Part Fifteen

Western Australia. Australian Disaster Zone…..

[Gwyn's POV]

“Baowow!”

“Barooo!”

“Bar bar!”

They sure are noisy. The howls and screams of Kobolds rang out without end, covering up the din caused by weapons clashing. This was the fourth such attack today, though they weren’t in any danger of crumbling under the offensive. In fact, it looked like the Kobolds were the ones about to rout, as those near the back were already beginning to edge away from the humans, though they weren’t going to make it far.

“Do it now! [Crushing Jaw]!”

“[Scything Blades]!”

“[Fireball]!”

Just before the Kobolds could try to retreat, a barrage of magic was unleashed upon them, killing the majority of those still standing. A burst of flame and a cluster of wind blades mowed down the monsters on the edges, and a series of rock lances burst out of the ground, crushing a cluster of Kobolds in the back that included their leader. The sudden slaughter broke the remaining Kobolds’ spirits, causing them to run away, though they were simply picked off by arrows before they got too far.

Looking at the carnage left behind by the magical barrage, Gwyn couldn’t help but worry about the future. While a single low-ranking Mage wouldn’t be much of a threat, a group of skilled Mages would be able to unleash an enormous amount of death and destruction on the same level as an armed force. Leveling entire cities without the use of powerful explosives would be possible. And while knowledge of magic had yet to spread too far into the general public, it was only a matter of time until it did.

Michael mentioned something similar before, about how he believed that Magic would eventually be exploited by criminals and terrorists. We’re in an Era of extreme change. Nothing is going to be the same, and if we don’t adapt quickly, all we’ll experience is tragedy.

No matter how they tried to contain it, the nations of the world weren’t going to be able to completely stop the coming chaos. Gwyn was certain that it was only a matter of time until every country had their own special forces unit devoted to magic, and the criminals wouldn’t be far behind.

Alright, that’s enough of that. Pondering the end of civilization can come later. Right now, I need to focus on the present.

Shaking the bleak thoughts off, Gwyn turned back to look at Kalia, who was fretting over the group's shield bearers. They’d taken a beating during the fight, so she was prioritizing healing them before anything else. Honestly, he wished she’d take it a little bit easier, but he knew Kalia would never agree to that. She was too earnest to ever slack off, especially if someone was injured.

Thankfully, there weren’t any signs that what happened in England was still affecting her, though she occasionally got this odd look on her face, something he attributed to her simply worrying about the whole ordeal. He was simply glad that she’d stayed with them. He felt like a lot of people would’ve been dispirited by what happened to her, and consequently given up. That Kalia kept persevering even after all that was a testament to her devotion.

“Gah- abababababababa!”

An odd scream caught his attention, though he merely sighed when he saw its source. The man who’d cast the wind spell earlier was convulsing on the ground while Alicia stood above him, an annoyed glare on her face. The other Mage was standing behind them, rubbing her face in exasperation. This wasn’t the first time this had played out, and it wouldn’t be the last. Once the downed man stopped convulsing, the other Mage, who was also the other group's leader, grabbed him by his collar and began dragging him away.

For whatever reason, the downed Mage was particularly infatuated with Alicia, and he took any chance he could to hit on her, something she obviously didn’t appreciate. She’d tried to just discourage him normally at first, but his repeated attempts had soon grown too much for her, and she’d resorted to using [Stun Strike] to shut him up. It was actually a bit of a shame, as the man was a pretty skilled Mage. The fact that he could cast [Scything Blades], a fifth grade spell, was a good indicator of that. Too bad he was something of a deviant.

“Is it just me, or is she gettin’ more and more willful?”

“I suppose this is Michael’s influence. They’ve spent enough time together that they’re bound to have rubbed off on one another. I’ll bet neither of them even notice things like this."

“…Haaaaah. You know, sometimes the things you say just sound wrong. You should probably try to tone that down some, or people might get the wrong idea about them.”

“What exactly are you getting at?”

“Nuttin', just keep what I said in mind. People ain’t always as logical as you. You might say somethin’ meanin' one thing, but people might take it differently. People are downright pissy as times.”

He had to admit, Gwen had a point. There had been more than a few times where people took offense at something he’d said. Most of the time all it led to was a simple misunderstanding, but he’d ruined a few relationships as well.

“Well, I guess I can keep that in mind. It is advice from my little sister, after all.”

“Oi, I’m the older one here, dumbass. And don’t you forget that.”

Ah, I miss the days when she wasn’t so…boisterous. Haaah…

***

[Tiffany’s POV]

“Wow, she’s as merciless as ever. I really feel bad for Evan, but he does need to learn when to back off. I know I’d hate it if he kept doing that to me.”

“Mn, though I can’t say it deserves electrocution.”

“No, I can’t say he deserved that…… Come on, Serena. I think the others are just about ready to get moving.”

“Aye, aye Tiff!”

The cheerful response Serena gave her was completely at odds with the blood-flecked grin on her face. For whatever reason, Serena had been besotted with the nailbat she’d used in a Dungeon they’d previously cleared. The weapon was currently encrusted with blood and bits of flesh, making it a grisly sight. Honestly, she really wanted to talk Serena out of using it, but it was really difficult when her reaction was to show an absolutely adorable confused smile. She just couldn’t force her to do anything when she saw that.

“Hey Serena, Tiffany! Get over here! We’ve got a problem!”

The two glanced at each other, then rushed over to their leader, who was standing over one of the Kobold corpses. Warren and Leland were there as well, though Warren seemed ecstatic about something.

“Hm, perhaps this is why they were so disorganized? I wonder if….aha! See Leland, the necrosis does continue into the brain. No wonder they were so frenzied. It’s like they’ve been lobotomized by something. Intriguing……”

“Ehem, sir? Perhaps we should move on from here. I don’t like the looks of this, and our job is to protect you while you survey, not to hunt down potentially dangerous creatures.”

“Ah, I suppose you’re right, Madame. My curiosity simply took a hold of me. Everyone, head back to the jeeps! We’re done here!”

Tiffany heard several sighs of relief after he said that, as this wouldn’t have been the first time the scientist’s curiosity had gotten them into a fight. The worst one so far had been when he’d wanted to see a Vespoid nest first-hand. No one liked those vindictive bees.

As she turned to head back, she noticed that Kalia and Alicia were standing and whispering to each other. Normally, there wouldn’t be any way for her to overhear their conversation, but she had the Heightened Senses Normal Skill, which allowed her to just make out what they were saying.

“That’s…definitely the effects of Grudge Magic, isn’t it? I’ve seen it more times than I care to admit.”

“Yeah, though I’ve never seen it affect the brain like that. I thought those Kobolds were acting weird, but I didn’t expect it to be because of something like that. I wonder what did it?”

“Michael told me about a spell that attacks the brain, wearing down at mental faculties. He said that with enough time, it would leave monsters as vegetables.”

“Huh. I think he wrote that one down. Mn-hm, here it is. [Mental Decay]. He also added a note about how long it takes to work on even one target. It’s not something to be used in battle.”

“That’s…ominous. You don’t think this is another England, do you? Because I really don’t want another mess like that on our hands.”

“It…should be fine? I feel like this is an isolated event, like they ran into something that uses those kinds of spells before us. Besides, none of the other Kobolds we fought had any signs of Grudge Magic. Hopefully it’ll work out.”

“Yeah, hopefully. I just don’t have too much hope right now.”

“Haha…yeah.”

With that somewhat depressing statement, the two women proceeded back to their vehicle, leaving Tiffany with numerous questions. And very few answers.

***

[Regis’s POV]

“Ku ku, Kyuu ku!”

“Wow, he found way more of them than I thought he would.”

“I know! My goodness, you sure are a busy bee. Very good, very good.”

“Kuuu~! Kuuuuu~!”

Regis started prancing around after being praised, something he felt was rather lacking from his current life. While his big brother’s pack was more than willing to praise him, he just didn’t crave their affection. Ordinarily, he would’ve left to follow after his big brother by now, but the thought of angering him by doing so had stayed his hand, or paw, and he was beginning to feel depressed from lack of attention.

Fortunately, he’d had a run-in with Warren, which led the two to becoming partners-in-crime. Warren was going to help Regis get stronger, all the while satisfying his curiosity about this strange creature. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.

“So, what the heck did you have him gather? They look like very dangerous potatoes.”

“Hm, I wasn’t sure what to call them, but Magic Potato works just fine!”

“Warren. No, just no.” “Kyu.”

The two were weirdly in sync on this, and Warren recoiled in the most dramatic fashion, devastated beyond belief by this betrayal. Both the Undead bodyguard and the pseudo-monster looked at one another, exasperated beyond belief.

Arrayed between the three participants in this clandestine meeting were a number of oddly-shaped, ominously purple lumps. Warren had stumbled upon these anomalous root vegetables some time ago, and he’d discovered that eating them would boost one's mana for a short time. Unfortunately, they were actually pretty hard to find, and Warren had only ever found three on his own, certainly not the dozen that Regis had brought them.

The reason for this was that these “Magic Potatoes” were basically taproots that had mutated after taking in a large amount of mana. They were in no way related to potatoes, and were actually poisonous if eaten raw. Doing so would cause your mana to go berserk, though there was a possibility of its attributes changing during this process, so there were people who tried in hopes of changing their natural affinity.

As for why Regis could find so many, that was because he was more sensitive to mana than regular humans. To him, each lump was basically a shining beacon in the dirt. Actually digging them out was the hard part. And by the way, their legitimate name was Mana Node.

“Okay, we’ll cook a few of these up and see what happens!”

“…Are you using us as guinea pigs?” “Ku kuu ku?”

“Ahahah…haha…ha…come now, I’d never do something like that.”

“I don’t know about that, Warren. You’ve got definite mad scientist vibes.”

“Wha!? Oooh! Just eat the damn potato!”

“We need to cook it first, you moron!”

“Kuuuuu……”

Regis was beginning to regret his decision to help these two. They were a lot less impressive than his big brother, and a lot more irritating. But until they were reunited, this was his best shot at getting strong enough that he’d never be left behind again.