Chapter 04

"Haaaa!"

As the mock battle started, Stella immediately leaped toward me and swung her greatsword. Since I knew what had happened, I maneuvered by stepping back. Her greatsword smashed the ground below and shook the entirety of the training field.

Honestly, I didn't think my mana barrier could handle Stella's attacks at all. Even though Stella still didn't use her fire affinity. Her attack was still strong as ever. Even with that kind of attack, I was pretty sure I could evade and endure it with ease for now.

Most of the magician battles were over when the winner made the opponent's mana barrier fall to zero. Since if the mana barrier vanishes, those people could get actual damage or get injured.

"Hump… good reaction. You wouldn't have made it out so easily if you took my hit." Stella said while grinning and pursuing me. Immediately after she finished speaking, Stella casually attacked me. I didn't find her attack to be a sharp and dangerous one. It felt like she still gauged my skill.

Her attack gave such explosive power, and her control over her movements was both incredible. It was almost as if she had danced herself in this fight.

This kind of skill would have knocked many magicians down. Seeing such a skill closely like this was an incredible feeling. My imagination or previous memories didn't match her real skill. When I realized this made me feel stupid to feel, my knowledge from anime and manga would be the same as the real one. How far was the level between them feel too much different?

It was easy for her to catch up with me. Stella Vermillion's Magic was so enormous that she could maintain her speed with explosive magic power. She brandished hers with an unavoidable swing that was so strong that it felt like it could snap my sword when our swords clashed with each other.

*Clang— The clash of the two weapons was so loud that the spectator could hear those sounds. It was such a powerful attack that if I wasn't careful enough, my grip on the Katana may be loosened, and my Katana would be thrown away from my hand.

"Oh, that's amazing. I never thought a man could handle me this long." She said such ambiguous words. I could catch a glimpse of the shock in the girl's eyes, but at the same time, she smiled curiously back at me.

"Oh— Best of luck in your battle!?" Stella said that with such a lovely smile of hers, she attacked me with more polish and a faster swing. However, her attack yielded little result against me.

Because even though I may not have massive mana. I was very confident in my ability to control the mana in my body. I was especially able to strengthen my sense to the level that felt inhumane, which was something that magic could do in this world.

At this moment, I focused my mana on strengthening my vision to the best— which made me see her movement very well so that I could evade and endure her attack. But of course, if this continued, my mana would drain, and I would be lost with just one hit.

Especially despite her mobility, I could still evade each of her attacks at the last moment. On top of that, there was a time I successfully parried her attack. Which was a problem itself which meant she became closer and closer to hitting me. And the worst of all, she still has not used her signature fire skill.

"Still, you shouldn't get conceited over this skill level!" Stella realized how good my eyes and my stamina were. Even so, she kept attacking, again and again, not giving any time for me to take a breath.

"Now, let's dance. Dance with Lævateinn and me!" Stella said as her greatsword slowly engulfed by fire. Giving me a scorching temperature, which of course, drained my stamina.

Stella didn't show any mercy— she swung and another and another and another as her attack continued to rain down on me, and they were all precisely attacked so that I couldn't dodge them all.

Even so, my magic was primarily strengthening magic and recovery magic. That's why I calmly caught each of her blows. I didn't need to block it hard with power adjustment, angle, and timing. Those powerful strikes could be parried with minimal magic power.

This tactic was usually used to deplete their massive magic power by letting them feel overwhelmed, and they lusted endlessly for their magic abilities and wasted a lot of their mana. It will be easy to fight magicians who are much more focused on their magic abilities than their martial art since most magicians rely too much on their magic and their martial arts are poor.

"What's the matter? You'll never win if you just keep defending, you know?" Stella realized what my tactic was, but she didn't change her maneuver at all, as if she was confident with her own ability and mana reserve.

That's why I started my attack with the help of my imaginary training. Even though it was not one hundred percent true, I still could understand most of her swordsmanship.

I waved my sword lightly, fast, and strong. My thin-looking Katana focused on just jack of all trades, but the Katana itself had another advantage that actually could make my abilities to control mana shine. This Katana was actually such a good conductor, and it was easy to put my mana on it and change the Katana itself.

I didn't think I could change the appearance of the Katana, but with my magic, I could change the weight of my own Katana.

Yeah, the value of my Katana was a jack of all trades that could infuse mana into the Katana and make my own twist on the Katana.

I could change the weight of the Katana to more than 100 kilos. As for how I could wield such a heavy Katana. Well, just like I did to strengthen my vision with magic. I could strengthen my muscles. Just like that, I increased my skeletal muscles to higher maximum power output. It was like a steroid or drug. I put my own magic into every skeletal muscle I could do and strengthened it to the max with that I could become stronger with such a minimal magical power.

That's why when my Katana met her Lævateinn, the one who stepped back this time was Stella, who didn't expect such power from my swing. Even though I may still look small, my muscles were already filled with mana that increased their output to the maximum power that I could hold.

Of course, I stopped my strengthening of vision and recovery magic to sustain my stamina and mana barrier that slowly drained at a fast pace, which meant I needed to finish this fast.

"What the hell?!" It was a surrealistic scene for Stella that made her speechless. Her mouth was wide open from shock. This was the first time in her lifetime that Stella had ever stepped back by a boy that was around her age.

Since the katana weight had changed, my attack made such a loud noise and power that make the spectator held their breath to see what I was capable for—

Of course, It was possible for her to evade my attack. But it looked like Stella had her own pride, especially as a woman in this wrong. She didn't want to seem weaker than man after all. That's why rather than evading, she tried to outclass my swing.

In front of her was a boy who wasn't using a shred of her magical power, but he could overpower her. It must be humiliated her—

Slowly she was getting beaten back as she was the one who needed to make a distance between them. I may successfully take control of this fight, but at this point, my small mana would only be gone for a while. I started to lose my breath.

Especially since my swordsmanship was above par with Stella's, I moved fast after I could match her. I attacked her— by using such minimal movement and cutting Stella's cheek, which was my first time actually damaging her barrier mana.

"But how… how can it be…." Stella talked as she stepped back away from me. "No, there is no way this happened." She shrieked before she jumped far away and kept her distance from me. This time, her eyes were a bit fierce. She raised Lævateinn to the sky. The fire around her grew ever brighter and hotter, blazed like the sun. She glared at me menacingly.

"Ah… this is…." I realized what Stella was doing, but I could do nothing. A powerful explosion of heat blasted the surroundings as she used its strongest spell, powerful enough to be considered a final trump card.

"To think I will win this fight by using my powerful attack is already such praise for a man!! Just like you ask for me to get serious, I will not hold back. I hope you can handle this!! Pierce the blue sky, flame of purgatory!"

She clearly had no intention of trading blows anymore. Stella admitted that she lost at swordsmanship and tried to triumph in this fight using her own magical power. It was her gifted and unfair level of the raw power of mana.

"You're done for. It would be better for both of us if you accepted defeat gracefully." Stella spoke a bit differently than before, as if she acknowledged my skill and power and was going to crush me with all of her power.

"Katharterio Salamandra!"

The burst of magic crashed down upon the ground, waves of heat billowing out like a tsunami as it tried to incinerate the battlefield. Seeing such overwhelming magical power…

Honestly, seeing those powerful magic made me envious of her. It was something I dreamed of. At this moment, I may not have that power, but someday I may reach it. Yeah, I will never give up.

"In the end… the only man can do is brute force…." I spoke to myself as I gathered all of the magic. Most people knew about strengthening magic because using that magician could increase their strength and mobility.

The problem for me was that it needed magic power in the end, and with my weak magic power… there was no way I could defeat someone with more magic power than me.

That's why I needed a way to make myself have the strongest attack that I was capable of— The attack that could penetrate the mana barrier, especially the mana barrier from top-class magicians. So I could fight on their level.

And my answer was quite easy but difficult at the same time.

It was to control all of my mana—- put a third of my mana on my foot to increase my speed and mobility and on my muscle to make me strong enough— and put a third on my Katana. I imagined making it sharper, especially on the tip of my Katana, and this time rather than making it heavier this time. Yeah, sharper than I could cut anything.

This overused mana on my body and overloaded to control all of the mana to the point was really hurting my body and heavy my mind, so I needed to control it by channeling my recovery magic while simultaneously using the rest of my mana.

Stella enveloped in her flame and aimed her attack at me, but before her blade could hit its mark. I simply dodged her attack with such a narrow distance that it actually decreased my mana barrier.

Despite that, Stella still aimed at me. Her attack was a formless sword of pure heat that could strike from a distance of a hundred yards at a speed unthinkable. A godlike power.

Even so, I ran through the battlefield, evading every swing of that blade of heat as minimally as I could to make my movement toward her much faster.

"I got you!" With that conviction in my mind, I closed in on Stella before driving my swing at her unguarded abdomen.

"No way… how can you.."

"Right… I'm just using all the power that I have!!."

I didn't hold back. My speed left her no time to do anything. Honestly, I was pretty confident with my agility since my body was relatively short. But with all of that strengthening, I have the capable power to blow Stella ten meters away.

I could do that, even without needing to sharpen my Katana. But in the end, this mock was to make the mana barrier become zero— which could happen if the magician loses her consciousness.

Stella must have felt struck by massive kinetic energy and the damage done by my Katana that penetrated her barrier and thrust her abdomen so hard that her consciousness was lost at that moment. Yeah, she collapsed with just one strike.

This happened because she was too much thought about her pride than fighting me—

"That's enough! The winner is Kirasagi Yuu."

Chifuyu announced the winner and the cheers from the spectators. Some of them sounded disbelief, and some of them cheered happily.

As for me… I immediately felt exhausted when I inactive my steroid - drug - like magic.

"Fuh… I won." And I smiled, satisfied, before sitting on the ground as I lost all of my energy. Honestly, my mana barrier only left four percent.

"Ah… I feel a bit hungry too…."

I murmured as my mock battle with Stella Vermillion ended.

[author]

This is my first time writing fighting scenes. I hope you like this. I wonder it's good or not.

Btw, I thinking the for now.

Stella Vermillion

Chifuyu Orimura

Cecilia Alcott

Charlotte Dunois

Laura Bodewig

Tabane Shinonono

I don't know about other girl from IS, to be honest I don't really fond Houki and Lingyin. Or you want them in here too?

I thought about put Strike Witches girl, but who do you think you want here?

Btw, I thinking to put several Azurlane girl in here too--- who do you think you want here? Except the one I like to be here.

[/author]