A Perfectly Ordinary Group Assignment (15)
Like bubbles floating in the air, dozens of orbs of light materialized around Lyla. The spectacle of spheres glowing with a soft blue hue was so dreamlike and beautiful that one might instinctively reach out to touch them, yet the terrifying power they contained was anything but illusory. A low-tier spell could claim a single life, while a mid-tier spell could annihilate an entire squad. If the old military manuals were to be believed, then a barrage of mid-tier spells—not just one, but dozens raining down at once—would overwhelm even a platoon from a decent-sized nation. But if that was the case, then what kind of opponent could stand against it?
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
Every time a bullet of light grazed past, the ground erupted as if struck by cannon fire, and thick trees were torn apart like they'd been raked by a massive beast's claws. A single glancing blow would reduce a fragile human body to minced meat in an instant. Yet none of them connected.
"This is impossible...!"
The robed girl cried out, forgetting for a moment that she was even in the middle of a battle. But no one could blame her—Ligret's movements defied all common sense.
Was it because she was fast? Well, that was part of it. Compared to actual light it might fall short, but evading bullets of light moving at arrow-like speeds by simply running was already beyond bizarre. Still, considering that mana users could enhance their bodies to display physical abilities dozens of times greater than an ordinary human, it remained within the realm of what the girl could barely comprehend.
But being able to move like that and being able to control those movements were two entirely different matters. The forest was littered with obstacles. The ground was scarred by battle and constantly being torn up even now, yet Ligret ran across it as if it were flat ground without stumbling or colliding with anything. She even ran up trees using only her feet or used flying rock fragments as stepping stones to leap forward. The robed girl couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of sense of balance and reflexes were required for such feats.
Pa-shat!
After Ligret executed a midair somersault, sparks flew right beside Lyla's face. By the time the girl realized Ligret had drawn a knife from the sheath on her thigh and thrown it—only for Lyla to block it with a mana shield—several more exchanges had already concluded.
'Their levels are completely different...'
The thought of joining the attack or creating a diversion to draw Ligret's attention felt utterly pointless. Even just watching from behind, it was difficult enough to follow their movements with her eyes. How could she possibly intervene? Not only would she be useless—she might even end up getting in Lyla's way.
The robed girl was wise and didn't overestimate her own abilities. But precisely because of that, she failed to notice the other opponent she should have been watching.
An explosion. A flash of light. The impact from behind snapped the girl back to attention, and she realized she'd been attacked. Yet she also realized why she remained completely unharmed despite being caught completely off guard.
'A high-tier mana barrier! Her Highness the Princess must have set it up before she left!'
A translucent wall of mana surrounded the robed girl like a thick fortress wall, blocking the Attribute Stones that had been thrown from outside. It was a precaution Lyla had taken from the moment Chrome and Ligret appeared, anticipating that the two would target the girl.
The reassurance of being protected gave the robed girl courage. Bang! Bang! Bang! Even amid the continuous explosions and thick smoke, she remained calm—there was even room for her to sneer at Chrome's foolishness.
'How stupid. There's no way something like that could break it.'
Judging from the mana waves and visible scale, what was striking the barrier were the lowest-grade "fragments" among the Attribute Stones. Just as a wall wouldn't collapse from being hit by a few arrows, low-tier spells—no matter how desperately used—could never destroy a high-tier mana barrier. She briefly considered counterattacking, but casting spells beyond the barrier Lyla had created was far beyond her capabilities. The ongoing explosions and smoke also made it impossible to pinpoint Chrome's location.
'By the way, how is he carrying so many of those stones? I thought he'd used them all earlier—was that just a bluff?'
At any rate, it was noisy, and she wished it would end quickly. Just as the robed girl thought this, something rolled through a gap in the upturned ground beneath the mana barrier.
Many who walked the path of martial arts tended to look down on those who pursued the way of magic. The average mana capacity a person could hold was roughly around 100. A hundred low-tier spells might sound like a lot at first glance, but the most basic of basics—the Low-tier Mana Arrow—only consumed about 1 mana, and its power could be replicated with nothing more than a simple wooden bow and arrows. Giving spells shapes like spheres, shields, or maces to increase range or power raised the mana cost, and adding elemental attributes like fire, ice, or wind for additional effects increased it even further.
As a result, a typical mage could only use around twenty spells in a single battle. While magic could be used for offense, defense, and support, that also meant there were many opportunities to expend mana—and a mage who had exhausted their mana was little more than a walking decoration, offering no help at all.
Moreover, unlike martial artists who simply enhanced their bodies and swung weapons, mages had to select and cast the appropriate spell for each situation. In clashes between ordinary martial artists and mages, the martial artists usually won decisively. But this only held true when both sides were of low skill. The higher the user's ability and the greater their available mana, the more dramatically the mage's win rate increased—especially in large-scale battles.
The notion that martial arts were simply about enhancing physical abilities meant there were no other useful ways to expend mana. Unlike martial artists who had to cut down and smash enemies one by one in a bloody battlefield, mages could annihilate dozens or even over a hundred enemies with a single high-tier spell. What could a handful of soldiers armed with nothing but lumps of iron possibly do against a high-ranking mage who rained down attacks like massive cannon shells while wrapped in protective barriers like castle walls?
That was the kind of fighter Lyla Everblaze Barhart was—born with innate magical talent and honed through relentless effort. The enemies she envisioned were always groups, armies, entire factions. She had never considered herself the strongest, and she knew there were countless superhumans in the world, but they were predecessors who had been born before her and already stood at great heights—not peers who shared her starting point.
Yet now, what was this situation?
Blades of wind tore through the air. Spheres of flame exploded. Spears of ice rained down like a downpour. In all her life, Lyla had never unleashed such a fierce barrage of spells against a single opponent—and she had certainly never failed to land a single hit despite going this far. Ligret's movements were that elusive, and her counterattacks using various weapons repeatedly cracked Lyla's mana shields, demonstrating their power.
'How? What kind of training did she undergo to become this strong?'
Lyla was aware that her own blood was special. It was a mystery guaranteed by over a thousand years of history, and also the chains that bound her. Born with exceptional talent, raised in abundance, and having trained endlessly—how could a mere mercenary girl stand as her equal? The unanswered question grew larger, eventually wounding her pride. Lyla's sunset-colored eyes ignited like flames.
Meanwhile, Ligret was equally dissatisfied with how the battle refused to end cleanly.
「That princess is a monster.」
Thinking back, Chrome had always held the opponent before them in high regard from the very beginning. Monster. Genius. Special. Someone he absolutely wanted as an ally. In a way, it almost seemed like obsession, and at the same time, it carried a strange sense of déjà vu. Then Ligret realized—it was the same as when Chrome had first extended his hand to her.
Investing time, consuming resources, even taking losses himself to obtain someone. Whether the person in question was aware of it or not, Ligret, who had lived alongside Chrome for years, clearly understood his collector-like nature. The desire to take something rare, something scarce, something with great potential, and perfect it further with his own hands, raising it to even greater heights. His willingness to invest equipment and magical tools in friends he'd only recently met was part of that same impulse. And the higher Chrome judged someone's value to be, the more intense his enthusiasm to obtain them became.
And now, the value Chrome had assigned to the princess was equal to Ligret's own. An obscure mercenary girl receiving the same evaluation as an imperial princess. Some might call it an honor, but Ligret's feelings were different.
I'll crush her head-on. She was brimming with motivation and confidence. What she hadn't expected was that her opponent would be even stronger than anticipated.
She suppressed her ragged breathing and controlled her screaming limbs. Even for Ligret with her superhuman physical abilities, continuing to fight while dodging relentless, mindless attacks from all directions was no easy task. Each of Lyla's spells carried enough power to be considered lethal, and she was firing them off by the dozens. And it wasn't as if her defenses were weak either. Perhaps impressed by how Ligret had shattered her mana barrier at the start, Lyla had deployed not only mana barriers but also floating shields around her and an invisible armor wrapping her body. Even when Ligret destroyed one or two, new spells immediately took their place to protect her.
'Just how much mana does she have? And how is she controlling all of that at once?'
Thanks to everything Chrome had fed her, Ligret's base specs weren't inferior to anyone else's, but when it came to mana, she had to admit she was at least one—or even two or three—levels below. If she had continued living as a mercenary without meeting Chrome, could she have fought at this level now? The answer to the question that flashed through her mind came naturally, and it left her displeased. Ligret's brown eyes grew cold as ice.