Chapter 262: High-Speed Spell Combat

The ‘Sentinel’s’ figure flashed continuously across the battlefield like the Grim Reaper.

The final defense line blocking Morin was utterly decimated in just a few seconds.

For the last time, his figure appeared out of thin air behind Morin.

He could even see the unguarded back of the Saxon officer’s neck, exposed because he hadn’t managed to turn in time.

Victory was already within grasp.

A cruel smile appeared on the ‘Sentinel’s’ face. Using the inertia carried over from the aerial flash-step, the military knife in his hand carved a cold arc, slashing fiercely toward Morin’s neck!

However, just before the blade could touch the skin, the expected sensation of cutting through flesh did not arrive.

He had slashed at empty air.

The target before him, the Saxon officer, had vanished into thin air at the very instant he was about to land the strike!

How is this possible?!

The ‘Sentinel’ knew how fast his [Steel Wind Strike] was; there was virtually no time delay between his appearance and his attack.

Unless…

Unless the opponent possessed a faster reaction speed than his own, and also commanded some form of spatial displacement spell!

In the instant he was stunned, a feeling of extreme danger came from his side and rear!

“Hoo—”

Morin let out a long sigh in a strange space where everything was rendered in black and white.

This was the ‘Ethereal Plane.’

Just a moment ago, the instant the ‘Sentinel’s’ figure disappeared from behind his fourth target, Morin had unhesitatingly activated his third Third-Circle Spell prepared for the day—[Blink].

In the nick of time, he successfully dodged the fatal strike, and his entire body entered the so-called ‘Ethereal Plane.’

Here, he could clearly hear and see everything happening in the original plane.

But everything had turned into a grayscale image, and the sounds had become distant and blurry, as if filtered through thick frosted glass.

The ‘Sentinel’ who had almost killed him had just completed his strike, but the blurred image of his blade had passed right through Morin’s body. The ‘Sentinel’ also stumbled slightly, off-balance.

Morin knew that the duration of [Blink] was very short, and he was also aware of the ‘minor flaw’ of this Third-Circle Spell.

After learning and testing [Blink], he found that he could only move about three meters in this ‘Ethereal Plane.’

This distance prevented him from easily flanking the enemy to launch a fatal blow like the opponent had done. At best, he could only move to the enemy’s side.

But there was no time to worry about that now!

There was no time for him to formulate a perfect tactic. In fact, everything—from the enemy casting [Steel Wind Strike] to him dodging with [Blink], and then preparing his counterattack—all happened in the blink of an eye.

Morin moved to the limit of his range in the ‘Ethereal Plane’ almost as soon as the opponent’s sword strike missed, positioning himself exactly to the ‘Sentinel’s’ side.

Then he deactivated [Blink], and his figure reappeared in the original plane.

Almost simultaneously with his manifestation, he raised the MP14 Submachine Gun in his hands, which had already been enhanced by [Enchant Weapon].

He mercilessly pulled the trigger, aiming at the ‘Sentinel’s’ waist!

“Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!”

The muzzle spat deadly blue flames. A full magazine of 9mm bullets was unleashed in a short burst.

The ‘Sentinel’s’ combat instincts were terrifyingly sharp.

Almost the instant Morin appeared and aimed his muzzle, he was aware of the impending danger.

His reaction was faster than any Mage Morin had previously encountered, even surpassing the world-renowned ‘experienced’ Britannian Highland Mages.

When Morin’s gun fired and the first bullet struck his [Wizard Armor], he didn’t even attempt to dodge or parry.

He knew that any evasion attempt at such close range against enemy firearm attacks would be futile.

So, he made the correct and only choice that might ensure his survival.

[Fourth-Circle Conjuration Spell – Dimension Door]

The ‘Sentinel’ unhesitatingly began casting this Fourth-Circle Spell, trying to teleport himself to safety before the bullets could tear through his armor.

Normally, [Dimension Door] only required one action to cast. He should have been able to escape this death trap!

However, while he was fast, Morin was faster!

Or rather, Morin seemed to have predicted his every move.

At the exact moment the magical energy began to gather around the ‘Sentinel’, Morin also began casting another prepared spell.

[Third-Circle Abjuration Spell – Counterspell]

An invisible magical wave spread from Morin, precisely colliding with the spell matrix the ‘Sentinel’ was building.

This was a gamble.

[Dimension Door] is a Fourth-Circle Spell, while Morin’s [Counterspell] is only a Third-Circle Spell.

There was a one-level suppression in spell tier.

Based on the experience accumulated by Mages in this world during spell duels, the success rate of counterspelling a higher-circle spell with a lower-circle spell was not high.

It required the spellcaster to have extremely strong control over mana, and… it required a little bit of luck.

Fortunately, the Goddess of Fortune was on Morin’s side this time.

“Pffft—”

A slight sound, like a bursting bubble, echoed.

The magical energy that had just gathered around the ‘Sentinel’ instantly became chaotic, then abruptly dissipated into the air.

His attempt to cast [Dimension Door] had been forcibly interrupted!

The backlash from the failed spell caused his body to stiffen, his mind going blank for a moment.

And it was this brief moment of stagnation that determined his fate.

The last few bullets in Morin’s submachine gun magazine finally tore through the rapidly diminishing [Wizard Armor], then brutally pierced into his flesh and blood.

“Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!”

Several bloody flowers violently bloomed on the ‘Sentinel’s’ side.

The immense kinetic energy sent his entire body pitching sideways.

“Ugh…”

The ‘Sentinel’ let out a muffled groan of pain, falling heavily to the ground.

He looked down in disbelief at the bullet holes on his waist that were constantly bleeding. His eyes, visible through the slits of his metal mask, were filled with resentment and confusion.

He couldn’t understand why he had lost.

Lost to an unknown Saxon officer, lost to a Saxon Mage that intelligence reports never mentioned.

Morin, whose magazine was now empty, did not relax in the slightest.

He quickly pulled a new magazine from the pouch on his chest, ready to reload.

However, just as he was preparing to change magazines, his peripheral vision caught the sight of the fallen ‘Sentinel’ struggling to pull a small, syringe-like vial from a pouch on his waist, seemingly intending to inject it into his thigh.

“Trying to pop a pill and turn the tide?!”

Morin’s heart jumped. Although he didn’t know what was in the vial, he knew immediately that it couldn’t be anything good.

Even if it were Coca-Cola, he couldn’t let the enemy inject it.

There was no time to reload in that instant, so Morin made a snap decision, abandoning the magazine change.

He lunged forward two steps, then viciously kicked the ‘Sentinel’s’ wrist.

“Slap!”

The glass vial, which contained the unknown drug, was kicked away, arcing through the air and smashing into the mud far away.

“You…”

The ‘Sentinel’ seemed to want to say something, but Morin gave him no chance to speak.

After kicking away the enemy’s drug, Morin smoothly drew the bayonet from his Gew.98 rifle at his waist.

Grasping it tightly with both hands, he used the momentum of his forward rush to thrust it down violently from above!

“Splat—!”

The sharp bayonet pierced unimpeded through the fabric near the neck of the ‘Sentinel’s’ specialized combat suit, sinking deep inside.

“Ugh… Ah…”

The ‘Sentinel’s’ body gave a violent shudder, and a series of inarticulate gurgling sounds came from his throat.

He reached out a hand, seeming to try to grab Morin’s arm, but it ultimately dropped powerlessly.

Beneath the metal mask, the eyes visible through the slits stared at Morin, filled with malice and bitter unwillingness.

But eventually, all signs of life rapidly dissipated, giving way to dead stillness.

Morin remained in the stabbing posture, gasping heavily for breath, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

He had won.

In the eyes of the surrounding people, however, the fight seemed far less exciting than it had been for him personally.

The nearby Instruction Assault Battalion and Assault Troops soldiers had only seen the ‘Sentinel’ appear out of nowhere behind Morin.

Then, Morin mysteriously vanished, causing the ‘Sentinel’s’ attack to miss. At the same time, Morin bizarrely reappeared on the enemy’s flank and opened fire, bringing the ‘Sentinel’ down.

This duel, which lacked much in the way of ‘audio-visual special effects,’ gave the surrounding onlookers the false impression that ‘I could have done that too.’

On the other hand, the ‘Sentinel’ was also more ‘fragile’ than Morin had imagined.

He had originally thought that a unit similar to an ‘enhanced soldier’ might have a thicker ‘health bar’ than ordinary humans.

But it seemed the ‘Sentinel’ was still similar to the Britannian Highland Mages, possessing significant vulnerabilities in terms of survival.

Though, then again…

Everyone here was a carbon-based life form. When facing automatic firearms, whether you were a Mage or not, survival ability was roughly the same.

After all, humanity possessed an extremely high talent for researching ways to kill its own kind.

Simultaneously, Morin saw a cascade of prompts and red dots refresh in his system’s [Information] and [Intelligence] tabs.

[Entry: ‘Gallic Republic Spellcaster System Construction Status’ unlocked]

[Entry: ‘Sentinel’ unlocked]

[Intelligence: ‘Sentinel Project’ unlocked]

[Intelligence: ‘Prometheus Project’ unlocked]

However, Morin had no time to check them right now. After confirming that the ‘Sentinel’ before him was dead, he dragged the corpse into a nearby shell crater.

He also conveniently picked up the glass vial he had kicked away—Morin had made a mental note of its landing spot after kicking it, making ‘retrieval’ easy.

Since the ‘Sentinel’ had been intent on reaching for this item before dying, it was likely something important.

The system followed up by refreshing the related information for the syringe-equipped glass vial.

[Entry: ‘PF-214 Laurent’s Legacy’ related entry unlocked]

The novel has already been fully translated up to the last updated chapter. You can access it on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair