4-13: The strongest

“Catch me if you can!”

With multiple strings I catched the walls and went to them. I know Leonard wouldn’t fall for the same tricks twice, having less mana would even make him more careful, so I must use a more direct approach.

“Shot!”

The slashes approached, so I responded with a mana trampoline, going up.

“You’re gonna run away the rest of the fight?”

“I admit your slices scare me a little, but the public would be disappointed if I do that.”

“Then come here!”

“I will!”

Wanting to try something new, I concentrated the 10% of all my mana in a massive hammer and started falling.

“Are you kidding me…?”

This was my first time doing this and the weight of the hammer wasn’t something I could manage, so I was just falling without any control besides the position of my body.

“Gah!”

Instead of dodging it, Leonard attacked the hammer with his sword. I thought he was crazy for doing that, but I retracted when a huge slice appeared on my side of the hammer.

“Crap!”

“I got you!”

I dropped the hammer trying to move away, but in just a second Leonard went through the hammer and reached the place where I was.

“Bou-.”

“Divide!”

My try to bounce away was interrupted when my body quickly approached Leonard. Dodging was impossible, so I covered my right arm with sharp mana and used it to parry his attack.

One of his hands was busy trying to slice me, but he used the other to punch me in the belly. He’s really strong!

“Guh!”

He was in a vulnerable position after that, so I tried to attack him with my knee so we could separate before he went through my defense.

“Agh!”

“...Are you serious?”

I hit him, but he didn’t move. The time was almost over, I was able to feel how his sword was slowly going through the mana.

“(Something quick…)”

It was a weird idea. But without anything better to do, I emulated with my mana the thing a puffer fish would do to scare a predator, or in this case, to catapult Leonard far from me.

“Wah!”

“There’s more!”

Taking advantage of the brief confusion he must feel for my technique, I catch him with a mana rope and smash him against the ground.

“What will be the next attack…?”

I landed safely and looked at my arm. Apparently a part of his sword reached me because I had a tiny mark on both sides of it.

“...Here it comes!”

A violent wind blew up, and out of pure instinct, I used sharpened strings in front of me. With that, I repelled Leonard, who was moving faster than before.

“He multiplied his speed?!”

Before he could increase the speed even more, I created from my ankles mana strings that divided in every direction, making him trip up.

“You are a fast thinker.”

“And you are a fast runner.”

Reducing the area could be risky, but it had some benefits, so I made a giant mana cage, catching both of us in it.

“Even if you manage to run in here, I can predict your trajectory.”

“Wanna have a direct fight?”

“I know you can’t use your best spells, I feel confident.”

“All right.”

Catapulting myself would make dodging harder, so I ran at him, and when the distance between us was almost zero, I tried to punch him in the face.

“Slice!”

“Repel!”

Every time he moved the hand with the sword I created large fists from my arms and punched his arm to divert it.

“Now-.”

“Divide!”

Just when I was about to move to his back, I got back to my original position and barely dodged Leonard’s sword.

“You’re not gonna let me move?”

“You asked for a direct fight.”

“This is too direct!”

We punched the other a lot of times, his glasses even fell off but he continued fighting. Every attempt to dodge was quickly interrupted and every attempt to use weapons was ruined.

I suddenly got an idea and left a little opening.

“Semi infinite-.”

“Puff!”

Before using that technique he needed to put himself in a vulnerable position to do a big slice, so I used that and did the puffer fish trick again, making him drop his sword far away.

“(C’mon, go for your sword or approach it to you, you must look back to do both!)”

“...Ngh!”

Instead of moving back, he scratched the air. Suddenly, I was sent to fly some meters away.

“Wha-.”

I looked down, and my chest had a big claw mark. My mana detection wasn’t the best, but I barely understood what he just did.

“...Copiying my methods?”

“I get why no one else can do this…”

His expression made it so obvious that he dropped too much mana using just that attack, but it was a good move because he managed to reach his sword again while I was approaching again.

“Do you like my style?!”

“It’s terrible! But a little fun!”

“This time I’m gonna ruin your arms!”

“And this time I’m gonna split you in half!”

We put ourselves in position to do a technique and tried to get the other person to hit it. We thought we could do that.

“Pierce!”

“Slice!”

We both decided to attack from a distance, but suddenly we fell to the ground. The audience was shocked.

“It’s a tie?!”

“No!”

A tie would be a lame result, so we got up and looked at each other. I moved my hands a little and then looked at him.

“The damage is too much, what about you?”

“...The mana loss is already affecting my body. I managed to stop it from leaving my body, but I have zero experience with that.”

“Do you think you can do more spells?”

“Of course, do you think you can receive more attacks?”

“Maybe just one thousand more.”

Our expression was the same, and it wasn’t anger, fear or worry. We both smiled totally excited for the next move of the other.

Suddenly, Leonard threw down his glasses.

“Once I beat you, I want to see it with my own eyes.”

“I thought you had vision problems.”

“No, those are glasses for headaches.”

“Interesting.”

“...”

“Well, your eyes will see my greatest trick instead!”

Beneath my feet, a springy surface was created, ready to catapult me ​​to the highest possible altitude.

“...Up!”

I jumped as high as I was able while he concentrated his last traces of mana on his sword, making it bigger.

“I already showed Fran and Cloe some things from home, you deserve seeing something too!”

“C’mon! I wanna know about that place!

My last creation was a massive recreation of the attraction that killed me in my previous life. To make it difficult to cut, I placed hundreds of giant needles at the base. To make it more confusing, I made it spin as it fell. And so Leonard couldn't locate me, I colored my mana with several basic spells.

“Memory of a tragedy!”

The attraction covered all the stadium thanks to its size, so again he must go through it. But unlike the hammer trick, this creation couldn't be cut with a single slash.

“Infinite slice!”

While he moved his sword, tens of swords with the same shape appeared and did the exact same attack.

“Now!”

“Fall!”

The ride was falling at high speed, and all the slashes were slowly destroying it. The outcome of this battle depended on who was the fastest to reach the other...And thinking that was what made me lose.

“There!”

I didn’t notice it, but a tiny hole allowed him to see me and use THAT spell again.

“Divide!”

My body went into his direction, and I ended up in the middle of all the slashes.

“Gah!”

The blood left my body and my consciousness started to fade away. I tried to move away, but I wasn't able to escape. He totally got me…

“P-Pierce…”

When I tried to use my mana, it was instantly cut off before I could shape it. There was no way to escape this. I was completely defeated.

But I wasn’t disappointed with this result.

“...This time, I almost defeated you.”

A lot of things bothered me, I thought I could win, but what made me happy was that the public was also thinking the same.

“This battle…was not predictable, right?”

When my attack touched the ground, I was already unconscious.