Stomping Duel (2)
I let the magic power flow into my wand and activated a projection. The projection registered in the wand made a magic circle appear around me without the need for chanting.
“Wha—?”
“Go, Flame Lance.”
A fire lance about a meter long came out of the magic circle and shot straight towards A. But…
“You are pushing your luck with magic of this level!!”
He cut down the Flame Lance with his sword. Tsk. That was not a human movement, so it probably was a magic sword technique characteristic to body strengthening. I’m not sure if I would be able to do this kind of superhuman movement if I used it, and even if I could, my bones would probably shatter.
But cutting through magic, huh… He must be channeling magic into the sword, which interferes with the magic itself. If it didn’t, the sword would break. This is indeed a nuisance. It was not powerful enough to hurt him, but to still cut through it… And he has a pretty relaxed expression on his face, too.
It’s only a matter of time before he breaks through, even though I have fired a barrage of Flame Lances so that he couldn’t come to me without stopping the Flame Lance first. But if I can observe him and feed back his power to me, I can go even further. Actual combat is the best training, after all.
“How amusing. Is this all you are capable of? I want to see more, I want to know more. You have something I don’t have, so show it to me”
“Don’t get carr——!?”
Since A was approaching me while avoiding my Flame Lances with minimal movements, I rewrote the Flame Lance magic circle to Ice Lance one. Then, Earth Lances appeared all around me, blocking A’s approach, and A was forced to withdraw to avoid the number of Earth Lances charging towards him. And then, he got caught in the barrage of Flame Lances again.
“This is not fun. Show me your true strength. Gather and form, Alchemy.”
When I did a normal chant, I activated Alchemy. This time, I’m going to smelt iron sand from the surrounding sand and create a 30cm small sword… similar to a Japanese kodachi. I made two of them and placed the wand back on my waist.
“Marionette, Full Boost, Perception Expansion.”
Then I cast support spells on me and charged towards A. Of course, I have no knowledge of martial arts. The first blow was lightly avoided, but when A raised his sword, I stepped back just in time with leg strength beyond my limit. And when the sword passed in front of me, I moved forward and stabbed it with the two small swords.
“Damn it!! Despite having no skills!!”
It’s true that I don’t have any skills. But Marionettes allows me to move my body as I wish… It’s originally a magic spell that makes the dolls move. In addition, the Perception Expansion of my senses improves my reflexes, and the Full Boost will allow me to push my body beyond its physical limits, so what I lack in skill, I can make up for in physical performance.
Of course, this is not what I would normally do. I can defeat him with magic alone in under ten minutes, and I don’t even want to use this combo because it will wreck my body. But I can heal my body with healing magic, so I just decided to use swords to break A’s petty pride. Besides, people as skilled as Albert or Alicia, would treat my efforts as a childish trick since I’m only copying Albert’s movements out of memory.
I crossed my swords to catch A’s sword, then I stepped backward and threw the swords at him.
The moment A blocked it with his sword, he got blown backward. After I threw my swords, I grabbed my wand and cast a Windburn spell that released the compressed wind right in front of A. Naturally, I got blown away as well, but the foundation of most of my tactics is the Protect spell.
It’s good for a surprise attack, because it won’t do any damage to me even if I get caught up in the spell thanks to the defenses strengthened by my excessive magic power.
However, I cannot do this when I am up against an Ogre King or someone with an attack power that can penetrate my Protect.
“Gaaaaaah.”
“Oopsy-daisy.”
A was rolling around on the ground, but I managed to land on my feet… my right foot is hurting, though.
But I have grown up. I wasn’t too perturbed by the thought of my swords hitting the target, and I was able to use my magic against him, too. I can’t kill just yet, but you can fight now. However, swords are a bit impossible for me. Even with all the assistance from supporting magic, I’m no better than a rookie knight in Arland. You might say that I should be satisfied with that after holding a sword for the first time, but after using it, I don’t feel that I have any more room to grow. Maybe I’m not talented enough in this field. If I’m at that level even after pushing myself like this, I might as well focus on magic from now on.
I pointed my wand at A without a second thought.
There was a lot of sand blowing around in front of me, so the visibility was poor. It would be a perfect opportunity for him to fight back. I can’t be too careful. He’s still hiding something, and I won’t learn his body strengthening if I don’t see it for a bit longer. Maybe that’s why I was able to react to this instant event with just my arm.
“Wha!?”
I was able to recognize it with the help of my Perception Expansion. But even with Full Boost enhancing my physical abilities, I couldn’t fully react, and just managed to guard myself with just my arms, and got blown away more than 10 meters.
“What… is that?”
“Fuahahahahahaha, there’s no way a mere magician is going to win against me in close combat.”