Magical Duel

I’ll just get it over with real quick. This is probably good for training so it won’t be too bad. I hope.

Declaring a match all of a sudden was kind of annoying, so I decided to take my time walking over to the colosseum. Even though I wasn’t familiar with the area, I could spot it a mile away.

Wow, it’s massive. But I’ll take a quick detour.

It was probably a petty thing to do but she can wait. Going to a new place is really exciting, especially if it’s the campus of a magical academy. I wasn’t going to let her ruin my experience by making me fight all of a sudden. And she kind of forced me to fight her so the least she can do is wait. While I walked around, I noticed that there were statues of people. Some mages, some warriors, and some creatures—but all of them had something in common: it was those who had died to the Demon King. Each statue had a paragraph describing the kind of person they were. It went into detail about their magical ability too, like some guy had the ability to summon creatures to aid him in battle. It said he could summon dragons, demons, and more. I couldn’t believe someone with that ability was killed. It made me worry about how strong the Demon King truly was.

There were also a lot of cafeterias, libraries, and buildings where classes would be held—honestly, it reminded me of a college campus. Except well, this place was huge. What really caught my attention were the dining areas, the food they had out looked amazing. Back in my old life, I was basically living paycheck to paycheck so I couldn’t really splurge out on food. On top of that, my reincarnated family weren’t so rich that they could buy high quality foods. But now, I was free to eat whatever I want, no matter how fancy. Well, I hoped so. If I was being sent to die then they could at least treat me with all the food I can get.

God, if you’re listening—please let all of this be free.

After an hour or two of wandering around, I finally made it to the colosseum. I had guessed she was already in the arena so I walked in. Stepping into the arena, the first thing in sight was her. She was curled up on the ground, fast asleep.

Uh… am I supposed to wake her?

I approached her body and tapped on her shoulder. It did nothing, she just rolled over and spread her arms out. It was kind of like a starfish. I couldn’t help but let a giggle slip out. A powerful noble just lying there on the ground, asleep like some commoner. The sound must’ve been too loud because her eyes cracked open.

Her eyes were barely open as she looked around. “W-where am I?”

“The colosseum? You did challenge me, don’t you remember.?”

“What time is it?”

Glancing up at the bright sun I said, “Day time?”

“Challenge?”

…

She suddenly shot upright. “What took you so long?” Dust flew from her dress as she stood, glaring. “What’s wrong with you, making a girl wait like that?”

“With you challenging me all of a sudden, it was a pain in my ass. So I decided to explore the campus a little before I got here.”

“A little!? You took ages! I even had time to fall asleep!”

“My bad… but really, lying here in the dirt like that? That’s not exactly noble behavior. Imagine if someone saw you.”

Her cheeks flared red. “W-well, whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”

What’s with this girl? She’s the one who challenged me.

“Get to your side,” she ordered, heading across the arena.

“Alright, and uh how does this work? We just go at each other until we get tired or something?”

“No, this kind of sparring is different. We’re doing a magical duel.”

“What? That’s not—”

“Too bad. Since you made me wait that long, this is what you get.”

She can’t be serious right now.

Once she got far enough from me she asked, “Are you ready?”

Looks like there’s no getting out of this. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Let the Magical Duel commence!”

That voice.

Looking up, I noticed that Gareth was floating above us.

Pointing at him, I screamed, “You’re here too!”

“Don’t worry about me now, you have an enemy in front of you.”

Annoying ass old man.

I jerked my head aside just in time, the heat brushing past my cheek. When it slammed into the wall behind me, the stone cracked and smoked. A second slower, and my head would’ve been gone.

“What the hell! I was talking to someone!”

“That’s your fault for not paying attention.”

Raising my hand, I began charging Ryu.

Let’s see if she can control the mana of something as complex as this.

Ryu surged out of the magical circle, but as it came out I noticed that something was off. The mana, it didn’t feel right.

It feels… unstable.

Then it blew up in front of my face. I recognized that the instability meant an explosion was coming, so I knew what to do. A barrier flared up, just in time to block the explosion.

Shit.

BOOM

Everything blew up in my face. I put up my arms and imbued defensive magic into them, hoping this wouldn’t blow up too. Luckily, it didn’t

“Don’t you remember what my ability was?” she asked.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you could control mana that well. Figured you could just cancel attacks, not blow 'em up.”

“I can do much more than that. Whatever you can do with your mana, I can do the same.”

Annoying…

“But, there is a limit to it isn’t there?”

“Maybe. Not like you can figure it out.”

“I have an idea of what it is.” Mana surged into my legs, launching me forward. She split stepped away before I could hit her. When someone uses split-step, their mana disappears. But before they reappear again, there is a slight mana build up of where they're going to reappear. I’d picked up on that during my first fight with Gareth.

Behind me.

A punch into the ground gave momentum to a backward kick. She caught it on her forearm.

“You pack quite a punch for not using any ascended elements.”

“That was a kick.”

Her face dropped. “You’re not funny.”

A magic circle flared in her palm as she reached for me. Wind burst from the sole of my foot, sending me flipping back, one hand braced on the ground for balance. Earth mana surged through my palm, jagged spikes erupting upward. Fire mana surged through the tip of each and every spike. This was the same attack I used on Gareth.

This time though, I infused earth and fire attributes into it. The first time I used this spell, I relied purely on the strength of the earth—but it wasn’t enough. This time, I had to strengthen the power and durability of the spikes. Looks like my spell worked because it forced her to split stepped out of the way.

She vanished again. This time, reappearing farther away.

I landed back on my feet and kept the distance. “You’re not able to control the mana if it’s imbued into something unless you touch it. Am I right?”

Her eyes widened. “How’d you figure that out so fast?”

“During the fight with that dragon kid, I noticed that you didn’t revert him to his form immediately. You only did it when you touched him with your hand. Plus, you need to activate your blessing first, so if I watch for the circle, I’ll know when to back off.”

“Wow, can’t believe you were able to pick up on all of that from that one fight. No wonder you were able to push my master so far.”

“Can I ask you one more thing though?”

“What is it?”

“Your blessing, does it take a lot of focus to activate or is that just part of the ability? I noticed that you don’t cancel out an ability right away or that you don’t control my mana right as I made contact with you.”

“You caught my flaw,” she sighed. “But you’re right, it takes a lot of focus for me to activate it. I haven’t mastered it yet. Once I do, I’ll control others’ mana as easily as breathing. Even on immediate physical contact I should be able to control someone’s mana. But for now, I’m restricted to using my hands.”

I knew it. Also, if that's her problem, then why not just keep the spell on? It must consume a whole lot of mana. Meaning, this fight… actually might be winnable. I just need to stay close and avoid using spells.

I launched myself at her, but she vanished and reappeared above me. “Good choice, keeping it close range.”

“Thanks, but are you going to keep split stepping everywhere? It makes it really hard to beat you if you keep doing that.”

“Who knows, but I think you have other things to worry about?’

“Like what?”

She pointed her palm at her and screamed, “Angelic Rain!”

A massive golden magic circle blazed to life overhead, covering the whole arena. In the next instant, radiance rained down in blinding streaks, each one screaming toward me at lightning speed. If I wasn’t the one dealing with it then I would understand why it was called Angelic Rain.

But…

This is hell…

Defensive magic surged through me. If I couldn’t create a barrier then this was the next best option. It was efficient and was able to block or minimize the attack. The only problem was that it was draining my mana.

I can’t keep this up. I have to do something.

I launched myself at the circle.

If the attack is coming from the circle I just need to get past it.

I aimed to go straight through the circle she was hiding behind. Her voice rang out again. “Heaven’s Wrath!”

The whole circle blazed, the rain of radiance cutting off in an instant. Energy swelled at its center, then erupted in a single, massive blast that hammered me straight into the arena floor. I laid flat on the ground like a starfish. On the contact of the blast, I enhanced my body with as much earth mana and defensive magic as possible. But, defensive magic is meant for a barrier and earth mana is meant for physical attacks. Meaning…

Holy shit, that fucking hurts.

“Do you concede?”

My entire body felt like it was on fire after her attack. Every muscle screamed yes, but something in me wanted the win.

“No.” A sword stabbed into the dirt pulled me upright. Life force surged through me as I healed myself using malif. “Bring it on!” My aura fluctuated out a little then…

BOOM

“You do know that aura is made up of mana right? If you decide to use malif then you’ll only be giving me blogger bombs to detonate.”

Stupid ass blessing.

“Not if I suppress it so much where it’s not coming out of me.”

“Impossible, that would take years of training.”

“Watch.”

I clenched my fists and used malif again, but this time I focused on suppressing it before using it. Once I did that, I healed myself.

“A-amazing…”

“Thanks, it took a lot of training.”

“But it won’t be enough!” She raised her hand at me again.

Damn, another storm.

While I slammed my palm on the ground I imbued as much mana as I could into it.

“Angelic Rain!”

Radiance poured down again, but this time I was ready. I drove my fist into the ground, shattering it into thousands of pebble-sized fragments. Mana pulsed through the earth, allowing me to control each and every one. Normally I would just create earth to use for attack but I couldn’t risk her controlling that, and it would’ve taken up way too much mana.

With the mana imbued into each pebble, I enhanced each one with the earth, fire, and wind attribute. A normal rock can’t dream to match up against a blast of radiance so I had to enhance it. I needed something to plow, throw each blast and hopefully get to her. She had her attack of thousands of radiance blasts and I had mine of thousands of enhanced pebbles.

If I can't defend myself with magic then I’ll just attack. You know what they say, a good defense is an even better offense. And the plan was working, each pebble was able to plow through each one of her attacks. It must’ve been because of the quantity of attack, making each one of the radiance blasts weak.

I leapt up alongside with my attack. There was no way she would deal with all of these rocks and me, this was the perfect plan.

“Heaven’s Wrath!”

As soon as it fired, I threw up a barrier and dove through the attack. It was up for only a moment, not even a tenth of a second. The moment I cleared the blast, the shield dissolved, and she was right there. I swung my fist at her. Her own barrier flaring to slow the blow. It cracked under the force, my fist slamming into her and driving her into the ground.

I have to keep pressuring her.

I blasted wind from my heel and dropped toward her like a hammer. My fist drew back, ready to crush, but she stepped out of the way. Anticipating her split-step, I slammed a palm into the ground. Spikes erupted where she’d reappear. Once she did, she put up a barrier and blocked it. To my surprise, it didn’t shatter under the impact. Physical attacks usually tore those apart..

No time to wonder why. I lunged; she swung. We traded blows, each of us was sent skidding across the arena.

Damn, she packs a punch. Good thing I’m able to switch to the earth attribute.

Mid-flight, she flung a blast. “Michael’s Spear!” Instinct took over, I put up a barrier. It detonated in my face and the spear punctured through my gut.

Both of us struggled to stand. Unlike her though, I had a hole in my stomach.

Damn, I have to heal myself with malif again.

I used malif to heal the wound so I wasn’t able to recover any of my mana. We were on our last legs.

We staggered upright, barely enough strength in our legs to stand. “Why aren’t you using that sword of yours?” she called.

That’s what she cares about?

“This weapon is used to kill, I’m not looking to kill anyone today.”

“Don’t hold back on me!” She raised her hand and a bunch of magic circles appeared in front of her. “Michael’s Spear!” a barrage of attacks got sent flying towards me.

“Fine!” My sword left its sheath, drinking in every drop of mana I poured into it. Launching myself forward, I tore through the barrage until I met her face to face. I swung, but she was able to split step away. My strike obliterated the ground instead.

She reappeared overhead, charging the same move. “Angelic Rain!”

Dammit, I wasn’t able to set up to counter her again.

My mind raced for a defense. Reinforcing myself with defensive magic again? Useless, it wouldn’t last. Each droplet of radiance scorched like acid, and I had no way to stop it. Then it hit me, what I’d done earlier. Throw up a barrier, then drop it instantly. Earlier, I did it by accident. I only put up that barrier because instinct took over, but once I realized, I dissipated it. Maybe if the spell is too fast for her to keep up then she can’t detonate it. That means I would have to put up a tiny barrier for each and every droplet of radiance. It was going to be hard but it was my only option.

I lunged at her, barriers flickering into existence with every step. They were small, but it was enough. Some I cast farther ahead, baiting her into detonations that shredded the falling radiance and cleared my path. A few did blow after blocking a hit, but that was fine; we’re all naturally resistant to our own mana, so the backlash stung far less than her blasts.

Once I reached her I slashed at her, she split stepped away of course. Anticipating her next reappearance, I hurled my sword. She raised a hand to slow it, but it pierced through before she could vanish again. A blast of wind propelled me toward her, but she blinked out once more. Over and over, I tracked her, no matter the distance, I was there. Wind and fire erupted out of my feet, launching me in impossible arcs. When she vanished, I conjured a platform, propelling myself faster. Either by pushing off my hand or feet, I was gaining momentum. The more she avoided me, the stronger I’ll get. This fight was reaching its end.

She reappeared, but this time much further away. That much distance must’ve burned a lot of mana.

“You think you can get away from me!?”

Repelling off my hand, I launched a kick straight at her. This time, she didn’t split-step. Layers of barriers shimmered before me instead, but it wasn’t enough. I immediately shattered through it, but something about the barrier felt different. It felt dense. I didn’t pause to wonder why; all that momentum, all the mana I’d poured into myself, fueled this strike. Nothing could stop it. I sent her flying into the wall of the colosseum. Blood streaked her brow, collapsing into a crater below. No human could recover from a hit like that. I had won.

Right when I lowered my guard, she slowly raised her hand and whispered, “God’s Wrath.”

The mana residue of the barrier!

When I punched through the barrier it felt condensed, like she purposely added a whole lot of mana into it, knowing that it wasn’t going to be enough to stop me. This was what she was setting up for.

I was engulfed in a massive explosion.

Being able to split step would be good right now.

I threw up a barrier instinctively, but it detonated against my face. Her final spell struck, and I slammed into the ground, my head cracking against stone. Thoughts blurred, and the last thing I registered was…

Damn, she got me…