(CLYDE POV)

What the hell is up with this woman?

The spell I used was described as a spell that could disrupt a person’s supernatural powers. I thought the spell would be useful in the future so I earnestly studied it. It took an entire month before I was able to use it though.

I had to ask Undine for help in testing it before. It was a success.

‘Crazy bitch messed with her own body just so she could use aura again.’

Her output of aura was even more than before. It must be because some holes which were closed before was also opened.

I had no choice but to do a spirit activation.

I felt that I wouldn’t be able to defeat her unless I do so. If I lose... Well, I don’t know what I would do. I might need to use Undine and Ifrit to escape.

I wouldn’t just sit still and be killed by the patriarch.

I grinned and took out nine rings from my dimensional storage.

[Ring of Silent Casting]

[Ring of Magic Duplication]---Multiply caster’s overall magic spells at the cost of slightly lower firepower.

[Ring of Strength]---Slightly increase wielder’s overall physical power.

[Ring of Runic destruction]---Amplify magic spells.

[Ring of Necromancer]-can use this to summon the dead monsters to fight by his side. Use dead mana at will. Usage of forbidden magic is possible.

[Ring of Quickness]---Increase agility.

[Ring of Flight]---Fly continuously as long as the wielder has mana.

[Ring of Partial Heal]---Heal minor injuries.

[Ring of Weakness]—Use debuff on enemy that slows their speed.

The nine rings were on all my fingers except my right pinkie finger. The seal of God’s Code was still there. By the way, the Ring of Necromancy was the ring I needed to help me with the curse mark. Since dead mana was similar to miasma, it would help me in dismantling the curse mark.

‘That bastard. So this was what made him so overpowered.’

The rings I rook out belonged to Rolath that I defeated in the Elca Kingdom. I hadn’t used them until now since I had to ask Erica to get rid of the malice surrounding the rings. He must’ve stolen these precious rings from the graves of fairly famous mages. Their grudges were so strong that even Erica had to be delicate in purifying them.

When I put them all on, I could feel that my senses had heightened to an abnormal degree.

RUMBLE

Zelda threw a punch at me which I easily dodged. I hit her in the face with a kick and swung my sword after doing a full spin.

My sword was blocked by her daggers.

‘The melting effect of the fire spirits isn’t doing anything?’

She must’ve coated her blades in a rather thick aura. I could barely cut through with the fire spirits I had.

I smirked.

I activated 【Ring of Strength】.

“Kuh...!”

I kicked Zelda in the side. She tried blocking my kick but was thrown aside regardless. It seemed that her aura was still in the process of strengthening her body. Not only that, she forcibly unblocked her pores which did quite a bit of damage to her brain’s senses.

She quickly hopped up and came towards me again.

【Ring of Silent Casting】

“...Eh?”

“What the hell!?”

“No chants!?”

Unlike when I do chantless magic, I couldn’t use magic in a situation where I had to use spirit mana to strengthen my body. Silent chanting—however—was a different story. Just by imagining the spell I want, the ring activates and takes my mana automatically.

“Tch.”

Hundreds of fireballs were locked onto Zelda. She tried to dodge them but they’d only follow her around.

I swung my hand to control the fireballs and direct them towards her. I could see how annoyed she was judging by her expression. The arena was filled with the sounds of explosions and collapsing structures.

The mages of the Minerva family put up multiple barriers to protect the nobles sitting on the seats. No one was cheering as they did earlier. Instead, a heavy silence ensued as Zelda was being chased by fireballs.

“Guh!”

She recklessly threw one of her daggers. However, it hit its mark. It pierced through my right kidney. I clenched my jaw hard but I didn’t break the spell.

She seemed to be surprised by my endurance as she cursed.

Our back and forth continued under the eyes of the spectators.

-◆-

I remembered my conversation with Ingrid back then. I was standing before the desk of Ingrid after school ended.

I was wearing casual clothes with a sling bag over my shoulder.

“Professor.”

“What is it, Clyde? You should be getting ready for tomorrow’s lesson.”

“Will it be alright if I take the week off? There’s something I must do.”

She answered without looking at me.

“Does this have to do with your revenge?”

“How did you...”

She chuckled.

“I keep an eye on all the interesting students of this academy. Anyway, you said a week? You’ll have to do a lot to catch up.”

I smiled wryly.

“Well, I’m prepared to do just that.”

After I got my revenge, I was thinking of taking a break. The big day was by the end of this week anyway.

“Hmm...Very well. This will inconvenience your study partner.”

“I have already spoken to Bridgette after class. She accepted after I explained to her why I have to be away for a while.”

“Well, then I have nothing to be worried about then. Best of luck to you then. Oh, and Clyde.”

When I was about to leave, she spoke again. She leaned forward on the desk.

“Yes?”

“What are you hiding?”

I could remember how much my body stiffened at her serious question. It was like she could see right through me. The pressure from a 7th stage mage almost caused my fire spirits to attack on instinct.

The next moment her pressure disappeared.

“I see. It is necessary to hide it then, huh? Well, I won’t pry. But remember, Clyde.” Ingrid leaned forward on her desk again and crossed her fingers. “If you need someone to talk about these things to then I—as your teacher—am happy to help. It isn’t just you that I’ve noticed who has a secret, but Isabel as well. It is something she has already confided in me so I hope you can tell me your pain as well. If you decide to reveal whatever you’re hiding then I will definitely support you. I have finally found gems amongst the pebbles, I do not intend on throwing them away–“

-◇-

‘I wonder what she meant when she mentioned Isabel.’

The two of us knew each other but not that well. What pain could the sister of the famous Spear God be hiding?

“You coward!”

Zelda screamed in frustration as I kept manipulating the direction the fireballs flew. A few had managed to hit her. Since I used the Ring of Weakness to slow her down, the battle had turned favourably for me.

‘How much mana did that bastard undead have to maintain all these rings?’

All nine were active so I had to constantly supply mana into every single one of them. Now I knew that Rolath really was a terrifying magic caster. He could maintain that massive army and cast magic at the same time in his battle with me.

‘I have a long way to go, huh...’

“An opening!”

Zelda suddenly dashed towards me after evading the fireballs.

“Not! 『Quagmire』!”

I softened the ground that she ran on and made her fall down.

“Kyaah!”

She crashed down face first. Her daggers were knocked out of her hands.

“Kuh!” She did a roll when I threw the spells toward her again. An explosion followed soon after.

‘It’ll be bad if I keep wasting mana with spells. I’m not a close combatant but I have to manage until the spirits run out for now.’

I decided on what to do and dispersed the fireballs. Zelda looked around in confusion.

“Finally going to fight, coward?”

She snickered with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“That was a pretty girly scream you did back there. I didn’t know you could sound that cute.”

Her entire face reddened.

“S-Shut up, you bastard!”

She dashed toward me and swung her daggers. We were once again locked in an exchange of parrying each other’s blades. I noticed something strange while fighting her.

The more injured she got, the stronger and faster she became.

‘She must have aura similar to Arielle.’

Arielle had the violent red aura variant which was one of the most destructive of the aura types. Zelda’s aura might not have been red but the nature was the same. Bit by bit, she was getting the upper hand.

Since my spirits weren’t infinite, I couldn’t keep fighting like this for long. I wasn’t able to get close to a million spirits since the red miasma in the air was interfering in our connection.

‘If I use advanced rank magic then I’d need to wait for the right moment to strike.’

Zelda was an agile fighter so I couldn’t recklessly throw spells that wouldn’t even hit its target.

“Guh!”

I received a blow to the stomach. She grinned and punched again. Her fists were filled with aura so getting hit by that wasn’t pleasant.

I tried to dodge her next punch but since it was a feint, I was kicked to the knee instead. I heard something crack.

“Argh!”

I hit her with a head-butt when she was about to punch me again. Her entire face was filled with blood. A few teeth also flew out.

“....!!!”

She roared and stabbed her daggers into my shoulders. The pain sent shivers down my spine that almost caused me to drop my sword.

BOOM....!

I threw a silent fireball at her face.

“Aaaaaah!!!”

Her entire face was on fire. I used that chance to pluck out the daggers and retreat towards the wall.

‘Should I have started with a big spell earlier?’

I was hoping on saving my mana during this fight but there was no way I’d do that now that Zelda had gotten the upper hand in close combat.

I gritted my teeth as I felt the stinging pain from my shoulders. I closed my eyes and focused on weaving my mana to remove the poison out of my wounds.

“Ugh!”

The thick poisonous liquid fell onto the ground.

“Haaa....Haaa...”

【Ring of Partial Healing】

My entire body was covered by a thin green film as the light was sucked into my wound. After a while, the wound closed a bit.

‘I should’ve studied healing spells...’

I grumbled to myself. I could only use Elementary rank healing spells. Healing spells weren’t suited for mages in general since it needed divinity to cast. To make up for the lack of divinity, it used a larger quantity of mana to cast the healing spell.

Whenever I used a healing spell, it would take mana equivalent to an intermediate spell. It was extremely inefficient.

‘I should look for any healing spells that might be helpful in Solphia’s book.’

Surely there was an alternative to the healing spells I knew of. After gripping my sword in my hand, I looked back at Zelda.

“Yikes...”

“The young lady’s hair...”

The spectators looked at Zelda. Her beautiful long hair was no more. Her hair was burned up until her shoulders.

“You bastard!!!”

She roared and covered her entire body with aura. I could feel that her core was spiralling out of control. She already damaged her own body to get this power. If she used far more than her damaged body could contain then there’s no avoiding a combustion.

Although not the same as an arcane core, aura cores would also overheat if you used too much of your energy in a fight. You’d experience immense pain in your abdomen.

“Guh! Argh!”

Zelda was basically showing signs of combustion. If seen from another perspective, she’d look like a woman during labour pains.

‘This is dangerous.’

She would eventually explode into tiny pieces if this continued. The ordinary people that came to watch would—without a doubt—get injured by her violent aura.

I decided my next move and coated my sword in fire spirits again.