Chapter 105: A Beast
"Hey, how long are we supposed to wait here again?"
"Who knows? The experts on teleportation array announced that it will be ready in about an hour"
"An hour? It’s already past thirty minutes since we were ordered to stand guard here, but I feel like there are no progress at all..."
"Calm down, will you? It’s not that easy to— huh?"
Arguing at the younger mage beside himself as they stand guard, preventing anyone from passing through the entrance of what appears to be a deep, complex cavern system, another rogue mage said, pausing as he noticed one of the beasts standing alongside them acting quite off.
"Grr..."
Staring into nothing but air as it growls towards it, the large Silver Direwolf refuses to remove its gaze away from whatever it is that it is staring at, baring its fangs as it scratches the ground as if it is sensing something that made it all too uncomfortable.
"Hey, old guy, what’s with your beast?" the younger, previously annoyed mage asked as he clicked his tongue, a grayish magic circle appearing on his palm, revealing a spell being casted as the Silver Direwolf calmed down the moment the magic circle fades.
"I... don’t know, must be because the spell is still unstable..." the older mage replied as he massaged himself between his eyebrows, feeling quite stressed as he recalls what happened with their allies who are supposed to take down the remaining field staffs and bring the ’special’ Unique Magic capable students to this place.
’Someone dealt with Sir Gallad? What sort of monster—’
The surrounding fell silent as the older mage didn’t even get the opportunity to complete his thoughts before they notice something amiss once more, the Silver Direwolf that was previously calmed down now acting all too odd once again.
This time however, it no longer acts as an aggressive beast as it laid down with its head down the ground, acting like a domesticated pet instead.
"What the hell is wrong with—"
Meanwhile, impatience and annoyance grew on the younger mage as he witnessed his spell’s effect fading just shortly after he casted it, causing him to approach the beast prepared to teach it a lesson, only for him to realize something all too late.
’Eh... ground?’ feeling his cheeks sticking close to the cold, hard ground, the young mage couldn’t even muster the strength to speak as he finds himself unable to stand, his body seemingly completely paralyzed, making it so that he can do nothing but watch as he saw a figure appearing out of nowhere.
On the eyes of the older mage, everything happened all too quickly.
His fellow guard walking towards the Silver Direwolf they control with Beast Control Magic, seemingly trying to teach it a lesson, however, before he can even reach it, he fell down, as if something just took all the strength out of him.
There, he saw it, a young man standing taller than himself, eyes sharp and filled with bloodlust that clearly shows what sorts of battle he had already gone through, gaze that throws this older mage in confusion as he wonders how is it even possible for such a young man to develop such shiver-inducing gaze.
Despite the suffocating bloodlust that oozes out of the young man’s being, the older mage shook himself awake, allowing him to figure out what he heeds to do as he reaches to his pocket, his hand holding an orb that he brought near his lips as he starts to speak.
"T-There is—"
Speaking in panic before he can even what appears to be a communication artifact, the older mage failed to even relay a warning as he also fell down the ground, strength seemingly sapped off his being as he cannot even find the strength to speak, not to mention to move his body, causing him to also fall down flat on the ground.
"Tsk tsk, who would’ve expected that mana can affect the body like that?" the mysterious figure who easily dealt with these two mages spoke as he watches them fall down the ground, prompting the two mages to look at said figure.
But given that they cannot even move anything but their eyes, they can only see his lower extremities, revealing to them a hand, no, an arm wrapped in a corporeal azure blade of mana, the very weapon that made them like this in the first place.
’Normally, cutting through the vertebrae will only paralyze anything below the injury but with mana...’ the mysterious figure, Novus, looked down at the two mages, a faint smile appearing on his face as he felt quite intrigued with this discovery, thinking that there might be more to Mana Blade than he had initially thought.
Total incapacity for motor movements.
That is what happens as soon as significant, no, large amount of mana from the mana blade came into contact and sticked to his target’s spinal cord, the opponent immediately being immobilized as mana messes with the signals the target’s nerves are sending, turning them to a complete vegetable in matters of moment.
’It only lasts for a couple of hours though...’ Novus thought to himself as he utilizes Sensory Expansion to take a look at the consequences of that one swift, clean attack, mana spreading all throughout the two mages’ back already beginning to dissipate, but at an extremely slow rate.
The two guard mages only hears their aggressor’s footsteps as he enters the cavern system, both of them wanting nothing more than to stop him on his tracks, something that they cannot even attempt as their body, totally incapable of movement, cannot utilize spells as well.
’Right, the beasts...’
Still, being way more experienced and quicker witted in battle compared to even most students of the academy, the two thought of their final ace, using their mind to directly order the beasts tied to them, a smile should’ve appeared on their faces as they proceed with this improvised plan, however their bodily paralysis prevented them from doing so.
The problem is that their target is far removed from the category of "most students of the academy".
The beasts initially followed their masters’ order, growling and walking with predatory gait as they attempted to circle around their intended target, one among them pouncing in advance, all too confident with their own strength.
That was when the beasts were overwhelmed with something else other than the Beast Control Magic reigning over their mind.
Something primal broke through the tight grasp magic previously has on them.
Terror.
Witnessing one of their own being severed into two in such a swift, ruthless manner, the remaining beasts couldn’t help but take multiple steps back as it finally dawned on them as well, their conscious returning as they broke free from Beast Control Magic’s prison, allowing them to fully witness the nature of the one standing in front of them.
The figure is not much larger than the ones previously controlling them, meaning that in size, said being is nothing in comparison to them, beasts who lives in this island to hunt and grow stronger each day.
However, what they see and what their beastly instincts screams at them are completely different things.
That figure clads in dancing mana, in their mind, towers over their figure like the mountains itself, like a formidable wall that they will never be capable of breaking through.
A human who appears more like a beast than themselves.