Chapter 54 The Limitations of Magic

“Lenny!” Josiah shouted, seeing her being knocked unconscious on the floor.
‘Damn it! Is she all right?’ Josiah started getting worried. He had just freed himself from the flaming piece of armor.
The whole scenery was now lit on due to the flames of the two balls the magician released out from nowhere, and also the last attack, which was some sort of energy wave.
“Hah! You kids are no match for this power. Come on. It’s only me and you now, little brat.”
‘This is not good,’ Josiah thought. ‘Lenny is already out and we don’t even know everything he can do. Not only that I am also stuck inside this hole and can’t seem to be able to climb back. He could finish soldier Ray on his own, which means without Lenny to distract him it’s going to be very hard to fight him one-on-one. What should I do…?’
The magician seemed to be expecting Josiah to charge in, with a malicious smile on his face. The last attack made his face now clear to be seen. He was an older man, with his pale face full of wrinkles and birthmarks.
‘This old fellow is clearly plotting something. Is he waiting for me? Well, keep waiting. The more time I buy, the more chances of the army men come here for the tracking bracelet.’
Josiah’s next plan was to buy time:
“You old bastard. Why do you do this? Is it only for harnessing these demonic powers so that you can show off to the others?”
Josiah made a pose and held his sword in a cool way, acting like he wanted to strike with it at any time. Though he was really just trying to make the magician talk instead of fight.
“Hah!” the magician lowered his hands for a while. “You underestimate the power of magic. This is only a portion of what the god’s lent power can do. With this, the village can prosper! I told you. All us of Bhule reunite over the ritual so that the gods can gift us with their benediction. Eneris doesn’t give us sh*t! The gods are the true protectors of this place!”
“Prosper…?” ‘It seemed like a normal village for me…’ Josiah pondered. ‘Does this magic thing really help these people on daily tasks like that? Like… How did he lift soldier Ray from the place without leaving any trace? He probably has a lot more that he’s hiding. If only I knew what kind of powers he relies on…’
“…And you say the people in town agree with your dirty rituals? Liar. The baker was devastated.”
“Sad, yes. But even he acknowledges the power of the gods. Now if I kill you here and drain your blood we might not need to pass through this on the next year.”
The magician was the one who rushed to him.
‘Cr*p. What is he gonna do?’ Josiah positioned himself in such a way he could retaliate swinging his sword, but he was really counting on the dagger he had set on the belt, ready to be caught with his free hand at any time.
When the magician was close enough, he started a sword attack at the height of his eyes to catch his attention, while he grabbed the dagger with the other hand.
Unlike everyone else he ever fought before, the man realized mid-way what Josiah was thinking, and stopped his charge jumping back to take distance. When he was further than Josiah’s long-ranged dagger attack could attack him, he extended the hand to him and fired another ball.
Josiah clashed the fireball with his sword in the air, like a baseball player. But since it was made of fire, it wasn’t enough to cause it to dissipate completely. Some of the flames got to his clothes.
“How…?” ‘How did he know?’ Josiah thought.
“Hah! I told you! Your human dirty tricks can’t fool the wisdom of the gods! I can foresee your movements.”
Josiah tried and this time he managed to wipe the flames before they spread to his body.
‘These flames seem a lot weaker than the last. And they actually can be put out too.’ Josiah observed.
It seemed every time the magician used his powers he had to take a brief rest. At first, Josiah thought he was showing off, but the more the fight went on, the clearer it had become those pauses were necessary.
On the brief moment of pause after the magician’s last fireball, Josiah put all the pieces of the whole event together.
‘If magic is so great like that how come he is only casting fireballs? Well, he did that light energy strike earlier, but… It was kind of similar. What if…?’
Josiah stopped thinking and went straight for it. He jumped to the bare-handed man in front of him carrying his sword. It was a fierce and fast attack, the man couldn’t dodge it, he had to parry somehow. But he wasn’t wearing armor or carrying anything.
The man did a crisscross and blocked the attack with a bloodbound metal bracelet.
“Bracelets? Why don’t you use your magic to avoid it, if it’s so good?”
“Tsc.”
Right after Josiah drew his weapon back to get another impulse, the man extended his arm quickly in a maneuver to grab the sword out of Josiah’s hand. It was a move he had seen Sergeant Koda do, but he could never avoid it and maintain a fighting position at the same time. Anticipating the worse, Josiah used the backward tumble roll to dodge, ending up on a mid-distance from the enemy.
“I get it now.” Josiah said convincingly “You are no magician. You are just a fake!”
“Eh…?”
“I see this ring of yours. You use this bloodbound ring to harness the power of your blood and convert its energy to combustion. That’s why you use always the same ‘magic’. The light ball you released earlier was a variation, but you controlled the flow so that it would lit but not burn, just to make it appear as a different attack. The light was the same one that we saw when you first snapped your fingers when we entered the hole. You have been using the same trick over and over again.”
“…”
“…It’s also how you made the hole on soldier Ray’s body. And then you just hang him on the tree to make it look like some kind of mystery ritual. At first, I was finding strange how you did all of this if your bloodbound power was locked down by Lenny’s wound. But then I realized… You are not using your own blood. You have been using Ray’s blood power the whole time!”
The man on his front made a surprised face.
“You have two bloodbound items: one has the ability to tell what powers your enemy is using, that’s why you knew Lenny’s power in advance and that’s why you dodged my dagger before you could witness what it was capable of. I imagine this one is the bracelet’s. And the ring captures the essence of the blood of someone you have access to and converts it into combustion energy. You are just a charlatan.”
“Heh…”
The man listened through the whole explanation without moving and in the end, he let out a smirk.
“Good, good… You are very good. But unfortunately for you… Even if you find out my little trick… You’re still going to die!”