The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

Chapter 157: Mage Versus Mage

Chapter 157: Mage Versus Mage

“Double Dragon!”

“Ngh-!?”

She just opened with a wind and lightning large-scale spell!

As the name suggested, it came in the shape of two dragon heads. Not many ways to actually dodge it – I’ll have to use this!

“Rise! Earth Control: Count 2!”

I constructed up two earth walls, one on each side of my body, and then covered my front with a wall of arcane energy.

By doing this, the two dragon heads were redirected to the earth walls, crumbling them down – but in the process, they swerved further off course.

“Heh, that’s an interesting spell you have.”

“And your drawing speed is… pretty incredible, actually.”

From what I could see with the Appraisal Glasses, her level was a hundred and fifty-two. Moreover, her drawing speed was as fast as mine.

If I were to elevate my powers with All Up, our statistical abilities should roughly be the same.

Looks like I’d better enhance my physical performance; I need all the help I can get.

And so I activated Fortify Strength, Fortify Resilience, Tempest, and Light Body. A pure mage shouldn’t be doing this, what with these skills putting a great deal of strain on one’s body, but Pochi and I could use them just fine thanks to T?s’ Muscle Training Theater of Love.

Those techniques were originally intended for warriors, after all.

“How about this, hmm? Earth Lance!”

“Rise, Earth Lance!”

All right, it seemed that our spells’ compositions were on an equal level, too.

“Hmph… Ice Javelin!”

“Rise! Ice Javelin!”

“Gah! Hell Stamp!”

Another big one!

“Tch – Rise! Octa Boundary!”

A hammer of dark energy swung down from overhead; I locked it away in a boundary of light stakes.

“Oh, my… I didn’t know you could use the Boundary magecraft like that. Good, good, you’re quite knowledgeable…”

Chiquiata licked her upper lip.

A nasty chill ran down my spine.

Somehow, this feeling… reminds me of Dinéya from back in the day.

At this time, perhaps due to how loud Pochi and I were during the fight, Bright woke up.

“Ugh… what in the…? W-who are you…!? Release me at once!”

“That is out of the question. I am a little stronger than you, so you won’t break free, either.”

Young Bright struggled with all his might, attempting to get away, but he was no match for Myans’ grip.

“Master Bright, prioritize your safety… Please just stay where you are.”

“Instructor Poer…!”

“I’ll take this opportunity to hold an extra lesson – a real battle between mages. Observe closely, Young Master…”

Chiquiata, seeing how Bright was groaning in frustration, chuckled.

“Myans, you take a good look, too. I think you’ll get a valuable lesson out of this…”

“Yes, Teacher.”

Those two seemed to be in a teacher-student relationship as well.

But even though I took into account how young Bright’s level was too low, I had a feeling that we were the… inferior pair. Could that just be my imagination?

I’d like to think that it was!

“Hah!”

She’s rushing at me with her staff ready to strike. Is she trying to fight me head-on?

Her speed was nothing special – I can take her.

“Hmph!”

All right, looking good… But now she’s using her right hand to carry on the air-drawing of her left, as if to hide the process.

Considering the situation, if I’d like to destroy that Spell Circle of hers… I’ll have to use Swift Magic!

“Burst!”

“Wha-! Gah!?”

The swing of my Torrent Dragon Staff, which had been blocked previously, now gained an instantaneous burst of speed and broke through Chiquiata’s defense.

Chiquiata was blown backward, but then she thrust her staff into the ground, slowing down and eventually stopping herself in the path.

“Hmph, how suspicious… I don’t think I saw you draw anything back there…”

Chiquiata combed her front hair up; I remained silent, keeping my guard up.

It should be the case that Swift Magic did not exist yet in this era. In which case, I would be out of my mind not to use it to gain an upper hand in this battle.

My Torrent Dragon Staff had four Swift Magic spells slotted into it, the maximum it allowed: the large-scale restoration spell High Cure Adjust, my original spell Pochi Pad Bomb, the speed induction spell Burst for weaponizing the staff itself, and lastly… a certain spell for extremely mundane purposes.

However, that one mundane spell… it may very well be vital to achieving victory in this battle.

“Looks like you’re planning something. Heh heh heh… Don’t give me that scary look, boy…”

I should be the one saying that to her.

I couldn’t help but be scared of fighting a mage in this distant past.

There may very well be outdated magic spells and magecraft I was never aware of; I wouldn’t know how to deal with them in a fight.

I’d be better off making my move before my opponents could make theirs!

Well then… if I do a surprise attack, I should be able to get myself some opening to exploit. And with this greatly levelled-up body, I should be able to keep up with the process…

Deca Spell, invoke!

“One, Delta Earth!”

Three triangular spires, converging into a triangular formation.

“You’re fast, but that’s not enough to get me! Delta Earth!”

“Two, Venom Death!”

A large green-colored flame with toxic effects.

“What… the…!?”

She narrowly dodged that – I’ve still got more coming up, though!

“Three, Spark Rain!”

Hammer-shaped masses of purple lightning, raining down from the sky.

“Tch-!”

She flung her staff away, using it as a lightning rod – that was pretty amazing!

It’s about time I did something to limit her movement!

“Four, Gravity Stamp!”

Since there was only one target, especially at this short range, there was no need to use Enemy Search!

“Gravity magic!? Guh… ugh…”

Chiquiata dropped to her knees – good, it’s effective.

“Five, Sharp Wind Cross!”

“Ngh… Magic Shield!”

That shield of hers emitted a high-pitched shatter as it was almost immediately destroyed.

Our spells offset each other, but that ultimately didn’t hinder me. It’s only getting better from here!

“Six, Earth Star!”

An enormous bounder shot up from the ground, and then exploded.

“AAAHHHHH!”

All right, I’ve got a big hit in! At this rate, I’ll be able to put her out of commission without killing her outright!

“Seven, Flare Bomb!”

“GARRRHHHHH!!”

Light from my side! Could it be… a Freeze Breath Attack!?

In just a split-second, my high-density fireball, meant for Chiquiata, was deflected.

What in the blazes!? …Oh my God!

I averted my eyes to see Pochi, her black-and-white fur dyed a deep red.

She was trying to stand up, but couldn’t exert any power onto her lower half – getting her torso up was all she could manage.

Damn it, that Kaiser Dyno must be so strong… I had already buffed Pochi with All Up, too… Could this be the unavoidable difference between a wolf-dog and a Dragon?

No other choice; I’ve got to use the rest of the spells to help Pochi!

“Eight, High Cure! Nine, High Cure!”

Last but not least, to restrain that D?n?…!

“Ten, Freeze Fire!”

Once again, D?n?’s Freeze Breath canceled out my attack, but that did give me enough of an opening to save Pochi.

“Shiro, you feeling alright!?”

“Owowowow… I’ll live, sir!”

“Hmph, small fries will be small fries, no matter how many times they stand up again… Chiquiata, I can see that the mage is more dangerous. Let’s kill him first.”

Damn Chiquiata, so fast to heal up…

Actually, she’s just so fast in general.

“Hmm~~ All right, fine. We’ll get the Poer boy first, then…”

Welp, that’s going to leave us with a limited set of choices, too.

We’ll be completely spent if this keeps up. Rather than defeating them, I’ll shift our objective to getting all of us away.

For starters, I invoked the Telepathic Call magecraft, initiating a link with young Bright.

[“Can you hear me, Master Bright?”]

[“…! Is that you, Instructor Poer!?”]

[“Please listen carefully to what I have to say-“]

By the time I finished giving Bright a brief explanation of my plan, Chiquiata had already healed up the damage on D?n? that Pochi had dealt.

Pochi slowly approached me, keeping her head down, so as to not be hit by what I was preparing to shoot ahead.

…And now that I was on Pochi back once again, I started drawing a Circle with my left hand for a spell I hadn’t used very often.

“Oh my, so scary. That’s… a lot of data to process.”

“I’ll kill them… I’ll crush them. I’ll smash them. I’ll tear them apart… No, crushing them sounds better.”

“What’s wrong with that lizard? Scary…”

“You can say that again, sir. All it’s been doing is mumbling about killing us…”

Could it be showing its monstrous, ferocious nature that the Contract couldn’t fully suppress?

Well, whatever that is, I reckon we’ll have an easier time dealing with the Dyno if we could pinpoint it.

I whispered my plan to Pochi. I chuckled a bit; Pochi did as well, then turned to D?n?.

“You’re sounding super stupid right now, you know that!? Stop babbling to yourself and bring it on!”

In an instant, the Dyno’s golden eyes locked onto us.

Oh, I see… so this D?n? Familiar is… sensitive.

Considering how emotionally turbulent it was, and how it fully understood human speech…insulting it is the way to go!

“You damned fool!”

“That crazy power isn’t gonna do you any good if you can’t hit us, you baldy!”

“You damned fool!”

“You’re gonna tear us apart with those tiny arms!? Very funny, knock-off Dragon!”

“You damned fool!”

“Ayy, you mad!? I’ll take that as a yes! You’re such a riot, oversized chicken!”

“You damned fool!”

Although Pochi’s relative lack of vocabulary was something I’d very much like to fix, that, in a way, ended up yielding the best results.

Strange, though… I remember Pochi having a wider range of… insults… when they were directed at me… Huuuhhh..?

“You’re… dead…”

The Dyno golden eyes, locked on to me and Pochi, now dyed up red with blood, exuding an unsettling aura.

Yes, it did seem to be quite angry.

“I’LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!”

Well then, let’s get the second round started.