Selection Match? Going All Out (7)
Thud. The little girl carrying starlight walks toward me. My skin tingles for the first time in ages. I haven't felt this sensation in a long while. Ever since my body broke down, my senses have been dulled and hazy, twenty-four hours a day. Even now, it shouldn't be any different.
“...This is no joke.”
She must have been born with an extraordinary talent for being a magical girl. The mana radiating from the little girl is so vast that I have no choice but to admit it. Waves. A tidal wave of mana, tall as a building, surges upward with her at its center. Yet it isn't just pouring out aimlessly.
“Multicast. Five Fireballs. Five Ice Spears.”
A castle is built according to a set of rules. A fortress of starlight rises from the ground. Magic circles adorn every part of the castle, and a cannon stands at each gate. The ten completed cannons swivel toward me, waiting only for the signal. At Starlight's voice, they fire.
“Fire!”
The output is on a completely different level from the steam explosion she showed earlier. This is—
“Huuup. Haaa.”
I draw the crisp mana drifting in the air deep into my lungs. My head clears. So the partial return of my senses wasn't just my imagination. With sharper thoughts, I immediately calculate the impact points and predict the arrival times. I can't control everything, so I'll have to let a few slip through.
Kwaaaang! Ice meets fireballs and instantly vaporizes, releasing tremendous energy that sweeps across the training ground. I ignore the blurring vision. I've already memorized the landing points of the follow-up attacks. Dodge, deflect. Keep the blast energy from hitting me as much as possible. What's left are two ice spears striking from behind and fireballs falling from the sky with a time delay. From here, it's a frontal breakthrough.
“Stop Signal.”
“Huh?”
At those words, the magic approaching me freezes in place. But my magic doesn't end there.
“Action Handler, assign to Signal Handler.”
Starlight's magic circle begins to change, transforming into patterns she herself doesn't recognize—yet symbols that are all too familiar to me. Startled by the unexpected situation, the little girl tries to revert the circle, but—
“Continue Signal.”
The magic is already moving exactly as I want. The halted spells awaken and begin acting according to the method I defined. Two ice spears merge into one massive chunk. The fireballs orbit the ice like satellites. Halting and sustaining activation through signals. Theft of magic authority. Defining the action handler to be executed upon receiving the signal. The phenomenon looks simple, but it's a combination of three distinct concepts.
“I haven't taught you about security concepts yet. Sorry.”
Seeing her magic stolen, the little girl lets out a hollow laugh.
“...Isn't this way too cheating, unnie?”
“Don't worry. You'll be able to do it soon too.”
The solid ice chunk accelerates toward Starlight. At the same time, the fireballs' orbital speed increases. Their orbits tighten. The attack, now resembling a long comet, is dodged with ease by the little girl. Unfortunately for her, she's still within range. The rapidly contracting and spinning fireballs collide with the central ice spear, triggering an explosion far stronger than before.
“Kyaaah!”
The little girl is flung away by the shockwave. She must have used a shield spell, so she isn't hurt. The turn passes to me. I squeeze out the mana Starlight scattered across the field like patchwork, then release a small amount of the mana stored in my body. The magic circle prioritizes efficiency. Though intricately woven, it would look like art to anyone who doesn't understand it. A custom-attribute magic created by redefining the structure of the lightning element—Lightning Smash.
The current of electricity shoots out like light and exerts physical force the moment it reaches Starlight. The little girl, who had been regaining her posture to stand, deploys shields around herself in preparation. But the magic, no ordinary lightning, hammers the shields hard. Panicking, she quickly layers multiple shields around herself.
“What attribute is this supposed to be? It looks like lightning, but it has physical impact.”
“It's an application of attributes. You just redefine the structure inside the Kernel.”
“That's possible?”
“If it weren't, would I be using it right now?”
Electricity wrapped around the shields strikes them. I can't break them completely, but I should be able to create an opening. I clench my hand in the air, gathering, spinning, and compressing mana. A variation of the simplest magic, Magic Missile. The quickly cast spell shoots from my hand and succeeds in shattering Starlight's weakened shield.
At that moment—
“I won't go down that easily!”
After smashing the mana clump that pierced her shield with a swing of her star-shaped staff, the little girl charges at me. Accelerate magic and mana concentration. Sliding forward, she swings upward from below. I raise my staff ahead of her trajectory and deflect the blow. The staff, now accelerated even further by my guard, spins once and comes at me horizontally. Starlight's staff arrives faster than my hand, which had been raised overhead for defense, can come down. I release the weapon in my right hand. The falling staff is caught by my left hand below, successfully blocking the little girl's attack.
Kaang! Because I blocked in a hurry, I stagger. The impact sends my left hand spinning outward. Yet Starlight's acceleration shows no sign of stopping. A magic martial art. A type of staff-based close-combat technique. The more attacks land, the more rotation accelerates. I can't let myself get caught in her rhythm. I immediately push off the ground and take to the sky. If my judgment had been even a moment slower, I'd have been hit. Watching the soles of my shoes get grazed by the pointed blades, I read the little girl's next move. She readjusts her posture in midair and falls like a spinning wheel. I gather mana, tense my core, then strike downward. Jin of the Eight Trigrams—Falling Return. Of course, the little girl doesn't stay still either. She swings her staff wide. The starlight-filled staff completes a full circle and arrives just as my vertical lightning circle and her horizontal starlight circle collide.
“I wanted this. Fighting like this with you, unnie!”
Even as she shouts with effort, the little girl can't hide her joy. I ask her,
“Happy?”
“Yeah! I'm so happy right now. Because I get to show you everything I have. And because you're giving it your all against me too!”
Lightning destroys starlight, and starlight bursts lightning apart. A deadlock of power. The two balanced forces show no sign of breaking. A tug-of-war where the rope barely moves is extremely disadvantageous for me. My body isn't suited for prolonged fights. I can't just wait for my mana to run out. So the choice I make is—magic. More magic. Though I quickly prepare an instant-cast spell, Starlight seems to have had the same idea. My magic circle construction is faster, but the increased stroke count from minimizing mana slows the activation time. In the end, our spells activate at the same speed. The resulting clash of magic devouring each other forces us to tear our weapons apart.
“Khh!”
As I roll across the training ground floor, I think: even with the high mana density here, I've pushed myself too far. I've used too much mana. Feeling drained and dizzy, I brace against the drowsiness creeping up my spine.
“Not yet. There's still more.”
After chanting the words to my own laziness, I look ahead. While I catch my breath, Starlight is chanting something. Wondering what it is—
—The light illuminating this place surpasses pitch-black and becomes a single great dream.
A magic circle I've never seen before rises behind Starlight's back.
—Having endured the long night, it reveals itself here.
All the mana in the air resonates with the little girl's song, gathering starlight.
—It will prove its brilliance to the stars floating in the night sky.
It's coming. The little girl's trump card. Mana carrying starlight wraps around her body, condensing and coalescing until it gains considerable density. Before I know it, a sun begins to rise behind her.
“So that's your Unique Magic.”
I knew it instinctively. Unique Magic.
“Sunrise.”
The little girl must have wanted to show me this magic no matter what. Now I understand why she'd been so excited since before the match.
“Everyone, stick to the training ground walls! The barrier won't hold!”
Sensing the danger from Starlight's Unique Magic, the teacher's shout rings out from behind, and the training ground's barrier immediately strengthens. Thanks to the reinforced barrier, it can barely withstand the little girl's magic. With nothing left to hold her back, Starlight pours even more mana into it. The sun rises, and sunlight wells up from the ground. Though still faint, the sight is magnificent. For a moment I hesitate—should I just lose here?—but my hands move honestly, and my body calculates out of habit. A magic I've grown sick of using manifests in the world through my Unique Weapon as its medium.
“Halo System, on.”
A transparent ring appears above my head. It begins rotating, stealing some of the sunlight, then vibrates. Once preparations are complete, I spin my staff toward the sky. The ring rings out more intensely, greedily devouring the newly risen sunlight. It steals and imprisons all light and mana.
“The sun......”
Everything is sucked into the Halo. Starlight's Unique Magic gradually loses its light, then extinguishes in an instant like an unplugged incandescent bulb.
“As expected... you're amazing, unnie......”
Having exhausted her strength, the little girl collapses onto the training ground. With no mana left to maintain her transformation, she reverts to an ordinary girl.
“......Was it okay?”
Panting heavily, the little girl asks. I answer,
“It was the best.”