The First Magic Duel (3)
“Ho...! Not bad at all! That kid named Free!”
“...Impossible. He completely survived Rekas’s explosive magic...?”
Two teachers who had been guarding one side of the spectator seats before the match began stared at each other in disbelief at the series of events, their expressions showing vastly different levels of shock.
The senior teacher, one of the two, rested his chin on his hand and gazed down at the arena with an intrigued look.
The junior teacher, the other, was completely stunned, looking as if he had witnessed something unbelievable firsthand.
How did he survive inside that explosive magic? Did he use a shield spell? No, with a normal shield, he couldn’t possibly endure the aftershock of that attack. Then what is it?
“......”
Accompanied by the senior teacher’s internal monologue as he analyzed the situation, the junior teacher sitting quietly beside him couldn’t take his eyes off the match’s flow for even a moment.
Inside the arena, Free said,
“Don’t panic. If your body freezes up, you won’t be able to display your true abilities.”
“......”
Still relaxed, Free showed Rekas his clenched teeth in a smug grin.
Free continued,
“One thing: I’ll let you release the resentment you hold. The magic you fired at me wasn’t a low-tier spell. So, inverse calculation is impossible, and canceling is meaningless.”
“......Then, how did you block all those attacks while saying that?!”
Rekas’s face twisted in anger, but Free responded calmly,
“Why?”
That’s it.
“Because I have more mana than you.”
“......! What...?”
Free thought,
After yesterday, thanks to the special mana cultivation method he learned from Aina, the mana he had accumulated over the years here had multiplied in strength.
It was like layering recent mana absorbed and processed into his existing mana, stacking it on top like a ball.
Just as snowballs grow larger when rolled in snow, his body suddenly enlarged.
Free’s original mana in his mana heart had layered over multiple stages, creating even higher quality.
And using that high-quality mana, he formed a crazy multi-polygon magic called ‘omnidirectional’ shield.
This was also a result of long research on low-tier shield magic from his previous life.
As long as he had enough mana, he could generate and deploy multi-layered polygonal shield magic in omnidirectional protection.
He had created the Center Protect magic.
Therefore, the higher the quality of his mana, the more the opponent’s attack magic was completely blocked, turning it into uselessness, and an unbelievable high-strength shield of that form blocked Rekas’s Flame Burst entirely.
Mana consumption is several times more than normal shield spells... but now that burden has almost disappeared.
All of this was thanks to the girl with sky-blue hair and light yellow eyes sitting casually in one of the spectator seats in the arena.
The problem was that she, watching herself, couldn’t close her open mouth.
Thanks, Aina. Thanks to you, I overcame the mana shortage that in my previous life I could only imagine but never had time to use in battle.
The reward for the magic eyes granted by the painting was returning like this.
It was a situation more satisfying than ever for him.
“Then, if there’s nothing more to show, I’ll end it here.”
Free declared to end the match.
But Rekas was not done.
He himself hadn’t used all his power yet.
Suddenly, Rekas covered his face with one hand and laughed.
“Kukukuku.”
“What’s so funny?”
As he felt the resentment, Rekas spread his fingers from the hand covering his face and said in a low voice, looking at Free far away through the gap.
“Who told you? Silence is forbidden.”
“What?”
Free asked back.
At that moment,
Suddenly, an explosion occurred beside him.
“......!”
Free, startled, quickly deployed a silent cast shield to block the explosion using the eyes of the magic he had been casting.
“What’s going on...?”
Before he could mutter, Rekas removed his hand from in front and laughed loudly, Kha-ha!
Rekas, now with momentum as if he had seized the lead, looked at Free with a calm gaze.
Not bad. He must have used this trick secretly while my vision was completely blocked. Very stealthily, so I couldn’t notice easily.
Now it made sense. By using mana to alter vision, faint mana flows were felt around him.
High secrecy. It might be another forbidden technique from the family.
That meant he had to be careful.
Because a forbidden technique from a family was a significant threat even to himself, another variable, a dangerous element.
Rekas said with a thick smile,
“Hey, you’d better not move there. That’s a chain explosion magic that triggers sequentially if you touch it wrong.”
“......”
“No matter how strong you are, you won’t be able to maintain that shield for long in the continuous explosions. Now you can’t do anything there, just take my attacks!”
Rekas pointed his palm forward toward Free, aiming it.
“Flame Explosion!”
Rekas, who had been using only mid-to-high tier spells since he couldn’t use inverse calculation, was showing his trump card.
Flame Explosion was the strongest explosive and power he had ever used.
Free deployed another omnidirectional Center Protect shield, but as it was enveloped in the explosion, he saw the shield cracking.
“......”
And then the omnidirectional shield completely shattered from the cracked parts.
It was Rekas’s core magic with power that even Free’s strong mana couldn’t fully block.
A last resort.
Free, guessing that, lit up in his eyes.
Fortunately, although cracked, he had successfully blocked most of the Flame Explosion.
Rekas, seeing Free’s unaffected appearance, showed an unknown smile and laughed meaningfully.
“You blocked that too. Then what about this?”
Before Free could even speak, Rekas had been preparing the next magic.
And—.
This time, the low laughter came from Free.
Rekas frowned in surprise, watching Free being enveloped in the next explosion.
And Free, who had blocked Rekas’s next explosive magic with just one front shield.
Suddenly tilted his head and started laughing softly.
At the end of the low laugh, tilting his head back,
Suddenly, Free’s gaze with two glittering red eyes.
“Very good. I didn’t think it would be this much.”
While speaking, Free deliberately deployed the omnidirectional shield magic again to protect his whole body, intending to endure Rekas’s attacks from the start.
Rekas, this time, after seeing the strange polygonal shield magic that Free had deployed to block all his previous attacks, figured out the reason.
He thought that magic deployed in that way consumed too much mana, and even if he could figure out the method, sustaining the magical form for a certain time was very difficult, so normal mages couldn’t even dream of it.
But Free had been actively showing behaviors that broke such common sense in this match.
And due to that unbelievable conduct, Rekas, seeing Free laughing, felt oddly uneasy and anxious.
Rekas growled,
“......What are you thinking, you brat!”
Rekas’s vigilant gaze.
Yes.
It seemed like that laugh was born from the fact that the smile was truly enjoying this moment, this situation immensely.
The demon of the battlefield. The immortal mage.
After experiencing only wars for a long time, one couldn’t endure without going mad somewhere. Being normal was actually more abnormal.
For Rekas, facing Free’s previous life memories and experiences right in front of him.
Somehow, a deep anxiety born from unknown emotions and worry seeped into Rekas’s heart as he pointed both palms forward toward the laughing Free and shouted in frustration,
“......What is so funny?!”
Rekas, trying to cast Flame Explosion immediately at Free as if to stop the laughing,
At that moment.
Thud—
Free suddenly stopped laughing and spoke.
“How could I not be happy? Seeing you use magic I don’t know and respond to all the magic I know.”
Looking at the Flame Explosion shooting towards him,
“How could I not be indifferent?”
With that one muttered word, Free simply raised one hand in front of the Flame Explosion that had rushed right in front of him.
Simultaneously, a translucent green shield magic deployed silently in front of his outstretched hand.
It was an attribute shield magic with wind attribute.
But it wasn’t the end; it continued with other shield magics.
Multiple shield magics with unique colors for fire, water, earth, lightning attributes overlapped quickly over the translucent green shield with wind attribute, perfectly blocking Rekas’s forbidden explosive magic.
The five attribute multi-shield magics deployed in one layer in front completely neutralized Rekas’s Flame Explosion’s explosion, blocking it completely while still maintaining properly.
Five attribute multi-shield deployment magic with only the front side unfolded, no cracks even as small as a fingernail.
Therefore, it was a high-strength front shield defense magic that could only show more toughness and granite-like firmness than the omnidirectional polygonal shield deployment magic.
Why didn’t Free release the front shield magic after blocking the attack and muttered,
“-A ray of light spear buried in the darkness.
That was,
“-Now, stop revealing that brilliant light in the darkness and point it at the enemy in front of my eyes to annihilate it.
“-Not a partial chant,
“-Pierce the pitch black.
Full chant.
“Judgment of The Light.”
In the sky, a large magic circle filled with pure white light rapidly drew, and countless light bombs suddenly fell from the sky to the ground.
With wide area, as if filled with all mana, impossible to escape or avoid completely.
Rekas, who had noticed in the middle and looked up, felt with his two eyes as the pupils slowly expanded.
This is something that can’t be blocked or avoided.
And finally,
────.
With silent explosion,
All sounds around were completely swallowed and disappeared.
But the countless flashes of light continued without stopping.
To the audience watching from the spectator seats, it was a grand and solemn scene like the judgment of the light god, and most of them were stunned.