A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Chapter 171

Dracul felt miserable and sore from all of the burns covering her body.
She now understood the reason why her defensive spell hadn't been completely effective. There was a lack of blood in this area.
She felt a strong desire to rip apart and kill Desir; but all she could do right now was arrange sub-optimal defensive spells.
'Calm down.'
“Kwarghh!”
A faint, eerie shriek was heard far away.
The Outsiders' objective was to destroy the harbor, the supply route of the allied forces.
Dracul no longer had any means to continue her offensive against Desir nor the means to beat him outright. Though it was an unfortunate situation, it wasn't a big loss; all she had to do was buy enough time for the mad men to destroy the harbor.
Even though she found herself in a situation where she could no longer go on the offensive, her defensive spells remained intact.
'That's right. I have a chance. Even he can't invert Imagery Magic.'
Apart from the complicated way in which Imagery Magic was invoked, it existed in a category which was fundamentally impossible to be inverted.
Desir couldn't invert the Tesseract used by Crow Mask, nor Adjest's Frozen Palace. He could only invert the spells invoked as a result of them.
It was no longer possible to pull in the blood from the surrounding area and use it, but because Dracul had the upper hand in terms of raw amount of mana, she judged that she still had more than enough at her disposal to stall for long enough.
[Blood Desire]
Thousands of hands, made out of blood, stretched out of Dracul's back.
It was a spell without any blind spot, able to to defend against all incoming attacks.
Desir watched her invoke her defensive spell before speaking.
“If you're thinking of buying time, you better give up now. Even for someone of your caliber, it would be impossible to face all of us alone.”
*Baaang*
Just as he finished speaking, a wind bullet flew in from somewhere towards Dracul's head.
The defensive spell that she invoked was a powerful spell belonging to a high-rank circle. It had no blind spots at all. The hands made out of blood contorted unnaturally to block the bullet.
But that wasn't the end of things.
*Crrraaack*
A lady fluttered her lightly sparkling, platinum blonde hair as she flitted towards Dracul.
With every step she took, ice pillars shot up from the ground. Soon enough, their placement took the form of a palace.
[Frozen Palace]
At that moment, hundreds of ice spells were simultaneously invoked and hurtled towards Dracul. The spells incessantly continued to pressure her, limiting both her options and her movement.
And amongst them, there was a streak of light that rushed straight towards Dracul, who was preoccupied arranging further defensive spells to block the endless barrage.
A rapier filled with Aura pierced towards her.
Dracul, who barely fended off the attack, was helplessly flung backwards.
Desir, Romantica, Adjest, and Pram.
All of the members of the Starling Party were now present.
What this meant was clear. It meant either Raden and his soldiers had been totally annihilated or captured.
The continuous flow of attacks from the Starling Party were perfectly coordinated and powerful.
Shots made from a distance, which one required inhuman reactions to respond to, swords that pierced out at high-speeds in difficult to parry trajectories, as well as the countless number of invoked spells.
*Crack*
The absurd number of hands made out of blood, which had barely been enough to keep up with all their attacks, started to gradually decrease in number.
It seemed as though her defensive spell would not last much longer.
'Where is that bastard?'
Dracul did not forget about the most dangerous enemy and took precaution, even when she was under heavy attack.
She managed to spot Desir.
He was not arranging any spells.
However, that's not to say he wasn't doing anything.
S-s-s-sss!
Several of the hands began to lose their form and fell apart as gravity pulled the blood back to the ground.
It was an inversion.
'Already inverted!?'
It had barely been a few minutes since she arranged the defensive spell.
Dracul heeded Crow Mask's advice and took her time encoding and preparing heavily encrypted defensive spells just like she did with her offensive spells.
Nonetheless, this high-circled defensive spell was inverted within just a few minutes.
One could say the speed of this inversion was exceptionally faster compared to the inversion of her offensive spells.
However, it was expected as the current situation was different from that time.
Desir was focusing only on inversion without minding the duel itself.
As he did not have to concentrate on other things, but only on the analysis of her spells, the speed of his inversion was faster beyond comparison.
[Crimson Heart]
Dracul invoked another defensive spell as fast as she could.
However, she soon realized her fate. The outcome had already been decided.
It was a checkmate.
*Clang*
When her second and third defensive spells were inverted, Dracul realized the inevitable conclusion.
'At this rate, I'll die.'
She no longer felt uncontrollably angry. Instead, she started to feel a strong sensation of fear.
It was an emotion she had never felt in her entire life.
“… … Keukk.”
Dracul had no remaining defensive spells at her disposal. She now had to escape somehow.
[Bloody Rain]
The sky reddened and bloody rain started to pour down. After a while, there were puddles of blood everywhere.
Dracul's body melted into blood.
This was the high-circle evasion spell she had used previously.
Depending on the amount of mana used, one was even able to transfer to far away places, as long as there was blood on both ends.
If she consumed all of her remaining mana, then it wasn't impossible for her to transfer to the old castle she had been staying at.
However, this spell had a major drawback. Dracul was well aware of it.
She had previously used this spell in front of his eyes near the start of the duel, just to boast about him being unable to harm her.
'Well, I can't help it.'
She was aware of the possibility that this spell would be inverted, but still pushed ahead with the arrangement of the spell.
She no longer had any other options.
[Bloody Stream]
And after invoking her spell… nothing happened.
Her body, which was about to transfer to another blood puddle, materialized again.
“… … !”
“Pghh!”
Dracul felt a sharp pain in her chest. Her body started to break down.
She pressed on the wounded area as if she was trying to stop the blood pouring out of her chest. However, it was not enough to stop it from gushing out.
*Plop*
The blood flowing out of Dracul formed a puddle and her body collapsed into it.
“I want to li-live… … ”
She moved her lips slightly a few times, then the light faded from her eyes.
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Adjest, who had decided to check Dracul's pulse, announced her death.
It was the obvious conclusion, even if no one had checked her pulse. There were no longer any horrible shrieks from the mad men who had been driven insane by Dracul's Imagery Magic.
Desir looked at Dracul in silence.
'The influence of the Outsiders will greatly decline since they were defeated in this battle.'
The Outsiders gathered a significant number of their elite forces in order to destroy this supply route.
The Knights of Kashka, Lion's Mane, and Raden's Bandits.
Above all, she was here.
Dracul Labutte Elkaera.
She was a powerful enemy who had almost single-handedly destroyed one of the two supply routes. If she had succeeded, the Alliance would have been brought to their knees.
'She was definitely acquainted with Crow Mask.'
Crow Mask was clearly in a high position within the Outsiders. He was leading a substantial number of soldiers and his skill reached the level of Sixth-Circle.
Dracul too was a Sixth-Circle magician and seeing her relationship with Crow Mask, she must have been a high-level figure within the Outsiders as well.
Since she was defeated, the influence of the Outsiders would likely have suffered a heavy blow.
'Though of course, there was a choice to save her… '
If he had not killed her and captured her alive, then he may have been able to obtain a lot of valuable information regarding the Outsiders.
'Killing her was probably the right thing to do.'
However, Des1r chose to kill Dracul instead of capturing her alive. It was clear she planned to escape, and after that they wouldn't be able to stop her Imagery Magic.
He chose to save lives in the present moment than to choose information that may be useful in the future.
Pram asked as he put away his sword.
“Is everything over now?”
By handling Dracul, the mob of mad men had stopped and the supply routes had been safely secured.
But that did not mean that the battle was over.
“Not yet. There are a number of Outsiders within those mad men.”
The core problem was solved, but it was only safe to say everything was over after handling the mad men who had regained their senses.
It was at that moment.
*D-d-d-d-d*
Suddenly, the ground started to vibrate.
The Starling Party knew immediately what the vibration was. A considerable number of soldiers were approaching.
It could be another group of Outsiders.
*Shwwing*
Adjest and Pram unsheathed their swords. Their stances showed just how cautious they were.
At that moment, Romantica spoke with a smile.
“Why are you guys worrying so much? They're our allies.”
Even after hearing that, Pram still looked uneasy.
“Are-Are you sure about that?”
“I confirmed their flag was the Hebrion Empire's with a detection spell.”
Hearing her answer, Adjest let out a long sigh.
“Pheww.”
They were soon able to confirm the flag, one that symbolised the Hebrion Empire, with their own eyes.
A battle that took place in Mahayu Harbor, located at the Lagrium Plain Eastern Front.
This battle, which will be known as one of the great battles with the Outsiders, “The Bloody Battle of Mahayu,” was now over.
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Chapter end