706: Experienced Matchup

「This is the new trump card I’ve been preparing!」

Mordred turns the bag he removed from his waist upside down and shakes it gently. 10 Softball-sized metal balls fell out of the bag landing with a thud.

They’re called magicontrol alloy balls according to appraisal.

Mordred holds up his spear as he lightly rolls the metal balls under his feet.

「Spellshroud.」

Mordred muttered the name of his unique skill, and a reddish-black coloured light rose from his body. It was molten magic.

Is this like a full-body version of the Elemental Sword? Or does it have other abilities? I soon found out what it was capable of.

「Vulcanus Order!」

「!」

The magic was activated before Fran’s astonished eyes. I’ve seen this trick before when he manipulated a huge anchor to bind a kraken and water dragons. It’s a high-level molten magic spell that allows one to manipulate metal within range at will.

It used to require a long chant but he’s doing all that by just saying the name of the spell? The results of the pre-match appraisal showed that he didn’t even have any chant cancelling or chantless casting skills.

Was this the effect of spellshroud?

Metal balls started to dance wildly in front of us. He may not be serious yet, but they’re quite fast. Even in this state, they’ll probably break our bones if they were to hit us.

「Haaaaah!」

「I’m fully prepared for lightning magic!」

Before Fran was attacked, she released a lightning spell.

In response, five metal balls went to protect Mordred like a shield causing Fran’s thunder spell to just bounce off and disappear as if it was blocked by an invisible wall.

It seems that the magical power swirling around each ball acted as a barrier.

「Get crushed!」

「Not happening.」

Fran was forced on the defensive. Mordred moved his hand lightly, and the metal spheres attacked Fran all at once.

Some of them were straight, some of them were arcing, but all of them were moving in different ways. Because of all this, they were able to precisely drive Fran’s movements around the stage.

He seems to have perfect control over the 10 metal balls.

Fran quickly knocked away the metal spheres, but even that was within Mordred’s prediction. As soon as they hit me, the metal spheres deformed. I didn’t feel a clean cut but rather as if I had been hit with gelatin.

It’s the same as the spear from before. The ball of metal remained entangled on my blade and wouldn’t come off. Fran can handle the extra weight, but it still stops that part of the blade from cutting.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

「What?」

Fran shouted in surprise when I suddenly made a move of my own.

『It wasn’t me!』

Yeah, it wasn’t me. The metal wrapped around the blade was pulled in an unexpected direction by Mordred’s manipulation.

This caused one of the metal balls to collide with my blade again, adding more weight to it.

Moreover, I felt a tremendous sense of discomfort. It was as if I was being forced to use transmogrification against my will. Perhaps Mordred’s molten magic was having an effect on me through the metal ball.

It seems that he can’t manipulate me directly, but my concentration is being disturbed enough. I’ll have to be careful from now on when dealing with molten magicians.

Fran managed to force me under her control, even though I wasn’t moving like she wanted me to. She’s able to keep dodging but her escape routes were gradually diminishing.

While evading, she was pulled to the other side and lightly hit several times. Although they were only grazes, Fran must have judged that this would be dangerous if this continued.

Fran moved forward, lowering herself.

She avoided the metal ball that tried to block her way with minimal movement while putting up a barrier. Just when it seemed like she was going to break through the surrounding metal balls…

「Gagh!」

『Fran!』

Fran suddenly loses her stance and almost falls. Her right leg sank into the ground as if it was buried.

She quickly put her hand on it and twisted her body to prevent herself from falling, but the condition of her right leg was quite bad.

It was burned and turned to ash in some places. It seemed that the lava had been made under the floor of the arena, and had been made to drop someone’s foot into the lava when they stepped on it.

Fran was only able to survive that because she had covered her entire body with magic power, but if she had been your average magical beast or human, her foot would have been completely burnt off and gone.

「Ugh!」

I quickly heal her with recovery magic, but in the meantime, Mordred moves on to his next attack.

「Magma Field!」

Mordred puts his hands on the stage and pours magic power into the it causing the ground around him to begin glowing a red-hot colour.

The tremendous heat was so intense that Fran was forced to flee to the sky in a hurry.

The range of the heat increased rapidly, and all the ground in the arena was heated to a bright red. The stone stage was melting into mush, and the inside of the arena was a complete sea of lava.

Mordred was standing on the lava with a chill face thanks to the effect of his molten magic.

「Lightning bolt!」

「Blocked!」

「Muuh!」

Fran’s magic was still blocked by the metal ball. The offensive side of Mordred’s magic was already proven to be superior, but the defensive power of the metal balls were as troublesome.

The metal spheres are still orbiting around Mordred and would take a lot of offensive power to break through them all.

Mordred looked up at Fran. Was he trying to force Fran into the air to take away her mobility? If so, that was a bit naive.

「Brilliant Lightning Rush!」

Fran has used her trump card.

With air hop and Brilliant Lightning Rush, she can fight at the same speed as if she were on the ground. No, she can move even faster in the air.

Fran flew around the arena with me in position to counter Mordred’s moves. As soon as she sees an opening, she’ll be ready to dive in at the blink of an eye.

But even this was within Mordred’s grasp.

「I knew that your speed was beyond my control.」

「?」

「That’s why I’m going to hit you with everything I’ve got while you’re still waiting to see what happens!」

It’s impossible for him to hit a serious Fran with a normal attack. So he’s going to give it everything he’s got.

The magma field was not meant to drive Fran into the air, but as preparation for this attack.

「Volcanic–」

Mordred’s hands, which had been lowered in a lazy motion, are lifted lightly, and only his wrists rotated with a jerk. If you were a tokusatsu enthusiast, you’ll understand if I told you that it was the pose of Sh*n-Godzilla.

As if in response to his palms facing the sky, the magma around him began to swell.

「–Geyser!」

And then the lava covering the ground of the arena explodes, filling inside of the barrier with lava.

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