After a prolonged silence, the audience began to buzz once more. The dust settled, and there lay Ryan, charred black, groaning under his breath.
But just as they were about to celebrate Tanya’s victory—a low growl rumbled across the arena. The Red Dragon was awake once more.
“Wha...?!”
Dark red flames flickered in its mouth. And the flames of a Red Dragon were purportedly so hot they could melt steel.
“Oh god... Run! The Red Dragon’s awake!”
The crowd’s joy quickly turned to panic. After all, there was no telling whether the Somniferous Mist would work a second time. Tanya hastily dropped into a fighting stance—
“Gah...!”
—but her legs buckled.
She was out of mana.
While Tanya’s mana capacity was higher than the average Mage’s due to her rigorous training regimen, she had used it all up over the course of the tournament, and that final Explosion had officially drained the last dregs.
I have to do something!
Desperate for a solution, Tanya’s gaze wandered in search of the Great Sorceress.
“Come, Your Highness. We must get you to safety,” said Maxwell, the Court Grand Mage.
“No.” Arianora answered quiet, yet firm. “Not until my citizens are safely evacuated. Get word to the Imperial Knights and call for a magical platoon to be dispatched at once!”
Maxwell’s eyes narrowed as he stared out at the hulking Red Dragon. “As the Crown Princess of our great Empire, your safety comes first and foremost.”
“No, my people come first. Besides, it’s my duty to bear witness to the events that transpire here today.” After all, few would think highly of a noble that thought first of saving her own skin.
“Personally, I would prefer not to risk any damage to your body,” Maxwell spat under his breath. He snapped his fingers, and a force field activated around the entire stadium.
“Whoa... Very impressive, Your Eminence!” one of the arena guards exclaimed, awestruck. While all he really did was flip the switch on an existing security measure, it normally required the mana of five to ten Mages to activate.
“Hmph. They’re lucky I haven’t completed my research on a personal-sized barrier. Otherwise I would’ve used that for just the two of us,” Maxwell sneered, staring down at the arena below.
How could one little girl possibly hope to defeat a Red Dragon?
The air around them grew more and more tense as the dragon’s mana steadily built. Tanya could hear Nadine’s voice in the background, calmly and precisely directing the spectators to help them evacuate. Meanwhile, she ran through a handful of mental scenarios, desperately searching for a solution to this crisis.
Just then, something soft touched her cheek. “Tanya.”
“Wh... Laplace?!”
Laplace’s velvety fingers wiped the soot from Tanya’s cheek. “What’s your plan? If you’re out of mana, I can lend you as much as you need.”
“But...!”
Back in the Western Wasteland, extenuating circumstances had forced her to slaughter the Wyvern. But this Red Dragon was an innocent creature summoned into servitude at Ryan’s behest. The last thing she wanted to do was end its life. It deserved better than that.
“Hmm... That spell you used earlier—that was Somniferous Mist, non?”
“Y-Yeah...?” Normally this spell was only strong enough to tranquilize enemies.
“I see, I see. It appears my invention has been watered down quite a bit.”
“Wait, what?! You invented Somniferous Mist?!”
“Oui, oui. And I believe your beloved Explosion originated from one of my creations as well.”
“Oh my god, that’s incredible!” Tanya gushed gleefully. She was always ready to geek out over magic, regardless of time or place. “We should talk more about this som—mmmph?!”
Just then, Laplace pressed her lips to Tanya’s, cutting her off. She could feel mana flowing into her body—wait, what are you thinking, Laplace?! Not here! Not in front of this huge audience!!!
“Mmm... There you go. You see, Tanya, Somniferous Mist wasn’t originally meant to put the victim to sleep. It was designed to nullify their mana entirely.”
“Nullify their mana?!” But mana’s the source of all life! You can’t nullify it! That’d be like cutting someone’s arm off and expecting them not to bleed!
Indeed, it was a near-impossible feat... in terms of modern magic, anyway.
“I admit, using it on human subjects led to some... significant side effects, so I stopped testing on them... but surely a creature of that size could handle it, no problem.”
With that, Laplace snapped her fingers, summoning a giant magic circle beneath their feet.
“Holy crap... How did you create such a complex spell formula in an instant?!”
“Hee hee! Because I’m the Great Sorceress, of course! And this is a very old spell.” Grinning, she floated into the air. “Now go on, Tanya. Cast Somniferous Mist again. My custom-made magic circle is here to support you!”
“Oh... uh, okay...” Tanya focused her mana once more. Cast debuff! Water Magic, engage! Add Earth Magic support! “Ready!”
She could feel mana flowing into her from the massive, complex magic circle at her feet and steadily gathering in her sword as if drawn to her spell.
Then she kicked off from the ground, leaping straight at the Red Dragon’s head, its scarlet flames still flickering at the ready.
“GOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
She raised her Not-Excalibur over her head, then swung it down, slicing the empty air as it fired off a second round of mist.
In the next moment, the dragon’s fire breath... was summarily snuffed out.
“Grrrff... rrrfff...!” The Red Dragon writhed to and fro, its eyes glassy. “Grrroo... arrchoo!!!”
A strong wind kicked up, blustering in Tanya’s ears. Riding the air current, she landed a short distance away.
But this “attack” carried no mana, no destructive force. It was simply—
“Was... Was that just a sneeze...?”
“Grrrnnn... grrrph...” Its eyelids drooped... and then the Red Dragon returned to a cozy slumber once more.
Meanwhile, the sneeze had landed a direct hit on Ryan’s unconscious body, knocking him away and blowing off the last unburnt scraps of his clothing. He landed squarely on his back—naked as the day he was born.
“Would you look at that, folks? For shame! You’d never guess he was an adventurer with a body like that!”
“Hahaha! I have to say, †The Scarlet-Black Fallen Angel† looked a lot better with his clothes on!”
The fervor of the crowd grew so loud, it nearly drowned out Nadine and Laplace’s commentary. The contrast between Tanya’s smart, efficient dragon takedown and Ryan’s sheer incompetence was frankly overwhelming.
“Not to worry, everyone! Tanya appears to have ‘defanged’ the Red Dragon once again!”
“Oui, oui! That overgrown lizard is now as harmless as your grandma’s pet cat!”
“Feel free to come by and pet him before you go!”
The relief in the air was palpable. At last, the nightmare was over.
“And that’s a wrap, folks! This is Nadine Amaryllis, signing off!”
“Ethereal beauty Stone Cold Stunner, signing off!”
Then someone in the crowd shouted something that sounded like, “Man, fuck that guy!” Whoever it was, Tanya was tempted to buy them a beer.
“W-W-We have a winner!” the referee stammered. “This year’s champions: Lilium, led by Tanya Artemiciov!”
At this, the audience exploded into cheers, the din rattling the entire stadium:
“TANYAAAAA!”
“HELL YEAAAAHHH!!!”
“YOU DID IT!”
“WHAT UP, DRAGONSLAYER!”
“Dude, she didn’t slay it! More like... DRAGON TAMER!”
“You still alive down there, Fallen Angel?!”
After all the middle school poetry and general incompetence, Ryan had essentially committed social suicide, so it was safe to say that Tanya had won the leader match by a landslide. And with her victory confirmed, Lilium were declared the champions of the Sparring Tournament.
For the first time in the history of their proud nation, an all-woman party had won first place in the Sparring Tournament—and on their very first try.
Together, they had made history.