Chapter 68: Another Summon, What Great Luck II

"Keep that up." He said. Keeping the Swordsman and his other undead out had already made him understand his advantage, but none of them had any special abilities or skills, so having a Mage now that, technically, would require more energy to maintain, was a good test.

The Mage remained attentive.

"What do you really have in your fire magic quiver?" Leon wondered. To his surprise, the information came to him naturally. He wasn’t sure if it was from the Arkashic Records, or the Undead itself. He theorized it was the former, since even afte trying, he couldn’t actually communicate with the summon.

"Fire Arrow. The target on the left." Leon ordered from behind the barrier.

The Mage raised its staff.

Flames gathered at the tip and slowly stretched into a narrow shape. Leon could already make out the pointed head before the rest of the arrow had finished forming.

The moment it was complete, it shot forward.

Leon barely managed to follow it with his eyes as the spell shot forward.

The Fire Arrow struck the target and punched through the outer covering, burying itself within the dense material beneath. There was a sharp impact, but none of the usual explosion he would have expected from a fire spell.

Instead, the area where the arrow had stopped caught fire.

It looked as though the arrow’s shape collapsed, and the flames quickly spread through everything around the practice dummy that could burn. The outer covering blackened and curled inward, and within a few seconds, the opening where the arrow struck had widened enough for Leon to see the damage farther inside.

’That’s more like it.’ He thought to himself. The attack carried some real heat.

This was the power he expected from a Grade 3 Peak summon at the very least.

The practice dummy was in incredibly tough parget, and from what he could tell from the spell, the Fire Arrow was strong enough to kill a Grade 3 monster that lacked a proper defence. The speed and penetrating power made the first strike dangerous enough, and even if the wound wasn’t immediately fatal, the flames left behind would continue consuming flesh, clothing or anything else that could burn.

Because it also burned hotter than normal fire, he was certain that would allow it to eat through flesh much faster.

"Again." Leon said while pointing towards another target.

The Mage began preparing the same spell, but it couldn’t release another arrow immediately.

Several seconds passed as the flames gathered and formed into another arrow. Once complete, it shot across the room and buried itself in the second target, leaving the area around the impact burning.

Leon checked the time before ordering a third attack.

The delay remained almost the same. There was no indication that the Mage was getting tired or running out of energy, though. It simply needed a few seconds to prepare the same spell again.

’Fast once it leaves the staff, but there’s a delay before the next one.’ He thought to himself.

That was something he would have to account for. Maybe he had been spoilt by his physical fighters.

Leon used the extinguisher in the room to put out the burning targets before continuing. By the time he was done, all three had deep holes left in them, with most of the surrounding material burnt black.

He turned towards an open part of the training floor.

"Flaming Whirlwind. There."

The Mage pointed its staff towards the area Leon had indicated.

After several seconds of preparation, flames appeared above the floor and began to turn. They gathered into a spinning column, becoming larger and more violent as the fire circled the centre before being pulled back into the rotating mass.

Leon straightened behind the barrier as the heat quickly increased.

The bare floor beneath the spell began to darken, while the light from the flames reflected across the Mage’s skull and the surface of the translucent wall... the entire room was alight.

’Definitely not something I want to stand inside.’

From the information Leon could obtain about the spell, an unprotected person trapped within the Flaming Whirlwind could lose more than sixty per cent of their flesh in under ten seconds. The fire burned intensely enough to consume far more than skin, and if the target couldn’t escape quickly, surviving the spell wouldn’t mean much.

His calculations might have been borne of illogical fantasy maths, but it was left to be tested once he practiced against a real monster.

Leon allowed it to continue for only a few seconds before ordering it to stop. He expected it to die down by itself, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

"Stop." He said. ’Before the sprinklers are activated.’ Perhaps it was because it was a training area, they had activated even with all the heat. It felt like a furnance.

The Mage lowered its staff, and the whirlwind collapsed.

Heat remained above the training floor. Leon waited behind the barrier until it reduced before moving closer to the edge of the blackened area. Even then, he could still feel the heat, even the floor had turned red in several areas that traced a circle.

The Flaming Whirlwind could have continued for much longer. Much like the barrier, it required Spirit Energy to remain active, and with the Door supplying the Mage, Leon could maintain it for as long as he needed.

He looked back at the translucent wall.

It was still standing as expected. ’Just how much energy does the Door even have?’ He wondered to himself.

The Mage hadn’t exhausted itself by maintaining the barrier, casting several Fire Arrows and using Flaming Whirlwind. It had enough power available to continue. The only real delay came from preparing its spells, casting time, especially when Leon wanted it to cast the same attack repeatedly.

’The others can cover those few seconds.’

One Great Swordsman could keep an opponent occupied while the Mage prepared an attack, and now Leon had two of them. He could also keep one close to himself to cover the parts the barrier didn’t protect.

There were already several things he wanted to try, but an empty training room couldn’t show him how well any of them would work against something trying to kill him.

For now, he knew what he had obtained.

’Assuming even it is as intelligent as the Swordsman, then my life just got at least 10 times easier.’ He thought to himself.

A barrier that could remain active indefinitely, a fast ranged attack with enough penetrating power to kill a Grade 3 opponent, and an area spell that could continue burning for as long as the Mage supplied it with energy.

He would still need other undead around him since the barrier only protected one direction, but the Mage gave him considerably more options than another Skeleton Warrior.

"I guess this is why mages are always regarded higher than swordsmen. Dismiss the barrier." Leon ordered.

The translucent wall faded, and Leon returned the Mage to his summoner’s space.

He waited until there was no active fire left in the practice area before unlocking the door and leaving the room.

Dustin and Raul had stopped arguing by the time he returned to the room. Neither of them asked where he had gone or what he had been doing.

Having somewhere to be the following morning, he didn’t spend too long after being awake.