Chapter 256

Begin!”

The referee’s voice rang, and then all others died away. I could feel my concentration rising. Daniela was the same. She stared me down, her sword in hand. And without signaling each other, we charged forward at the same time. While it wasn’t something I should be thinking about now, I couldn’t help but muse over how synchronized we were.

“Hah!”

“Ah!”

The power of wind aided Daniela’s sharp thrust. I twisted my body out of the way and swung the broadsword from that position. She blocked it with her sword and pushed back, and her feet left the ground. She flew back a short distance. As I watched her, Daniela let go of her rapier while she was still in the air. However, it was enveloped in wind magic and floated as it stayed fixed to her side. I didn’t even know she could control wind magic so precisely…

“There is no time to be surprised!”

“!?”

No sooner had she let go of the blade, her bow was in her hand and she unleashed an arrow that was also boosted by the wind. I didn’t have to consider it for a second to know this would be bad, and so I used Legs of the God Wolf to pull myself out of the way. Just then, bam! There was something like the sound of a bullet. An arrow was lodged in the ground behind where I had been standing.

“Is that thing even an arrow anymore?”

“Yes. Yes, it is!”

Now she had arrows floating in the air and she was firing them off one by one. Daniela herself was floating up above with them. I frantically dodged the attacks, but those beautiful arrows seemed to follow me. Honestly, it was getting scary.

As I ran, I searched for an opening that would allow me to launch a counterattack, but she was not so kind. The commanding view allowed her to shoot at me from any position, and she would even stop me from getting back on the stage. Hmm. Her anti-Asagi measures were severe. However, I didn’t like being suppressed like this.

“How about this…!”

“Hmm!?”

I boosted my speed for just a split-second as a way of disorienting her. Then I activated my ice magic. A pillar of ice. It was the same attack I used on the giant monster Grendel. It had no name yet.

Daniela broke her stance as she dodged the great icicle that shot up towards her. I pulled back my greatsword, stepped on air, and then dashed up the surface of the ice. As I got higher, I prepared to swing.

However, Daniela was a fiend. She easily twisted her body out of the way.

“Not yet!”

With Legs of the God Wolf propelling me and the tip of the greatsword as a fulcrum, I began to spin vertically. And without losing any momentum, I added platinum and green wind to boost my speed even further as I raised the sword; and then swung downward. And yet Daniela still responded to these irregular movements. She brought her sword back and blocked it. But when it came to aerial battles, there was no besting me. I raised my speed again and pushed. She smashed into the pillar of ice and fell towards the ground as the whole thing went crumbling down.

“Gahhh…”

The beastly groan rang as she rolled on the ground. The tide had turned. And now it was my turn to take the lead.

I pointed my blade at Daniela and sent a rush of dark blue magic into it. My equipment didn’t give me an ice magic boost, but the greatsword seemed to do a lot with what it was given. In an instant, the blade was covered in water, and I launched flowing tendrils of water, just like Adlus had done. For now, five seemed like enough.

“Damn it!”

Daniela rolled and jumped, but one of the streams slashed her left thigh. Adlus’s tricks were rather useful. He was no friend of mine, but that wasn’t the fault of his magic. I would use what I could. That was one of the tricks to survival.

I rested my greatsword on my shoulder and continued the attacks. Daniela was covering the blood rushing from her leg for a moment, but then she looked at me and let go.

“!?”

For a second, I had no idea what had happened. What I did understand, was my vision was blocked, I had lost my balance and then was violently thrown down to the stage. My face contorted with pain as I felt something wet on my face.

“Blood!”

She had flung her own blood onto my face. I frantically splashed a sphere of water into my eyes and washed it away. My heart was racing as I pushed my wet hair back and looked around. Daniela was nowhere to be found. I looked up, but she wasn’t there either… What the hell…?

“…? …!!?”

I had a bad feeling about it. But not in time. In the next moment, an arrow had gone through my right leg.

She had somehow appeared above and behind me, and the bloody arrow she had unleashed was firmly implanted in the ground at my feet.

“Fuuuuuuck! Aggghhh, damn it…!”

The blood sprayed as my shaking hands started to cover the holes on both sides with ice. I had done the same thing when fighting the wyvern. Though, it had been a broken sword at that time. It was also just ordinary trousers, and so it wasn’t too big of a deal. But this was my wind dragon armor. The attack had had enough force to pierce dragon equipment… I wasn’t holding back or anything, but it was clear that just a moment’s indiscretion would mean my death.

“You are not being careful enough.”

“Gggg… It’s not my intention…”

I spun around and looked at her. She had multiple arrows around her and was ready to shoot them. Her left leg was covered in blood, but she didn’t need it to stand, as she was in the air. And Daniela wasn’t weak enough to let the pain break her concentration.

It was easy to use Legs of the God Wolf to accelerate. However, there was a specific reason for this fight. This was to show Daniela just how strong I had become. Daniela’s strength. And my strength. We had to show each other by using everything we had. Daniela had gained new power and used magic that she had only talked about up until now. In that case, I had to use both the old and new. I had to show her.

It was time for me to test the tricks and skills as well as the new magic I had invented.

“Haaahhh!”

I sent a surge of water magic into the greatsword. It was the first step in making a water blade, but that wasn’t what I was doing now. The dark blue blade became a medium, and it would turn the mana in the air into moisture. I could feel the humidity rising rapidly.

“Wh-what are you…!”

Daniela looked frantic as she tried to stop me by raising her bow, but the situation changed too quickly. All at once, the moisture in the air was frozen with ice magic. The dark blue greatsword in my hand had been unleashing water magic. And I had converted it to ice.

In other words, we were suddenly surrounded in a thick mist.

“This is my magic. Mine alone. ‘White Garden.’”

“Kk…!?”

It was based on magic by the noblewoman, Alenbia Ef Quingeria. I had consulted with ‘Jack of all Trades, Master of None’ for quite some time. Even during the auction, my mind had often been busy making calculations. In any case, I already had the materials. It was just about cooking it all together as a meal… And this was the answer.

Furthermore, this mist wasn’t a natural phenomenon, it was magical. In other words, I could cool it down even more and rob others of their ability to move. The fact that my power was surrounding them meant that I could also interfere with their magic to a degree. It was a lot more effective than appearances might suggest.

Bam! The mist stopped Daniela’s attack. It had interfered with her magic. This mist could stop any magic that used the mana around us to activate it.

At the same time, I activated Presence Block.

“I knew it… I knew you would do that after seeing this mist.”

I could hear her voice. I also knew her position through Presence Detection. However, she did not know my position. It was open season…

“…Hahh!”

Or so I thought, rather smugly. And then an arrow came flying. I thought that I was going to die, but was barely able to move out of the way.

“Allowing yourself to be distracted will hurt the precision of your skills. You are using this great magic. So make the most of it!”

“Sorry!”

It was like I was being schooled in the middle of a fight. Perhaps I wasn’t taking it seriously enough… She certainly was. I would have to do better.

And so Asagi Kamiyashiro had a change of heart.