Chapter 18
“Why draw a card if you’re not going to use it? Are you mocking me?”
I had only drawn the card; I wasn’t using it.
Normally, something whose nature is unknown
is more threatening when merely held than when used.
Of course.
I had no intention of keeping it a bluff forever.
The opponent was starting to move.
‘Red Beriaf.. He’s probably middle-to-lower tier at best.’
He was the kind of character I’d be happy to encounter in the game, since that would mean a free win.
And yet, he was much faster and more agile than I was.
“Slash!! Surely you’re not going to ignore this too!”
I couldn’t ignore it.
One hit from that attack and I’d be out cold.
Maybe I should watch him a little longer.
“Energy Bolt!”
The spell flew toward Red at high speed.
But.
- Pop!
My attack was pathetically weak.
A basic Energy Bolt with no bonuses was even worse.
“.. Are you mocking me!!”
No.
No, that wasn’t it.
I wasn’t mocking him; this was genuinely all I could use.
“If you don’t get serious.. I’ll kill you!!”
I looked around.
The training arena was horribly cramped.
In the large, dome-shaped arena,
matches were beginning one after another in several of the training arenas.
Now, matches were underway in every arena.. not a single one was left unused.
The atmosphere was heating up.
The mood in the other arenas would soon affect the opponent’s fighting spirit as well.
‘.. It’s time to use a card with real magic inscribed on it.’
There was no time left to keep bluffing.
- Shlick.
“.. Yes!! Show me your true power!!”
Red shouted when he saw me unfold the card.
His eyes had changed.
Those furious red eyes
seemed to have turned into eyes full of boldness.
‘.. I don’t like him being this aggressive.’
Even if I was a jack-of-all-trades character who learned all sorts of things,
for now, I had to be regarded as a mage.
I’d use other tools later, but..
I disliked opponents who came charging straight at me like that.
‘It can’t be helped. I’ll just have to knock him back.’
“Raaagh!!!”
Red charged forward at high speed.
What was he, a bull?
Why was he charging so ferociously?
I threw the card at him.
- Whoosh!!
The card flew through the air.
A tiny scrap of paper.
But as that tiny scrap of paper passed through the air, it gained friction.
Its friction with the air served as a kind of trigger.
Like a meteor falling from outer space.
The card left a tail of flame.
- Fwoosh!!!!
“It worked.”
It was a success.
It looked exactly like it had in the game.
And..
It had the same flaw it had in the game as well.
“I thought it might be some powerful spell because you were acting like it was, but.. it’s so weak!?”
- Fwoosh!!
The opponent burst through the flames.
Like a firefighter emerging through a raging blaze.
With the fire at his back,
he held his sword pointed at me.
“As expected, that wasn’t enough, was it?”
“Of course not, with a mere scrap of a card..”
I snickered.
He was right.
Magic had tremendous firepower.
But it was somewhat vulnerable in a battle of speed.
However, a mage using items had to sacrifice some of that firepower.
‘When a spell is inscribed.. its power is determined by proficiency, but..’
‘However you look at it, it’s weaker than using mana directly.’
That was only natural.
If you could cast grand magic by just flicking cards..
then who would bother using magic,
and why would anyone draw magic circles on the ground?
But..
It wasn’t as though I was using this weakness without knowing about it.
“Haaah!!! I’ll finish you right now!!”
Red sped up even more.
His body, heated by the flames,
seemed to have sharpened his focus even further.
But..
I couldn’t just sit there and take it.
‘Everyone in the world knows that magic cast from cards isn’t powerful.’
'Talismans are a little stronger, but.. they’re still similar.'
‘But.. I don’t need to land every attack head-on.’
Even if the enemy had a powerful attack that could blow my head off in one shot,
there were times when an out-boxer who only threw jabs could beat someone senseless without taking a hit.
‘Let me show you how to play the game like an asshole.’
I threw the next card.
‘Wind.’
- Whiiiiing!!!
A powerful gust swept through in an instant.
It wasn’t strong enough to inflict physical damage.
But it was powerful enough to push the enemy back.
“.. Guh!”
Red’s body staggered for an instant.
Even if it didn’t hurt, it was more than enough to interfere with him.
That was the purpose in the first place.
“Phew~ Hard to get close now, huh?”
Good.
I just had to use this brief opening to widen the distance.
That brought the distance between us back to what it had been at the start.
Roughly six meters.
As long as I maintained this distance,
the melee fighter wouldn’t be able to attack me.
“The trump card you pulled out was.. nothing more than a stalling tactic??”
Red stared at me as if he couldn’t believe it.
Well, what did he want me to do?
It might be nothing more than a stalling tactic,
but it was more than effective enough.
“If you keep your distance, what can you even do?”
I grinned and taunted Red.
Red looked at me with an incredulous expression after hearing my words.
“.. You coward!!”
“Thanks for the compliment!”
Red ground his teeth and charged at me again.
But it was barely any different from his charge a moment ago.
I threw a card at my opponent.
- Whoooosh!!
Another powerful gust blew.
Red couldn’t withstand the gust,
and the distance widened again.
“.. Are you going to keep doing this!!!”
“Well~ If it keeps working, I will, I guess?”
Red clenched his teeth and charged at me again.
Once.
Twice..
Three times…
- Whoooosh~~!
- Whiiiiing~~!!
“You.. crazy bastard!!!”
Red looked at me with an incredulous expression.
He must have been wondering what kind of person I was.
I understood.
Even if I had been a melee character, I’d have been furious if I ran into a bastard like this.
But..
This was how you were supposed to play games.
As obnoxiously as possible, until the opponent couldn’t think straight.
“Huff.. huff..”
Red glared at me, breathing heavily.
It must have been exhausting.
Sprinting at full speed into a headwind put more strain on the body than you’d expect.
That was right.
I was still fresh,
while the enemy’s stamina kept draining.
I jeered at Red.
“If we keep this up, it looks like I’ll win in the end, doesn’t it?”
Red’s brow furrowed at my words.
He knew it too.
If I dragged things out like this,
he would end up at a disadvantage.
“.. I admit it.”
Red looked at me with a grim expression.
It felt as though the atmosphere had changed.
I, too, pointed one hand at the enemy
and slipped the other into my pocket.
So I could draw a card at any time.
“That you.. have won.”
But.
Red threw his sword to the ground.
The sword stabbed straight into the dirt.
It stood there absurdly.
.. Was it really going to end this anticlimactically?
“.. Are you surrendering?”
Red nodded.
Then.. he began walking forward.
“..”
‘This bastard.. he’s faking it.’
There wasn’t the slightest loss of fighting spirit in his eyes.
The way he glared at me as if he wanted to kill me..
His eyes were still those of a wolf hunting a rabbit.
Because I was fighting dirty,
my opponent had started fighting dirty too.
Well, it was pathetic, if anything.
‘He’ll probably launch a powerful attack this time.’
- Shlick!!!
I jumped backward and began pulling out a card.
Seeing that, Red sprang forward.
He must have realized his act had been exposed.
How clumsy.
He couldn’t even hide it in his eyes.
- Whoooosh!!!
“Try blocking this too, you bastard!!!!”
“But it’s the exact same move again?”
Red merely grinned at my words.
What was it? What was different?
- Crackle.. crackle..!
Amid the fierce wind,
yellow static began to spark.
‘.. An electrical-type Ability..?!’
- Krrrzzzzzt!!!!!
“Krah..!!!”
A powerful electric current struck my body head-on.
The sensation of touching your tongue to a battery spread throughout my body.
Damn..
How could someone who was barely even middle-to-lower tier
have a lightning-attribute Ability??
“.. As expected, it was too much to hold this back against a top-ranked opponent.”
Red smirked at me.
He had no intention of approaching me anymore.
“Now, the difference in our reach is about even.. so what are you planning to do?”
‘.. This is ridiculous. How does someone in the lower ranks have an electrical Ability?’
I was annoyed.
Why did I have to meet someone like this as my very first opponent?
The difference in range no longer mattered.
‘I knew this wouldn’t be easy.. but this is a bit much.’
Until now, I’d been fighting while managing my cards carefully.
To minimize my energy expenditure as much as possible.
.. I guess I’ll have to fight at full power now.
The firepower I could bring to bear was..
Wind- and fire-type magic.
I probably couldn’t use water-type magic.
Since the enemy used electricity.
Well..
There were still quite a few ways to win.
“Nice weather today, isn’t it?”
I spoke softly to Red.
Red’s expression twisted when he heard me.
“.. What are you talking about?”
“I mean exactly what I said. The weather is nice.”
“…”
Red merely continued furrowing his brow.
As if he were trying to figure out what I meant..
That’s right.
There was meaning hidden in my words.
Go on, figure it out.
Figure out what I’m about to do.
If you figure this out.. you win.
“The weather’s nice, so the dome arena’s roof is open.”
I looked up at the sky above the training ground.
Strong sunlight was baking the training ground.
It was hot enough to make you sweat just by moving.
“Thanks to that, the sand floor of the training ground.. has been heated by the sun.”
“What.. kind of bullshit are you talking?”
I grinned when I heard Red.
He couldn’t understand why I was saying these things.
“If you don’t understand, that’s fine.”
But.
This would be the reason you lost.
Miserably.
“Then I guess I’m going to win.”
The veins on Red’s forehead bulged at my words.
He was getting angry, was he?
That’s right.
I said it to make him angry.
Stop fooling around with that strange lightning,
and charge at me without looking back.
“… I was a fool for listening to this nonsense. I’ll finish you right now!!”
Yellow static began to rise from Red’s body.
That attack.
It hurt like hell.
But.. it wasn’t powerful enough to knock me out.
Which meant.
In the end, to kill me, he’d have to get close, right?
- Krrrzzzt!!!
I could feel the electricity’s sting throughout my body.
“Raaagh!!!”
It hurt.
It really hurt.
But.. I felt like laughing.
Things were going exactly as I wanted.
“Let’s see.. what it is you’re putting your faith in!!”
The enemy.
was approaching to finish me off,
- Shlick!
I threw the card that produced flames onto the ground.
Of course, it had already become clear that this fire was useless against Red.
Red snorted.
“Flames??? Is that all you’ve got!!!”
Red broke through the fire and closed in on me in an instant.
Good.
This, too, was within my calculations.
- Shlick!
The next card was a wind card.
But..
This time, I wouldn’t shoot it at the enemy.
I looked up at the sky.
“Did you know that hot ground creates an updraft?”
“..?”
I threw the card toward the sky.
- Shlick!!
The card rode the flames and shot up into the sky in an instant.
Red stopped short and watched the card rise into the sky.
“The sky..?”
“Doesn’t it seem like something’s gone wrong?”
- Whoooooosh..
The wind began to blow completely differently from before.
The wind that had been blowing horizontally along the ground
began blowing vertically.
The wind.
shot up into the sky.
That wind..
matched the direction of the wind blowing through the training ground.
An updraft [upward current] rising from the hot sand.
Compared to the paltry wind I had created myself..
this natural convective current was thousands, tens of thousands of times stronger.
I..
only had to ride it.
- Whoooooosh!!!!!
That’s right.
It was an environmental attribute (env - Element).
But it didn’t end there.
A powerful updraft created a powerful current of air,
and that current..
became fuel for the fire(火).
The fire grew hotter,
creating an even stronger updraft.
In an environment where an updraft was blowing, wind and fire..
the three elements came together..
and produced an absurd synergy.
On top of that, I..
only had to let a little mana flow out.
“Bloom.”
- Fwoosh!!! Fwoooosh!!!
The endless positive feedback between the fire and the updraft.
It wouldn’t stop until the mana in the surrounding environment was depleted.
In the end.
The flames surged into the sky like a dragon.
A red dragon.
Riding the powerful updraft,
rose into the heavens..
I called this a fire tornado.
- Fwoooosh!!!
There was nothing after that.
Only acrid ash,
and a fallen opponent.
“The match is over!!! The winner is Bin!!!”
Haha..
Seriously..
It looked like I was going to show my whole hand from the very start.
I let my tingling body
be carried by the drifting ash
as I faced the ground.
————
“.. Interesting?”
More than thirty individual matches were taking place simultaneously in the individual sparring arenas.
Naturally, the most popular matches were the ones featuring the top-ranked students.
Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people were watching [Mist]’s match.
Powerful spells that dazzled the eye flew back and forth,
but Mist endured every attack and stubbornly landed effective blows on her opponent.
That scene.. drew the eyes of every spectator.
But.
Seoeun was watching an entirely different match..
- Fwoosh!
“It’s good that he stopped using fire once he realized fire attacks didn’t work.”
- Whoosh.
“He’s good at getting under his opponent’s skin in the most infuriating way.. and he’s clever, too?”
- Whoosh.. Fwoosh!!
“Besides.. how is he creating attacks like that with such a crude magic circle..?”
Seoeun swallowed hard.
After several years.. she had found someone interesting.
“But.. he’s been hanging around with Miss Ena?”
As if her older sister had come to mind, a laugh escaped her.