Faced with the arrows, Rorschach drew upon a large amount of Magic Power, concentrating it to form the most "robust" Mage's Hand he had ever created, and slapped them to the ground.
The arrows that hit the ground surprisingly liquefied, splattering into pools of thick, dark green ooze. Black smoke rose from the grass wherever it splashed.
'Highly corrosive?'
Singrev was a melee Warrior, so he could only steer his horse to dodge the ooze. Hill tried to retaliate with her crossbow, but a bit of the substance splattered on her mount's forehoof. The horse thrashed in pain, disrupting the Ranger's movements. The Knights immediately launched a second volley.
Just as the arrows flew toward them again, a giant hand made of flames suddenly appeared in midair and snatched all the poison arrows. The intense heat burned them, sending up a plume of thick smoke from its palm. When the hand opened again, not even a cinder remained.
[Burning Hand]
Rorschach had inserted an "Elemental Transformation (Fire)" component between the "Magic Concentration" and "Repulsive Force" aspects of his [Mage's Hand]. This gave the hand, formed from Magic Power, the very substance of flame. His temples were now ringing, and Rorschach could feel that these two spells had consumed a significant amount of his own Magic Power.
'Do Mages have a mana bar?' Even his current panel didn't show one, but a limit to Casting definitely existed. The foundation of Casting was an individual's Endogenous Magic Power. Once a Caster reached a certain threshold, they would accumulate fatigue and experience phantom pains.
It was just like running. Someone who rarely exercised might find a thousand meters agonizing, while someone who maintained a regular routine would fare much better. A professional marathon runner, meanwhile, would have a massive gap in speed and endurance compared to an ordinary person. And the gap between a Low Tier Mage and a Legendary Mage, in terms of the amount of Endogenous Magic Power and casting speed, was even greater than that between a regular person and an athlete.
When a person ran to their limit, they would feel pain in the muscles they used, in their chest and respiratory tract, and in their diaphragm. When a Caster reached their limit, their mental "lactic acid buildup" would hinder their ability to think and concentrate, plunging their brain and entire body into agony.
Rorschach had experienced overdrawing his Magic Power on the first night of his transmigration. Fortunately, he had passed out quickly enough to avoid the full extent of the pain. But now, he was tired. He could feel his limit approaching.
On the opposite bank, the Knight Leader, Leopold, rallied his men. The seven horsemen turned their mounts around.
"Are they running?" Singrev guessed that the warhorses in Heavy Armor would just get stuck in the mud if they tried to wade across. 'Did they decide they can't cross the river and are retreating?'
"No, they're maneuvering to open up some distance for a charge," Hill determined. Her words made everyone tense up.
Rorschach steeled himself. He was preparing, aiming.
Hill drew her hand cannon, and the Dwarf tightened his grip on his warhammer.
CLIP... CLOP.. CLIP! CLOP! CLIPCLOPCLIPCLOPCLIPCLOP
Their acceleration was visible to the naked eye. The Knight Commander drew his longsword, squeezed his legs against his mount's sides, and the heavily armored warhorse soared into the air, attempting to leap across the entire river! In the dim twilight, Rorschach could clearly see a faint green light shining from the gaps in the horse's barding.
Rorschach had been concentrating his Magic Power the whole time. The instant the Knight reached the apex of his jump, directly above the center of the river, he unleashed his Fireball Skill. As it was his most powerful Magic, he didn't aim for any particular Knight, but instead slammed the condensed ball of fiery energy into the river water below.
BOOM!
The explosion and a blast of steam struck the Knights. Three of the slower, unluckier ones were blown back to the opposite bank, thrown from their saddles. One of the warhorses crashed to the ground and, just like the arrows before, melted into a dark green ooze, leaving only its barding behind.
Despite such a commotion, the warhorses that landed merely stamped their hooves, and the party's own mounts didn't panic or bolt.
'All fine horses.'
Forcing his Spirit to focus, Rorschach looked and understood that he had intercepted half of the Knights.
'Good news: I got the highest K/D of the match with that one shot. Bad news: that was my last shot.'
Rorschach nearly fell from his horse. A powerful wave of nausea washed over him; he had reached his absolute limit.
If he had been using the Basic Level Decomposition Skill, Rorschach could have cast it all night without stopping. But the last three Magic spells had been cast at maximum power, completely draining his personal Magic Power.
Singrev and Hill saw that something was wrong with Rorschach and moved to protect him on either side. Mr. Ah Le, for his part, drew a straight-blade sword and stood in opposition.
The Ranger fired at one of the Knights. The bullet struck the horse's head, shattering a plate of its barding and revealing a festering wound beneath.
Aside from Leopold, the other two Knights were not in good shape either. The steam had condensed upon contact with their skin, releasing a massive amount of heat and scalding any exposed flesh bright red.
"You're stronger than the innkeeper's report made you out to be." Leopold had been at the very front of the charge and was thus the least affected. He spoke in a low voice, "For the Great Mother!"
"For the Great Mother!" the two Knights echoed with difficulty. They grabbed a handful of powdered herbs from their pouches and hastily swallowed it down—the very same powder they had fed their horses before setting out.
The effect was instantaneous. The injured Knights' pain transformed into euphoric excitement. They drooled, chuckled uncontrollably, and tapped their longswords against their horses' barding.
"They're about to attack."
Without waiting for their leader's command, the two Knights charged straight for Rorschach. Though their runway was short, they were still incredibly fast, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
"Don't you underestimate me!"
Singrev, who had yet to make a move, burst into action. He squeezed his legs, causing his horse to rear up. He swung his hammer upward, parrying the descending longsword. In the Knight's moment of stunned surprise, Singrev twisted and brought his great hammer swinging back down toward his opponent's face.
The Knight dodged to the side. The warhammer slammed heavily into the horse's barding and actually exploded. The Dwarf, it turned out, was wielding a Gunpowder Hammer!
Singrev used the force of the recoil to swing his hammer up again and bring it crashing back down.
CLANG!
With a clash of metal, Leopold arrived just in time. He inserted himself between the Dwarf and his subordinate, catching the hammer's handle in the nook between his sword's blade and its tsuba.
"My Explosive Hammer has more than one bang!"
The Dwarf put his strength into it again. With a short swing, he struck Leopold's blade, and the hammer exploded a second time, the shock nearly jarring the sword from the Knight Commander's hand. Leopold pulled his reins tight and drew back.
Meanwhile, the other rider faced off against Hill. The Half-Elf dodged nimbly, using a dagger to parry her opponent's blade when necessary. Frustrated at his lack of progress, the Knight grew agitated. Mr. Ah Le, who had joined the fray, seized the opportunity to lunge forward with his walking stick sword in a close-range thrust.
The Knight easily dodged the merchant's attack, but in that instant, the Ranger suddenly vaulted from her own mount. She planted one foot on the enemy's warhorse and swept her other leg around, slashing a blade across the Knight's neck and felling him from his saddle. Even Mr. Ah Le, who was closest, couldn't follow the series of movements.
His teammates had created a moment's respite for him, but it wasn't enough. Rorschach now felt like a drowning man—the pressure, the pain, the suffocation, and a Spirit he could barely concentrate—making it nearly impossible to complete any remotely complex Casting.
'Should I try it?'
He watched the Dwarf fighting Leopold gradually lose the upper hand. Singrev's hammer swings were becoming noticeably slower, while Leopold showed no signs of fatigue, fighting with ever-increasing vigor.
'I'll try it.' In his muddled state, Rorschach decided to take the risk.
[Magic Power Drive], targeting himself.
Magic Power from the environment was forced into his body. Rorschach felt as if he had been dropped into boiling water; the pain was double what he had felt before.
But he was lucid—incredibly so. Perhaps his body's self-preservation mechanism had kicked in, or perhaps it was the consequence of Magic Power rampaging through his body, especially his nerves. Rorschach felt his thoughts moving with incredible speed, as if he could unleash Magic with but a single intention.