CH 18

"Mock battle, huh?"

"Yeah. I've been so busy training lately that I haven't been able to move my body properly. You coming to the training ground is too good of an opportunity to pass up."

Edsel said while crossing his arms, he didn't seem to hear anything else I had said.

It's not like he was full of enthusiasm, but he gave off the vibe that he would not allow anyone to refuse him at this point.

This fighting lunatic is...

"By the way, if I say no, will you refuse to do me the favour?"

"Yes, I will. On the other hand, if you accept the mock battle, I will do everything possible to meet whatever request you have."

"As much as possible..."

I guess I was hoping he'd say absolutely not.

I glanced over at Fiona, but she shook her head from side to side and clenched her fists to encourage me to hang in there.

I guess she knows Edsel is pretty stubborn when it comes to this kind of thing, so she gave up. You heartless bitch.

Huh. I guess it can't be helped. I wasn't planning on fighting today, though...

"All right. However, do not use your full strength. No use of unique abilities or magic so powerful that it destroys the training grounds."

"I understand."

"All right, then. Lady Sion."

I looked away from Edsel's back as he walked down the training field and called out to Lady Sion, who was probably listening to the conversation next to me.

I'm sure she's surprised that I'm fighting him out of the blue.

"After everything that's happened, I'm going to fight him now. It's going to be a little while before we can go to the library to study."

"That's fine, but... are you sure it will be okay?"

Lady Sion raised her eyebrows anxiously.

I know exactly what you're worried about. Normally, I would think that there is no way that the Notensho Powers Book can defeat the Book of Wisdom Cherub.

There is a trend among mages to regard rank as an absolute.

"It's okay. We don't take each other seriously, and even if we did, I have no intention of losing. It's just a mock battle."

"Sion. You don't have to worry about Serel. he may look slender and weak, but he is the strongest person I know."

"That's a lot of trust."

"I trust you."

If you look at me straight in the eye and say that, I'm going to feel very embarrassed...

Then, for some reason, Lady Sion became annoyed and took my hand.

"W-Wow, I believe in you too! Good luck!"

"Thank you very much. I'll be going now."

Patting her on the head as I left, I walked down the stairs to the training grounds.

In the middle of the training ground that can be seen in front of you, Edsel is already waiting with a grin on his face, and all the court mages who were training until just now have evacuated the field.

For some reason, they all seemed to gasp.

"What? What the hell do they think I am?"

"50% of the people here have seen the last time you fought me, you destroyed half the training grounds, so they probably don't think you're normal."

"It's called youthful indiscretion. Besides, it was almost certainly you who destroyed it."

"Well, yeah."

When I got to my position, Edsel held out one hand and summoned his own grimoire.

There are only 7 Books of Wisdom in the kingdom, and he was one of them.

"── Kerub."

At the moment of the summoning, a brilliant and huge magic circle unfolded, starting from Edsel's right hand, and a light breeze was created, spreading purple mist around him.

With its dense magical power, it could be called a symbol of the mighty power of the second-ranked grimoire. It's a great opportunity to show off your skills.

"── Ramiel"

While forcing back the corners of my secretly inflated mouth, I also summoned my own grimoire.

The summoning of higher level grimoires is as flashy as ever.

"I'd like to remind you that there are no attacks that will harm you. It's not going to have any effect on the surrounding area either."

"I know, I'll fight with your skill level in mind, and if there's any damage, I'll make sure you're the only one affected."

"Hopefully I won't be harmed either."

"You can't do that. Even though it's a mock-up, this is still a battle... Bronze Cutter"

Edsel raised his right arm in a big motion.

As if to match his movements, the concentrated magic power flows, and a copper blade appears to cut my body in half. It approaches me while cutting the ground in a straight line.

The size of the blade is... about six times my height, I think. I'm sure you wanted to show off to me, but it's not worth wasting your magic on. If you're another mage, you might be surprised and sit back... but this is just to look good.

"Discharge."

Using lightning to coat my entire body and improve my physical abilities - I move as close to the lightning as possible and avoid the copper blade without difficulty. I then poured lightning onto the blade to establish a circuit.

As it passes by my side, It stops just before reaching the edge of the training area, sending up a cloud of dust.

I asked Edsel, overhearing the commotion outside the training area.

"It's unusual for you to use a spell with copper."

"It's a spell I recently learned. Mineral creation is an inefficient magic, but this one uses relatively little magic power to create it."

"That's why it's such a huge blade. I'm sure you're not the only one who uses rare magic to create minerals in the first place."

"It can't be helped. My new spellbook's unique ability is 'mineral manipulation'. It's normal for a mage to learn and train up the magic that goes well with the grimoire, right?"

"That's true."

The unique ability of Edsel's grimoire is as mentioned earlier.

He can freely manipulate existing minerals as if they were his limbs. It is not limited to only natural minerals, but also includes magically formed minerals.

When he got the grimoire, he couldn't use the magic of mineral creation, so he begged me to help him, and I had no choice but to use all my knowledge to create a magic formula, which is the mineral creation magic he is using now.

It was hard work. It took months to restore and refine it, because mineral creation magic was long lost magic. It's practically a unique magic. He's the only one who can use it at the moment.

"But I'm not done with my attack yet."

"Hmm?"

I looked to the side and saw that the copper blade, tinged with purple electricity and flowing, was moving by itself, changing its shape into countless spears and attacking me.

It's not hard for me, with my improved physical abilities, to avoid them. I easily avoided the falling spears, and placed the generated spheres of electricity here and there in between, and discharged them all at once.

"What... What the hell!?"

Ezel, alarmed by the violent discharge of electricity from the sphere, promptly dropped the spear and used the newly generated copper to create a wall covering all directions in preparation for the attack. In the nick of time, my lightning strike was blocked by the wall.

Edsel looked at me through a faint hole in the wall.

"I've never heard of a technique where the body is covered in lightning. The members of the group who tried it were burnt."

"There's a trick to it."

"...but it seems that copper is not a good match for you."

I know what Edsel means as he laughs.

Copper conducts electricity very well, so even if you give an electric shock to copper that touches the ground, it will flow to the ground, and the attack will be completely blocked. Thus, even if I continue to let the lightning flow, I will not be able to reach Edsel.

I know that, too.

But the ability of lightning is not only to paralyze.

While the sphere of lightning continues to emit lightning and electrify the copper wall, I pick up the copper spear that I lost control of and point its tip at Edsel.

"Copper is a good match for me. I mean, it'll kill you if you stay like that."

"What?"

I'm sure Edsel, who let out a dumbfounded voice, noticed the shift.

Certainly, for preventing momentary attacks, copper will efficiently prevent lightning. But I am pouring out a continuous stream of lightning.

When lightning is continuously applied to metal, heat is naturally generated. As a result of the continuous flow of high-voltage lightning, the heat generated accumulates inside the copper dome and eventually turns it into an ultra-high temperature chamber.

"It's too hot!!!"

Edsel, unable to withstand the high temperatures that would have burned his throat, scattered the copper dome in all directions to serve as lightning rods.

I stepped in at that moment and thrust my copper spear - the handle - straight at his exposed neck.

However, the copper turned to liquid just before the direct hit, and it didn't do any damage.

I instantly let go of my spear, turned around so as not to kill my momentum, and launched a kick that was covered in lightning. Edsel, who dives and avoids it, changes the spear from earlier to a scythe and wields it in a sideways motion. I stepped in briskly with one foot on the ground, I took the distance with wind magic to avoid the blade by jumping, and at the moment of landing I created a spear of thunder and threw it.

But Edsel deflected it with a swing of his sickle.

"Huh. You're doing great."

"You too... Are you really a Notensho Powers?"

"Who do you think created your mineral creation magic? My pride won't allow me to lag behind the magic I created myself."

"I see..."

We talk lightly to each other, trying to figure out when to unleash our magic.

I'm clearly at a disadvantage in close combat, and Edsel is at a disadvantage in mid-range combat.

We both schemed ways to gain an advantage.

And a few dozen seconds later.

A huge copper blade in motion clashed with a bird of lightning dancing wildly in space.