RATH 83
TL: Eevee
For those who missed the April Fool’s chapter, have a read of it here.Do remember to leave comments for that as well, NU nuked that joke chapter pretty quick.
10. We came, we saw, we won (8)
#15 Their story: Aris ril Letia’s. story.
The sword ki that blazed like flames clashed against a sword that was literally a flame in and of itself.
Although her swordsmanship skills are so unbelievably good you wouldn’t imagine she was a magician, her basic stances are wrong.
The way she moves her sword, is definitely that of someone who knows how to fight.
It seemed that she’d been taught by a very skilled swordsman, but apparently not for long.
A year at least, five years at most.
My enemy’s movements were ones that knew the key elements of swordsmanship, but her body couldn’t follow that knowledge through.
“Pierce, Lightning(雷光)”
But none of that mattered.
The enemy was a magician.
A person who used magic, not a sword.
You could say that it was bizarre that she was capable of a level of swordsmanship this high to begin with.
“Burn, freeze, ravage, judgement!”
And after an exchange with her amazing sword skills, she quickly casted spells as if to prove that she was a magician.
And moreover, the magics she were all casting consecutively were all of different elements.
One would normally use the same element of magic to be able to retain a constant image in your mind in order to bring forth that element, yet despite casting different elements in succession, she was not making a single mistake.
“Kuugh?”
I dodged the fireball, tanked away the ice with my spear arm and cut down the wind blade, but I couldn’t avoid the final electric shock that was sent through the ground.
-This child, she’s fighting while predicting everything. Be careful, Aris! This isn’t an ordinary enemy!
-I know!
The first thing she had done in the match was to freeze the ground.
At first I thought she had been aiming for the moment where I would slip due to the unstable terrain.
Let alone swords, the fact that the lower body is important in the use of literally every weapon is something everyone knows.
And restricting that to create an advantageous situation was something I’d been subject to numerous times in Yugrasia!
Learning from my multiple experiences so far, I thought I could deal with it, but my opponent added lightning magic on top of that, and turned the situation into something completely new.
She used the iced-up ground to constantly send a weak but stable electric current through my feet.
“I’m using too much mana.”
Sword auras use an unbelievable amount of mana compared to simple sword ki.
Even if I coated just the tip of your spear in sword aura, the amount of mana that I used was just simply massive!
And when I combined that expenditure with what I used to protect myself against my opponent’s lightning attacks, even my massive mana pool started to run dry.
-Wouldn’t it be better to switch back to using spear ki and going for an extended fight?
-No, I can’t hold out against Lævateinn with just spear ki alone.
Her magic was bad enough to deal with, but Lævateinn, which was even tanking spear aura-infused attacks was making this battle very difficult for me.
Especially.
‘Why isn’t the floor ice melting when that thing’s radiating that much heat!’
Every time spear and sword met, even at a distance I could feel my sweat evaporate in the heat the sword emanated, and yet it couldn’t melt the ice on the ground at all.
-That’s a demonic blade that set a world on fire. That’s a weapon on par with a divine weapon. Setting its attack targets according to the wielder’s will is a simple task for it. Aris, you don’t turn to stone yourself when you use my shield, now do you?
-That’s not reassuring at all though?!
The goddess’s words that she said as if it was obvious, was not at all helpful.
Is it just me in feeling that this goddess is a lot more useless than I thought she was?
-Aris, I think I felt a very blasphemous intent from you just now… above you!
“Haap!”
“Kuaaaahhhhgh!”
The fire giant screamed as he was cleaved into two parts at the waist, and was desummoned.
But at the same time, a small wound was added to my own flank.
“Kgghh.”
“So close.”
That last attack was seriously meant to kill me.
If I hadn’t twisted away to the side at the last second, I could have been the one to get cut into two halves!
And the only reason why only my side was injured was because I dodged, but my opponent unleashed wind blades at my arms, legs, even my neck.
“Isn’t the neck a bit too dangerous?”
“You’re a swordsmaster, aren’t you? You won’t die just from that?”
She smirked as she said in a emotionless voice.
She was definitely not like this during yesterday’s match, but it felt like she was a completely different person entirely.
“Do you have no intention of maintaining etiquette as a noble?”
I ranked higher than her in both age and title, and I rebuked her oh-so-placid words, but my opponent simply smiled.
“You talk too much. You think I don’t know you’re trying to heal up?”
“Tch!”
And she immediately continued on her offensive!
I tried to stall for time with conversation, but my opponent would not allow it.
-I can smell the scent of Yugrasia from that child!
-I don’t know what that scent might smell like, but for some reason I think I understand!
My opponent’s attacks didn’t befit someone who belonged to the Nermia family, one of the famous names in the empire in terms of magical prowess.
Unlike the Nermia dogma which focused on a single overwhelming attack, her attacks focused on swift counter-strikes and close combat with Lævateinn.
And her skillful use of her summon, archdevil Surtr, as a shield, or using him as a disposable tool in order to land a single effective attack felt like fighting a villain you might see in novels or old fairy tales.
Moreover.
“Haap!”
An unavoidable attack.
And yet my opponent avoided it.
“What the…”
Before I was a martial artist, before I was a noble, I was first a woman.
And so, I have never rolled around on the ground to evade attacks except against the silver devil.
Moreover, this was the imperial festival.
This was being broadcasted across the entire empire, and highlight reels from key events were even saved.
And in that imperial festival, in front of everyone, she showed herself rolling head-first on the ground to avoid my spear!
“Do you have no pride?”
“Can pride fill your belly?”
She coldly spat out those words with a smile, without even bothering to dust off the dirt on her hair.
“What the?!”
But my opponent didn’t stop attacking even in the middle of a conversation.
A frigid gust instantly swept through the battlefield.
Even if, supposedly skilled magicians or battlemages could activate their magic regardless of what they actually said, and if even more skilled, could omit the chant entirely, and activate magic solely with their willpower!
But what kind of keyword was [Can pride fill your belly?] for such a large-scale spell!
“Just this much…!”
I barely cleared away the frosty winds, when I saw a sword of fire flying towards my face.
“Are you actually trying to kill me?”
That wasn’t a magic attack.
That was the fire sword, Lævateinn she’d been wielding this entire time, and she threw it at my face!
“Aegis!”
“Surtr!”
The moment I quickly summoned the goddess’s shield to block the Lævateinn toss, a giant shadow appeared above my head.
“You asshole owneeeerrrr!”
Unlike his appearance, the giant that was falling with his entire body wreathed in fire gave me the impression of a moth diving into flames.
“Don’t make me laugh!”
I clutched onto Aegis with my right hand, and threw my spear high into the sky with my left.
“Kuuwughh!”
The fire giant screamed as he was pierced by a spear coated in spear aura.
And at the same time, I could feel the power of Lævateinn weaken on the opposite side of my shield.
“This is the end!”
No matter how fast she could resummon, the fire giant was out of commission for the forseeable future.
And since she’d also throw Lævateinn, right now she was empty-handed!
If I could land this attack then I could finish her off in a single…
“Mm. this is the end.”
“Uhk!”
But before that, a powerful electric shock spread through my entire body!
“Wh… what?”
With movements that made me doubt her status as a magician, she closed the distance between us and fired off lightning magic at point-blank range.
“And again.”
“Krrrghh!”
-A, Aris!
Rumours had it that apparently there were apparently battlemages trained and specializing in assassination, was this what it felt like to fight one of them.
She threw Lævateinn to make me lift up my shield and cover my own line of sight, and summoned her fire giant to make me look upwards.
While my attention was diverted, she moved into my blind spot and hit me with lightning magic at point blank range.
And even after that she didn’t let her guard down, and kept on using lightning magic again and again.
“Kghhh…”
The most common reason to use lightning magic, was to induce paralysis!
My entire body was electrocuted, making it hard for me to even swing my spear properly!
“How long can you hold out, I wonder?”
“Uuhhhht!”
I can’t lose. This is the final.
For the sake of Yugrasia’s total victory, I cannot lose here…
“You’ve held out pretty well, but this is the end.”
“Guaaaahhhhk!”
A powerful electric shock crashed into my body, strong enough to even make me, who was familiar with pain, scream out loud.
And.
“Uwuuu…”
When I opened my closed eyes, what I saw was a white ceiling.
“I lost?”
An indescribable emotion flooded through my entire body.
-Aris… it’s okay.
“Hrk…”
I wanted to cry. We all thought that Yugrasia’s total victory was all but a given, but I was the one to create that stain on our records.
And in the event worth the most points out of the first three days as well.
That, was far, far too infuriating.
“I could have won. She was strong compared to anyone from any academy! But I still had no reason to lose!”
-But it didn’t mean that you could definitely win, either.
“Yes, I know. But that’s what’s making me angrier! I… I worked so hard for half a year, I struggled and flailed and screamed to survive! But I still lost!”
How long, how hard did I work, to avoid the silver devil?
But I still lost.
“It’s not fair. It’s infuriating. It’s the first time that losing made me this angry! To the point where I understand… what it means to want to win, even if you have to sell your soul to the devil!”
I was angry, so, so angry.
I… said something I should never, ever have said.
-A, Aris! You can’t say such things!
The goddess shouted in a panic, but it was already too late.
“Those words, I heard ’em loud ‘n clear!”
“N, no!”
The voice that came into my ears was that of a certain unforgettable devil’s.
“Ya don’t have ta turn me down. Owner said that if I went rite about nao then unni’d be saying things like that, and he was rite!”
When I turned my head, what came into my view was the silver devil, coming closer to me one step at a time with a bright smile on her face.
“Aris, is your body feeli… huh?”
And behind me, the door opened and the person I saw, was my bestie!
“S, Siir… help…”
“I’ll see myself out.”
Siir’s eyes met mine once, then the silver devil’s eyes once, and then she speedily left the room.”
“S, Siir? Siir!”
I desperately called for Siir, but no reply came back.
No, on the contrary, someone closed the door quickly enough for it to slam shut
“Hello? Is there anyone there? Siir? Siir! Please! Is there anyone out there? I saw you behind Siir! Is it you, pres? Or someone else from the student council? Please take me away from here!”
“Heeheehiih! Unni-ya, no matter how ya beg or pwead, no one’th gonna come! Let’s spend some swee~eet wuvin’ time, just the two of us!”
“N, noooooooo!”
“Ya said ya wanted to win even if ya sold ya soul to tha’ devil!”
“This, this wasn’t what I wanteeeeeeddd!”
And so, as I felt the touch of the silver devil’s fists for the first time in a while.
I could swear to myself again, that I would never, ever lose again.
Although for a completely different reason compared to the beginning!
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