Chapter 68

My weakness was clear.

Stats focused entirely on magic and ridiculously low durability.

Naturally, Barka rushed in to close the distance.

It wasn’t forbidden for those in the Magic Division to attack their opponents directly, so physically overpowering me would be the correct answer.

However, I was also aware of my weakness and had thought of countermeasures.

The wind formed into a disc large enough for a person to stand on.

When I stepped on it, it wobbled slightly and I almost fell off.

But, the disc cut through the air leisurely and rose into the sky, as if riding an elevator.

[Student Theo! Moving out of attack range will be considered as having no intention to attack, and will be recognized as an out-of-bounds loss!]

At Kalen’s warning, I lowered my altitude a little.

However, I secured a safe distance of about 7 meters.

As I beckoned with my finger from the sky in a taunting manner, Barka gnashed his teeth.

A hydrangea of water bloomed from Barka’s fingertips.

The delicate petals fluttered in the air and fell one by one, but the petals did not reach the ground.

Instead, they drew a blue trajectory and soared towards the sky.

The petals, now arrows, cut through the air coldly and flew towards me in a straight line.

Water cannot overcome earth! I tried to block the water arrows with an equal number of earth circles, but the result was the complete opposite. The water arrows were not swallowed, but stubbornly pushed through the earth and flew at me quickly.

“Ugh!”

I moved the wind disc to dodge, but they still managed to graze my cloak.

“This is 6th place?”

If we had fought seriously in the preliminaries, would I have been able to win?

I barely destroyed them by applying impact with an earth circle. The moment the final arrow was hit and caused an explosive impact, the relentless pursuit finally ended.

Barka, who had been concentrating on controlling the arrows, clicked his tongue as if it were a pity.

Was this Barka’s trump card? No, I don’t think so.

As if to prove that prediction, the next magic flew in while the water arrows were still coming.

…This is crazy!

Just as I somehow finished off the water arrows, the next thing is ice arrows?!

[Barka! He’s using a composite element magic!]

The ice glittered, reflecting the sunlight.

That sight alone was beautiful enough to momentarily captivate me.

My fingertips tingled with a sense of danger.

But, strangely, a smile lingered on my lips.

[Theo! A desperate crisis!]

“It’s not that desperate!”

Just how many fire circles can I create?

I took a short breath and then used my mana. Exactly 100 fire circles floated in the sky.

Perhaps because it was the first time I had used so much magic at once, I felt a slight dampness under my nose.

However, the fire circles that filled the sky were a spectacle in another sense.

The huge wall made of fire circles finally collided with the approaching ice arrows.

The ice instantly melted in the fiery smoke, and a glittering rainbow spread across the sky.

The sight itself was enchanting, but the heat of the fire completely vaporized even the water droplets, and it disappeared like a momentary hallucination.

“To think he’d use up all 100 fire circles.”

After wiping away the little bit of blood with the hem of my clothes, I looked at Barka, who was immediately preparing his next magic.

Either way, I wanted to avoid the pace of the battle shifting to Barka’s side.

Even if they are artificially created by magic, elements basically follow their properties.

That means there’s no real difference between water made of mana and the water in a valley or river.

In other words, I can fully utilize the properties of nature that I know.

One tactic, one that could definitively win, came to mind.

“It’s a really crazy thing to do, but should I give it a try?”

Well, it’s not the first or second time I’ve done something crazy.

For now, ‘guiding’ it somehow is the first priority.

Shall I try going all out for once?

* * *

The first thing Theo used was earth magic.

The training ground was also made of earth, and among the things that make up earth are iron and iron powder.

If I extract only the iron and iron powder from it and heat it slightly with a fire circle—!

“Keuk!”

Shackles shot up from the ground and instantly bound Barka’s hands.

[Theo! He has created shackles using earth element magic! Barka, is this a crisis?!]

The shackles that held him were only temporarily created using the iron powder mixed in the training ground’s soil.

No matter how thick the rings around his wrists were made, the chains that shot out from the ground were so thin that they broke easily with just a little force.

“I was on guard, but it’s nothing special.”

Barka smirked.

Since he had broken the chains, he probably didn’t need to worry about the cuffs themselves.

Having made his judgment, Barka re-gripped his wand and used the next magic he had been preparing.

I should start by pulling him down!

Barka’s eyes glinted, and chains made of ice flew straight towards Theo.

“Wak!”

Theo, moving the wind, narrowly dodged the chains and glared at Barka.

Was this him paying me back exactly what I did to him?

It seemed it would be difficult to easily melt it away with a fire circle.

Theo flew through the air spectacularly, dodging the chains that were tracking him.

His cloak fluttered with his movements.

[Theo, he’s dodging like a mouse!!]

Geez, who are you calling a mouse!

Theo was annoyed, but since he was pouring all his concentration into using magic, he could only move his lips.

Just dodging like this is rather boring.

Barka, seeming to grow impatient, added one more ice chain.

He was a little dizzy from the excessive use of magic, but he would quickly catch him and make him fall.

“Tsk!”

Barka was particularly bad at handling wind magic.

In the first place, wind and flight were separate magics. It was strange to use wind magic to fly.

And flying so freely like that was something even an expert skilled in flight magic would find difficult!

“Stop following me!”

Theo finally attacked the ice chains with a fire circle, making them flinch a little.

But, Barka was faster than that.

Barka quickly scattered the ice like water droplets and then froze them again in that state to form chains.

That fact coiled around Theo’s left hand as fast as lightning and held it firmly.

Theo, surprised, tried to get away quickly, but the chains wouldn’t let go of his hand.

“Keuk!”

To get away, he could use the extreme method of cutting off his arm.

If Professor Artemia was there, she could reattach a separated arm and hand.

But, his judgment was too slow.

The gravitational pull was too strong for Theo’s weak strength to resist.

It was the fall of someone who had been soaring through the sky.

“This is crazy.”

As dust rose with the pain from the impact of the fall, Theo coughed a few times.

He started to taste blood in his throat.

Theo had a feeling that this fight would be over in 3 minutes at the longest.

“Huu, huuk….”

A blessing in disguise was that Barka was also in a state where he couldn’t move easily right now.

To scatter ice into water droplets for a moment and then turn it back into ice required a high level of concentration and mental strength, even for Barka who was skilled in water and ice magic.

One minute, no, just 30 seconds of rest, and then I can subdue him.

Barka panted heavily and wiped away the nosebleed that he suddenly felt.

After catching his breath and looking ahead, Barka felt a sense of wonder as he saw Theo curled up.

Blood was flowing from Theo’s nose, just like Barka’s, even as he was curled up and looking straight at Barka.

“…?”

Among magicians, there was a saying that went around as a joke.

A magician who has never had a nosebleed is not a true magician.

It wasn’t a very credible saying, but some magicians would agree and nod their heads.

Because when you concentrate on magic and pour all your mana into using it, you would get a nosebleed due to excessive stress and mental exhaustion.

But… had Theo Lisitoel used magic to the point of bleeding that much right now?

Even when he used the fire circles that seemed too numerous to even count, it definitely wasn’t that bad.

Barka, feeling a sense of foreboding, quickly looked around and then looked up at the sky.

Were the clouds always this low?

‘No, they’re way too low!’

Barka’s surprised eyes widened, and he instantly rushed towards Theo.

“Oh dear, you’re late!”

The moment that separates the winner and the loser is a fleeting one.

If Barka had wanted to win, he should have rushed to subdue Theo right after his fall.

Theo stacked dozens of earth circles to obstruct Barka’s path.

Barka, who was instantly blocked by a wall, clenched his teeth.

He didn’t have enough mana or mental strength to use ice magic, and water magic couldn’t overcome earth!

“Damn it! Damn it!!”

If magic doesn’t work, then I have to break it down with force!

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

The earth wall slowly cracked under Barka’s strength.

“Hey, thanks a lot.”

As Barka delivered the final blow, the earth wall collapsed, and dirt poured down on Theo.

Was he going to be buried by his own trick? No, that’s not it.

He’s trying to protect himself.

I also have to protect my body somehow—

“Because I have to win, no matter what.”

The low voice was soon followed by a roar that seemed to tear the sky apart.

At that moment, a thunderbolt fell from the thundercloud.

* * *

What I created with magic wasn’t the thunderbolt, but the thundercloud that is the source of the thunderbolt.

In other words, I can’t decide the area where the thunderbolt strikes.

The most I could do was to control the cloud so that it wouldn’t go outside a specific range—the stadium.

But, I can ‘guide’ it to do so.

[What on earth is happening! A lightning bolt from the clouds gathered in the sky falls precisely towards Barka!!]

Of course, that’s what the cuffs are for.

I never intended to stop Barka’s movements with just cuffs from the start. A conductor to increase the probability of being struck by lightning. Just that much of a purpose.

Even the thin chain that Barka broke so easily was a cover to hide my true purpose.

In fact, there were a few moments when I might have lost.

If Barka had also broken the cuffs on his wrists.

If he had rushed in and completely subdued me as soon as I fell.

If he had prepared for the impending thunderbolt instead of wasting time trying to break the earth wall I made at the last minute.

[Ah! A judgment loss! A judgment loss from Professor Artemia is declared!!]

The winner would surely have been Barka, not me.

Kalen’s shout was heard from beyond the pile of dirt.

As the stadium returned to its original form with the declaration, the dirt that covered my body scattered.

As the darkness lifted, light poured in.

[The name of the winner of the fierce match is ‘Theo’!!!]

Victory was as sweet as candy in my mouth.

I want to enjoy that sweetness a little more leisurely.

“Ugh.”

Unable to endure the surging fatigue any longer, I collapsed just like that.

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