Vol 5. Chapter 31: Did I Misjudge It?

Iceflame at an extreme, frigid temperature poured from the mouths of the sinister ice-demon masks, their eyes blazing and glaring with savage fury, and held back the heat wave blowing toward him.

In that instant, the two forces were evenly matched.

Aesphyra had both hands gripping the holy sword, so she had no way to release a second spell. Vinny, however, was different. This was where the advantage of [Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame] appeared. It did not require his hands to release it. As long as he took a spitting posture, he could unleash it, which meant Vinny could release two spells at the same time.

The vast, surging ice element and fire element slammed into each other. The mana fluctuations stirred up by these two completely opposing elements were massive and majestic. One moment, everything was deathly cold; the next, it was scorching hot. Just the aftershocks alone were enough to make breathing difficult.

Not far away, Margaret, who had wanted to go up and help, could only helplessly choose to cast [Light Protection] on herself, blocking wave after wave of heat and icy wind that swept toward her.

Connie was not that lucky.

Forget going up to help. When immortals fought, mortals suffered, and she was the unlucky fish caught in the flood. Her entire body felt as if she were drowning. One moment, it was like someone had thrown her into magma. The next, she had been fished out and thrown into an ice cave. She was being tormented badly.

Although the damage-taking belt could prevent people from being injured, it could not completely block sensory feedback.

As a special-admissions student for alchemy, Connie was terrible at actual combat. If it had not been for the sake of entering Carillian Academy, she would not have wanted to learn any magic with killing power at all.

She was not suited to fighting, and she did not like fighting. This really was making things difficult for her. To her, this training match was completely a case of driving a duck onto a perch.

At first, she had still wanted to help Aesphyra, but now, the aftershocks from the two of them fighting were already about to carry her away.

She had heard of Vinny, and she had heard even more about Aesphyra. After all, both of them were top-three combatants among the second-years. Even if she had no interest in combat-related matters, she still heard their names from other people all the time.

Of course, there were other reasons Vinny’s name appeared so frequently in other people’s idle chatter. For example, the theory of the true and fake Facilis that was currently spreading through the Academy.

Naturally, Vinny, who stood in the center of that public-opinion whirlpool, was one of the main targets of discussion.

Connie did not care much about anything other than alchemy, and she could not really muster any interest in gossip like this either. She had always taken it in passively. Her classmates around her were all talking about it, so even if she was not interested, she would still more or less overhear some of their highly subjective personal opinions.

For example, Vinny’s reputation.

Today had taught her something too: she could not listen to public opinion about everything.

For example, from the way those classmates of hers usually talked, Upperclassman Vinny and Margaret did not seem like two people who could possibly get along peacefully no matter how one looked at it.

But from what she saw today, there did not seem to be any major disagreement between them. At least on the surface, that was the case. They even coordinated fairly well, and that Upperclassman Vinny was not as terrifying or as monstrously evil as the rumors said.

Honestly, when Connie learned that her opponent was Vinny, the reason she had acted so timid was because she had believed some of the rumors about him.

The numbers on the damage-taking belt were soaring wildly, and Connie knew this was a sign that she was about to be eliminated.

Before the match, she had known exactly how huge the gap was between her and those two.

But reality proved that she had still underestimated the gap between herself and these outstanding students from the combat specialization.

In her imagination, even if she was not of much use, she would not be a purely negative factor. She definitely would not fail to cast a single spell and then die to the aftershocks of the battle.

Only after watching from the side through several rounds of fighting did she react and realize she needed to help. Then she started thinking about how she should help, what spell she should cast, and what would let her help Upperclassman Aesphyra most efficiently.

Her habitual way of thinking had made her overlook one thing.

Actual combat was not an alchemy experiment. There was not that much time for her to think about what to do next. At times like this, aside from raw strength, what mattered was intuition, experience, and the ability to react under pressure.

By now, she could no longer even think about helping.

She could barely take care of herself. She could not even open her eyes.

Just as she was about to be eliminated, she suddenly felt as if the storm around her had quieted down. The snowstorm and hot wind swirling around her had all stopped, and her surroundings returned to calm once more.

Connie opened her eyes in surprise and discovered that a transparent, lustrous film of water had covered her body. Like a large water bubble, it wrapped around her completely, separating her from the hail and streaming fire.

This was [Water-Wave Barrier]??

Connie recognized the spell.

Generally speaking, although water- and earth-element spells had fairly average killing power, they were used for protection and were extremely effective.

Who had cast this [Water-Wave Barrier] on her??

Connie looked toward the three people in the distance. Vinny had his back to her and was locked in a contest of strength with Aesphyra. Even his mouth was not idle; he was spitting ice element toward Aesphyra. Aesphyra’s gaze, too, was entirely fixed on Vinny.

Connie understood at once. Her gaze turned toward the cherry-haired girl farthest from her, who held a hammer in one hand and supported [Light Protection] with the other. At that moment, the latter noticed her gaze, glanced toward her, and gave her a gentle smile. That smile, filled with goodwill, was like the compassion an angel at the boundary of the divine realm showed to a mortal of the world below.

As a four-star Spirit Soul, [Saint’s Envoy] could learn not only light-element magic, but also many spells of other elements, including many protective water-element spells.

At that moment, Connie’s eyes widened. Her mouth parted slightly, and her heart was deeply moved.

So Miss Margaret had been secretly observing and taking care of her all along??

Warmth filled Connie’s heart. Because she was reserved by nature and did not like talking, she did not have many friends in class. She also felt that a transparent nobody like her was a dispensable existence in the class. Maybe if she disappeared one day and did not come to class, no one would even notice her.

So Miss Margaret had been watching her all along??

Connie pressed her lips together and gripped the staff in her hand, too choked up to speak.

The spectators watching the match had absolutely no idea who had cast this [Water-Wave Barrier]. Almost all of them thought Connie had cast it herself. As for how she, a special-admissions alchemy student, could cast [Water-Wave Barrier] in such a short time?

No one thought about it carefully. Everyone’s attention was on Aesphyra, Vinny, and Margaret. Connie had been completely marginalized. Or rather, no one had any expectations for her at all.

“Connie really got unlucky, drawing this group,” the first-year students in the same class as Connie said, clicking their tongues.

“Don’t laugh. If you went up there, you wouldn’t do any better than her. Maybe you’d get beaten so badly you’d be running around with your head in your hands.”

Someone beside him immediately joked.

“Tch! In a match like this, whoever goes up there is unlucky. Did I say I wanted to go up? Shut up. We should just watch properly and learn.”

“Boom, boom!!”

The mana fluctuations reached a critical point. Along with an explosion, a vast wave of mana sent Vinny flying backward.

However, this was not enough to throw Vinny into disorder. He rolled several times through the air, extended an ice chain to hook the ground, and pulled himself into a safe landing.

Aesphyra, on the other hand, had not been blown away by the magical fluctuations at all.

Only a few strands of light wind brushed over the tips of her hair and smoothed the hair before her forehead. That was all.

Sweat ran down Vinny’s forehead. Even though Aesphyra did not pursue him, he was still under enormous pressure.

“Wait, does that mean Vinny lost the exchange?”

“Of course, right? What’s strange about that? Vinny’s strength is probably around top three, but Aesphyra is number one in the year. Her affinity with all elements is [Exceptional], and her affinity with the fire element is [Shackle-Breaking]. If anything, the fact that Vinny lasted until now is already really impressive.”

“As expected of Aesphyra. She really is the only one who can suppress Vinny.”

Although most people were marveling at the strength of the two of them, there were also quite a few people making comments.

“Hey, hey, still not good enough. Vinny isn’t as amazing as people say, is he? He honestly looks weak.”

There were also people who had the luxury of talking big from the sidelines, hands on hips, pretending to be old masters as they started playing critic.

Vinny could not hear them from inside the barrier. If he could hear their discussion, he would absolutely have rushed over and shouted, “If you’re so good, why don’t you go up there??”

After the wave of spell bombardment ended, Vinny did not choose to keep evading.

He knew doing that would only waste time.

He was not faster than Aesphyra.

Rather than that, he might as well use the time before Margaret’s strength enhancement wore off to rush in for close combat. Maybe he could still take the upper hand and seize back a little advantage.

So not long after Vinny landed, he charged forward again with his spear.

As for Connie, the spot where Vinny had landed just now was very close to her, but Vinny had no intention of attacking her at all.

That would be bullying the poor junior girl too much. It had not been easy for her to come out here and scrape together a few credits. Throwing her into an octagonal cage with the three of them was already miserable enough. If he could go easy on her, he would go easy on her.

Vinny charged with his spear. Most of his spells had entered cooldown. Aside from attacking and forcing Aesphyra into a close-range fight, he had no other options.

The [Hero] Spirit Soul had the deepest spell pool of any Spirit Soul, bar none. It could learn magic of every element. Aside from some spells tied to specific Spirit Souls, it could learn most magic.

He would have to be insane to keep choosing to play spell-bombardment with Aesphyra. Comparing spell pools with Aesphyra? Wasn’t that asking to die??

Therefore, Vinny’s thinking was very clear.

If he lost out in close combat and then thought he could win by creating distance, that would mean he had fallen into a misconception.

Although Aesphyra’s swordsmanship was superb and her movements were agile, she was not a warrior.

She was a mage.

Magic was her strong suit. Of course, this was not to say that her swordsmanship was weak. It was just that if one absolutely had to choose the weaker side between her swordsmanship and her magic, then one could only reluctantly choose her swordsmanship.

If he continued pulling distance from Aesphyra, then with one casual wave of her hand, she would send down a rain of magic from every element. At that point, there would be no point continuing.

But how could Aesphyra fail to see what Vinny was thinking?

Even so, she did not distance herself from Vinny. Instead, she simply let Vinny charge over.

She was somewhat curious what method Vinny would use to suppress her.

“Clang, clang!”

The holy sword, its swinging trajectory carrying special effects like characters of holy radiance, collided with the ice spear again.

Under the strength-enhanced state, Vinny’s strength had increased greatly. He wanted to rely on that strength to brute-force his way through and take the upper hand.

However, to his surprise, whether it was because the strength-enhancement magic had begun to weaken, or because Aesphyra had not used all her strength before, the spear blade was blocked solidly.

Vinny’s heart jolted.

Aesphyra used the holy sword to knock aside the spearhead, closed in, and followed the motion into a downward slash. The entire movement flowed in one breath.

In Vinny’s field of vision, blades and sword light flashed. The sword edge was clear one instant and blurred the next, as if it carried layers of afterimages, making it difficult for the naked eye to capture.

Although Vinny could block it, the pressure it brought was anything but ordinary. The pressure rose sharply.

A continuous series of metallic clashes rang out without end. Aesphyra advanced constantly. Around her, only the afterimage-like scars of her sword could be seen wrapping around her body. In order to control the distance, Vinny had no choice but to retreat again and again, keeping the gap at medium range. The spear shaft clashed with the sword edge like an iron bridge spanning a river, sending sparks flying one after another.

The spectators’ eyes locked tightly onto the two of them. At first, they had still wanted to learn something, to steal a few techniques by watching. Then they discovered they could not steal anything at all.

The movements of these two were simply too fast.

At the side, Isatia watched this scene, and her brows lifted.

She could tell who had the initiative and who had been forced onto the defensive. She was also certain that if this continued, Vinny would definitely lose.

Naturally, she could tell that the reason Vinny could keep fighting Aesphyra right now relied purely on the instinctive spearmanship honed through his long experience. Vinny’s spear technique had been tempered through all kinds of life-and-death experiences. It was plain and unadorned.

To put it bluntly, it was experiential technique.

Vinny himself had never systematically studied any spear art or sword art.

Aesphyra, on the other hand, had not only studied many kinds of sword arts, but had also practiced each of them to an exceptional level. She had discarded the dross and kept the essence from all those miscellaneous sword arts, then incorporated and consolidated those parts into the family sword art she primarily cultivated.

In other words, this was academy style versus wild style.

And Aesphyra was no ordinary academy-style fighter. She was a genius practical-academy type who could already rely on her own understanding to preserve what was excellent in a sword art and improve its shortcomings.

Vinny was slowly being drawn into Aesphyra’s rhythm.

And the situation developed exactly as Isatia expected. The more Vinny fought, the harder it became. He realized the defensive cost he had to pay was completely unequal to Aesphyra’s offensive cost.

Aesphyra only had to swing lightly, and intercepting it still made him feel as if he were facing a great enemy, sweat pouring down his back. After nearly ten exchanges, Vinny felt he could no longer intercept her.

The strength-enhancement magic had not worn off yet, but Aesphyra was beating him so thoroughly that he could not attack at all. Every time he wanted to counterattack, she perfectly neutralized him. That sword could cut into the weakest point of his attack every single time.

But now, it was too late for him to cast magic.

Had his judgment been wrong?

Should he not have closed in for the fight just now??

Although this duel was still ongoing, the victor had actually been decided long ago.