༺ Head Sparkling1An expression used by a Korean gamer ‘머독’ on one of his streams, assumed to be describing a bash to the head ༻
The rumors of a duel between the second place and the Second Prince soon spread throughout the school.
“Is that true?”
“It is, I’m telling you. They’re going to start soon!”
“We should go see it, too.”
They say that the best entertainment since old times was watching others fight. The students gathered in different groups at the large field. Some even brought food with them.
The crowd headed towards the large field. A small girl was going against the flow.
It was Freyr, panting as she ran to the school cafeteria.
In one section, there was a dedicated snack corner for satisfying everyone’s snacking needs.
Freyr impatiently pulled out a bronze coin and held it out to the part-timer in charge of the snack corner.
“A large honey butter caramel popcorn! Quicklyyyyyy─!!”
After returning, Freyr sat next to Lotte and munched on her popcorn enthusiastically.
“Can you actually eat in this situation?”
“Mmh.”
“The Prince won’t let her use magic. I think it’s going to be a struggle….”
“It’s fine. Yellow’s going to win this time, anyway!”
It wasn’t possible for a non-mage to beat a mage. Although Prince Klion was only an apprentice who had never fought a single beast, he was still good enough to have been put in the special class. At the very least, his mana capacity would be greater than a regular person’s.
That was what concerned Lotte. She wasn’t sure that Aether, a Golden-Eyed, could win against Klion without mana grass.
Iluka was the one taking this situation most seriously.
Lady Iluka Eliyev. She somehow ended up putting her fate into the hands of a Golden-Eyed girl. Initially, she had intended to protest, but….
─ It’s alright. She’ll win no matter what.
That was what the top student, Vermel, had said. As someone who had defeated her in the practical with overwhelming difference in skill, he felt trustworthy somehow.
For now, Iluka nodded. No matter how you saw it, both her and the Prince were similar in terms of skill level. There were no guarantees at any point in the fight that she’d be able to come out victorious.
On the other hand, she knew nothing about Aether’s combat style. So even though she was anxious, a part of her was anticipating.
How would the Golden-Eyed fight?
“Okay, here are the rules. The time limit will be ten minutes. If neither side forfeits or becomes unable to fight within that time, we’ll declare it a tie. Of course, be careful not to go beyond the ring so as to not endanger the other students.”
A Campus Duel took place within the confines of the law. A combat mage with the title of a teacher watched the fight and made a call. They could even intervene in the middle of the duel if necessary, since no one should die from this.
However.
“Don’t worry even if you happen to get hurt. The school’s insurance will cover most injuries.”
If it’s MIss Heerlein, she wouldn’t intervene for the most part.
Although it was a duel, it wasn’t an actual battle. After receiving damage-reduction magic, the two of them stepped into the ring.
“You’re quite irresponsible. I didn’t think you’d take the fate of Lady Eliyev as a guarantee for this one duel. Are the Golden-Eyed people usually like this?”
“Who knows, asshole.”
“I’ll make that face blush soon enough. Prepare yourself.”
Taking out his staff from the subspace, Klion pointed the tip at Aether. As well, Aether twirled the staff she already prepared and checked its weight.
Aether didn’t tremble. She warmed up leisurely even in a situation where she couldn’t use mana grass.
In fact, she was now capable of using magic without smoking mana grass.
─ The Magical Guide for Physicists Adventuring Through a Fantasy World(Intermediate)
The grimoire that the girl carried was on ‘Invisibility Mode’.
Hence, no one besides Aether could notice the grimoire’s existence. The same went for Prince Klion. Including him, not a single person in the large field knew that Aether was cheating.
[The amount of mana currently charged is 102 sieverts.]
It was a function that was added when Aether’s hardcover was upgraded to intermediate. Thanks to this function, Aether could use between one to three techniques a day.
“You wouldn’t get hurt if you gave up now and became my servant.”
“Heh.”
The girl gave a crooked smile and responded to Klion’s provoking.
“I’ll tear you apart and debone you like a fish.”
**
Tension was in the air.
“Both sides get ready. We’ll start in three seconds!”
Three, two, one.
“Begin!”
Dash─!!
The moment Heerlein dropped the flag, the girl kicked forward. She covered ten meters within a second.
Klion was momentarily stunned. It was completely different from what he expected.
“Is that speed possible for a human?”
Freyr answered Lotte’s question.
“That’s martial arts.”
“Martial arts? The one used by the beastkin?”
“Yup. This isn’t something that’s well-known but historically, martial arts was first invented by the Golden-Eyed. The beastkin borrowed it later for their own use.”
Since they were without mana, they trained their bodies. Despite their appearance, the Golden-Eyed were born with heightened physical abilities. They were the definition of physical prowess and intellectual excellence.
Without the use of magic, they’d need to have a good brain and body to make it balanced. If that hadn’t been the case, that would mean the Goddess was discriminating against her own creation. The merciful and just creator of this world couldn’t possibly be biased.
Her beast-bashing skills from those days in the back mountain haven’t gone anywhere. They were inelegant moves but it was sufficient.
Aether recalled the times when she had still been a slave.
─ Understand? You can’t think that you’re up against a beast in a man-to-man combat.
That had been Miss Heerlein’s advice, which had definitely helped during the fight with Lotte.
But against Klion, it wouldn’t work.
The sin of demanding her withdrawal to make her his mistress. The sin of framing a classmate and putting a strain on her relationship with her family. The sin of being blinded by sexual desires and thereby losing the trust of those who were to assist him in the future.
In Aether’s eyes, the Prince before her didn’t look human.
Thus, he needed to be made into a human.
She bent forward at the waist and made herself into a spindle-shape to minimize air resistance. Aether shifted diagonally and swung the steel staff without delay.
“You bitch!”
He needed to recite an incantation. Klion put as much distance between them and manifested Water Bullets, bubbles formed by water drops gathered from the atmosphere. The bubbles then became a stream with high water pressure.
With a roar, numerous water jets shot forward in an attempt to stop the charging figure, their movement like a writhing sea dragon.
Aether dodged every one of them. The ground became muddy as it absorbed the moisture, but even that had no impact on the girl’s speed.
The girl knocked aside one of the jets headed her way with the end of her staff and diverted it to the ground.
That stream of water landed at Klion’s feet not even a meter away. The dirt flew like a shot from the impact and blocked Klion’s vision.
“Uuugh!”
She hadn’t simply knocked away something that could’ve been avoided. It was a calculated move.
“Eightfold Way.”
In the next moment, Klion felt an inexplicable fluctuation of mana.
A mana vector field, flowing in from the outside rather than his own body. The girl was undoubtedly the source of these flowing elements.
Was she using mana grass?
No.
Her right hand. She was holding something in her right hand that couldn’t be seen and was gathering mana.
There wasn’t time to be watching. Instinctively sensing danger, Klion hurriedly cast the next spell.
Klion was a Caster just like Lotte.
He could stock up on incantations but there was no good way to respond against an opponent approaching for close combat. Rather, Lotte was the outlier for being talented at melee as well. A normal Caster became powerless if they allowed the opponent access.
Three minutes passed. They were out of the preliminary. Until now, Aether had only been testing to see if Klion possessed the same countermeasures as Lotte. Now that she knew he didn’t, she ran full speed with a bloodthirsty grin.
“Fucking hell!”
The earlier movement didn’t even compare. As Aether ran, the ground sank with the traces of her steps. It was leg power that shouldn’t have been possible with that frail body, as if her appearance was deceiving of her actual weight.
Klion gathered every drop of mana within his body and unleashed the strongest magic that he was capable of.
A tidal wave arose. Salty ocean water appeared in the middle of the land.
Emerging as if pulled in by tidal energy, the tsunami turned the large field into a beach. The mass of electrolytes greedily devoured the land as it headed for the girl.
Exclamations exploded from the audience.
The tidal wave was unavoidable. One either had to go up or dig a hole and hide in it to escape the sweeping plane of ocean waters. Aether didn’t have such abilities.
A frontal hit would knock her back. She’d roll in the dirt along with foamy salt water. The body of a girl who just passed twenty wouldn’t be able to withstand such a wave.
If she got hit, it would be a sure concussion.
Lotte and Iluka both chewed on their lips. And even now, Freyr munched on her popcorn with a casual face.
Heerlein wondered if she should step in but in the end, decided against intervening.
As long as it isn’t instantaneous death. There’s that person in the infirmary, anyway.
Facing a two-story tidal wave, Aether extended her staff with both hands in order to maximize rotational inertia.
She felt the abundant mana within her body.
It was time to use the other skill slot that hadn’t been shown in the combat with Lotte as there hadn’t been the need.
The girl shouted as she swung the staff.
Eightfold Way – Second Form.
“Avalanche Breakdown─!!”
With that swing, the two-story tidal wave split in half.
The sliced wave changed its vector and headed back towards Klion.
An electric current began running through the wave. The water molecules heated quickly from the energy they received. The electrons composing the H2O fell away one by one and swam all the way to Klion.
It wasn’t the flow of magic elements.
But an avalanche of electrons.
The girl swam through the electric water from one end of the ring to the other.
“Uu, uwaaaaaaaagh!!”
Magic wasn’t working. He couldn’t use any other magic. With every attempt, the circuit within Klion’s body felt like it was burning.
His eyes blurred. It was a sensation that he had experienced before.
That early morning, when his stomach had been pierced by a mysterious blade in front of the fountain. It was similar to that.
With terrifying force, Aether slammed down the staff towards him.
Klion’s premonition told him that he was fucked.
“Wait! I-I’ve lost! I forf……!!”
Thwaaaaaack─!!
