Championship match, round one: doubles. Win condition: the opposing team surrenders, or at least one person on the opposing team is defeated. Not only were they expected to fight as a team, but they would need to defend each other, too.
“Hon’yaaah concharaaaah oomtaraaah sowakaaah! Hwa-taaah!”
“Wh—? Uh, Laplace? I don’t know what you’re doing, but... you’re kind of freaking me out!” Nadine snapped. The championship match of a sparring tournament was no time to be speaking in tongues or whatever. And just when I was starting to respect you!
“Hmm? Oh, I’m pretending to recite an incantation. See, Tanya told me I can’t just snap my fingers or else I’ll draw suspicion.”
“Oh... Right, well, with all due respect, that chanting was several magnitudes more baffling than a mere snap, Laplace—”
“Non, non! Don’t call me that. Call me Stone Cold Stunner! Anyway... I have a feeling that creepy Goliath man is going to give us a real run for our money!”
As she spoke, Laplace jumped up... and began to levitate. All at once, the crowd went wild:
“What is she doing?! Is that... levitation magic?!”
“How can she do that without a magic circle?! Impossible!”
“Holy crap! She’s gotta be a master caster!”
She rose about two meters off the ground, her eyes fixed on Goliath.
“Now then, time for a little test run!”
ZOOM. She shot forward, closing the gap between her and her quarry. She was incapable of using attack magic... so what was she planning?
She quietly snapped her fingers, and instantly the sand covering the arena floor began to gravitate towards her as though it had a will of its own. It came together in her hands, compacting until it formed a weapon reminiscent of a whip—springy and supple, yet sharp enough to cut through metal. Then she swung it full force at Goliath.
Unfortunately...
“Hnn!” With one wave of his staff, Goliath deflected it easily.
“Wow! I guess you watered-down modern Mages can still handle close-range combat!”
“Pfffhee! Fighting is my job, you knoooow... Besides, nobody said we’re not allowed to be good at booooth.”
Surely no ordinary strike could have deflected Laplace’s sand whip.
“Oui, oui! Oh, this is interesting! Were you concentrating your mana into your staff? You may not be as gifted as Tanya, but still, not bad!”
In other words, he must have conjured up a spell strong enough to withstand the attack—and quickly, too. That would have taken a great deal of skill.
The next instant, Goliath rushed forward at lightning speed.
“Take this! The Master Mercenary’s ultimate attack: Gravity Bullet!”
“...Huh?”
Gravity Bullet was a spell used to punch through castle walls or heavy armored units. And a split-second later, Laplace hurtled through the air at the speed of light and slammed into the wall behind her with a deafening POW.
Dust and debris flew in all directions, and a belated moment later, someone in the crowd let out a shriek. Everyone was sure the match was over.
But then Laplace’s gleeful laughter echoed across the arena.
“Pfff... Haha... Hahahaha!!! Incredible! Mon dieu, c’est fantastique!”
She wasn’t even disheveled, much less injured. Why? Because she was wearing a force field designed to shield an entire building. Nadine let out a huge sigh of relief.
Evidently this man wasn’t called the Master Mercenary for nothing. His spellcasting prowess was formidable, and if one were to estimate his mana capacity—
“On par with Tanya or possibly above,” Laplace grinned. “Très bien! Nadine, leave this guy to the ol’ Stone Cold Stunner! This Great Sorceress is going all-out!”
“Pffheehee! I took this gig assuming I’d be making paste out of some chumps, buuuut... it seems you’re more than just a nice rack after all, aren’t youuuu? Gahaha! Finally, a real challeeeenge! Hee hee... pffgyaha! Now I’m getting into it!!!”
“Wow, you’re actually really creepy! Though I’ll admit, I do have a bangin’ body!”
Their banter continued as they traded blow after blow after blow. The spectacle was practically inhuman. And after a while Nadine thought to herself:
Save your weird flirting for the singles round, I’m begging you.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Looks like I’ll have to handle Katherine myself,” Nadine mused under her breath.
Honestly speaking, Goliath was more powerful than she’d ever imagined. But Nadine wasn’t so reckless as to throw herself into the middle of that fight. Not when Laplace—er, “Stone Cold Stunner”—was tossing out superhuman attacks left and right.
She shifted her gaze to Katherine, who was presently sneering in her direction, a safe distance away from the other two.
“I have to say, I’m surprised to see you here,” Nadine commented after a moment.
“Right back at you. Me, I just figured I might reel in a big catch if I manage to win this thing.”
“A ‘big catch’?”
“A man,” Katherine spat. “If I can show off, maybe a hot guy will take notice. Get me?”
“Wait... what about Ryan?”
“Hah!” Katherine narrowed one eye in contempt, her pointy fox ears twitching. “That spineless loser? NOT IN A MILLION YEARS! HE’S A JOKE!”
“That bad, huh?”
Nadine had started to feel sorry for her. Then again, she’d only been in that party a short time; in comparison, Tanya deserved a medal for tolerating him for all those years.
CRASH!
Meanwhile, Goliath and Laplace continued to duke it out all over the arena. But despite their flashy full-power attacks, there was nary a stray bullet, suggesting they were both completely focused on the target in front of them. The prospect was frightening.
“Pretty clever, though, am I right?”
“What’s clever?”
“Putting in time as an adventurer, getting married, having kids. That’s the mark of success, you know?” Katherine declared smugly.
For Nadine, the sight brought back distant memories of her father.
“No... I think there’s more to life than that.”
“Let me guess: you’re just jealous because men don’t like you, right? Well, fortunately for me”—Katherine held her staff at the ready—“I’m pretty good at my job, too!”
That was when she began to cast.
“Round and round the wheel turns! Hellfire, I summon thee!”
As the energy from her mana circuits made Katherine’s thick blonde hair begin to flutter, Nadine knew she was in trouble.
“Heed my call—AND GIVE CHASE!”
Is that incantation... Fireball...? I’ve never heard that opening stanza before!
“Heh heh... I fused a basic Fireball spell with my clan’s Foxfire magic!”
There was a rumble as more than a hundred bright blue fireballs manifested in the air around her.
“Uh-oh.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Holy crap, what is that?!” Tanya murmured to herself as she sat on the bench. This curious feat had tickled her Mage senses awake. “Low skill, low accuracy... but how can she possibly summon all those Fireballs at once?!”
She flipped through a mental checklist of every spell she knew, but couldn’t find anything remotely close. Seriously, what am I looking at here? She’d assumed Katherine was only posing as a Mage for show... but apparently this fox chick was more talented than she thought!
“Wait... Fox...” She thought back to Katherine’s incantation, and it hit her: what if she’d fused an ordinary spell with beastkin magic? “Of course! Then she could switch over to a more natural method of mana control and convert her excess mana consumption and skill lag into additional attacks, right?! That’s incredible! My mind is blown!!!”
Katherine Foxxi wasn’t really a bimbo. It was just a cover for her brilliance!
“So that’s her secret! Now I get it! Well played, girl!” Tanya exclaimed to herself quietly. She was well and truly geeking out over this discovery, and frankly, it was a little much.
She paused for a moment, then continued in a small voice, “Man... If only we’d met some other way, maybe we could’ve been friends.”