NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28: Chapter 28
Chapter 28: The Fire Tornado
The information captured by the peripheral vision came back. In fact Lan's last investigation was limited by his field of vision, and he himself knew that there were flaws. But he didn't expect that there was a drowner not far away.
He frowned slightly.
"Bernie exposed himself too early." Indeed, Bernie had stood up from the bushes before Lan had fully focused on the threats around them. Perhaps it was nerves, or perhaps he feared Lan wouldn't hold out—either way, it didn't matter now. The result was that a drowner had locked onto Bernie.
In Lan's previous hunts, he had reduced these not-so-strong creatures to mere piles of limbs under his ferocious swordsmanship. In the village, everyone recognized that drowners were creatures that even a farmer wielding a pitchfork could easily defeat one-on-one.
It seemed these monsters posed little threat. But there was a logic behind this.
First: A farmer with a pitchfork has a longer attack range than a drowner's claws.
Second: The claws of a drowner could not break the wooden handle of a pitchfork, let alone damage its metal prongs.
Third: The piercing attack of a pitchfork, even without the effect that silver had on monsters, could inflict lethal damage on the drowner's organs.
The logic was clear and straightforward. This was why drowners could not defeat a farmer with a pitchfork in a one-on-one fight.
Now, Bernie was a seasoned old hunter, with combat experience that was light-years ahead of an ordinary farmer. But in his hands, besides his bow, he only had a hunting knife left. The monsters that even a farmer could defeat could pose a significant challenge to the old hunter. In the real world, there were no levels; under the right conditions, even a drowner could single-handedly kill an old hunter.
Watching the water hag, which was swaying its claws with a mocking grin, Lan's eyes narrowed. If he delayed, Bernie might be devoured by that drowner.
"Mentos, I need you to construct an airflow model right now."
"Task accepted. Airflow model has been completed, and real-time changes have been bound to the subject's positional information." After about a second of pause, the intelligent voice reported in Lan's field of vision. As he moved, the annotations adjusted according to the terrain and humidity changes.
"Sir, according to the regulations, I must remind you: If you proceed according to the plan, you will have an 87% chance of entering a state of magical depletion for several minutes. Please decide with caution."
A witcher's signs used only their internal magical energy, unlike mages who could draw upon vast external chaos energy. However, due to their limited magical reserves, even under the witcher's rapid physical recovery, recovering from magical depletion would only take a few minutes.
"Stick to the plan."
"Understood."
There was no hint of hesitation in the young man's tone. He lowered the blood-stained silver sword in his hand, bending slightly as he moved in an arc. The hostility and killing intent of the remaining monsters tugged at their instincts, forcing them to respond to Lan's movements. Whether that response was great or small, even just a few shifts of their feet were enough for Lan.
The remaining four drowners, along with the water hag, who had just picked up a stone from the ground, were being subtly corralled into a somewhat straight line.
At this point, Lan, who had previously crouched down, slowly stood upright under the gaze of the monsters. The human's unusual behavior only heightened the monsters' vigilance, prompting them to let out low growls and shrieks.
Until Lan casually sheathed his bloodied silver sword behind him.
"Urgh?" The drowners were puzzled; their fish-like heads couldn't comprehend why a creature would sheathe its weapons during a fight. But they wouldn't stop their hunt just because of confusion. A more intense and unrestrained hostility began to develop among the creatures.
Faced with this scene, Lan calmly raised his left hand toward them. A cold white magical light spread outward.
"Aard." He uttered the incantation for a telekinetic shockwave.
"Boom—" A forceful gust of wind struck the monsters.
Instinctively adopting defensive postures, the monsters raised their arms to shield their heads, appearing somewhat bewildered. This force seemed… weak?!
The dead-fish eyes glanced at one another. Compared to Lan's fierce and overwhelming swordsmanship from earlier, this seemed almost trivial. The gust generated by the spell continued to blow through the area.
Wind?
The water hag sensed something was off. In such a dense forest, when had there ever been… wind?!
"The airflow model has been constructed, completion rate at 68%, meeting usage standards."
Then, the water hag saw the human ahead, who, before lowering his left hand, raised his right hand. Another dazzling motion, but this time it glowed with a warm orange light.
Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of danger surged through it, prompting an instinctive scream.
"Urgh!"
But accompanying the scream was the calm voice of the human.
"Igni."
Fiery flames erupted from the center of Lan's palm. However, the flames that should have shot forth were instead sucked into that mysterious wind just half a meter from his palm. Only then did the swirling air take on a defined shape due to the flames.
It was a small whirlwind, spiraling tightly. The air currents twisted and pulled surrounding air into the vortex, providing ample oxygen, and under the influx of fresh air, the flames grew ever stronger. With a diameter exceeding two meters and extending over ten meters long, the fire tornado engulfed all the drowners and the water hag in a straight line.
The fluids beneath their skin began to boil, and the monsters screamed with a terror that sent shivers down the spines of even their own kind. In this concentrated environment of the small whirlwind, even magical flames easily reached temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius.
When the tornado dissipated seconds later, the remaining drowners and the water hag were left as mere charred skeletons. The puddles in the woods evaporated, and the foul, muddy ground emitted wisps of steam.
After performing the Igni, Lan immediately braced himself, breathing heavily. The subsequent flames were purely the result of the self-sustaining fire tornado.
Casting two seals in rapid succession was supposed to be a strength of the Griffin School, and for a Bear School witcher, executing it was no easy feat.
The tornado had already dissipated, but the lingering heat made Lan's skin feel like it was burning. He had gasped for air several times, yet he felt no exhaustion in his body. Because he was not lacking in stamina; it was his magical energy that had run low. The signs of magical depletion felt similar to physical exhaustion.
Dragging his weary body, Lan gritted his teeth and pulled the silver sword from his back, throwing it toward Bernie. As the drowner was about to claw at his neck, the sword pierced through its heart instead. The suddenly limp drowner fell to the ground with a "clink," the sound of the silver sword striking the ground echoing in the silence.
Lan's previously relaxed brows immediately furrowed. "Fuck, my freshly repaired sword! It must have hit a rock!"
He rushed over to Bernie, pulling him up from the ground, his expression troubled.
"Just now, I even sheathed a bloodied sword, and now I'll have to replace the sheath too."
***
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