Genius Warlock

Willes swung his flame-wrapped longsword to the side with great force.

The crimson flames created a powerful heat barrier that pushed away the steam and protected Oliver and Willes from the surrounding enemies.

The intense heat from the flames was unbearable not only for ordinary people but also for most wizards and warlocks.

In response, the female warlocks of the Bathory Family used ice magic.

[Chill]

[Freeze]

[Snowstorm]

[Icicle]

The female warlocks skillfully drew out their mana and combined their ice magic as if they had received professional magic training.

First, they used [Chill] to rapidly lower the surrounding air temperature, creating a favorable environment for their ice magic. Then, they used [Freeze] to freeze the water vapor in the air, and [Snowstorm] to weaken Willes' widespread flame barrier by blowing a blizzard from multiple angles.

Screeeeech!

As the flames weakened due to the combined attack, a massive icicle penetrated the flame barrier, piercing through it.

It was no different from a giant spear made of ice, but Oliver and Willes each utilized their mana and magical detection skills to block the incoming icicles from all directions.

Crack! Shatter! Boom!

Amazingly, Oliver and Willes worked together like a well-coordinated team, not interfering with each other and blocking only the necessary parts of the attacks.

This was possible because both sides had considerable skills.

"Is that all you've got…?!"

As the flame barrier pierced by icicles began to shrink, the female warlocks charged in with their icy weapons, shouting. They held weapons made of ice, ranging from ordinary swords to scythes, rapiers, and chains. Their mana and spell structure were not ordinary, but their skills as fighters left something to be desired.

Their impressive magic skills and physical abilities notwithstanding, the women simply swung their weapons.

Of course, their agility made them threatening, but it was no match for Willes, who had proper swordsmanship training, and they couldn't even keep up with Oliver.

Oliver and Willes fought back-to-back, defending against and dodging the enemy's attacks while counterattacking.

Willes condensed the flames on his blade to increase resistance against the ice magic and parried the enemy's attacks, slicing them in return.

Oliver, on the other hand, used the techniques he had learned from Corpse Doll-Duncan, changing his stance to block attacks like a shield, whip, and axe.

Of course, the female warlocks were also agile enough to block Oliver's attacks, but they couldn't take control of the battle despite their numerical and positional advantage.

"Be careful not to get cut by their ice weapons. If they manage to land a hit, the cold will cause continuous damage like poison."

"Yes, I'm aware."

Oliver recalled a book he had read in Merlin's library.

Like the speed and range of lightning magic and the firepower and sustained attack ability of fire magic, the ice magic of the Skadi School had its unique characteristics.

That characteristic was the ability of the cold to cause continuous damage like poison. The magical cold could damage the respiratory system and cause necrosis in the flesh.

That's why Oliver prioritized his own safety in the fight, rather than trying to damage his opponents.

"What are you going to do about it?!"

The brown-haired female warlock angrily threw her ice chain at them.

The anchor-like ice chains flew towards Oliver with a rustling sound, and Oliver blocked the chains with the Tonfa in one hand, gripping it like an axe.

Whoosh! Crack!

The ice chains wrapped around the Tonfa like a rope, and the female warlock sealed one side of Oliver's Tonfa by pulling it towards her.

She laughed and said,

"Gotcha! Now… huh?"

Before the female warlock who threw the ice chains could finish her sentence, Oliver immediately let go of the trapped Tonfa.

The female warlock, who had been exerting force, lost her balance and fell backward. Not missing the timing, Oliver pulled on the magic thread connected to the Tonfa, dragging the off-balance female warlock toward him.

"Uh…?"

The female warlock was dragged along like a fish caught on a line.

Oliver swung the retrieved Tonfa and smashed the female warlock's head vertically.

Crack—!!

Her head split with a crisp sound.

Fortunately, the female warlock could not recover from having her head split in two and lay on the ground twitching.

Blood oozed from the split in her head as she struggled to recover, but her attempts were unsuccessful, and her blood vessels collapsed continuously.

Thud—!!

Oliver stomped on her head just in case, completely crushing it.

Although he wanted to preserve the body for later research, it seemed inappropriate since they were still in battle.

‘Well, there are many others… But what?'

Oliver looked around with his foot still on the crushed head of the female warlock.

The female warlocks, who had been fiercely attacking in unison, stopped and stared at Oliver simultaneously.

Everyone was silent as if they had seen something shocking, and an icy silence descended around them.

"How dare you… kill Ester… How dare a man stomp on our sister to death?!"

A female warlock shouted with anger, contempt, and disgust.

Her emotions intensified, and her facial muscles and tendons became more prominent, her fangs growing like those of a beast.

"Kyaahhhhhhh!"

The female warlock opened her fang-filled mouth and screamed, followed by the other female warlocks doing the same.

"Kyaahhhhhhh!"

"Kyaahhhhhhhh!"

"Kyaahh!"

"Kyaahhhhhhh!"

"Kyaahhhhhhhhh!"

The echoing screams were painful to the ears, but experienced fighters Oliver and Willes protected their ears using magic.

As the deafening sound subsided, the first female warlock who screamed shouted.

"Mother told us to bring you back alive if possible, but we've changed our minds. She'll understand if you're a bit damaged! Girls!"

The female warlocks simultaneously released the ice magic they were holding and drew in new magic to cast ice spells.

Willes created a storm of flames using all the fire from his blade to protect himself and Oliver from the hail and snowstorm pouring from all sides.

It wasn't a suitable magic for indoor use, but there was no choice to block the incoming ice magic.

Shahahahahahahahahahahaha-!!!!

The storm of flames sweeping through the room and the ice magic trying to withstand it engaged in a power struggle, and Oliver could see that their forces were evenly matched.

The clashing magic was of similar levels, causing them to cancel each other out. It was a war of attrition at this rate.

"Hey."

Willes, inside the eye of the storm, called out while shaking his head.

"Yes, Mr. Willes."

"Got any good ideas? I'm reaching my limit just holding them off. I'll run out of mana if I just keep defending."

He was right. They were up against over ten opponents, and Willes was alone. It was impressive that the fight was even this close.

Oliver touched the medicine box in his pocket and thought for a moment before shaking his head. He needed to save it for later.

To find another way, Oliver looked around with the eyes of a warlock and identified the positions of the female warlocks beyond the firestorm.

"Uh… I'm not sure if this is the right way, but I do have one idea."

"What is it?"

Willes asked, and Oliver answered.

After hearing the full answer, Willes nodded.

"It's not a bad idea. Can you do it now?"

"Yes."

"Alright, then. Let's begin… right now!"

With Willes' shout, the firestorm exploded, spreading outwards. The female warlocks increased the output of their magic to block it.

Once again, the room filled with steam and hot air.

Caught off guard by the sudden change, the female warlocks halted their magic. Not missing this opportunity, Oliver pulled up his mana and sent mana chains in all directions to bind the female warlocks.

Flutter…snap!

The mana chains, swift like snakes, latched onto the arms, waists, and torsos of the female warlocks.

Surprised by the unexpected counterattack, they panicked momentarily but quickly regained their composure when they realized the mana chains weren't very strong.

"Is this all you have to buy time?"

As the steam cleared, the female warlock saw the mana chains with her naked eyes and tried to cut them with an ice blade.

"No, I wasn't trying to buy time."

"What, you… huh?"

The female warlock looked at Oliver.

Oliver, who had created more than ten mana chains through his Tonfa, had successfully bound them.

Oliver was in a position with one knee bent, ready to be struck, and in front of him, Willes had prepared to slash down at Oliver with a blade covered in fire once again.

To be precise, he aimed at the Tonfa connected to the mana chains.

The female warlocks, skilled in using magic, seemed to realize what was going on and tried to stop it with a look of horror on their faces, but it was too late.

Willes forcefully swung his flaming blade down on Oliver's Tonfa, and the mana chains connected to it ignited as Oliver had pre-set, charging towards the female warlocks like a burning rag soaked in oil.

⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩

"Aaaaaaaah!!!"

The female warlocks, bound by the mana chains, screamed as their bodies were engulfed in flames.

It was a scream filled with pain and fear, completely different from the previous angry shouts.

They desperately tried to extinguish the flames on their bodies, but as already mentioned several times, using their mana to put out Willes' flames only fueled the fire.

At first, it seemed as if they were able to block the flames by concentrating their mana, but the fire soon exploded in response to their mana, swallowing them in an instant.

"Kuh…!"

One of the female warlocks, unfortunate enough to have a mana chain wrapped around her neck, had her face burned and her respiratory system turned to ash. She was robbed of even the right to scream.

The ones who were somewhat lucky had their arms or legs on fire, and they were just barely able to shake off the flames by tearing off the burning body parts.

Of course, that didn't mean they were safe.

Whoosh

Thud

Willes didn't miss the opportunity when the enemies were defenseless, quickly closing the distance and cutting down the enemies who had barely avoided fatal injuries.

The flaming blade cut and burned the enemies at the same time, and those who had barely saved their lives experienced both the pain of having their necks cut and the pain of burning as they turned to ashes.

"Aaargh-!!!"

In the end, only one or two female warlocks barely survived and fled into the inner parts of the laboratory.

"Chase them!"

Willes, seizing the momentum, shouted, and Oliver followed, regretting that there were no intact corpses left.

Willes and Oliver pursued the female warlocks. Although they were quite fast, they couldn't reach their original speed since each of them had lost an arm or a leg.

Just as Willes' blade was about to touch them, zombies suddenly poured from an opening in the ceiling.

"Kyahahahahaha!!!!"

"Krrrurk-!!"

"Kyahak! Kyahahahak-!!"

Caught off guard by the sudden ambush, Willes instinctively stepped back and swung his longsword, cutting the zombies like butter and setting them on fire.

Still, the zombies kept pouring in, but Willes didn't panic and tried to control the flames to sweep away the horde of zombies. After all, fire magic was most effective against such a densely packed group.

Fwooshahahahahaha!!!

The mana that formed the flames was refined, and under Willes' control, it engulfed the horde of zombies.

At that moment, something strange caught their eyes.

The bodies of the zombies that hadn't been swept by the flames swelled up like long-decayed canned food.

And fittingly, the zombies that hadn't been swept by the flames burst from the inside, spewing blood and pieces of entrails in all directions.

Willes stepped back, and Oliver inspected his blood-spattered skin.

He checked to see if he was affected by any disease-weakening black magic, but fortunately, there was nothing wrong.

He felt relieved, but at the same time, a question arose. If it were him, he would have used disease-weakening black magic.

‘So, what's their plan?'

Oliver looked around, thinking.

Willes' flames covered in blood and dying out, the exploded corpses' remains, and the puddles of blood on the floor…

‘Puddles of blood?'

Just as Oliver noticed something and was about to speak to Willes, a female warlock burst out of the blood puddle on the floor.

Caught off guard by her sudden appearance, Willes tried to slash the female warlock with his flaming sword, but this time, the female warlock was faster.

She touched the blood puddle, activating a spell mixed with black magic and mana, and Oliver, who had been standing on it, sank down with Willes as if they were falling into a swamp.

The female warlock shouted.

"Split them apart and deal with them separately!"

⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩

"Deal with them separately!"

With those words, Oliver fell into the pool of blood, his vision was filled with red. He felt as if he was being swept away by a rapid current, and soon he was pushed back out.

Drenched in blood, Oliver got up and wiped the blood off his face while surveying his surroundings. Just as the female warlock had said, there was no sign of Willes, and he found himself in an unfamiliar place shrouded in darkness.

Gathering mana at his fingertips, Oliver created a small orb of light to illuminate his surroundings. It looked like an experimental laboratory.

‘An experimental lab… I have a strange memory about this.'

Oliver recalled the time he had infiltrated Mattel's secret laboratory in search of Rosbane.

Memories from that time rushed back to him, including Rosbane and other children crying in his arms and a boy named Colin.

Colin, who was in the worst condition, had mistaken Oliver as Savior and asked for help.

However, Oliver couldn't help him and ended up lying.

He told Colin that if he confessed his sins, he could go to heaven, even though he didn't know if it was true or not.

But Colin believed Oliver's words and asked for forgiveness from God through him.

‘Why did I do that?'

Oliver questioned his past actions.

He still couldn't figure out why he had done such a reckless thing.

"Huh?"

Something caught Oliver's eye as he looked around.

Approaching the iron bars on the wall, he could see a grotesque creature tied up inside. What should he call it…

"Enhanced Human-C03, I suppose."

Oliver turned his head towards the sudden appearance of life signs.

The orb of light moved with him, illuminating the area, revealing the pool of blood and the female warlocks emerging from it.

The women surrounded Oliver with vengeance and malice in their eyes.

"Enhanced Human-C03?"

"That's right. A new human created by combining a cow and a human."

Oliver looked back at the creature behind the iron bars.

Inside the bars, there was a chimera with a cow's head and a human body, dead and sprawled out. Its eyes, nose, and mouth were all spewing blood.

"You mixed a cow and a human?"

"As you can see."

"What's the reason?"

"To create excellent workers. Stronger, sturdier, and obedient good workers."

The bizarre story was like a urban legend, but having already seen the dark side of Life School, Oliver accepted it without surprise or novelty.

Perhaps he had already anticipated it.

Then another question arose.

"But how do you all know?"

"Because we collaborated with them."

The female warlock answered sincerely.

(To be Continued)

OR

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