Chapter 242
Chapter 242
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 242
Chapter Title: Magical Clash (2)
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“What are you so worried about? I went through the trouble of putting you in, and all you do is whine.”
“What else am I supposed to do? Imagine how upset Shirone will be if I lose! Why on earth did you pick me? You know I’m…!”
“Losing is better than running away.”
Nade stopped in his tracks.
Iruki turned back and said.
“We only need one win between the two of us anyway. Can't you see what's happening? We're the horses meant to carry Shirone to Dante. That's an important job. It's not something we could ever ask someone who isn't one of us to do.”
“Iruki…”
Nade’s face filled with emotion.
“And honestly… I don’t think you’ll lose. There are a few variables, but I chose you because there’s still a chance you can win. Don’t feel pressured, just do your best.”
Iruki was right. Whether he won or lost, if Shirone had decided to fight, the task of bringing him to his enemy was not something that could be left to others.
He didn't want the memory of running away in the distant future, and to stand proudly as Shirone’s friend, it was time to take a risk.
“Alright! Let’s do this! What’s the worst that can happen!”
@
The weekend of the first match arrived.
Although the duel between Nade and Sabina wasn't a major event, students had already gathered at Practice Field 2000.
It was the first match to determine whether the showdown between Shirone and Dante would happen, so its importance was by no means small. The teams also had distinct styles, providing many points of interest for spectators.
By the time Amy arrived at Practice Field 2000, it was so packed with people that there were no empty seats.
“Amy! Over here!”
Seriel waved from the front row of the temporarily installed spectator stands. Amy had thought she was coming early herself, so she was amazed at Seriel’s enthusiasm. Mark and Maria were sitting next to her.
“Greetings, senior!”
Mark greeted her with a booming voice, while Maria bowed her head demurely. Amy returned the greeting nonchalantly and sat down next to Seriel.
“How long have you been here? You must have a lot of free time.”
“Hehe! Actually, I gave Mark a special mission. I haven’t been here long myself. Still, I couldn’t just watch an event like this from afar. Especially when it’s such an important match for Shirone.”
“Important? Please. He sure does cause a lot of trouble, one way or another.”
Amy spoke as if it were no big deal, but she didn’t feel quite as calm on the inside. Airhine Dante was a name she had heard so many times it was drilled into her ears, even for a prodigy like herself.
A boy who had beaten all the renowned aspiring mages across the country to become the undisputed number one in the kingdom. He was on a completely different level from the obstacles Shirone had overcome so far.
Shirone’s skills had improved by leaps and bounds in Heaven, but the consensus among experts was that the information magic Dante wielded was so delicate that even professionals couldn't easily replicate it.
“It’s starting! It’s starting, senior!”
At Mark's voice, Amy looked toward the field.
Nade and Sabina had entered the practice field, while Shirone and Iruki watched from the sidelines.
The teachers in charge of Practice Field 2000 were taking turns as referees, and today it was Mr. Thadd.
Thadd called Nade and Sabina to the center and explained the rules of the match. The gist was that the referee could stop the match at their discretion if a serious physical collision occurred.
Nade and Sabina stared each other down, not even turning their heads, as if they were deaf.
Though he had been groaning in distress just ten minutes ago, Nade now had a calm expression, having mentally prepared himself.
Closer pointed at Nade and said.
“That guy might be a dark horse. When he dodged my punch on the first day, I got the feeling he was used to fighting.”
“No, it’s more like…”
Dante shook his head as if to deny Closer’s words, but he couldn’t finish his sentence.
It felt like something was off, more than just being accustomed to fighting. If he had to pick a similar type, it would be Canis, but that wasn't quite right either.
“In any case, it’ll be revealed in this duel. No matter the opponent, Sabina will win.”
After finishing his explanation, Thadd instructed Nade and Sabina to return to their designated positions.
The starting points were set by mutual agreement, 30 meters apart for a total of 60 meters.
It was a distance where their Spirit Zones couldn't reach, but they could launch a preemptive strike using sequence formulas.
“We will now begin the duel between Nade and Sabina.”
As Thadd raised his arm to give the start signal, the murmuring of the students died down all at once.
Graduating students who had experienced duels in Practice Field 2000 often said this was the most tense moment.
The course of the duel could change depending on how one initially utilized their Spirit Zone—advancing, retreating, attacking, or defending.
The four basic forms of the Omnidirectional System were a given, but all sorts of irregular forms created various variables, making this the foundational moment of the duel.
“Begin!”
Nade and Sabina had the same thought.
Advance, attack, preemptive strike.
The duel of sequence formulas was evenly matched. As their Spirit Zones overlapped, Electric Bolt and Wind Cutter crisscrossed.
In terms of speed, few elements could keep up with electricity, save for photons. However, the electric force, being sensitive to charge, had the drawback of lower accuracy.
Ultimately, a Wind Cutter was the first to graze Nade’s arm. The moment his Spirit Zone wavered, Sabina seized the opportunity to cast Haste on herself.
Few students could follow Sabina’s zigzagging sprint with their eyes. Watching a human-sized object move like a cat was like watching a magic show with a hidden trick.
Claiming the spot behind Nade, Sabina swung her hand-blade, and a blade of wind sliced past Nade's neck.
‘A confirmed hit? Is it over?’
The moment Sabina thought this, a faint electric current flowed through her arm. It was Nade's specialty, Image Copy magic. By the time she turned her gaze, dozens of Nades had already surrounded her.
“Hmph! You’ve got some decent cheap tricks!”
Checking each one would waste time and risk falling into a trap. Sabina immediately focused her concentration and deployed the advanced technique, Cutting Flower. As she brought her hands together above her head and spun, Wind Cutters spread out in all directions.
One of Nade's illusions quickly dove away. Having escaped the radius of Cutting Flower, Nade looked at Sabina with a weary expression.
She had fired long-range Wind Cutters at a rate of over forty per second. It was certainly a level beyond the advanced class.
Air magic was divided into Compression-type, which compressed air, and Blow-type, which wielded it. He thought Sabina might be a mage specializing in the Blow-type.
‘So the basic mode isn’t enough?’
As Nade focused his mind, a blue cloud began to rise around him. Electromagnetic bolts popped out of the cloud and moved in straight lines.
“Plasma?”
Sabina hastily stopped her approach. Even she couldn't act recklessly in front of plasma.
“Wow, so that’s plasma. Looks like that guy wasn’t just lucky last time.”
“Are you an idiot? It’s not something you can learn by luck.”
Real plasma occurs at extremely high temperatures, but in magic that materializes the phenomenon, it's in the domain of electricity, so the temperature itself doesn't rise. Nevertheless, it was one of the most powerful weapons for an electricity mage.
Plasma could be seen as a state where electricity spreads like a cloud, filling the surroundings. In short, just as a fish is king in the water, an electricity mage was king inside a cloud of electricity.
The drawback of bolt magic's low accuracy was nonexistent within the plasma field; in fact, the trajectory of the bolts could be freely altered. Since the environment itself was electricity, the mental energy consumed for magic was reduced, and above all, it was a passive skill.
A blessing for any electricity mage.
But understanding the electrical properties of plasma, which only occurs in extreme environments, was not something even professionals could do easily.
For the first time since the battle began, Sabina grew tense. The combat manual advised against approaching an electricity mage who had deployed plasma unless there was a significant skill gap.
“In that case…”
Sabina changed her tactics. The only way to attack Nade without entering the plasma field was to generate tornadoes from the outside and sweep everything away.
As she cast Tornado, several ten-meter-high whirlwinds danced around.
Nade tried to close the distance somehow while distracting her with Image Copy.
One Electric Shock was all it would take. If he could stun her for just one second, no one could withstand the high-speed electric bombardment cast from within the plasma field.
But Sabina gave him no openings, moving freely around the practice field with the nimble movements of Haste.
As the plasma field expanded, the number of whirlwinds also increased. As if determined to settle the match, Sabina began to merge the 30 tornadoes one by one. The number was instantly halved, but their size grew more than fourfold.
If the tornadoes continued to merge, there would be nowhere to escape on the field. Nade decided that if he was going to do something, it had to be now. He used the plasma's electric force to survey the ground.
About 32 percent was metallic.
Of course, it was just an environment materialized by the information of Practice Field 2000, but any conductor could be controlled with plasma.
‘It feels a bit wrong to use a technique from another specialization, but…’
This was no time to be picky. If he lost, the burden of securing Shirone's match would fall solely on Iruki.
Nade used the plasma to generate a magnetic field. Metallic dust mixed in the rocks shot up from the ground. As he created a magnetic storm, a metal tornado was instantly formed.
Sabina was horrified. Its size was less than a tenth of her tornado, but if a mass of nearly three tons rotated at the same speed, its destructive power would be comparable.
‘No. No one can break my ultimate weapon!’
Sabina gritted her teeth and merged the 15 tornadoes. Rotational fusion was an incredibly advanced technique, yet she succeeded in merging 30 tornadoes in just two minutes.
A whirlwind large enough to be called a typhoon rose up. Nade's metal tornado charged toward the eye of that typhoon.
Everyone knew this was the final attack.
As the students watched without even breathing, the two tornadoes collided in the center of the field.
It was a battle of mass versus size. The steel tornado danced freely inside the massive tornado, shredding the air currents.
The anti-magic on Sabina's bracelet activated, and its gauge rapidly depleted.
Nade wasn't in a normal state either. He was disrupting Sabina's tornado, but the difference in scale was too great.
“Kugh!”
The wind pressure, stronger than the magnetic force, was slowly breaking apart the dense metallic state, calming its speed. At a certain point where their rotational speeds offset each other, the two forces perfectly interlocked.
Sabina's tornado broke apart into turbulent air and scattered. A deafening roar erupted as a powerful gust of wind spread outside the practice field. The friends watching from the sidelines were pushed back, unable to withstand the wind pressure.
The students waited for the dust cloud that had taken over the space to clear. As some dust rose and some settled, the figures of the two combatants were revealed.
Sabina was bent over, panting for breath, while Nade was on his knees, collapsed on the ground.
Thadd checked the gauges of both fighters through his master bracelet.
Both had their mental energy depleted to the bottom, a state where neither could be said to have the upper hand.
But the one who astonished the students was not Sabina, but Nade. They hadn't expected someone who was merely mid-tier in the advanced class to push Sabina, who competed on a national level, this far.
‘I don’t know about this. Sabina might actually lose…’
Sabina walked, gasping for breath. Her pride was wounded by the fact that she had fought to a draw with an unknown student she had never expected to be a challenge.