44 Illusions

'And even if I manage to cover that distance, he can just teleport away again. I never had a chance to begin with. That's expected, he's a transcendent after all, and my aim was not to win but to test this new weapon out.'

She then sensed a presence behind her.

'He couldn't possibly be behind me, right?'

She was right, he reappeared far closer to her than she expected, perhaps because this is supposed to be training.

Right behind her.

Only about five feet away—fairly close.

But those five feet are much too far when fighting against someone like him. He slowly raised his staff.

'Here it comes!'

She jumped to the side as fast as she could.

Immediately after, flames roared through the area where she was standing seconds before.

Any ordinary person would've likely been burned away to the bone.

Most frightening of all, that was just a beginner spell, Fireball.

Sometimes, the power of a spell doesn't differ much depending on who uses it. High energy level might make it a bit more powerful, but it wouldn't be a big enough difference to be visible at a glance.

Even if the caster's magic power was more than ten times higher than average, that wouldn't make the spell ten times more powerful. It's traditionally more of an indicator of whether they can use more advanced spells.

If someone's magic power is around a certain amount, then they'll likely be able to use a corresponding level of magic.

In some cases, if a person's magic power amount is too low, a spell might backfire even if the user knows the spell in and out.

That's how magic casting was supposed to be.

'Unfortunately, he has rendered that knowledge completely useless.'

He also studied the law of wisdom in tandem with his law of space. In games the wisdom stat is usually one that affected the strength of the characters magic.

This also applied in reality, to the law of wisdom. Most mages proficient in this law are known to possess uncharacteristically strong magic, even when they used lower spells.

In their hands, even beginner spells are far stronger than a massive magic spell unleashed by an entire group of lesser mages!

'My barrier won't be able to block that completely.' Layla thought as she looked at the scorched earth where the spell hit.

And yet…

"Ah!"

As she dodged the Fireball, his staff swiveled to point toward her.

Yes, Fireball is a beginner spell.

Even with its power increased, it's still quick to use and requires little energy.

In other words, he can use it at a breakneck rate!

She instantly broke into a run.

A wave of heat hit her face, evaporating her sweat. Was she sweating from the heat or from pure fear? Even she could not say for sure.

All she knew was that if she stopped moving, her entire body would be engulfed in flames. Of course he won't kill her as it was just a training spar, but the damages won't be too light either.

So she kept pumping her legs as fast as she could to dodge his spells. But running around like this wasn't enough.

'Just as I thought earlier, if I have any chance of winning, it's by forcing a close-combat battle. I have to get closer to him somehow, or I won't even have that slim chance.'

She fired a few magic bullets at the next set of fireballs that came her way, dodged the ones too fast for her, and fired a few more bullets.

The nodules of magic crash into each other, exploding with a roar.

Canceling each other out—or not quite.

'My bullets were pushed back a little, so the explosion would fly in my direction.'

As she thought that, she decided to backtrack a bit, her excellent physical ability helped her to perform such maneuvers with ease.

However this increased the distance between them to about ten feet. She decided to begin closing the distance now, activating her defensive artifacts, she reloaded and fired a few magic bullets at him.

They clashed with his fireballs and created a small explosion again.

*BOOM!

The students watching and other onlookers passing by were stunned by this, they did not expect Layla to be strong enough to cancel the spells of an instructor, even if they were only beginner spells.

Even if the gun in her hands was strong, it all came down to the person using it in the end.

'That last bullet was a special one, it three times as strong as the regulars. Yet he's overtaken it, with a beginner's spell.

What an amazingly powerful person.

But I managed to get one feet closer to him by using the bullet to deflect his magic.

One down, nine to go!'

She jumped into the air to avoid the blast that resulted from the bullet and the spell colliding with each other. She also used her reequip artifact to change all the bullets in the bayonet to the special ones with 3 times more power.

Another Fireball comes flying towards her in midair.

'Now!'

She created a foothold with ice magic below her feet and used it to jump off and dodge the fireball. His Fireballs move quickly and create a larger explosion when they hit their target.

'-If- they hit their target.'

He's been blanketing the surrounding area in flames by aiming his attacks at her on the ground, but he can't do that if she's in the air.

And no matter how fast they might be, they're not impossible to dodge if she knows they're coming.

But she was still inexperienced with this method of maneuvering, and the same move won't work on him twice, so this was a one-time-only strategy.

"Can't use that again huh?"

'Still, that's two more feet now.'

Between the one she gained first and the two from Ice foothold maneuvering, that leaves seven more feet!

As soon as she landed on the ground, another Fireball came flying towards her. She deflects his Fireball with her magic bullets again, resulting in another shock wave. But she reduces it with her barrier artifact and takes another step forward.

'Six feet left!'

She jumped to the side to dodge the next Fireball, then fired two more bullets at it to create a larger explosion, temporarily obscuring his vision.

At the same time, she used her ace-in-the-hole spell. What she wanted to test in the first place.

"Hrmmm?!"

He exclaimed for the first time since the fight started. To him, it should look like there are suddenly three of her.

It's an illusion created with dark Magic. Something she managed to do recently, also her illusions were not just illusions, they had physical mass too.

She ran forward along with the two fakes from three different directions. Due to one of the agreements they made before the match, he was not allowed to cast more than one spell at a time and he was to stick with beginner spells.

"Aren't you tricky?"

A Fireball shoots out and hits one of the three.

But the other two keep running toward him without slowing down.

'Five more feet.'

Another Fireball strikes the second one.

'Four more feet.'

"You're the real one, eh? You got lucky."

He acted like he was not sure but Layla knew, he was already aware of which one was the real one from the start, he was just playing along.

A third Fireball hits the last one standing.

"What?!"

An exclamation of genuine confusion comes from one of the students watching, they could not tell them apart so they did not know which one was real or not.

'Three more feet.'

He then froze up in surprise for only a second.

But that second buys her yet another feet.

'Two feet left!'

"But how?!"

"Shut up if you can't see through it already."

Arthur shouted at the student who kept exclaiming, he then looked back at the fight, at the figure of the instructor, or more accurately above the figure of the instructor.

A silent cutting sound could be heard.

The instructor smiled and raised his staff in the air, blocking the sword that came from above, he then created a barrier to block the bullets fired at point blank range that came after the sword.

Seeing this many students were shocked, none of the three illusions were the real one in the first place.

The real Layla jumped up in the air and used her Ice magic to create footholds in the air again she then closed the distance and jumped down for an aerial attack.

However, like she thought, he already knew she was there from the start, he only fired at her illusions to test the strength and integrity of the illusions.

"Tch. And I even said I couldn't use it anymore to make you unconsciously not consider it."

Layla landed back on the ground and cleaned the sweat off her face as she spoke.

"You're doing psychological warfare now?"

The teacher retorted back instantly, surprised at the words she poke. The problem was that it worked, he was originally surprised when he sensed her in the air, and he had actually unconsciously believed she would not use that method of maneuvering again.

There was a clapping sound and he turned around to see both the students in the hall and the others outside who were watching the fight clapping in applause. Besides the few teachers who stopped by, most of the students, even some of the second and third year students could not see through the illusions.

When the clapping died down, Arthur finally decided to speak up.