Chapter 45 - Coordination

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Condense! Scorching flame!”

Cecilia’s crisp voice emitted a strange magic power inside the camp. Her voice was not loud, but it still managed to completely overshadow the sounds of metal clashing coming from the battle between the two dog-headed guards and Sean. It was as if the entire world had turned completely silent at this moment, leaving only Cecilia’s voice.

Sean did not know much about magic, but he did know the last string of syllables that Cecilia had just chanted. He knew very well that they meant ‘condense’ and ‘burning flames’. When he connected these two words with Cecilia’s usual gestures, Sean immediately knew what kind of magic spell this was.

Flame Arrow!

Out of the few magic spells that Cecilia had mastered, this one could be regarded as one of the rather high-level magic spells.

It was very different from magic like the Secondary Level Fireball Technique, which had an obvious range of damage. The Flame Arrow was a type of magic that required a magician to mentally lock onto their target and then incorporate control. Although this magic was slightly complicated, it had a destructive power that couldn’t be matched by the Secondary Level Fireball Technique.

The shape of the Flame Arrow looked just like an arrow that had been condensed by flames. Only, this arrow had no tail feathers, and its head was also a pointed cone.

As soon as the Flame Arrow was released, Cecilia did not hesitate to control the magic and shoot it towards a dog-headed guard.

Seeing Cecilia’s choice, Sean could not help but secretly nod to himself. It was extremely obvious that after experiencing so many cruel battles in real life, Cecilia’s fighting consciousness and combat experience had improved a lot.

The dog-headed magician had a formal rank three profession, and it was also a fire-based magician like Cecilia. However, no matter whether it was magic accumulation, mind control, or magic skills, there was still an obvious gap between Cecilia and the dog-headed magician. This did not indicate that Cecilia was not as good at the dog-headed magician. It was simply a difference that had been created due to the gap in their class. The number of magic spells Cecilia had mastered and could use was much too little.

If Cecilia were to focus her attacks on the dog-headed magician, then she might have been able to make it look more haggard or like it had been in a rush. However, she would not be able to do any real harm to it.

Such a result would only lead to an extension of the battle time.

Sean certainly would not say anything to Cecilia, but he would be a little disappointed.

A genius without fighting awareness was not even as good as an ordinary person with fighting awareness.

But now, Cecilia’s performance did not only display combat experience and fighting awareness. It was a complete surprise!

The timing of the Flame Arrow attack coincided exactly with the moment the dog-headed guard on the left dodged Sean’s attack and took a step back.

It had turned its back to Cecilia, so naturally it could not see her magic attack. Although it had felt the magic fluctuations coming from Cecilia, the dog-headed guard simply thought that Cecilia’s target would be the dog-headed magician and not itself.

This was simple logic.

It reflected the sayings ‘destroy the leader and the gang will collapse’ and ‘the outstanding usually bear the brunt of attack’. Under the strict orders of the dog-headed people, the position of a dog-headed magician was comparable to that of a dog-headed commander, which meant that they were much more highly regarded than the dog-headed guards. Of course, this also meant that they were more troublesome to take care of. When they attacked, they would choose to attack the one with the highest position or the one who was trickiest and the most troublesome to take care of among the enemy. Therefore, it was natural for the dog-headed guard to think that Cecilia would attack the dog-headed magician.

However!

The other dog-headed guard, who happened to be facing Cecilia, suddenly let out a series of loud howls.

It was ear-piercing and terrifying.

But at this moment, it was much too late for the dog-headed guard to make any more evasive movements, no matter how much it might have wanted to. Cecilia’s Flame Arrow pierced through the chest of this dog-headed guard. It was impossible for ordinary leather armor and fragile flesh to resist the powerful penetration of the Flame Arrow. However, at the same time, it was because this dog-headed guard had born the brunt force of this attack that the magic power of the Flame Arrow was significantly weakened. There was not enough magic power to penetrate the second dog-headed guard.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sean naturally did not stop his attack at all either.

However, he did not use his sword to put an end to the dog-headed guard, whose chest had been pierced by the Flame Arrow. Instead, Sean used his sword to send the halberd in the dog-headed guard’s hand flying. Then, Sean reached out and grabbed the right shoulder of the dog-headed guard. He swung his hand hard and pushed it to the left.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of three explosions could be heard, one after another. Each explosion was louder than the previous one, and the impact of each explosion was stronger than the previous one as well.

This was the Fireball Combo cast by the dog-headed magician.

The Fireball Combo was an improved version of the Fireball. The criteria for it to be successful was that three fireballs had to be cast in succession. Even though it was marked as a level two magic on the magic list, its power was comparable to that of a level three magic spell. Furthermore, under normal circumstances, a level three magic spell could only be mastered by someone with a level four or above spellcaster profession. Therefore, any official magicians who specialized in fire-based magic would never let go of the chance to learn this powerful magic spell.

However, this magic spell also had many flaws, which included a long casting time and a high amount of mental control and magic power. Most of the official magicians who cast this spell would be completely drained of the magic power inside their bodies. Therefore, most of the time, this magic spell would be used to save lives or under special circumstances.

Cecilia had guessed from the beginning that the dog-headed magician was preparing to use this magic spell, therefore she had chosen the relatively lethal Flame Arrow, which had a powerful penetration, as her first magic attack. However, she had not expected the speed at which the dog-headed magician had cast the spell to be so much faster than she had originally thought. Because of this, she was almost unable to escape. Luckily, Sean had swung a dog-headed guard in front of Cecilia to block the magic attack.

Sean knew something that Cecilia did not know.

The dog-headed people had an innate advantage in magic skills. Perhaps due to the blood in their body, the magic power and mentality of dog-headed magicians had a certain degree of advantage over normal human magicians of the same class. Although this advantage was not obvious, it would be easy to get caught if not enough attention was paid toward this advantage. Of course, this advantage was only relative to ordinary people. For those who were talented or full of wit, it was an entirely different matter.

No matter how talented Cecilia was, the gap in class between them could not be shortened here.

Therefore, instead of continuing to attack, Sean had pushed a substitute victim over to block the Fireball Combo from the dog-headed magician.

In the eyes of outsiders, this moment would be considered a display of the tactical coordination between Cecilia and Sean. However, Cecilia knew what had really happened. At this moment, because of the shock waves from the explosions caused by the Fireball Combo, Sean was unable to remain at such a close range. He had staggered back more than 10 steps so that he could soften the impact of the shock waves.

But the battle was not over yet!

Cecilia glanced at Sean, then immediately began to prepare for a second magic spell.

The Flame Arrow did not consume a large amount of magic. With Cecilia’s identity as an apprentice magician, she would be able to cast it a few times. However, this time, she did not want to cast the Flame Arrow. Instead, she began to prepare for the Secondary Level Fireball Technique.

As one of the magic spells that Cecilia was most familiar with, the Secondary Level Fireball Technique could be cast much faster than the Flame Arrow. Coupled with the support from the Flame of Crimson, she was able to shorten the casting time of the Secondary Level Fireball Technique to only 10 magic syllables. If the casting time of any magic spell could be reduced to less than 10 magic syllables, then it would be no different from a silent casting. Of course, what this reflected was completely different from the situation in the game. After all, in the game, players had help from the system, an extremely powerful cheating machine.

Cecilia did not randomly choose to use the Secondary Level Fireball Technique this time around. She had chosen it after considering the battle situation in front of her.

For Sean and Cecilia, the dog-headed magician had made a bad move by choosing to cast this spell, as it now had less than half of its magic left. At most, it could only cast a few more spells. On the contrary, if the dog-headed guard, who did not rely on magic to fight and had a certain advantage in speed, kept defending, then when coordinating with the harassment from the dog-headed magician, they would be able to drag the battle out a lot longer. This would be different from the tactical strategy that Sean had decided on.

This was why Cecilia had chosen to use the Secondary Level Fireball Technique.

At present, the dog-headed guard had no choice but to also stop attacking due to the impact of the Fireball Combo. Physically speaking, the dog-headed guard was not as good as a human. However, because of the gap in the class, it was able to stabilize its body at about the same time as Sean.

But right at that moment, Cecilia’s Secondary Level Fireball Technique was also cast, and it flew towards the dog-headed guard. The fireball did not directly hit the dog-headed guard’s body but instead landed somewhere on the floor close to it. Because of the effects of the special bonus from the Flame of Crimson, the power of Cecilia’s Secondary Level Fireball Technique was not small. The explosion was like a grenade, and within its flare, the sensitive hearing of the dog-headed guard was destroyed in an instant. The shock waves caused by the explosion had also made it unable to stand properly, and it had no choice but to fall back a few steps.

On the other hand, after casting the Secondary Level Fireball Technique, Cecilia did not remain in place. Instead, she started running quickly in Sean’s direction.

This was also something that Sean had told Cecilia to improve on when casting spells. He had always stressed that he would never allow Cecilia to stay in one spot and perform her magic like an idiot. Instead, she had to become more active and run around to avoid the possibility of her becoming a target.

Of course, Cecilia was not able to understand a lot of Sean’s new terms. However, that did not stop her from understanding what Sean was trying to express. For Cecilia, Sean had always had the ability to complicate problems. All Cecilia had to do was simplify these already complicated problems.

Sean had also started running forward with his sword raised while Cecilia had started running.

The same way that Cecilia had previously considered her target enemy to be the dog-headed guard, Sean’s goal was also the slightly troublesome enemy. However, it was only troublesome, nothing more.