Drawing the Sword

Turbulent currents whipped Duncan's mage robes into a frenzy.

His monocle nearly shattered in the turbulence.

He steadied himself and calmly considered the situation.

Should I use Defensive Magic?

An ordinary mage would instinctively put up a defense in this situation.

But without a doubt,

That was the most foolish choice.

Compared to the magic Lia had cast, using Defensive Magic to counter it was far too inefficient.

The ancient-looking Staff slammed heavily into the ground.

Several thick stone walls rose around Duncan and enclosed him completely, as though he were inside a bunker.

They shut out the raging tornado entirely.

Compared to Defensive Magic,

This was clearly a wise way to defend against magic with weak penetrating power.

But from Galan's perspective as an observer,

Duncan seemed unable to mount an effective counterattack under these conditions.

Leaving aside the risk of being met by one of Lia's instantaneous attacks the moment he showed himself, even if he stayed inside the bunker,

He would be at a complete disadvantage on a real battlefield.

After all, he had lost sight of his enemy while remaining exposed to her attacks.

Even if he could counterattack,

He could hardly inflict any meaningful damage under those extreme conditions.

Meanwhile, all Lia had to do was keep Duncan pinned down in the bunker.

Ordinary Offensive Magic rained down in a relentless bombardment against the thick rock walls.

Lia held her Staff and cast magic without restraint.

Facing her teacher, she could only show him respect by giving it her all.

Each time a layer of rock wall was blasted apart, new stones filled the gap, but as the onslaught wore on,

The new stones appeared noticeably more slowly.

Perhaps because of the enormous difference between their total mana reserves, Duncan did not want to compete with Lia in a battle of attrition.

The fortifications he had built were crumbling bit by bit.

Suddenly,

The entire section of ground, bunker and all, rose sharply and stopped a short distance above the ground.

It formed a fortress in the air.

Lia did not understand what Duncan intended by this move, and kept her Staff raised, concentrating her attacks on the stone fortress in midair.

But Galan, watching from the side, saw it clearly.

Duncan was not there at all.

The stone pillar that had risen was partially hollow, and he had been standing on the ground the whole time.

From Lia's position, however, it was natural to fall into a fixed pattern of thinking.

She would think the person inside had risen along with the stone pillar.

Duncan had also suppressed some of the mana he gave off,

Making it hard for Lia to sense him amid the tornado of mana.

Without enough combat experience,

She could never have imagined he would suddenly pull a move like that.

Only Galan, who had fought alongside him, knew

That Duncan was not the sort of old-fashioned, hidebound mage who cared whether his methods were underhanded or not.

As long as he could achieve final victory,

He would struggle desperately to the very end.

Besides, the current situation was hardly a predicament for him.

Compared to the greater Demons they had fought before, Lia's understanding of combat was still a little too immature.

Dazzling holy light gathered around Duncan into several crosses of starlight, which shot out without warning from beneath the stone pillar as it suddenly shattered,

Racing toward Lia as she flew in midair.

The unexpected attack had clearly caught her somewhat off guard.

A trace of surprise flashed across her face.

In her panic, she did the most foolish thing, just as Duncan had expected.

She fully deployed Defensive Magic.

Even for Lia, with her enormous mana reserves,

Full deployment was a move she could hardly afford to use; it would drain her mana in just a few dozen seconds.

Not to mention that she had already cast a great deal of magic by this point.

She had used up nearly forty percent of her mana already.

The vast amount of mana contained in the stars scattered rapidly upon colliding with the magic barrier.

The enormous shock wave sent all the debris left on the ground by the earlier fighting flying.

One medium-sized stone nearly hit Galan in the face.

The hem of his clothes fluttered in the surging energy,

And even the branches of the tree behind him trembled.

Leaves fell like a fine rain, stripping the already somewhat bare branches completely bald.

Two seconds... no, three seconds.

In just three seconds,

Duncan had regained the initiative in the battle.

The heavy Staff let out an ancient sigh in his hand.

A magnificent torrent of flame erupted,

Its streams intertwining like a living dragon of fire that roared as it charged at the girl.

After dismissing Defensive Magic, Lia swiftly landed on the ground.

She twirled the Staff in her hand and took her stance again.

A gentle wind rose beside her, drawing the approaching fire dragon into its rhythm like a masterful lead dancer.

It was like tai chi.

The two reached a delicate balance, briefly calming the once-ferocious fire element.

A grave expression appeared on Lia's face.

Beads of sweat ran down her little face; clearly, she had expended quite a bit of energy.

"Magic That Makes the Wind Dance."

A satisfied smile appeared on Duncan's face.

It seemed Lia really had put the theoretical knowledge she had learned into practice.

As soon as she saw the magic he had cast, she came up with a reasonable counter.

However,

In battle, there was more to consider than whether a response to an attack was reasonable.

There was also absolute confidence in defeating one's opponent.

In fact, by this point, Lia had already begun to lose the certainty she had initially felt about defeating Duncan.

The world of magic was a world of imagination.

If she could not even imagine a future in which she defeated Duncan, then for her, it was a reality that was almost impossible to reach.

The fire dragon quickly dissipated after tangling with the dancing wind for a short while.

Duncan tapped the ground with his Staff again, summoning enormous stone spikes that shot toward Lia.

Knowing that Mass Magic was difficult to block with Defensive Magic,

She quickly dodged to the side, never expecting Duncan to have anticipated her move.

Intense mana gathered at the tip of his horizontally extended Staff and burst forth the instant it reached the critical point.

The highly compressed mana had enhanced penetrating power, instantly shattering the defense Lia had formed in her panic.

The shining beam of energy closed in on Lia's face, reflected in her widening pupils—

A streak of silver light cut through the air, flashing out like a phantom.

Galan held the sharp Alchemy Longsword horizontally before him, scattering Duncan's attack.

Lia stared blankly as he held her in his arms, shielding her behind him.

"Lia—

"You've passed this test."

A gentle smile appeared on Duncan's face. He did not seem shaken by having nearly injured Lia moments ago.

Or rather,

It was precisely because Galan had been standing by, ready to step in at any moment,

That he had been able to carry out the trial without hesitation.