Chapter 10:
People Who Don’t Build Walls Tend to Get Along with Others Easily
AS ASHLEY UNLEASHED her ability, the temperature skyrocketed. The heat rising from her small frame distorted the air around her.
“What the heck?! It’s getting hotter!” shouted Loli Loli. She looked around in a circle, bewildered, her black skirt fluttering in the wind. “Is this that global warming thingy?!”
“I don’t think you can afford to look the other way,” said Ashley, and she unleashed water magic. The spell was wide, thin, and dome-shaped. It was probably intended to cover her target.
But Loli Loli held her hand aloft and froze that water magic. It was like she’d shot cold air from her hands.
“Not! Over! Yet!” Ashley roared. Flames erupted from the frozen water and flew right at Loli Loli. That was her Infinite Flame for you. Whew, that ability sure was strong. It was like a two-hit combo that didn’t even take any setup.
“Go away! Go away! Shoo!” Loli Loli shouted, waving her hands around. Her shield of ice manifested at once, blocking the flames.
Meanwhile, Ashley carefully studied her opponent. I could feel the heat from her power even where I stood.
“Nothing will work against me!” shouted Loli Loli. “Do you know why? Because I’m the strongest!” She summoned a block of ice from thin air and flung it at Ashley.
Ashley answered by raising her right arm. “Eat this!”
Ashley’s flames rapidly grew in size and erupted high into the sky. Then she swung her arm down—it was a flaming sword now. With a single swing, she easily melted the ice block. And now her flaming sword arm was headed right for Loli Loli.
“Wha—hot, hot, hot!” Loli Loli lit up. Ashley’s flames spread across her body.
“Once more!” Ashley howled. She slashed at Loli Loli with her flaming sword, going at her with a horizontal swing. The way she attacked without hesitation, that really moved me. The worst thing you can do is leave the job half-finished when trying to finish off your foe. That just makes your opponent want to die.
Beside me, Filia let out a relieved sigh. The intensity of the fight was getting to her; she seemed exhausted. But now it looked like Ashley had won. When Filia noticed I was looking at her, she smiled weakly.
“I was so anxious,” she said. “I felt like I was on the edge of my seat…”
“It’s not over yet,” I replied.
“Wh—oh!”
Even though Filia could analyze things via Clairvoyance, she’d still lost her composure. Whenever I’m fighting, I remain calm, but Filia always seems to have a hard time watching people fight. As for me, I can follow the flow of battle via intuition.
Ashley’s onslaught had continued, but Loli Loli’s vital signs were still there. And then, suddenly, the flaming sword with which Ashley had been slashing away froze solid. Along with Ashley’s right arm.
“Wh-what?!” Panicked, Ashley used her flames to melt the ice and pulled her arm free.
Loli Loli stepped out of the steam, an audacious smile on her face. “You’re strong! This is starting to get fun! All right! Time to get serious!”
“What? You weren’t serious before?” Ashley was flustered. Loli Loli’s eyes took on an icy sheen, and cold air started to radiate from her. The temperature plummeted.
Man, the poor temperature. Had to be exhausting, going up and down like that so rapidly.
“Here I go!” shouted Loli Loli.
Loli Loli launched a palm-sized block of ice at Ashley. Ashley raised her flame shield, but the ice block grew plantlike stalks that stretched out, crashing against the shield and dousing the flames. Ashley’s Infinite Flame summoned more fire, but every new flame disappeared after colliding with the ever-growing ice stalks. The block of ice itself continued to close in on Ashley until she was unarmed.
“It’s not over! I…I can’t lose!” Ashley rolled, dodging the ice block, but she wasn’t used to dodging. She was so strong that she rarely had to practice getting out of the way, so she put too much force into the roll and spun about three times on the ground. Her opponent saw the opening and rushed in.
Loli Loli loomed over Ashley. She’d moved so fast that it probably wouldn’t have mattered if Ashley had dodged well. “That was fun! Let’s do it again!”
“Ugh!”
The mass of ice and a spear of flame collided—and the flame froze and shattered. The ice continued on and collided with Ashley, knocking her out cold.
Loli Loli turned to Filia and me. “Soooo, are you guys next?”
“First, let’s talk,” I said.
“Talk? What?” Loli Loli cocked her head to the side.
“Why did you come here?”
“I came to see that burning thingy. I thought it looked neat, so I came over! I saw him when I was flying through the air!”
“So you’re not planning to hurt the people in this village?”
“Loli Loli doesn’t want to attack anyone! But I was attacked, so I hit back! That’s like ‘legitimate self-defense’ or something, right?”
“You’re not thinking of attacking a store in this village or anything, then?”
“Attacking? What store? I don’t get it. Explain, please!”
So that’s really how it was, huh? I looked to Ashley. Filia rushed over to her and healed her with recovery magic, but Ashley didn’t really have any major wounds. Her opponent had never intended to take her life at all—Loli Loli really had come here purely out of curiosity, with no intention to fight or attack the store.
I didn’t want to battle her either. I couldn’t sense any fighting spirit at all from Loli Loli, and I wasn’t about to have a match with someone who didn’t actually want to fight. On top of that, she was still a kid. I definitely wouldn’t want to take her life. It’d just be a waste—she still had so much time to get even stronger in the future.
“Ashley’s going to be okay,” said Filia. “Her wounds have been completely healed. She should regain consciousness in a couple hours.”
“All right.”
My guess was that Filia had peeked into Loli Loli’s mind using her Clairvoyance, because as Filia carried the unconscious Ashley on her back, I didn’t see any fear in her eyes when she looked at the majin.
I looked over at Loli Loli in front of us, dressed in her black Gothic Lolita clothes. She was even smaller than Ashley, wasn’t she? To win against our S-Ranked buddy, she really did have to be tough.
“Heyyyyy, are you listening?” asked Loli Loli. “You better not ignore me!”
“All right, I get it. Loli Loli. Let’s have a match, you and me.”
“Okay!”
An immediate answer, huh? Making snap decisions was quite the advantage on the battlefield.
“Yuri?!” Filia looked shocked. I’d definitely given her the wrong idea.
“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not talking about a death match or anything—just a friendly competition.”
I wasn’t going to risk my life—or ask Loli Loli to risk hers—but seeing her in action as a bystander, I had felt that her power was considerable. I couldn’t help wanting to fight someone like that, if she was willing to go for it.
“Now, for the matter at hand…you got any ideas on how we should do this?”
The only thing I could think of was a duel, but I wasn’t sure I could go toe to toe with someone as strong as Loli Loli and keep a good rein on myself—I might get overenthusiastic and go for the throat.
Loli Loli thought for a moment, nodded, and clapped her hands together. “Okay, how about a race? I’m super fast! I’m so fast, you can’t even follow me with your eyes!”
“Sounds good. Oh, and Filia? Can you use your recovery magic on her?”
“Healing magic? Wow, you’re nice!”