To be honest, even if Ivan and No. 10 were chopped into ashes on the spot by that ball of lightning, Lin Jun wouldn't wrinkle his mushroom cap one bit.
After all, No. 10 dying once wasn't a big deal.
But Lin Jun had just made the decision to save Ivan, and if a ball of lightning struck Ivan dead right then, it would be a bit too disrespectful to him as a savior.
Anyway, the people nearby had pretty much all run away by now, so Lin Jun could let loose a little bit.
Below Ivan, through the gaps of the sewer iron grates, the hollows under the shattered floorboards, and the rat holes at the base of the walls—from these inconspicuous corners, countless tough tentacles shot out. One after another, they attached to No. 10, who was hidden behind Ivan's back.
The mana from the entire area converged through the underground network and was continuously transmitted into No. 10's body.
The fluorescence on No. 10's mushroom cap was brighter than ever before, a manifestation of its mana being filled to the absolute limit.
"Go, No. 10, show me your current strength!" After saying that, Lin Jun entered spectator mode.
Unfortunately, it was currently the time for Fatty Xi to control the body. Otherwise, paired with honey and red wine, watching while eating would be even better.
...
Gal, who had already run far away, looked back while running. He narrowed his eyes and said uncertainly, "There seems to be something connecting Ivan to the ground?"
"Never mind these random things, can you run a bit faster?" Saying this, Night Owl still couldn't help but glance back. The mana vortex prevented her from seeing clearly what exactly was connecting to Ivan. "A small half of Norwood is being buried with him. Ivan can be considered to have died a vigorous and heroic death... Also, our savings..."
At the thought that over ten years of savings would be taken to compensate for the damages, and they'd probably owe a huge debt on top of that, Night Owl couldn't help but consider the option of hiding back in the Elven Forest and becoming a deadbeat.
"It's about to fall!" Nova's words interrupted Night Owl's messy thoughts.
In the distance, the lightning ball moved.
Not falling, but pressing down.
As the lightning ball moved, the dark clouds, the mana, and even space itself underwent a slight distortion downward.
And No. 10 finally launched a counterattack.
Over ten tentacles extended from beneath the mushroom cap. At the tip of every single tentacle, a spell conjured out of thin air condensed.
If it were No. 10 before entering the Super Magic Library, relying on the S-grade magic crystal in its body, it could cast at most one type of magic at a time, and after struggling a few times, it would be obliterated by the lightning ball.
But now, under the combined buff of abundant mana, powerful spiritual energy, and the spellcasting techniques learned in the Super Magic Library...
Fireballs, ice cones, wind blades, lightning strikes, shadow bolts, spears of light... Magic of various attributes and forms surged upstream, pouring toward that pressing lightning ball.
They exploded on the surface of the lightning ball.
One cluster, two clusters, ten clusters, a hundred clusters.
The light of the explosions linked into one piece, colorful and brilliant, firmly propping up that downward-pressing lightning ball.
"What is he doing?" Night Owl widened her eyes, thinking through the storm that Ivan had woken up and was casting spells. "Using magic... to block that thing?"
"Not blocking, it's consuming it." Nova was obviously more sensitive to magic than Night Owl. "It's just that these fluctuations... don't quite seem like Ivan's magic..."
However, Nova didn't dwell too much on this. Under this kind of scenario exceeding common sense before his eyes, abnormal mana fluctuations were entirely possible.
The lightning ball was still continuously pressing down. It passed through the first wave of magic rain, blasting into a sky full of light debris; passed through the second wave, being consumed again; then the third wave, the fourth wave...
Once the lightning ball took shape, it had no mana replenishment. No. 10, on the other hand, drew infinite mana from the entire fungal mat. The magic on its various tentacles never stopped for a moment, continuously outputting.
The people who had fled outside the city, looking at the colorful magical brilliance in the sky, all produced the illusion of having arrived at the most intensely fought front line.
As time passed, the lightning ball pressed down to the top of Ivan's head. The distance between the two sides was less than ten meters; danger was close at hand.
However, No. 10 knew clearly that this lightning ball was an arrow at the end of its flight.
When yet another round of magic bombarded up, it dispersed.
That energy condensed to the limit lost its restraint in an instant, surging wildly out in all directions, pouring everything it had accumulated onto the surrounding world.
Dazzling light swallowed everything. Within the light, a blue magic shield blocked the electric arcs bouncing toward Ivan.
Night Owl closed her eyes, only feeling the entire world trembling.
The ground beneath her feet undulated like ocean waves, and only a booming roar remained in her ears. After an unknown amount of time, the booming stopped, and she opened her eyes.
Ivan was still suspended in midair, and the churning mana around him had mostly subsided.
And in the distance, the tallest building in the center of the city, the Lord's castle, was now missing its upper half.
The position where the magic tower originally stood was left with only a pile of slanted ruins.
Broken stone pillars fell from midair, smashing through the flank of the castle and crashing into the square in front of it.
Night Owl felt that Viscount Pallen would definitely hate Ivan enough to want to kill him.
"Night Owl! Catch Ivan!" Nova's roar pulled Night Owl's attention back to Ivan.
As the gathered mana dissipated, Ivan gradually began to fall, his speed getting faster and faster.
Before Night Owl had time to answer, she swished into the shadow beneath her.
Fortunately, the ruins along the way provided large patches of shadow, allowing Night Owl to move forward at the fastest speed.
But she seemed to still be a step too slow. Seeing that Ivan, who had finally survived the tribulation with great difficulty, was about to smash into "Ivan-paste," his falling speed suddenly paused, as if lifted by something.
With no time to wonder, Night Owl dashed out from the shadow below, grabbed one of Ivan's feet, and brought him along to merge into another patch of shadow.
Appearing again, she was already beside Nova and the others.
"Uwaa, the mana around this guy is still unstable. I almost got bounced out several times." Saying this, she directly threw Ivan into Gal's arms.
After catching him, Gal skillfully poured a bottle of Mana Protection Potion down his own throat.
High in the sky, No. 10, who had just used wind magic to give Ivan a lift, also swayed and landed on the ground.
Although it maintained its invisibility, the turbulent flow of mana had already dissipated, and continuing to float in the sky would inevitably attract the attention of mages.
Moreover, its current condition wasn't that good either.
In the final lightning that dissipated on the shield, an unknown piece of information seemed to have mixed in. Its intuition told it this was something very important, but it was also afraid there might be danger.
It could only use its powerful spiritual energy to restrict it first, and then analyze it little by little later.
And tossing and turning back and forth like this, even with No. 10's current spiritual energy, it was a bit unable to hold on. After landing, it collapsed groggily onto the fungal mat.
The mycelium beneath it squirmed, and in a short while, No. 10's mushroom body disappeared into the fungal mat.
No. 10 once again returned to that warm and reassuring place. Fatigue slowly melted away in unconsciousness. In a daze, it seemed to hear the Mushroom Lord's voice: "Being this badass, you should have a title to be more awesome! Mm... Magic... Great Arch-Mage Mushroom?"
...
Meanwhile, in the ruins of the small courtyard, the Silverthorn Squad, who were feeling a mix of joy and sorrow over Ivan's survival and the subsequent compensation they would face, suddenly heard a faint cry for help coming from the ruins.
The few of them looked at each other, feeling the voice was somewhat familiar.
Night Owl made a round trip and brought out Orcas—who was hiding in a buried pit, covered in dirt and ash, not daring to believe he had survived himself. When the crisis appeared, no one had remembered him.
(End of Chapter)
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