What Konrad had meant as a warning shot incinerated the enemy caster.
One of them, at least.
His spell left nothing but a smoking crater, though he used half the mana he usually would. But that was the difference between summoning something and using elements already present.
It would have cost him around a hundred mana to create a lightning bolt from scratch.
A regular one, not some mountain-crushing death-ray, either.
That's how much he spent when probing Lord Schwertburg's defenses earlier, too. And like all his spells, it was a streamlined one. He'd cut costs and corners on his syntax wherever he could.
So he went with only fifty points here, tapping into the static electricity of the area instead.
And he sure didn't expect a result so devastating.
He only wanted to scare off the approaching shamans—which he did for sure—but he ended up killing one. But well, such was war. Maple's report on it still sounded a bit shaky in his head.
'Please warn me next time you're about to do something crazy, bossman,' she pleaded.
Not that he could have repeated such a spell over and over.
Once more, or twice if he was lucky.
But he didn't even have to. A single strike was more than enough.
"The hell was that?" Bor also ran up to him with a pale face despite his panting. "I thought you said you won't use magic here because—whatever your reason was. But that thing—"
Well, yes. He did try to save up his strength for a deadlier encounter, but this could have been it.
"The nomads brought some spellcasters," Konrad explained, his mind already elsewhere.
He still didn't have the luxury of mana sight.
But even on his level, he could feel the flow of the essence if he concentrated on it hard enough.
He fired that last spell without seeing the enemy, too, but he homed it in on the strongest mana signature. Now he was feeling one less of those, with the rest too weak to consider them a threat.
"Seems I've dealt with them as well," he added, noticing that those signatures were also fading.
The casters must have been in a full retreat. He had no reason to chase after them.
But since he'd only hold back because of potential magic threats—
Now he could've used his spells to aid his troops, too. The thought alone put a grin on his face.
Finally, he wouldn't have to feel so useless.
Which may or may not have freaked his tribal lieutenant out a tiny bit.
"For the love of the spirits, had a demon of some kind possessed you, bossman?" Bor asked, taking a few steps back. Yeah, no, he did have a demoness to obsess with, but this was different.
"No, but I'll finally join the fray, too," Konrad announced, sorting through spells in his mind.
There were many to choose from.
And now that he knew how stronger the effects were if he used resources already present—
He had to be more mindful about his picks.
Nothing that could harm his own men. Nothing that might've caused collateral damage.
Stuff that could've caused chaos or confusion was out of the question, too.
"I told you to stay at the back, boss," the tribesman tried to reason with him. He didn't get his meaning after all. Not everyone could read his mind. "You'd break our formation if you joined."
"I'm not joining the melee, damn it," Konrad groaned. But the complaint also gave him an idea.
It was the tight formation that kept the enemy at bay and prevented any serious injuries on their side. If he inserted himself into the front line, he would've done more harm than good.
That was true. But there had to be a spell that actually strengthened that formation as well.
Something made of elements already present—but electricity was out of the question.
It was only good for attacks, and he burned through about half of what the Halaima Pass had to offer already. Wind was something the mountains had plenty of, though.
"A windshield," he muttered, albeit the word had a rather different meaning back in his world.
"A what?" Bor asked too, color returning to his face, but now his eyebrows furrowed instead.
"I'll take control of the winds and create a defensive layer in front of our troops," Konrad explained. Well, it was more to himself than to the tribesman in front of him.
The thermos containers came to his mind.
Ones that utilized a layer of air—or lack thereof—to keep his coffee hot or cold in his past life.
Pack the winds dense enough—
"It'll help them repel the enemy strikes better, and they won't be able to push them back."
He was already organizing the runes in his head to create the perfect syntax.
He allocated about a hundred mana to rein in the winds. If fifty could kill a single target, a hundred should have been the proper amount for an entire formation.
At least in theory.
There was no need for summoning, but he had to make sure he had absolute control over his elements. Mess up the polarity, and the wind could scatter the garrison rather than protecting it.
He must have been scowling for a while, Bor staring at him with his brows almost touching.
His men should've gotten used to him always being a weirdo by now.
"That should do it," Konrad sighed, releasing all the pent-up magical energy in a single spell.
The air shimmered around him, winds stilled, and the sound of cries and weapons got much quieter. His near-invisible insulation dampened those, too.
Especially since the lances could only reach his men with much less energy through it.
'Was that your first actual defensive spell?' Lily asked, her voice impressed in his mind. 'And it affects an entire formation, too. Nice job, now that's my-ow husband.'
Off the top of his head, he didn't know if this was his first, but he puffed his chest at the praise.
Other firsts were much more memorable—and they also had to do with the demoness.
'Oh, for heaven's sake,' Gabrielle interjected. 'The battle is still going, you know. Get your head out of the gutter. That single spell won't win you the whole war.'
And well, well, well. That was jealousy right there. It had to be.
Rather than helping Konrad focus, it had the opposite effect on him.
He was smirking to himself, forgetting about battles and nomads, and even Maou Midori for a while. Little victories, one simple praise, or a satisfying spell—he needed all these to keep going.
Not to think about how he had to kill his enemies, human beings like his own men and himself.
'Humans and monsters aren't always that different,' Lily noted, their thoughts intertwined. 'See that stupid dragon, for example. She's no human, but has more humanity than Meow Midori.'
'Hey,' Maple snapped, giving Konrad a headache. 'Ah, actually, I'll take that as a compliment.'
He sighed, his small success already forgotten.
This was his harem. His girls, his aides, all that supported him against the hordes of nomads and an even greater enemy. Yet he couldn't help but smirk at the thought.
He wouldn't have had it in any other way.