NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 14
“Where am I…?”
Skarl was hurled onto the plains, far from the Witch’s Forest.
Just as he was about to savor the pleasure of slitting a girl’s throat, he was yanked away by a sudden hand.
Until that hand popped out, he felt absolutely nothing and was caught off guard in an instant.
If what had emerged from the air was a sword instead of a hand, he would have been dead for sure.
Realizing that, Skarl grinned eerily, filled with joy.
“Are you awake?”
“Are you the one who dragged me here?”
“That’s right.”
“Why didn’t you just kill me outright? You could have stabbed me with a blade or used magic when you reached for me, and I would have definitely been dead!”
“I had a mountain of questions I wanted to ask you. So that’s why I didn’t kill you right away.”
“At the very least, you could have tied my arms and legs up!”
“I know that I can’t restrain you without using brute force!”
“So, you know who I am, huh?”
“I do.”
A murderer of knights, a harbinger of death, a pleasure killer, the worst mercenary, and so on.
The title most often associated with Skarl was ‘The Natural Enemy of Sorcerers.’
A transparent orb lodged right in the center of Skarl’s chest.
The glass sphere gleamed with a blue light, a relic from an ancient age, allowing the user to visualize the flow of mana and deflect or sever magic.
Simply put, it meant magic hardly worked against him.
“Despite knowing me so well, you still wanted to pin me down? Sorcerer?”
“How would you know if I’m a sorcerer or not?”
“If a delicate-looking person without any weapons isn’t a sorcerer, then what are they?”
“I can’t even argue with that.”
Right after his reincarnation, Daniel had tried exercising or wielding a sword.
But he achieved nothing; Daniel’s body was unsuitable for swordsmanship or fighting.
It was a wise choice to give up any path other than magic early on.
“Your intent to protect your student is commendable, but thinking you could fight me alone is rather foolish.”
“Are you seriously giving advice to the enemy? How kind of you.”
“You caught me off guard, so it’s a sign of respect. And with a selfish twist, I hope you struggle a bit more before you die!”
“That won’t happen, dream on, idiot.”
Daniel conjured a fireball and hurled it at Skarl.
Judging the slow speed as not even worth dodging, Skarl moved swiftly enough to disappear from sight.
Whoosh!
‘Let’s end this in an instant.’
Even without the power of the relic, assassins like Skarl were generally tricky opponents for sorcerers.
In a one-on-one fight, the key premise of attack magic was whether the opponent could be targeted.
If they couldn’t be targeted, the only option was to obliterate the area with area-of-effect magic.
However, large-scale magic required casting time, and assassins wouldn’t wait around for that.
‘It’s over.’
In less than a second, Skarl had reached Daniel’s back and lunged with a dagger.
As the sharp blade advanced, the space behind Daniel twisted, and suddenly a fireball erupted.
Skarl swung his wrist to redirect the dagger and cleanly sliced through the fireball.
Then he threw another dagger with his opposite hand, but Daniel had long since evaded.
The dagger that sliced through the air disappeared and reappeared behind Skarl.
Twisting his waist, he snatched his dagger and hurled it towards Daniel’s location once more.
Simultaneously, he moved quickly to obscure his own position.
Daniel calmly read the entirety of the space.
The grass swaying in the wind, a hare hopping about, the dagger flying straight towards him, and Skarl’s position too.
Not missing a single detail, Daniel rearranged the spatial layout.
The hare was on the grass, and Skarl was now facing the dagger head-on.
Skarl’s pupils widened, utterly confused as his spot had suddenly changed without explanation.
The discomfort he felt when Daniel had teleported him was unpleasant, as if he was being dragged by the hand of a god.
But on the other hand, he was also afraid.
Because this sorcerer could send him anywhere he pleased.
‘That guy is dangerous…’
Although he lost his youthful appearance, this sorcerer looked significantly younger than Skarl.
They say those who reach the peak of sorcery become young again, but this one wasn’t at that level.
Yet he possessed a power that could be deemed overwhelming, and if he grew stronger from here, it would become uncontrollable.
‘If I don’t do something now, I’ll lose my chance.’
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill an unrefined monster.
He couldn’t possibly hide his absolute power, so Skarl decided to reveal his full strength.
The dagger flying towards Skarl’s neck suddenly hung in the air.
Then it was drawn into his outstretched hand and gripped firmly.
‘Looks like he’s going all out.’
Daniel, who had known Skarl’s character through the original story, smirked slightly.
Skarl, who had once matched the Academy president, now prepared to face Daniel.
There were significant factors, like the relic’s importance, but that alone wasn’t enough.
He had a trump card. He had hidden a tooth that could bite the president’s throat.
“If you can withstand this, I’ll submit to you.”
“Sounds neat.”
Skarl loosened the ties on his cloak and let it drop.
His belt and pockets held a staggering thirty daggers.
As soon as he drew one, he tossed it above his head.
The dagger thrown upward was suspended in mid-air, its blade pointing at Daniel.
Every other weapon, except for the one in Skarl’s hand, floated in the air.
“What a show.”
This was a technique straight out of a martial arts novel.
Of course, it wasn’t the real deal; rather, it was a manifestation of Skarl’s magic.
Previously, Skarl had obtained a relic from an ancient ruin, and he had also acquired a grimoire.
It was magic that imbued objects with the user’s desires, causing them to move at will.
Simple yet boasting impressive versatility — this power was remarkable.
Skarl’s main tactic was usually to shoot weapons from unexpected angles to assassinate.
Moving all the blades magically was a near-final resort.
“Let’s start.”
“I’m ready, bring it on anytime.”
Thirty daggers shot off in different directions.
Not one of their trajectories overlapped, and they flew towards Daniel with perfect timing.
Even if they were sent away by spatial magic, the enchanted daggers would stubbornly seek out Daniel’s heart.
Moreover, using magic on a single dagger would consume an extreme amount of mana.
“Looks like you’ve been thinking.”
The daggers slowly closed in on Daniel.
On top of that, Skarl decided to charge directly at Daniel, aiming to snap his neck with his own hands.
Even faced with such a dire situation, Daniel maintained his smile.
In fact, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the current situation.
‘This is a great opportunity to see how powerful spatial magic can be.’
With his palms facing up, Daniel stretched out his arm.
Then, as he slightly curled his five fingers, Skarl took a deep breath.
On the surface, there seemed to be no change at all, but Skarl could clearly see the significant anomaly.
The mana permeating the air began to coalesce.
The more Daniel curled his fingers, the larger the mass of condensed mana grew, drawing closer to him.
The moment a distant dagger touched the mass of mana, it crumpled, leaving not a trace as it was absorbed.
By now, Daniel’s fingers were halfway curled, and he bore a carefree smile, as if he could fully curl them at any moment.
The instant Daniel clenched his fist, Skarl imagined what would become of his body.
His flesh being mashed into a lump and becoming a handful of mana.
Death.
As the concept of fear he had inflicted on others approached him, Skarl instinctively began to tremble.
The daggers reflecting his will began to quiver and then fell to the ground one by one.
As Skarl lunged towards Daniel, he found himself kneeling and rolling on the ground.
That was a monster. Not a true archmage, but a terrifying creature even worse than one.
It compressed space and unleashed a storm of mana that crushed everything in its path.
Even if you had a relic capable of cutting mana, how could a human slice through a storm?
In the end, Skarl succumbed to a natural disaster that breathed.
“Can I take that as you’ve accepted defeat?”
“I… I lost.”
“That’s a bit anticlimactic.”
Given that he had witnessed overwhelming power and had accepted defeat while in high spirits, it was only natural.
If Skarl hadn’t had the relic, he would have fought to the end, but seeing mana was enough for him to resist.
He just couldn’t accept a death not just ordinary, but one where his very existence faded without a trace.
“Alright, if you accept the outcome, drink this.”
Daniel pulled a glass vial from his pocket and tossed it to Skarl.
Inside was a pale green liquid. It looked as if it screamed, “I’m poison!” at first glance.
‘It can’t be a deadly poison.’
Before extracting information, he had stated he wouldn’t kill, so it was likely some form of mind-controlling poison.
In that instant, a brilliant idea sprang to Skarl’s mind.
‘I can pretend to be under mental control, then lie about what I know.’
Having dealt with various poisons as an assassin and injecting them himself, he acquired early resistance.
Most poisons shouldn’t work on him, so Skarl confidently uncorked the vial and downed its contents.
Seeing that, Daniel sighed in admiration.
“Whew! Finished it all.”
“Oh, that’s manly! Are you drinking it without knowing what it is?”
“I don’t know. As long as it doesn’t kill me… Wait, it’s a medicine? It’s not poison?”
“Yup, it’s a potion.”
A refined TS potion improved by two geniuses.