C97: Banquet of Flames (2)
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The sudden appearance of the fire giant turned the banquet hall into a crucible of chaos in an instant.
"Well, what the hell is that!"
"Argh! Run!"
People were startled and scattered around but ended up colliding with each other. Most of the people who gathered here were incompetent. As a result, they failed to maintain their reason in the sudden situation and panicked.
The giant opened his mouth when he saw them. When the mouth full of sharp fangs like that of an animal opened, what was seen inside was a bright red wiggling flame like the one on the bottom of hell.
The people watching the scene turned pale and they felt instinctively what the giant was going to do.
A flame that was so hot that their skin burned even if they were far away for it was spewed out from the center of the banquet hall but at that moment, the guards moved.
Since it is a banquet hall where important people gather, all the guards were knight in case something happened.
The guards in black suits pulled out the sword worn on their waist and swung it right away. Even if the number of guards is not large, considering that one knight is equal to several dozen or more mercenaries, the security of this banquet hall was not low.
The first sword wielded by the guard hit the flame. The aura contained in the sword cut through the flames and deflected it in another direction.
A long stream of fire turned and engulfed the ceiling of the banquet hall. The fire spread like concentric circles on the ceiling and burned up all the chandeliers hanging in the air.
The chandelier, unable to withstand the heat of the fire, melted and fell to the ground.
"Avoid it!"
"Run away!"
Screams resounded everywhere.
The panicked people bumped into each other and fell but others stepped on them and kept running. The banquet hall was instantly filled with chaos, reminiscent of a battlefield. It was then that Theon's teachers acted.
"This way!"
"Slowly! Move calmly!"
Spirits appeared everywhere to block or remove debris falling from the sky. The Spirit of the Wind helped those who fell, and the Spirit of Water extinguished the flames on the ceiling.
Other wizards didn't sit still either as magic erupted from everywhere and was shot at the fire giant but the fire giant blocked the magic with his body.
"We must defeat that monster!"
"Where the hell did it come from?!"
"Just buy some time! People's evacuation comes first!"
Rudger stared at the figure of the fire giant. It's his first time seeing it, but that energy definitely looked familiar. It was clear that it was the advanced-level spirit of fire he encountered at that time.
'Advanced?" No. It's stronger than that.'
At that time, he felt that it was at least an advanced-level spirit, but now that he sees it, its majesty is quite extraordinary. At this level, it seems close to a supreme-level spirit that has an extremely low probability to be born from the essence of nature.
'The supreme level is the level directly below the elemental lords that are representing the attribute of the elements. To think she called a guy like that.'
On the continent, spirits are graded from the lowest to the highest. Among them, the advanced-level spirits belong to the 4th and 5th ranks compared to wizards, and the supreme-level spirits are close to the 6th rank. And on top of that was the elemental lord.
The giant of fire, who just broke into the banquet hall, is a supreme-level spirit, which can be said to be just below the elemental lords.
Since it was such a powerful existence, the attack magic used on the spot was not able to deal it a proper blow.
'Esmeralda…Where is she?'
Rudger rolled his eyes. The most suspicious person was a girl named Joanna Lovett whom Selina had been talking about. However, she has not been seen since the fire giant appeared.
He needed to find her.
As soon as he thought so, the giant of fire, which had been under attack, moved again. The fire from the ceiling which had not been extinguished stretched down as if responding to the cry of the giant. It felt more like a thick liquid with high viscosity, rather than a fire.
As it fell, the guards moved in haste.
"Don't let the guests get hurt!"
"Cut it down or get rid of it! Do as you please!"
One of the guards who shouted like that immediately swung his sword and cut the falling drops of fire.
"What?"
The thick flame he had cut with his sword was not properly cut, but rather stuck to his sword. If that was all it wouldn't have been an issue however the flame attached to the blade spread to the body of the guard in an instant.
"Argh!"
The guard, who hit the falling drops of fire, was caught in flames in an instant and rolled on the floor. Even with the superior physical ability of a knight he had no power at this moment.
The power of fire possessed by the supreme spirits is different from ordinary fires and has an extremely high temperature.
The faces of the other guards who saw the scene turned white.
"Everyone, be careful! You must not touch it!"
"If it attaches to your sword, throw it away otherwise, you will die!"
Maybe it was because the call was a little late but three more guards were burned to death after the first victim.
Rudger frowned at the sight.
'Is it because the spirit used the element? It's not like a normal fire but more like magma.'
For a fire, the shape is clear, and even though it is small in size, its calorific value is unimaginably high. In fact, if one looked closely at the giant of fire, there were black spots all over its body, it was literally the embodiment of living magma.
'I heard that spirits usually show the mystery and magnificence of nature.'
It is said that the form of the spirit is not fixed but there are some rules. Basically, a spirit takes the form of an animal, plant, or other deformed structures.
It is the same as the spirit level increases. The spirit's rank changes depending on how much nature's energy it holds.
The higher the rank, the stronger the energy of Mother Nature, and the more it is, the more it becomes something other than the form of a living being.
Long ago, while wandering the world with his master, Rudger once witnessed the Elemental Lord of Water.
The appearance he saw at that time was quite different from what people assumed and talked about. It looked like a mixture of oriental dragons and giant whales.
The being that was bigger than an island was moving above the sea level, scattering countless white manes like a huge sea fog behind its back because it literally embraced the wonders of nature
But the fire giant in front of him did not do that, it was close to being tailored to human senses.
'A supreme-level spirit that has human form.'
Human form with arms crossed. Although it is large, it looks more like a bizarre lump of fat rather than muscles. The black spots that appeared all over its body made the appearance of the fire spirit even more ghastly.
'A Twisted Spirit.'
That was the best way to describe it and as Rudger stared at the spirit he noticed something strange.
'It has no lower body?'
Compared to the giant's peculiarly enlarged upper body, the lower body was almost invisible. Probably because he didn't have a lower body and I knew right away that it was because it wasn't summoned properly.
'She used a medium.'
There are two ways to make a spirit manifest when summoning a spirit. The first is to summon a spirit through the contractor's magic. However, if this method was used, magicians sensitive to magic could immediately recognize the identity of the summoner.
In that case, the second method is used. That is, using a medium to summon a spirit. It depends on the type of medium, but a top-tier spirit won't be summoned properly unless a very expensive ore is used.
'But the advantage of using a medium is that the summoner won't be discovered.'
Esmeralda's choice was the second method and she used a medium to summon the fire spirit.
'The silver tray on the table.'
It was obviously the tray that Joanna Lovett had secretly brought in the middle of the banquet hall. Even if it was incomplete, it was not a common tray if it had enough power to summon a supreme-level spirit.
It's fortunate that Esmeralda has been identified, but the situation was not been quite favorable for Rudger either since he can't go after Joanna until the spirit is taken care of.
'Now it's not the time.'
Rudger looked around.
The guards were working hard to restrain the giant and some wizards are also hitting him with water and ice magic.
In the chaotic situation, Rudger found a person who had not yet been evacuated.
'That's…'
His expression hardened quickly.
* * *
'What's going on?'
Rene opened her closed eyes. She remembered walking around and serving people until a while ago, but she couldn't remember anything clearly after that.
The last sight she had seen was something exploding in front of her.
Did she faint?
Raising her upper body by gripping her dizzy head, she finally realized what had happened at the banquet hall.
"What?"
The center of a banquet hall, the place where the party was supposed to be in full swing, was a complete mess and a fire giant was wreaking havoc.
'A spirit? Is that a spirit?'
A giant of her great stature was fighting against the guards and magic teachers in her banquet hall, it was so powerful that she couldn't guess its level.
'It's not the time for this. I have to run!'
As Rene tried to move her body, she felt a burning pain in her ankle and frowned.
'My legs.'
She had a scar on her ankle, the wound wasn't deep, but she couldn't move.
'I have to crawl and run!'
At that moment, the fire giant scattered flames around. It must have intended to get rid of all the flies that bothered him at once.
"Ah."
Rene saw the scene and realized that she couldn't avoid the fireballs that have the power to turn a person into ashes.
Rene closed his eyes tightly and waited for death but at that moment, she had a feeling that something had covered her body and pulled her strongly somewhere.
'Huh? Doesn't it hurt?'
Rene carefully opened her closed eyes and saw Rudger looking down at her.
"Rene."
"Mr. Rudger."
"Are you okay?"
Why is he here now? No, more than that… Did he save her? Rene was desperately rolling her head that didn't work well, and realized what was going on.
Rudger saved her life.
"Sir…"
"Stay still."
René struggled with her face dyed red, but Rudger remained motionless. He held Rene in his arms, withdrew to a safe place, and immediately checked her legs.
"The wound is not deep. I have a recovery pill, so wait."
"……."
Seeing Rudger immediately taking out the medicine bottle from his arms, Rene felt a strange feeling.
'What is it?'
Obviously, Mr. Rudger and her had little contact. To be honest, she didn't have much to do with him. But at this moment, Rudger saved her from a crisis and was even treating her. It occurred to her that she had seen this sight somewhere.
"Teacher."
"What's wrong?"
Rene didn't know why she's saying this, but she really wanted to ask.
"We. Didn't we meet before?"