Facing Louise Again

"Where are we going to fight?" I asked.

"We can fight here." Answered Louise. "All the walls in the academy are enchanted with strengthening magic. No attack below the eighth layer can damage them."

I put on a strange expression. "I'm sure that it's forbidden to fight inside the dormitories."

Louise giggled and created a magic circle on her hand. The magic circle then expanded and covered the entire corridor. It was an isolation barrier. "There is not a problem if nobody knows, right?"

I looked at Louise and chuckled.

Louise then retreated twenty meters away from me. At this distance, neither she nor I would have an advantage when the fight begins.

She then took a wand from below her dress and looked at me. "Do you need a sword?"

I shook my head. "Nope. It's just a spar. I think I can do without a sword."

Louise nodded. She did not underestimate me because I did not have a sword. Instead, she looked even more serious now.

It looks like after the events of tonight, Louise became even warier of my strength.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

Louise closed her eyes and took a deep breath. In an instant, her sixth layer of mana surged through her body.

When she opened her eyes again, they shone with a focused green glow.

"I'm ready."

Once she spoke, I moved.

I only used mana equivalent to the fourth layer, after all, I did not want to blow my cover here. But even with that, the pressure that Louise felt was immense. In less than a second, I had covered half of the distance between us.

Louise remained calm and waved her wand. Instantly, tens of magic circles appeared around her, all aimed towards me.

Force magic, [Force Arrow]!

The arrows shone with a sharp glow. Following Louise's signal, all the arrows flew overwhelming towards me.

Louise's spell was very powerful in the current situation. After all, my movements in the corridor were limited, and it would be impossible to evade all the arrows.

However, such a spell was child play for me. In an instant, I thought of at least ten ways to defend against the arrows without showing my true strength. In the end, though, I opted for the most direct and overwhelming way.

Before the arrows could reach me, my body shone brilliantly.

[Space Sword, Sword Body]!

Jus like reality render, I was unable to show the true power of this technique with just fourth-layer mana. However, its current power was more than enough for this situation.

When the arrows reached me, I clenched my fist and punched.

Instantly, a powerful sword intent filled the corridor. The sword intent clashed against the arrows head-on and crushed them in an instant, creating a path I used to rush towards Louise.

However, Louise was not intimidated for it. She never expected to defeat me just with that attack. Instead, it was a distraction to earn enough time for her following spell.

Force magic, [Multiple Force Barriers]!

It was a spell that Louise created recently. She modified the spell [Force Barrier] and added multiple layers of barriers. She expected to use it to counter my [Reality Render].

But it was useless.

Against [Reality Render], a technique that used the concept of space as the core, the number of barriers did not make a difference.

At least, not at her level.

In an instant, the barriers were completely destroyed. Louise opened her eyes wide when she saw it, however, her next spell was already ready.

Force and curse magic combination, [Draining Chains]!

Chains formed of magic were created around me. They jumped towards me, trying to entangle my body. However, I released a burst of sword intent and crushed the chains completely.

Then, I attacked Louise with my palm.

Louise did not give up. She gritted her teeth and created a small barrier on her left shoulder to stop my attack, before wrapping her right fist with magic power and punching towards my chest.

Force magic, [Expulsion]!

I grinned fiercely and blocked the attack with my elbow. A burst of mana left my elbow and clashed against her spell, dissipating it. Then, I palmed Louise's chest and threw her against the wall.

"Gah!" Louise groaned in pain, but before my next attack could reach her, her body disappeared.

Teleportation?! No, it's Blink, a lesser version of the teleportation spell.

However, even that was surprising. The Blink spell was not something a mage below the eighth layer was supposed to be able of using.

She probably used the help of an artifact to use the spell more easily, but even that was impressive. Of course, she needed to do much more than that if she wanted to defeat me.

I felt a spatial distortion appear behind me and threw a roundhouse kick.

Louise reappeared at the next instant, ready to cast her next spell. But my kick was already touching her waist.

"!!!" Louise opened her eyes wide. She was unable to block the attack and her body crashed against a wall.

A strong pain attacked her body. Her mind became hazy due to the impact.

When she finally recovered, I was in front of her, holding her neck on my hand.

"It's my win." I grinned.

Louise put on an unwilling expression, but she knew it was her defeat.

After all, the current her was unable to use the Blink spell again, and any other spell would be useless in this situation.

Moreover, though I controlled my strength to not hurt her, she was not completely uninjured.

"… You are very strong. I can't believe that you are just in the fourth layer."

"Hahaha, what I can say, I'm a genius."

Louise smiled helplessly and looked into my eyes. Her green eyes shone with even more curiosity than before. She wanted to know why I was so strong. She wanted to unearth all my secrets.

I stared at her and smirked. "It's time to get my prize, don't you think?"

"Huh? Prize?" Before Louise could understand the meaning behind my words, I kissed her lips.

Louise's eyes opened wide.

But in the next instant, she closed her eyes and responded to my kiss.

Then, I pushed open a nearby door and carried her inside.

...

Guys, my p@treon is 92% of the next goal! If you like the story and want to support it, go there! With the next goal I'll release 9 chapters/week!

p@treon.com/aidnovels