…?”
Having heard the voice coming from the back, Nainiae quickly turned her head. Along with Riley, she also discovered that the priest, Asteel, was unconscious and leaning against a wall. Looking confused, Nainiae asked Riley,
“Why are you here?”
Through the power of her eye, she was roughly aware that Riley had come to this place. However, Nainiae knew Riley was not going to step in the situation.
“I clearly remember you telling me that you will not step forward…”
When Nainiae was with Riley during the early morning, Riley had said so, and that instead he would just watch. Because Nainiae remembered his words, she stared at Riley with a question mark floating on her face.
“I know. I did say that.”
The look on Riley’s face said all this was such a bother to him. He scratched the back of his head and continued.
“I was not planning on stepping forward. It is as I said before, but…”
Riley furrowed the spot between his eyebrows and looked at Astroa floating in the air.
Astroa did have an arrow stuck in his thigh, but it appeared that the injury was not hindering him from using magic. Also, the intensity of the magic attacks that he was pouring out was not showing any signs of winding down.
Riley could see why Astroa was called the grand mage representing the Magic Tower. He deserved the title.
“…this is taking too long.”
Riley complained that it was going to take too long to defeat a grand mage like Astroa. Nainiae could see in Riley’s face that he was not joking. Nainiae asked,
“Too…long?”
The opponent that they were fighting against was the top dog of Solia’s Magic Tower, a grand mage that reached the height of Seven Circles. He was a monster that was launching a Six Circles level magic every five minutes.
Hunting him down quickly like a sewer rat was practically impossible.
“That’s right. This is taking too long.”
Despite all that, Riley was saying that the battle was being sustained for too long.
“This is being dragged on for too long, and because of that, magic attacks are about to reach all the way to where my mother is.”
Because this was taking too long, now there was a possibility of endangering his mother. This was the reason why Riley came to Nainiae.
If things went as Riley originally thought, the situation should have concluded before an incident where Astroa’s indiscriminate magic attacks came flying towards where Riley was.
“I don’t know about their circumstances, but…”
Again, the look on Riley’s face expressed that all this was such a bother to him. He turned his head toward Solia’s royal guards who were engaged in a head-on battle against Astroa.
“…Among the people from Solia Castle, there isn’t any skilled archer. This is the problem.”
The opponent was a grand mage floating in the air using Fly magic.
For Solia Castle’s swordsmen and the Holy Temple’s priests and holy knights, striking him down was certainly a very difficult task.
There were archers among the castle’s royal guards, but, because they didn’t know how to load the arrows with mana, these archers were not the ones Riley could have big expectations of.
“How could these so called knights not even know the concept of blade throw technique.”
Tsk.
Riley mentioned his specialty, and he clicked his tongue as he closed and opened his hand several times.
“There aren’t many that can attack from mid-range. Looking at the situation, there isn’t any among the priests from the Holy Temple that are capable of doing it either.”
“In that case, we should ask the Magic Tower…”
“No.”
As Nainiae said, in that case, the only way left was magic. It was best to use magic and shoot down Astroa or bring him down to the ground.
Although they had Nainiae here, because the mana inside her was running amok, she was limited to stopping Astroa when he occasionally attempted to cast Teleport, therefore she could not be counted on for such a task.
They needed another mage.
However, to point out a problem, the question was if the mages from the Magic Tower would willingly cooperate if they asked the Magic Tower’s mages the following question: ‘would you please lend your strengths and help us hunt down Astroa, your leader?’
“Notifying the Magic Tower about this should be done after giving a serious thought first. If we just tell them about it, it might only make the problem bigger. You never know. In the worst case scenario, it may lead to a rebellion.”
Riley was saying that mages had that much influence in a country. Therefore, Riley thought that, instead, finishing the deed while Astroa was alone and far away from everyone else might be easier.
“…God damn it. Mithril net! Is there a Mithril net?!”
As a powerful voice like the sound of thunder could be heard, Nainiae’s gaze moved toward the origin.
It was from Ian, the one that immediately went up to the frontline and started leading knights and archers along with the royal guard’s captain when Riley gave Ian the permission to act.
“It… It’s at the castle!”
“What? God damn it! Even if it is now, go get it!”
“But, it will at least take 30 minutes.”
“I said just go get it for now!”
It appeared Ian was titled as the hero mercenary from the Great War for a good reason. Ian had succeeded in burying an arrow in Astroa’s thigh. However, since then, he had not managed to successfully deal another hit, which was a problem.
When Riley first heard Ian looking for a net, Riley whistled. However, when Riley then heard it will take 30 minutes, he sighed.
“If this keeps up. The problem isn’t going to be just about whether Ian would get hurt or not.”