The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard-Chapter 79: Everything Was Manufactured Fake (1)

Bloodline abilities are powerful even when considered separately, but when properly combined, they become even more formidable.

Like how the House Arabion head’s magic could gather clouds with wind to rain down more powerful lightning.

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The magic unfolding before Turan’s eyes was similar.

Golden light that started as flames, then became refined and refined again until it transformed into beams.

When it gathered behind the silver-haired man’s back to form a giant halo, the sailors backed away in terror and shouted.

"M-magic user! Captain! Vice Captain!"

"Help us!"

At their subordinates’ calls, the two knights in the group showed exactly opposite reactions.

One bravely drew his sword to fight back, while the other quickly turned to flee.

In truth, neither action mattered.

The whips of light that burst from the halo severed both the responding knight’s sword and body, and even the head of the one fleeing in the distance.

The lack of blood and brain matter from the cut surfaces indicated that the whips contained horrifically intense heat.

"Uh, huh?"

"They’re both... dead?"

"Impossible."

Perhaps they’d lost their sense of reality seeing those they trusted being slaughtered so one-sidedly.

The golden whips split into dozens of strands and flew toward the sailors who stood dumbfounded, unable to even attempt escape.

Turan quietly observed this almost dreamlike scene.

’Light and fire...’

He had definitely heard before of a house that wielded those two bloodline abilities.

House Baraha, a major house said to be east of the Enril Desert.

This man was certainly a noble from that distant eastern land.

Before Turan could wonder why a noble from such a distant base was here, he realized few survivors remained and hurriedly reached out.

A large amount of water surged up from the nearby shore to envelop the three surviving sailors.

"Ugh... huh?"

"We’re alive!"

The seawater imbued with Turan’s magic collided with the incoming golden whips, creating a massive amount of steam.

As a momentary silence fell, Turan addressed the opponent respectfully.

"Excuse me, I understand you’re angry, but if we could talk for a moment-"

However, instead of listening, the Baraha noble immediately created golden whips from his halo and launched them at Turan.

The whips were not only frighteningly fast, but each moved independently as if possessed by life itself.

Seeing this, Turan frowned, accelerated his thought speed, drew up more seawater, and intercepted the whips one by one.

During this, whether using light refraction or not, the visible trajectories of the whips subtly differed from their actual paths.

Without the Mimicker holy relic’s magic detection ability, he would have been completely fooled.

After barely deflecting all attacks, an enormous amount of steam heavily shrouded the shore.

’Phew...’

Though brief, the exchange had required such extreme concentration that his head throbbed.

Without thought acceleration, he probably would have been hit several times.

Though judging by how each strike targeted non-vital areas like hands and feet, the other side didn’t seem to want to kill him either.

Just then, a powerful wind blew in from somewhere, clearing away the steam covering the shore.

The Baraha noble was holding a magical device of a type Turan had never seen before, grinning triumphantly.

’What is that?’

To describe its shape, it was like a stick with paper attached to the end of a wooden block.

What had been straight unfolded into a nearly semicircular shape, and when he swung it, it created an intense wind that pushed the flames forward.

"Tsk."

Turan clicked his tongue lightly and likewise used wind magic to scatter the flames coming toward him.

While refined fire in the form of spheres or spears might be different, flames loosely created to gain power from wind could be dispersed this way.

Seeing this, the Baraha noble asked in surprise.

"What’s this, you’re good with wind too? Could your bloodline abilities be those two? But there shouldn’t be such a house."

Just as his opponent had done earlier, instead of answering the question, Turan attacked by raising a huge wave.

Though its power alone could crush and kill an ordinary person, this was merely a diversion.

The moment the opponent blocked the wave by evaporating it with a wall of flames, a stone that had been loaded in a sling flew through the steam toward his abdomen.

It was a perfect attack that couldn’t even be prepared for with vision obscured.

But as the stone approached, it disappeared with a whoosh along with some inexplicable rippling.

As if some invisible monster had devoured that area of space.

’What was that? A defensive magical device?’

Turan narrowed his eyes, analyzing how the defense had worked and how he might break through it.

Did it only work on physical projectiles? That seemed unlikely since it hadn’t blocked the seawater, which was physical...

Making such considerations proved pointless as the opponent suddenly raised both hands and dissolved the halo spread behind him.

The brightly lit shore instantly darkened.

"I surrender, I surrender! I lost. Let’s stop here."

Such a casual attitude, as if the fight had been mere play.

Turan stared at his opponent silently before slowly putting the sling in his pocket.

==

"You’re quite skilled, friend. I’m Solif. You?"

"Turan."

Having already exchanged blows, there was no need for excessive courtesy.

Showing no displeasure at the short response, Solif pointed to the steam still remaining in the sky and said.

"This is the first time I’ve seen a wizard handle water to this degree. You’re not from House Kamain?"

"No."

Mentioning a bloodline ability someone doesn’t possess is one of the highest praises for a wizard.

But as his continued brief responses indicated, Turan wasn’t particularly pleased by the compliment.

Because he saw the three corpses that had been burned black, unable to be saved as the battle intensified.

"Hm? Ah, come to think of it, were you trying to protect them? Were they perhaps brothers or friends...? No?"

"I had things to ask them about. Dead people can’t talk."

"Ah."

Seeming to catch the nuance that it was his fault everything was ruined, Solif touched his ear with an embarrassed expression.

"Well, those bastards made me angry, so I couldn’t help it. Here I was showing sincerity even while getting hit on the back of the head."

It was understandable to be angry from an observer’s perspective, but still, if you wanted something, shouldn’t you have kept at least a few alive?

Especially since he too was looking for some Prea god-folk ruins or whatever.

Then, Solif’s gaze turned to Bize, who had been quietly clinging to Turan’s side throughout the battle.

By his demeanor, he seemed to be trying to change the awkward subject.

"Ah, right! That black eagle, it’s a Masu? The one they were selling in Komad City."

Though Bize tried to pass as an ordinary black eagle since her mutations weren’t too extreme for a Masu, there were still subtle differences from normal ones.

Things like her exceptionally sharp and intelligent gaze, or wings slightly longer than her body size would suggest.

But these differences were only noticeable to those who frequently encountered them like Turan, yet Solif seemed certain about Bize from the moment he saw her.

"Yes."

"I knew my eyes wouldn’t deceive me. I spent a whole month trying to get that one. How did you persuade her?"

"Well, let’s say fate brought us together..."

Only then could Turan be certain of the other’s identity.