After separating from Kaguya, Mashiro looked toward the place where they had left her with concern.
"She will be fine, you do not need to worry Mashiro-sama", Ai said beside her.
"Hmmm". Mashiro nodded, trusting Ai.
They soon arrived at the second village in this sector.
Elric did the same as before and tried to negotiate so they would surrender without fighting.
However, this time they faced even greater refusal than in the previous village.
Although in the previous one Winston was the only one against surrendering, this time it was not only him, all the soldiers refused with clear arrogance in their voices.
The reason was that this place was backed by Morlum.
Morlum, one of the few level 4 mages of the elven kingdom.
To put it into perspective, he was on the same level as the royal guard. Even in the capital he would be treated with respect, and the only reason he was not there was because his arrogance offended the previous king when he asked the king's own daughter, the princess, to become his spouse. Although marriages between different ages were extremely normal in politics, especially among dark elves who could live more than a thousand years and whose appearance slowed after their twenties, Morlum had the misfortune of facing the previous king, known for his kindness and his love for his family.
The king even wanted to kill or exile him for such a request, but at the nobles' insistence he could only expel him from the capital.
But none of this changed the fact that Morlum was extremely powerful.
Having lived in this village for years, no one doubted his strength and everyone felt confident they would win.
Seeing that once again there was no room for negotiation, Elric felt a bit depressed, but also somewhat happy. He had recently joined Kaito's territory and was eager to prove his strength.
The army of the underworld felt similarly and was also willing to fight.
But all their expectations were shattered by a single sentence.
While all this happened, Ai spoke with Mashiro.
"Since he is a powerful mage, why do you not fight Mashiro-sama?" Ai asked.
Mashiro refused. "It is too much work."
"Kaito would be really happy if you did it."
Mashiro's eyes opened wide and then narrowed, searching for any sign of deception on Ai's face.
Her expression turned confused, trying to decide between wanting praise from Kaito or avoiding work.
"Kaguya-sama is working so hard, I wonder if she will get all the praise from Kaito when she returns", Ai said out loud with an innocent tone, as if murmuring to himself.
Upon hearing that, Mashiro made up her mind and walked forward.
"Um, she..." Elric did not know what to say when he saw her advance.
"When it comes to magic, not even Kaito can surpass Mashiro-sama", Ai said, suddenly appearing beside him.
Elric flinched, but regained his composure quickly.
"Then we..."
"We go to the next one", Ai nodded.
"Hey, hey, what is this?, are they sending a little girl to fight me?" Morlum mocked.
Unlike Kaguya, Mashiro had no intention of dragging this out. Since she was forced to fight, she would end it quickly.
With one raised hand she conjured dozens of fireballs.
Morlum, who at first was worried to see her alone, smiled thinking he had already won.
But the fireballs did not fly forward, instead they began spinning in the air, drawing burning circles until they formed incandescent rings that compressed into sharp discs, each at least fifty meters wide.
Mashiro said nothing and simply threw them in different directions.
"SHIELDS, NOW!"
Although Morlum shouted to warn them, only a few used magic shields. Most only raised normal shields, underestimating Mashiro's magic.
As a result, seventy percent of the soldiers were incinerated and died instantly. Their remains stayed on the ground for a few seconds before turning to ash.
Seeing this, unlike the soldiers who stared at Mashiro with fear and stepped back instinctively, Morlum laughed.
"Ha ha ha, good, finally, a powerful mage worthy of facing me. Tell me your name little one."
Mashiro did not respond, she only frowned when she noticed some survived.
She crouched down, placing her hands on the ground, and small waves began forming, the soil moved like muddy sludge, trying to swallow them.
Morlum smiled and tapped the ground with his staff, returning it to normal. Many were trapped, either with their legs or half their bodies buried, but as long as they stayed alive he did not care.
"Good try, what else do you have?"
While he spoke, he noticed a massive shadow covering the field. He looked up to see a huge sphere of earth, followed by many more.
"Meteor, a powerful magic." Morlum smiled, touching his chin, but did not let himself be intimidated.
"Raise your shield rings." His magic ensured that despite Morlum's tone his voice reached every soldier, who obeyed seriously, now taking Mashiro seriously.
They raised their hands, the identical rings each soldier wore began glowing, Morlum lifted his staff and pointed at the sky, hundreds of shields deployed and then connected to form one large barrier.
When the meteors touched the shield, the overwhelming impact never happened, instead the meteors passed through but their speed gradually decreased, and by the time they reached the ground only a small tremor was felt.
"Do you know why meteor is basic magic?" Morlum asked like a teacher. "It is earth and air magic. The spell creates giant rocks and the air keeps them floating. They are basically just big rocks that depend on falling speed to cause damage. Without acceleration they are harmless."
Mashiro nodded, finding the explanation interesting.
"Well, playtime is over."
Raising his staff to the sky again Morlum conjured similar meteors.
"Watch this. This is a real meteor, it does not depend on falling but on acceleration through rotation", he said.
Mashiro only formed a simple mana shield to protect herself.
"It will not work, it is a basic shie..." Morlum did not finish the sentence, his mouth hanging open as he watched a basic spell from Mashiro withstand one of his strongest spells.
"I see." He frowned, analyzing what had happened. "It seems you have an absurd amount of mana."
But this did not bother him much, he could still win with technique. Even if his opponent had a lot of mana, it was useless if she did not know how to use it well.
He deployed several spells, filling the sky. Fireballs, meteors, spears, and many more. All flew toward Mashiro at high speed.
Mashiro blocked them easily with several layered shields, but Morlum's goal was to block her vision.
When Mashiro was finally able to see past all the spells launched at her, it was already too late. A large spear was above her head, completely different from the rest, much more powerful despite its size.
The spear fell hard and struck the shield, causing cracks.
Crack.
With the sound of the barrier breaking, the shield gave way, forcing Mashiro to move quickly to dodge.
Mashiro used magic again, this time summoning one massive fireball in the sky, but it did not move, instead small flames emerged from it and turned into firebirds that flew toward Morlum and the few trapped soldiers still alive.
"Arghhh!"
"Ah!"
"Damn it!"
While the soldiers screamed, Mashiro did something similar with the earth. Small stone golems rose from the ground and advanced.
Morlum marveled at the sight.
"What an absurd mana capacity, not only keeping them for so long, you even give them shape and basic instructions."
Even as he spoke with disbelief, he moved lightly, swinging his staff and launching small yet powerful attacks, destroying fire creatures and golems approaching him, not caring that his own soldiers died as a result.
They were weak, but their numbers began to annoy him.
When he was finally surrounded by constant explosions, his robe tearing apart and the golems striking him every few seconds, Morlum decided to get serious.
"You have annoyed me", he said angrily. Even then he did not take her seriously, her small attacks simply seemed endless and irritating.
He took an item from a magic pouch and hung it at his waist.
It was a small lantern shaped like a tiny lamp, a blue light shining from it, and from time to time small sparks could be seen.
When he raised his staff again, the lantern shone intensely, storm clouds formed quickly in the sky, and a large lightning bolt fell toward Mashiro.
She formed a shield, although it broke quickly, at least it gave her time to dodge.
For the next several minutes the entire fight consisted of Mashiro dodging lightning and trying to counterattack without success.
On the ground there was no one left alive, the remaining soldiers had all died from the collateral damage of the chase, but neither Mashiro nor Morlum cared as they remained fully engaged in their battle.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)