17 Chapter 17 I'll cover you.
All they'd have to do then would be to take a few pot shots at us to let us know where they are, wait for us to charge in then pelt us from range with lightning and destruction while even more swords debilitate us and their melee fighter stops us from progressing beyond their trapped killzone. Their numbers and the overwhelming variety of powers stacked against us would bring down almost any two fighters that came against them."
"But not us."
I shrugged. "Even if they were smart and did that, we'd still probably win."
Yubelluna thought over that for a moment. "Hmm. And what will they actually do, my king?"
"Probably split up like a bunch of idiots, separating the melee fighters from their ranged support and their ranged fighters from their front-line protection while the knight with Sword Birth makes a pointy stick to wave in our general direction. Rias will probably sit in her main base and drink a pina colada while we easily mow through her peerage, then make some speech about how we're awful people for hurting the peerage she sent against us as she throws a poorly controlled temper tantrum that does more damage to the surroundings than it does to us."
Yubelluna let out a disappointed sigh and looked back out the window. "When you put it that way, my king, it sounds rather boring. I expected to finally be able to cut loose."
Chuckling, I said, "You'll be able to. The fight just won't last very long."
Yubelluna and I spent the remainder of the ten minute preparation period in silence. There wasn't much prep we needed to do. The moment we'd arrived I began to slowly spread small, pin-head sized pieces of my fire throughout the entirety of the arena to give me markers to sense and fire shift towards. They weren't all in position yet, but they were spread out enough to give me some mobility. Outside of that, the two of us didn't have any battlefield control to prepare or any major buff spells. Once I was finished here, I really needed to build up my peerage so we had more variety than two heavy-hitting cannons. A scalpel or two would be a really nice addition to our roster. Our lack of versatility was our biggest weakness right now, but Rias's pieces weren't strong enough to take advantage of it.
Everything I'd read about her and her peerage in preparation for this match painted the same picture – Rias and her friends spent all of their time playing school in the human world. She'd coasted along on the absurdity of the Bael's family power her entire life. She had yet to learn a lesson I'd learned from watching the anime. If you only had a big stick, eventually someone with a bigger stick would come along and annihilate you. On paper, The Power of Destruction was stronger than Hellfire and Wind combined, but that was only on paper. I'd trained for over a decade to hone myself into a weapon of mass destruction. Rias had played school. I wouldn't be facing the plot-hardened peerage of Rias Gremory that existed in the fight against Loki and later went on to face truly absurd forces. I was fighting a bunch of kids who'd never learned how to properly throw a punch. If I lost, I deserved to have Rias humiliate me. It would mean the last ten years of my life were completely useless.
"The ten minute preparatory period has ended. Let the Rating Game begin."
Grayfia's voice spoke once again. Her final sentence was followed by several loud bangs as magical fireworks detonated around the outskirts of the arena.
Smiling sidelong at Yubelluna, I held out my arm. "Shall we, my queen?"
Yubelluna smiled back and snaked her arm through mine. "It would be a pleasure, my king."
Two wings of roaring flame shot out my back as Yubelluna's own bat-like limbs extended from her shoulders. Together, we lifted off the ground.
I held my free hand forward and unleashed a wall of Hellfire. The wall separating Yubelluna and I from the outside turned to ash on contact, the wall moving a few meters past before sputtering out at my command.
Our way now unbarred, Yubelluna and I flew up into the air above the magically constructed facsimile of Kuoh Academy. I had never been to, or even seen the school, but the layout was simple enough. There were several white-walled buildings surrounded by dirt lots and well-trimmed grass. Some of the buildings were connected into 'T' or 'L' shapes while others stood apart from the rest.
"That's a lot of buildings." Yubelluna observed as we flew ever higher. "Maybe I'll be able to have some fun after all."
"This is good." I said, stopping our ascent and extricating my arm from Yubelluna. "Target the buildings first, but if you see any of Rias's peerage feel free to light them up. I'll cover you."
Yubelluna gave an exaggerated curtsy. "As you command, my king." Straightening, Yubelluna took a deep breath, then the air began to tremble, the sign of magic being channeled.
Throwing her hands forward, two great, shining spell circles fared to life, and in front of them grew two oscillating spheres of black magic. With a twitch of her fingers, both spheres rapidly accelerated through the air, beelining straight towards the building closest to the one we believed Rias to have been transported to.
The orbs connected with the building and detonated on impact. There was a brief moment of silence followed by a cacophonous booming sound as if a thunderstorm were roiling overhead. The building was torn from its foundation by the force of the two explosions, and what pieces of it remained intact were sent flying from the epicenter of the explosion.
"Nice work." I said with a grin. "Keep it up."
Without a word, Yubelluna summoned more spell circles. More and more of the explosive orbs rocketed away from her every moment. The buildings, the trees, the grass, the dirt – nothing was safe from Yubelluna's power.
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