“You don’t have time to be amazed.”
“Ugh!”
I look up at Ophelia’s voice to see countless ropes extending from the Dreadnought, trying to restrain me.
As I land, I swing my sword to cut through the snake-like, writhing mass of ropes coming at me, but in that moment, the Dreadnought fires its next round.
“What!?”
I try to move away immediately, but my right foot won’t budge. Wondering what’s going on, I look down to see one foot buried in the ground. Ophelia must have done this while I was distracted by the ropes, and I didn’t notice at all.
This is bad.
I quickly enhance my leg strength with spiritual power and manage to forcibly pull my foot out. But the interference delays my evasion slightly, and my body is blown away by the blast from the impact.
Taking advantage of my vulnerability in mid-air, the Dreadnought fires several more shells to follow up. Although the power is weaker than the previous shot, it’s still not something I can afford to take head-on.
I wrap myself in wind to regain my balance, then imbue my sword with spiritual power and unleash a slash towards the approaching shells. The crescent-shaped slash collides with the shells in mid-air, creating a spectacular shower of sparks.
Just as I feel relieved after blocking the follow-up attack, I spot Ophelia in the distance, placing her hand on the ground as if about to activate some kind of spirit magic. Judging from the amount of spiritual power being gathered, she’s likely preparing to unleash a powerful technique.
“Water Bullet”
Confirming her movement, I took out my substitute and contracted with the water lesser-spirits. Creating a vortex of water in my palm, I launched it towards Ophelia, who was preparing to attack. The water, enhanced with wind spirit magic, approached in a spiral, but Ophelia calmly interrupted her intended spell and deployed a defensive spirit technique, creating an earth wall to block the attack.
Impressive judgment, even for an enemy. In the previous rank battle, she wasn’t in the top ten due to the luck of the draw, but in terms of skill, she could undoubtedly rival them.
As the attack subsided, I landed on the ground and infused my feet with spirit power to close the distance quickly. However, as if anticipating this moment, another barrage was fired.
“Damn it!”
Forced to defend against the preemptive attack just as I was about to make my move, I grudgingly fell back into a defensive stance.
Feeling irritated by this fact, I swung my sword to deflect the barrage, but one of the fired shells exploded slightly in front of me, obstructing my vision with smoke.
— A smokescreen!
Understanding the opponent’s intention, I instantly released wind to blow away the smoke, but as if waiting for this moment, an anchor came hurtling towards me through the cleared view.
“Ugh!?”
I barely managed to use my sword as a shield to receive the impact, but unable to withstand the force, I was flung backward. I couldn’t recover my posture and ended up rolling ungracefully on the ground.
“What’s wrong, Rourke? You’re looking unusually pathetic.”
“…”
I’m in a tight spot.
As I endured the attacks, I honestly thought to myself.
She was effectively utilizing the spirit master’s strength of coordinating with spirits, taking two actions. When I attacked, she defended and counterattacked; when I defended, she attacked twice.
No wonder it’s tough. Well, it’s my fault for not having a contracted spirit…
“Why don’t you quietly summon your spirit? You’d have a good chance of winning if you did.”
“…”
If I could summon one, I would have done so from the start, damn it.
But if I continue resisting like this, I’ll probably lose. So… is it time for my trump card?
“If you’re not going to summon, that’s fine, but in that case, you–“
“…Ophelia.”
I interrupt Ophelia’s speech by calling her name.
Ophelia, wearing a confident smile, was unusually talkative. Maybe she’s excited about cornering me, or perhaps she thinks she’ll see my contracted spirit.
It doesn’t matter either way…
“It’s a bit too early to act so relaxed.”
“What do you–“
As Ophelia looked at me with a puzzled expression, I infused spirit power and placed my hand on the ground, activating my setup.
“An earthquake?”
Leia was the first among the three to notice the tremor. She looked around, tilting her head in confusion at the shaking arena. The surrounding audience, who had been focused on the rank battle, also seemed to notice the gradually intensifying tremors, their faces showing signs of anxiety.
This is definitely strange.
“Leia-chan, this shaking…”
“Yeah, it’s… Huh? Akari-san?”
” Ha-ha-ha-ha! “
As Leia was about to respond to Meili’s anxious murmur, she was surprised to see Akari next to her, her cheeks slightly flushed as she let out a laugh.
She seemed quite excited, which was an unusual sight for Leia, who was used to seeing Akari’s normally cool demeanor.
“This is truly amazing. It’s unexpected.”
“What do you mean by– Oh!?”
As Leia was about to ask about the meaning behind Akari’s words, she finally noticed. The tremendous spirit power accumulating on the ground of the arena below.
“…Eh!?”
Where they looked, the ground rumbled and bulged, and a massive shadow loomed over Leia, the others, and the observing students.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
“This is…”
Ophelia’s face showed a dumbfounded expression as she faced the earthen giant that had seemingly crawled up from the ground. Its height easily surpassed that of the large spirit Dreadnought. On what appeared to be its face, there were three indentations representing eyes and a mouth, though they didn’t seem to serve their actual functions.
Looking closely, parts of its body were distorted like a child’s handmade doll, but from these points, tremendous spirit power flowed throughout the giant’s body like blood.
— Could this be Rourke’s contracted spirit?
While the initial impact was strong, if this was indeed Rourke’s contracted spirit, there was nothing to fear. It was no match for her Dreadnought.
Having made this judgment, Ophelia ordered Dreadnought to fire a test volley.
Following the order, spirit power charged into Dreadnought’s gun ports, loading the shells. Then, taking aim at the giant before them, it opened fire.
The five shells fired hit their marks without fail, striking the giant’s head, abdomen, and upper arms, destroying its body with loud explosions.
“It’s fragile.”
There was no barrier, nor did the body seem particularly tough. Observing the crumbling rubble, Ophelia concluded that a few more shots would render the giant incapacitated. She was about to quietly order the next volley when– she froze.
“…What?”
The rubble that had fallen from the bombardment rose as if possessed by will, returning to the damaged areas and repairing the giant’s body. Ophelia, who had unconsciously stopped moving, watched this scene. In less than a few minutes, the body’s repair was complete, and the earthen giant was revived as if nothing had happened.
“This is…”
“Are you surprised?”
A mocking voice reached Ophelia from above. As she looked up, she saw Rourke looking down at her from the giant’s shoulder.
“Is this your contracted spirit?”
“Of course not.”
Rourke shook his head in denial to Ophelia’s question.
Then what is this giant? As Ophelia pondered this question, she shifted her focus as the giant began to move.
“Oooohh!”
The giant raised its distorted arm high and let out an eerie roar that echoed through the arena as it swung its fist down towards Dreadnought.
Ophelia instinctively deployed an earth spirit defensive technique, but the giant’s fist, imbued with enormous spirit power, instantly broke through the defense and struck Dreadnought’s deck.
The descending fist made a cracking sound as it put a dent in part of Dreadnought’s deck, but it didn’t manage to break through completely.
“Ugh!”
“As expected, it’s tough.”
Rourke was impressed by Dreadnought’s high defense.
He had launched the attack intending to sink it, but as expected of a high-ranking spirit, it wasn’t an opponent that could be dealt with so easily.
“Don’t get cocky!”
Dreadnought entangled the giant’s fist that had struck its body with ropes, then rotated its hull to throw the giant.
“!”
Rourke jumped off the giant as it lost balance and tumbled to the ground. He landed and turned his gaze towards Ophelia, who was glaring at him.
His eyes showed a sense of composure, which irritated Ophelia’s mind.
“What is that giant, Rourke!?”
“What do you think it is?”
“!!”
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