#031 Sparring
#031 Sparring
Morning came.
Originally, I had planned to help Lucius with his physical training in the morning, but today that wasn't possible.
"Lucius, watch closely. How to deal with an archer."
"Understood, Master."
Because there was an enemy to bring down.
"Are you ready, Rosemas?"
"Yes. I will definitely defeat you."
Look at that cheeky elf.
'Her eyes alone are damn terrifying.'
Back in the day, elves who didn't know their place and acted up were called "skull-crackers" because people would crack their skulls open first—and that was exactly what she looked like.
At a glance, she was a High Elf who'd only just reached adulthood by elf standards, and the way she arrogantly tried to beat me was the very picture of a skull-cracker.
"Hmm...."
A High Elf.
Young in age.
Smitten with a man.
Yet highly skilled.
From a rough look, she seemed to have trained in Spirit Arts as well.
Two elves hovering around her as escorts, fussing over her.
'Looks like some elder's daughter.'
In human terms, someone like a kingdom's princess or an imperial grand duke's daughter?
Probably around that level, I'd guess.
"Master, that...."
"It's fine, it's fine."
Lucius looked at me with considerably worried eyes.
He was surely worried that my mana would run out while I faced Rosemas.
"I know my own body best. You don't need to worry about mana at all. Dealing with that reckless elf won't exactly take much mana...."
I lightly patted Lucius's arm to encourage him.
"If I run short on mana, you'll bring me Mana Stones, won't you? I can count on that, right?"
"...Yes, of course. Even if I have to rob a Mana Stone bank, I will bring you Mana Stones, Master."
"The will alone is appreciated. You little rascal."
What a commendable pushover.
After receiving Lucius's encouragement, I stood in front of Rosemas.
"......."
Rosemas glared at me with deeply sunken eyes, radiating killing intent as if she might kill me.
The two elves trailing behind Rosemas were talking to each other, worrying not about Rosemas but about me. As if they were worried I might lose.
'Oh?'
There was a limit to jumping to conclusions—the sheer nerve.
"I said I would test your strength."
"Yes, you did."
"As you know, our journey will not be an ordinarily difficult one. Simply wishing to become companions doesn't mean we can accept just anyone as a companion. You understand that, yes?"
"Yes."
Rosemas released mana and produced a silver bow.
"So I will prove myself."
"Good. The rules are simple."
Simple conditions that Rosemas could understand all too easily.
"You just have to fight me and win. There are no rules. You can use every means and method available to defeat me. Really easy, right?"
This place was an empty lot near the inn.
The lack of trees or cover was disadvantageous for an elf archer, but the same applied to me as a mage.
"How about it?"
"...Can I really use anything?"
"Of course."
"...You won't regret it, will you? No take-backs?"
Rosemas leaned her upper body forward with a confident smile.
She looked ready to draw her bowstring and loose the wind as an arrow at any moment, while I tied my hair back into a single tail for easier fighting.
"But since fighting bare-handed would be awkward, I'll just bring one weapon."
"A weapon...?"
"Yes, this."
I received a broom borrowed from the innkeeper, handed to me by Lucius.
"A witch's broom...?"
"It's just an inn broom. For sweeping the yard."
The broom's handle was as long as my current body height.
It was my weapon, borrowed after leaving a silver coin in advance and agreeing to pay compensation if I happened to break it.
"...Are you insulting me?"
"Whether it's an insult or not, you'll find out once we fight."
It was always like this.
I had only chosen a weapon suited to the opponent's level, yet she took it as an insult.
'This is why brats are brats.'
If that was her level, she ought to accept it humbly.
"I'll leave the start of the match to Lucius. The moment Lucius claps his hands, the sparring begins. Understood?"
"No funny business."
"Good grief.... If you're that bothered, you and Lucius can coordinate the timing together."
"Master?"
Lucius, standing in the middle, was flustered, but Rosemas trotted over to Lucius and whispered in his ear.
I couldn't hear it, but it didn't particularly matter.
'Come at me as dirty as you like.'
A fair and square duel.
That sort of thing both did and didn't exist in the Demon King Army.
-On one, two, three, you shoot. Got it?
-One-two-shoot!
-On one, two, three, you shoot. Got it?
-One-shoot!
-One-
-Shoot!
Truly, there were many Demonfolk.
Having beaten all of them, I was confident I could win no matter what tricks were pulled.
"Well then...."
Lucius sent me a glance, but I closed my eyes and gripped the broom long.
With the bristle end behind me, the hard tip pointed toward the ground.
I turned my stance slightly sideways and bent my front knee a little.
"......."
This was not a mage's stance.
If Rosemas could discern my intent from this stance alone, then she'd pass the first test.
"One."
Lucius began counting the beat.
"Two."
At the same time, a breeze brushed past the back of my neck and moved forward.
I felt wind gathering toward Rosemas's bow.
"Three—"
As if telling me to know the timing by sound, Lucius deliberately raised his voice on three.
Clap—!
At the exact moment that would have been four, he clapped his hands.
And Rosemas drew her bowstring the instant she clapped.
An attack aimed precisely at my forehead.
There was faint killing intent in it, but she wasn't shooting to kill.
It was a blunt-tipped wind arrow—if it hit, it would hurt like being punched in the face.
So.
'I'll intercept it.'
Whish—
I lightly swung the broom.
"Eh...?"
And Rosemas's wind arrow shattered into pieces.
"Is that all?"
"Wh-what did you just...?"
"Can't keep up?"
I walked slowly forward.
Rosemas suppressed her fluster with effort and leaped backward with a composed face, aiming her bow at me.
SWISH!
Another wind arrow flew at me.
Still, she wasn't entirely without skill—the wind arrow didn't fly in a straight line but curved in an arc as it came.
Then I just had to swing the broom toward that spot.
Crash!
The lightly swung tip of the broom precisely burst the wind arrow.
"H-how...?"
"What, is deflecting an arrow somehow different in principle just because an elf shot it? It's spear technique."
"Spear... technique?"
"Yeah. Is it strange for a mage to use a spear?"
Because I'm a mage, I have to be familiar with spears.
If the top of a staff gets cut off, all you're left holding is one long stick.
"Back in my day, if a mage couldn't handle close combat properly, they couldn't even call themselves a mage anywhere."
That was true.
Five hundred years ago, mages fighting the Demon King Army would intercept the enemy troops charging them before their spells manifested—not with magic, but by driving spearpoints into them directly.
The Crimson Mage was the same.
Although the origin of the spear technique I use is different, the fundamentals of spear technique are all much the same.
Swing, and thrust.
Very quickly.
'Haste.'
Fast enough that the opponent won't notice!
Thud——!!
I kicked lightly off the ground and accelerated forward.
Spinning the broom, I burst the wind arrow that a startled Rosemas had loosed, then aimed the broom's tip precisely at Rosemas's chest.
"It's over."
With the bristle end.
With the tip of the bristles woven from straw, I lightly tapped Rosemas's solar plexus with little forward pokes.
"......."
Rosemas seemed unable to believe her defeat.
But her arrows had burst no fewer than three times, and she had allowed an attack.
If this had been real combat rather than sparring?
A spearhead would have lodged in her solar plexus and that would be the end.
"I-I can't lose...."
Suddenly.
Rosemas began to tear up.
"I can't... lose...."
"You pass."
"...Eh?"
"I said you pass."
"Master!"
Lucius raised his voice and approached from behind.
"No, what do you suddenly mean by that? If she passes, are you saying you'll take her along as a companion?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because I see potential. Since when did I judge people by skill?"
"Ugh...."
Lucius shut his mouth tight.
"Honestly, even objectively speaking, Rosemas is stronger than you. If you fought Rosemas, you'd fight ten times and lose ten times."
"Is she that strong?"
"Yeah. If you fought a hundred times... you might win the last one."
Rosemas was strong and talented.
But Lucius was even more talented than she was.
If the distance she's already ahead amounts to ninety-nine fights, then catching up to that would be the hundredth fight.
"Hm-hm. Rosemas."
I extended my hand to Rosemas.
"Our journey may be hard and grueling from here on. There will be times when we sleep rough, times when we sleep in dungeons, times when we collapse from exhaustion and want to throw everything away. Even so, is that all right?"
"......Yes."
Rosemas was burning with fighting spirit.
"...I will become stronger. And someday, I will defeat you."
"That would be nice."
Rosemas clasped my hand.
It was a signal that she accepted defeat, and I subtly played it up to the two behind me who were glaring at me.
Honestly, the sparring itself didn't matter either way.
It was simply a plan to shake off those annoying flies—especially the one fussing about—after I sensed other elves sticking close to this elf like escorts.
"Then we can treat each other comfortably from now on, right?"
"...Yes."
"Good. I look forward to working with you."
Whatever else, there was no way I could keep using formal speech forever.
"Then... please tell me. How did you break through my arrows?"
"Hm?"
"My wind arrows... aren't ordinary arrows. How did you do that... with a broom?"
"Ah, this?"
It was simple.
"I put a shield on the point of impact."
"...Pardon?"
"I infused mana only where the wind arrow touched, created a barrier, and shaped the barrier like this—angular. Like a cone."
I placed my finger at the tip of a cone and folded it.
"Then you just deploy the barrier at an angle that breaks the mana cohesion forming the wind arrow. Done. How about it? Really easy, right?"
"But... the speed...."
"I did it while watching. How easy is that?"
I picked up the broom.
"You watch the incoming arrow and intercept it. Even the goblins at the entrance to the Demon King's castle can do that like it's nothing."
Wasn't this basic?
"What? You can't?"
Honestly, I couldn't understand.