The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 245

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Return of an EX-Rank Mage Episode 245
Choi Kang-mok released his ‘Limit’.
There was no longer any need to calculate damage control.
I let Baek-ik rampage freely.
As Baek-ik, freed from psychological restraints, blazed brilliantly, white fissures began tearing across the Dark World.
Boom!
Brass-hued rings shattered with explosive force.
As though they had been part of the beast’s very body.
Grrrrooooaaahhh—!
The beast roared.
Leon knew.
‘Absurd destructive power.’
I cannot afford to waste time.
This is merely a byproduct of flight magic.
The beast’s footsteps accelerated, and the Dark World trembled.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A dense shadow hurtled toward Choi Kang-mok.
My gaze remained fixed upon the beast.
‘Defense? Offense?’
The beast’s colossal form drew closer in real time.
I could not gauge what manner of attack it would unleash.
Its attribute is darkness.
It seemed unlikely to resort to mere physical assault.
In that infinitesimal moment, I made my decision.
‘Attack.’
Sometimes the finest defense is indeed an offense.
This was such a moment.
The moment the magical anomaly Choi Kang-mok resolved to attack, Baek-ik’s radiance intensified further.
Wings of light expanded, scraping across the Pocket Dimension.
The destructive force grew even more formidable.
‘Blink.’
A blink for combat.
I created distance to channel my magic.
Flash!
Light erupted forth.
The surroundings blazed as though an immense photon burst had detonated.
Pushing back Leon’s Pocket Dimension, I imposed a new law upon this realm.
Now, every light that exists in this small world grinds and obliterates all things.
Light cried out.
—My light is all things, shattering and breaking and burning, light itself!!!
Light, who had never once attacked another being, unleashed a roar that shook the heavens.
I concentrated intensely.
I could feel it.
Each move, each counter, would be fatal to one of us.
The smallest opening could shatter my opponent.
‘Therefore.’
I had to strike in ways my enemy could never anticipate.
I needed to conduct this battle with maximum efficiency and precision.
‘Internal defensive magic is still beyond me.’
That would require far more time to master.
But the inverse?
What if I embedded offensive magic into another’s body?
‘That, I can do.’
The beast’s body was colossal.
The target was unmistakable. Clearly visible before my eyes.
‘Spatial Release. Meteor Form.’
The coordinates for Meteor Form would be deep within that massive beast’s body.
There, I would manifest Black Hole—the quintessential offensive spell.
Spatial magic. Multiple energy bolts. Overlapping at identical coordinates.
‘Light deflected them.’
Then?
‘Could it deflect a Black Hole as well?’
[Activating Skill: Meteor Form (EX).]
The coordinates: the beast’s torso.
As naturally as breathing, I unleashed an EX-rank spell.
‘My staff is Excalion.’
A staff that boasts unparalleled efficiency in boss battles.
Cooldowns vanish.
I pour spells at the boss without limit.
[Meteor Form’s effect is applied.]
[Energy Bolt’s rank increases.]
And I layer the same process again.
Just as I was about to use Meteor Form once more to stack another Energy Bolt—
‘Danger.’
I cancelled my spell casting and drew forth a different magic.
‘Invincibility.’
Dark World.
From empty space behind me, completely unrelated to the beast, a massive whip came hurtling through.
Crash!
A tremendous impact struck me.
It was the beast’s tail. A tail with no physical connection crashed down upon Choi Kang-mok.
Thanks to my invulnerability, there was no damage, yet the vibration itself transmitted through.
‘Tremendous impact force.’
The colossal mass and ponderous weight registered entirely.
At the boundary where darkness and light converged, the luminous barrier trembled, and light’s momentum was pushed back.
Even with invulnerability deployed, had I not grown accustomed to ‘my own damage’ in ordinary circumstances, I would have been greatly flustered.
Red Cat, nestled beside Igniasha buried within my fur at the periphery of the fierce battle’s epicenter, swallowed involuntarily.
“The destructive power is formidable.”
“That beast’s?”
“No, the master’s.”
The beast’s assault was flamboyant and intuitive.
The scene of the beast’s tail, resembling a colossal whip, striking Choi Kang-mok appeared intuitively perilous.
Yet the one sustaining grievous injury was paradoxically the beast itself.
“Krrrraaaaaaagh!”
Within the beast’s maw.
Leon, bound in place, shrieked.
Blood erupted from his eyes.
“A gaping wound has opened in its torso.”
Though the nested black hole incantation had failed, the energy bolt itself was not negated.
The mage possessed one energy bolt.
Igniasha blinked.
“That’s enormous?”
Can something survive with such a hole in its body…?
A cat wouldn’t make it.
The torso was so immense that it was clearly visible.
It appeared as though a tremendous cannonball had pierced straight through the beast.
Yet reassurance was impossible.
Truthfully, Choi Kang-mok was profoundly shocked.
‘It’s regenerating?’
In a boss battle, it is naturally expected that the boss repairs and recovers its damaged body.
It was simply not natural for me.
Because my magic destroyed everything it touched.
Because I had obliterated it beyond any possibility of restoration.
Today was not a natural day.
Choi Kang-mok smiled faintly.
‘One strike isn’t enough, then?’
A sensation of a kind I had never experienced before stirred faintly at the core of my chest.
Exhilaration, curiosity, competitive spirit.
Emotions difficult to feel in combat.
‘So… is it a more resilient and dangerous sandbag?’
Anomalous entity. Mage Choi Kang-mok.
Phase 2.5 initiated.

* * *
Harmless entity. Assassin.
Leon too approached the boss battle with unwavering resolve.
[Forced boss battle, ‘Combat Mage’ has begun.]
From Baek-ik, I sensed an overwhelming force of ‘destruction’.
Light, holding supreme advantage over darkness, scraped across the pocket dimension.
I had to concentrate my mind to prevent the pocket dimension from shattering.
This light was not light born of destructive intent.
Yet, destruction dwelt within it.
Darkness and light tangled together, clashing and pushing against one another.
And then came Phase 2.
‘Formidable.’
The ‘Mage’ was formidable.
This ‘darkness’ that nullified all of my counteroffensive and the ring’s vibrations crumbled beneath the destructive force Baek-ik unleashed, and portions of my beast-transformed body were torn away.
My tail attacks were completely neutralized.
Even without Mayo’s aid, that mage’s defensive capabilities transcended imagination.
‘An explosion occurred from within my body.’
The source of the explosion?
‘Energy… bolt.’
I already knew, yet it was shocking nonetheless.
The energy bolts I had experienced thus far operated on an entirely different scale.
‘So this is what a [Mage] truly is.’
Yet Leon’s focus lay not on the battle itself, but on something else entirely.
Specifically, the trigger that initiated the ‘Mage’s’ Phase 2.
-Right now, this is a combat situation.
Awareness.
That was the trigger.
With merely that, the entity transformed completely.
A gaping hole had opened in the beast’s torso, yet Leon’s expression seemed almost delighted.
‘Another follow-up attack will come.’
A boss that favors basic magic.
It was peculiar that each of those basic strikes functioned as an ultimate ability.
‘I’ve fixed the coordinates to the beast’s body.’
An attack endured once will not be endured again.
‘Defense is impossible.’
Though I am recovering, defense remains beyond reach.
That is an attack classified as unblockable.
‘If I just distort the coordinates to make the attack miss….’
Yet this method achieved only partial success.
The destructive force contained within the energy bolt was far too potent.
‘No. It’s not mere destructive force!’
Leon’s bloodshot eyes gleamed with intensity.
Within the destruction lay countless elements layered in complex confluence.
‘Destruction. Tracking. Haeju. Guidance. Penetration.’
And Leon understood.
This ‘mage’ had not deliberately granted or layered all these attributes.
The mage had not done it—the magic had.
The magic had accomplished it of its own accord.
This bordered on the miraculous realm.
There existed a ‘link’ that birthed this miracle.
Something like ‘faith,’ for instance.
Leon detonated the brass rings in unison.
Boom—!
Another gaping wound tore through the beast’s flank.
Leon spoke.
“Mage. Your magic is an offensive spell founded on spatial comprehension, yes?”
“That’s right.”
Choi Kang-mok’s breathing had grown labored—nearly for the first time.
The opponent’s coordinate distortion ability was formidable.
Perhaps due to the darkness suffusing this pocket dimension, landing a clean strike proved difficult.
Despite the target’s immense size.
Leon, drenched in blood, grinned wickedly.
“Your magic is no mere offensive spell.”
“I know.”
“To weave together such diverse principles, what mattered most was surely
practice,
yes?”
Choi Kang-mok nodded.
Why ask the obvious?
Leon chuckled darkly.
“Mage. You firmly believe that your magic was realized through practice.
Is that not so?
”
Leon, who had witnessed countless mages, understood.
This transcended what practice could achieve.
Miracles could not be forged through repetition.
Yet the author could make it possible.
If you practice and believe it’s possible, then it becomes possible.
‘That mage truly is…!’
A being that borders on ‘faith’ itself.
Leon’s chest trembled.
In that moment, Choi Kang-mok prepared an ambush.
An ambush against a mage might seem unusual, but for a combat mage, it’s second nature.
Swift magic favors ambushes.
‘Blink.’
Teleporting via Blink.
Then I unfurled Baek-ik and took flight through the sky.
That experience of unfurling Baek-ik all the way to Italy became nourishment for this moment.
Followed by physical impact magic.
Having switched staves, I swung it with force.
Crack!
With a sound of something shattering, a portion of the beast’s face was torn away.
Leon’s right hand restraint came undone.
This time, Choi Kang-mok spoke.
“Assassin. Are you drawing aggro with this?”
It’s certainly an assassin.
But can this truly be called the form of an assassin?
‘It’s far too massive.’
This isn’t assassination—it’s all-out warfare.
Moreover, there’s none of the malice characteristic of an assassin.
Choi Kang-mok’s instincts screamed.
‘This beast is merely a distraction.’
Even Leon’s grotesque form is a fake.
The real one lurks somewhere in this darkness.
Waiting for a single opportunity to claim the ‘mage’s’ life.
You believe this form is merely a puppet for drawing attention,
don’t you.
“I see.”
Leon focused not on Choi Kang-mok, but on himself.
On himself transformed into this beast.
What change would come to this body?
Will a miracle occur? If so, then show me a miracle.
[Forced Boss Battle: The designation ‘Abandoned Faith’ has been replaced.]
[Forced Boss Battle: ‘Answered Faith’ has begun.]
The beast’s aura rippled as darkness surged forth.
Dozens of thin whips lashed out in all directions.
Leon’s form blurred like watercolor.
Harmless entity. Assassin.
Entering Phase 2.5.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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