The sky around her was full of countless small spirits, all of them giggling playfully. A sword of wind was coming her way, made of dozens of the little things. It seemed hopeless, but Yuri kept a level head. The impact of the sword against her shield wasn’t as heavy as she had feared. It was sharp enough to rend flesh, but fared poorly against steel.
“Thou shalt be as an invincible fortress...” Yuri said, performing an incantation. “Magic Sword Art: Wall of Steel!” Mana coursed through her whole body, strengthening her armor and shield. She ran forward, ignoring the sword and focusing her magic on protecting her body’s vulnerable parts from lethal attacks, until she burst through, closing the remaining distance. The longer she let this fight go on, the worse her prospects for victory would be.
Yuri couldn’t see it—it was all but invisible—but she heard the sound. Three more wind swords were coming. She dodged the first by stepping to the side. The second struck her armor and glanced off. The third she blocked with her shield. But that attack struck with much more force than any of the previous ones. “Nh—!” she cried as her shield flew out of her hand.
Still, Yuri had closed the distance. The girl was right in front of her, looking up with fearful eyes. Yuri was prepared to sheathe her sword if Aisha surrendered, but Aisha was defiant. Despite her fear, her eyes were shining with resolve.
Yuri hesitated, but only for a second. Then, she swung her sword in a wide arc. Aisha tried desperately to jump out of the way, but her movements were far too slow. Her sword would cut through the girl’s flesh, all the way to the bone. She had certainly put enough power behind the strike. But...
Clang! Her sword struck Aisha and glanced off with a loud sound. “What...?”
It was impossible. She had swung her sword with enough force to cleave flesh, but it was stopped by a single layer of cloth. It was as if she had tried to cut through a chunk of solid lead. She had been planning on stopping at the bone, but her sword apparently didn’t have enough force behind it to overcome Aisha’s mysterious resilience.
Aisha, for her part, was knocked back by the force of Yuri’s blow. But instead of landing, she came to a stop in midair, looking down at her opponent from above.
~ ‡ ~
Aisha was scared. Of course she was. She couldn’t help how she felt. But being scared was no reason to run away.
After the battle against the dragon, Nacht had apologized to Aisha over and over again. “I was arrogant. I didn’t consider the possibility. You were in danger because of me. I’m so sorry.” It made Aisha sad. It made her think that Nacht still saw her as a child in need of protection—that she was a child in need of protection. But it was Aisha who had decided to stand by Nacht’s side. Her and no one else. She was prepared to face danger and misfortune even if it was really, really, really scary. After all, it was her own weakness that had made Nacht apologize to her.
Aisha wanted to become stronger. She wanted to be capable of everything, from fighting to studying to housework, so that one day, she could hold her head high and stand proudly beside her mistress. So no matter how scared she was, she wasn’t going to run away.
She watched as Yuri’s silver blade came for her. Knowing that she had no way to avoid it, she steeled herself for the blow. “Ngh—!” she cried as her body was knocked aside by the force of the blow. She felt her bones cry out as pain ran through her body, but that was it. The armor Nacht had given her could withstand a dragon’s claws. It protected her well.
Borrowing the power of the wind spirits, Aisha brought her body to a stop in midair. Yuri, Theresia’s knight, had been even stronger than Aisha had expected. In the blink of an eye, she had closed a distance that would have taken Aisha five or six seconds to run, then flawlessly defended herself from the blades of wind.
Nacht had taught Aisha how to deal with melee fighters as a mage. First, block their movement. Second, distract them with a barrage of weak attacks. Then, finally, mix in some strong attacks to finish them off. Aisha had tried her best, but all she had managed to do was rob her opponent of her shield.
“Sorry!” Aisha had done the best she could with her feet on solid ground. Muttering an apology to her opponent, she flew higher into the air.
Nacht’s teachings echoed in her mind. “Remember, Aisha. You’re a mage. Fighting dirty is par for the course. You gotta use your head. Make preparations in advance. Go for your opponent’s weak points. Trick them if you can.”
The sky was full of wind spirits, playing merrily. Aisha had prepared the field well. Now, she just had to fly out of reach of her opponent’s sword so she could attack without fear of counters.
The spirits giggled as they lashed out at Yuri with their swords. They made plenty of dents in her armor, but Yuri herself seemed unharmed. Calm in the heat of battle, she launched a counterattack.
“Magic Sword Art: Wing Cutter!” With a high-pitched sound of rushing wind, as loud as a scream, Yuri’s slash lashed out ahead of the sword itself, cutting aside the blades of wind. Somehow, Yuri was able to launch ranged attacks using a sword.
Before Aisha could react, Yuri followed up with another attack. She jumped off the ground toward where Aisha was floating. She was in range of a melee strike. “Magic Sword Art: Heaven’s Leap!”
“No!” Aisha cried out. The wind spirits formed a whirlwind around her as a protective wall, but the force of Yuri’s blow cut through her defenses easily. She was going all out on this attack. Aisha may have been protected by her equipment, but Yuri’s strike was strong enough to shatter bones. “Gwaaah!” Aisha was knocked back, in too much pain to make a counter of her own. But the wind spirits were unaffected. They lashed out, unleashing a fierce assault to protect their summoner.
“N-Ngh!” Yuri had put everything she had into that attack. This time, the blades of wind caught her on her back foot. But this was nothing more than a distraction. The real threat was the unavoidable storm brewing right beneath her.
Yuri’s feet were in the air when the downburst struck. It threw her hard to the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs. “Gah!” Yuri struggled to her feet in time to avoid a follow-up attack. Unlike Aisha, she knew how to ignore her pain and fight on. “Magic Sword Art...” she began.
Yuri was a professional fighter. She had faith in her sword arm if nothing else. Even though one of her arms was dangling limply by her side and blood was running down her face from a cut on her forehead, she prepared to take a second leap at Aisha.
Aisha doubted that she could have continued to fight if she were in the same condition. She was both awed and intimidated by Yuri’s conviction, but she didn’t allow herself to hesitate. I’m a mage... she thought. Fighting dirty is par for the course. Aisha was Nacht’s servant. If her mistress expected something of her, she was going to do her best not to disappoint her. And Nacht had said herself that Aisha would win this battle. She would simply have to do it, no matter how difficult it seemed.
“Heaven’s...Leap—?!” Yuri continued. But she never performed the technique. The ground underneath her fell away, creating a deep hole. The earth around her was full of laughing spirits.
Aisha had only visibly used wind spirits in the fight to prevent Yuri from noticing the delicate work her earth spirits were doing underground. It was all a trick. Aisha was still young and frail. She was a mage, not a warrior, and the pain in her arm was so bad that part of her wanted to surrender on the spot. In an ordinary fight, she would have had no chance. And so, she had resorted to a dirty trick in order to come out ahead.
“Spirits of wind,” Aisha began, “please, grant me the strength to defeat her!” The spirits glowed with Aisha’s mana and began to converge. A whirlwind sprang up, becoming an enormous blade of wind that glowed with a pale green light. It towered into the sky like a mountain with its peak high out of sight. This was all of Aisha’s power—the best she could do after all of her training pursuing her mistress’s unreachable level.
Yuri rushed to defend herself. “Thou shalt be as an invincible fortress... Wall of Steel!” Light struck light, and a huge plume of dust rose from the ground. The ground itself was being torn apart with a horrifying sound. Yuri could see and hear nothing. And then, the dust was blown away, pushed aside by the force of Yuri’s defense. The sky cleared. There was silence.
Yuri was still standing even after that attack, using her sword to support the weight of her body. “No way...” Aisha stared in disbelief. “Then...again!” She began to focus her mana once more.
“That’s enough!” Nacht stepped in, stopping the fight.
“Weh...?” Aisha sounded exhausted. Nacht smiled.
“You fought well,” Nacht said. “You won, Aisha. Hold your head high.”
As Nacht spoke, Yuri collapsed to the ground.
Aisha had far more mana than an ordinary person from this world. Not even Yuri could withstand the power of her summoned spirits when she went all out on a single attack. Aisha, though, found herself admiring the force of will that enabled Yuri to stay on her feet despite her wounds, all so as to not shame herself as a fighter.
A wave of relief washed over Aisha, and with it, she felt her strength leave her body. Her first one-on-one duel had been more taxing on her body than she had anticipated. But just when she thought she was about to collapse, she found herself in Nacht’s arms. Aisha didn’t have the energy to object. She simply allowed her mistress to pick her up and dote on her all she pleased.
It may have been a friendly duel cooked up on the spur of the moment, but to Aisha, it was her first time grasping victory with her own power. To be fair, most of it had been thanks to the help of the spirits, but Aisha was so elated at having been declared the winner that she allowed herself to forget her dignity. “I-I did my best,” she said. “Mistress, I want a reward.”
~ ‡ ~
“So you lost, Yuri.” Theresia pursed her lips in frustration as she watched Nacht go.