Chapter 341 His Archery
Act.
A group of commands in Asta that, as a whole, creates a special effect that a single spell, enchantment, or magic, can\'t actually pull off.
Of the 36 Acts currently existing in Acts, and something that most definitely won\'t ever change, he used the twelfth one.
A peculiar barrier that had the ability to empty out a particular type of energy from the enclosed area. And paragraph 1 of this was Mana.
So, the barrier that suddenly appeared after the weird golden arrow surrounded by peculiar magic suddenly appeared in the middle of tens of experienced mages.
The appearance itself was shocking as the arrow had neglected their magic detection and just from looking at the complex structure of the magic surrounding the arrow, they can tell any attack from them will be for naught.
This caused chaos in these mages and even before they moved away from the arrow, a barrier that was covering the entire half of the training ground, their mana started sucking out of them.
And the speed was nothing like they had ever experienced in their lives.
It didn\'t even take a few seconds before their Mana fell to the bottom and just remained enough for them to be able to move freely or be in a fine state.
Without the Mana inside them, there was no way for them to cast any spells, and they can\'t even recover their Mana as the Mana in the entire area had been sucked in by this weird arrow.
The red gem that was beating like a heartbeat on the top side was glowing brightly as if smiling with satisfaction.
This shocked them a bunch, and they started looking at each other, tried casting spells, and even took out potions to recover their Mana, but, as soon as the Mana increased from a certain point, it was sucked out of them…
The arrow was like a hungry vampire, sucking all the extra blood from his \'food\', only leaving them alive to generate more delicious drinks for him... or her.
They were literally shocked stiff by this shocking barrier, arrow as well as the absolute magic covering the arrow.
All they could do right now was move freely and access their storage devices. That was all.
The mages were surprised and their captain had her eyes wide open, as big as a curious owl, doing their best to decipher the barrier, the magic on the arrow, and the arrow itself.
She had a deep smile on her face and even though her efforts were futile and blood drops slid through her pretty eyes, painting her fair beautiful elven skin in crimson red, she didn\'t stop until the blue elven magic circle before her eyes that was trying to understand these spells was… shattered into minuscule particles.
This wasn\'t natural and definitely not because she had overextended herself, no.
The reason her perfect scanning magic was disabled was that someone broke the spell.
Someone else... someone intelligent enough to understand a spell she herself had created. And someone strong enough that they can interfere with the complex elven magic.
Elven magic. Something beyond human understanding. Someone no human in this place should ever be able to even understand.
But… someone did understand her personal spell perfectly.
They understood it, reverse-calculated the structure, and broke the spell with complex core destruction.
She was probably the only pure-blood elf in this whole part of the capital, and if there was someone other than a human here in this place, then it would be the girl that was astonishingly looking at the Mana-sucking barrier.
There was genuine surprise and shock on her face and she was amazed how can there be such a thing as this barrier. Just this shock was enough for her to tell that she wasn\'t the one that broke her spell.
So, if not some non-human, then... there was only one other person who could do that. One that they all were trying to defeat right now.
The boy that shot this arrow covered with this strange spell that was hard to understand, even for her.
The boy that was holding that strange Ego weapon in his hand, and the boy that currently had a white magic circle before his ruby-red eye.
A strange magic circle, so complex that even she failed to understand it.
Her eyes widened even more from seeing this strange spell before his right eye. And from the looks of things, he was the only one who could have canceled her spell.
But... how?!
How was this even possible?!
He was just a twelve-year-old kid who was fairly stronger and more mysterious than their miss, and young master Alf.
But he was still human and just a twelve-year-old at that.
He was nothing like even this girl that was the oldest after her in this place.
If it was from her, it might have been somewhat believable but, a \'boy\' who was definitely strong in her eyes, having the ability to cancel a spell made by her?
Even though it was just a common analyzing spell, this was truly unbelievable because it was an elven spell. Something a noble creature of nature, like she had created.
And indeed... she couldn\'t help her smile at this moment.
The very bizarre magic circle before his eye had stayed for only a moment so she couldn\'t get a good look at it but, her first expression of his magical ability was something more than she could have ever expected.
This barrier was amazing too, something she couldn\'t even think should ever be possible for any being to make unless they were divine beings.
This barrier, his flawless archery, this special arrow, that special bow, and now his understanding of elven magic and the ability to cancel an elven spell.
"Indeed. As master said... he is far above what we could ever fathom.
A special kid who can\'t ever be understood by the understanding of us lowly mortals."
She expressed in her enchanting voice while looking at those sharp ruby-red eyes that had already set their next target on the knights.
He just incapacitated the entire mage unit that she was proud of just by simply cutting off their Mana.
And from the look of things, this wasn\'t even the full power of the spell that was being demonstrated right now.
A barrier that can suck out the Mana in an enclosed space, just leaving enough to sustain the living beings inside the barrier.
The spell itself needed an unreal control ability that might be impossible for even a pure-blooded elf like her.
But that weapon, that unreally intelligent Ego, was doing it so perfectly that it reminded her of something she had only ever heard in her village\'s folklore.
But this was different from those world-level weapons that only transcendent beings could possess.
This weapon was not even a divine artifact that could be compared to their Master\'s spectacular war-crazy hammer.
The arrow itself didn\'t seem that much powerful. Same for the bow that the young boy was using right now.
It was just the highest-level artifact, a magnificently made one for sure, and one that had the skill to create a very interesting barrier around the things shot by it.
Not that this barrier would last forever or that one can use it all the time.
There were certain limits to the weapon and its skills.
The power was also certainly far below even this arrow from her observation.
She couldn\'t see the status window of any of his weapons. But as an elf, a race that had deep roots in weapons like bows, arrows, and archery itself, she could understand the bows and arrows just from a look.
But even for her... the things that he used were beyond comprehension.
This was just that amazing...
And all the mages that were fearful and chaotic a moment ago had cleared their minds and had started analyzing the spell on the arrow after gathering near it.
They didn\'t have Mana to use spells or scanning artifacts, so they used traditional ways and took out notebooks and pens to note what they can understand from observation.
They were mages. True crazy mages that would even wager their lives if that meant learning new things about the magic and truths of the world.
They all were gathering near the bow, and the knight captain beside her couldn\'t take his eyes away from the new skeptical happening before their eyes.
He had definitely heard the shocking words of defeat from his colleague captain but, this magic or spell wasn\'t his thing.
He was a knight who appreciated his flawless archery skills. He had already admitted the young boy\'s prowess in basics and he knew when talking by pure basics, he had already reached the level of their master.
The daring thought of him being better than their master even crossed his mind…
He was that good.
Something he, a person who had closely observed their master, a knight king, could understand far better than any other knights of lower rank.
The title and power of kings were absolute. Something few could ever possess even after tirelessly training for their whole lives.
The world granted them special authority for their achievement of transcendence, and just that much was an unreal feat.
And if his mind had even a little thought about a mere child being superior to those transcendent beings in something, then it was more than enough acknowledgment.
He had already decided that this young boy was a qualified master for his loyalty, but... what he was seeing right now had far more impact on his heart and mind than anything he had seen.
He was seeing his own men, the people he had looked after and trained with, getting pierced by arrows so perfectly aimed at them that they didn\'t even get the chance to react to them.
They... the closest aids of the knight king couldn\'t react to a mere arrow.
And these arrows hit them perfectly at non-vital but painful places. And as a result of being hit, a hit that they didn\'t even see, their bodies couldn\'t help but fell down to the ground.
And if this process was being done individually, taking down one knight at a time, it might have been pretty good, but... taking down \'knights\' six at a time with a single arrow each?
"I... want to fight him."
Those were the only words that came out of his mouth while watching the fierce fall of countless knights that was happening so naturally, it seemed like natural drops of early rain.
Somewhat far, slow, but powerful arrows carefully aimed at the best weak spots of every individual knight.
Just seeing this was making his heart burn with excitement and passion and the respect was turning into a competitive fighting sprite.
There was now a fire in his eyes, a fire aimed at the young boy.
And this fire... the boy didn\'t know the reason, but he couldn\'t help the cold shiver that ran down his spine as he shot the last batch of his arrow and glanced to the other side.
And when the young boy saw it, those eyes dying to fight with him, he couldn\'t help but gulp down a mouthful of saliva with clear fear and cold sweat...
\'It\'s not every day your innocent efforts ignite a fire like that in a knight like him... haaa...\'
He will have to make them lunch after all this is over.