CHAPTER 116: THAT’S A BOMB

That’s a Bomb

"Jiwon! The barrier is coming down!" After the latest barrage, one of Han Jiwon’s people shouted, and he took one look before yelling.

"Stop attacking!" He said quickly. By now, the blind rage caused by Osho’s words had turned into a faint simmer, and he realized that, while hurting him would be nice, he would probably end up hurting Ellie in the process, which is something he wanted to avoid if possible.

The attacks quickly ceased, and the barrier which had been enduring punishment for the last 6 minutes and cracked all over trembled, then it started to dissolve.

Han Jiwon felt a smirk grow on his face.

’Her defensive capabilities are impressive. Even more reason to bring her to me.’ He thought as he couldn’t help but be impressed by the sheer defensive process Ellie possessed, even his fawn had a hard time breaking through the crystal.

’But they must all be tired now. When the barrier completely collapses, I’ll give my offer one last time. If she still refuses, then I’ll resort to force.’ He thought just as the barrier faded.

However, as soon as he did, he was surprised when he saw all of them standing quite calmly, with their beasts staying close to them. But the most surprising thing was the orb Osho had floating above his palm. It looked almost like a ball of compressed wind. He looked at it through his Mana sense and felt his interest die almost immediately.

"You had 6 minutes to plan, and that was the best you could come up with?" Han Jiwon snorted as he regarded them. As for why he didn’t pay much heed to the orb? Well, from his Mana sense, it didn’t contain a considerable amount of Mana, but it wasn’t anything that warranted concern.

So why was that bastard smiling like that?

"Aw, we put a lot of effort into this, you know?" Osho said with mock sadness as he referred to the orb.

"But I suppose not everyone has a keen eye for impressive things," His smile suddenly turned sharp. "But I believe it’s just because of distance. Here, have a closer look!" He suddenly threw the orb at them and took a step back.

Han Jiwon was about to say something biting when he finally noticed that something was off.

As soon as he threw the orb, a transparent barrier appeared around the group as they almost huddled together.

Han Jiwon frowned and was about to give a command to defend. Numerous of his people were already moving to intercept the orb, so it should be fine, right—

’What the?!’ His eyes widened as the previously tame-looking Mana suddenly spiked to levels far above what he had originally thought.

"GET DOW—" He was cut off as the orb became unstable and detonated, but instead of a conventional explosion, it was a powerful blast that consisted entirely of sound.

4 minutes earlier.

"Okay, 5 minutes then. Basically, I want Clyde to release his sonic wave into that orb for as long as possible so that the sound waves can accumulate inside and make a bomb." He explained, and everyone stared at him like he’d grown a second head.

"... Surely you know why that’s not feasible," Irene said and Kurt nodded.

"Yeah. Ignoring the fact that sustained exposure to the sonic wave isn’t fun, making me question if Gale can truly contain such a thing, sound waves disperse extremely fast. Even if the thing is perfectly sealed, the air molecules and walls of the ’bomb’ will absorb the sound, causing it to lose its effectiveness as fast as, if not faster than Clyde can output the soundwaves." Kurt also voiced his dissent.

Osho listened to this and nodded as another particularly heavy attack struck the barrier causing it to shake.

"I agree that would be the case," He smiled. "Under NORMAL circumstances, that is. You guys are conveniently forgetting about something that makes scientific rules like that irrelevant when it’s introduced to almost anything." His words caused them to blink as they thought about what he meant, and then Ellie snapped her fingers.

"Mana." She said, and Osho smiled.

"Exactly, even if soundwaves disperse quickly through mediums such as air, using Mana, Gale can bypass that restriction and ensure that the air molecules don’t absorb the sound and simply keep it within a localized area." He explained with a small smile.

"Hm... well I see that vision, but you’re forgetting that Clyde’s sonic attack is still too powerful to be handled normally. What you’re suggesting could work in theory, but can Gale truly control that much sound when the power accumulates? I don’t think I need to tell you that the strength of decibels increases exponentially, so the difficulty involved in controlling that much power will be insane." Sam retorted, but Osho just smiled again.

"For that, I also have a solution, but don’t worry and just trust me, alright?" He replied with a reassuring smile. As for why he was so sure? Well, it was naturally due to Gale’s sky domain.

As it had been reiterated numerous times before, Gale had total control over this domain of his, so other than the typical increased Mana regeneration and home field advantage gotten by being in a region filled with your Affinity of Mana, Gale had control over this environment of his, allowing him to perform attacks he usually wouldn’t be able to at his stage, for example, the Ozone Blade he’d used some time ago.

If Gale had tried to create a bubble for the sound using his Mana alone, then Osho could see where there would be an issue, but using the entire personalized sky where he had total control over an invisible yet tangible atmosphere and magical concepts associated with the sky in this Mana-filled world? Yeah, Osho would throw a fuss if Gale were unable to control some sound waves.

There was a brief moment of hesitation before Kurt sighed and spoke to Clyde via their bond. As soon as he did, the fox faced the bubble meant to trap the sound and opened his mouth.

Everyone except Osho subconsciously braced themselves as they awaited a deafening noise, but it never came. Instead, they all watched in amazement as the powerful sound was transferred into the bubble and started to accumulate.

Present.

The thinking that went into creating the sound bomb was quite ingenious, if Osho had to say so himself.

It wasn’t something he’d thought about for a long time but instead came up with on the spot, so it was a mix of quick thinking and having a decent understanding of his beast and his teammates’ beasts’ abilities.

There was also the issue of Han Jiwon detecting the large amount of Mana within the orb and reacting quickly, but Osho once again had Gale take advantage of the cheat that was his sky domain.

If it wasn’t clear already, Osho was the only one who knew about Gale’s sky domain. Well, he wasn’t the only one as he knew Lady Haggai, Simon, and probably Mrs Jane knew about it. However, he was the only one who could consciously observe it and interact with it other than Gale. Meaning that even if someone else used their Mana sense, they wouldn’t be able to sense anything amiss other than him.

He wasn’t too sure why this was the case, but he guessed it was due to Gale being his beast and the bond they shared. Gale’s power was his power, after all.

However, even if that were the case, foreign Mana wouldn’t become invisible simply from being within the domain. Which was to say, the Mana that made up Clyde’s sonic wave wouldn’t be hidden simply due to being inside the sky domain.

Unless Gale didn’t consciously think about hiding it, that is.

If Gale had total control over the domain and could do a great deal of what Osho could do, what was stopping the bird from using Mana cloaking to prevent the prying eyes of others from seeing what was truly within the bomb?

That’s exactly what Gale did. He used his domain to mask the Mana of the bomb somewhat, making it appear a lot weaker than it truly was.

Then, when he threw the bomb, Osho had Gale create a multi-layered barrier around the group that consisted of one barrier of solidified air, and then another that wasn’t exactly a barrier, but was more of a vacuum where sound couldn’t travel through, making the powerful sound created by the bomb disperse far faster. The physical barrier was to protect them from the shock, and the vacuum barrier was to protect them from the impact.

As for why the bomb destabilized suddenly, well, Gale had shrunk the range of his domain a bit. Hence, when the bomb left it, it was no longer being held together by the sheer pressure of the domain, and it wasn’t being hidden by it either, hence, the true extent of its power was revealed for a moment before it exploded.

And powerful it was.

The sonic wave traveled in a spherical manner outwardly, affecting everything in the vicinity except the group that was huddled together in the barrier.

The ground was shredded and a visible shockwave traveled outwards as it smashed into all the attacking students. Some managed to create barriers in time, but most weren’t fast enough as their health instantly dropped to zero, the attack being deemed as ’lethal’ as the special protective barrier each student had activated and saved them from facing the full extent of the attack, but also eliminated them.

As for why Osho wasn’t scared of facing any consequences for using an attack that could be considered lethal on his fellow classmates? Well, not only had they attacked first, but Han Jiwon had been quite vocal about his threats, hence, they were simply protecting themselves, weren’t they?