Chapter 30

A ball of blue light appeared before Nagi’s outstretched hand with a fwip! A thin slice of light shot forward in a spiral. It struck the guard beneath its chin, from which a crimson damage burst and a blue-white spray of water simultaneously appeared. It hadn’t been a ray of light after all, but rather a high-pressure streaming corkscrew of water—the spell Water Gimlet. But Nagi hadn’t chanted any words of power. Yuuma almost lowered his weapon in shock but managed to catch himself just in time. Glancing down the corridor, he could see that Tomori had already reached Kenk and was standing behind him, about to cure his paralysis with Holy Purification. Farther down the corridor, the massive and portly Constable Oeben remained hunched over. He glared at them with hateful yellow eyes. It didn’t seem as if he was capable of using his paralysis breath in quick succession, but he was clearly planning on making them pay once the cold debuff wore off. Yuuma decided he had better keep his Chilling Hand spell up after all. His remaining MP had already dipped to below 20 percent, however. Yuuma glanced to his right again. He saw the Varanian guard raise its club into the air once more as beads of red light streamed from the cut on its throat. The guard never got the chance to swing this time, either. Another spiral of high-pressure water shot forth from Nagi’s hand, piercing the guard once more in the exact same location beneath its chin. And then another. And another. The guard teetered and stumbled back as it was hit with one burst of water after the other, each spell firing without any words of power or cooldowns in between. Nagi remained as lethargic as before. The fifth cast finally pierced through the back of the guard’s neck, the spray of water continuing to spiral forward down the corridor behind it. The HP bar above the guard’s head went into free fall and then disappeared almost anticlimactically. The Varanian dropped its club and lantern at the same time and collapsed forward, scattering into a cloud of red fragments just before hitting the floor. Yuuma watched it all happen and then, mouth agape, turned his head to stare at the space above Nagi’s head. The magic in Actual Magic was extremely powerful, just as the game’s title suggested. In a one-on-one fight between a Warrior and a Mage of the same level, however, odds were generally in the Warrior’s favor. The reason for this was that casting spells required the user to chant three words of power—an element word, a form, and an activation. This gave the Warrior plenty of time to interrupt so long as they could close the distance. If, on the other hand, a caster was able to fire off spells without verbal components or cooldowns, the Warrior would instead become a sitting duck. Which was exactly what Nagi had just done. Nagi lowered her left hand and glanced at Yuuma with eyes that now glowed with the color of water. She spoke in a tone of voice that sounded slightly younger, and yet somehow colder, than Nagi’s usual voice. “I’ve helped more than enough, I think; you can take care of the big one over there on your own. And you…” Nagi turned around and stared directly at Sawa. “It’s time you abandoned these games. We are the dominus, and they are the vas. Do not forget that…Valac.” Yuuma finally understood. Nagi was possessed by a demon, just like Sawa. It was this demon, the one who had just referred to Sawa as Valac, who had defeated the guard with a silent spell. “Um…excuse me!” Yuuma began to ask a question before he realized what he was doing. His voice came out raspy. “Sorry, but…who are you?” The entity currently taking the form of Nagi narrowed her blue eyes in amusement. A smile played on her lips. “I am Crocell.” As soon as she’d finished speaking, several things happened at once. Nagi fell unconscious again, almost as if a switch had been flipped. Yuuma’s MP ran out, causing the Chilling Hand to disappear. The paralysis symbol disappeared from beneath Kenk’s HP bar. And Constable Oeben let out a roar that shook the walls and ceilings of the dungeon. “GWUARRGGHH!!” Oeben rose to his feet with such momentum that it was hard to believe he had been under the cold debuff just moments before. He stomped both feet on the ground. “You’ll pay…! You’ll pay for destroying my kin! Do you have any idea how hard it was to replace the original guard with one of my men without anyone noticing?!” “Tell it to someone who cares!!” Kenk spat back. Kenk had just recovered from his own paralysis. He motioned for Tomori to back farther away. “Aren’t you supposed to be a lizardman? Who gave you permission to breathe poison anyway?! You could at least have the decency to be purple or green or something, so that people know you’re poisonous!” Yuuma had the feeling this was going to be a good fight. He pulled an MP potion from his pouch and downed it in one swig. His empty MP bar slowly began to recover. They had plenty of things to think through and discuss, but all of that would have to wait until the enemy was defeated. Thanks to Nagi, or rather Crocell, the guard in the rear had already been taken care of. Now they could focus on Oeben. Yuuma and Tomori exchanged places, Tomori racing toward the back and Yuuma stepping up front. “Kenk, our strategy is the same, but if you see him queuing up another breath attack, move back as fast as you can!” shouted Yuuma. “Roger that!” Despite being paralyzed, Kenk would have noticed the incident with Nagi. Regardless, he kept his eyes forward and his sword readied out in front. “We’re lucky you’re here, Kenk,” Yuuma muttered to himself—something he knew he would be too embarrassed to ever say out loud. He adjusted the grip on his own shortsword. All of Oeben’s attacks, with the exception of his poison breath, could be neutralized with Yuuma’s Chilling Hand. If they could just hold out long enough for Yuuma’s MP to recover, victory would be in the bag. But Oeben wasn’t dumb. He glared at Yuuma as he raised his hammer into the air. It nearly scraped the ceiling above his head. “Gwarggh!!” Oeben released a ferocious roar as Yuuma and Kenk raced forward.