[V10C7] Not Worth Bullying

Louis lifted the bell and rang it. There was hardly any wind to drown it out, so the ringing echoed far and wide.

This sound would undoubtedly alert Silas Page to their location. The two could have chosen to move after ringing the bell, but neither Monica nor Louis intended to do so.

Monica’s slow legs would not let her cover much distance either way, and casting flight magic was not a real option.

(Right now, Louis and I can only employ a total of two spells between us…)

Under such strict limitations, wasting one of their spells on flight magic was clearly a bad move.

Meanwhile, Louis began the incantation of a detection spell. This was always a reliable move to begin with.

In magical battles, detection magic allows the caster to find their opponent the moment they cast a spell. That said, one possible workaround was approaching by foot and waiting until the last minute before your first spell.

However, this strategy did not work against Monica. If Silas attempted to cast magic from within Monica’s range, he would be leaving himself wide open to her chantless magic.

Silas likely understood this, so there was a high chance he intended to cast flight magic at a distance and quickly close the gap.

“Detection spell activated. Detected lightning spell from south-southwest, distance 120.”

While maintaining the detection spell, Louis activated a defensive barrier via shortened incantation, enveloping both Monica and himself.

Monica’s chantless magic allowed her to create a barrier much faster than Louis, but Louis’s barriers possessed a durability that she could not hope to match.

Thus, it was only natural to let Louis handle the barriers if he had enough time to cast. Even without a single word between them, the two coordinated this way since it was the most logical approach.

A dozen spears of lightning fell from the sky, raining down upon Monica and Louis. This was a powerful spell infused with a considerable amount of mana, more than enough to break through your average defensive barrier.

This was more than Monica expected, as usually, the first attack was used to gauge the opponent’s strength. Perhaps this was a sign of how dangerous Silas believed them to be.

Either way, Louis’s barrier deflected all of the lightning spears.

Louis often made violent remarks about hitting or crushing his opponents with a barrier, but it went without saying that defensive barriers were his greatest strength. He often used detection magic to accurately measure the power of an attack, before creating the most optimal barrier to defend against it. An incredibly dependable strategy.

“He’s using flight magic and circling from south-southwest to south. Now he’s flying in straight.”

“I’ll shoot.”

Monica declared her intention, then conjured multiple blades of wind via chantless magic.

Immediately afterwards, the restrictive bracelet canceled the effect of Louis’s detection magic.

The device made it so that Monica and Louis could only maintain two spells between them, which were currently Louis’s defensive barrier and Monica’s wind blades.

Monica launched the wind blades at Silas, who was rapidly approaching with flight magic. Since wind blades were practically invisible to the human eye, using a defensive barrier was the standard way to defend against them.

However, Silas made a sudden turn just before the wind blades hit, allowing him to dodge all of them at once.

Monica’s spells were accurate enough to strike the forehead of a flying wyvern, yet he had evaded them perfectly.

(He’s really good at flight magic.)

While memorizing Silas’s evasive patterns, Monica sent out a barrage of fire arrows and wind arrows.

The flashy fire arrows distracted Silas from the difficult-to-see wind arrows, allowing them to land a direct hit. To counter this, Silas had little choice but to stop in mid-air and erect a defensive barrier.

This barrier was enough to deflect all of Monica’s attacks.

(Estimating approximate strength of the barrier… A bit tougher than I expected.)

“Raaah!”

Following a spirited shout, Silas performed a nosedive. There was a brilliant blade of thunder at the tip of his staff… an application of the magical sword technique.

As shown by magical swords, imbuing offensive magic into a weapon allows the caster to increase the mana efficiency of their spells. This is because the mana which would be used to propel the spell is no longer necessary, allowing it to be reallocated into boosting the spell’s power.

Louis observed the approaching Silas while calmly saying, “I’ll take two.”

“Go ahead,” Monica replied.

For his first spell, Louis created a defensive barrier in midair to shield themselves from the spear of lightning. For the second, he activated flight magic.

While maintaining these two spells, Louis darted into the sky to flank Silas.

＊　＊　＊

(Dammit, which one is coming first!?)

Would it be the Silent Witch, who was still on the ground? Or perhaps the Barrier Mage, who had already reached his flank?

While extracting his spear from the defensive barrier, Silas glanced between the two and hesitated for a moment.

That moment proved fatal. The defensive barrier vanished in the blink of an eye as a shower of ice arrows rained down from above.

(Remote magic with no incantation!?)

He had been focusing his attention on the Silent Witch below and the Barrier Mage on his flank, so the remote magic coming from above was completely unexpected. The two were apparently very good at diversions.

Silas clicked his tongue while turning to strike down the ice arrows with his lightning spear. However, he couldn’t avoid all of them. A few landed a direct hit on his arm.

An intense pain shot through his arm, but this wasn’t an issue since Silas was accustomed to pain. The real problem was the damage.

In a magical battle, participants have their mana drained by an amount corresponding to the amount of damage they suffer.

Silas was horrified at the realization that the ice arrows had just drained him of 1/4 of his mana.

(Did she seriously incorporate a multiple-reinforcement formula into her remote magic without chanting!? …You goddamn monster!)

Casting such a complex spell would normally require an incredibly lengthy incantation, and the Silent Witch skipped all that. It was completely fair to call her a monster.

(I need to neutralize her first. But…)

The ice arrows dissipated into the air as the Barrier Mage approached from the side.

Silas swung his lightning spear to intercept, but his blow was deflected right just before it could hit.

(A circular barrier…? Seems pretty durable, but he won’t be able to maintain it in mid-air.)

Silas utilized his flight magic to circle around to the Barrier Mage’s rear and swing his spear again.

The Barrier Mage simply dodged the swing by kicking off the air. While doing so, he also reached out and poked the side of Silas’s stomach with the tip of his staff.

However, the barrier for magical battles rendered physical attacks useless. Silas didn’t feel anything more than a slight tap from Louis’s staff.

“One,” the Barrier Mage muttered, while lifting the corner of his mouth into a smirk.

In the next moment, he vanished. Or rather, he had descended diagonally downwards, allowing himself to escape Silas’s field of vision for a split second.

And in that instant, Silas felt a tap on his right leg and left leg.

“Two, three.”

A chill ran down Silas’s spine.

What if Louis’s staff had been imbued with an offensive spell? Silas would have suffered immense damage to his side and both legs.

“Y-You little…!”

Silas swung the lightning spear at the Barrier Mage, who was supposed to be under his feet. But by the time he looked, the only thing left was his long braids waving in the air.

The Barrier Mage had already circled around to Silas’s rear and tapped his back three times in succession.

“Four, five, six… Oh dear, you’ve just been stabbed six times in a matter of seconds.”

The Barrier Mage leaned back diagonally in midair, then covered up a chuckle with his hand.

Silas immediately closed the distance.

This was to avoid getting attacked from two fronts. The Silent Witch could not risk attacking because of possible friendly fire once Silas engaged the Barrier Mage in close combat.

“Haah!”

Silas delivered a powerful thrust backed by his full momentum, but Louis evaded it by tilting to the side.

Such a movement would normally cause Louis to lose his balance, but not when employing flight magic. What looked to be an easy opening was actually perfectly safe.

What’s more, the Barrier Mage dove forward with incredible agility, slipping past the spear and getting right into Silas’s face. He put on a smug grin as he poked Silas’s forehead with a gloved finger.

“Seven.”

“——Rah!”

Silas canceled the spell on the staff in his right hand, imbuing lightning magic into his left fist instead. Then, he drove the golden and crackling fist right into the Barrier Mage’s abdomen.

However, his fist crashed into what felt like a solid wall. The Barrier Mage had deployed a defensive barrier right above his stomach.

After flying out of Silas’s range, the Barrier Mage adjusted his skewed monocle and began murmuring.

“Your skill with the spear and martial arts is quite something, but you lack the ability to deal with feints… It appears you have little experience fighting mages skilled in flight magic.”

“My power is for killing dragons.”

This made sense. Mages skilled in flight magic were a whole different beast compared to dragons. To begin with, there were not many mages skilled enough to actually engage in close combat while flying.

Noticing Silas’s frustration, the Barrier Mage put on a refreshing smile.

“By the way, I am proficient in fighting both mages and dragons. Hahaha.”

“…”

“If you intend to call yourself a Sage, you need to be proficient in both as well.”

The Barrier Mage was incredibly irritating, but the fact remained that he had much more combat experience than his gentlemen-like appearance implied.

He fully understood how far joints could bend, as seen by how he constantly positioned himself outside of Silas’s range. In addition, knowing Silas’s field of view allowed him to attack from his blind spots.

If Silas distanced himself, he would be shot down by the Silent Witch. If he closed in, the Barrier Mage would continue toying with him… They were a much more frightening combination than he anticipated.

As Silas gulped at the realization, the Barrier Mage spoke with a smile so graceful that it seemed completely out of place.

“By the way, did you notice that I have yet to cast a single offensive spell?”

Following his words, the Barrier Mage began an incantation. This would be his first offensive spell of the day.

Silas chanted as well, imbuing lightning into his staff again. Then, he closed the distance and thrust his spear.

However, this was a repeat of the last clash. The Barrier Mage flew upward to avoid Silas, then waved a finger once his chant was complete.

A row of ice arrows appeared in front of him.

(Hah! That’s your first attack spell!)

The Barrier Mage was currently maintaining two different spells: the flight magic and the ice arrows.

In this situation, if the Silent Witch attempted to provide support with a barrier or another spell, then the Barrier Mage would lose his flight magic and fall to the ground.

From listening to the chant, Silas knew that these ice arrows had no tracking formula. They would fly in a straight line, so he could easily avoid them.

“Extend!”

Silas dodged the ice arrows and infused additional mana into his staff. The lightning blade acting as the spearhead stretched out like a snake, aiming for the Barrier Mage’s torso.

(You’re mine!)

Silas was confident of his victory, but by no means did he let his guard down. He made doubly sure that the Barrier Mage could not escape by targeting his center of mass with the extended lightning blade.

But at that moment, a pain shot through his back. He had been struck by the ice arrows that he dodged earlier.

(Why?! The Barrier Mage didn’t incorporate a tracking formula into his chant. The ice arrows should have gone in a straight line. So why?)

It was only then that Silas realized the shining white gate that had opened above his head.

＊　＊　＊

Monica had hardly ever engaged in a team-based magical battle before, so she had little experience in coordination.

But as long as her partner was Louis, coordination was incredibly simple. All she had to do was understand the role she was given, then act rationally.

(Louis-san said he would leave the offense to me… In that case, I should minimize the number of spells I use and focus on attacking.)

Thus, Monica remained in place when the magical battle started, without employing detection magic or defensive barriers. If her job was to focus on offense, then it only made sense to leave the support spells to Louis.

When Louis declared, “I’ll take two,” and started fighting Silas in the air with flight magic, Monica immediately noticed his intention.

Spending one of their spells on flight magic was an irrational decision. The fact that Louis did it regardless meant only one thing: he intended to trick Silas by acting as a decoy.

This only became more apparent once Monica observed Louis’s positioning. Whenever Louis stopped in mid-air, he always made sure to remain above a tree. This was to account for the possibility of his flight magic being dispelled.

(Louis is agile enough to break his fall by grabbing onto a tree branch if his flight magic is dispelled in mid-air.)

Thus, Monica waited patiently for the opportunity to strike. It did not take very long.

“By the way, did you notice that I have yet to cast a single offensive spell?”

Louis began chanting an offensive spell for creating ice arrows——which was clearly a bad move. The usage of flight magic and an offensive spell meant he had no means of defending himself.

(Louis-san made another apparently irrational decision, so this must be the signal for me to attack…)

Just as Louis intended, Silas took advantage of the supposed opening to play his trump card, extending the blade of lightning at him.

At that moment, Monica promptly invoked two spells.

First, the summoning gate of the Spirit King. Since this would take a while to activate, she deployed it overhead in advance.

Second, ice arrows incorporating an advanced tracking formula. She had created them remotely, right in front of Louis, to make it look like he was the caster.

Upon hearing Louis’s incantation, Silas had mistakenly assumed that the ice arrows would fly in a straight line. Thus, he failed to notice the tracking formula that had taken effect once he dodged them.

Then, once Silas was struck off-balance, Monica delivered the final blow.

“Open the gate. Come forth from the edge of silence, Spirit King of Wind, Shefield.”

Particles of light spilled out of the opened gate, turning into shining white spears of wind that rained down on Silas.

Silas hastily canceled his offensive spell and erected a defensive barrier. However, this was the most powerful spell in Monica’s arsenal. It easily pierced through both his barrier and Silas himself.

“Guaaaah!”

Silas roared as he fell to the ground, but Monica made sure to catch his fall with wind magic.

Meanwhile, Monica’s usage of two spells had caused Louis’s flight magic to be canceled.

Either way, Louis had simply grabbed onto a tree branch with his non-staff hand, performed a spin in the air, then landed on the ground with grace. His physical abilities were as impressive as always.

While brushing off a few leaves that had been caught in his hair, Louis walked over to Monica and Silas.

“Well done, my fellow sage.”

“…R-Right.”

In the end, Louis had not cast even a single offensive spell. He simply fooled Silas with a fake incantation, creating the opening for Monica to take advantage of. On the other hand, Monica herself had done nothing but observe the flow of the battle and strike once Louis created an opening.

The division of roles just happened to work well, so it wasn’t as impressive as true coordination, or at least that’s how Monica viewed it.

“Now then. I see you are still conscious, Silas Page.”

Louis peered into the face of the collapsed Silas.

Silas was groaning in pain, but he hadn’t lost consciousness. Either way, he probably lacked the mana to continue fighting after a direct hit from Spirit King Summoning.

Louis was visibly enjoying this situation. The eyes behind the lens of his monocle sparkled with a sadistic gleam.

“A crushing defeat, wouldn’t you agree? Dragon Slayer Mage-dono.”

“…”

“We were restricted by these magical devices, and this is the result.”

“…”

“Moreover, you allowed contact seven times, without landing a single blow on me.”

“…”

“It seems you were a bit too lacking to make us take you seriously.”

Louis delivered a series of digging comments in a lively tone, causing Silas to let out a bitter mumble.

“Yeah, you’re right. I admit defeat.”

Silas had accepted the truth and acknowledged his powerlessness.

Louis pursed his lips slightly, appearing a bit displeased.

Monica had a fairly good idea of what he was thinking: He wanted to revel in Silas’s frustration.

“You know, there’s no point in bullying you if you don’t show a bit more frustration,” Louis said, displaying a bit of dissatisfaction.

Louis casually let out the word ‘bullying’, which was quite revealing about his personality.

Meanwhile, Silas raised his upper body off the ground. A considerable amount of training was required for someone to move around when depleted of mana. This indicated the intense trials he must have gone through.

“My weakness is a fact,” Silas replied. “And I don’t really care about joining the Seven Sages; I only accepted the recommendation to avoid damaging my master’s reputation. As long as I can slay dragons, nothing else matters.”

The casual response from Silas caused Louis’s smile to fall off. Everything Silas said was reasonable, so there was no opening for Louis to continue bullying him.

And to add insult to injury, Silas lowered his head to Louis.

“And I’m sorry for insulting you earlier.”

He apologized with genuine sincerity. At this point, Louis’s face had gone blank, having lost the target of his emotions.

At that moment, Monica heard something. It was Louis’s pained muttering of, “How utterly unfulfilling…”

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