Chapter 51

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Translator: MadScientist

Chapter: 51

Chapter Title: What Kind of Magic Is This!

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What kind of magic is this!

"I'm getting Chayuri Floridel back! It's a duel!"

Nayu seemed to have completely misunderstood the situation.

If I'd kidnapped the guy, would I really be sitting here whittling a broomstick or something?

And what was this about a duel? She actually thought she needed to rescue Chayuri for real.

'Wait, that actually sounds fine?'

But thinking about it again, a duel? Not a bad idea.

A second-year would definitely have solid skills.

The perfect opponent to test all the hard training I'd been putting in.

I sparred with Elrim every now and then, but she wasn't satisfying me anymore.

Right now, all I could do was wait around anxiously anyway, so clearing my head for a bit sounded good.

"Sure. Let's have at it."

I stood up from my seat.

As I got up without a fuss, Nayu's expression hardened.

"You really... No, I'll hear the answer after I win the duel. I won't let you off easy."

"Yeah, yeah."

She definitely planned to go all out.

Even better. I wanted to test just how well I could fight, too.

Right now, I could use all three of the essential third-circle spells that CantDoThisEither had told me about.

On top of that, a few fourth-circle ones from MagicIsNotHard.

And whatever else I'd picked up in between.

I even had the fifth-circle spell [Five Rays of Brilliant Flash].

This was the highest circle I could cast, but it had its limits.

Thanks to optimizing my mana capacity to 100, those came with the territory.

It was a guided missile, but the attack range was narrow, and the explosive power was lower than fourth-circle destruction spells.

Of course, it was still great for a freshman level.

But once you got into fourth and fifth circles, it started feeling a bit iffy.

Still, with its insane computational difficulty and efficiency, it had plenty of uses.

"I won't go easy on you!"

Nayu and I activated the sparring magic in one of the training rooms.

Even using the training ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠system for a proper spar like this.

I'd figured she'd come at me without any protective spells, trying to kill me outright.

The duel system's countdown rang out, and Nayu and I immediately began our computations.

The first spell needed to seize the initiative while having a fast computation time.

I also had to keep in mind that she was a second-year.

I'd never fought one directly, but they said a single year gap at the academy was huge.

Especially between freshmen and second-years.

The education outside and a full year inside the academy were on completely different levels.

'Don't start with a fifth-circle. If it's just raw power, she'll block it with a fourth-circle defense. Save it for exploiting openings.'

Save [Five Rays of Brilliant Flash] for striking when her guard is down.

Instead, go for a quick third-circle spell that could seize the offensive.

Like [Rock's Parabolic Trajectory], I drew a jagged rock.

But this one was a bit bigger and sharper.

Then a thick straight line shot straight through the rock's construct.

Finally, quick lines spreading out like an explosion at the tail end of that straight line.

With a bang-, the pointed stone bullet shot out.

Like a bullet from a gun, the explosive force propelled the rock straight at Nayu.

Compared to [Rock's Parabolic Trajectory], it was much faster and deadlier.

But its damage or explosive power still wasn't enough for a finisher.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

It was just a probing shot to take control of the attack timing.

"...!"

A beat later, Nayu finished her first spell computation.

An ice arrow summoned amid a chill in the air.

It flew at me with a sharp whoosh-.

It was a third-circle spell as well.

The two spells collided and exploded together.

Sharp fragments scattered everywhere.

I blocked the minor debris with [Overlapping Square Shield] and immediately started the next computation.

More [Stone Bullet Discharge].

I still believed that in similar skill matchups, computation speed decided the winner.

Getting your turn faster than the opponent's defense.

It was common sense that shoving attacks in faster than their defensive computations would lead to victory.

"Hup. So arrogant!"

Nayu took a sharp breath and quickly computed a spell.

A third-circle defense. The stone bullets shattered against a solid circular shield.

I kept pouring on the attacks.

Determined to steal her turns and keep her from counterattacking.

Luckily, the strategy of outpacing her computations worked; Nayu focused solely on defense afterward.

'Time to go for the win.'

Once I felt I'd pulled ahead enough on turns, I prepared a stronger spell.

First construct: fluffy clouds in the air, dotted sparsely.

Second: far below, a massive ground symbolizing the earth.

Third: wild lines for electric currents flowing between sky and earth.

Finally, a thick fist-sized dot stamped in the center for the being standing there.

Immature thunderclouds losing their charge to the earth.

Inky black clouds bloomed above Nayu's head.

Like static electricity, crackling voltage formed between the ground and the clouds.

Nayu, standing in between, would feel that stinging fully.

The faint voltage intensified, and a young bolt of lightning struck her head.

"...!"

A flash-, and for a split second, I caught Nayu's panicked expression.

It was just a fourth-circle lightning spell, but unblocked, the damage would be severe.

Plus, despite its scale, the computation hadn't been slow.

Thanks to the turns I'd banked earlier and all the practice I'd put into this one among fourth-circles.

The system alert should ring any second now, protective magic activating.

But even as lightning crashed and dust filled the air, no alert came.

Then it hit me. I'd been an idiot.

The grand world of 'magic' held far too many possibilities to judge from my short experience.

The idea that duels came down purely to computation speed was my ignorance of magic and my arrogance toward the world.

And as if mocking that arrogance, magic immediately showed me a higher level.

Even this was probably still child's play to those lofty archmages.

"For kidnapping Chayuri Floridel, and now insulting a senior too!"

The dust cleared, revealing Nayu standing unscathed.

No auto-protection triggered. In that instant, she'd wrapped herself in a fourth-circle full-body defense.

That wasn't all.

Clank- clank-

Beside Nayu—who barely reached my solar plexus—a massive crossbow floated in the air.

It was clank-clank-ing as it loaded bolts.

"What the..."

"You ignorant freshman!"

Twang. Kaang-

The giant crossbow's string snapped, and an arrow hurtled at me.

The arrow closed in instantly, ballooning rocket-like in my vision with perspective.

The shield computed just as a dull impact hit.

The third-circle defense held against the crossbow without breaking, but the shock was brutal.

The clash shoved my body back.

But it didn't end there.

The crossbow clank-ed again, loading another massive arrow.

And the crossbow didn't even need Nayu computing for it.

While it reloaded, Nayu calmly computed another attack spell.

"Shit...!"

All I could do was desperately compute defenses.

Giant crossbow bolts and Nayu's ice arrows rained down.

Arrows closing in again in a flash.

No time for multiple third-circles.

Block that crossbow with a third-circle at least...

.

.

.

.

.

Kwa-jijijijijik-!

The circular shield blocked the crossbow, while layers of square shields shattered like plywood to stop the ice arrows.

I barely held, but the crossbow casually prepped its next shot.

Nayu was the same. She no longer bothered with defense.

The situation had flipped completely.

'Shit. This feels like fighting two people...!'

I kept up the exhausting defenses.

A few more one-sided barrages from her side.

At this rate, I'd lose for sure. At least deal with that crossbow somehow.

Ask the gallery? No time to even check.

And relying on the gallery every time like this wouldn't let me grow.

I needed to at least try solving it myself to handle similar situations later.

It's not like I'd die from losing now anyway. No need to chicken out.

'Gotta destroy that crossbow at least...'

The crossbow was definitely mana-made.

Made by magic, so destructible by magic.

Problem was how.

'No perfect way.'

The textbook play would be defending while sniping the crossbow in openings.

But I had no margin for that. My computation speed wasn't fast enough to leisurely attack while blocking both.

Destroy the crossbow with one spell, then defend Nayu's follow-up.

Single-shot like [Stone Bullet Discharge] wouldn't cut it.

No room for two turns. Needed a spell to do it all in one...

'Shit, if I had something like that, I wouldn't be struggling.'

Nothing in my repertoire fit.

I'd glimpsed high-circle stuff on the gallery that could pull it off, but nothing low-circle came to mind.

But that didn't mean no way.

There was a low-circle method.

Half gamble, but nothing left but to hope it worked.

Kwa-jajajajajajak-!

Blocked another attack shattering shields.

Prepped defenses for the next.

Block the next, then throw the gamble attack.

Their attack speed was so fast, one attack left high odds of failing the next defense.

Success on internalization, I win. Fail, I lose.

A spell from image training sessions.

Slowly draw a small sun-like orb rippling.

Thick parabola converging to a point, crossed by a jagged straight line.

But don't stop the image there—expand it.

The sun is a star too. Extend to the grand realization of a star's gravitational pull—

A massive light filled the space as a tiny star flew at Nayu.

It burned up every arrow from Nayu and the crossbow.

In practice, I'd only succeeded once, then barely a second time after.

Lucky. It worked.

Blinding flash blinded me too.

But I spammed guided [Five Rays of Brilliant Flash] at the crossbow and Nayu.

The internalized [Pull of a Very Small Sun] glowed for a really long time, attacking the enemy.

A few more [Five Rays of Brilliant Flash], and I heard the crossbow shatter.

After Nayu barely blocked the flash and tiny star, and we traded a few more spells,

Finally, the five rays hit Nayu squarely, and the system signaled the duel’s end.

"H-how... What kind of magic is this... I've never even heard of it."

"Whew... Almost lost."

Defeated, Nayu collapsed to the floor in a daze.

If the internalization had failed, I'd have definitely lost.

I'd been arrogant. Thinking a bit of computation speed would beat a second-year.

Good that I learned this lesson now. No more arrogant thoughts like that.

"By the way, that crossbow..."

"-Hey, loser!"

I was about to ask Nayu about the crossbow when Elrim's voice rang out.

Elrim strode into the training room toward me.

This crazy girl was wearing sunglasses indoors this time.

"What are you doing! Against a shrimp like this! It's cowardly!"

"Second-year senior."

"Hah?! Sunglasses hid the badge color! Sorry, Senior!"

"Why wear sunglasses indoors anyway..."

"Gotta get the attention!"

I decided not to think about Elrim's antics.

But why was she here?

"More importantly, what're you here for?"

"More like! Scared to fight me now, huh? Hmph. Running off to duel someone else."

"Nah. You're not satisfying anymore, so I dueled a second-year."

"Wh-what."

Elrim looked genuinely flustered and went quiet for a while.

That shocking, huh? Then level up and come back.

"So why'd you come?"

"Oh, uh, obviously for the duel... No, Chayuri showed up? Weren't you looking for him?"

"...What? Chayuri?"

"Yeah. And since Chayuri's here, how about spicy fried chicken for the three of us? Hisenna's dieting so she won't eat. Not that the portion's too big for one or I don't have friends to eat with or anything, just that three people lets us try all three flavors, so don't misunderstand..."

"Hold on, make way, Chayuri!"

"Chayuri Floridel!"

"Wh-what, where you going! Don't have fun without me! Chicken, I said!!"

I ignored Elrim's yapping and bolted.

Nayu followed behind, and we soon spotted Chayuri in front of the dorm building.

But something was off about Chayuri's condition.