Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!

'Why is a human assisting the ogres?'

This was the thought that ran through my mind as I stared at the old mage on the ground.

Various thoughts flashed through my mind, yet due to a lack of information, I had no idea which was closer to the truth.

'Was he forced to do this?'

'Was it a sort of deal?'

'Or perhaps it's nothing even complicated, and the old mage assisted the ogres for an overly simplistic reason.'

Regardless of whatever reason was behind the old mage's decision to side with the ogres, it didn't change the fact that he was my enemy at the moment.

I was still very curious about his reason, though.

"We'll have to go on the offense too, Blue," I said to my companion, who let out a large screech in reply.

"Go!" I shouted as I held on to Blue, who sped toward the ogre army again.

The old mage was ready for us, and the moment we started moving again, several projectiles started hurling towards us.

However, unlike last time, Blue and I were ready this time.

Dodging the projectiles that came at us in mid-air, I coated my hands in flames and threw a few fireballs at the boulders aimed at us from afar before they could reach us.

Going against a human was quite different from a monster; both had certain levels of intelligence, and depending on how they used it, they could prove to be formidable foes.

Just as a large boulder and my fireball came in contact, they exploded into dust particles in the air.

I tightened my grip on Blue as we flew inside the dust cloud that had been formed in the sky.

We could not go around the cloud, as that took too much time, which would also give the old mage time to recollect himself and send more attacks.

Rather than stopping our charging momentum, Blue and I charged into the dust cloud to maintain our speed and momentum.

However, just as we were about to come out of the dust cloud, my senses screamed. I had no idea when I tilted my body to the other side, which caused Blue to do the same, as he took it as me leading his movements.

After tilting my body to the side, I watched as a rock spear parted through the dust cloud and pierced the position my body had been before Blue and I emerged from the dust cloud, just to see more projectiles thrown at us.

The old mage showed no signs of pulling back, and I realized I had to match his intensity and go all out. Blue, however, took the initiative and unleashed an attack first.

"Screech!!!"

With a loud screech echoing in the surroundings, Blue opened his beak widely and unleashed a stream of solar flare, blasting every projectile aimed at us in mid-air.

While I was slower to attack initially, I was quick to follow up.

Circulating the mana in my body, I activated my origin ability.

Despite the rapid drain of mana, the process was comfortable due to my larger and purer mana pool.

I created several ice spears around me, practically covering the sky with them.

As Blue's attack concluded, I brought my hands down, and the ice spears followed suit, hurling themselves toward the ogres in the group.

I centered my attack around the old mage, and since my fellow humans hadn't reached his location in the battle yet, his surroundings were only filled with ogres.

The attack I had just delivered could be considered an AOE (Area of Effect), impairing several ogres simultaneously.

However, the old mage was skilled. While most of the ogres were caught off guard by my ice spears, he reacted swiftly and efficiently to my attack.

Against my attack of falling ice spears, the old mage hastily created an earth wall to defend himself. While he had survived my assault, it also left him unable to do anything for a short while.

This was my chance to finally infiltrate the ranks of the ogre army without disturbance.

At least, that's what I thought when the earth wall the old mage had set up for himself crumbled, revealing a glowing scroll in his hands.

In that moment, my senses screamed again, and it seemed I wasn't alone in this realization.

The moment Blue set his eyes on the glowing scroll, he let out a violent scream and a heavy barrage of solar flares toward the old mage.

In this short moment, I watched as a violent ray of light, much more substantial than Blue's own flames, emanated from the scroll.

When Blue's flames and the one from the scroll finally collided, because they balanced themselves by offsetting quality with quantity and quantity with quality, they exploded upon impact.

Blue's flame were of course the one with the higher quality but the scroll the old mage had used packed a lot of heavier punches.

From what I was seeing, I didn't need anyone to tell me that the war had become more tricky than I expected, and the seemingly brutish ogre king had the brains to think.

We were caught off guard...

*******

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