Episode 40: “Fiine’s Specialty Magic”
In that instant, Andrea leapt back sharply. She probably meant to buy herself distance to draw a magic circle for a spell.
(The goal of this duel is to make sure no one bothers me like this again. Which means I need to win fast, and overwhelmingly.)
Nodding to herself, Fiine leapt forward. Andrea clearly meant to keep her distance, but Fiine had no intention of letting her.
She launched a kick at Andrea while tracing a magic circle in midair at the same time.
The instant Andrea hurriedly blocked the kick with her wand, a massive water dragon had already formed overhead.
“A d-dragon…?!”
“It’s my specialty — shaping things into forms.”
Swinging her wand down, she sent the water dragon plunging toward Andrea.
Andrea tried desperately to loose a fire spell, but a string of follow-up kicks kept her from finishing the magic circle.
“…!”
Andrea swung her wand down with all her strength.
Dodging it quickly and putting distance between them, Fiine let the water dragon swallow her whole in the same instant.
“Guh, ngh… c-can’t… breathe…!”
She couldn’t afford to let her actually drown. At the right moment, she’d have the dragon spit Andrea back out.
But she had no intention of letting her rest.
(As long as no one’s stopping me, that means I’m still allowed to keep going.)
If she’d been attacking with a fire dragon instead of water, Burkhardt would surely have stopped her by now.
But fire-attribute magic was hard to hold back precisely, which made it poorly suited for a duel.
“Wh— don’t underestimate me…! I’m not losing to someone like you!”
Soaked through, Andrea quickly traced a magic circle on the ground.
Dazzling light burst from the circle, wrapping around her.
A barrier spell. A type of light-attribute magic, meant for defense.
Some barriers blocked physical attacks, some blocked magical attacks, some blocked both — the type varied, and there was no telling which without testing it.
Inside the barrier, Andrea kept taking deep, steady breaths, likely trying to recover her stamina.
Testing it, Fiine threw a rock — it bounced right off. Attacking with the water dragon did nothing either.
It seemed to be the type that blocked both physical and magical attacks.
(Its strength looks pretty high too. So she really does have real skill after all.)
Glancing briefly at Burkhardt, she found him watching her calmly.
(I can’t afford to show him anything pathetic.)
By now, the connection between Fiine and Burkhardt had probably already leaked to most of the students.
Which meant that if Fiine lost, it would embarrass him by extension.
That, above everything else, absolutely had to be avoided.
(Alright…!!)
Time to try the spell she’d been practicing the most lately.
Taking a deep breath, Fiine traced a large magic circle on the ground.
It would take a little time, but Andrea had shut herself inside her barrier too. Fiine’s attacks couldn’t reach her — but neither could Andrea’s reach Fiine.
Fiine could use magic of every attribute, but her true specialty was creation magic.
And what she was about to use this time combined creation magic with earth-attribute magic.
“Golem, summon!!”
Gogogo—!! The ground shook violently, warping and twisting.
The crowd let out a loud shriek.
From the writhing, warped earth, massive earthen golems emerged.
Five of them in total, each roughly ten times Fiine’s own height.
Creation magic had always been the kind of magic Fiine excelled at, for as long as she could remember.
“The barrier’s only anchored to the ground. So all I have to do is flip the whole thing over.”
There were several ways to break a barrier spell directly, but what mattered right now was winning flashily.
So she chose the golems instead.
As Fiine lowered her arm, all five golems began walking toward Andrea.
The ground shook violently with every single step they took.
Andrea, meanwhile, was tracing another magic circle inside her barrier, trying to reinforce it further.
(But I’m not actually aiming for the barrier at all.)
Rather than attacking the barrier directly, the five golems swung both hands down around it, gouging out the ground surrounding it instead.
The earth split open, and Andrea was scooped out of the ground, barrier and all.
“Ha—?!”
Utterly unprepared for an attack from below, one of the golems seized hold of Andrea’s body.
(All that’s left is to crush her, and I win. But…)
She glanced briefly at Burkhardt.
“Match over! Fiine Fellner, let her go.”
“Yes, sir.”
Going any further would have meant crushing Andrea outright.
Burkhardt had likely made the same judgment.
Slowly, she lowered Andrea back down to the ground. Her face had gone completely pale, and she was trembling.
Glancing toward the spectator stands, Fiine was met with a frightened shriek.
“The winner is Fiine Fellner!”
The applause was sparse. But there was someone clapping besides Yuria.
(Who’s that… that blonde girl…?)
A pendant hung at her chest. Fiine thought she recognized her from the entrance ceremony — probably a student from a different class.
Even without knowing her, there was someone who’d watched the duel and given her honest applause for it.
That fact alone brought Fiine a small measure of relief.