After completing all the duels she had to fight today, Iria briefly contemplated whether to head home but ultimately decided to watch Rena’s duel.
Moving to the stands, Iria was searching for a suitable place to sit.
Her criteria were a bit picky. First off, she hated places where sunlight touched. It was a trait of her race.
It wasn’t as if she would burn up onscreen like in a fairytale, but it just felt uncomfortable for her.
She also disliked noisy areas because her hearing was better than an average person’s.
Crowded and noisy places made her mind restless.
So, she ended up where she originally sat. There was no other place that met her conditions.
“······.”
But she really didn’t want to sit next to Albert.
It wasn’t that she disliked him from the start, but someone whose main job was monster hunting gave her a physiological aversion. Just like how humans instinctively shy away from killers.
With no choice left, Iria decided to stand and watch.
In the current scene of the dueling arena, she could see Rena and a girl with blue hair.
Her name was definitely Wendy, wasn’t it?
It was her first time seeing her in person, but she had seen her in Rena’s memories before. It didn’t seem like their relationship ended on a good note.
-There’s a duel she has to win.
Knowing Rena’s past, Iria could guess the meaning behind those words.
Rena seemed to want to hide her embarrassing past, but she knew it without having to say anything.
There was no helping it. Iria could peek into her memory just by making eye contact.
Though it would be strange for someone else, it was natural for her to know about Rena’s past since she was always by her side.
However, Iria decided to pretend she didn’t know because she wasn’t completely oblivious.
To her, who can’t understand human emotions, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but it looked like Rena wanted to keep it hidden.
*
Magic that exceeds a mage’s capabilities returns to themselves.
The resistance against magic grows as the total amount of mana increases.
Even if you raise the firepower of magic, the corresponding resistance mitigates the damage that bounces back to the caster.
So, what happens if you wield magic with firepower that far surpasses the caster’s resistance?
The answer is simple.
You exhaust the caster’s body before it reaches the opponent. You burn yourself before incinerating your enemy.
Rena was like that, too. She didn’t use the normal methods to raise the firepower of her magic.
She layered spells on top of each other. She poured twice the amount of mana and sacrificed herself.
A mere student momentarily imitated the firepower of a top-tier mage through cheating.
Of course, Rena herself wasn’t capable of handling it yet, so she had to feel the pain of her burning body.
That’s why she’s crazy.
“That crazy girl.”
Wendy gasped at the firepower that was far beyond a student’s level.
Rena leaped with body enhancement using mana. She added speed to her overwhelming firepower.
In a situation where Rena was engulfed in flames, it was more efficient to make direct contact with the opponent rather than emitting flames from a distance.
Because the mana loss would be less, and just approaching them with the heat of the flames could pressure the opponent.
With flames swirling around her fists, Rena charged at Wendy. There was no way to block it with normal magic. Wendy would have to use her mana to defend.
There was no time to think about efficiency. If she didn’t want to be roasted, she had to defend even if it was inefficient.
“Freeze!”
Wendy raised a massive wall of ice to block it.
Flames and ice were opposite elements. The flames would melt the ice, so Wendy’s Ice Spike didn’t reach Rena, but it could neutralize Rena’s flame with cold air.
They could cancel each other’s attacks. Therefore, Wendy spread cold air around to extinguish Rena’s flames.
But…
–Wooooosh!
If the difference in firepower was this significant, even that became impossible.
Rena’s flames engulfed Wendy’s ice. The flames and ice clashed midway, creating a large amount of steam.
White smoke filled the area, making visibility difficult.
Wendy’s ice melted, but Rena’s flames showed no signs of dying down. In fact, they flared up even more.
“You crazy girl! How much mana are you using?!”
Just standing in front of Rena made Wendy struggle to breathe, and she felt like she would get burns all over her body.
Wendy swung her Ice Sword towards Rena, who was too close.
But it didn’t cut. It melted before it could slice through her skin.
Wendy stretched out Ice Spikes towards Rena, who was one step closer.
But they didn’t penetrate. They melted before they could touch her skin.
Rena blasted flames towards Wendy.
“Ugh!”
Wendy barely dodged, turning away, but couldn’t escape the heat that followed the flames.
It was hot. Very hot.
She needed to create distance. But Rena wouldn’t allow her to do that.
The flames ignited around Rena, moving like living beings, blocking Wendy’s path.
Wendy’s legs buckled, and she sat down.
“Ugh, damn······.”
“······.”
Rena approached Wendy, looking down at her from above.
The gaze from within the flames resembled someone else’s. It was the type of stare Wendy hated.
Right now, Rena’s eyes looked like Iria’s. Crazy girls, causing chaos together.
Wendy thought this and bit her lips.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes!!”
At that moment, Wendy’s emotions flared. It was an action brought on more by feelings than reason. Since it wasn’t formed as a spell, the mana loss was extreme.
A massive amount of mana erupted from the surge of emotions and froze as it spread out.
Ice spikes pierced Rena’s skin.
Even though it wasn’t cast in spell form, the amount of mana contained was massive enough to make contact.
Of course, it melted quickly, but it was enough to stall Rena’s movements.
Taking the opportunity of the opening, Wendy quickly backed away to create distance.
As she retreated, her body tilted slightly. She was breathing heavily.
“Huh, ha······.”
Even though Wendy was at the top of the first-year students in terms of total mana, the consumption from just earlier was dangerous.
Having lost a significant amount at once made her feel slightly dizzy.
So, was Rena fine, burning a tremendous amount of mana in real-time? How could she manage that? Wendy turned her gaze to Rena.
And smirked.
‘Of course, right.’
As she had suspected, Rena’s condition wasn’t good at all.
Her complexion was pale, and parts of her skin with flames had turned purple.
As expected, there was no way her body would be fine while releasing such flames.
Rena’s body was already close to its limit.
She was standing in the dueling arena, pushing her body to its limits.
She had held out for a long time.
But now it was time to end it. Wendy took a deep breath.
“······I can raise my output too.”
Wendy too could elevate her output just like Rena. Just as she had done before, she concentrated all the mana within her body into a single point.
Now, there was no room to retreat. If she backed any further, she would be out of bounds.
“Freeze.”
That’s why she poured everything into one final attack. Wendy enveloped her hand with the maximum output of coldness.
When a spell exceeds the caster’s capabilities, it returns to themselves.
In that instant, she felt a cold that seemed to freeze her heart, but the opponent would likely feel a similar condition.
Wendy, with half of her body frozen, stood in front of Rena.
Thus, both prepared their final blows, pouring everything they had into it.
And they leaped simultaneously.
Flames and ice clashed in the center.
Wendy, who had began a war of attrition, transformed the duel into a clash of firepower.
It couldn’t be helped, as Rena initiated it this time.
Having pushed Wendy to the edge of the dueling arena.
Pushed to the limit, Wendy was determined to pour all of her strength into defense.
So she had to finish it then.
If fire was an element concentrated on offense, ice was effective for defense.
A massive block of ice stood in front of Rena, who leaped engulfed in flames. Wendy’s last cold blast.
She had to break through it now.
–Sizzle!
The thick ice wall covered the flames. The opposing forces met midway, creating a neutralization reaction. The temperature of the flames dropped suddenly.
The large amount of steam stung her eyes.
Her body felt like a hot ball of fire, and due to the mana depletion, her skin was turning purple.
But unless she did this, she wouldn’t win. Unlike the past, Wendy had grown stronger than her.
There was a reason she had to win at all costs. To her, Wendy was a shadow of her past.
She overlapped with her former self. To her, Wendy was a mirror reflecting the past.
Rena stood here to face her past.
It was a painfully long process.
–Boom!
Flames melted the ice. Ice cooled the flames.
This time, the heat of the flames was stronger than the cold of the ice.
Although Wendy had grown, she couldn’t match Rena’s momentary firepower from the past.
It was the same even now.
“Ugh?!”
Only after breaking through all the ice did Wendy’s figure enter her sight.
Then, she threw a punch to finish it off.
The flames had mostly cooled down in the process of breaking through the ice.
A light impact pushed Wendy back. She was knocked back a few paces and into the out-of-bounds area.
After Wendy fell out of bounds and lost, both of them collapsed from mana exhaustion.
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