Emilia’s minions had taken quite a lot of damage, so she sent them back where they’d come from to rest and recover.
“Noir…I must thank you for being so considerate of my pets.”
“No big deal.”
“I am still a student of the Gifted Institute, so I cannot resent you for your victory. But I would like to give you a little thank you. Mira is a genius with enchanted items, and since she arrived in town, she has acquired another incredibly powerful weapon. Do your best.”
On that rather serious note, Emilia left, and Mira took up her place in the arena. The stands were buzzing with excitement. Even the people outside were cheering.
“You’re incredible! The best!”
“Thanks for redeeming us!”
“Damn, who knew the Hero Academy had someone that strong?”
“But Lady Mira is up next! She’s the strongest in our whole school. We’ve got this!”
Meanwhile, Mira and I were extremely calm.
“You sure are strong, huh, Noir?” she said. “You surprised me.”
“Still not a fan of going last though.”
“You should learn to take a compliment. Well, no matter who wins, our friendship won’t change, right?”
“Of course. And I hope to keep patronizing Santage Arms and Armor too.”
“That’s not what I meant! Well…I wouldn’t have you any other way. You don’t need to hold back. For the first time in ages, I’m planning to unleash my full power.”
Mira’s expression changed. Somehow, she seemed drastically more confident. I took a moment to examine her powers again.
Enchanted Item Mastery: Senses are heightened and physical abilities are amplified while in contact with an enchanted item. Furthermore, when the enchanted item possesses skills of A- to C-Grade, the item is functionally upgraded by one level. This effect only applies while the item is in use.
Wh-what an incredible ability! Even just using it with a normal enchanted sword or shield increased your physical abilities. But the scariest part was how it upgraded skills—boosting C-Grade skills to B-Grade, B to A, and A to S. She clearly really loved enchanted items. I gripped my sword and tried to fire myself up.
“The final battle will now begin!” said Ms. Elena.
The moment I heard her voice, I rushed in with lightning speed. Mira had one of those magic balls in each hand. She bounced them off the ground, one after the other, and sent them straight after me. I had to stop them. I knocked one away with my sword.
“Ngh, that was heavy…”
It had a skill that made it heavier. I couldn’t get to the other one in time, so I tilted my head to avoid it. It burned as it grazed past my cheek.
Now both balls were behind me, but I hesitated to make my move. Thanks to their Automatic Return ability, the balls whizzed through the air and back into Mira’s hands.
“These things are great!” she said.
“You have a skill on them that makes them heavier and bouncier, right?”
“Bingo. I’m a treasure hunter, so I have all sorts of enchanted items.”
Adventurers and seekers hunted for treasure, but it wasn’t our primary focus. We spent most of our time in dungeons. Treasure hunters, on the other hand, would go anywhere so long as there was treasure to be had. I heard they were active over very large regions.
“How long have you been treasure hunting?” I asked.
“Since I was three. I had something that could sense enchanted items, so I looked for stuff in all sorts of places.”
Talk about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth…
“And I have so many exciting items now!” she said. “But for now, think you can defend yourself against this ball?”
As she threw it, I edited the +10lbs skill to +0.1lbs and caught it with one hand.
“I made it lighter.”
“Seriously…? I-If you’re faking, that must’ve really hurt. Why don’t you try it again!”
I could have just done the same thing, but this time I broke its Elasticity skill. The ball was too heavy, so it wouldn’t bounce very well. Thunk, thunk. It bounced pathetically and came to a stop.
“I made that one too heavy.”
Mira looked astonished. This sure was a cakewalk when you had the LP to spare. She brought a hand to her cheek and laughed with delight.
“Ah ha ha ha ha ha! I knew I liked you, Noir! I wasn’t very excited about the tournament because I was sure I was gonna win. But now I’m actually having fun!”
Mira put on an earring. This was no normal piece of jewelry.
The Gift of the Spear Earring
Grade A
Skills: Spearmanship (Grade S); Manipulate
Spear; Rapid Thrust; Stamina Reduction
It gave abilities to its wearer. That Spearmanship skill would have been A-Grade if it weren’t for Mira’s Enchanted Item Mastery. But the earring had a detrimental skill too. It made the wearer’s stamina drain more easily. I created the skill Mental Fortitude Reduction and Bestowed it on Mira.
“I got my hands on a nice lance recently,” she said. “I’m gonna use it.”
The item Mira showed off so proudly was an extremely plain and simple spear. The only unusual thing about it was its color: the handle was jet-black, and the blade was just slightly paler.
Interdimensional Lance
Grade S
Skills: Cut Spacetime
Hold on a second…that name sounded familiar. Wasn’t that the weapon Olivia had sold the other day? That must have been what Emilia was talking about.
“See this thing?” said Mira. “My dad bought it off a real pretty lady for like three hundred mil. I thought he’d been scammed again and got mad, but once I tried it out, it was obvious that it was special.”
“That ‘real pretty lady’ was probably my master…”
“Seriously?!”
Olivia said she’d sold it off because it wasn’t very powerful, but that was by her standards. In reality, it was an S-Grade weapon that could apparently cut through the fabric of spacetime.
“She’s a really incredible person,” I said. “I never imagined that Mr. Stoke was the one who bought it from her.”
“Luck really isn’t on your side today, huh?” Mira asked. “But luck’s part of the competition, so let’s go!”
She closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye and attacked with a practiced thrust. I parried with my sword, but only barely. Next, she unleashed a torrent of powerful attacks. Some of them were extraordinarily fast. That was likely her Rapid Thrust skill.
She poked several holes in my shirt, and unable to hold her off any longer, I stepped back to get away. When she tried to give chase, I fired off a Lightning Strike. Mira smirked.
“The Reversal Mirror Buckler.”
Mira pulled out a small round shield that had been polished to a mirror shine. I thought I’d landed a direct hit with my Lightning Strike, but it bounced off the shield and hit me instead.
“Gahh…”
Pain racked my body, but the damage wasn’t very serious. My S-Grade Lightning Resistance was doing its job.
“Gotta watch out for mid- and long-range magic attacks, ya know?” Mira grinned.
“You sure have a lot of nice weapons,” I admitted. “But using a lance while holding a shield is hard.”
“Of course it is,” said Mira. “But I can also fight like this.”
She cut a vertical line through the empty air, and something really strange happened. A hole appeared. It was as big as Mira and pitch-black inside. I couldn’t see anything in there.
“There’s more where that came from,” said Mira.
She ran around me, slicing holes in spacetime as she went. Her shoes had the Mercury’s Sandals skill, so she was exceptionally fast. When she returned to her original position, she was out of breath.
“Haah, haah, you see…these holes are connected. A person could go in one and come out another.”
“But you’re not doing that?”
“Exactly, because I’m doing this instead!”
Mira threw the lance into one of the holes with all her might. I knew it! She was using her Manipulate Spear skill! And I was surrounded by these holes. The lance came flying out of the one directly behind me.
“Whoa?!”
I just about managed to dodge. The lance vanished through one of the other holes.
“Haah, haah, haah…”
Mira was panting hard. She held her shield up to guard against any direct attacks, but she was visibly exhausted. That detrimental skill was really doing a number on her, and the skill I’d given her on top of that was no doubt taking effect too. I pretended to dodge the lance and used the opportunity to get closer to her.
I balked. “Huh…? Where did it go?”
The moment I spoke, the lance appeared from the hole behind Mira and flew right past her face. I ducked away, but it had really caught me off guard. That was close! I needed to wait for the right moment.
“You know, I’ve been exploring this hidden dungeon,” I said.
“Wow, that’s impressive.”
“I’m no Mira Santage, but I have some pretty good enchanted items myself. So as powerful as these attacks are—”
I sensed the lance coming from the hole diagonally behind me and pulled out the Shield of Champions to block. At the same time, I used Stone Rain to manifest rocks above Mira’s head.
“What the?!”
Unsurprisingly, Mira noticed right away and ran. But I predicted where she was going, threw my shield away, and used Shukuchi to close the gap between us. I took a powerful step toward her and swung my sword.
“Gyaah!”
Mira was terrified, but I stopped just before my blade made contact.
“Y-you’re not gonna hit me?” she asked.
“I would never hit a friend. But I’d appreciate it if you surrendered.”
Mira was sitting meekly on the ground, breathing raggedly and utterly exhausted. She took off the earring.
“I’d normally try to hold on a little longer, but I don’t think I have the energy.”
“Even when you’re low on stamina, a lot of people can push through with willpower. That’s why I gave you a skill to reduce your mental fortitude.”
“So that’s how you did it.”
Exhausted as she was, Mira stood up and raised her hands.
“I surrender! You win!”
Yes! It had been hard work, but I’d survived all three matches!