Mightiest Melee Magician

If this was a situation that could be resolved with words, I wouldn’t have had to even think of using my fists.

From the beginning, what would I have chosen in this difficult situation where logical conversation was impossible?

Yeah.

Getting hit was their best medicine.

The only thing left was to decide how I would punish this fish in a small pond thinking it was the best in the southern region.

Fists were good.

Magic was also good.

To start with……

“Come at me. I’ll flick your heads one by one.”

A flick to their heads.

I smacked the nearest guard’s forehead with my middle finger.

Tack—!

“Kugh!”

As I felt the hit land, the guard was flung back and the formation broke as he flew into two other guards.

The next was the same.

None of the dark-clothed guards could land a blow on me.

My movement, supported by strength, had also increased my kinetic perception.

All their amateurish movements were easy to dodge with how slow they looked.

One, two, right, left.

As I started beating everyone up, Vilcos’ face turned red as he shouted,

“Kill! Kill him! I win if I grab his corpse and chuck him into my underground museum while feigning ignorance!”

What? You’ll chuck me in a museum?

This guy was more insane than I thought.

However, there was no sense of fear like I felt with the crown prince’s ‘possessiveness’.

This was just shallow insanity.

I knew the end to a madness like this.

“Let me hit you.”

“Block! Block him you idiots!”

They usually end in desolation.

I pushed away the guards in front of Vilcos and charged toward him.

The guards behind him hurriedly tried to form a shield wall.

Ching! Ching! Ching!

A surge of spearheads pointed straight at me, and if I ran straight into it, I would’ve been impaled by them all and become a weird looking hedgehog……

But I wouldn’t be defeated that easily.

I concentrated my strength into the Knuckles of Kunkhan’s Will on my hands

With this, I activated the unique skill ‘Chieftain's Will’.

Unique Skill Chieftain’s Will

When you push your strength, the first chieftain of Sky Mountain, Kunkhan, will be there with you.

Kunkhan’s spirit will appear over your head and move with you.

Your attack range increases to Kunkhan’s reach.

Kunkhan’s presence will oppress and instill fear in others.

Cooldown: 1 hour.

Behind my back, above my head to be precise, a cloud of red energy emerged.

This smoke quickly flowed into a ‘form’, and the others could now recognise what this form was.

“A-an ogre?”

“Why is an ogre here?”

An ogre had appeared out of thin air above my head.

The presence of Kunkhan, an ogre who boasted a size greater than any normal ogre, exuded pressure.

“I-I need to get out of here……”

“You’ll die if you stay!”

The guards, who couldn’t handle this overpowering source of fear, took back their spears and started to scatter.

Skill effect: Endless Fear.

However, this wasn’t all.

Woosh—!

I swung my fists before they could even make contact with the spears, and Kunkhan’s spirit moved in the same way.

Regretfully for them, Kunkhan’s reach was longer than their spears, and one punch from this fist sent dozens of them flying.

Bang! Boom!

Crash! Crack!

Whenever I swung my fist in the air, Kunkhan crushed the guards as if they were mere leaves, and the guards flew left, right, and center into the walls of the living room.

‘Woah. Looks like I can do some long distance attacks.’

Even if it was only the length of Kunkhan’s arm, this was the first time since I was forced to only use melee magic that I could hit someone a little further away.

Of course, this arm could also be imbued with magic.

As I started to cast, the Kunkhan’s fists also created the spell.

“Mana Burn Explosion.”

I cast a 5th-Class spell to blow away the entire roof of this disgusting mansion.

The mana boiling around Kunkhan’s fists filled the whole room, and just before it exploded…

Vilcos Monzo screamed out, having noticed something disastrous would happen.

“N-no! Noooooooo!”

However, this scream of despair…

Bang! Boooooom!

Was soon drowned out by the explosion that burnt even the air.

* * *

* * *

Fwoosh! Fwook!

The mansion’s living room was scorched black, and the fire spread to the second floor.

However, there were no fatalities.

I had controlled the power of the explosion.

After all, there was no reason to kill them all because of one mad lord.

The innocent servants and maids survived and ran out from the burning building, and Vilcos’ guards ended up standing while opposing me as their legs shivered in shock.

Compared to them, Vilcos…

“Nooooooo! Those are my art pieces I took my lifetime to collect!”

He had become even more mad over his obsession.

“My two-thousand-gold portrait! My seventeen-hundred-gold orc head taxidermy!”

Since art was money, this was madness brought on by greed.

Vilcos shouted at me while short on breath,

“I-I only wanted to ask you to be Monzo’s guardian magician…… You dare destroy my mansion?!”

“Ask? Seems you’ve forgotten that you were holding my territory hostage, threatened me, and even endangered my life. You should’ve been ready to lose something when you started this first.”

“You bastard! Who would believe you?!”

“Really? Then do you want to come with me to the palace? Between the winner of the Grand Festival and some rotten noble like you, who do you think his majesty, Radian Croster, would believe?”

“……”

The power of authority.

I didn’t particularly like relying on it, but using it like this once in a while wasn’t too bad.

1st prince Radian Croster.

He would rather send me a letter every day rather than tend to his duties.

“P-prince……?”

But to rotten nobles like him, his name was death itself.

Since this was more threatening than anything else, it was pretty effective.

“Now, shut up.”

“……”

As soon as the prince’s name was mentioned, Vilcos did nothing but stare at me in anger.

I walked up to him and raised my hand.

Flinch.

He narrowed his shoulders and took a defensive stance, and I very lightly struck his shoulder.

Bang!

However, Vilcos lost his balance after my palm landed, and I looked on at his pathetic form.

“If you want it to end with this, it’ll be good for you to listen to me. You will return Ardell’s sales to normal, and you’ll repay the money you stole from us threefold.”

“Th-threefold? Do you know how much money that— Ack!”

Bang!

I struck his shoulder again.

I put a little more strength into this one and he lost his balance, making him fall straight on his butt.

“Then fivefold. It’s only fair for the suffering you’ve caused my father and my people.”

“F-fivefold?! Why are you increasing it?!”

“……”

Same thing.

Bang!

I struck down again.

Crack!

“Uaaaaaaack!”

Vilcos collapsed and screamed as he clutched his right shoulder.

His shoulder had been crushed this time.

Sorry, I failed in controlling my strength.

“Then tenfold. And just so you know, I won’t strike your shoulder next time. If you’re curious where I will strike and how much I’ll increase the repayment by, just talk again.”

“……I-I apologize. It was my mistake. I-I’ll repay it tenfold and repent to everyone.”

His views changed as fast as usual.

“Tsk.”

I couldn’t even feel the need to strike this vulgar man anymore.

I already knew these tears of regret were fake and that his nature wouldn’t change this easily.

That was why I couldn’t give him any time.

“Bring it here. Now.”

I needed to put the nail in the coffin while he was still afraid of me.

Vilcos crawled back into the burning mansion and brought out a sack of gold from his vault.

He made a fuss when his coat caught on fire as he was coming out.

“Uh… Uuuhhh……”

He couldn’t let go of the bag either, as if giving it up was just as bad as dying.

Lift.

Flinch!

“……”

Clang!

As I lifted my hand, he reflexively put down the sack of gold.

In any case, the losses from my territory amounted to about 36 hundred gold, and the sack of gold contained exactly 10 times the amount, with 36 thousand gold.

“If you ever think of taking revenge  on my territory because of this, it’ll be wise for you to forget it. I was merciful today, but there won’t be a next time. If I see your face again, then you’ll truly face hell.”

“Yes, yes!”

A magician.

With the flick of their hand, they could flatten or save an entire city.

An incredible existence.

As a parting gift, I walked up to the burning mansion and struck the ground with my fist.

Frost.

Crunch!

A huge pillar of ice erupted and froze over the burning building.

“Rather than losing everything to the fire, isn’t it better that it’s frozen?”

“Th-thank you…… I won’t forget this kindness……”

“Yeah. But be careful when the ice melts. You might get flooded.”

“……”

Well, I had no way of knowing when that ice made out of magic would melt.

Since it was in the middle of hot summer, maybe a week?

“Let’s not see each other again. It’s sickening.”

As I turned around and got on my horse,

“Uaaaaaaaack!”

Vilcos’ stifled screams of pain filled the city.

However, in contrast to his screams…

“Yeaaaaah!”

The citizens of Monzo, who had witnessed this whole ordeal, were cheering and clapping for me.

They seemed to have also suffered a lot under this guy’s rule.

“Magician! Magician! Magician!”

Since those guys didn’t know the full story, they might’ve thought a random magician appeared out of nowhere to enact justice in their city.

Or, they might’ve thought an unknown magician extorted the city lord.

Hmm…

I only wanted to regain the honor of my family, but it seemed that this city was also in need of justice.

In any case, I could definitely learn something from this encounter.

‘I need to get stronger.’

If I didn’t want to get done in like this again…

I needed to get stronger.

Strong enough to defeat my enemies with the name Ardell alone.

‘This break…… isn’t gonna be long enough.’

I steered my horse toward Ardell while thinking I would spend this break quite efficiently.

However, unexpectedly,

“Who did you say is here?”

A particular guest had arrived at Ardell.

——