arrow came flying.

They had good teamwork. But I could deal with it.

As long as I knew when the arrow was fired, it would be fine.

I dodged it easily by moving the upper part of my body, and the arrow flew past me.

“…!”

The bowman looked like he wanted to protest, but I had to deal with the closer enemy first.

I flicked my wrist and threw the spiked pebbles I had been holding in my hand.

One of them caught the enemy in the face. These were pretty painful.

Just as the enemy flinched from it, I slid my sword into his throat.

It went well.

Then I quickly pulled it out and pressed forward to the next one.

“Ah!”

He tried to move back while nocking his arrow, but the distance between us closed immediately.

He wasn’t able to steady his aim before unleashing the arrow, and it passed over my head.

It was just as he frantically pulled out a knife from his belt that I cut off his hand.

“…Agghh!”

My eye went to the others, but the battle had already begun. No one else was paying us any attention.

With a sigh of relief, I stabbed him.

The blade sunk deep into his neck, and blood sprayed into the air. And so I stepped to the side to avoid being covered.

“There are…three left now.”

The black mist was still there.

But the ice magic user had apparently been killed.

They had probably attacked him as a group.

There were three ice statues right next to the magician’s corpse.

Using that kind of magic during battle kind of made you an easy target.

Everyone would think to get rid of the one with deadly ranged attacks first.

If you ignored them, they would continue to attack you without being punished.

“So, it’s just three left. But we’ve taken heavy losses as well.”

It seemed like they had no intention of retreating, though.

Either they were very confident or…