assistirfilmes Chapter 196: Forward Base (4)
Chapter 196: Forward Base (4)
Carlyn, gripping his sword anew, quickly caught his breath. With attacks possible at any moment, he kept his entire body’s muscles in a state of tension.
Just because he had gotten a sense of things, he had no intention of showing his hand first. The opponent likely had hidden moves as well.
Unless it was the worst-case scenario, the situation wasn’t that dire yet.
First, he needed to confirm as many of the opponent’s moves as possible.
Wind rippled over the snow field. Following Carlyn’s guidance, small whirlwinds formed between the devil and Carlyn.
Snow caught in the whirlwinds scattered in all directions. Mixed with the falling snow, visibility became chaotic.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Of course, this didn’t apply to Carlyn. Observing with his winds, visibility wasn’t an issue for him.
He had considered using smoke, but that might unnecessarily draw attention. The whirlwinds would help with both offense and defense.
The devil sent spheres of darkness towards the whirlwinds. It was an attempt to test their strength.
Those that reached the center of the whirlwinds couldn’t pass through. Of course, those that passed the outer edges deviated from their original paths.
They weren’t made simply for deception. Stronger magic would be needed to penetrate the whirlwinds.
The devil’s movements became slightly sluggish due to the sudden change in situation.
‘As expected.’
Carlyn’s judgment with a cooled head was spot on. The thing in front of him was just a fragment, not the devil itself.
It had inherited only a small part of that power, had no intelligence, and essentially no combat experience.
It might have knowledge, but how much knowledge did it have about Winds? That was Carlyn’s thought.
Carlyn approached the devil, which was thinking while hiding its body in the whirlwinds and scattered snow.
‘Should I attack like this?’
A moment of hesitation, but he shook his head. There were two possibilities he could think of now.
Either the creature would learn about his winds, or it would reveal its hidden card to break through this.
But even to learn about his winds, the latter would have to precede.
For Carlyn, who had a way to deal with the creature, there was a need to observe the latter option.
Instead of charging directly, Carlyn sent blades of winds. Eight blades closed in sharply.
Simultaneously, he pressured the devil’s body with his winds. It was weaker than full power, but strong enough that it couldn’t be ignored. This too was Carlyn’s design.
The devil escaped the whirlwinds and blades with a spatial jump. The devil also had no intention of easily showing its hand.
However, not knowing Carlyn’s position, it was in the wrong direction. Carlyn was still in the devil’s blind spot.
‘Without letting on that I’ve noticed the secret of the jumps.’
Carlyn deliberately reacted a beat late. The whirlwinds and winds blades again targeted the devil.
Another spatial jump followed.
This time it was near Carlyn. Carlyn deliberately exposed his back. Of course, he had no intention of being caught.
He instantly turned his waist to deflect the devil’s sword flying from behind. Not resisting that repulsion, he retreated backward and threw himself into the whirlwinds.
Carlyn himself wouldn’t be harmed anyway. The whirlwinds gently accepted him.
‘It’s about time to show something.’
After several jumps yielded no results, the devil showed signs of discomfort. Irritation was visible in its movements.
Having engaged in battle here, it had already failed its original purpose.
Thus, the devil’s fragment that had intended to target the princess now changed its goal to Carlyn.@@@@
Since it would be destroyed anyway, it now aimed to harm Carlyn.
It shook its head quickly left and right, then roughly extended its hand. The mana in the air fluctuated.
Soon after, black flames spread out in all directions from the devil’s hand. The flames met the whirlwinds.
Black sparks climbed up the whirlwinds. Snow melted and splashed, and a few embers stuck to the trees.
The devil won the power struggle. The black flames finally broke through the whirlwinds and rushed towards Carlyn.
Carlyn judged that even a graze would be dangerous. The level of ferocity was different. This must have been one of its cards.
Carlyn avoided by rolling on the ground, then withdrew the whirlwinds containing the flames and created new ones. This level of power consumption was acceptable.
‘I can’t drag this out for too long.’
This was Carlyn’s judgment. What the creature had sent was black flames, but the fire that caught on the trees burned red.
He immediately extinguished the fire with his winds, but if the battle intensified, he wouldn’t be able to pay attention to it. There was a chance the forward base would notice.
Carlyn, enduring the intense pain, looked back.
Just before the final strike, the split flames had caught on the surrounding trees. As expected, fires were burning.
Carlyn turned his gaze to the south.
“You’ve come.”
Rudehrn revealed himself from the darkness. His breathing was slightly rapid, as if he had come in a hurry.
Carlyn had been aware of Rudehrn’s arrival when he was delivering the final attack.
“They said flames had risen from this direction.”
Carlyn thought it might have been when the black flames were first shot. The sentinel had done his job well.
It had only been about 1–2 seconds until Carlyn extinguished the fire.
“What was that thing just now?”
“It was a devil’s fragment.”
“A devil’s fragment?”
“You can think of it as a weakened avatar. Of course, it can’t be compared to the original. It’s skilled in stealthy assassination. It was probably aiming for Her Highness the Princess.”
Rudehrn looked at Carlyn with a slightly surprised face. Even the Empire didn’t know much about them yet.
Seeing the meaningful look, Carlyn nodded slightly. It was an answer that he had seen it through foresight.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Not at all.”
“You look quite exhausted though.”
To say such a thing in this situation. Carlyn inwardly complained while shrugging his shoulders. Rudehrn smiled.
Carlyn glimpsed a strange satisfaction in that. He was satisfied with his actions.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
“No.”
“If I may be so bold, then it would be better for you to return to the base soon. This could also be a trap set by the enemy.”
From the moment the battle ended, Carlyn’s winds had already shot towards the forward base.
Rudehrn felt that too.
Fortunately, there were no additional problems, but Carlyn thought they should still be careful.
“You’re not wrong.”
Rudehrn agreed. Hearing the report of flames rising in this night, he had come personally, sensing something was amiss.
Now that it was proven otherwise, quickly returning was the logical course of action.
“Take care of yourself.”
“Yes.”
As Rudehrn was leaving after saying his farewell, he suddenly turned his body and looked at Carlyn for a moment.
For a few seconds.
Then he nodded to himself and retreated. Hoo- Only then did Carlyn let out a deep sigh.
Due to the release of tension, the intense pain he had been enduring was strongly felt. Carlyn leaned his back against a tree.
It had been quite a difficult fight.
If he hadn’t reached 5-star in the Moonlight Technique, it would have been dangerous. He wouldn’t have been able to cut through the last flames.
The ends of his hair were slightly singed by the flames that grazed left and right.
‘Anyway, the result is good. Now I need to focus on recovery.’
In this situation where anything could happen in the future, there was a need to make his body condition whole.
Carlyn turned his body towards the city.
However, as Rudehrn said, he couldn’t fully focus on taking care of himself. Because two days later in the morning, a messenger arrived from the capital.
Black clothes with white gloves and shoes. Anyone could see what it meant.
The emperor had died.
Now, it was time to return to Chenarus.
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