Chapter 18:
Jesters’ Chains and Destructive Witch
GOL ADVANCED on the enemy.
“The shrine golem is moving!”
The front row of spellcasters simultaneously stood ready with tense faces. Meanwhile, Ginem Bari didn’t move at all, keeping that smile on his face. “Looks like they’re finally ready. Great. If you didn’t get into it, it’d be boring.”
As if Ginem’s words were the signal, the four jester golems scattered forward.
“Now then, Mr. Wielder of the Red-Eyed Golem. I wonder if you’re really as strong as the rumors say. Don’t go disappointing me, okay?”
The four jester golems fanned out to face Gol, while the spellcaster group remained in the back, and Ginem Bari assumed his lonely position farthest away.
Since there were multiple enemies to watch, Gol didn’t start the fight with a one-on-one frontal assault. She continued to stalk forward in a menacing way that kept all her enemies on high alert.
Unfortunately, Gol also kept glancing back. I exchanged something like, I don’t know, a hundred glances with my anxious partner.
You’re oozing regret, aren’t you? What the heck happened to all that resolve three seconds ago?!
In any case, for now, a good distance separated me from the spellcasters, and I’d been thinking about that. Once, Master Speria had shot a Fire attack spell at a large monkey to teach me a lesson, but he’d needed the monkey to come relatively close—and right now, we stood farther apart than he had stood from the monkey.
At that time, Master Speria had been in danger of a counterattack, although I was sure he had cast his spell from the safest distance possible. Also, the strength of the spell hadn’t mattered, as none could have defeated the monkey, and furthermore, since he was an amazing person who could use ten different attributes, he would have had plenty of choices.
Given all that, I suspected the Fire spell he used at that moment had been chosen not for power but for range—
possibly, it had possessed a longer range than most attack spells, possibly even the longest.
If I assumed most spells fell into a sort of mid-range between Master Speria’s Fire spell and direct contact, then the enemies’ battle formation made perfect sense. So long as we maintained this distance, neither of us could hit each other with spells. For now, the battle would be a fistfight between our golems, with our spells acting in support. Once one side’s golem(s) had fallen, the last golem standing would charge the enemy spellcasters. That moment would determine the outcome of the fight—and who got to live.
If our enemy hadn’t had a golem wielder with them, I might have been able to trample them in a one-sided massacre while I remained at a comfortable distance. This supported the claim in Introduction to Spellcrafting that golem wielders had a distinct advantage in spellcaster vs. spellcaster battles.
However, my brilliant deduction had one huge hole in it: that surprise fireball someone had shot at me in the beginning. That shot had come flying out from the mist from somewhere far away. If one of the spellcasters fired another one from where they were currently standing, it would definitely reach me.
That was the only thing I couldn’t explain. It was our enemies’ trump card. That one shot seemed to have had almost twice the range of Master Speria’s Fire spell. But if that was true, the enemy’s formation made no sense. However, I had been shot at…
Suffice to say, this situation was impossible to explain. That fireball from the mist was the one piece that didn’t fit the puzzle, an irregular phenomenon that subverted my otherwise sound thesis. Which meant I couldn’t see the full picture.
“Hey, mister, can our spells reach each other from this distance?” I whispered to Mr. Chotos, only mildly ashamed that my inner kindergartener was showing.
“Normally, no. We’re twice the distance away from the maximum range of any attack spell.”
“Yeah, I thought so. But, then again, that one Fire spell came flying at us from quite far away.”
Mr. Chotos threw a glance at the buxom spellcaster in the front line. “Look at that woman.”
“You mean that one whose outfit is needlessly lewd?”
“Yeah. See how she’s the only spellcaster holding a long staff?”
“Yes, I do.” I was actually pretty interested in her uniquely shaped crimson staff. It was terribly flashy and totally befitting of a spellcaster. But, unexpectedly, she was the only one in the group holding anything like it.
“That staff’s a mana tool. It extends the range of specific spells. Still, there are limits to the range of attack-type spells, and the mana consumption of that tool is magnitudes higher than just casting the spell on its own. If you cast an advanced-level spell with it, you’ll have to rest for quite a while.”
“So in other words, it’s a weapon designed to end combat in a single surprise attack…?”
“Correct.”
I see… So that red staff was their linchpin. Was it like a sniper rifle?
Moreover, this mini-lecture was just the sort of thing I’d come to expect from the owner of a mana tool shop. He was truly knowledgeable. Because of him, the mystery had been solved.
In any case, even if there was a mana tool that could extend the range of a spell, it couldn’t be relied on forever. I also no longer really needed to worry about the possibility that the ambush party would cast an attack spell. Even if they fired arrows that managed to reach me, I was confident in my ability to deflect that kind of attack with the sorcery-controlled Earth Battle-Axe.
In other words, if I left the destruction of most of the enemy group to Gol, I just needed to focus on protecting the three beside me from 1) the possibility that the female spellcaster still had enough mana left to fire another long-range attack, and 2) the possibility that the mysterious heavy-class golem in the ambush party would attack our flank.
If the female spellcaster shot another giant fireball, I could attempt to intercept it with the axe. According to a description in Introduction to Spellcasting, two opposing spells of the same power negated each other. While I didn’t know if my Earth Battle-Axe would completely extinguish her flame, it would at least dampen some of its power. This was, in fact, one of the reasons I had created the battle-axe. I’d never performed such a maneuver, however, and if possible, I didn’t want to try it without proof that it actually worked.
On the other hand, if the heavy-class golem attacked, I would be compelled to do something to hold it off until Gol returned. I worried I might end up accidentally revealing my sorcery, but my criminal record was nothing against the importance of children and the elderly.
All right. I had my reason to fight and I had my strategy.