C154: Public Duel (4)
I'm not sure if this fight was the final or semi-final because in the last chapter it was the semi-final but in this chapter it said final. I hope the situation will be cleared in the next chapter but until then enjoy this release. Btw the next chapter will be released Monday.
"What?"
What did Rudger just say? Devian's face was distorted as a tendon came up on his forehead when he understood what he said. Even under these circumstances, instead of bowing his head, he ignited his wrath by acting like he was a great man.
"Mr. Hugo told me to do it moderately, but I can't do that. I'll fix you properly today."
"You won't listen to my warning."
Rudger was genuinely sorry for Devian, who didn't even listen to his sincere words.
"Warning? Ha! I'm speechless."
Devian laughed at him. He thought he was trying to hide his embarrassment because his bluff didn't work. Rudger must be out of energy due to lack of mana, but he's urging him to surrender?
'He's bluffing. Did he think I'd be scared just because he said a few strong words?'
Other teachers may have been shaken by a few words because they lacked practical experience, but Devian was different. Devian was born in the Burtag family and had a fairly outstanding magical talent, and he was also able to rise to this position thanks to his hard work.
It wasn't just luck that allowed Devian Burtag to reach the finals of the duels competition but his skills. Hugo knew that, so he sent Devian out and told him to smash Rudger in front of everyone.
'What? Is it better to lose when you can use magic?'
As the hostility from Devian increased further, Rudger gave up persuading him because he didn't feel the need to persuade someone who refuses to listen.
'In the end, you're causing trouble.'
[Then! Let's start the final of the duels event!]
Devian used magic after the host's cry. A translucent magical barrier surrounded him in the form of a tortoise shell and Rudger realized what that magic was.
'It's a fourth-tier spell. [Magic Protect] I'm in trouble.'
Magic Protect is a defensive spell, but it has a slightly different characteristic than other defensive spells. Magic Protect was one of the must-have spells in a wizards fight. It was because it did not prevent physical attacks, but on the contrary, it showed stronger power than any defensive spells against magic.
'It must have been hard to use it so quickly because it is the top magic among the fourth-rank spells.'
The first thing that came to Rudger's mind was [Reverberation of Memory]. It is a magic that allows you to save spells and use them in an instant when you need them.
Devian Burtag used Reverberation of Memory to store Magic Protect before he got on the field, that's how he was able to use it so fast.
'This is why I wanted to end it quickly.'
Devian's judgment was correct. In fact, as soon as the duel started, Rudger tried to end it by pouring all his remaining mana in the source code. However, since he is using Magic Protect, he is wasting a part of his mana.
'Should I look for a chance?'
As soon as he thought that, a hot fireball flew toward Rudger but he dodged it by turning his upper body and moving one step to the side.
Devian's voice came from inside the barrier.
"Avoiding that? It wasn't a lie when you said that you were a military officer."
Rudger didn't answer Devian mocking, he was thinking about something else.
'He's maintaining Magic Protect, but he could still attack me?'
To use attack magic, you must cancel Magic Protect. It is possible to "multitask" and launch attack magic while maintaining defense magic from the 6th rank or higher but Devian was only at the fourth rank.
'That's it.'
Rudger found a beast wrapped around Devian's neck. It was a green translucent snake.
[Oh! It's here! Teacher Devian Burtag's magic beast! Grun Slang!]
It is one of the four summoning magic consisting of {Spirits} {Golems} {Necromancy} and {Magic Beasts}. Among them, "Magic Beasts" had a characteristic that was quite different from other summoning specialties.
-Anyone can use it.
Basically, summoning magic is the area where talent is needed the most.
If you do not have the ability to communicate with spirits, you cannot make a contract with them.
If the cognitive ability is low it is impossible to properly command spirits summoned with {Necromancy}.
If you lack knowledge of mechanical engineering and general mechanics, you can't deal with {Golems}.
But {Magic Beasts} is different. Even people without talent can use {Magic Beasts} if they are wizards. This is because a magical beast is a living creature that is created from the user's mana. Since there is no magician without mana, anyone has the potential to use {Magic Beasts}.
[Aether Nocturnus] used by Rudger was also a magical beast in the form of clothing.
Currently, Devian Burtag's magic beast is a translucent green snake. When he opened his mouth, a fireball was formed and flew again toward Rudger.
The magic used this time was less powerful than before, but much faster. Judging that it was inevitable, Rudger used defensive magic and the little mana he had gradually diminished.
Rudger narrowed his eyes.
'Is it a magic beast that uses magic on behalf of its master?'
He blocked the attack and analyzed the opponent.
'The magic power is in the early 3rd rank, if I set it compared to Devian, who is at the top of the 4th rank. The magic beast becomes proportionally stronger depending on how strong the user is?'
Grun Slang handled by Devian Burtag was close to the concept of a servant who assisted his master. Above all, the most annoying thing about that magical beast was the versatility of its attacks.
'The user concentrates on defense magic, and on the contrary, the magic beast uses attack magic on behalf of the user.'
The user and the magic beast could use different magic. It was truly an all-in-one.
It is a very advantageous ability to have when fighting against other wizards because it was like fighting 2 against 1.
'My magic beast won't work well here because its power will be reduced by the barrier.'
In addition, [Aether Nocturnus] is specialized in stealth maneuvers and raids, but it's not very useful in face to face fights. He is also very greedy and has a very high rate of mana consumption. In this situation, Rudger will not last 10 seconds before running out of mana.
If it was a fight between life and death, he was confident of winning easily, but since it was a match in front of the audience, he was limited in what he could display. While judging that way, an attack flew again from Devian's magic beast.
This time, Rudger, who judged it inevitable, defended the magic and the mana left behind quickly diminished.
'He's trying to make me run out of mana.'
Although annoying, Devian's strategy was very useful because he knew Rudger's weakness.
'Then I have to use a different method.'
Rudger controlled mana precisely. Even if Magic Protect protects the surroundings, there were ways to pierce it.
─Spatial coordinates.
In the space between the Magic Protect and the Devian Burtag a weak magical power began to form in the air. That magic could be used through any defense magic as long as you knew the spatial coordinates.
'Space magic consumes a lot of mana, so I don't use it unless I have to, but I can't help it because it's an urgent situation.'
It was the right time since the opponent was off guard. The energy in the air soon turned into a fist-sized stone, aiming for the back of Devian Burtag's head but at that moment his magic beast moved.
The snake with its mouth wide open and bit the flying stone. A broken piece of stone fell on the floor.
'He stopped that?'
Devian Burtag laughed at Rudger after noticing that he used spatial magic.
"You thought I couldn't deal with your spatial magic? My Grun Slang doesn't just use attack magic."
One of the abilities of Grun Slang was called interception. It recognizes elements that threaten the user within a certain range in advance and prevents or responds to them.
Of course, the magic that can be prevented is limited to low power, but it was not good for Rudger, who was unable to use any of the big magics as he is now.
"How do you feel? How does it feel when your magic doesn't work?"
Rudger did not respond to Devian's provocation. Maybe it's because of the extreme mana consumption of coordinates, but he really doesn't have much mana left and his head was beginning to ache.
"Something's wrong with Mr. Rudger?"
Elisa, who had been watching from the audience, was about to step out, because she felt uneasy. This is because her strange intuition shouted that she had to stop the duel now but Hugo Burtag took the lead first.
"President, what are you doing? We're in the middle of the duel."
"I think we need to stop the duel."
"Huh. What do you mean stop the duel? This is the final."
"Something might happen."
Hugo knew that Rudger was going to lose, so he thought the president was coming forward to stop that.
"What is happening? Isn't it unavoidable that something like this can happen in the middle of a match?"
Elisa stopped her movements. As the number of eyes around her increased, Elisa had no choice but to sit down again with her eyes frowned.
"Mr. Rudger……."
Selina, who was watching the match with Merylda on one side of the stands, clenched her fist.
Under the Magic Protect, Devian grinned.
"What are you doing? You don't even use attack magic anymore? Is there no way to do that now?"
Devian kept provoking Rudger while Grun Slang shot a fireball from his mouth at Rudger who was only focused on defense. The audience also began to question the slow flow of the situation.
"What is happening? Mr. Rudger has been defending the whole time."
"Why doesn't he use attack magic like the first time?"
"Teacher Devian just said something about Mana, is running out of mana? No way, the teacher?"
The agitation spread and there were those who instigated it from behind. Not by the students who usually respected Rudger, but by the students who were scorned by the teacher named Rudger Chelici.
"Look at that. I knew this would happen"
"That must be the limit of the fallen aristocracy."
"Honestly, aren't all the words that have been said so far a bubble?"
Rudger quietly closed his eyes at the voices that filled the entire stadium.
"Haha. Did you give up?"
"It's noisy."
"What?"
Did he just say he was noisy? Devian Burtag twisted his face, but Rudger did not respond.
[───.]
A voice that had been suppressed by magic began to be heard. It was a voice that could normally be lightly ignored, but now that his mana is lacking, the voice quickly grew and made his head hurt.
It was as if an old dam was collapsing. Just as it has been locked up for a long time the accumulated water is released at once.
The voice did not stop at merely conveying its intention to Rudger.
Rudger, faced with the limit, opened his closed eyes. At that moment an ice arrow flew at him. Rudger no longer used defensive magic. Instead, he caught the arrow flying with his left hand without holding a cane.
"It's too…… noisy."
He looked rather pale.
A piece of broken ice arrow fell on the floor and soon disappeared.
"This is why I warned you."
"What do you mean…."
Before he could feel anything about Rudger's actions, which he didn't doubt that it was a bluff, Devian has discovered something foreign.
A faint but black hole appeared in the air above Rudger's head. As soon as he saw it, goosebumps spread all over his body. It was a purely instinctive reaction, with no reason at all.
At that moment, a dazzling light exploded from the tip of Rudger's wand. The brilliance filled the arena in broad daylight as if the sun came down.
The crowd covered their faces with their arms due to the unexpected explosion of light.
"Ah! What is this? This light!"
"Light magic?! Teacher Rudger, could use light magic?!"
Rudger's elemental attributes known to the public were water, fire, ice, wind, and earth. Five of the 10 elemental attributes are worth calling a great talent, but he could even use light?
Light is even considered a very rare elemental attribute just like darkness but Rudger was using it now.
[Ah! I can't see anything because it's so bright! What's going on?]
While everyone was confused and unable to grasp the situation, Rudger moved slowly in the light.
"What?"
Rudger's appearance was strangely clear in the white world as Devian saw Rudger slowly approaching him but his body didn't move as if time has stopped.
Something above Rudger's head caught Devian's gaze and forced him to fix it. The black hole, which was only about the size of a little finger joint, grew bigger and grew to the size of an adult's upper body.
The black contrast looked strange in the white world. The gap was disparate and enigmatic and Devian felt something staring at him.
His magic beast opened his mouth and screamed, but soon disappeared as if melting.
'The magic beast is afraid?!'
Then a strange sound tickled Devian's ear. It was like the sound of bones breaking or the sound of a giant insect crawling and it was coming out of the black hole.
"What?"
Something was slowly coming out of the black hole. Something black, sticky and clingy.
"What the hell!"
Devian let out a scream full of despair. In the meantime, 'it' was slowly coming out of the hole and showing itself. Just looking at it, he felt like his body was falling into the cold deep sea, and his brain was tearing up.
Rudger, who was close to Devian, stopped.
"Ah, ah, ah."
Devian opened his mouth and uttered only strange sounds. What came out of the hole resembled a branch but looking closely it was human bones.
The joints of countless human bones slowly approached Devian, like tentacles but beyond them it was something even more terrible. All kinds of meat and flesh, twisted in a strange form.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Devian Burtag, whose leg was weakened, fell on his buttocks. In the meantime, it's hard to tell if it was bones or tentacles, but they slowly approached him.
"Stop."
At Rudger's command they stopped moving.
Rudger stared at the black hole floating on his head with an empty stare.
"If you don't like it, I'll give up the opportunity to someone else. The choice is yours."
Eventually, the bone tentacles that were approaching Devian slid back into the hole.
After sighing, Rudger lowered his upper body and searched Devian's clothes, who had not yet come to his senses, for his medicine bottle.
Rudger immediately took out about five pills inside and poured them into his mouth. As pure mana spreads in his mouth and circulates throughout his body the black hole floating above Rudger's head gradually narrowed and disappeared.
Rudger, who turned off the urgent fire, put the medicine bottle in his inner pocket and released the light magic.
"Oh, oh? I can see!"
"Teacher Devian is lying down!"
"What the hell happened?"
Jesse Luna, the host who came to his senses late, shouted.
[Ah! Look! The light that burst suddenly disappeared, and it's settled! The one standing is Rudger! It's Rudger Chelici!]
[Hmm. Teacher Devian Burtag doesn't seem to be in good shape.]
Carter Lowe, who has not spoken so far, also shed a murmur as he could not remain silent about the strangeness of the situation.
"Haven't I told you?"
In the uproar, Rudger looked down at Devian with indifferent eyes.
"Surrender while I can use magic."
Devian, who had already lost his mind halfway through, couldn't even respond.