[V10C6] Synchronized Battle

The magical battle for assessing the abilities of Silas Page was to take place in the forest used as the Magic Corps training grounds.

Magical battles were commonly conducted in forests or similar environments because the presence of obstacles added strategic complexity. After all, open spaces without cover would only give a greater advantage to mages with higher mana capacity.

The Roseberg siblings, Raul and Melissa, were placed in charge of maintaining the barrier for the match. Raul was to focus on supplying the mana with his immense mana capacity, while Melissa was to handle the complicated magical formulas.

The magical devices for supporting this barrier had already been set up throughout the forest, allowing Melissa and Raul to spectate the battle from indoors while performing their job.

It should be noted that the barrier did not include the pain nullification formula, which would require the support of several advanced mages. While they had more than enough advanced mages to meet this requirement, the Sages preferred to concentrate on evaluating Silas, so they wanted to minimize the amount of attention that would be diverted to barrier maintenance.

(Ugh, good grief… Maintaining these complex magical formulas would be a piece of cake if the Starspear Witch was here. Why wasn’t she called…?)

Melissa complained inwardly while sneaking a side glance at the faces of the other people in the room.

The fact that she was called to the assessment of the Sage candidate was baffling to Melissa. She may have been a former Sage, but right now, she was little more than a freelance mage. At the very least, her grandmothers had more of a vested interest, so they should be here instead of her.

After preparing the white curtain for projecting the magical battle, Melissa whispered to Raul.

“Psst, Raul. Have you seen our grandmothers in the palace?”

“Yeah! I passed by them near the Jade Chamber a little while ago.”

“Hmm…?”

Melissa’s grandmothers held many prominent positions in the magical world, so it wasn’t unusual for them to be in the palace. But if they were already here, why wouldn’t they show up for the Sage candidate’s assessment? This only furthered Melissa’s doubts.

(Maybe they’re busy with some other job? …Is there something going on near the Jade Chamber?)

Setting aside these thoughts, Melissa activated the barrier for the magical battle.

This barrier was special in that it projected a visual of what was happening in the forest onto the white curtain in front of her. That said, it lacked the ability to capture sounds, so it was nothing more than a visual.

Everyone in the room could now see Louis Miller and Monica Everett facing off against the Sage candidate, Silas Page, at a distance of a few paces.

If this was a serious match with no holds barred, then the outcome would be obvious.

Louis was a Magic Corps veteran and Monica was a master of chantless magic. Their specialties may be different, but both were formidable opponents in one-on-one combat. On the other hand, most of Silas’s combat experience was fighting dragons. His chances of victory were practically zero.

Thus, Monica and Louis had been given a certain restriction to even the odds.

(Either way… Can those two even fight together?)

Melissa had already left the Seven Sages by the time Monica and Louis joined, but she had a good idea of their personalities and abilities.

Monica was introverted and had difficulty expressing herself. Meanwhile, Louis was the former captain of the Magic Corps, renowned for his combat experience.

It was doubtful if they could even communicate effectively to begin with, before even getting into the details of fighting alongside each other.

“…Are they going to be okay?”

Melissa found herself murmuring her doubts out loud, so Raul, who was adjusting the barrier devices, assured her with a wide grin.

“Sure they will!”

“Your confidence is never backed by evidence.”

Melissa sighed, to which Raul continued smiling as if to express his complete confidence.

“Because Monica and Louis-san joined at the same time!”

“Stop being stupid. If joining at the same time means you can cooperate, then what about me and that slug over there?”

The slug in question, Ray Albright, gasped in horror once he was suddenly dragged into the conversation.

Indeed, Melissa and Ray had joined the Sages at around the same time. The Third Thorn Witch had passed away shortly after Ray’s entry, so Melissa joined a few months after.

Unlike Monica and Louis, they didn’t join on the exact same day, but it seemed close enough to count.

However, as one might imagine, the relationship between Melissa and Ray was extremely strained. The gloomy and self-deprecating Ray was a fatal mismatch with the short-tempered and violent Melissa.

“Really?” Raul asked. “I think you two could make a pretty good team. Your abilities are pretty compatible.”

Upon hearing this, Melissa scrunched her entire face. Meanwhile, Ray started tearing at his hair and screaming.

“Cut it out! I was trying to keep a low profile, and you just had to bring me into the conversation! Dammit, dammit, dammit! How am I supposed to cooperate with a woman who throws salt whenever she looks at me! Forget communication, she doesn’t even treat me like a human!”

“Why are you implying that I should communicate with a slug? Just shut it already. The next time you scream, I’ll shove a pile of salt down your throat, slug!”

“Grr! And I even joined the Sages a few months earlier…! That gives me seniority…!”

“You seriously consider yourself a senior to me? Try again in 10,000 years!”

Melissa clicked her tongue and took out a small bottle of salt from her robe pocket. The sight of this caused Ray to scream in surprise.

“Why do you always carry around salt!?”

“That’s a lady’s secret! Orah!”

“Gyaah!! The salt! It got in my eyes…!”

Melissa tossed several handfuls of salt at Ray, who was desperately covering his eyes and rolling on the floor. A rather childish conflict considering they came from two of the most powerful families in Ridill.

The Starseer Witch casually murmured, “Oh my,” as the Artillery Mage shouted, “Abyss! Give her what’s coming!”

Meanwhile, the Aquamancy Mage and Thunder Mage didn’t even bother to comment. From their time in the Seven Sages, they had seen this scene so many times that it only felt natural.

Ray’s grandmother, Adeline, sighed while muttering, “That inept grandson of mine.”

“Come on Sis, I need help maintaining the barrier!” Raul shouted.

Hearing Raul calling her, Melissa brushed the salt off her hands and glanced back at the curtain.

It currently displayed Louis holding the bell that would signal the start of the match. The magical battle was about to begin.

＊　＊　＊

Upon their arrival at the forest, the venue for the magical battle, Monica and Louis each equipped a bracelet-shaped magical device to their arm.

These bracelets were made from a dull gold metal and adorned with a purple gemstone. When employed as a pair, they had the effect of limiting the wearer in magical battles.

Most advanced mages could maintain two spells simultaneously, and since Monica and Louis were two individuals, the duo could cast four spells at a time.

But as long as they wore these bracelets, they were restricted to using a total of two spells.

(This restriction seems more troublesome than I initially thought…)

Monica realized this once she read the magical symbols inscribed onto the bracelet.

It would be much more straightforward if Louis and Monica were limited to one spell each. However, with these magical devices, they were explicitly limited to “two spells total.”

For example, if Louis was currently using two spells and Monica cast a third, whichever spell Louis cast first would be automatically deactivated.

This made the order of spellcasting incredibly important.

(We could allocate both spells to one of us, and have them focus on combat… But that would leave the other one completely defenseless.)

These restrictions made it so that the two-on-one battle could actually turn out more difficult than a simple one-on-one. A duo without proper coordination would only end up dragging each other down.

Silas seemed to understand this as well. He gave dissatisfied glances at the bracelets equipped by Monica and Louis.

“You don’t have to hold back on me,” Silas spat out.

Hearing this, Louis put on an elegant smile.

“No, I daresay this is quite necessary. In order for us to break your pride.”

Louis chuckled, appearing to genuinely enjoy the situation.

However, Monica knew that while the visuals for this magical battle were being transmitted, the audio was not.

Louis may be maintaining a mask of smiles, but he had no intention of holding back his biting remarks.

“If a veteran mage such as yourself were to be soundly defeated by someone holding back, how embarrassing would that be? Silas Page-dono.”

Louis was practically spitting venom from under the cover of a smile. The taunt made Silas exude anger from every pore in his body.

To tell the truth, Monica found both of them incredibly intimidating and could only tremble under the pressure.

“Now then, I’ll give you some time to run away as far as you like. The magical battle begins once I ring this bell,” Louis explained, raising a bell attached to a leather strap.

Silas clicked his tongue and briskly walked into the depths of the forest, disappearing from view.

Once he was gone, Monica voiced her doubts in a hesitant tone.

“Um, Louis-san, is this really okay…? You’re the one who recommended him, so shouldn’t you remain as a spectator…?”

“You ask because of the potential conflict of interest which may lead me to hold back in the magical battle, correct?”

“Y-Yes…”

Monica nodded, leading Louis to explain in the tone of a teacher lecturing to his students.

“Think about it this way. If I mercilessly beat him to within an inch of his life, no one could possibly complain about me holding back, wouldn’t you agree?”

Wondering how he arrived at such a conclusion, Monica mustered all her courage and shook her head. This reaction made Louis casually shrug his shoulders.

“It seems my fellow Sage is too kind to understand my logic. More importantly, let us test the Dragon Slayer Mage’s abilities and thoroughly crush his pride in the process.”

It was none other than Louis who discovered the unknown mage Silas Page and recommended him to the Seven Sages. And yet, he showed no hesitation in crushing Silas. Monica found this inconsistency utterly terrifying.

As Monica held her staff to her chest and trembled, Louis continued explaining his plan.

“The biggest problem will be the method. Just winning is easy enough. If Aquamancy Mage-dono was not watching, I could simply cover myself in a barrier and ram into him with maximum speed flight magic, thereby crushing him under my barrier…”

The idea of crushing someone under a barrier seemed far too violent to Monica.

This was something only Louis could do, thanks to his mastery of flight magic and powerful defensive barriers.

Suddenly, Monica realized something.

At the Sage Selection Exam four years ago, Monica and Louis had faced off in a magical battle. However, Louis had not employed this strategy against her.

“Louis-san, about the magical battle from four years ago… Why didn’t you…?”

“Ah yes. If Aquamancy Mage-dono hadn’t been watching, you could have enjoyed it too… What a shame.”

Monica involuntarily took a step back, as Louis continued with a gentle smile.

“Well, I suppose we have will have go for a　sophisticated victory today, one befitting the Seven Sages.”

“S-Sophisticated…?”

Monica did not quite understand what was meant by a ‘sophisticated’ victory, but presumably, it didn’t include hitting, ramming, or crushing people with a barrier. Probably.

“Since time is of the essence, I shall share a brief summary of what I know. The Dragon Slayer Mage is skilled in close combat, utilizing a combination of flight magic and martial arts. He can transform his staff into a spear via an application of magical sword techniques, but he’s not bad at remote magic either.”

Monica listened to Louis’s explanation, imagining the fighting style he described in her head. Based on this, she surmised that Silas was essentially a magic-oriented warrior who possessed extremely high mobility.

“…So he is similar to you, especially in terms of mobility,” Monica commented.

“You could say that, yes. I believe he prefers evasion over blocking with defensive barriers, however.”

“His affinity is lightning, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Do you have a rough idea now?”

Monica nodded, so Louis took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time.

“In that case, it’s time to ring the starting bell… By the way, I will be letting you handle the offense.”

There was no need for any elaborate discussions on strategy. That single sentence was enough for Monica, since she already had an idea of what Louis intended to do from the earlier conversation.

Most importantly, both Monica and Louis were skilled in adjusting their combat styles to match others.

“Got it.”

As Monica nodded, Louis smiled behind his monocle. This time, the smile came from the heart. He was exhilarated by the upcoming battle.

“Very good! Then let’s get started!”

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