Genius Warlock

It caught Oliver by surprise.

He couldn't believe he was facing Holy Magic he had only encountered once before.

In a single instance, Paladin Joanna used the spell [Holy Light] to significantly affect black magic.

Oliver thought he had heard it wrong, but the light surrounding the area assured him that it was not an illusion.

As the brilliant light swallowed the surroundings, the Minion, Hate Bullet, and [Child] inside Corpse dolls disappeared.

Because of this, Duncan was able to react immediately and barely saved his life.

"Die–!!"

Duncan said in a loud, brutish tone.

Using the tonfa, he struck the Corpse dolls as hard as he could, then ran toward Oliver and attacked with all of his might.

Instinctively, Oliver lifted the quarterstaff and defended against the attack.

BANG——!!!

Oliver flew to the side, and when Duncan tried to hit him with the tonfa again, he used [Targeting] to avoid being hit.

When Oliver turned around to see whether Duncan was chasing him, he just watched as if sure of victory and did not pursue him.

As a result, Oliver was able to save his life.

"……."

"……."

A stumbling Oliver rose to his feet, dust and wounds covering him.

Turning the tonfa around, Duncan looked at Oliver.

"What is that wand? Even though the black magic must have been removed, it was still able to withstand my tonfa. What item is that?"

In response to those words, Oliver looked at his quarterstaff.

There was certainly something bizarre about it. Holy Light wiped out even his [Black suit], so he wondered why his quarterstaff had not been damaged.

The question intrigued Oliver, but he was more curious about something else.

"…how did you do that?”

"Huh! This?"

A rare smile spread across Duncan's face as he held up his golden bracelet.

The golden bracelet radiated a strange energy.

"Is it an item that lets you use Holy Magic?"

"Yes, God is merciful and gives away his power to those who pay the right price. Mallelujah… and this is also possible."

Saying that Duncan took out the necklace that was inside his shirt.

It was a necklace with beads and a wooden cross on the end, and when Duncan grabbed the cross with his hand, a brilliant golden light shone and surrounded Duncan's body.

Along with it, the burns and wounds he suffered during the fight with Oliver began to recover, albeit slowly, leaving Oliver with no choice but to just watch.

It was not looking good at all.

His physical strength and the emotions he had diminished considerably, and his opponent was even able to recover. No, the biggest problem was Duncan being able to use Holy Light.

The situation was unfavorable right now, but with the emotions he possessed, he would be able to overcome it, there was just one catch–Holy Light was holding him back.

"What do you want to do? How about you pass her over and come under me now? It's okay, I'll show you mercy."

"Um, I'm sorry. I appreciate the offer, but I refuse. As for Ms. Jane, I have left her with someone I can trust and she will go somewhere safe even if I die here. So you don't have to worry."

The expressionless look on Duncan's face conveyed his displeasure.

"Isn't it scary to die?"

"Of course it's scary. But I don't like what I don't like, and a promise is a promise. You will never find Ms. Jane, even if you kill me anyway, so just give up on her."

His words were sincere, since they were true.

The way Duncan took it, though, was somewhat different from what he intended.

"Did you hand her over to the beggars?"

"……."

Oliver raised his eyebrows slightly.

As if reading Oliver's mind, Duncan spoke.

"When I heard that you and the girl disappeared all of a sudden here, I asked the cops and street gangs, and I heard rumors that beggars formed a large organization recently in this place.”

"……."

"Much like rats, they run errands in the sewers or eavesdrop ….. Judging from your reaction, it seems to be true."

"……."

"I don't know what’s your relationship with them, but since I know where she is, you don't have to worry… How about I promise you…?”

"……."

"… That after I kill you, I'll kill every single one of those beggars. The city officials will love it. I’ll be cleaning up the street rats instead of them.”

"Um, it's a little cruel. There's a lot of people there.”

"How can beggars be people? They are just some garbage…”

Oliver shot [Hate Bullet] at Duncan's head at the same time as he said that.

It was mostly because Oliver thought his reaction would get delayed while he was speaking, but Duncan blocked the bullets of hatred with his tonfa using his excellent body reflex.

He then struck the floor with another tonfa and threw a stone at Oliver, and when Oliver moved to avoid the stone, he dashed in.

Oliver faced an impossible situation.

Besides being physically superior, he had a fast response speed, and most importantly, he used Holy light, which gave him an absolute advantage over warlocks.

It was like dealing with a Paladin, and Oliver didn't have a clue what to do.

‘But using items. There must definitely be restrictions on using them.’

Oliver grasped the situation and tried to find a way to win, as he felt it was too early for him to die.

Oliver reaffirmed the amount of emotions and Life-force he had.

‘I still have enough emotions. But there's not enough Life-force….'

Oliver saw the fallen Pink Man’s body next to him.

‘I had to save my life.’

[Black shield]

Oliver deployed a black shield to prevent Duncan's attack.

Despite its one layer, it didn't break this time, because Oliver condensed it while narrowing the range to increase its defense.

The reduced defense range was further bolstered by anticipating the direction of the attack by reading emotions, which seemed like a good idea at first glance, but actually posed a great deal of risk.

If you misread the trajectory of the attack even once, you will die.

As if he knew what he was doing, Duncan laughed.

" You’re Crazy!"

"Everyone told me so. I don't understand why.”

Oliver said, continuing to block Duncan's attack.

With both hands, Duncan wielded the tonfa, stabbing, turning, and using it from various angles without a break as he attacked them from all angles.

It was not only fast and ever-changing, but every shot was very heavy and every shot that was blocked was so heavy that a lot of emotion was consumed just by blocking the shot.

While swinging, even the wind pressure was felt, but more than this, an even greater danger arose from the war of attrition.

So Oliver took the risk and swung the quarterstaff loaded with emotions.

‘Touch.’

The blow was blocked by Duncan's tonfa.

As Duncan grinned, he lifted another tonfa and tried to hit Oliver's quarterstaff as hard as he could as if he was trying to wash away the humiliation he suffered earlier.

[Las Bomb]

Before Duncan's tonfa could reach Oliver's quarterstaff, Oliver used the Las Bomb loaded on the quarterstaff.

Suddenly, an explosion erupted between Duncan's arms, which caught him off guard and left him stunned for a moment.

Duncan, whose defense was loosened because he focused only on the attack, groaned and slowly stretched his arms.

In fact, he even let go of one of the tonfas that he was holding on to.

Oliver tried to pick up the tonfa that fell, but at that moment Duncan kicked him and blew him away.

It was quite painful and difficult to breathe, but Oliver was grateful.

That's all Oliver wanted.

Oliver gave strength to his eyes and quickly looked around.

He was so focused that the time even seemed moving slowly, and Duncan, who was burned and bleeding in both hands, took out his necklace and healed himself.

Using [Targeting], Oliver retrieved the tonfa from the floor, then extracted the Life-force from the test tube and gave life to the Pinkman corpses scattered everywhere.

His plan was to boost the number of zombies by giving as little Life-force to each corpse since he would only be using it once, and then with black magic, he strengthened the zombies.

Duncan was the only target, so he used [Object Hate] to attack Duncan alone, and a [muscle-up] to increase muscle strength.

As a result, Duncan was surrounded by about a dozen zombies.

Duncan finished his recovery.

Instead of panicking, he used the remaining tonfa to sweep away the zombies.

With his superhuman abilities, about a dozen zombies didn't threaten him enough to use Holy Light.

During that time, Oliver also cast an additional black magic spell on the zombies.

It was [Blister], a black magic he used in the mansion.

With the spell, violet blisters sprouted from the bodies of broken and less broken zombies.

At that moment Duncan had a hunch that something was wrong and moved back.

‘Even if you're not afraid of knives and guns, you're afraid of disease.’

As Oliver learned a new fact, he used another black magic spell.

[Corpse Bomb]

Black magic that even pierced Druid's bark armor.

Even if Duncan endured the explosion with his vast mana armor, it will still be difficult for him to be completely safe because of the blister.

Thinking the same, Duncan used the item again to invoke the Holy magic.

[Holy Light]

The brilliant light surrounded the surroundings and burned the surrounding zombies and black magic.

It was dazzling.

Even after seeing it for the second time, it still looked threatening in the eyes of Oliver.

"You're really…”

[Imprison]

As soon as Duncan used Holy Light, Oliver took out all the remaining emotions and cast them.

In the next moment, the black emotions entangled themselves like mud and turned into a huge irregular substance that swallowed Duncan, who had just finished his spell.

In a way, it was like hell.

In his flustered state, Duncan tried to release mana and push it away, as well as tried to burn the imprison using Holy magic.

Although there was strong resistance, [Imprison], which used all the remaining emotions, stuck together and did not disappear easily.

"What the hell is this…..!!”

In bewilderment, Duncan yelled but was swallowed up by [Imprison] again.

Duncan's emotions were tinged with confusion and fear, but Oliver nevertheless remained vigilant.

Currently, Oliver's [Imprison] was limited to binding Duncan up for a while.

In the event Duncan continued to resist, it would be [Imprison] that would ultimately disappear, and Oliver would also be killed.

At this moment Oliver had to find a way to overcome this difficult fight.

‘But how?’

Oliver pondered. There may have been a limit to the use of items containing Holy Magic, but Oliver was unaware of it.

Above all, Oliver had no more emotions left.

‘Should I pick up a rock and hit him on the head? Or should I stab him with quarterstaff?'

Oliver considered simple physical attacks, but they seemed unlikely.

While Oliver was thinking about it, [Imprison] was almost exhausted.

In contrast to Magic, Imprison's depreciation was rapid when resisting Holy Magic.

In spite of Joanna's powerful Holy Magic, Oliver wondered how he managed to capture her.

Just in case, Oliver tried to extract his emotions.

Due to the urgency of the situation, he expected something to come out, but he was disappointed when nothing came out.

‘Why can’t I extract it?’

While thinking about why he was unable to extract his emotions, Oliver looked at the subject in front of him.

At the end of his sight, Duncan was seen fighting the half-decreased [Imprison].

‘I have to extract something first.’

Oliver held his hands in the air thinking so.

He then extracted a large amount of emotion and Life-force from Duncan.

Then, as he did with the Wizard in the past, he tried to transfer the extracted emotions of Duncan to [Imprison].

In a one-on-one fight, it was a pretty good strategy. There was a high probability that the other person would pass out first.

However, the difference this time was the speed at which Duncan was trying to escape was much faster due to the use of Holy Magic.

Oliver, who was in a hurry, gradually increased the amount of extraction.

"You fu*king mosquito……!!!”

Duncan screamed in anger.

Oliver increased the extraction even more.

‘This is not enough. More, more, more, more.! More.! Anything more!’

In that moment, Oliver was able to extract something other than emotion and Life-force for the first time in his life.

It was Mana.

(To be Continued)