Chapter 102 - Let's See If You Can Handle This (2)

Roman's magic bullet failed to penetrate Lana's defense.

Her aura was solid.

While this meant it was less versatile than mana, pure mana without magic's formal power struggled to overcome aura.

The defensive barrier of rich aura covering her entire body successfully blocked the magic bullet.

However, the issue wasn't whether it was effective or not.

What was that?

How did he deceive her senses and take the rear position?

The Magic-Detecting Needle told Lana.

The opponent definitely used magic.

Light that Illuminates the Depths showed Lana.

What just happened didn't borrow power from Abyss artifacts.

Then, there was only one possibility.

Spatial magic.

The pinnacle of mystery, now supposedly lost except to the Cult of the End.

A realm of magic that invaded and claimed divine territory before being stripped away.

Countless mages had challenged it but failed, never achieving this miracle.

No wonder they were arrogant.

With this, she could somewhat understand the audacity to try playing both Conquerors and Frontier.

Lana was a veteran Explorer.

She instantly grasped spatial magic's value.

Escape when isolated.

Supply expansion through subspace.

Free floor movement by opening shortcuts.

Absolute attacks ignoring defenses through spatial cutting.

Spatial magic's applications and efficiency were truly limitless, and its value couldn't be determined until his death.

Because no one knew how far it might develop.

And if it somehow opened new horizons, preserving it wasn't impossible in the Abyss.

But the attack power is lacking.

No damage despite hitting squarely from behind where defenses were relatively weak rather than the properly defended front.

Comparable to low-level magic, let alone mid-level.

Though the non-delay magic-equivalent simple attack was surprising, that was all it was.

Maybe it’d be useful for quickly clearing weak monsters?

Even then, sweeping them away at once with wide-area magic would be more efficient.

Seems unremarkable except for spatial magic.

Being Devil Magic rather than pure magic was also a demerit.

Unlike other magic where pure mana could be extracted, Devil Magic came with an attached price.

Though degraded power meant reduced price, it still meant paying something beyond mana.

It was only one exchange of attacks.

Yet Lana had analyzed much of Roman's magic.

Zzzzing—

The Magic-Detecting Needle in her left arm resonated with mana waves.

Mana gathered around Roman's body.

Too sudden and bewildering to notice at first, but was this the precursor to spatial movement?

Considering spatial movement's unfair nature, some startup delay was inevitable.

The first spatial movement must have been pre-cast.

Lana's eyes narrowed.

Here it comes.

Where to?

Anywhere’s fine.

You might get caught when you don't know, but not after you know.

Lana immediately prepared to change direction.

Toward where she felt mana flowing.

Too late if moving consciously.

Follow instinctive reflexes built through countless training and real combat.

And again, Roman overturned Lana's predictions.

"From the front?!"

BOOM!!

Fast!

And strong!

It was power on a different dimension from the initial strike to her back.

Crackle—

One step.

Lana's foot slid back by its own length.

Though she'd been less careful with frontal defense while considering direction changes, for Lana this felt like a retreat of pride.

"It was on purpose...!"

Show spatial movement, the ultimate card, in the first attack to draw attention there, then follow with an attack powerful enough to cause sufficient damage.

Quite cunning, isn't it?

And Explorers should rightfully know how to be cunning.

"Is this hunting?"

To defeat an opponent who outclassed one in pure strength, one needed wisdom, tools, and technique.

This much damage accumulated in Heaper?

A-rank artifact “Heaper”.

A shield that accumulated external damage as energy and counterattacked when released after reaching certain thresholds.

The eleven bars displayed inside were accumulation indicators.

Two bars were already filled.

The last strike just filled one more bar.

Knowing well what it took to fill these, Lana clearly recognized the recent attack's danger through this visualized measurement.

It would have hurt quite a bit if I took that directly.

Then just take it with Heaper.

The time for counterattack would come.

Lana just needed to confirm the pattern a few more times to surely grasp the openings.

While Lana was making this resolution, Roman prepared his next attack.

Will a 10-second Smite be blocked?

If I'd known this would happen, I would have just used Blink to hit the body directly like before instead of testing needlessly.

Though I knew that originally...

That shield's obviously an artifact, but I still had to test it.

I was just a lil’ curious, you know?

It's not a life-or-death battle anyway.

And this is also buildup for the next attack.

"This time..."

Whoosh—!!

Just as he was about to cast his second Blink, Lana's foot stomped down hard on the training room floor.

An aura wave spread simultaneously.

War Stamp?

Aura was heavier than mana.

Therefore, when aura and mana collided head-on, mana inevitably got pushed back.

Combat specialists fighting mages developed techniques utilizing this characteristic to break magic.

Spreading powerful aura waves through footwork to disrupt mages' mana fields.

The mana field...

The coordinates built through Axis distorted.

Indeed.

Though Devil mana was much heavier than normal mana, it was still slightly lighter than aura.

But coordinates didn't matter.

Coordinates were just auxiliary indicators anyway.

The true indicator was always one's own senses.

"Got you!"

CRASH!!

Lana's lance, rushing in instantly using War Stamp's footwork as the first step, pierced through the space where Roman had just been.

Though she'd loosened her arm strength and covered it with a blunt aura to avoid serious injury, if it had hit, Roman's paper-thin body would have been sent flying far away.

Yes.

If it had hit.

"An illusion?"

The moment her lance passed through Roman, Lana realized its nature.

The Magic-Detecting Needle couldn't function properly due to the mana field disrupted by War Stamp.

"Then the real one...!"

One beat faster than Lana could turn.

A magic bullet raced through the air.

Crack—!

"Kuh—!"

Finally, the magic bullet penetrated the aura armor and embedded itself.

Simultaneously, two spells invaded Lana's body.

Exhaustion and Tag.

With this, Roman's victory plan was complete.

Curse type? Compensating for lacking power with this.

Lana quickly recognized Exhaustion as she felt strength leaving her body.

However, she failed to notice Tag hidden beneath Exhaustion.

This much is no problem.

One Exhaustion wasn't difficult to overcome.

Exhaustion's terror lied in its unlimited stacking.

But once hit, the next stack was already as good as here.

"Shall we stop here?"

"...Not yet."

Too focused on spatial magic, she'd severely underestimated other variables.

Now that she recognized the mistake, she wouldn't fall for it again.

And opportunities to correct this would be plenty.

"Come."

"Then I won't hold back."

Roman fired magic bullets casually.

In completely wrong directions from the start.

Just as Lana was glaring at him, wondering what trick he was trying this time, the magic bullets flying through empty space suddenly bent their trajectories.

"W-what?"

Homing?

Lana wove her full-body aura armor even thicker.

Rat—tat—tat—

Magic bullets without Smite applied were like mayflies rushing into a bonfire before her aura armor.

However, experience made Lana sense her current crisis.

I'm cornered.

If homing was possible, the attack initiative belonged solely to Roman.

He could use spatial movement.

Absolute evasion plus homing attacks.

That combination created absolute initiative.

"Kuk!"

Lana charged in recklessly.

The scenario of crouching like a turtle to observe and counterattack after finding weaknesses was no longer in her mind.

She had to press hard and fast.

Discard all common sense.

The opponent had already betrayed common sense multiple times.

But one thing was clear.

If she could force it into close combat, she would definitely win.

The moment I catch him, I'll crush him.

Healing could be requested from their Serapaion School guild member.

The duel had already devolved from a test into a battle of pride.

Boom—boom—!

War Stamp exploded with each step.

Though that alone didn't vaporize the magic bullets, she could feel their power weakening through her aura armor.

Consecutive War Stamps should interfere with spatial movement too.

The aura consumption was somewhat burdensome, but worth investing in.

In front of Roman.

At lance-reach distance, Lana didn't miss the Magic-Detecting Needle's resonance.

Spatial movement! And illusion!

Seven years.

A full seven years.

Would Lana not have fought mages during that time?

She'd accumulated countless bloody battles with mages.

Because many Abyss Worshipers were mages.

And Lana was thoroughly familiar with mages' patterns.

They didn't like allowing combat specialists to close the distance.

Because they knew close combat meant certain defeat.

So the Roman before her...

Illusion!

…was a created decoy with illusion while the real body used spatial movement to ambush.

In the end, when crises struck, one fell back on familiar patterns.

Whoosh!!

Her long lance swept a 360-degree arc through left, right, and back.

But nothing connected.

Her hands, tensed expecting resistance, felt only the lance handle.

"Unfortunately, wrong answer."

Wheeee—!

Oh no.

Neither spatial movement nor illusion was the decoy.

Just because something was cast didn't necessarily mean it would be used.

BOOM!!

In the massive impact shaking her body, Lana recalled this once again.