Our magic energies burst from our bodies and tangled explosively, producing a grating sound like iron files being scraped together.
The powers of our gods invoked, Victor and I just stood there, staring at each other.
“Aren’t ya gonna attack me?” I snapped, out of patience.
Victor smirked and answered, “Hey, I’m exercising caution. If I let my guard down, it might all be over in the blink of an eye.”
Aha… Unlike Pearlman, who had charged at me out of nowhere, this guy seemed quite composed. In perfect contrast to his aggressively spiky hair, he looked calmer than he was even before the fight started—what effect even made that possible?
Well, one thing was clear regardless—he wouldn’t go down easily.
If only he had lost his mind and charged wildly at me, then he would have been much simpler to counterattack. The fact that he wasn’t proved he was on a higher level than Pearlman.
I could probably learn a lot more about him if I just stayed put and studied him a while longer. However—
“And what about you, my dear? If this a war of attrition, you’re at a clear disadvantage. And I think running out the clock until somebody wins by default would be a rather anticlimactic ending, don’t you?”
It seemed my magic wouldn’t last forever. Even so, I felt like the power in me now was more or less infinite, compared to normal.
Victor claimed that running out the clock would be boring, yet his stance implied he hadn’t taken it off the table. If anybody was going to make the first move, it had to be me.
Well, whatever. I’m suddenly filled with mysterious powers. Guess I’ll figure them out as I go.
I created a ball of magic in my palm. It was the size of a fist, but it felt as hot as a small sun. I threw it carelessly. Okay. Show me what you’ve got.
As the packet of destructive energy hurled toward Victor—
“Shit…”
—I felt a faint pain in my shoulder and shifted my gaze. I’d been cut. It was a shallow wound, but a wound all the same. I felt a light tingling surge through my body. There was no mistaking it—that was Victor’s power.
I turned around, sensing a presence behind me. It was Victor, slowly recovering from springing there like an animal earlier. He was just turning around to face me as I looked at him.
Dang, he’s fast… It’s impossible to follow him with my eyes. More accurately, he ran as fast as the speed of light—so quick I couldn’t even sense his onset of movement.
“Ha-hah! Are you kidding me? All that bravado for a mere scratch!”
He seemed just as surprised by it as I was. A sneer formed on his shocked face, his teeth bared. Or should I say, his fangs. It was subtle, but evidently it wasn’t just his hair that had changed.
But that was trivial. This guy’s magic powers were far beyond that of any human. He was a monster inside—make that a devil—so it didn’t matter what he looked like on the outside.
My soul grew even colder as I clenched my fists.
Okay, it’s crystal clear that he’s too fast to see. So I’ve gotta find another way to fight him.
I feinted an attack—Victor’s gaze shifted slightly. Simultaneously, I turned my face to the side. A lock of my hair was sliced off, falling to the ground.
By tracking my eyes and tapping into his magic perception, he could sense my attacks before I made them. This was par for the course when fighting a wielder of Thunder magic.
“Now, now, now, why must you make this so difficult for me? Who the hell are you, my dear?”
Most people didn’t know the real answer to that question, of course. Cold beads of sweat dripped from Victor’s brow as he questioned me. Though it wasn’t like I was under any obligation to respond to him.
I had something more important on my mind: I still hadn’t sunk my fist into his face yet like I promised.
I lightly kicked off the ground.
“C’mon, throw me a bone!” Victor teased, hurling Thunder magic at me.
It was a familiar sensation; he was moving at lightning speed again. But I sensed his presence farther away this time. Maybe he had sensed my powers were stronger now.
His body glowed light magenta, and he vanished with a clapping sound.
But I could tell where he was headed from his gaze and flow of magic energy. Not the exact coordinates, but I knew the general direction—which was more than enough.
“Go to hell, shithead!”
I shot my pent-up magic energy out of my fist like a bullet. As long as I knew the direction he was going, a projectile attack made little difference if it was close or long-range.
“What the—?!” Victor stammered in confusion, crossing his arms and filling them with magic.
My magic bullet of light hit him with a violent flash as it burst open.
Okay…that would probably blow most people into the sky. You’d expect them to lose a limb or two from that force, but—
“Oh, you’re good…!”
Victor was hurt, but not maimed.
His magic powers were beyond the norm—this was to be expected. I would have been more surprised if he had taken significant damage with that defensive stance.
Having said that, I doubted I could keep this up forever. I had so much power I couldn’t even believe it myself, but my output was also phenomenal—I needed to end this battle as soon as possible.
As Victor appeared from an explosion of flame, I raised a finger. He gave me a dubious look, confused by my signal.