Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Mo Fan had a military communication device with him. He was planning to use it to search for Zhang Xiaohou and the others.

He roughly glanced at the locations of the green dots on the device and noticed everyone had landed in different places in Xiamen.

“Mo Fan, let’s go to the bus rapid transit,” Lingling pointed at a tall bridge that looked like a highway ahead.

“I’ll gather the people nearby first,” Mo Fan noticed a few people floating in the water. He grabbed them with his Telekinesis and gathered them on the roof of the building he was standing on.

The people turned out to be from the same family. The water must have broken into their home. They had no choice but to grab a few wooden boards and place their fate in the Heavens’ hands. The Heavens had been kind to them by sending Mo Fan from the sky.

“Blink!” Mo Fan teleported everyone to the highway Lingling had pointed to previously.

Mo Fan had to cast Blink twice due to the number of people with him to move everyone onto the bridge.

“This is a very long highway.” Mo Fan looked into the distance and noticed he could not see the end of the highway. He had no clue where it was going.

“It’s not suitable to build a subway due to Xiamen’s geography. The rapid transit for the busses is the equivalent of the subway in the Magic City here. It goes from the south to the north through the city with a few routes. Most of the roads are submerged now, so the rapid transit, which is twenty meters above the ground, is the only clear path left.” Lingling had obviously done some homework before coming here. She was very familiar with the situation, even though it was her first time in Xiamen.

Mo Fan did not spend a long time in Xiamen the last time he came to the city. He assumed the spacious bridge was some kind of a highway. Now that he took a closer look at it, he realized the bridge was indeed sturdier and wider than usual highways. Even the pillars were a lot thicker. Its height was double of a normal highway, actually around the height of the fourth floor of the buildings nearby!

Currently, the combination of seawater and rainwater had reached the first floor of most buildings. Only the roofs of two-story houses were still above the water. The rapid transit highway  was obviously the safest place people could move freely, since the water was around ten meters below it.

The huge rainstorm had come so quickly. The people in the city were still living a normal life two days ago. They were quite used to tropical storms , but the rain soon drowned the streets and the roads became a swamp before they realized what was happening. They had no choice but to stay on the roofs and watched the ground floor get flooded.

Floods were quite common in the southern cities. Every ten years or so there would be a flood where the ground floors of the houses would turn into pools. They thought the water would fall on the second day after they moved up to the first floor, but the storm never stopped. The ground floor was completely drowned and began to rise to the first floor. Some houses were even swept away by the current!

As Lingling had mentioned, it had all happened so quickly. Even if the government had long given out warnings, many people had assumed it to be the typical flood they had encountered in the past. They only realized the city had turned into an ocean when the storm hit them in the face. The water even destroyed the dam and went a few meters higher!

By the time everyone realized what was going on, the city was already drowned in seawater. As they glanced across the water, they saw the rapid currents carrying corpses, broken trees, and metal sheets away. The taller buildings were like isolated rafts carrying many survivors. They were standing close to the windows, observing the unfamiliar city in fear.

The civilians were stranded in buildings surrounded by deep waters.

On the other hand, the people on the highway had plenty of space to move around, yet they were constantly in the storm and strong winds in the open. Their faces and lips were pale from the cold.

“Lingling, does the rapid transit route reach the mainland?” Mo Fan asked indifferently.

Xiamen was different from most cities along the coastline because the city was located on an island, while other cities were on a peninsula or a bay. When the huge storm came, the bridges connecting the island and the mainland were no longer accessible. Xiamen and its people were now completely surrounded by water.

Mo Fan now understood why the situation was such an emergency. Many places had gone through disasters, but the government could at least evacuate the people to safety by moving them where the seawater could not reach. Unfortunately, Xiamen was stranded by the seawater. The civilians had nowhere to escape to. The tall buildings and highways had become their only shelters!

“Sea monster! It’s a sea monster!” someone screamed all of a sudden.

Lingling was holding a map in her hands to point out the routes of the rapid transit system to Mo Fan, but she immediately put it away when she heard the cry.

The cry scared everyone that was hiding from the storm at a station.

The stations had awnings to provide the people with temporary relief from the storm. It was very crowded with people. They had no idea where to go when they heard the scream. They started screaming too!

“Everyone, stay calm. I’m a Mage, I will protect you all!” a woman in a blue hooded raincoat spoke up.

The woman was around the age of twenty-five. She seemed to work for a Magic Organization. She stepped forward from the crowd while the huge raindrops fell on her and spattered off her raincoat.

“Where’s the sea monster?” The woman stood at the edge of the highway and studied the water below.

“It’s beside the house with the sign advertising English classes. It’s under the pile of white trash bags. I saw it poking its head out,” a young teenager in a school uniform exclaimed.

“What does it look like?” the woman asked.

“It looks like a crab. It had a pair of eyes on its head, with pincers like excavator claws!” the young teenager said nervously. It was most likely his first time seeing a sea monster at such a close distance.

“The rain is so thick. How did you manage to see it so clearly?” the woman was puzzled.

“My vision is naturally better than most people, but it’s not enough for me to enroll into a magic school… but I think the monster has snuck under the bridge. I can still see its shadow,” the young teenager said.

“I can’t see it. You should follow me to the tollway below us and tell me where it is,” the woman said.

“Ah? But…I’m scared!”

“It’s fine, I’ll protect you. We have a few hundred people here. The wind and rain are too strong, and we won’t be able to find a shelter. If the sea monsters show up, many are going to die, but don’t you worry, I’ll deal with the sea monsters. You just need to tell me where they are,” the woman assured him.

A young teenager subconsciously glanced at a young woman who was also in a school uniform under the awning. She had an attractive face. Her wet hair and pale lips did not affect her beautiful appearance. She was currently looking at the young teenager with a hint of helplessness.

“Alright, I’ll go with you… I can see around three meters into the water!” the young teenager said.

“I’ll go with you two. I’m a Mage too,” Mo Fan came over and told the young teenager and the young woman.

“Mm, but don’t stay too close when the sea monsters show up.” The woman in a raincoat did not seem to trust Mo Fan. She sounded a little cold.

Mo Fan was unable to see the sea monsters. He might have better vision at night, but if there were too many obstacles and the surroundings were misty, his vision was no different from an ordinary person. Meanwhile, the young teenager’s eyes were indeed impressive. He could see a hundred meters away despite the falling rain. He could even see things in the cloudy water!

The highways in the city had many entrances with toll stations, which were  usually on the first floor. They were about as high as an overhead walkway. As a matter of fact, the toll stations were treated as pedestrian bridges for civilians to cross the busy streets. Other public transportation was located on the next floor.

The toll stations were less than a meter away from the surface of the water. The young teenager with outstanding eyes felt like his legs were losing their strength when he was so close to the fierce currents, especially when he remembered a terrifying sea monster with huge pincers was somewhere in the water!

“The sea monsters can just enter the city at this rate…” the young woman murmured with a frown.

“The nihhrt sea monsters won’t be able to enter the city for now, but it might no longer be the case if the rain keeps falling,” Mo Fan agreed with her.

Huge sea monsters would cause great destruction to the city, especially under the current circumstances. The buildings and bus rapid transit were still able to provide the civilians shelter from the smaller sea monsters, but if the huge sea monsters came into the city, they would be taking the last hope away.

“Can you see it?” the young woman ignored Mo Fan’s comment, as if she was displeased by Mo Fan’s negativity.  He was merely stating the truth!

“Strange, I saw it moving down here before,” the young teenager said.

“Don’t just look in front or around you. Watch under your feet too,” the young woman reminded.

The young teenager immediately poked his head over the rails and stared into the water below him.

A pair of huge eyes around the size of a basketball were poking out from the water, revolving back and forth continuously.

The eyes seemed to suffer from huge blind spots. It too did not notice the young man who had poked his head out of the rails. It slowly observed the surroundings before looking upward.  Its eyes soon reflected the young man’s horrified expression, like his face had frozen on the eyes.

“Look out!”

The young woman swiftly reacted. She immediately pulled the young teenager who had frozen back!

BANG!

At the same time, a huge claw like the scoop of an excavator slammed into the toll station. The toll station was nowhere as sturdy as a pillar of the highway. The huge clam simply smashed it into pieces like a toy!

A huge hole was left at the center of the toll station. Luckily, the highway above them was supporting the platform. It was hanging in the air instead of collapsing right away. Otherwise, both the young teenager and the young woman would fall into the water.

Mo Fan flipped his left hand after seeing what happened. A wild lightning orb with spikes on its surface appeared on his palm. The lightning orb gradually enlarged as Mo Fan rapidly accumulated the energy.

“Don’t,” Lingling grabbed Mo Fan’s wrist and shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” Mo Fan was confused.

“This sea monster is most likely the first species to invade the city. We should learn how strong it is. Let that woman handle it, so I can observe its level, strength, and weaknesses,” Lingling said.

Mo Fan thought about it. The sea monster with the shell of a crab was obviously not going to survive his spell. He could just kill it with a single blow. They would indeed struggle to learn how strong it was and its abilities.

It was no longer just about killing a few sea monsters instantly to feel good about himself. They had to consider how they could eliminate an entire species that was invading the city. After all, these sea monsters might have scattered across the city, waiting for their chance to strike.

“You’re right, there’s no need for me to intervene if she can handle the sea monster on her own. We’ll wait until Zhang Xiaohou gather everyone else,” Mo Fan said.

“You’re right, there’s no need for me to intervene if she can handle the sea monster on her own. We’ll wait until Zhang Xiaohou gather everyone else,” Mo Fan said.

It was not the same as leaving someone to die. Mo Fan was hoping that these people could adapt and learn to survive. That being said, Mo Fan would intervene if the young woman was unable to defeat the sea monster on her own.

“Zhang Xiaohou is already gathering his men. Once he regroups with his men, they will focus on the mission from the authorities. It’s going to be tough…these sea monsters aren’t as powerful as a Warrior-level creature, yet they are several times stronger than a Servant-class creature,” Lingling said.

“Sea monsters are generally stronger than the demon creatures on land, especially when there’s a ready supply of seawater,” Mo Fan had spent some time at the East Maritime Fortress in Tokyo. He was well aware of it.

The level of Servant-class, Warrior-level, and Commander-level were based on the strength of the demon creatures on land. They were rarely used as a reference for the sea monsters. Among the sea monsters that Mo Fan had encountered, assuming there was water around, a Servant-class sea monster was strong enough to fight three Servant-class creatures on land.

The sea monster with huge clams was only a Servant-class creature, yet it was pretty strong!

“Its strength is three times the strength of a typical brute-force creature. It can hide quickly when there’s water around. Its agility is equivalent to a balanced-type creature. I wonder if it has other abilities…” Lingling murmured as she closely observed the battle between the young woman and the sea monster.