230 The Versatility of Magic Runes
When Vinigo shot a huge amount of flame from his own mouth, Luke reacted in the only way that could save him and Meredith. He used <Vind> to its maximum to disperse the fire just as he had done when he fought Marie, on the occasion when he dispersed the demon’s sound attack.
The moment Meredith gathered the courage to open her eyes, she saw the fire approaching them, but Luke’s hand somehow prevented it. Then, she remembered the Gene Skill that Luke used to extinguish fires sometimes, but at this particular moment, it was hundreds of times stronger than she was used to.
She looked at Luke and saw calmness in his eyes, not like usual, but a deeper look, as if he already knew he could contain Vinigo’s attack.
During those seconds that Meredith stared at the half-wolf so closely, she finally noticed how powerful he was.
Then, when the flames ceased, and Vinigo took a second to breathe, Luke deactivated the wind ability, and in one swift impulse, he tried to grab Vinigo by the collar.
The old man realized this, and before Luke could get close enough to grab him, Vinigo used his wand, and a shield quickly appeared in front of his face, preventing the grab. However, Luke’s quick thrusts always have more than one alternative attack. Since the half-wolf already anticipated that the Doctor knew how to use some kind of shield magic, when he saw this assumption come true, he simply closed the fingers of his hand and punched the old man in the stomach, throwing him away.
Vinigo bounced three times on the cellar floor of the dungeon until he finally hit one of the columns supporting the place. He tried to get up, but he was still down to one arm, so he had difficulty.
“If you want, I’ll give you a hand getting up. I know at that age it must be tricky to deal with back pain.” Luke mocked him as he approached.
Vinigo looked at the half-wolf very angrily, then looked at his own right arm. Suddenly, that arm started shaking, and then Luke saw one of the most disgusting things in his entire life.
Twwwaschh!
The right arm that Luke had cut off, regenerated itself from nothing. There wasn’t the blue fabric of the cloak that the Alchemy Professor was wearing, but all the bones, fingers, hair, and even nails were there.
At that moment, the half-wolf stopped walking, raised his guard, and asked:
“Wait a second. Are you a demon?”
Upon hearing this question, Vinigo was also surprised and almost smiled wryly, expelling some air as he stood up. “And do you even know what demons really are?”
“Just answer my question. If you are, know that it won’t be the first time I’ve gone to kill a demon, and certainly not the last.”
Luke’s statement startled the fat old man. “No, I’m not a demon. If you’re asking because of my regeneration, I can tell you the secret if you can ignore everything you’ve seen here.”
The half-wolf didn’t even hesitate to make his decision. “Do you really think I would fall for that kind of crap?” Luke raised his right hand, covered his right eye, and smiled while staring at the old man.
Afterward, Luke started to run toward him again. He approached Vinigo once again, and the Doctor used his shield magic again, but this time he multiplied the conjured magic by ten, creating shields that covered each of the points through which Luke’s attacks could pass. However, Luke braked before he even struck, because he already knew it was useless to attack this shield magic, assuming it was the same type that sealed the entrance to the dungeon.
Vinigo was surprised that the half-wolf didn’t attack him; after all, that would mean that he used the magic for nothing. At this moment, he had an idea, actually an insight, because he had never thought of this possibility. He darted all ten shields formed in the air to try and attack Luke by simply sending them forward.
“I’m a fucking genius!” Vinigo exclaimed as he actually managed to do what he envisioned. That was the face of the versatility of magics.
The half-wolf was obviously amazed by this change from defense to offense. He was too tired from using the <Eye of Horus> at different times and also from using <Vind>, so he believed in his own potential and used his reflex to dodge.
In the end, Luke managed to dodge five shields very narrowly, and since his enemy wasn’t dumb, Vinigo saw that Meredith was getting further and further away from Luke as she was trying to get out of his field of vision. Therefore, he sent the five remaining shields to attack her.
These shields were fast, very fast, fast enough even to surpass the movement speed of the half-wolf.
“Get down!” Luke shouted at the half-wolf as he realized that he wouldn’t be able to defend her.
Meredith immediately looked back in the direction of the two fighting men and saw five magical circles about thirty centimeters in length approaching her. Instinctively, she jumped behind a pillar to defend herself.
The shields hit this brick pillar with force, almost breaking it completely.
Luckily, the material was old, but quite sturdy, so it held up even if ninety percent shattered.
When Luke saw that Meredith managed to dodge it in time, he was relieved.
Soon after, the half-wolf looked at Vinigo as if the old man had just made the biggest mistake of his life. Luke began to walk toward Vinigo, who returned as he pointed his wand at the half-wolf.
“Hey, man! You’re a teacher now, not just an Adventurer. Are you really going to screw this up by attacking another teacher?! Come on, forget what you saw, and we’ll be fine.” He tried to bargain, while looking into Luke’s menacing eyes. Luke’s current aura was truly the most nightmarish that the Doctor had ever seen in his entire life. He could feel an atrocious urge with every step.
The half-wolf didn’t answer him; he just kept walking toward him.
“You don’t understand why I did all those experiments, why I bought so many slaves and used them in my surgeries! I have a noble reason for that!” Vinigo exclaimed in desperation.
At that moment, Luke stopped and took a deep breath, but stared at the old man with fury. “Wait, did you say use slaves for experiments?”
Without having to ratiocinate for long, Luke immediately connected this to the fact that the Chimeras were linked to Vinigo’s name in the letter from Marie, the demon woman. In that minute, everything made sense; everything fell into place.
“You’re a fucking disgusting, just a degenerate son of a bitch, a sick person.” The half-wolf declared and put his arms back to use the explosive speed of a Sea Ornament stance.
Before Vinigo could answer him, Luke vanished from the old man’s vision from one second to the next. Just then, the old man put his hand on his neck and pulled off his necklace that glowed in a dark green hue. By the time he realized it, Luke had his hand on his neck and pressed him against the ground.
“You were too slow this time, Wolf!” Vinigo shouted as he was suddenly propelled against the ground. Thus, he broke his necklace with the strength of only his right hand.
When the golden necklace was broken, its green crystal was fully exposed. Its core destabilized, causing a blinding flash that illuminated the entire place, making the dark environment clear as day.