We needed to wait for the undead to gather first, so we sat there in the holy space, drinking tea peacefully. One hour passed, and Sebasu-san mentioned that there were enough undead.
We will be fighting the undead from inside the holy space. Currently, there are zombies and skeletons in every direction, while souls and semi-transparent human-shaped bodies and mist-like bodies could be seen floating in the air.
The balls of flame floating are known as wisps, and the mist-like bodies and the human-shaped bodies are called reis. They’re both weak to light magic, but the reis can attack mentally and haunt and possess humans.
“Are you ready?” [Remiri]
“Yes, I’m ready anytime.” [Ryouma]
“OK, let’s go.” [Remiri]
“The time limit is 10 minutes. Start!” [Sebasu]
The operation to defeat undead began. This is going to be a war of attrition so I fired a ‘Light Ball’ to the skeleton right in front of me.
“ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]
The ‘Light Ball’ I fired went straight for the head of the skeleton, extinguishing it. But the light ball didn’t disperse there as it continued to fly in a straight line, piercing through a number of undead, and extinguishing them. The undead tend to crowd together, so it’s not that weird. I ‘ve also done it a number of times in the past.
“’Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’” [Remiri]
“What is that!?” [Ryouma]
Remiri-san, who was behind me, chanted only once, yet immediately 10 balls of light were summoned. And she shot those 10 balls of light with deadly accuracy, destroying the heads of the undead.
“This is a technique called, Parallel Casting. Using a lot of magic power, and the right image, I can cast the same spell several times with one chant of ‘Light Ball’. But being able to do something like this takes a bit of practice.” [Remiri]
Remiri-san continued to fire off her spells while explaining, not even stopping once. And after finishing her explanation, she showed me a smile that seemed to say she’s won.
And it was then that I realized it. Could it be that the reason there’s no limit in the shots taken… was for this!?
Seeing my expression, Remiri-san spoke, saying,
“A bit too late to realize it now, ‘Light ball’.” [Remiri]
I knew it! Now that it’s come to this, I don’t have any choice but to use parallel casting as well. Remiri-san did teach me how to use it just now after all. Most likely because she thinks she’s won already.
“’Light Ball’ … ‘Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]
Or so I thought… But what is this? It’s ridiculously difficult.
The first time I tried it, I used a lot of magic, and I was able to cast the magic several times. But the most I was able to make were five balls. Anymore and I couldn’t maintain the spell.
The second time, I went ahead with just the five balls, but I couldn’t move the balls in different direction, and they all attacked the same spot.
The third time, I only made two balls, and I was able to move them in two different directions, but it was hard to aim. One failed to kill the undead, and the other actually missed. It’s like writing with both hands at the same time. Remiri-san mentioned it herself too, but this really isn’t something I can do right away.
Since parallel casting won’t work, there was nothing else I could do but just cast the normal light ball. I’m able to kill the undead fairly fast with this method, but the difference in our scores just keep increasing.
Remiri-san fires 10 shots in one chant, but the most I can do in that time is fire two or three shots… I know there’s no point asking for it, but it would be great if I could sweep the surrounding area quickly… Isn’t there any way?
While thinking of that, I kept firing the light balls.
There’s no problem hitting with the light balls accurately while deep in thought.
After all, it’s safe since the undead can’t enter the holy space even if they tried. Then with my alertness lowered to the minimum, I ended up likening the situation to them time when I was playing in the arcades back in my previous life. And since the zombies aren’t even attacking, it’s as if we’re playing super easy mode.
What if I tried doing this like I was playing super easy mode? …Nah, that would just end up like those target shooting in festivals.
Ah… speaking of which, I haven’t played any games since coming to this world, huh? I wonder what happened to that series.
There was a point in time when I got into it quite a bit… But I didn’t have any money, so I couldn’t go to the arcade much. But there were some times when I really wanted to shoot at some zombies, so I would go there for just one round. If I recall correctly, it was important to choose the appropriate ammo for each area. I was bad at it, so I don’t know that much about the game, but I’m sure there was an explosive shell, a machine gun, and a shotgun…
My thoughts were getting further and further, but it was here that I suddenly thought of it. And I thought to myself, why not improve the light ball spell and turn it into a bullet?
Immediately I tried it out… I don’t understand the explosive shells much, and the machine gun would drain my magic power quickly, so… I guess shotgun would be for the best? The shotgun’s shells fires buckshot. Its small shell supposedly releases its contents in a scattered manner… So with that in mind, I visualized the image of the light ball into a small bullet that scatters itself…
“ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]
The light ball scattered exactly as I had visualized it, but the damage was weak. The zombie in front of me was wounded, but it didn’t die. Apparently, I spread the light ball too much, causing the damage of every individual shot to weaken.
Since that’s how it is, I put 10 times more magic power into light ball than normal, and fired it. The result? Not only were the zombies in fan-shaped spread in front of me killed, even the Reis in the air died. Since it’s not really needed for the light ball to spread even in the air, I guess 10 times is a bit too much.
I have enough magic power, but this time I decided to compact the area affected. As a result, the power required was reduced to half of the last shot, requiring only five times as much magic power as a normal shot. Then adding to that, I thought of how the shotgun shells also had different sizes for the shots inside it. Visualizing that, I visualized the essentials of holy space into each of those shots, distributing magic power at the same time… as a result, I was able to equally divided the five times of magic power into 50 different shots. Then I fired it.
“ ‘Light Ball’ … Ku” [Ryouma]
Not good, the magic power is hard to control, I thought. And just as the fired light ball shot towards the target, it dispersed before even hitting it. As a result, only two zombies were killed. Focusing, I tried one more time.
The match continued, as I continued to focus on my control, honing the new magic as I killed more and more zombies. Soon Remiri-san began to panic a little at my light ball’s newfound power as she would throw glances at me from time to time, checking up on me.
But then Sebasu-san’s countdown began.
“10, 9, 8, 7, 6…” [Sebasu]
It’s almost over! Then in that case, I’ll have to fire this new magic, ‘Lightshot’, now! Visualizing the image… I fired it! Fire!
“’Lightshot’” [Ryouma]
That last cast was the normal five times more magic power than normal, but all the zombies within 3m area in front were filled with holes, and exterminated. The power’s much lower, but having decreased the consumption to half, it’s not so bad.
“Stop casting!!” [Sebasu]
At Sebasu-san’s words, the match ended. And the result…