Chapter 57: The Young Fox of the Dark Sorcerer

Hanni’s specialty: mass-induced terror.

Then, a beam of sword light fell from the sky.

Sophie Spur, silent and efficient, a woman of action, a valiant girl wielding a greatsword.

Sophie had arrived using Hanni’s flight card, now depleted of its divine power. Hanni, meanwhile, rode in on her ramen, slower but able to cast her divine art from afar.

“Thanks, partner,” Venigo smiled, snapping his fingers.

“Sophie, guard me,” Venigo said.

Character construction initiated! Character chosen, analysis complete… Level 20 Black Mage, structure complete!

“Primary skill: Black Magic. No secondary skill. Counter skill: Magic Reversal. Passive skill: Increased Magical Power,” Venigo whispered. “Preparation is done; let the performance begin!”

In the FFTA system, spellcasters need time to gather magic. Their mana doesn’t start full, but accumulates gradually as the battle goes on. The bad news: you can’t open with devastating spells. The good news: you never truly run out of mana; rest a few turns and it replenishes.

Sophie swept her sword, sending several blocking cultists flying, and appeared before Venigo. She nodded slightly and stood at the ready, sword in hand, to guard him.

“I’ll shield us from magic,” Venigo murmured. “The rest is yours.”

“Gladly. I’ll protect your back,” Sophie replied softly.

They exchanged a smile and turned to face their respective foes.

“No enemy stands before us,” Venigo suddenly declared loudly.

Angered by Venigo’s arrogant proclamation, several high-ranking cultists simultaneously raised their hands, drawing upon magical elements to launch their signature attack spells.

This was exactly the opportunity Venigo awaited. He stepped forward, Sophie instinctively shifting to cover his rear, placing Venigo directly in the path of the magical barrage.

Magic Reversal…

Magic Reversal is the Black Mage’s most practical counter skill. Any magical attack triggers it indiscriminately, and the counterstrike, powered by a Black Mage’s formidable magic, is far stronger than anything the cultists could muster.

So, while Venigo felt the quick depletion of the mercury in his vial, the result was undeniable.

In a single instant, at least six senior cultists fell to rebounded spells; a few luckier or more resilient ones were gravely wounded and unable to continue fighting.

“Perfect timing—leveled up!” Venigo hummed.

Sophie swung her sword; even the altered common cultists could not withstand her sheer power. Her assault was unstoppable.

Her blade gleamed coldly. Although the tournament sword she wielded was not particularly sharp, no one dared underestimate it in Sophie’s hands, given her breathtaking swordsmanship.

This unusual greatsword, designed for defense and agility, subtly compensated for Sophie’s weaker defenses. Meanwhile, her overwhelming offensive power remained undiminished.

A dull blade mattered little when the weight and reach of a greatsword could generate enough force to fatally wound an enemy, even if it didn’t cleave them in two. A blow from such a weapon was as deadly as being gored in the chest by a charging bull.

Moreover, with enough strength, wounds from a blunt edge could be even more horrific—harder to heal, more terrifying.

As Sophie’s sword laid waste to her foes, Hanni and the ramen gradually arrived as well—this time, Hanni brought her pet and loyal companion.

The great cat, Cait Sith.

Soul Manifestation: Roaring Beast. With a deafening roar, Cait Sith, seemingly swollen with power, hurled itself into the crowd, tossing heads and rending with its claws, instantly carving a gap amidst the enemy ranks.

“Charge complete… Grand Thunder!” Venigo spread his hands, unleashing a surge of magic that fell upon the enemy ranks.

Though Black Mage is an entry-level caster job in FFTA, its magical attack growth rivals any advanced class. While lacking wide-area spells, Magic Reversal combined with Grand Thunder, Grand Fire, and Grand Freeze suffices.

Grand Thunder: within a three-meter radius, roaring lightning reduced all life to ash. Even the elite cultists could not survive such a current.

Thus, three empty gaps appeared in the enemy formation, forming an equilateral triangle.

“Let’s charge in through the gap,” Venigo said with a soft smile, propelling himself forward with jets at his feet, following Sophie’s blade into the breach.

A Black Mage as agile as a cat—how many enemies would meet their doom at his hands?

Szzzzt! The fierce flash of Grand Thunder erupted again, this time crackling nearby, instantly incinerating the surrounding foes.

Glue, chili powder, quicklime… The alchemists’ attacks were effective, but time was short. Especially when Venigo used wind to spread their effects, further diluting their potency.

By now, the cultists had mostly returned to their senses. So Venigo, without hesitation, used lightning to destroy the living shields around him—before they could become a threat again.

“A rabble, after all—how dull,” Venigo complained. He leaned forward, supported by a gust from his left hand, and shot forward, propelled by a brief jet underfoot.

He dodged four cultists’ weapons, elbowed aside two blocking senior cultists, then unleashed Grand Thunder among the advancing enemy horde, blasting open a huge crater in their ranks.

In the lightning’s glare, Sophie’s greatsword pierced the storm, sending weapons flying, splattering enemy blood across a vast fan-shaped swath before her.

After the sword’s sweep came Cait Sith’s sharp, shadowy claws, mercilessly rending muscle and veins, carving a wide, straight corridor through the enemy.

—Straight to the heart of the enemy formation!

“No enemy stands before us,” Venigo once again proclaimed.

At the center of the formation, the cult’s magic circle seemed nearly complete—or perhaps, seeing Venigo approach, the enemy commander had decided to activate it at roughly 85% completion.

Clearly, those at the circle’s edge were the most successful specimens among the enhanced elite cultists, with formidable mental strength to serve as high-capacity magic batteries. The controller at the center, adept at fine magic manipulation, had used some self-harming method to amplify his control, channeling immense power into a superior attack spell.

Such is the cult: numerous, but individually weak. Their numbers allow for group casting, but they are little more than a disorderly mob.

Against a crack team like Venigo and Sophie, or the formal sword phalanx of Sir Salim, the cultists’ zeal was not enough to leverage their numerical advantage.

“King against king,” Venigo laughed softly, addressing the controller who had just unleashed the spell.

“It’s too late—the spell is cast,” the controller replied.

“But it’s half-baked, isn’t it?” Venigo sneered. “You rushed, so you couldn’t aim properly—just fired it off in that general direction… Look, it’s falling.”

In the sky, nearly a hundred bright orbs plummeted. Formed from wind elements, drawing in moisture and dust from the air, these were meteorites, shrieking earthward.

A master of air magic could cast such a spell alone, but clearly, the cult had no master willing to risk so much. Instead, they used the combined mana of many senior cultists and a special technique to unleash this spectacular meteor shower.

Unfortunately, it missed.

As soon as Venigo sensed the cult’s ambush, he had Hanni send word. Sir Salim immediately ordered his men to halt the ship, everyone to shelter inside, and forced the ship to reverse two hundred meters with oars. The cult’s meteor spell, disrupted by Venigo, was undercharged and released early, with no casters near the impact site to guide it. Thus, the meteors landed to the left of the ship, about a hundred meters inland.

Only seventeen or eighteen meteors struck the wooden vessel.

However, though meteors are powerful, they can’t ignite the ship like fireballs could, and the weakened meteors weren’t strong enough to pierce the deck and hull completely. The deck was battered and splintered, but the hull remained watertight.

“Now, please, all of you stay here,” Venigo said, flexing his fingers.

“Who do you think you are? Lapdog of the nobility!” the controller snarled, wiping blood from his face.

Bright sparks leapt around his body—clearly, he was an air magic specialist.

Yet his abilities clearly fell short of mastery; at best, he was on par with Venigo’s Black Mage.

If that was the case, it would be he, not Venigo, who would die.

In an instant, seven electric orbs appeared before the caster, bouncing their way forward across the terrain. Venigo laughed—so it was Spark Stone, a minor spell whose trajectory he’d once studied out of boredom.

So he simply stepped aside, weaving through the gaps as the orbs bounced away.

He returned the favor with utmost sincerity: a Grand Freeze.