The First Magic Duel (2)
In the Orwen Empire.
The three great ducal families,
the only son of the Buster family.
The sole heir.
At ten years old, having awakened mana, in just a few years, creating a mana heart in his heart, a once-in-a-generation child prodigy mage.
That was Rekas von Buster.
However.
'What the hell...! That unbelievable magic!'
Rekas could not calm his expression in the slightest.
His gaze was fixed on Free, the blue-haired boy with red eyes, several meters away.
It was not just now.
It had been like that before as well.
'He erased all my Flame Balls without a trace right where they were. Now he's attacking with Silent Casting at the size and power of Full Chant level?'
Unbelievable.
Impossible.
At that moment.
'Could it be...?'
Did he notice something while thinking?
Rekas wiped his forehead with the back of one hand, glared at Free ahead, and said.
“You blocked my attack with Silent Casting at the beginning. That was a miscalculation, huh?”
“Hoo. You figured that out.”
'This guy is the type who thinks well. His situational judgment is quite fast.'
“...Answer my question!”
“Hmm, this isn't a one-on-one duel right now. Yet here I am, asking you to clearly answer that question in this battle?”
“You...!!”
“Yeah. I get it. Well, since you've already figured it out, no need to hide it. Yeah. You're right. It's a reverse calculation magic. Cancel. At least for lower-tier spells, it's one of my strengths and weapons that I can instantly cancel most all magic on the spot with Silent Casting.”
“...”
Upon hearing Free's honest, straightforward explanation of the truth, Rekas's expression grew even more sour.
It felt like he was saying “I know, but I can't do anything about it,” making him even more upset.
“...Damn it! Damn it all!”
Lower-tier spells don't work.
Exactly as he had noticed.
Whether that was true or not, he thought the possibility was high.
Otherwise, why would he say it so straightforwardly? And it was an ability that no one could do like that earlier, something ordinary people couldn't do.
Right after that guy, Free, realized that none of the lower-tier magic attacks worked on him at all.
Free said.
“Is there no other way? If it's like this, I will definitely win.”
“...”
Unlucky guy.
Rekas really thought that.
The guy in front of him, Free, hadn't lost even a single moment of leeway since the duel started.
Not only that, but since the match began, he hadn't moved even a step from his position.
“Damn it brat─!”
Rekas could no longer endure this humiliation.
Anyone could see from his usual hot-tempered personality.
That his mind was completely gone.
Rekas immediately brought both hands together in front and spread them.
Then, swirling flames began to rise in front of his palms.
Free said with curiosity.
“Another low-tier low-rank magic, Flame Ball? You said earlier that it wouldn't work on me, right? You don't believe it?”
Free thought simply.
That Rekas in front wouldn't believe his words and would suspect until he confirmed with his own eyes.
But it didn't matter.
Because what Free said to Rekas was a clear, unadulterated truth.
However.
'...! Something feels off.'
It wasn't a normal Flame Ball, a low-rank fire elemental magic.
“...! No way?”
Grin─
“It's already too late! You damn bastard!!”
Rekas, having mocked once, compressed the flames gathered in front of his two palms in front of him into an instant.
Then, firing it towards Free ahead, he shouted.
“Die! Flame Burst!”
“...!!”
Flame explosion magic.
For the first time, Free's eyes widened in shock.
Simultaneously, the magic hit the place where Free was.
But.
“It's not over yet!”
With a short Full Chant to maximize the power, accuracy, and range of the Flame Burst, Rekas shot it at Free, then continuously used Silent Casting to target the place where Free was engulfed in the explosion.
“Hahaha! Idiot! Disappear without a trace!”
As if enjoying the sight, unable to contain his joy, Rekas laughed loudly while continuously using Silent Casting Flame Burst of small explosion range.
Soon, the real Rekas, still with a smile on his lips, stopped the magic.
He had poured all his remaining mana into this one magic.
Even if it was “some,” from his perspective, who had been eating various precious elixirs and herbs since childhood and accumulating mana in his mana heart for a long time, it was an enormous amount of mana consumption.
He patiently waited for the hazy smoke to clear somewhat.
Then, in the clearing dust wind, Rekas discovered a black silhouette with a surprised look.
“How...!?”
However, the surprise was surprise, and Rekas quickly lowered his body and rushed forward as if charging towards the direction where Free was.
While doing so, he narrowed the distance and created Flame Burst in both hands' magic.
“This time, I'll definitely bring you down! Die!”
In the spectator stand, where the match flow was still not visible due to the incomplete clearing of the dust storm, Rekas discarded any hesitation.
Now, whether the opponent dies or not, whether he actually falls or not, his expression was one of indifference.
“Flame Burst──!”
Narrowing the distance to the silhouette, Rekas ate the Flame Burst at close range right in front of it.
With a bigger explosion sound than before, Flame Burst exploded again and again around the silhouette where Free was.
By Rekas, who seemed to say that even if it was caught in the explosion range, it didn't matter.
But Rekas had already prepared for the aftermath of the explosion by casting a kind of family secret magic, the enhanced version of Protector.
Body Buildup Protector.
So, he was double-protected from the explosion's aftermath by the Life Protector magic that protects the lives of people participating in the joint combat assessment that started simultaneously with the duel, and the enhanced full-body Protector magic of the family secret.
Rekas, who had tried to give the final blow, had backed away, widening the distance.
And finally, the place where Free was became completely silent, enveloped in silence.
'This time, I finally handled it properly.'
That was the moment he believed that.
Whoosh-!
“...What?”
Piercing through the hazy smoke, there was an unidentified trajectory that passed right next to the spot where Rekas was.
Like being hit by a powerful crushing magic, a few strands of Rekas's hair that were cut fell to the floor as if scattered.
“W-what...!?”
While dazed for a moment, in the dust wind, another light trajectory was shot towards the direction of the place where Rekas was, several times.
“Guh!”
Barely dodging the light trajectories by throwing his body sideways with an almost imperceptible difference.
Rekas tried to deploy Shield magic to block the unidentified white trajectory light attacks.
“...! Impossible...?”
The light trajectories that were shot were simple and easily pierced through Rekas's deployed Shield, creating a hole in the wind and passing through instantly.
The moment the Shield magic deployed to defend against the enemy's unknown attack became completely useless.
Finally, the dust wind completely cleared, and the several light trajectories that were shot towards Rekas's direction stopped shooting for some reason and became silent.
And simultaneously, Free slowly appeared from within the cleared dust wind.
The magic Rekas had attacked with was none other than his light magic, the flash magic, Ray.
Looking at Rekas, who had stopped with one finger of his hand extended forward, in the completely cleared dust wind, Free said.
“Now I can see a bit ahead.”
“...”
Rekas had probably thought that it wasn't a forgiving opponent.
At the same time, the flow of the match was approaching its end.