[V5C7] The Inscription Team’s Struggle
Translated by Jodas 5: The Magic Battle“Is everyone keeping up!? No one’s been separated, yes?”
“This is Gerald, bringing up the rear. Everyone’s accounted for.”
To Sevil’s query, Gerald responded promptly.
Wren, walking alongside Sevil, briefly confirmed the geography of their surroundings.
They wanted to avoid open areas as much as possible. Areas with denser tree cover would make it harder for Frederik to wield his spear freely.
That said, it was also an issue if the trees were too dense as well. That would make it harder for Tia and Oliver to fly back and forth with their flight magic.
(On top of that, we need to keep moving so we don’t run into the team on the ground. We don’t want to deal with Rikard and Helena.)
Wren looked at Roswitha, who was walking with Ella and Sophie’s support.
Roswitha had her watery fish deployed for reconnaissance. Whenever she shared vision with the fish of water, she had to do so with her eyes closed.
“Roswitha, how does it look over there?”
“…They don’t seem to be in much of a rush, but they’re coming here. But we’re moving slower than they are, so they’ll catch up eventually.”
The Apprentices were trying to move as a big group of twelve, while they also had to stop each time they needed to use their inscription magic.
On the other hand, unless Rikard and Helena start walking in the complete wrong direction, they’ll eventually catch up.
They would have to keep fleeing from Rikard and Helena on the ground for a whole hour while trying to defeat Frederik as he attacked them from above — that was the Apprentice Mages’ strategy for the time being.
Etching the geography into his mind, Wren groaned.
“None of this is going like I thought, huh… Everything feels like it either works out really lucky for us or really unlucky. That scares me…”
Next to Wren, Sevil laughed with inexplicable delight.
“That is simply how the battlefield is. No matter how much a veteran staff officer perfects their plans, no plan will survive first contact with the enemy.”
Sevil seemed to be enjoying it, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t nervous herself. She simply enjoyed that feeling of tension.
Wren couldn’t bring himself to feel the same way, so he was a little envious.
At the moment, Tia and Oliver were flying around in the sky, while Julius occasionally threw out flame arrows to keep Frederik pinned down.
Thanks to the flame arrows, Frederik always knew where their group was, but without Julius’ supporting fire, Tia and Oliver would be shot down.
(Julius doesn’t have the stealth or speed to act independently. Meanwhile Tia and Oliver don’t have enough attack options… With that in mind, we’ve got no choice but to have him support them, even if it means exposing our location.)
Wren surveyed their surroundings. This was a decent location, with a clear escape route.
At Sevil’s signal, the group came to a halt. Sevil barked orders in a voice that sat in a strange space between not too loud but also not too quiet.
“Inscription Team, on the count of fifteen!”
This order was given at a volume quiet enough that Frederik wouldn’t be able to hear it, but loud enough that Tia, whose ears were much better, could just barely make it out.
The meaning of this signal was to come down to the ground fifteen seconds after the count begins.
Then, in the course of that fifteen seconds, the inscription team would prepare the inscription magic.
Wren, Ella, and Sophie laid paper on their drawing boards and wrote the inscription formulas. Rukiye’s hands were free now, so she joined in as well.
The finished pages would be promptly packed into the tubes by Gerald and Finn, and they would continue writing, packing, writing, and packing as much as the time allowed.
During that time, Roswitha would continue her reconnaissance of their opponents on the ground. Rose remained on standby to deploy a defensive barrier.
— Wren and the others had practiced this sequence countless times.
As Julius laid down suppressing fire, Tia and Oliver came down to a landing, then collected the tubes.
Once again, they lifted off, and Oliver poured mana into the tubes and threw them.
Like that, they would slowly chip away at Frederik in accordance with Wren’s strategy.
“Three, two, one…”
Just as Sevil’s count reached an end, Oliver and Tia descended from the sky.
Oliver promptly took the tubes in hand.
“Next, give us a count of twenty-five.”
“Acknowledged. Count of twenty-five, begin!”
As Oliver and Tia took back to the skies, Sevil began to count down from twenty-five.
This time Wren and Ella, who were the best at writing among the inscription team, began writing a more powerful formula. Sophie and Rukiye continued to mass-produce low-potency spells.
…It was a lame way to fight.
However, this was the fighting style that these Apprentices who lacked for means of attack had available to them.
Up in the sky, the balls of lightning that Tia and Oliver let loose made crackling noises. Frederik flew to avoid Julius’ flame arrows and the balls of lightning.
Flame arrows and the tubes of inscription magic. Dodging both of these threats in midair, Frederik was secretly impressed.
The Apprentices were really putting their heart into this. He thought they were doing a good job.
(Even then, if they were to encounter a particularly powerful Monster…)
Even if the weak were to combine their efforts and fight together, as soon as one link breaks, the whole chain falls to pieces.
Humans that run aimlessly like that would be mercilessly cut down by a Monster’s claws.
(…Showing off the difference in strength is part of their training, I suppose.)
Once again, Oliver descended and picked up more tubes.
This time, they took significantly longer to inscribe these. Most likely, these would contain a more potent magecraft.
Oliver ascended. At this precise moment, Frederik accelerated his flight magic and closed the distance with Oliver.
Julius tried to fire a flame arrow, but he hesitated for a brief moment.
He was likely afraid of catching Oliver in the crossfire. That was an ever-present danger with attack magic that flew away from the caster.
Noticing Frederik’s approach, Oliver increased the speed of his climb.
“That’s not going to work.”
Frederik appeared above Oliver and attacked with his wind-cloaked spear.
The method of attacking by tossing those tubes worked best when they were directly above their target. Conversely, they would be at a disadvantage if Frederik was the one above them.
Oliver tried to compensate for this by throwing the tubes up at Frederik.
However, Frederik’s wind pushed the tubes back towards Oliver. They were merely thin wooden tubes, after all. It was not hard to blow them away with wind, and have them fall back on Oliver.
The magical formulas contained in the tubes activated. They were more powerful balls of lightning than the ones he saw earlier.
— Now fall, with your own attacks.
The moment the balls of lightning were born from the tubes, on Oliver’s back, Tia drastically redirected her body.
“LLUUUUAAAAAHHH!!”
Shouting in a high pitch, almost as if she was singing, Tia spun in a spiral, bringing Oliver with her.
Drawing a great crescent arc, they then suddenly climbed. Just as they opened up more distance from Frederik, Julius fired a high-power fireball.
“Good teamwork.”
Frederik used his wind to deflect the fireball, then dove at high speed.
His target was the ones on the ground.
The moment they saw Frederik was diving towards them, Rose began the incantation for his defensive barrier.
Before he could finish that incantation, Frederik brought his spear down in a sweep. A powerful, howling wind projected from his spear and blew Wren and the others on the ground away.
Even with Rose’s stature, he was knocked onto his butt. The smaller Wren was sent rolling across the ground.
“Geh! Peh, peh! I got dirt in my mouth…”
Most likely this attack would ordinarily release a blade of wind. The fact that it merely released a strong gust was likely a show of kindness.
(Crap! Rose’s incantation was cut off!)
Wren quickly stood up and took stock of the situation. Frederik hovered only a fist’s width over the ground and set his sights on his next target.
The man’s face, so similar to Oliver’s, smiled gracefully, but his sharp eyes glared at only one person. — His gaze was aimed at Julius.
(Of course he’s aiming at him! I’d do the same if I were him!)
Out of the twelve Apprentices, the one with the longest range and most potent attacks was Julius.
Roswitha’s fish of water could be extremely powerful, but their potency fell off the farther they went from the caster, and they were a poor match for Frederik and his flight magic.
(Damn, Make it in time…!)
Wren whipped out his drawing board and slapped a page on it. He desperately set his pen into motion. He didn’t have enough time. There was no way he’d make it in time.
Regardless, a user of inscription magic must never allow his hand to come to a stop.
Even if what he wrote would be of no use, he had no choice but to keep writing on the off chance that it may save them in some way.
As if sliding across the ground, Frederik moved to close the distance with Julius and brought his spear to bear.
“Let’s start with the first one.”
Frederik held his spear with the point aimed away from him. This was his form of kindness as their senior.
Regardless, the shaft of his spear was imbued with high-density wind magic. If he took this attack head on, even Julius wouldn’t get away lightly.
It would be useless for Julius to dodge. He didn’t have the physical agility to pull it off — to put it bluntly, he was like a deer in headlights.
“Julius, run—!”
Just as Frederik’s spear was about to run Julius through, one person got up and ran forth with more speed than anyone else.
That person used the drawing board in their hands as a shield, blocking the spear’s attack.
Ordinarily, a thin drawing board would have no chance of stopping an attack from a spear. However, this was a magic battle.
The drawing board, protected by the magic battle’s barrier, served as a thin, light shield.
Wielding a single drawing board as a shield, the one who deflected an attack from Frederik’s spear was the most physically fit of the Apprentice Mages: Gerald Anker.
“…I won’t back down.”
Beneath his long bangs, Gerald’s sharp eyes narrowed, and he glared at Frederik. The drawing board in his hands glowed faintly.