“So you know how to fight one-on-one too, huh? No wonder you’re the commander of the Shadow Regiment.”
“And you... Are you really an adventurer?”
“What else could I be?”
“A royal assassin?”
“Interesting.”
General Rancius had made a wild guess based on Abel’s exceptional swordsmanship.
“You’re clearly a student of the orthodox Hume style, yet incredibly faithful to the fundamentals...”
“Yeah, my master drilled it into me. He said that neglecting the basics makes you an easy target.”
“Are you really an adventurer?” General Rancius muttered again with a scowl. The adventurers he knew were preoccupied with flashy techniques and wild, heavy swings. He had never heard any mention of words like “fundamentals” or “basics”...
“Don’t lump the Empire’s adventurers together with ours. There’s a reason the Kingdom’s known as the land of adventurers, okay? We’re the real deal.” Abel laughed proudly.
“Is that right? It seems I’ll have to correct my misconceptions.”
After taking a broad swing, Rancius leaped backward, creating distance between them. He took a deep breath and exhaled, nothing more, but something changed...
“Well, well...” Abel said, unable to keep the note of admiration out of his voice. All his opponent had done was breathe, but he seemed sharper, fiercer, and more intense.
“So the commander of the Shadow Regiment has hidden depths too.”
“See for yourself, why don’t you?” General Rancius said.
And then their duel went to the next level.
Nearby, another sword fight was taking place. Normally, this type of battle—one against eight—would’ve been decided quickly. If obstacles crowded the battlefield, that could’ve prolonged the fight, but these nine fought on open terrain. And even if there had been, the eight imperial soldiers were skilled in fighting in such conditions. They considered any opponent who lasted longer than a minute a true talent.
However, this sword fight had been going on for several minutes. Moreover, the soldiers were being whittled down one by one as they steadily collected wounds the longer the battle went on.
Klang. Klang. Klang.
The sounds of metal clattered noisily as their eight swords crossed their opponent’s icy blades.
“Generating ice to block our blades...”
“How is this even possible?”
“Bloody hell, this is hard...”
The soldiers continued to mutter between themselves, unable to believe that Ryo, fighting them all on his own, was controlling the pace of the battle using Ice Walls.
Ryo, of course, was just sticking to his original plan. He couldn’t finish them quickly, so he needed to frustrate them and draw in the other ten watching from a distance...
But those other ten still hadn’t moved, so Ryo began shifting the battle toward them. Inch by inch, he herded the soldiers away from Abel and General Rancius’s duel, and toward the ten others he was tracking with Passive Sonar...
Since he’d decided to take them down one by one, Ryo left defeated soldiers sprawling on the ground at almost equal intervals as they went. Ryo knew that the other group was observing through telescopes, so he generated his Ice Walls subtly and deliberately didn’t freeze those he defeated.
After all, his real target wasn’t anyone in the Twentieth Imperial Regiment.
It was the ten people watching in reserve.
Or, to be more precise, one individual among them.
Ryo was close now. Less than a hundred meters separated them.
“Ice Casket 3.”
Ryo abruptly froze the remaining three soldiers and bolted in the direction of the other group. Simultaneously, he chanted, “Squall. Ice Casket 10.”
He managed to freeze nine of the ten so quickly that they were still wearing expressions of surprise. Ryo had known that all ten were magicians, so he’d used Squall to douse them with water before freezing them...
But one person had escaped: his target.
“Excellent reflexes, subordinate of the Inferno whatever,” Ryo said. “I really shouldn’t be surprised.”
He’d immediately realized that his target had created a thin film of earth around himself, preventing his body from getting wet and allowing him to escape Ryo’s Ice Casket. It was an astonishing display of reflexes and magical speed.
Ryo and his target faced each other. The man had already drawn his sword, his stance more befitting a swordsman than a magician...
“Now I understand why you were taking your time,” he muttered. “We were your targets this whole time.”
“Reflexes honed from training since childhood...” Ryo muttered, as if to himself.
The target’s eyes widened, but he didn’t respond.
“Doesn’t matter. Because as a captain working under that Inferno jerk, your magic must be incredible, right?”
“Have we met somewhere before?”
“You don’t remember me? In the Principality of Inverey, you appeared with Inferno Man and spirited the prince and his entourage away to the Empire, didn’t you? Inferno Man, the princess, you, and someone else... I sensed great power in you four.”
“You were there? That ice means water magic, and if you’re a water magician from the Kingdom... No, could you—”
“Have you finally figured it out? I’m Ryo, water magician, at your service. What’s your name?”
The man simply stared, dumbfounded.
“I’ll find out eventually. You’re one of the top brass working in Inferno Man and the princess’s unit, but I can’t keep referring to you by random titles.”
“Jurgen.”
“I see. Jurgen. Now, I want to know what you and your group were doing. I’m aware the Shadow Regiment was luring in wyverns to cause destruction, but was that your mission as well?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying,” Ryo stated confidently. “Which means you’re here for a different reason. Why don’t you tell me that reason?”
“I told you: We’re here to cause destruction using wyverns.”
“So you insist on lying.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I can see it in your eyes. Lying is pointless.” Ryo’s confidence remained unwavering.
Jurgen studied the water magician’s face, trying and failing to determine if he was telling the truth.
“It doesn’t matter. I just need to defeat you. Here and now,” he murmured softly.
“Can you?” Ryo taunted.
“Impossible with magic, I know—but I don’t need it!”
He suddenly rushed into arm’s reach, and—
Klang!
—Ryo skillfully parried Jurgen’s sharp thrust with Murasame.
“You do realize your subordinates are frozen solid...”
“They’ll thaw out once I defeat you,” Jurgen replied nonchalantly. “I hate to steal this victory from the vice commander, but I will be the one to defeat you, Ryo.”
“We’ll have to see about that.”
And so, their magic duel began.