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A stagnant silence fell upon the audience as the tension between the two females was almost tangible. Without hesitation, Evie raised her arms, creating the motion of a semi-circle on each arm before connecting them again.
“By the grace of God, upon the name of The Blessed Child, lend this child your strength, Holy Halo!” Evie chanted, though others did not need to do such a chant, Evie was called the ‘Blessed Child’ so chanting her spell to gain Holy power would cause her spell’s strength to multiply dramatically.
A shield of golden light shone around, Evie, effectively creating a powerful defence measure before launching attacks. Corlissa was getting slightly drowsy which caused the onlookers to question the sanity of the young Veronique, further causing question, Corlissa decided that nothing was happening that would cause a threat to her so she resumed staying still. After Corlissa accidentally let out a yawn that she was suppressing, after all, the power of a yawn is quite formidable, Evie’s anger was only fueled further by her actions and had decided to let out an onslaught of light blades.
“Ohoh~ It seems that you can finally use your magic properly instead of wasting it away,” Corlissa mockingly retorted.
“How impudent!” Evie exclaimed, her face contorting in anger while she raised her hand preparing to use another chant. “In the name of The Blessed Child, heed my call and rain holy swords upon my target, Torrent of Holy Blades!”
A scoff escaped the mouth of the young Veronique, “Do you really need to do those chants every time, it’s so fascinating yet irrational at the same time,” she announced despite the multitude of swords hovering in the air above her. As Evie dropped her arm that was raised to cast the spell, Corlissa still had yet to move, as the swords came shooting down to the still unmoving girl, Evie allowed a smirk to plaster itself onto her face.
Without saying a word nor moving, a roof of darkness was formed above Corlissa’s head, protecting her from the onslaught of blades above. Unlike the previous time they had fought, a single blade crashed through the barrier, causing Corlissa to widen her eyes out of shock before a cloud of dust hid Corlissa from view.
“It seems you really did improve, but it’s a shame that you are still too weak,” Corlissa’s voice rang out from the cloud of dust. After the dust settled, Corlissa was revealed with a slight smirk gracing her usually blank facial expression, she was completely unscathed and held the blade of materialised light in her bare hand. “Though that wasn’t enough to hurt me, it was a great use of the properties of light, I commend you on following in the footsteps of the first Grand Mage.”
“How-” Evie uttered with difficulty, looking at Corlissa in fear.
“It’s time for my counterattack I suppose,” Corlissa announced before a blade made of water materialised in her hand, “I would like to prove that supposedly weak magic can hold its ground against ‘Holy’ magic, so I would prefer if you would be gracious enough to forgive me for using you as my guinea pig.”
Corlissa gripped her sword created using water and silently charged at Evie, disappearing from sight before slowing down and reappearing right next to Evie.
“Hello again. I would recommend keeping your eyes on me,” Corlissa said directly next to Evie’s ear, slightly mocking her. Corlissa raised her blade to the still stunned Evie and gently tapped the barrier that Evie had previously created causing it to shatter pitifully.
“What...Whe-When did you get there?!” Evie stuttered out, with disbelief displayed prominently on her facial expression.
“I just sprinted, these are the fruits of working every day to build a stable foundation. You think that practising and refining your magic is all you need, right?”
“Of course! With light magic all I need to do is to draw out the highest potential from it, I’m aiming to be a mage, why would I need to bother with physical training?” Evie rhetorically asked.
“Then why am I right next to you? If all you need to do is perfect your light magic then why am I unscathed and next to you? Were you able to react? No. None of your attacks would even reach me at this point, even if they are powerful spells if I dodge them they would just be a waste of your limited supply of mana. This is reality.” Corlissa spoke condescendingly.
“Tch, that kid’s taking my role of being a teacher, not that I mind though,” Illinbur muttered under his breath.
“If you stay as you were before it will be my win, do you want to continue?”
“I won’t lose to you again, I can’t lose to someone like you again,” Evie replied with malice evident in her appearance.
Evie jumped back away from Corlissa while chanting another spell under her breath, “Holy Judgement: Confines of Holy Blades!” A dome of swords made of light surrounded Corlissa in every direction, whenever she moved slightly the blades perpendicular to the direction of her movement would launch.
Corlissa allowed a smirk on her face and began sprinting inside the attack barrier that Evie had created, after seeing how since the swords were made of light they also launched at the speed of light causing her to gain a cut. Everyone watching could only think of negative outcomes for Corlissa as they processed the characteristics of the high mana consumption boundary attack that Evie had just cast. Teacher Illinbur was contemplating cancelling the match as he didn’t want Corlissa to sustain too many injuries.
“This is great! I haven’t faced such an attack before, using science to help, I never expected you to be so intellectually competent or rather, I didn’t expect you to have knowledge gained from the introduction of the books about science and how the world functions. Certainly, quite a surprise,” Corlissa mockingly commented while a mischievous glint in her eyes remained unnoticed by all the first years.
“In the name of a normal child,” ‘What part of her is normal?! She is CLEARLY abnormal!’ “heed my call, sunglasses!”
‘What-’ was the first thought of everyone while they all comically fell with a ‘deadpan’ expression. Corlissa on the other hand, had a Cheshire grin as she was enjoying herself as a rather opaque layer of darkness in the shape of glasses was created in front of her eyes.
“Your chants looked fun so I tried it out,” Corlissa stated to Evie who was busy recuperating from the mana draining attack that Corlissa was still in.
“By the grace of my powers, lend me strength, water!”
‘Huh-’
‘Isn’t she in the midst of a powerful magic attack right now..?’
‘How did Duke Veronique raise her?!’
A barrier of constantly moving water surrounded Corlissa Veronique who took advantage of how the swords made of light produced more heat than anything else and didn’t cut her but rather burned her skin, despite the light being shaped into swords, they were simply multiple rays of light condensed, the laws of science would still apply.
“Time to test my theory!” Corlissa exclaimed with excitement evidently portrayed.
A blade of light flew at her but disintegrated after it passed through the water.
“What…?” Evie reacted with disbelief.
“Perfect! It worked as expected, I have to tell Sir Eliot about this!” the young Veronique announced not taking notice of the dumbfounded reactions of the witnesses. “But I still haven’t completely nulled the attack…” Corlissa expressed with disappointment in her tone.
“What did you just do?!” Evie questioned with suspicion and slight rage.
“The sword didn’t get destroyed, I just caused the light to diffuse once it made contact with water, weakening the attack, I had ‘sunglasses’ as a backup plan in case the light that was diffused was still too bright.”
‘I still haven’t found a way to completely null her attack, even though I can defend from it, it won’t help me in the long run. Dark magic should be able to null light magic but even if it’s true black, it can’t absorb absolutely everything from such condensated light. I could incapacitate the user but that means I still wouldn’t have found a way to obliterate the attack,’ Corlissa contemplated.
Evie, however, overlooked how Corlissa had yet to find a solution to her attack and began panicking trying to think of an attack that she would be able to pull off stronger than her last with the limited mana she had left.
Another smirk found its way onto Corlissa’s face as she came up with an idea without using her world magic.
Corlissa created a shell of water over a shell of dark magic covering her. A cone made of water was formed outside of the boundary created using the swords of light, the cone was upside down, creating a telescope-like structure encompassing the area affected by the swords. Corlissa had also considered creating another cloud of dust which would allow her to hide from Evie’s sight but decided against it since it would be too boring.
“Let the show begin!”