“I’m the first prince! You’re just the unwanted daughter of a duke, so how dare you oppose me?!”
A wall of light blocked the blade he swung, clashing with a high-pitched sound. Through the translucent barrier, Leticiel could see dim flames of hatred burning in Rocheford’s eyes.
“If you didn’t exist, I could have been with Christa!” Though his eyes were clearly unfocused, Rocheford continued to spew his resentment toward Leticiel. Leticiel’s barrier flashed and he was sent flying backward by her counterattack. But Rocheford rose immediately after falling and charged at her once more, as if he couldn’t feel any pain.
“Die! Die! There won’t be anyone to get in my way if you just disappear!”
Compared to the warriors who had attacked Leticiel in her previous life, Rocheford’s attacks were so slow that a mosquito could land on his sword, but his attacks were much more forceful than she had expected. Since his movements were monotonous and he charged at her without any feints, Leticiel used the flow of his power against him to send him flying.
“What’s going on?” A boy’s desperate cry echoed across the battlefield at the same time that Leticiel tossed Rocheford away. Turning toward the voice, she saw Zeke. He must have run over in a hurry, because he was out of breath and his hair was sticking to his forehead with sweat.
“Zeke, please treat the teachers!” she called immediately after spotting him. The other teachers were treating the ones who had been slashed by Rocheford, but they didn’t seem to be making much progress, either because the wounds were too deep or because their healing magic was too weak.
Zeke had zero light attribute magical power, which gave him great aptitude for healing sorcery. Leticiel had already taught him healing spell techniques and knew he was the only one she could ask to treat the others.
The boy was shocked for a moment, but quickly understood what he had to do and replied, “Got it!” when he saw the teachers desperately casting healing spells not far away. Once he had joined them in treating the wounded, Leticiel squared off against Rocheford once more.
The monster was still locked inside the cage, but she could hear the sound of trees being torn apart from inside of it. It was only a matter of time before the monster freed itself.
“Die, die, die! Die, Drossell!”
“Quiet. Please calm down.” Swallowing the words, “Just who do you think I’m fighting to save?” Leticiel dispersed her offensive magic spells and cast physical strengthening spells on herself instead.
Rocheford thrust his sword right at her, but Leticiel grabbed his arm and spun him in the air before he could comprehend what was happening. After slamming him to the ground, Leticiel gave him a swift chop to the neck, rendering him unconscious. That was enough to put him out of commission.
However, before she had time to catch her breath, the monster roared deafeningly as the cage that had been holding it in broke into pieces. Splintered trees thundered as they pierced the ground, sinking into it.
Freed from the shackles of the cage, the monster leapt at Leticiel with an infuriated roar and even greater rage in its eyes, having lost sight of everything else around them. All it could see was the hateful silver-haired human who had stolen its eyesight and taken its freedom. The monster howled as it went berserk, seeking revenge on the human.
This is…not good. Leticiel’s brow furrowed as she skillfully dodged the monster’s attacks. Though it was a good thing that the monster’s attention was solely on her, it was dangerous that it had stopped paying attention to its surroundings. There were students and teachers who had gotten injured fighting the monster before Leticiel had arrived who hadn’t been able to evacuate yet. I have to get the others out of here quickly.
Just as she was thinking this, the situation she had feared occurred.
Zeke was still treating the teachers who had been gravely wounded by Rocheford. They hadn’t returned to their original triage area, but had instead moved a little further away from the battlefield. However, it wasn’t a safe zone.
The monster jumped back to put some distance between itself and Leticiel and get ready to charge again, but it landed right beside them.
Unable to help them since she was the monster’s target, Leticiel called the name of the person she trusted the most in the situation as she watched the monster’s angry claws swing down upon the group. “Zeke!”
The boy’s reply was drowned out by a thunderous sound. Leticiel wasn’t sure whether or not her voice had reached him.
However, Zeke had instinctively sensed the danger and cast a spell at the approaching claws without thinking.
A pale gray light, different from the color of a light attribute, exploded. The monster’s claws were struck by the light, crumbling like a sand castle under its great force.
For the first time, the monster’s shrieks exuded fear. It screamed at the blast of Zeke’s sorcery, despite having been able to withstand all of the magic thrown at it before.
A void counterspell…? Zeke had used a spell technique Leticiel had taught him during their after-school practices. Realizing that the monster might be weak against void spells, Leticiel created a void cannonball in her palm and hurled it at the monster.
The monster writhed on the spot, shrieking in pain. Since it was just a magic bullet, it hadn’t had as much of an effect as Zeke’s void counterspell, but the monster was clearly suffering.
I guess I’ll try to fight using void spells. Now that that was decided, wrapping things up quickly would be best. Though Leticiel’s usual battle style focused on evasion, she changed gears and aggressively started casting offensive spells. She’d already asked Zeke and the others to take Rocheford and retreat further into the forest. They would be safe as long as Leticiel didn’t follow them.
“Now… Let’s settle this.” As if her words were a cue, the monster kicked the ground with a roar that was a mixture of pain, anger, and fear.
Accurately reading the monster’s movements, Leticiel dodged back and to the right, firing off a number of spells she had prepared as the monster just barely missed her.
Left, right, up, down. Spells of various attributes, strengthened by the void attribute, hit the monster’s body. Agonized screams roared through the forest with each hit, shaking the air. Like a flowing river, spells flew freely from Leticiel’s hands without pause. Blades of wind roared as she ran, lightning erupted when she waved her arms, and when she kicked the earth, the ground itself warped to her will.
Leticiel’s figure as she ran across the battlefield with Mother Nature on her side was as beautiful as if she were dancing, and so fierce that those who watched her were unable to look away.
“It’s time to end this!” The monster knelt on the ground, unable to withstand Leticiel’s onslaught. She wasn’t about to miss the opening its broken limbs had given her.
Leticiel unleashed a new spell upon the monster, which had stopped moving. It was a complex spell with both light and void sorcery.
The aether around her swirled in response to Leticiel’s magic technique. Void magic was invisible to the naked eye, but it could activate and strengthen the aether used in other attributes.
Strengthened by the void aether, a sword of light more dazzling than ever before appeared at Leticiel’s fingertips. It was as hot as the sun, spilling light particles like desert sand and scattering shimmeringly hot air over its surroundings.
The monster roared, though Leticiel didn’t know if it was a threat or a plea. Its red eyes trembled, reflecting the pure white sword that pierced the forest’s darkness. Leticiel swung her arm down toward the monster.
Her arm sunk into the monster’s body along with the blade of the sword of light, which seemed to pierce even the heavens. Drilling through flesh and shattering bones, the sword quite literally cut the monster in two with a single stroke.
An otherworldly, high-pitched sound echoed beneath the overcast sky. Illuminated by the rays of the sun that began to show through the gaps in the clouds, the monster’s body melted, leaving behind only its final screams.
The monster disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed, but the remains of carnage that spread out before their eyes spoke volumes of what had happened there. No one could move or speak for a while after the monster disappeared from the forest. They could only stare at the back of the “incompetent” duke’s daughter, absorbing the shock of the battle that unfolded before their very eyes.