For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.
Chapter 164: Wow! The Iona Bus! (2)

“Frozen chill. Soaring spear. Pierce through, Ice Spear.”

Ssshhh!

The sharp ice that formed at the tip of my staff was launched towards the door.

Crack!

“Aaaahhhhh!”

The sound of wood breaking was followed by a high-pitched scream.

Noticing something was wrong, one of the cultists who came to check had a hole pierced through his stomach.

Hmm… I aimed for his heart, but it seemed I missed slightly because I shot the magic through the door.

Feeling sorry, I lightly threw the shining lion dagger held in my left hand.

As if someone had pulled it, the dagger naturally wriggled into the cultist’s heart.

Actually, someone did pull it.

I corrected the trajectory with telekinetic magic.

The dagger glowed briefly before the guy slumped down quietly.

But this was just the beginning.

Making such a loud scream in a corridor that wasn’t even soundproof, all the cultists in this branch would surely flock here.

Once again, I used telekinetic magic to retrieve the shining lion dagger and then gathered magical power for the next spell.

Thump.

The heartbeat growing a bit louder and the magical power rising in proportion were evidence that flame-related magic was strengthened by sympathetic resonance.

Elisha, standing next to me, also had shadows of elements hovering over her head as she drew a magic circle.

And the moment someone who ran here first spotted us.

“Wind Cutter!”

“Intrusion… Aaaaah!”

I immediately launched the prepared magic, cutting him in half.

But we’d only taken down one at a time.

Bang!

Doors in the corridor opened simultaneously, and the cultists, ready to fight, all turned their hostility toward us.

I quickly scanned them, assessing their strengths.

Three with purple eyes. Two with green eyes. Five with gray eyes. And the rest, seven with ordinary black or brown eyes.

“Three with psychic eyes, two poisoners, five necromancers; the rest are physical enhancers.”

“I’ll hold them off, so prepare whatever you need now.”

“Okay.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the cultists, either sparkling their eyes or hands or rushing forward aggressively, were countered.

I quickly pulled out a psychic defense potion and an antidote potion from the inventory and sprinkled them on us three.

It might not be as effective as drinking, but it should be enough to hold on for a while.

Elisha, in the meantime, proved what she said by alternating between pouring out water and wind attribute magic engraved with the shadows of elements.

Swoosh…!

Boom!

A cutting wind swept through the narrow corridor, and water in the shape of a circular saw blade targeted the legs of the rushing foes.

My head spun momentarily under the influence of the sight, but… the potion sprayed in advance didn’t last long.

“Watch your head!”

“Aaaargh!”

“Idiot! If you only care about your head, you’ll lose your legs!”

The cultists screamed, trying to escape from Elisha’s barrage of magic.

Carla’s voice, chanting spells so fast that they sounded like mumbling, came from behind.

I wasn’t exactly sure, but judging by the feeling of the flow of magic, it seemed it would take a little more time to complete.

Around the time when the poison spread by the cultists in the air started to irritate our mucous membranes…

In the back, I saw those with grayish eyes gathering all the undead around.

While preparing the next spell, I changed the title in the status window.

Title: Clumsy Treasure Hunter -> Title: Ghost Buster

A title that grants a decent bonus when facing undead types.

I felt a bit lighter and released the magic I had prepared.

“Oh, burning storm, sing the song of rage. Tempest Burn!”

Despite omitting the magic circle for faster casting, the condensing fireball exuded deadly momentum.

The essence of the two elements gathered at the end of the staff soon unraveled, giving rise to a massive storm.

Whooosh.

Flames in the form of a whirlwind swept through the entire corridor.

“Aaaargh!”

“Oh, biased plunderer…”

“I can’t die before killing that guy….”

Along with the mixed poison in the air, those who somehow penetrated Elisha’s magic were instantly engulfed in flames.

It wasn’t for nothing that they were believers; even within the storm of fire, they tried to push forward, but…

How could they endure when their bodies were melting away?

Eventually, most of the cultists who rushed in turned into ash after just a couple of steps.

What remained were the psychic eye wielders, who were relatively at the back and suffered severe injuries, and the necromancers, who were completely outside the range.

Of course, they weren’t real necromancers, but those mimicking similar powers through their abilities… Anyway, they were the annoying ones who dealt with corpses and scattered curses.

Whether they successfully gathered the undead around or not, despite Elisha and I killing or incapacitating more than half of the cultists, the corridor was filled with skeletons.

With eerie prayers and curses enhancing the skeletons, they trampled over the corpses of their allies as they charged.

-Click. Clack.

-Creeeak…

-Groooh…

Though they should be nothing but bones, they made a variety of sounds, surprisingly.

If such a quantity kept pushing through, no matter how much Elisha and I cast magic, we would eventually be overwhelmed by their numbers.

Because fighting in a tight space applied to us too.

But…

“The swell becomes a wave, and the wave grows in height. You are an unstoppable disaster, the rage of the sea.”

It was about time for Carla’s magic to be completed.

“Rise. Swell. And sweep away. Tidal Wave!”

As she chanted the incantation, a large magic circle fitting the size of the corridor appeared in front of Carla’s staff.

Covering the ceiling to the floor, both walls… it looked almost like a lid for this long corridor, a blue magic circle.

Judging by the chilling magical power and the strange attraction felt from the heart, it was clearly a mid-level spell charged with an overload of magic through resonance.

Looking directly ahead, Carla’s eyes brimmed with magical energy, and Elisha and I quickly threw ourselves to the sides.

Then, a massive amount of water gushed from the magic circle.

Whoooosh!!

As if a giant reservoir had been breached.

Water filling the corridor without a gap rushed at an unimaginable speed.

Not many could withstand this insane water pressure.

At least, none of the cultists here.

Whoooosh!!

Amid the deafening noise of water, I felt like I heard something breaking.

“Hmph… When did you reach this level…?”

Elisha pouted, muttering in displeasure, but her eyes sparkled like a child’s.

I probably looked similar.

Thus, Carla’s magic continued for a while, and just when the water threatened to overflow back into the office, it finally exhausted its power and disappeared.

“…Eh?”

Where all that water went was a mystery, leaving only a slight dampness on the floor, our still-thumping hearts, and the cleanly swept scene of the branch.

The dark ash, the severed limbs, the unpleasant prayers, and the unnecessarily realistic eye model statues.

Everything was swept away by Carla’s magic, leaving no trace behind.

Not a drain cleaner, for sure…

The shattered remains must be at the farthest end from here, probably gathered near the lodge where Iona had previously spread her Curtain of Vampirism.

Even if they managed to withstand the torrent itself, they would have been mashed into a pulp by the debris, and on top of that, their life force would have been sucked away by the Curtain of Vampirism.

It was safe to say there were no survivors.

It was astonishing that all of this was the result of a single spell.

It made me wonder, could I use such magic once I’m able to utilize resonance?

Looking back at Carla with a mix of admiration and anticipation.

“Yeeek…”

She was slumping like a deflated water balloon.

Well, it was natural that she’d be exhausted after using such a massive amount of water magic in a place devoid of it.

Perhaps due to her drained strength, I helped Carla as she staggered and sat down.

Then, leaning against me, Carla naturally rubbed her body against mine.

She looked up at me with her face pressed against my chest, sending a somewhat mischievous glance.

“How was it, Master? Did you like it?”

“To say I liked it is an understatement. People often mention the freedom of shape as an advantage of water magic, but you’ve shown that the very act of creating a mass of water can be used as a weapon.”

“Hehe… It’s maximized in such a situation. Normally, earth magic would be more efficient for mass attacks.”

“Hmph! In other words, you realized that in this situation, water magic stuffed with brute force magic power is the best, right? Just accept the compliment, Carla.”

Elisha, slightly pushing Carla who managed to stand on her own two feet again, seemed to be experiencing a temporary loss of strength.

While the three of us were creating a warm atmosphere…

“Kyaaaa!! Stop! Didn’t I say that was everything?”

“No, no! Seeing you talk back means you still have room to breathe. I think we need to let out some more air from your lungs to get the truth out!”

“What kind of nonsense–? Aaaargh!”

A desperate scream from behind made all three of us turn in one direction.

The branch head, bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth as if he had been stabbed with thorns, had almost no external injuries… but his insides must have been a mess from Iona’s magic.

As the only survivor, the branch head, was being interrogated by Iona, she suddenly turned her head and smiled brightly at us.

“Amazing! Amazing! Carla has become even stronger since the last time I saw her! I thought I might teach you something since we’re outside the academy… but it seems unnecessary!”

“Crazy woman…”

The branch head muttered as if he had had enough.

Hmm… Even to me, Iona seemed a bit psychotic with her erratic behavior.

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