Chapter 42 – Arena and Promise Part 1
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Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
Man, things ended up going in a weird direction. This is all Elna’s fault. Nah, I guess this is Elna’s way of getting back at me for mouthing off and saying stuff that wasn’t really true.
“It’s too reckless, Alan! It’s unfair for you to fight that many opponents!” Selena exclaimed.
“That’s right! Their numbers are too much, even for you, Alan!” Sharon followed up.
“I’m glad you two are worried about me. But it’s just a practice match. And I also think doing this is necessary. Well, it’s not like I practiced my magic for nothing y’know. I’ll be fine.”
We went over to the reception counters inside the Guild. I found the receptionist we were familiar with manning one of the desks, so I called out to her.
“Good day, Ami-san. Is the arena open right now?”
“Well now, Alan-san. You sure have a lot of people with you this time! Yes, the arena is available for use. Would one hour be fine?”
“Yes, please reserve it for us for one hour.”
“That’ll be one hundred Guineas then. I’m sure you’re aware, but you’ll need to pay additional charges if you plan on using and destroying the target boards inside.”
“Gotcha. Here you go then.”
I paid one hundred Guineas and got the key to the arena.
“Okay then. What rules do you propose, Elna?”
“Hm? Yes. What indeed. What do you suggest, Cleria-sama?”
“First, you will be using wooden swords of course. Alan is prohibited from using attack magic, and the Royal Guards are free to do so.”
“Cleria-sama! That will make the battle far too unfair! Well, it wasn’t a fair match to begin with, but…”
“No, even with this, I think Alan is still overwhelmingly superior. I did say that Alan was prohibited from using attack magic, but I did not say he is prohibited from using other types.”
“Whatever do you mean by that?”
“In other words, he is free to use any other type of magic except for those used to attack directly.”
“You’re really far too lenient when it comes to Alan, Cleria-sama. If it were me, I would have prohibited Alan from using all forms of magic. Furthermore, I would have prohibited the use of a wooden sword as well.”
“Surely you jest, Dame Norian?”
“I am rather serious. In fact, I think that even with those conditions, we still will not be able to prevail over Alan.”
“……I see. So you are saying he’s just that strong of an opponent.”
We all arrived at the arena, chose wooden swords for ourselves, and gave them a few practice swings. Ugh. Because of what Elna said earlier, it seems the other royal guards were really getting into it. I sure hope nobody strains themselves too much and gets hurt.
“We shall go with a half-moon formation. The opponent is only one man, but do not underestimate him.”
“Let me lead the attack, Captain. I shall at least be able to give you ten seconds of leeway. Use that opportunity to tighten up the formation.”
“What do you mean, Dame Norian?”
“You will know soon.”
“…Alright. Let us go with your proposal.”
Ten seconds huh. Those are some big words, my dear Elna.
“Both sides at the ready! And… begin!”
“Wind Cutter!”
The moment Cleria gave the signal to start, Elna already fired off a spell. Well, I did anticipate that much though.
“What!?”
The Wind Cutter she fired was abnormally slow! Elna used the Wind Cutter as cover and was running just behind it. I see. That’s an interesting move. I can avoid it completely of course, but I’m kinda curious about her next move. Fine. I’ll take you up on that, Elna.
Even though the Speed of the Wind Cutter spell was slower than usual, it was still faster than a normal person running. So I guess the magic spell is a decoy to get my attention while Elna draws her sword in order to cut me down.
Seems like I have no choice but to dodge the Wind Cutter. I can cancel it out with magic too, but I’m prohibited from using attack magic after all.
Since the Cutter’s speed was slower than usual, I had to watch the timing carefully. I’m sure Elna will simply change the trajectory of the spell if I dodge at this timing.
“Air Bullet!”
And she went and fired off another spell to harass me. Judging from the flow of magicles, the spell projectiles will come at me from three different directions, and seal my movements. One in front and two at the sides. I guess I can only dodge the Air Bullets once they come at me. Above!
I noticed it as soon as I dodged. When Elna saw that I jumped to dodge, she immediately altered the flow of magicles and launched all three spell projectiles upward, aimed straight at me. So it seems she predicted I would jump and aimed accordingly. I twisted my body in mid-air in an effort to avoid them, but I couldn’t prevent myself from getting hit by an Air Bullet in the end, and was blown away. I did manage to land on my feet though.
“Eh!? He was hit by an Air Bullet but only suffered that much damage?”
“Man, that really surprised me. You’ve gotten good huh, Elna.”
“Ugh. And that was the only opportunity to squeeze out a win too…”
“Here I go, Elna.”
I accelerated and closed in on Elna’s position in an instant. Elna didn’t manage to react in time. I aimed at Elna’s raised wooden sword, hit her wrist and made her drop her weapon.
“Ugh!”
With that, Elna’s out of the match.
After two weeks of magic practice, I was finally able to attain instantaneous speeds incomparable to what I could achieve before. Of course, it’s all through the help of magic.
I emulated the acceleration method used by that dog-like creature discovered on Planet Salsa II of the Elider star system, and finally achieved instantaneous acceleration through magic. It wasn’t to the point of not being able to be perceived by the naked eye, but by Nanom’s calculations, I was able to move at three times my normal speed.
But naturally, there were drawbacks. I cannot keep up this kind of speed for a prolonged period of time, nor can I do it repeatedly and indefinitely. I can only achieve peak acceleration for a mere two seconds. If I push it past those limits, my muscles will be unable to handle the physical strain. I got too into it the first time I succeeded using this technique and had a horrible time afterward. Every time I used the acceleration technique, I needed to apply a bit of healing magic to my body in order to keep myself in fighting form. Due to this, I couldn’t perform successive accelerations, and needed a five second interval between each usage.
Even if I was limited to just two seconds of heightened speed, being able to move overwhelmingly faster than your opponent in a swordfight, even just for an instant, was already pretty cheat-like. There’s no way to lose a sword fight once you get in close and don’t give a chance for your opponent to fight back.
“What is that speed!?”
The royal guards were all surprised by my movements. Let’s get this over with, shall we? I headed for the closest opponent and instantly disarmed him.
“Just what is this!? What is happening?”
After seeing their comrades get disarmed one after another, the rest of the guards fell into panic. Thus, disarming them became significantly easier.
“That’s enough!”
After I managed to disarm all fifteen royal guards, Cleria signaled for the end of the match.
Most of them held their wrists with dumbfounded expressions. Some were also kneeling on the ground. I locked-on to all of their wrists using my virtual targeting system and launched healing spells. All of their wrists were bathed in shining light beams.
“This-! Is this perhaps healing magic!?”
“Yes. This is Alan’s magic.” Cleria declared.
The surroundings became wrapped in silence.
“A-Amazing! So this is the power of one loved by the Goddess!”
The old man Cleria called Baron Segio started tearing up.
The rest of the royal guards then finally came to their senses.
“This can’t be…”
“Just what was that!”
“I cannot believe it!”
“This isn’t all of Alan’s power, you know. I shall show you something even more interesting.”
After saying that, Cleria positioned herself fifteen meters in front of me. Eh? Is she planning to do what I think she’s planning? Oh boy. She’s scary when she’s ticked off.
Cleria raised her hand forward and launched a Fireball at me.
“””Oooh!”””
The royal guards raised their voices in astonishment.
I launched a Fire Ball of my own to cancel out the Fire Ball heading for me. Both spells collided in mid-air and got extinguished.
Next was three continuous Fire Balls. I also countered with three continuous Fire Balls and cancelled out the spells again.
And next, she fired off three Flame Arrow projectiles. I countered with the same spell once again, but since the Flame Arrow spell was quite a bit faster than the FireBall spell, I only managed to cancel them out when they came three meters in front of me. Scary.
The surroundings lapsed into silence once more.
The faces of the royal guards were frozen stiff in astonishment.
“Amazing… This is truly the power of one loved by the Goddess. There is no doubt…”
Baron Sergio was already crying buckets.
The royal guards started chattering excitedly with one another.
“Your Royal Highness! Alan-dono’s magic was of course amazing, but how is it that you can cast such powerful magic spells as well?”
“I and Elna have been learning magic from Alan everyday. I was not too bad, wasn’t I?”
“That is an understatement, Your Highness! I believe you have become even more skilled than even the leader of the royal court magicians!”
“Come to think of it, the spells cast by Dame Norian earlier were impressive as well.”
“Alan-dono! Please teach me magic as well!”
“I also wish to learn from you!”
It was already starting to get out of hand. After a while, things finally managed to calm down somewhat.
“We have certainly been shown a glimpse of the power of one loved by the Goddess. You are certainly blessed for meeting such a man. You have most certainly inherited the good luck of Earl Ludvic.”
“So you think so as well, Baron Sergio. I also think my meeting with Alan was due to the providence of the Goddess.”
“The fact that we have managed to enlist the help of such a man means our future path is bright! It is much the same as gaining the blessing of Goddess Ruminas. Oh, my blood is seething in excitement even though I’m already at this age!”
“Oh! I feel the same as well!”
“Well then, we shall go back to the inn and commence with the planning now. I believe that would be best, right, Alan?”
Cleria’s eyes narrowed into slits as she stared at me angrily. This is bad! It looks like I really ticked her off. Come to think of it, that earlier Flame Arrow felt a lot faster than usual.
“Y-Yeah. Let’s do that.”
We returned the arena key and went out of the Guild. After knowing that there were still some rooms available, Captain Dalshim and Baron Sergio proposed to stay at the Nature’s Bounty inn as well.
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