“FASCINATING.” The word slipped from my lips. “Never have I seen such a beast before.”
“Even you’ve never seen one, Lord Viol..?”
Seren frowned at me. To reassure her, I hugged her lightly from behind. Human touch is, after all, most reassuring.
“Indeed, until now, most of the beasts I’ve encountered have been derived from animals or plants. This… This is like a bad approximation of a cat made of clay by an earth mage. Borden used to make things very much like that. No artistic vision.”
Yes, it reminded me of the sculptures Borden made with earth magic when he was a student at the Academy and how it was impossible to tell what exactly they were meant to represent. This beast was like that. A meaningless conglomeration of rocks, trees, and bones all clumped together.
From what I could see, Arshtag and company were having a tough time battling it, too. Honestly, I’d love the chance to fight such a fascinating beast myself.
“It has four limbs, so it’s probably an animal… If I had to compare it to something, then perhaps a golem, a creature I’ve read about in books,” I said.
“It looks like Arshtag’s team’s attacks aren’t working very well. Is it okay for us to just wait like this?”
“Yes. Stand by.”
Seren looked annoyed, but nothing could be done about it.
“I want to fight too, but it’s important to trust in our teammates and wait,” I stressed.
“Okay…”
“Opportunities like this are rare. We should observe the battle closely and carefully determine what attacks will be most effective.”
The beast truly was fascinating.
To begin with, its body was made up of rocks and other matter clumped together, so magic and physical attacks had limited effect. Furthermore, shattering the rocks with explosive magic didn’t work, as they were simply reabsorbed back into its mass. Dealing a fatal blow seemed implausible.
The rotten wood clumps it contained seemed easily damaged by fire magic, but a good deal of firepower was needed. A great drain on our magical resources. Moreover, it was a lot more agile than it looked, and if we weren’t flying, the whole battle would have been doubly harder still.
“Gah! Gil…!”
The beast’s rock-encrusted tail hit the cart carrying Gil’s team with a direct blow. The wind mage flying the cart managed to hang on to the cart’s handlebar, but Gil, who was wielding his spear, was thrown from the cart.
Then the beast’s tail came lashing down. Gill was hit squarely by the tail, his body slamming hard into the large tree. Gil’s protective wall had been broken by the superpowered magical beast’s attack. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. And, as he brought his hands to his face and coughed, more blood stained his hands.
Seren made a sudden movement to help, and I grabbed her shoulder, yanking her back.
“He’ll be fine. Watch,” I instructed.
Of course, the other members of the survey team knew just what to do.
While Arshtag distracted the stone beast, Gyle cast healing magic on Gil, and Yukka quickly cast him a new protective wall. Gil stopped groaning, wiped his mouth, regained his grip on the spear, and stood up, cracking his neck.
“That hurt. Haven’t taken a hit like that in a long time.”
Despite this complaint, Gil’s eyes were still shining—his fighting spirit had clearly not been dampened in the slightest. As I’d said… He was fine.
Gil’s partner wind mage had also remained calm and kept his balance. He immediately swooped around in the air and scooped up a reinvigorated Gil. Amazingly coordinated movement.
I heard Seren let out a sigh of relief.
I gazed at her, and spoke in a calming tone. “It’s true that when fighting magical beasts, a single moment of carelessness can be fatal. But every member of this team is an elite High Mage, qualified to cast the protective barrier wall that safeguards our country. Wall guards are as strong as any adventurer. Even a superpowered magical beast would not be able to inflict fatal damage upon them.”
“Yes… I see that now.”
“Gil sustained some damage, true, but he was able to rally quickly. See… We need only have a little faith, and continue to observe.”
“I’ll try…”
The rock beast, distracted by Gil, was once again hit by a barrage of explosive spells… And then…
“It’s got a weak core!” Arshtag yelled. “Yukka, cast another explosion spell at the same spot! Gil, the moment the rock part explodes, stab the red glowing core with your spear!”
“Roger!”
The following events played out in mere moments.
A loud explosive boom.
One of the carts went barreling into the strong protective wall, not even trying to avoid the flying rock shards. Gil thrust hard, and then a large bone of some kind, with a red stone embedded in it, was ejected from the rock.
Another cart zoomed towards the bony stone, and Arshtag leaped off, cutting it into two with a swift blow. At the same time, the big cluster of rocks and other debris split and crumbled apart.
“Is it… over?”
“It’s over!”
“Amazing! We won…?”
“Of course we won!”
“All right!!!”
Everyone cheered.
“That was certainly impressive.”
I called out to our teammates, who were all celebrating their victory. Everyone was beaming, filled with the confidence that comes from felling an unknown magical beast. It was, indeed, a splendid victory.
“You identified the enemy’s weakness and finished it off with excellent teamwork. I’m proud of you,” I said.
“Thank you!”
“Being able to fly really does give a huge advantage.”
“Eh, we were always gonna be able to win!”
“Glad we went with the team approach this time! I could leave the defense and evasion to the pilot, and concentrate on attacking! Talk about efficient!”
“That’s right. If there hadn’t been a division of labor, we might not have been able to defeat a beast of that level.
I was pleased to hear their evaluations. This mission was sure to end up being a valuable experience for everyone.
“Archmage Viol, here’s the beast’s core.” While everyone was celebrating their victory, Arshtag was inspecting the corpse. Then he looked up and called over to me, a very serious look on his face.
“Thanks. A most fascinating beast it was,” I replied.
“You can say that again… Gil?” Arshtag called over to him.
“Right here?”
With the tip of his spear, Gil lightly poked the magic stone that had served as the beast’s core. The attached bone that seemed to have been expelled, along with the magic stone, shifted with it as well.
“Hmm… So was that bony beast somehow formed AROUND this magic stone?”
Hearing my muttering, Vellia also sat down and began peering at the magic stone and the bone. “Ah, I see. After a high-level magical beast died, its magic stone, already imbued with its energy, turned the surrounding rocks and trees into a new form of magical beast… or something like that. I guess such a thing is possible.”
“Judging from the bone structure, it appears to have once been a large wolf. Based on how agile that big beast was, it may have inherited the characteristics of the magical beast it was based on.” Arshtag was in agreement with her assessment.
Arshtag has been investigating this forest for a long time and has fought many magical beasts. That was no doubt the reason why he could identify the original magical beast based on the structure of its bones.
“But even I’ve never seen such a beast as this one. Well, of course no one has ever delved this deep into the forest before… And, as expected, there are bound to be strange magical beasts near a strong accumulation of magical energy.” Gil sounded amazed and a little incredulous.
Many adventurers hunt animals and gather materials in the plains and in the forests, and act as bodyguards for people traveling between towns, but even so, they never usually delve this deep into the woods. And anyway, even our team of elite magic users would need to be careful in an environment where such powerful beasts dwell… beasts that require entire teams to defeat.
“But still… Gathering nearby rocks to form a new body? That’s the craziest thing I ever heard.”
“A new form of magical beast, indeed.”
Behind Gil, who was laughing in amusement, I could see Gyle furrowing his brow as he inspected the rocks and clumps of wood that had fallen off the beast. There was something off about his expression.
“Gyle, what do you see?” I called out to him. Gyle had the sharpest eyes of anyone on the team. Though not as perceptive as my assistant, Contard, he could see magical energy in a visual sense, and he excelled in combat magic. He was a vital member of the survey team.
“I think it’s likely the concentration of magical energy is nearby. The magical power I’m sensing… I’ve never felt anything like it.” He sounded much more subdued than when he’d been joking around with Yukka earlier.
“So? What’s the issue?” I prompted him, casually.
Gyle thought for a moment before speaking. “I mean… Yes, I sensed a stunning amount of power emanating from the magic stone that formed that monster’s core… But I’m also sensing a sort of magical energy haze coming from the rock formations not far off…”
“Ah yes, in magic stone mines, the rocks and soil in the vicinity often have some magical energy in them. You think the magic stone transferred some of its energy?” I asked.
“I think, when magical energy is TOO concentrated, it starts radiating to the surrounding environment. The rocks have more energy in them than the chunks of tree stuck in that beast we defeated. It appears some materials are better vessels for magical energy storage…”
“Amazing…!” Seren gasped in admiration.
People who can’t visually see magical energy must find Gyle and Contard’s ability amazing.
“Your speculation is interesting,” I said. “I’d like to place various substances next to this magic stone and experiment to see how much of a transfer effect the magic has… but I might not see any results in my lifetime.”
Compared to enduring natural objects like rocks, human life is too short. It’s really too bad.
There are two main methods of procuring magic stones. You can dig them out of underground caves, much like ore, or you can extract them from the stomachs of mid and high-level beasts, like this one. Low-level magical beasts have magic stones, too, but they’re far smaller and too weak to be used in magical devices, so there’s no demand for them.
The magic stone from the super-leveled beast we just defeated was huge. No wonder it was able to attract rocks and branches to it and form such a huge secondary body. What’s more, it was such a high-quality magic stone, it could be used to make a rather large-scale magical device.
If the rocks near the magic stone were to take on that property and eventually turn into magic stones of the same level, it might be possible to intentionally propagate high-quality magic stones.