<b>? Redcliffe (5) ?</b>
1.
<b><i> ‘What is a magic battle?’</i></b>
Amon question that apprentice witches would bring up during their lessons.
To answer that, many witches would refer to a certain game.
A board game, depicting a small war unfolding on a narrow board consisting of sixty four squares; chess.
Like chess, magic battles involved two sides trying to discern each other’s intentions, strategic thinking and calctions.
However, there was obviously more to a magic battle than that.
In the first ce, a magic battle wasn’t a fair game where both participants held the same pieces, time and followed the same rules. And more importantly, it wasn’t a turn based game.
The stage for magic battles wasn’t just a sixty four square chessboard, rather, thousands times bigger than that. Each yer held a different number of pieces, possessed different kinds of movements and followed different sets of rules.
‘Number of pieces a yer can have’ represented how much mana they possessed.
Meanwhile, ‘the number of pieces a yer can move in a turn’ represented by how skilled they were in using mana.
There was also ‘the movement pattern of these pieces,’ which varied depending on how skilled the person was in magic.
In this mind game, every factor was put on disy as each sidepeted to see whose magic was more refined than the other.
And in those regards, Depletely overshadowed Siwoo.
As a highly experienced witch, ranked 20th in the hierarchy, De had dedicated countless years to perfecting her mastery over magic.
Meanwhile Siwoo was a self-taught novice who had only gained his power not too long ago.
The vast difference in their abilities made the thought ofparing those twoughable.
With that much difference in skill, there was a clearly significant gap between the two. And this gap would heavily affect the oue of the battle they currently were having.
However…
“Ugh!”
At first, De expected that the battle would end within a minute, but it dragged on.
<b><i> -ng!</i></b>
Siwoo’s powerful sword swing was met by her formidable defense, the ‘Solid me.’
The strike that could easily split a huge rock in two still wasn’t enough to prate it.
He swung his longsword forcefully against the wall of mes shielding De’s body, all while deflecting and dissipating the erupting mes around him with his shield.
<b><i> -ng!</i></b>
“How could… Such a thing…!”
Initially, when she saw him charging at her, she had praised him quite highly.
Still, that praise was something that came out from a lofty perspective, a praise a higher being would give to a lower lifeform, filled with confidence in their overwhelming superiority.
If there was one weakness that De’s magic had, it was the interval between her magic manifestations due to her reliance on repeaters.
The more powerful spell she tried to use, the more repeaters that she required, leading to the inevitably longer dys.
That was why, considering the disparities in mana, skill and level of their magic, the best thing Siwoo could do to fight her was to relentlessly press forward, leaving her with no room to even breathe.
<b><i> -ng! ng!</i></b>
Sticking closely to De, Siwoounched continuous attacks to prevent her from counterattacking.
A simple strategy that even a child coulde up with.
To execute it, however, was a different story.
De’s ‘Solid me’ possessed an automatic counterattacking system, simr to that of a witch’s autonomous defense.
Whenever she was attacked, fiery mes would pour out in response.
Faced with such powerful mes, any intelligent being would feel apprehensive whether they liked it or not.
Even if one managed to block out the mes, the heat would still obscure their vision, and scorch their skin, prompting them to retreat due to fear.
<b><i> -ng!</i></b>
Yet, despite all that, the sword made of shadow shed against the wall of mes once more.
Sparks flew as scorching mes grazed Siwoo’s cheek.
Amidst the sparks and the grazing heat, his face, exposed beneath the helmet, was reddened, several burn marks had already formed there.
In that fleeting moment, amidst the brilliant mes, De’s gaze locked with Siwoo’s.
The odd-eyed figure, each bearing ck and gold irises, held an unwavering gaze.
Despite the situation where one small mistake could severely injure him, he relentlessly pursued her like a hunting dog locking on its target.
This made De convinced.
The man was no stranger to such battles.
He had experienced simr situations before.
“Are you maybe… Countess Gemini’s secret weapon…?”
Such doubts arose within her, but Siwoo didn’t answer her.
It wasn’t like he was ignoring her question, though.
He was just too focused on swinging his sword to the point that her voice couldn’t reach his ears.
But there was no way for De to know this, so she could only grit her teeth in frustration.
If only she could stall him for five or even three seconds, she could easily turn him into ashes.
But she couldn’t. He clung to her persistently, and she was unable to shake him off for even a second.
<b><i> -Ping! Ping! Ping!</i></b>
Suddenly, a peculiar sound echoed, and De quickly nced to see what was causing it.
There was a single ck ribbon,ing out of Siwoo’s lower back, moving freely while piercing through the air.
Each time it moved, it pierced through the core of a magic form, shattering her repeater like ss fragments.
“Eek!”
As stated before, those repeaters were important for De to cast her spells.
She needed a certain number of them to castrge-scale spells that were iparable to the weak and shoddy spells like her ‘Solid me.’
But, the man in front of her seemed to not only know of their existence, he also knew about their significance to her. As such, he had been deliberately disrupting and dismantling the repeaters that she had deployed.
Ever since his first strike, she had been unable to deploy more than forty repeaters at once.
This kept going on, cracking theposed expression on her face.
Scattering those repeaters around wasn’t an easy task.
At the end of the day, those were still part of a spell, so it required her to use her mana.
Since he kept on dismantling those repeaters, she ended up wasting her mana for nothing, depleting her own reserves over time.
“You persistent cur!”
She involuntarily blurted out.
<b><i> ‘This isn’t a proper magic battle anymore!’</i></b>
De believed that a magic battle should involve both sides using their honed self-essence magic as weapons, and strategized to outsmart and outperform each other. To put it simply, for her, a magic battle should be a high-level showdown.
That was why she felt greatly insulted that Siwoo dragged it into a dogfight like this.
“Fine, do you think this is all I got?”
While upholding the wall of mes, she began to rework her magic form.
She knew that if she continued on like this, she’d end up ying right into her opponent’s hands.
The word ‘defeat,’ that she never even considered in the beginning, had been looming ominously in her mind for a while now.
There was a certain spell in mind that she wanted to cast, ‘Dancing mes.’
A rather simple spell that would wrap around the enemy’s arms and legs to burn them into crisp.
It wasn’t the most impressive magic, but she could definitely use it to at least hinder Siwoo’s movements.
To cast it though, she had to reduce the output, so that she could use it with less mana.
“Ignite!”
De shouted as she swung her arm, causing several scattered repeaters to start vibrating.
For this modified version of ‘Dancing mes’ to activate, she needed at least five of these repeaters. Just now, she had summoned and dispersed sixteen repeaters to strategic ces.
Additionally, there were thirty eight of them that she had deployed prior to this.
Even if his ribbon managed to demolish more than half of the total of her repeaters, as long as five or more of them remained intact, she’d still be able to cast the spell.
In that brief moment, not only did she manage to modify her spell, but she also implemented some safeguards and countermeasures.
This was the prowess of the one who held the esteemed title of ‘Grand Witch,’ someone who managed to reach the 20th rank of the hierarchy.
She wouldn’t let herself lose to the opponent in front of her without being able to do anything.
<b><i> ‘Alright.’</i></b>
<b><i> ‘This damn deadlock is finallying to an end.’</i></b>
<b><i>-Ping! Ping! Ping!</i></b>
She thought, feeling a glimmer of hope.
That was, until the ck ribbon that had been randomly dismantling the repeaters, moved to dismantle the sixteen repeaters that she specifically set up to cast the ‘Dancing mes.’
“…But, how?”
In an instant, the counterattack she had mustered with all her remaining mana dissipated.
<b><i> ‘Such uracy… There’s no way this is a coincidence!’</i></b>
<b><i> ‘Could it be? He hadn’t randomly destroyed the repeaters? But, he targeted the most important ones?’</i></b>
At that moment, De realized something.
This man seemed weaker than a high-rank Homunculus at a first nce.
He hovered in a position far below from her own, and it seemed like he never intended to engage in direct confrontation from the beginning.
And so, if he were to show even just a slight hesitation during their deadlock, the Goddess of Victory would have been showering De with kisses.
However, reality unfolded quite differently.
As soon as the battle began, he leaped into the mes without a shred of hesitation.
He went in, knowing exactly where her weak spots were and refused to give her any space.
Despite his struggle in the beginning, he eventually managed to overturn the situation.
The decisive factor in this showdown wasn’t something grandiose.
While De was treating this battle as a game, the man was fighting for his life.
<b><i> ‘This isn’t something that someone who hadn’t received any training could pull off!’</i></b>
The ring he wore indicated he was a guest of the Gemini Household.
A man who bore a brand and possessed a good instinct during a fight.
The shadow he deployed had the property to disrupt the magic, and this also applied to the weapons that were made from it.
Not only that, his eyes probably could even see the flow of mana.
And there was also that ribbon, which could cover any weaknesses that he might have.
<b><i> ‘There’s no mistaking it…’</i></b>
<b><i> ‘He’s the secret weapon of the Gemini Household, made to be deployed when there aren’t enough witches to hunt down Homunculi or wicked Exiles.’</i></b>
<b><i> ‘Otherwise, there’s no way I’d be in this situation.’</i></b>
<b><i> ‘This isn’t merely about superiority or such either.’</i></b>
<b><i> ‘He is simply a formidable opponent, as if he’s made to fight against witches far more powerful than he is…’</i></b>
Thus, De finally acknowledged Siwoo’s prowess.
Since he disyed his skills without holding anything back.
She decided to do it in kind to keep up with him.
<b><i> ‘He looks like an ordinary man, but he actually conceals this kind of truth deep within, huh…?’</i></b>
“Alright, since it’s a fight you want, I’ll oblige.”
De didn’t have much mana left to fight.
She was well aware that this might be herst chance to make a move.
Seizing the opportunity when Siwoo raised his shield, she dismantled the wall made of her Solid me.
At the same time, she redirected the mana she had been deploying there to strengthen her body.
As her mana flowed through the circuits spread throughout her entire body, she increased her durability to its maximum level.
The most effective way to utilize mana was undoubtedly through a witch’s own body.
And so, she used up all her remaining mana to make herself stronger and strengthened her autonomous defense to its strongest state.
She swiftly advanced, taking advantage of Siwoo’s unguarded state when he was about to swing his sword.
Turning the whole battle into a closebat.
Normally, De wouldn’t even attempt such a move, but her priority was to win this fight.
She believed that exploiting the gap in Siwoo’s monotonous assault would be enough to earn her victory.
Besides, he was the one who started the closebat trend in their fight, so it was only right that she answered his challenge.
Using her autonomous defense, she nned to withstand any counterattacks that he might unleash.
Its resilience could create distance between them, buying herself time to deliver her final blow using the scattered repeaters.
Fully determined now, she threw herself into action.
Perhaps, it was a mere coincidence.
At that moment, their eyes locked.
From his partially destroyed helmet, she faced his intense gaze, and instinctively understood.
The man could perceive her determination, her desperate final stand as she threw away her own pride.
“Go… Down…!”
As she surged forward, trying to evade his relentless pursuit, her opponent suddenly ceased his attacks, creating distance between them.
While this was something that De had hoped for, the battle still didn’t turn to her favor.
In that critical moment, she had focused all her mana into enhancing her physical abilities and autonomous defense.
After all, she expected an iing strike that would trigger her autonomous defense to buy herself precious seconds needed to reactivate her repeaters.
But that didn’t happen and if she were to keep this up, her mana expenditure would turn meaningless.
And so, she redirected the flow of mana that she had invested in her body.
She realized that herst opportunity was slipping away by the seconds and hurriedly activated the dormant repeaters to set up her attack.
<b><i> -Bang!</i></b>
But it was toote. A ck ribbon hit her side.
The ribbon, which had never directly intervened in a battle prior to this, suddenlyunched an attack, as if it had been waiting for this moment.
This was something that she had neglected to consider.
“Gah!”
With a strange cry, saliva sprayed from her mouth as her body folded sideways in the air, tumbling helplessly to the ground.