Ch.76Decisive Battle: Second Half (3)

“Haa… Haa…”

Seria gasped for breath.

The consecutive spells she had just cast didn’t consume much magical power, but her unique magic, Arrow of Nature, had drained far more than she expected.

It was only natural.

‘Vampires… need to be blown away in one shot so they can’t even recover their bones…’

A vampire’s regenerative ability was beyond imagination.

They were a race that could regenerate even a severed arm in less than a second without batting an eye.

In fact, Count Vladimir himself would regenerate effortlessly during battle even when parts of his body were blown away.

Eventually, when his blood ran low, his regeneration speed would noticeably decrease as he groaned, but the situation now was different.

‘I need to incapacitate him even for a moment to win…!’

Losing a body part wouldn’t be enough to incapacitate him.

For a vampire like Midir, it would be difficult to even knock him unconscious without blowing off his head.

That’s why Seria used magic with the maximum power she could muster.

A spell that created an arrow and imperfectly spread magical power like a gust of wind around it before firing.

It was her most confident spell, with such overwhelming magical power contained in the arrow that its aftershock alone had severely wounded the Demon King.

Look at it now—the aftershock alone had literally disintegrated part of the arena.

‘Disintegrated…?’

Surely he wasn’t killed by this…?

For some reason, she felt uneasy.

Of course, she knew well that the Midir she knew wouldn’t die from something like this, but anxiety was anxiety.

After all, she had used in a mere duel a spell so powerful it had even severely wounded the Demon King.

She hadn’t intended to use this spell, but it was a necessary sacrifice to defeat Midir.

‘Maybe I’ll buy him something tasty when I see him later…’

Since he was a vampire, he probably liked blood, so feeding him her blood wouldn’t be a bad idea.

She thought it would be best to win by any means necessary now and apologize later.

But Seria was mistaken.

“Didn’t I tell you not to get distracted?”

“Guh?!”

Seria’s eyes widened.

Midir had suddenly appeared and delivered a blood-infused slap to her face.

The Archmage didn’t suffer much damage thanks to the magical barrier she always maintained, but the powerful blow sent her flying in an L-shape.

Crack!

As soon as she was sent flying by the slap, she was hit by blood spurting from a blood wall that had risen on the opposite side, causing her to roll on the ground.

“Ugh…!”

At this rate, she would lose.

‘I need to buy time…!’

Thinking she needed to buy time, Seria hurriedly tried to use earth magic to lift the ground beneath her in a square shape to send herself high into the sky, but—

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Slash!

The ground was cut by a blood blade before she could rise even a few meters, causing it to fall back down.

Thud!

“Urk…!”

In the brief moment of falling, a quickly formed hand of blood lightly gripped Seria’s neck.

Squeeze.

Seria let out a groan.

‘It’s too much if he didn’t take any damage at all…’

She had definitely confirmed that he was caught in the arrow’s blast.

She hadn’t expected to end it with that one shot.

But…

“H-how…”

How could he be so unscathed?

It was a spell that even the Demon King couldn’t avoid.

Someone who had never seen this magic before couldn’t have avoided it just by reacting.

Unless he had anticipated her casting the spell and dodged preemptively, it was too fast to avoid.

Seria asked with a confused expression, but Midir ignored her and slammed her to the ground.

“I’ll answer you later.”

After that, the battle proceeded overwhelmingly one-sided.

If she had been at a distance, she might have been able to hinder Midir with various spells, but once she allowed him to close the gap, escaping from his grasp was impossible.

Even if she could, he would have easily countered her magic anyway.

‘This is…’

He wasn’t even using his full power, was he?

Seria felt a twinge of displeasure in a corner of her heart.

Hadn’t they agreed to fight with all their might when they started the duel?

Yet now that they were fighting, far from using his full power, he was busy holding back against her.

As the duel continued, Seria gradually realized.

Midir couldn’t seriously face her.

It was far from a question of whether it was possible or impossible.

The reason was simple and straightforward.

Her skills fell far short of Midir’s.

Midir was incredibly strong.

Perhaps even stronger than Count Vladimir.

That’s why Midir had been anxiously concerned about accidentally killing her during their duel.

‘What’s with a disciple being stronger than the master…’

A thousand years had passed, so it was certainly possible.

Or perhaps Vladimir had grown even stronger during those thousand years.

Either way, it meant she was too weak to even face Midir, the disciple of Count Vladimir.

Or maybe Midir was abnormally strong…

“I’m sorry.”

Midir said as he spewed blood.

“I’ll end this as quickly as possible.”

Well, now.

When he said it like that, it almost sounded like he was trying to kill her.

Seria closed her eyes.

Honestly, it was something she didn’t want to believe, but now that reality had revealed itself so blatantly before her eyes, she could no longer postpone accepting it.

Seria decided to quietly accept it.

Crash!

Her defeat.

* * *

Silence fell over the audience.

Many people knew that Midir was strong.

It was an era where most mages used MagicPads.

Unless they deliberately avoided looking him up, there were no mages who weren’t interested in the Blood Tower Master who had appeared like a comet, so most knew what kind of extraordinary feats Midir had accomplished.

That’s why everyone was interested in how the battle would unfold between Midir and the Green Tower Master, one of the two tower masters known as the “Two Towers” among the Magic Tower Masters.

Most thought the Green Tower Master would have the upper hand.

It was natural to think so.

Midir was just a kid who claimed to be Count Vladimir’s successor, while Seria, though young-looking, was an Archmage who had once been part of the Hero’s party that defeated the Demon King.

She was an elf who still held the position of Tower Master even after a thousand years had passed.

Most thought that even if she couldn’t overwhelmingly defeat him, she would certainly be able to handle Midir.

They thought so until the match started and Seria began her magical onslaught.

[Blood Tower Master is trash lol]

[Why is he just taking hits? Augh!]

[He can’t do anything lmao]

It was understandable.

After his initial Blood Spine was easily blocked, he continued to just get hit by Seria’s magic.

He was trapped in water, then frozen in ice, and while he was buying time as steam, Seria successfully cast consecutive spells leading to her strongest strike.

When she successfully activated her unique magic, everyone predicted Seria’s victory.

[Huh?]

[Wow!! I believed in you, damn it!!!]

[What the heck?]

[Wow this is so freaking entertaining lololol]

Midir was alive.

And completely unharmed.

Not only that, but he seized the initiative against Seria and began beating her mercilessly.

[Uh oh]

[Wow what the hell]

[She’s going to lose?]

Thanks to the magical barrier spread over her body, she wasn’t injured, but that was only valid as long as they maintained the premise of a duel.

Given how overwhelmingly she was being pushed back and knocked around, her only desperate future was to hold out until her shield broke.

As people watched Seria bouncing around the arena like a pinball, getting hit repeatedly, they began to express their anxiety one by one.

Could the Green Tower Master actually lose?

How could this be happening?

The elves of the M Generation were especially agitated.

[That insolent brat!!]

[I told her not to let her guard down, tsk tsk…]

[Losing to mosquitoes… impossible…]

The old mages of the Green Tower were particularly upset.

They were old mages who denied reality and desperately convinced themselves that Seria would win, but…

Crash!

Beeeep!

Finally, her magical barrier was completely destroyed, and Eterna declared the end of the match.

– The Blood Tower Master is the winner.

Even until the result was determined, they couldn’t accept this reality.

[This can’t be…]

[How is this possible…]

[The Green Tower… lost?]

It was the moment their world crumbled.