[243] 6. Clash of Magic (3)
"I won't let you get away with this!"
Sabina charged without even enough strength to cast Haste. Besides, Nade wouldn't have been in any condition to cast Plasma.
At that moment a shocking sentence slipped from Nade's mouth.
"I lose."
Sabina, who had been about to strike for his neck, abruptly halted at the sudden declaration of surrender.
Part of her wanted to finish him with her own hands, but attacking after someone surrendered would mean disqualification.
Now that it had come to this, it didn't feel like a victory at all—there was an odd, lingering unease. Still, she figured Nade must have used everything in that final clash.
"Hmph. You're lucky. Kneel and formally admit your defeat."
Nade immediately kept his word. He was already kneeling; he only needed to move his lips.
"All right. I lost."
Sabina's face tightened. The point of that rule was to enjoy the sight of someone wallowing in defeat. But she couldn't sense any of that bitter feeling from Nade.
"Aren't you a man? You lost to a woman and you can kneel so meekly?"
"I lost, so I say I lost. And honestly? It's embarrassing as hell. Can we be done now?"
Nade bowed his head like someone truly defeated, then went back to his friends. If he'd at least laughed it off it might have felt less bitter.
Sade licked his lips as he watched Nade walk away.
'Try a bit more. Sabina was almost out of steam. Still, well done, Nade.'
The duel ended sooner than expected. A Class Four student typically has at least one spell with tremendous destructive power.
In real combat there aren't many chances to use it, but this matchup and the similar levels meant it could be resolved cleanly as a clash of raw power.
Arriving back with his friends, Nade squeezed his eyes shut, overwhelmed with remorse, and bowed his head.
"Shirone, Iruki! I'm sorry! I lost! Really, I'm sorry!"
"What are you talking about? We're a team. I can't promise I'd definitely win either. It's fine—you did your best."
Iruki offered a word of comfort.
"For someone like you, that was good. You've improved since before."
Honestly, they hadn't expected Nade to do this well. When he'd faced Lucas of the Parrot Thieves he'd given up entirely, but lately he seemed at least a little more composed.
"I'm going back to the dorm to rest. Is that okay?"
"Yeah. You must be exhausted—go in early."
Shirone didn't stop him.
Nade slipped into the crowd and left the practice field. But he didn't head to the dormitory; he went to a secluded park. After confirming there was no one around, his true feelings spilled out.
"Ugh! Damn it! You idiot!"
He wanted to be Shirone's strength. But Sabina had been genuinely strong; if the duel had continued any longer, the price he'd have to pay would have been unimaginable.
He still needed the safety net of the school.
"Heh heh heh. There you are. You were pretending to be calm, but you're practically dying of embarrassment, aren't you?"
A sigh escaped Nade. When he turned, Sabina—who had followed him—was already standing behind him.
"You still have business with me? The duel's over."
"No, I feel like something's left undone. Honestly, it pisses me off. I don't know why, but I get the strong impression you didn't truly accept your loss."
"You already knelt. What more do you want?"
"I don't know. Why don't you kneel again, right here?"
Nade had no patience to indulge Sabina's insistence. He felt only sorry for Shirone and pathetic for not having helped his friend.
"Think whatever you want. Go around saying you're stronger than me—I won't stop you. Just leave me alone. I'm going."
As Nade turned toward the dorms, Sabina said, "From what I dug up, the West family's pretty notorious, huh?"
Nade's steps froze.
"It's a total mess. From what I've seen, the head of the house's a loafing gambler and the lady's a pariah of high society? They've got no assets but they're rumored to flaunt luxuries…!"
Thunder rumbled.
Suddenly Sabina choked and the world spun. When she came to, she found herself slammed against a tree stump deep in a forest.
Nade had grabbed Sabina's throat and shoved his face close.
"Say it again."
"Gah! Guh!"
Seeing Nade's face, Sabina froze in terror. It was an expression no human should wear—not the look of a villain or a psychopathic killer, but the face of a monster.
'I'm going to die here….'
It wasn't a guess but a certainty. No fool expects mercy from a beast that's got them by the throat.
"Do you want to live?"
Sabina frantically nodded. Consciousness blurred and she began to whimper without realizing it.
"Shall I snap your neck? Or should I bleed you dry?"
Sabina didn't understand what he meant. It felt like her head had been disconnected from her body; her legs moved on their own.
"Uuuugh! Huuh!"
Nade contorted his face and gathered electricity in his hands. He intended to evaporate her blood.
As power concentrated in his grip, a face flashed into his mind. A woman's voice gently soothed the beast inside him.
'Nade, isn't one mistake enough?'
Nade's eyes—bloodshot as if on the verge of crying blood—slowly cleared. He released Sabina's throat and stepped back.
"Gah! Guh!"
Sabina collapsed, gasping. She still didn't know what had happened, but her lungs sucked air like mad.
"You won, and I lost. That's all that happened today. Got it?"
Sabina nodded. Whatever order came from his mouth she planned to obey without question.
Satisfied, Nade left the forest. Just before exiting, he paused and looked back toward a great tree.
'Oh no—was I seen?'
Pandora, hiding behind the tree, felt her heart pound. She'd tried to take revenge on Sabina, but by chance she'd seen something she shouldn't have.
Nade's voice reached her.
"Pandora, I took care of the revenge. You should go back."
Mentioning her name was a warning not to escalate things. Hidden behind the tree so she couldn't be seen, Pandora clamped her hand over her mouth and nodded.
Nade left the park feeling miserable. It always ended like this. He wished for a good downpour, but the sky was simply dull and overcast like his mood.
"Iruki, I will never become a mage."
@
The weekend for the second duel arrived.
Nade and Sabina's match had drawn a larger crowd than the previous week. Many expected this fight to be fiercer—if Iruki lost, the third duel would be canceled, so the stakes felt higher.
Even teachers who claimed not to care about student brawls hovered nearby with awkward smiles.
While Etella, officiating, checked the match conditions, Shirone and Dante's group waited off to the side.
Sabina's expression was grim. The trauma from the lynching in the woods hadn't faded. If anything it had become worse; lately she'd been plagued by nightmares every night.
As the start time approached, Closer warmed up. He loosened his muscles with un-mage-like, difficult stretches, then jogged in place and looked back at Dante.
"I'll finish this. No need for you to step in."
The rule was that a team that scored two wins first ended the match. But Dante knew that as long as Olivia supervised, that wouldn't happen.
"Still, the match won't be called off."
"What? Why not?"
"The mentor wants Shirone utterly crushed. She's already requested a faculty correspondent. The academy won't want this event canceled either."
"I see. So even if I win, you and Shirone will still have to fight?"
"But the stage will be different. If we secure two wins, we can make Shirone's defeat even more humiliating. That'll probably be ideal."
"Ha ha ha. Fine. I'll lay out the perfect stage for you."
When Etella called the fighters to the center, Iruki and Closer stepped forward. After the rules were explained, Closer looked down at Iruki as if to flaunt his height and said,
"When Anti-Magic kicks in, it makes your nose tingle, right? But fighting me isn't just ordinary Anti-Magic. Ever had your nose broken? From a punch?"
Iruki didn't answer.
"It hurts like hell. Tears streaming down. Now I'm going to smash your nose in like an orc's. Even if you scream for me to stop, I'll keep beating you. Sound good?"
The corner of Closer's mouth curled wickedly.
"Why so quiet? Scared? Tough luck. The match has begun and you're going to get thrashed. In ten minutes you'll be screaming with blood pouring from your nose. A few teeth might break too. Your ugly face will get uglier."
Etella interrupted.
"Refrain from idle chatter before the match. Both fighters, take your designated positions."
Closer flashed a huge fist at Iruki, then returned to his spot and mentally mapped his strategy from pre-match intel.
Iruki's specialty was an evasive-type casting with fast targeting and a point-detonation that has no travel time. Above all, as a servant-class ability user strong against sequence-type spells, a preemptive strike was unlikely to work.
Closer set his initial response from sixty meters away, wiggling his fingers. His strength lay more in defense than offense, so proceeding by the book should pose no problem.
"Begin!"
At Etella's signal, a volley of explosions erupted around Closer. He brought his arms up to shield his face, surprise flashing in his eyes. Explosions at the very start—evasive-type spells normally shrink with distance. For one to fly sixty meters without dissipating was a top-tier sequence attack.
Shirone gave a wry smile. He'd already felt it during the Speed Gun test: the power of log-based sequence spells was tremendous.
In fact, Iruki's Speed Gun score was the highest in the academy's history, second only to Shirone, who had unlocked the Immortal Function.
The students were stunned as Closer's large frame was engulfed in flames. Even at only fifty percent sync, repeated hits like that could be dangerous.
When the explosions subsided, Closer's figure reappeared. The earthen wall protecting his body crumbled away and his face came into view, smiling leisurely.
"Heh heh, that all you've got? That felt like a mosquito bite."
He'd used his passive, Earth Rise, to fortify his body and cast Earth Skin's earthen barrier for protection. Ordinary explosions didn't even faze him.
Teleporting to close the distance, Closer forced the fight into melee—exactly the opposite of Iruki's style.
"Rock and roll!"
He swung his hand as if scooping up earth; the ground quivered and began to curl.
A boulder, grown to three meters in diameter, crushed the spot where Iruki had been standing.
Iruki teleported away at once. But the moment her feet touched down, the ground collapsed beneath her as if a trapdoor had sprung.
"Heh heh heh! This ends now!"
Using Earthquake—symbolic of earth magic—Closer sealed Iruki's movement, then followed with an eruption spell. Compressing the earth generated frictional heat and an explosion. Nearly five tons of soil burst from the pit where Iruki had fallen.
Iruki covered her face with her arms and was hurled into the air. In her head, the detonation equations raced through her mind.