Moonlit Assault 2
Something like a gear second erupted from the guy, who was laughing maniacally as if possessed, unleashing an even fiercer tangle of chaotic mana.
No way, was that some kind of second gear?
"Kuhahaha! To think you'd force even this power out of me, Luca. How fun—you're just a baby who hasn't even formed her circuits yet."
"...What the hell did a loser who barely scraped into the Imperial Academy just say to me?☆"
Were they teaching provocation techniques in the entrance exams or something? Why did everyone from the academy know exactly how to get under my skin? It was pissing me off.
But separate from the boiling rage, once I landed on the ground, dizziness hit me hard.
No matter that I was the eldest daughter of the Ascentrius family, no matter how elite my bloodline. The high fever from my childhood illness and my still-underdeveloped body meant my mana reserves were lacking.
Ugh... Had that casual flight spell during my "walk" been more taxing than I thought?
I hated touching filth, but dust had inevitably smeared onto my robe hem. The stench that had been lingering grew stronger, stabbing my nostrils like needles.
So this was the foul odor leaking from that Chaos.
"Die. All you highborn bitches need to drop dead. You're just a sacrifice for our cause."
That filthy voice dripped with venom.
But here's the fun part. A penalty match like this.
Ever since I learned about this world's magic, I'd been having a blast. It felt like a quiz showdown fought with brainpower.
I gripped my Platinum Wand tighter.
The possessed freshman swung his obsidian wand, summoning three strands of chaotic magic.
Chaotic mana waves with the same homing function as the ones he'd fired off earlier.
To dodge the incoming trio, I lightly kicked off the ground. With flight active on me, I calculated trajectories to evade maximally, then began applying Fourier Transforms to each one individually.
"Slippery little rat, scurrying away like that. Or are you a bat pup?"
What kind of cliché villain was this? That scraping voice of his was seriously grating.
I mean... there was some weird power in his voice that clawed at my mind.
It disrupted my focus on the reverse calculations.
His filthy mana grazed my shoulder blade, and I planted my foot on a tree trunk to quickly right myself.
"Pfft, what an idiot☆"
"You hop around like a flying squirrel! Ah, sorry your bloodline's so trash you're worse than bugs! So the one who looked down on me? Die right here!"
His leaps in logic weren't worth dignifying.
But... was my mana this low already?
Uh oh, starting to feel the shortage...
One strand of chaos barely skimmed my robe hem, sizzling and burning with a crackle.
I hastily altered the flight spell's function to veer away, but if it'd caught my legs, that would've been real trouble.
This razor-edge thrill... I love it☆
"Calculations complete~☆ See? Super easy. Pathetic~"
I flipped in midair, righting my posture. At the same time, I swung the Platinum Wand to nullify one.
The loser clutched his head in agony, screaming bloody murder.
"Gaaahhh! You fucking bitch."
"Fucking? Sorry, no dick here☆ Can't use it anymore? Premature ejaculation?☆ Pffft."
"You're gonna die right here. Was gonna turn you into a vengeful spirit, but now I gotta defile you personally, you trash bitch."
The two chaos strands chasing my tail crossed paths, then looped front and back to close in.
Time to kick off and fly again.
This time, as I ascended, I drew mana from the imaginary realm symbolizing the soul.
But could this loser see that mana thread of mine? He swung his obsidian wand, blasting energy that canceled out the mana I'd pulled.
The mana I'd drawn was a tiny amount, but it resonated on its own, incorporating natural mana to grow stronger—an imaginary formula.
But his intense outpouring overwhelmed it, canceling the spell. The result...
Boom—
What happened? If I weren't so low on stamina, I could've seen it.
Mana and stamina depletion—my breathing grew ragged, vision blurring.
"Aristocrat brat born with good blood."
"Right now, you're losing to that skill-less noble."
"Doesn't matter, you're still a rat with bloodline. Hurry up and croak!"
"Hehe—☆ That's all you got?"
I fired off the Fourier transform results for the remaining homing spell.
As a result, the loser clutched his head again and collapsed on the spot.
"Gaaahhh!"
"Pathetic~☆"
Just moments ago, he'd been radiating world-conquering ferocity, but now it was weakening.
I didn't know what that mixed, ambiguous formula pouring from him was, but removing those bizarre homing missiles clearly drained his power. No doubt about it.
"You fucking bitch!!"
The loser glared with bulging eyes.
Call that killing intent? Still no match for me~
The obsidian wand sliced through the air again. Black miasma spewed from its tip.
"Ngh...?"
The unexpected surge threw me off for a second.
If I kept my flight trajectory, I'd hit the black miasma; even a slight deviation, and the trailing homing shots would nail me.
My mana was scraping bottom now.
But this was all part of my plan.
So—
"Flight cancel."
No frantic mana burn for trajectory changes, nor matching his predicted path.
The mana sustaining my midair hover vanished abruptly, and I plummeted to the ground like a ragdoll.
He grinned maniacally, as if celebrating victory.
"Good bloodline or not, you're just a kid? Cocky little shit. Cocky noble. All you lot need to vanish from this world. For an equal society."
As I fell, it hit me... a clean win looked tough.
I crashed to the ground and tumbled way more than expected.
It hurt... equally as much, and
"Ugh... Ack!"
This hurts way more than I thought!
And... this filthy mud on my pristine robe feels disgusting.
You... are dead.
Finally, the last pursuing chaos lunged to finish me.
I traced a general solution magic circle mid-fall and fired it off.
"Kuh... You're dying anyway. Good bloodline or not, get absorbed by me."
The loser staggered toward me like he'd already won.
That's why I summoned mana from the imaginary realm again.
All my midair maneuvers had been to complete a different illusory formula—a perfect circle manifesting Euler's formula as a magic circle, converging back to the origin.
The loser closed in faster and faster.
The nauseating stench from him turned my stomach.
He finally reached me, raising the obsidian wand's sharp base for a final strike at my chest.
Then, the invisible threads visible only to me converged perfectly at the origin.
Like a net I'd cast drawing into a single point.
"...Guh!"
The magic circles converged on where his brainstem should be.
Struck by imaginary space magic, he staggered and collapsed.
Space warped simultaneously.
Blood sprayed from the freshman's ears, eyes, nose, and mouth.
Luckily, not on me... but the lost Chaos possessing him, drawn into an impossible imaginary space, began fully integrating into this world's formulas.
And me... probably because I ignored my mana shortage.
I thought I'd trained pretty hard on magic.
Blood seeped from my mouth.
Hope my growth plates don't get damaged... Vision's blurring.
The massive mana surge from the Imperial Academy forest was felt by everyone.
Some thought it was an earthquake-like force of nature; others whispered that archmages must be sparring in the woods.
But all agreed it radiated outward like waves from a single origin point.
And rushing to that signal was... purely by coincidence, a single male student heading from the library back to the dorms.
Fifth-year, wearing a White Badge: Gail Le Sorden Ksharanthelis.
"Hey, cocky brat."
He poked her plump cheeks—they were out cold.
Had she fought that boy over there? She looked so cute just passed out like this...
—What the hell am I even thinking?
Gail chuckled at his own ridiculous thought and checked on the brat.
Seemed like only minor abrasions, but she'd scraped every last drop of her mana dry.
And... the mana wafting from the similarly unconscious boy over there resembled the 'Chaos' energy that had once tried to sponsor him.
"We'll use human desires as hosts to topple this empire. Words from the history books."
Who the hell even thinks like that?
But this foul stench was unmistakably Chaos's doing.
They were the bastards he'd love to tear apart.
Hadn't Chaos killed his great-grandfather?
He despised them.
But... first things first, this brat. She'd bragged about a ranking match tomorrow, but like this, it wouldn't happen.
How was he supposed to restore his honor by beating a near-dead kid?
"Haa... Useless brat."
Gail fired a distress signal flare into the sky.
Soon, someone arrived. Luckily, Professor Oslo, on night patrol.
"Aigoo... Student, good thing you're safe. Any injuries?"
"More than that, these freshmen are the issue."
"Oh dear... I'll carry this boy. Let's head to the infirmary."
And he hoisted the boy first.
Uh... guess I have to carry this brat myself.
No helping it.