Chapter 61: Learned human magic

Rita exhaled deeply, confirming the success.  

This was a spell Talos had once devised alone.  

Back then, it failed against Satan—the icy bloom melted mid-cast.  

“Lady Eileen!”  

The spell succeeded, but it wouldn’t hold long. Rita shouted urgently.  

Eileen, already prepared, snapped her fingers with a glint in her eyes.  

The golden mana she’d been gathering shot forward like a gust.  

Rita tapped the ice prison with her spear, causing the frozen structure to melt and ripple.  

“Argh!”  

Eileen’s mana arrow pierced through the water, striking Satan’s tail.  

But as Satan moved post-thaw, the arrow veered slightly off course.  

“Kieeeek!”  

Still, a vital point was hit. Satan writhed, screeching as the arrow burned through its tail’s center, dissolving in flames.  

The tail was severed, leaving only a stump at its base.  

“Is that its vital point?”  

Inside the severed flesh, a red-glowing gemstone shone.  

It looked like a jewel but was elongated and blunt, shaped like the tail—almost like a bone.  

“It seems to take the form of the body part it’s in,” Rita observed.  

“That’s tricky. A larger vital point might be easier to hit, but harder to destroy completely,” Valery noted.  

Satan, pale and panting, glared as its tail slowly regenerated.  

The vital point wasn’t entirely destroyed, but the loss was a humiliating blow.  

“I’ll… kill you!”  

Rita’s eyes gleamed at its enraged reaction.  

As expected, Satan didn’t flee despite its fury.  

‘Does it lack the strength to revert to its true form?’  

Gripping her spear, Rita charged.  

Given Satan’s state, full tail regeneration would take time—a golden opportunity.  

They had to press harder to defeat it now.  

“Lady Rita!”  

“I’ll assist!”  

As Rita dispelled Glacier’s Breath, Sercia and Valery rushed in.  

Their relentless attacks made Satan realize its disadvantage.  

By the time it snapped out of its rage, Eileen had conjured another golden arrow.  

Recalling how the first had severed its tail, Satan hesitated.  

‘Revert now? No, that’s riskier.’  

In its true form, its larger size would expose the tail further, and it lacked the mana to protect it.  

The Breath it unleashed upon spotting Rita’s group had drained too much mana in its excitement.  

Regenerating its tail was siphoning what remained, an uncontrollable process.  

Who could’ve predicted it’d be cornered like this?  

Satan, chuckling at the absurdity, began retreating.  

Smoke-like glints flickered in its red eyes.  

“What’s with its eyes?”  

Everyone froze, puzzled.  

Loen, the priest in the safe zone, suddenly clutched her ears, wincing in pain.  

Her keen hearing picked up a piercing sound.  

Rita’s eyes narrowed.  

“Prepare yourselves. Its minions are coming.”  

She recognized Satan’s signal to summon its brood.  

Floria and Eugene quickly turned to guard the rear.  

Soon, the ground rumbled.  

Nearby lizards, from juveniles to adults, answered their progenitor’s call.  

Mikael glanced at the ice cage’s ceiling, worried.  

“Will it hold?”  

“We’ll make it hold,” Rita replied, lacking certainty.  

The mage trio—Blena, Seth, and Alois—tensed as the lizards swarmed the ice pillars, clawing to get in.  

“Be careful!”  

The outer walls shuddered under the impact.  

Blena, Seth, and Alois grimaced, but with Rita supplying mana, the cage held.  

The problem was Rita’s mana depleting in real-time from the strain.  

“Lady Rita, are you okay?”  

Initially, Rita endured, but the simultaneous assault from dozens of beasts left her breathless.  

She’d never worried about mana since becoming supreme-rank, but today, she did.  

“We’re out of time. We need to end this. Silent Waterway!”  

Raising her staff, water droplets formed around Satan.  

But Satan, wise to the trick, fled at high speed, refusing to fall for it again.  

Climbing the ice pillars like a spider, it dodged incoming magic with acrobatic flair.  

“Damn it!”  

Sercia and Valery, chasing it, exchanged frustrated looks.  

They couldn’t climb like Satan, and striking the pillars risked harming Rita and the mages.  

Eileen and Floria hesitated for the same reason.  

Left alone, Rita targeted the pillars themselves.  

“Rising Frost!”  

Icicles sprouted from the pillars like thorns, branching out to chase Satan.  

As Satan darted across the pillars, Rita’s icicles pursued from multiple angles.  

To protect its tail, Satan flipped upside down, evading desperately.  

Eugene, watching irritably, flicked his wrist.  

Stones he’d picked up disrupted Satan’s path.  

When Rita glanced at him, he winked with his purple eyes, seeking approval.  

‘It’s working…’  

Eugene’s interference paid off.  

Satan, anxious about its tail, reacted to every stone, slowing down.  

One of Rita’s icicles pierced its leg, causing it to stumble and cling to a pillar.  

But the pillar froze its hand, forcing it to let go.  

Satan fell.  

Grinding its teeth in humiliation, it curled into a ball.  

“Get back!”  

Rita shouted, recognizing the change.  

Satan’s human form swelled, reverting to its lizard shape.  

Its massive wings thrashed, straining the narrow ice cage.  

Now enormous, Satan focused on breaking the cage.  

A crack formed in one pillar under the intense impacts.  

Rita halted all actions to repair it.  

But several beasts exploited the gap, slipping inside.  

“No! Stop them!”  

Blena’s scream prompted Floria and Eugene to act.  

Three adult lizards breached the cage just as it was repaired.  

Satan reverted to human form, but its head remained lizard-like.  

Before anyone could question why, its maw opened, spewing black flames.  

Though weaker than in its true form, the attack strained the trio maintaining the cage.  

Alois’s mana depleted at that moment, and Rita reacted swiftly.  

“Relentless Arrow!”  

An ice harpoon shot forward, piercing Satan’s left arm.  

With no mana to protect itself, the arm fell, crushed like rotten fruit.  

No regeneration followed—its mana was tied up in tail regrowth.  

Satan, face contorted in fury, lost balance and fell again.  

Its eyes glared murderously at Rita.  

“Now’s our chance!”  

Sercia charged.  

Seeing Satan near death, she urged to finish it.  

Eileen and Mikael rushed forward too.  

Eugene, Floria, and Felix handled the three intruding adults, while the mage trio and Loen stayed behind the ice zone, maintaining the cage.  

“Please, just die!”  

Despite Blena’s desperate plea, Satan lay sprawled, trembling.  

The supreme-ranks charged, weapons raised to strike its vital point again.  

But Satan, looking pathetic, lifted its head with a twisted grin.  

“It’s… smiling?”  

As everyone frowned, Satan’s body sank into the ground, turning into a black shadow.  

In a blink, it vanished.  

The supreme-ranks froze, stunned.  

Valery’s mustache quivered, thinking it had fled, but Rita, sensing something off in the shadow’s trace, whipped her head around.  

“Kyaaah!”  

Blena’s scream echoed.  

***

Floria, firing arrows at the adult lizards near the mage trio, had been glancing at the supreme-ranks’ fight.  

She saw Satan disappear.  

Lowering her bow in shock, she spotted Satan rising from the ground as a shadow.  

“Danger!”  

As Satan reached for its target, Floria lunged, knocking its hand away.  

The mage trio, startled by Satan’s silent appearance behind them, gasped again as Floria was seized.  

“Lady Floria!”  

Felix, fighting nearby adults, panicked.  

Eugene’s eyes widened at Floria’s capture.  

Satan, checking its hostage’s face, tilted its head.  

“What? I was aiming for him. Why’d I get you?”  

“Because I’m the strongest here,” Floria replied coldly, glancing at Seth.  

Seth, realizing Satan had targeted him, froze.  

“Maybe, but you’re not my type…”  

Satan, reluctantly holding Floria’s arm, smacked its lips.  

Exhausted, it considered eating a human to recover, but Floria’s pale skin stirred unease.  

Then it noticed Yan’s gaze.  

Since the battle began, Yan had stood blankly near the mage trio.  

Unlike the others’ wariness, his calm demeanor puzzled Satan.  

Like Floria, Yan felt deeply unsettling to it.  

“Floria!”  

Led by Eileen, the supreme-ranks rushed over.  

Satan gestured, and the three adults fighting Eugene and Felix fled to its side.  

Reading the supreme-ranks’ tense expressions, Satan smirked.  

“What now?”  

It tightened its grip on Floria’s neck, taunting them.  

Rita frowned.  

“How’d you do that?”  

“What? Oh, that trick?”  

Satan shrugged, pointing at Rita.  

“I copied what you did last time.”  

The revelation that it had learned human magic stunned everyone.