I Used my Trump Card
「Do you think you can escape? You seem to underestimate me.」Georgis said.
「Not at all. Call it taking the best course of action.」
I readied my staff and so did he.
「Sticky Bomb.」
「Flame Circle.」
The Cardinal used Sticky Bomb, while I used Flame Circle.
The Sticky Bomb was cast on my feet, pinning them to the ground. Him not attacking meant he doesn’t want to let me escape. At the same time, I used Flame Circle around me as well, wrapping me up in flames. The Cardinal looked confused.
「Suicide?」
Georgis didn’t bother trying to block Flame Circle, meaning he has prepared for any form of offensive spells. I see through his tactics, however.
My objective remains the same. I used this spell so I could escape for certain.
The flames blocked me from view, creating the opportunity to use my trump card.
「Change Coordinates.」
Cardinal Georgis’ POV
「What happened?」
Georgis was baffled. Not because the enemy — the person who destroyed the altar — used Flame Circle on himself, but because he disappeared after using Change Coordinates.
After the flames died, no one was there. Even the Sticky Bomb that should have hit him was gone as well.
Of course, Flame Circle doesn’t have enough firepower to burn a person completely into nothing. But it was clear that the intruder vanished.
「Change Coordinates… was it?」
Judging from the situation, what he said was probably a spell. He’s a Sage. There’s no doubt that he can use magic.
Georgis found it hard to believe that an enemy Sage had appeared, but he set that thought aside for now. In any case, he hadn’t heard the spell “Change Coordinates” before.
「A spell that I do not know about? No, that cannot be.」
Cardinal Georgis knew every spell there was in this world, from the people with normal job classes used down to the inferior ones. He had always believed that, and even now that hadn’t changed.
The question now was: What is Change Coordinates? The most rational explanation is that such a spell doesn’t exist. So how did the enemy disappear?
「A concealment-type spell?」
Sages have plenty of spells that could be used to hide themselves. By casting it without actually chanting, one could make himself disappear.
In other words, the enemy recited a spell that doesn’t exist to make it look like he used teleportation magic when it’s nothing more than a hiding spell. That explains why he didn’t just cast it right from the start — because there’s just no such magic.
All concealment magic can do is hide oneself. It can’t remove Sticky Bombs, so he can’t escape. That’s why he used Flame Circle on himself, so he could burn the Sticky Bombs and give him a chance to escape.
「In that case… Small Explosion.」
Georgis casted an explosion-type fire spell at the point the man was a while ago. He should be wary about Mana Invisibility in particular, since it makes it extremely difficult to find the caster.
But for how effective Mana Invisibility is, it had its drawback — the user has to move very slowly. Just walking normally will break the spell, revealing themselves. So if the enemy used Mana Invisibility, he should still be around here somewhere.
With a deafening boom, flames burst at the spot where the man was before. The Cardinal watched closely.
He didn’t expect a direct hit. Nonetheless he strained his eyes, staring at the shock wave. If someone was nearby, the wind would blow in a strange direction.
But alas, he found nothing. Then the Cardinal smiled.
「I see. Magic Search.」
He already considered that he might not find the enemy with the explosion spell. This just means that the man used “Hide”.
“Hide” allows one to move freely, but the caster can’t hide their mana. So using Magic Search should reveal them.
Or at least that’s what Georgis thought.