vs Luke Cruella (2)

“Haa, haaaah….”

Luke, who had been hit by an Arcane Arrow in her left forearm, glared at me with an intense gaze.

It was a look that showed her mindset towards our sparring match had changed slightly from just moments ago.

Not only had her attempt to stab me with a single strike at the very beginning failed, but she had also allowed my first attack.

From now on, she wouldn’t be able to treat me as just some incompetent Mage who could only use magic.

As much as I wished she would maintain that carelessness until the Evaluation Match ended, Luke was a character with excellent situational awareness in the field.

She would likely no longer rush in rashly with her dagger, but instead attempt more efficient attacks.

As the situation changed, I quietly waited for her next attack.

“…….”

-Pabababat!

First, to avoid the vision-blocking magic from earlier, she moved her feet, circling around me.

If this were a battle between an ordinary Rogue class and a Mage class, Luke’s action wouldn’t have been a wise decision. Engaging in combat with a Mage or Archer while maintaining distance was tantamount to declaring oneself a living target.

However, I wasn’t an ordinary Mage in that I was capable of close-quarters combat, and Luke wasn’t an ordinary Rogue who only fought with two daggers either.

As she circled me, five or six sharp, dagger-like objects began flying towards me from her hand.

-Pishuut!

As expected, as soon as she gave up on close-quarters combat, she immediately switched to this pattern.

Though weaker in power compared to directly wielding a dagger in hand, it allowed her to attack from a distance.

And the fact that she generated daggers from multiple directions while moving at high speed made it a considerably tricky attack.

Naturally, it was impossible to dodge them all with my body, and deflecting them all with a dagger was also impossible.

An ordinary Mage would have to think about getting hit less painfully, enduring a few daggers with their body, and escaping.

Fortunately, I wasn’t an ordinary Mage, nor was I *just* a Mage.

-Tuk! Tuduk! Tuk!

-Chaeng! Chaejaeng!

The last beginner skill in the Support Magic Tree, Arcane Shield.

This, like Blurred Light, was a magic I had prepared to face Luke. I knew she would surely attempt a ranged attack at least once.

Of course, Arcane Shield was the lowest-tier among shield-type magic, a skill that would be destroyed by blocking just one or two incoming daggers. But for me right now, that level of power was enough.

By using Triple Casting, I protected three of the four sides of my body simultaneously, and deflected the daggers that flowed into the remaining open spots with my longsword.

Arcane Shields, which broke due to their weak durability, could simply be replenished continuously.

After all, I currently possessed an insane amount of mana, with a maximum mana capacity exceeding 2000.

-Shiiik!!

“Dieeeee!!”

A slightly heavier sound mixed with the whizzing of the thin daggers.

This was also a sound I had often heard while playing 『Luminor Academy』, so I quickly twisted my body in the direction of Luke’s voice.

Among the thin daggers, I used the longsword I was holding to strike Luke’s left dagger, which was flying precisely at my heart, upwards into the sky.

-Chaaaeeng!

The sharp dagger, upon hitting my silver dagger, instantly had its trajectory twisted and flew into the air.

Seeing sparks fly even though I had only deflected the blade of the incoming dagger, it was clear how strong her resolve to finish me off was.

‘Fuck, I really thought I was going to die.’

Unlike the thin daggers, the dagger that flew from her hand was clearly different in weight.

If I hadn’t used Shockwave to match the moment the blades collided, it would have undoubtedly pierced my heart, or I would have been wounded somewhere on my body by failing to perfectly deflect its trajectory.

Even if I had simply relied on Arcane Shield and been complacent, I would have been pierced right through.

From the start, dagger throwing was Luke’s most powerful skill at this point, so she must have tried to finish me off with that one strike.

She must have judged that it was impossible to properly swing with her injured left hand and used her ultimate move in that moment, which seemed like the most opportune opening.

Fortunately, with the failure of her ultimate attack just now, the momentum of victory in this sparring match had almost entirely tilted in my favor.

Luke, holding only one dagger, felt like her combat power was reduced by about 30-40%, so considering her overall combat capabilities, I naturally surpassed her.

Moreover, she wore a nervous expression, as if she had almost exhausted all the daggers she had been throwing while circling me. Of course, even if a few remained, they would still be blocked by my Arcane Shield.

“…….”

The problem was that I was still not in a very good situation to finish off Luke.

To win the sparring match, I needed to use Mana Blast in a situation where I could definitely hit her, but the biggest problem was that such a situation simply wasn’t arising.

To use Mana Blast, which had a long casting time and left me vulnerable while using it, I needed to suppress her more thoroughly than I currently was.

From the start, Mana Blast wasn’t an efficient enough spell to use in human-to-human combat; it was a spell meant to be used as a final blow in party hunting.

Wounding one of her arms, blocking all her ranged throwing means, and even taking away the left dagger she was holding wasn’t enough to say she was thoroughly suppressed.

‘The best thing would be to somehow get close to that bitch and bind her with Mana Chains.’

Just as Mana Blast was the first ‘enhancement technique’ of offensive magic, Mana Chains was the first ‘enhancement technique’ of support magic.

A skill that unconditionally binds an opponent for 10 seconds if they are at a similar or lower level than oneself.

The problem was that to use this skill, I had to approach close enough for daggers to clash, and since my opponent was a person, not a monster, she would likely feel something amiss and try to escape if I approached.

…There’s no choice, I’ll have to lure Luke towards me.

Although I wasn’t very confident in provoking her, since I had experience strategizing against Luke in my previous life, I knew enough about what she liked and what angered her.

I quietly opened my mouth and drew Luke’s gaze, which had been fixed on me, towards myself.

“Are you done with everything you can do?”

“…No.”

“Oh? Then why are you just standing there?”

“…None of your business.”

“I thought there was something to you, since the Vice-President of the Engineering Department applied for the evaluation match so confidently, but you’re more pathetic than I thought?”

“…….”

Hearing my words, Luke bit her lower lip and fixed an angry gaze on me.

I nonchalantly pretended not to care about her gaze and picked up the dagger that had fallen in front of me.

I fiddled with her left-hand dagger, which seemed to be a gift from Seraphine to Luke, in my right hand.

All the while, I slowly chanted the incantation-less spell for ‘Mana Chains’ in my mind, ready to activate it at any moment.

“Isn’t this what you were holding in your left hand just now?”

“…Don’t touch it.”

“Why? Seeing how you threw it like trash, didn’t you just abandon it?”

“Don’t call it trash!”

“…….”

…It’s certainly effective. Perhaps because it’s an item related to Seraphine.

Well, as a player of 『Luminor Academy』, I knew best that this dagger was a good item. Seraphine wouldn’t have gifted Luke useless equipment in the first place.

But to lure her towards me, I needed to intentionally use strong words to provoke Luke.

Just in case you misunderstand, it’s not like I particularly wanted to act so arrogant. It was simply a provocation I had no choice but to make to lure her towards me.

To avoid quick-witted Luke noticing that I was manipulating her movements, I had to thoroughly convey emotions contrary to my true intentions.

Otherwise, it would have been virtually impossible to perfectly deceive her.

“Alright, it’s too good to call trash. Looking closely, it’s quite a good dagger.”

“…….”

“Can I have this?”

“……What?”

“Thanks for the gift. I’ll make good use of it, Luke.”

“G-Give that back…!!!”

And as I tried to put the dagger away in the inner pocket of my uniform, as if I truly intended to keep it, Luke, who had been standing still, began to move.

Realizing that my provocation had definitely worked on her, I watched Luke’s movements closely, with only the last sentence of the Mana Chains incantation remaining in my mind.

I just needed to concentrate until the end and not mess up the incantation.

If I bound her right hand with Mana Chains just before her dagger pierced my body, and immediately started chanting Mana Blast from that moment, I could comfortably win.

As I thought that, predicting the trajectory of Luke’s right hand and preparing to use Mana Chains, for some reason, my intuition began to stir an uneasy feeling in my chest.

…From Luke’s gaze, who had approached quite close, I suddenly caught a glimpse of her looking ‘somewhere else’.

‘Wait, something’s off…?’

Thinking about it, there was one awkward point in Luke’s actions during the recent battle.

When Luke used ‘Dagger Throw’ in our battle earlier, why did she specifically throw her left-hand dagger at me?

She wouldn’t have been able to throw with her injured left hand, so if she intended to exploit an opening even slightly faster, she should have thrown her right-hand dagger instead.

And if she failed, it would have been better to hold the left-hand dagger in her right hand. After all, there wasn’t much difference between a left-handed or right-handed dagger.

If so, there had to be a reason why Luke specifically switched the left-hand dagger to her right hand. The reason why she specifically threw the left-hand dagger at me even in that urgent situation.

‘Could it be that what Luke threw wasn’t just a ‘sword,’ but also intended to convey the information that ‘there’s no sword in her left hand’…?’

The moment that thought struck me, I recalled the moment a few months ago when Ethan and Harold were swinging their swords at the Blackwood Mansion Training Ground.

I could also recall how Ethan had seized his ‘first victory’ against Harold there.

“Dieeeeeee!!”

In the fleeting moment I grasped Luke’s intention, her body had already approached right in front of me, ready to swing her sword.

Although I had no clear certainty that this would happen, I followed my intuition and used my Mana Chains on the charging Luke.

Not on Luke’s ‘right arm’ swinging from the front, but on her ‘left arm’ coming from her blind spot.

-Chwarurururuk!

“Kuaaaak?!”

Just before Luke’s left hand could stab a dagger into the back of my head, my Mana Chains wrapped around her left arm first, and in that instant, I saw Luke’s figure collapsing, subdued by chains binding her entire body.

Even as she was dragged into the corner of the sparring ground by the Mana Chains, Luke, wearing a bewildered expression, muttered in a flustered voice.

“H-How…?”

“What do you mean, ‘how’?”

Casually ignoring Luke’s final question, I quickly gathered a Mana Blast, imbued with all my remaining mana, onto my palm.

Luke, witnessing the giant orb of mana appearing above my head, was seized by instinctive fear and began to writhe against the binding chains, but my Mana Blast was already complete before her chains could loosen.

…As a gift for the loser, I might as well tell her why she lost.

“If you’re going to ambush me!! You have to maintain eye contact until the end, you stupid bitch!!!”

With my enraged shout, the Mana Blast flew towards the corner of the sparring ground where Luke was bound.

Whether my last words reached her, her expression solidified into one of emptiness as she accepted my final blow.

After a powerful explosion, nothing remained in the spot where Luke had been bound by chains.

…The Death Prevention Magic seems to have activated properly.

“Th-The winner! Lilith Blackwood Rosewood!”

“Lilith! Lilith! Lilith!”

“Waaah! That’s freaking awesome! You’re insane, Lilith!!”

“Kyaaak! Lilith! I knew Lilith would win!! Liiiliiith!!!”

“O-Older sister, please calm down! Everyone around us is staring…!”

Receiving the cheers of the Academy students chanting the winner’s name, I exited, dragging my exhausted body towards my waiting room, where Ethan would be waiting.

…Haa, I really thought I was going to die this time.