The Art of Explosion

Inside Sir Galen's office, the soldier approached him in a panicked state. "Sir, what shall we do? The inn owner has been slain, and there are two hostages."

Sir Galen leaned forward, his expression grim. "Two hostages, you say? Describe them to me?"

"I'm not certain, sir. Let me inquire with the scouting team." The soldier held up a crystal device and spoke into it, "Can you describe the appearance of the hostages?"

Suddenly, the soldier on the other end of the crystal spoke up frantically, "What?! You have to come quickly! We're evacuating the people, and there's a fierce fight happening."

Sir Galen sprang to his feet, his voice commanding, "TELL ME ABOUT IT WHO'S FIGHTING NOLAN!" he barked into the crystal.

"Sir Galen, it's a youngster with silver hair. He's fighting Nolan alone. Right now he's being caught by gravity magic," the soldier replied.

Sir Galen's eyes widened with recognition. "It's Sir Gray people that was caught!"

"There's no way he could fend off Nolan, even though they are both Irregular. Nolan has been here for more than ten years. We need to send reinforcement now!" He ordered the soldier, who quickly dashed out of the room to gather people.

Meanwhile, Augustus had seized his chance to strike. Nolan, who was distracted, didn't see the attack coming until it was too late.

Augustus swung his weapon at Nolan's arms with a vicious blow, but to his surprise, Nolan was tougher than he looked.

"I was expecting to sever his arms, but this guy is tougher than the Goblin King. He's slow, way too slow. He can't even react to my attacks," Augustus thought, determined not to be deterred. "I'll save Vera and Arielle first."

Augustus quickly set up two vine traps, one on each side of Nolan, trapping him securely. Nolan struggled to free himself which made him drop Vera and Arielle.

'This is the moment.'

"Paralysis Trap. Activate," Augustus muttered and then he followed by clicking "Summon" on his system allow him to obtain Vera and Arielle without being seen by Nolan.

Bzzt*

[Summoned 'Vera']

[Summoned 'Arielle']

Nolan's eyes narrowed in anger. "Who's responsible for this?" he snarled as he easily got out of the paralysis trap and vine trap.

'He can easily break out of the vine trap and shock doesn't affect it too.'

But Augustus had already planned ahead. He quickly fed Vera and Arielle a Health Potion, and their injuries quickly healed.

Augustus lifted the unconscious girls and carried them to a nearby guard

Augustus confidently presented his Imperial Guard clan ID to the speechless soldier. "Take care of them," he instructed before disappearing from the scene with lightning speed.

As he fled, Dawn Blade, the weapon he had used to slay the Goblin King, began to level up rapidly.

[Dawn Blade leveled up]

[Dawn Blade leveled up]

…

[Dawn Blade leveled up]

[Dawn Blade leveled up]

The experience from slaying the Goblin King was stored in Dawn Blade, which allowed Augustus to level up the weapon. Though it consumed some, Augustus didn't bother about saving points right now.

From his perch atop a nearby building, Augustus watched Nolan search for him below. "System, can you scan his stats?" he asked.

The system responded, "It will cost 500 points."

"Do it," Augustus ordered.

[Nolan Lvl 48]

Class: Gravity Mage (Legendary Class)

Unique Talent: Tough Body (Rare Talent), Debuff Immune (Epic Talent), Hercules Strength (Epic Talent), Goddess Blessing (Legendary Talent)

STR: 126 (+50) CONS: 63 (+30)

AGI: 31 (+10) DEF: 58 (+45)

INT: 10 (+10) MAG: 56 (+10)

The scan revealed Nolan's impressive stats and talents.

Despite his intimidating abilities, Augustus was confident in his agility and ability to avoid Nolan's attacks.

'His stats distribution is more of a warrior than a mage. If I get caught by him, I'll lose but judging by his agility stats, I don't think I will.'

"What is the goddess of this world thinking, giving blessing to such a guy?" he muttered. "Now I have to clean up your mess."

[10 'Mana Potion I' Obtained]

With ten Mana Potions in hand, Augustus set up multiple explosion traps, carefully stacking it's firepower, multiplying it's density.

'This guy is not sensitive to mana at all.' Augustus didn't bother casting decoy traps to distract his mana senses.

Gulp*

Again.

Gulp*

Again.

Gulp*

…

…

['Mana Sickness' Debuff applied]

['Mana Addiction' Debuff applied]

['Mana Madness' Debuff applied]

['Mana Agony' Debuff applied]

Huff*

Augustus took a deep breath, feeling the intense pain coursing through his body as he experience side effects from repeatedly using Mana Potions.

But he couldn't afford to hesitate or back down now.

His veins bulged out and his eyes turned bright blue due to the mana addiction.

He was also experiencing symptoms of delusions and hallucinations, thanks to the Mana Madness.

But he didn't let any of it slow him down.

He had used this technique to survive many times before, and he was ready to do it again.

With a devious smile on his face, Augustus dropped in front of Nolan, who was wreaking havoc on the city, destroying buildings and injuring innocent people.

The guards were doing their best to reason with him, but to no avail.

Augustus knew what he had to do. "I'll make sure the sacrifices and time you guys bought are worth it," he thought to himself as he faced Nolan.

Swoosh*

Augustus managed to get two fingers from Nolan's hand in a swift.

He then taunted him by throwing them in the air over and over.

Nolan was caught off guard and didn't realize what had happened until he saw his own fingers in Augustus' hands. "You son of a bitch! I'll kill you!" Nolan cast his Gravity Magic, but

Augustus was already out of range before the magic could take effect.

As Augustus moved out of the magic circle, Nolan already casted a Gravity Magic predicting his opponent movement.

Augustus was caught off guard by Nolan's quick thinking and his ability to predict his movements.

"He's smarter than I thought. I shouldn't have underestimated him," Augustus realized as Nolan managed to predict his movement and cast ahead.

"HAHA! You'll pay for messing with me," Nolan taunted, approaching Augustus to retrieve his fingers.

"Please spare me!" Augustus begged for mercy, hoping to spare his life.

But Nolan was not in the mood for forgiveness. "You dare to mess with Nolan the almighty and you dare to beg for mercy? You're lucky I didn't kill you instantly, Give me back my fingers and I'll think about the trouble you have caused." he sneered, inching closer to retrieve his fingers. But Augustus was waiting for this to happen.

"Gotcha," Augustus grinned, luring Nolan into a trap he had set. He activated the explosion trap,

Boom*

causing a massive blast that created a huge crater in the ground.

Augustus managed to create a giant Ice wall to shield himself from the explosion, but Nolan wasn't so lucky. His right leg was blown to bits as it was directly on top of the trap, leaving him screaming in pain as he lay in the huge crater.

His other body parts can be seen not left unscathed too, they were burned marks from the leftover explosion, even his face was disfigured.

"MY LEG!!!" Nolan screamed in agony.

As Nolan writhed, Augustus threw his fingers down to him. "Here you go, your fingers," he taunted, hitting Nolan's head with them.

"They were greasy, so I don't want to hold them for long." Enraged by Augustus, Nolan retrieved an item from his pouch and broke it apart.

A tough-looking barrier formed around Nolan, protecting him from the outside.

He began casting a huge magic circle, one large enough to cover the entire city.

----

Marie, The Shapeshifter, watched from afar and let out a sigh. "Someone forced the fatty to use his trump card. I should leave this city, it will be devoured by a black hole," she murmured.

-----

Meanwhile, Darkin, The Blood Seeker, also saw the large magic circle from a distance. "Hmm? I didn't hear the news of Imperial Dog arriving. Who could have pushed the fatty to such extremes?" he wondered.

-----

A lot of soldiers arrived on the scene, including Sir Galen. "Sir, look at the floor! I think that guy is casting black hole magic," one of the soldiers pointed out.

Sir Galen quickly ordered the evacuation of all civilians from the city. "There's still time! Run away now!" he yelled, hoping to save as many lives as possible.

"Count James, you have to evacuate. Nolan has used his black hole magic, and it will be the same disaster that happened at Thallasia," Sir Galen spoke through the magic crystal, trying to warn his superior.

"I know about it, Galen. I'm just tired of putting up with the irregular for years. I'll stay back and watch my own city fall." The crystal dimmed as the connection was cut off.

"I'll respect his wish." Sir Galen dropped the crystal and resumed the evacuation.

-----

Meanwhile, Augustus was sitting on the ground, hanging on the edge of the crater, looking at Nolan, who was busy casting his spell.

"I've deployed a protection magic that's capable of even defending Meteor Rain cast by an Archmage. It lasts for ten more minutes, and it will buy me enough time to cast black hole. What are you going to do now, dumbass?" Nolan cursed at Augustus, who simply smiled in response.

Unbeknownst to Nolan, Augustus had set a trap for him. "Is your magic capable of dispelling what's inside of it? If not, you're in huge trouble. Your back is lying on top of it right now," Augustus taunted Nolan.

"What?" Nolan frantically tried to turn his neck and use his magic sense to detect the trap, but his body was too large, blocking his own view, and he was too overweight to move his neck around.

Augustus laughed at Nolan's predicament, "Pfft. You can't even turn your own head."

"Wait! Wait! I stopped it. I stopped the casting." Nolan pleaded for mercy, "Please just let me live. I promise I'll never bother you again. I'll give you my equipment and treasures. They're all very expensive treasures."

Nolan put down the barrier he had set and threw his dimensional ring to Augustus. "Just let me go, I'll promise you. I'll never-"

Augustus had no intention of sparing him, he happily kept the ring that was thrown and activated the trap before he could try anything.

Boom*

"Nolan's stomach was blown inside out, leaving a huge hole in his torso. Despite the gruesome injury, his head remained unharmed and he was still alive, although his face was covered in his own blood.

Shock was etched on his face as he struggled to breathe in the crater, surrounded by a mist of blood.

After a few minutes, Nolan died, his eyes remaining open and his expression frozen in clear shock.

Augustus was amazed by Nolan's resilience. Despite the damage to his torso, the rest of his body was relatively unharmed.

"Sir Gray!" Sir Galen finally dared to rush onto the field as he saw the magic circle disappear. "You're experiencing Mana Potion side effects! I'll escort you to safety. Just rest tight for now." Sir Galen reassured Augustus, who was slowly losing consciousness."