As that sort of battle continued, Shiva made his move.
Raising his halberd, he swung down towards Ryouma’s shoulder, and released magic power at the same time. Ryouma quickly reacted, and took a step back. But having sensed the flow of magic, he immediately jumped to the right.
In the next instant, whirlwind blew from the halberd, showering the area Ryouma was standing at a while ago with countless attacks.
Shiva’s halberd is a magic weapon imbued with the powers of the elementary wind magic ‘Wind Cutter’ and the intermediate wind magic ‘Tornado Cutter’. Activating ‘Tornado Cutter’ summons a small vortex of wind blades, cutting the foe into bits. Of course, Shiva held back in that attack just now, so Ryouma wouldn’t have died. But if he hadn’t dodged there, he would have incurred enough damage to be rendered incapable of fighting.
“You noticed.” [Shiva]
“If I hadn’t sensed the magic power flowing into your weapon, this spar would have ended right then and there.” [Ryouma]
The ability to detect magic power. The decision that the magic power being released was to activate a magic weapon. And the decision to dodge. If Ryouma could not do even a single one of those, or if Ryouma was even a moment slower in making a decision, it would have been too late, and he would not have been able to dodge.
But Ryouma spectacularly dodged unwounded. And Shiva could not help but praise Ryouma in his heart. At the same time however, he focused even harder.
And the battle began once more.
But this time, the both of them were going at it for real. And this time, Ryouma made his move.
“ ‘Fire Arrow’ “ [Ryouma]
Ryouma casted his magic, and slashed with his blade. It’s the usual pattern, but right before Ryouma attacked with his blade, he casted another magic. A chantless ‘Earth Needle’.
“Tch!” [Shiva]
Shiva managed to dodge the chantless ‘Earth Needle’ that fired off from Ryouma’s feet, but that sudden attacked opened a hole in Shiva’s defense. In an instant, the distance between them was shortened, and Shiva was forced to receive Ryouma’s blade with the handle of his halberd clad in ki.
Immediately, Shiva began to fire off consecutive ‘Fire Ball’ at Ryouma, stopping him and letting Shiva take some distance. Then he fired off a ‘Wind Cutter’ from his own halberd.
As he did so, a question popped up.
(That’s weird… This boy is blocking my attacks, but he refuses to attack immediately after. …No, that’s wrong. He is attacking, but there’s some strain in his movements. His swordsmanship is certainly exceptional, and he can even use ‘Chantless Casting’. But… Compared to his skills, there is a strange hole in his fighting… I guess you could say there’s some clumsiness in his movements.
At first, I thought that he was feigning weakness on purpose, baiting me to attack, but… It’s too blunt. Could this boy possibly…)
As the two fighters continued to exchange blows, Shiva thought of testing his theory. And with a thrust, Shiva’s hypothesis was proven true.
(This boy most likely trained in swordsmanship and magic, and then combined those two by himself… He’s skilled with his sword, so I thought he wouldn’t have much openings, but looks like he’s still lacking in experience. That might be enough for your age, but it doesn’t change the fact that you there’s an opening!)
From here on out, Ryouma started to lose out.
If it was only with their martial arts, then it would have been a struggle for supremacy. But there’s another factor in this battle, and that’s magic.
Ryouma came up with his own methods, but his opponent, Shiva, is someone originally from this world. Even if both of them can use magic from the start, because of Shiva’s training as a knight, his skill was more polished, and he is able to cast magic right after attacking with his halberd. He can even cover for his openings with magic after making a bold move. Shiva’s movements were just much smoother than Ryouma’s.
Until now, it didn’t matter whether Ryouma’s movements were clumsy or not because of the absurd difference between his own abilities and his opponents’. But Shiva is someone with abilities that could rival Ryouma’s. An opponent like that wouldn’t fail to make use of an opening. And that small opening is the reason why the battle has turned to Shiva’s favor.
The battle continued like that with Ryouma losing out for a while. Then Ryouma suddenly clad his own body with ki, and he moved at a level faster than before.
Dodging Shiva’s magic, Ryouma went for Shiva’s chest. Shiva dodged that attack, and counterattacked. But now the small advantage he had was gone.
When Ryouma began to lose, he realized that he was losing out in magic, and at the same time he realized that he had forgotten his own specialty.
It’s common sense in this world to use magic to fight against magic, but there’s no magic in Earth.
So Ryouma decided to stop thinking of forcibly combining magic with the Kenjutsu he learned from earth. To begin with, that forced combination could be said to be nothing but a crude attempt, so it can’t be helped if it there are a few holes in it.
But then following that thought, as long as he doesn’t use that forced combination, he should be able to solve the problem. And so he instead devoted everything into the Kenjutsu that he has been practicing for a long time.
As Ryouma came to understand that, the battle became even fiercer.
Shiva swung his halberd from the upper left to the lower right, aiming for Ryouma’s head.
Even if Ryouma blocked the oncoming halberd with his sword, he would still get hit with his own blade from the impact, so he aimed for the blade instead. Ryouma took a waki-gamae stance with his blade on the right, then he moved his right foot diagonally forward, taking a half step. Then sinking his body, he swung his blade in a circle, parrying the attack of the halberd. And then immediately after, he instantly took a large step with his left leg, closing the distance as he went to cut Shiva’s left leg.
Shiva twisted his body back to dodge the blade, and aimed his halberd towards Ryouma’s leg to stop him. As Ryouma dodged that, Shiva casted ‘Wind Cutter’. And then having calculated where Ryouma would run to, he activated his magic weapon’s ‘Tornado Cutter’.
The flurry of spells bore through the earth, and a cloud of dust blew as the force of the wind carried dusts and stones with it. But Ryouma’s heightened speed from his ki allowed him to dodge. Then he swept the clouds of dust away, and he rushed towards Shiva again.
The two exchanged blows like that, pushing their own techniques to the limits. In the midst of that fierce battle with little room for wandering thoughts, Shiva finally remembered that sense of fulfillment that he once had.
The power he believed he had lost had returned. The abilities he thought to have dulled were sharpened to the point of comfort. Shiva swung his halberd freely, and fired magic continuously.
But such a battle wouldn’t last forever. In the midst of that fierce fighting, the two fighters suddenly took a step away from each other. As they each calmed their heavy breathing, they glared at each other with great pressure.
They did not arrange this. They did not plan for this. But they thought of the same thing. The next move would be the last.