vs Agnes Elizabeth Blaze (2)
In academy evaluation duels, the starting distance was fixed by discipline — naturally, because each discipline had its own optimal range.
Five meters for the Martial Arts Department, seven for Swordsmanship, eight for Spearmanship.
And for Archery and Magic, the distances jumped into double digits entirely, with duels conventionally beginning at twenty and thirty meters respectively.
Personally, I found this distance allocation grossly unfair to me alone. My magic wasn't exactly terrible, but my combat style had never been one that relied on magic alone.
Of course, no amount of protesting would make the academy rewrite its regulations for a single student, so as aggrieved as I was, I had no choice but to find my own way to survive.
In a mage-versus-mage fight: close the distance until the opposing mage can no longer respond with magic. That was the approach I had adopted for this evaluation duel against Agnes.
Thaaam!
I rolled through the air once more to dodge Agnes's flames, somehow shaving off another few meters between us.
To an uninformed observer, it would have looked like I was desperately evading her magic while launching attacks that never landed. I didn't much care if they misunderstood.
What I was doing had never been a one-on-one magical duel with Agnes in the first place — it was the process of dragging this fight into close quarters from the very start.
The official name of our term-end evaluation duel was Evaluation Duel, Magic Department — not a Pure Magic Duel. Just because it was a battle between mages didn't mean I owed her a magic-only response.
Besides, if fighting with anything other than magic were actually a problem, I would have been called out for it back when I used daggers in last year's evaluation duel against Luke.
The goal was singular: somehow close the distance, drag the fight with Agnes into melee range, shatter her Arcane Shield with my magic, and finish her off with a dagger.
...The fact that I had to stab that tiny body with a dagger was a little unsettling, but the academy's evaluation duels were precisely why the Death-Prevention Magic was installed — to make sure no one held back.
More than that, unless I showed this level of desperate resolve, I couldn't sell the crowd on the idea that Agnes and I were on bad terms. Not that we actually hated each other, of course — it was all an act.
"Burn! Explode! Every flame of mine, incinerate that cursed lard-ball of a woman without mercy!!"
...That is part of the act, right?
Dodging the fireballs Agnes hurled as she spammed fire magic with even her incantations rewritten, I advanced one step at a time.
Lilith's physical stats were good, but only good for the Magic Department — no way I could dodge a barrage of fireballs head-on with raw athleticism alone.
Clang!
Even mid-stride, I kept Arcane Shield on constant rotation, using it to block the fireballs I simply couldn't evade.
'Danger, Lilith.'
And the fireballs I couldn't block, Sei deflected with wind magic, smoothly bending their trajectories. She wasn't pushing the fireballs away with wind — she was pushing me out of their path.
Ordinarily, when wind magic met fire magic, it only amplified the flames, and with that in mind, Sei kept her wind entirely off the fireballs, applying it solely to my body. She usually came across as quiet and languid, so I'd let my guard down a little — but seeing this side of her, Sei was unmistakably an intermediate-rank spirit.
Thaaam!
By the time I'd somehow punched through Agnes's baptism of fireballs and closed the gap, less than ten meters remained between us.
It was close enough that a thrown dagger would easily reach Agnes, but I didn't gamble.
If I clumsily tried something like that, my dagger would just be stopped by the Arcane Shield wrapped around her body, and I'd waste a precious attack opportunity in the process.
Shattering the Arcane Shield and landing the finishing strike with a dagger — I had to accomplish both in a single instant. And ideally, on the very first attempt.
"Smoldering flames! Agonizing shrieks!"
Fwoooorrrsh!!
With Agnes's next spell, searing flames roared up from the ground and closed in around me — the so-called Flame Citadel, a 4th-circle spell.
'What do you mean, 4th circle already? The envy is killing me, seriously.'
For the record, aside from Mana Blast, the strongest offensive spell I could use — Energy Bolt — was 2nd circle. Meanwhile, the Swift Fireball Agnes had opened the fight with was 3rd circle.
I could put off envying Agnes, who was already flinging 3rd- and 4th-circle spells around before the second year had even ended. Right now, I had to escape the wall of heat closing around me. If things stayed like this, the ring of flame would keep tightening until it burned me alive.
"I'm going to burn you, Lilith! Those plump, chubby breasts of yours! And everything else, from head to toe!!"
...She's not actually angry, right?
For some reason, those insults felt disturbingly sincere as Agnes's flames closed in around me.
The flames converging on the center weren't especially fast, but escaping the meticulously tightening Flame Citadel was, for now, impossible. The height and thickness of the fire rising from ground to sky were more than enough to earn the name 'citadel.'
To avoid becoming well-done Lilith, I had to find a way out before Agnes's flames converged on me. ...Or, alternatively, just end the whole thing right here and now.
"Dim mist, and faint light!"
Timing it to the moment Agnes's Flame Citadel began closing around me, I hurriedly cast Dim Light at her. No matter how thoroughly she'd sealed herself inside an Arcane Shield, she couldn't block a spell that merely obscured vision.
Of course, this alone couldn't stop her Flame Citadel. Even now, her wall of fire was steadily tightening around me.
But blocking her vision was enough. What mattered to me right now was the act of cutting off Agnes's sight, nothing more.
With her gaze obscured, I shouted the incantation of the spell that would help me finish this fight at the top of my lungs. The signature move and sure-hit finisher of the mage Lilith — the incantation of Mana Blast.
"Mana, answer my call!!"
Suppose I completed Mana Blast inside this Flame Citadel and fired it at Agnes — the finishing power would be more than sufficient.
It would be enough to shatter her Arcane Shield entirely, and on top of that, force Agnes herself out of the match.
No matter how much the Dim Light obscured her vision, as long as her position stayed put, my Mana Blast was a sure-hit finisher that could never miss.
"Arcane! Bomb of condensed mana!!"
Agnes's Flame Citadel was slowly closing around me, but at this rate, my Mana Blast would likely complete first. After all, she seemed to have wrapped the flames a little generously, factoring in my physical capabilities.
Casting Mana Blast left me completely defenseless, so normally I never used it unless the conditions were right — but right now, it looked like the most efficient possible situation for it.
After all, the Flame Citadel Agnes was using was a channeling spell too. Even Agnes couldn't focus her mind on a 4th-circle spell while simultaneously checking me with other magic.
In other words, if my Mana Blast completed like this, the evaluation duel was my victory. And the Agnes I knew was absolutely not the type to quietly swallow such an absurd defeat.
Fssshhh....
"B-Burn!"
Judging that this couldn't stand, Agnes cut off the Flame Citadel and desperately fired fireballs my way — the Agnes who abandoned a flashy finish in favor of a practical victory.
She must have figured that since I was mid-cast on Mana Blast and couldn't dodge, even a 1st-circle spell would end it.
...And that final judgment of hers was her fatal mistake.
Because I had never had the slightest intention of finishing this with Mana Blast.
Thaam!
"......"
I lightly hopped over the fireball that came screaming at the spot where I'd just been standing, then darted straight into the Dim Light mist shrouding Agnes.
A dagger for the finish in my right hand, and a spell to shatter her Arcane Shield ready in my left.
Mana Blast? I hadn't chanted a single syllable of that inefficient incantation. I'd just mouthed the words to fake it, and hadn't let out so much as a pinch of mana for the spell. Using Mana Blast in a one-on-one duel was practically suicide.
With Luke, I'd used Mana Chain to bind her at the point where her only remaining option was close-quarters combat, then landed the Mana Blast — but throwing such an arrogant spell at a fellow mage like Agnes was begging for a counterattack exactly like the one she'd just attempted.
Casting Dim Light on Agnes before "using" Mana Blast had simply been to make her believe I was casting it. As I'd thought from the start, nothing was more reliable than finishing with a dagger to the chest.
"Sei!!"
'Yeah. I know.'
The instant I called, Sei unleashed wind magic all around us, blowing away every trace of the Dim Light mist that had enveloped Agnes and me.
The figure of the red twin-tailed mage emerging from that mist finally entered my eyes, and I threw myself at her defenseless body with everything I had.
Clang!
"...Ah!!"
Startled by the sound of her Arcane Shield shattering, she whirled toward me — but my dagger-wielding right hand was already flying straight for her heart.
And my short dagger bored into the unobstructed space between Agnes's breasts, piercing her heart with perfect precision.
Shunk!
"...Nngh!!"
"...No hard feelings, Miss Agnes."
...Hearing Agnes's pained voice, my conscience pricked at me for some reason, and I blurted out something that was neither excuse nor apology.
"Y-you... do...?"
"Considering your position, Miss Agnes, I'd love to concede the victory... but a duel is a duel."
"...I had hard feelings, though."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
Thud.
While I stood there flustered, not understanding what she meant, the staff still clutched in her hand bored into my chest — and even with a dagger through her heart, Agnes quietly spat out one final incantation.
"Flame... Explo... sion...."
"......Ah."
The instant Agnes's final incantation completed, the fire magic unfolding from the tip of her staff crashed down over both our bodies.
...That day, at the Magic Department's first evaluation duel of the academy, the Death-Prevention Magic activated twice.