[V11C5] Punch, Kick, Crush, Compress (new!)

The long braids that had fallen to the ground were enveloped by black shadows, and then sucked into the black box in Theodore’s hands.

Immediately, Louis staggered due to an overwhelming sense of dizziness.

(…Is this… mana deficiency?)

For reasons unknown, he had lost a significant amount of mana at the same instant his hair entered the box.

Mana deficiency causes symptoms akin to severe anemia, making it difficult to maintain consciousness. However, Louis gritted his teeth and clung on through sheer determination.

The black shadows had let go of Louis’s leg in order to drag his braids into the Box of Gluttony.

Now freed, Louis gathered the last remnants of his mana and uttered a shortened incantation, entrapping Theodore within a sturdy barrier.

“Eh!?” Theodore screamed. “You can still use magic after having so much mana drained!? Oh, but it looks like you’re finally out now. You don’t have any left for an attack… right?”

When hunting dragons, the Barrier Mage often employed a strategy of sealing his foes in a barrier, then bombarding the trapped targets with offensive magic.

However, the current Louis did not have the mana for offensive spells. In which case…

“…Compress.”

Louis muttered a single word, then made the gesture of squeezing his hand. In response, the barrier confining Theodore began to shrink.

“Huh!? Grah… Uwaaaah!? I’m getting… c-crushed!?”

The barrier had transformed into a spherical shape, squeezing Theodore as it shrank.

Pressed against the wall in an unnatural posture, Theodore tried to pound the barrier from the inside.

“Let me out! Please, someone help me!”

As Theodore cried and begged for help, Louis spoke with a wicked grin.

“Once you’ve turned into a human meatball, we’ll take you into custody.”

“Waaaaaah, he’s just too scary! Zoe…! Please, save meeee!”

Theodore let out a desperate scream, foaming at the mouth. In response to his call for help, Gluttonous Zoe shot out a blob of black shadows to shatter the barrier.

These shadows spread above Louis’s head, before turning into a shower of black spears.

“Kaboom!”

Having completed his next incantation, Bradford unleashed a multiply-reinforced fireball spell.

This resulted in a tremendous explosion, spreading a rain of sparks. True to his title of Artillery Mage, he had blasted the shadows apart.

Louis quickly ran through the scattered shadows and sparks, kicking Theodore in the abdomen. However, a shadow slipped in at the last moment to shield the man from his boot.

Realizing that the power of his kick had been reduced, Louis quickly distanced himself.

“Ah! Ow, it hurts, it hurts!”

Theodore was rolling on the cobblestones and crying, but the Box of Gluttony was still firmly cradled in his hands. Without the protection of the shadows, he would likely have been spilling the contents of his stomach.

Louis attempted to deliver a followup, until Bradford, who had rushed over, placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Oi, Barrier Mage… I was covering you so that you could retreat. Why are you trying to charge in when you’re out of mana? Well?”

“What’s this? Unusual words coming from a battle maniac such as yourself,” Louis retorted.

Louis adjusted his leather gloves, clenching them so tightly that they were creaking under the pressure. Then, he explained while lifting the corner of his mouth.

“Just so you know, I am feeling very hotheaded right now… You won’t be able to stop me, so don’t bother trying.”

With his mana reserves completely drained, Louis was suffering from the intense dizziness and nausea of mana deficiency. However, this rage was powerful enough to propel him forward.

The whimpering Theodore, who was still collapsed on the cobblestones, looked at Louis and widened his eyes in realization.

“Oh, I remember now…! You’re the delinquent who got beaten up by the professor and fell off the cliff!”

“You really love adding fuel to the fire, don’t you?” Louis replied, performing a practice swing of his staff.

“Eek! You’re just as scary as before!”

Theodore tried to crawl away on all fours in an attempt to escape. Then, apparently remembering something, he began talking to Gluttonous Zoe.

“T-That’s right! This is a connection! It’s gotta be! Zoe! Zoe, help me! Let’s make him into a servant!”

“DECLARE! DECLARE!”

Theodore sat down on the cobblestones, raising Gluttonous Zoe with a stern face.

Wary of the strange gesture, Louis stopped in his tracks. Preferably, he wanted to launch an attack as soon as Bradford finished his next chant.

In the meantime, Theodore made his declaration.

“I, Theodore, the contractor of Gluttonous Zoe, command you! Delinquent… um, what was his name again?”

Without a word, Louis threw his staff at Theodore. The luxuriously decorated staff left a scratch on the man’s cheek before hitting the ground behind him.

“…Dammit. I missed,” Louis clicked his tongue.

“Gyaaaah!! My cheek, it’s bleeding! I could have died! He was seriously trying to kill me!”

Suppressing his inner fury, Louis calmly processed Theodore’s words in the back of his head.

(As I suspected… he does not have perfect control over Gluttonous Zoe.)

Theodore had attempted to turn him into a ‘servant’, likely in the same way that he had manipulated Carla.

Seeing as how he did not manipulate the comatose victims of the attack on the palace, such as Mary and Adeline, there were apparently limits on who he could control.

Furthermore, Theodore had let slip a clue on what those limits were.

(It seems there are at least two conditions to controlling someone: having some kind of connection, and knowing their name.)

In which case, now was the perfect opportunity, since Theodore had forgotten Louis’s name.

Louis intended to synchronize his offensive with Bradford, who was almost done chanting. Even with his mana gone, he could always turn Theodore into a meatball with his bare hands.

But right as he leaned forward and cracked his knuckles in anticipation, Ryn let out a shout from above.

“Louis-dono, the sky…!”

Why would they possibly care about the sky in a situation like this?

The suspicious Louis looked up, only to widen his eyes in astonishment.

The gray clouds indicated that rain was imminent, but more importantly were the black dots scattered here and there. At first glance, Louis had assumed they were birds.

But upon closer inspection, he realized they were a flock of wyverns. Over thirty of them were visible at a glance.

However, that was only the beginning. A member of the Magic Corps flew in from the direction of the palace via flight magic, informing Louis of additional bad news.

“Urgent message! Four earth dragons are approaching from the southeast of the royal capital, and three from the east! They’re closing in rapidly!”

(Wyverns and earth dragons!? At this timing!?)

Louis was dumbfounded by this completely ludicrous turn of events.

First and foremost, wyverns were not known to form large flocks. Small groups of five or six wyverns were said to be the maximum.

There was only one exception in recorded history: the appearance of the Black Dragon of Worgan. The nearby wyverns had been roused by the presence of a legendary dragon and formed a large flock looking up to the black dragon as their leader.

But even back then, there were only twenty of them.

And worst of all, the Silent Witch, who had shot down the entire flock in one fell swoop, was currently away from the capital.

Meanwhile, Louis was running on fumes, barely able to stand.

“Bye then, Delinquent,” Theodore said, lifting Gluttonous Zoe with both hands.

Black shadows spilled from the box, spreading out like the curtains of a stage and blocking Theodore from view.

“You’re not getting away!” Louis shouted.

“Explode!”

Bradford unleashed a fireball, allowing Louis to dart forward.

The spell easily blew the black shadows into smithereens, but there was no sign of Theodore on the other side.

(——He vanished!? In the span of a few seconds!?)

There were no buildings to take shelter in, so it was reasonable to assume he had escaped into the alleys.

As Louis was busy searching for Theodore’s escape route, Bradford spoke to the Magic Corps member.

“Inform all members of the Magic Corps! Form a cordon around the royal capital and secure Theodore Maxwell! I’ll take care of the earth dragons!”

A reasonable decision, as the Artillery Mage’s talents were not suited for scouting or reconnaissance. Rather than keeping him in the city, he could demonstrate his true worth against dragons.

Next, Bradford turned his attention to Ryn, who was protecting Carla and the civilians.

“Lend me your contracted spirit, Barrier Mage! A wind spirit will be helpful when dealing with wyverns! We can have her search for Theodore from the skies too.”

“In that case, I’ll…”

“You’ll run around and look for Theodore on foot. That’s pretty much all you can do now that you’re out of mana.”

“…”

While true, the amount of manual labor was quite a departure from the job description of the Seven Sages.

Louis slumped his shoulders and placed a hand on the back of his neck. His long braids were gone, so all he could feel was the shortened hair brushing against his fingertips.

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