The opening volley was a hail of ice arrows, the same spell she had used two nights ago. There were ten of them this time.
Back then, she had used incantations and tools—flasks and beakers—to channel her craft. Now, she fired them with a mere thought. This, I presumed, was what she meant by "eighty percent power." No chants, no preparation—just lethal intent made manifest.
But unlike that night, I wasn't suffering from the physical backlash of my slime's absorption. I tracked the trajectory of the frozen bolts, weaving through them with minimal movement as I closed the distance between myself and Evangeline.
"Riku, Raku, Ra, Rakku, Lilac. Come, spirits of frost; burst, spirits of wind; shatter, O frozen breath… Glacial Blast!"
Realizing the arrows wouldn't stop me, Eva conjured a swarm of ice clusters in the space between us. They detonated instantly. A violent storm of frigid air, shockwaves, and jagged shards sprayed in every direction.
"Focus. Accel."
I whispered the mental commands, activating Focus and Accel in tandem. With my concentration heightened to a razor's edge, the world slowed; I picked a path through the flying shrapnel, using my boosted speed to circle around the perimeter of the blast zone.
"Using body-reinforcement magic with a single phrase? Impressive," Eva remarked. "But how about this?"
As she spoke, shimmering threads woven from her mana ensnared the air around me. I knew instinctively that if I charged ahead, I'd be trussed up like a fly in a web. I skidded to a sharp halt.
"Slime!"
Acting on my command, my Spatial Vault rippled open. Slime tentacles lashed out, slicing through the magical filaments like heated wires through wax.
"Tch. You broke through an eighty-percent weave that easily? Chachazero!"
"Comin' right up, Boss!"
The moment the voice reached my ears, my senses screamed. Something was lunging at my back. I threw myself to the side just as a massive cleaver slammed into the spot where I'd been standing, burying itself deep into the stone paving of the courtyard.
"Ho. I suppose you've earned that title of 'Puppet Master,' then."
"Don't go flatterin' me now! Let's just have ourselves a good time!"
The wielder of the cleaver was a doll, barely reaching my knees. The fact that it spoke—albeit in a mechanical, stilted tone—meant it was likely Eva's familiar.
"I told you I would fight with everything I have," Eva said, her eyes glinting. "You don't mind if I bring Chachazero into the mix, do you?"
"Not at all. I'm using my slime, after all… Whoa!"
Even as I spoke, I called up the inventory of my Spatial Vault in my mind. I manifested two submachine guns and unleashed a suppressive curtain of lead toward the doll.
"Gah! You think these pea-shooters are gonna work on me?!"
Chachazero deflected the bullets with the broad side of her cleaver, but damage wasn't my goal. I just needed her pinned down.
"Slime!"
The slime responded instantly, its body elongating into a whip that lashed out at the doll. Simultaneously, slime tentacles sprouted behind me, swatting away a fresh volley of ice arrows Eva had sent my way.
"Geh! Too fast?!"
Caught off guard by the speed of the counter, Chachazero let out a yelp as the slime's force sent her tumbling back. That bought me a moment to focus on Eva, but then—dammit!
My Telekinesis sensed a sudden ripple in the air. I leapt back instinctively. A heartbeat later, several ice spears—far larger and more piercing than the arrows—impaled the ground where I had stood.
"I thought I had you by surprise," Eva mused. "You're still hiding quite a few tricks, aren't you?"
"Maybe. But I'd say the same for you."
While keeping my eyes locked on her, I searched the Spatial Vault again. I settled on a grenade—not just any grenade, but a fragmentation model. These were packed with serrated wire; their destructive potential was staggering. Though the base design dated back to the 1950s—practically a Jurassic relic in this day and age—this specific model had been refined through the New Era until it was the ultimate tool for anti-personnel devastation.
Against a True Ancestor vampire, I figured this was the bare minimum required.
"Hup!"
I hurled the frag grenade toward Eva and immediately commanded the slime to envelop me in a protective shell.
BOOM!
A roar of destruction tore through the castle's courtyard. Even inside the slime dome, I felt the ground shudder. When the storm of shrapnel subsided, I retracted the slime, expecting to see some sign of damage.
Instead, I was met by a massive, shimmering shield of ice.
The shield shattered into glinting dust a second later, and Eva stood behind it, completely unscathed. A playful smirk danced on her lips.
"I saw you use guns in our last encounter. It was only natural to assume you had other weapons in reserve. I simply had the appropriate magic ready. Though, technically, this Ice Shield is meant to reflect offensive spells, not physical shrapnel."
…Right. She had seen the submachine guns during our first meeting.
"My turn, then," Eva said, her smile widening into something predatory. "I'll try to hold back, but… try not to die, okay?"
An explosive pressure erupted from her small frame. It was mana—what I would call SP—surging in a visible aura.
"Riku, Raku, Ra, Rakku, Lilac. Come, spirits of frost. Fill the air. Bring the permafrost and glaciers of the land of the midnight sun… Frozen Earth!"
The spell tore across the ground in a straight line toward me. The earth froze instantly, and jagged pillars of ice erupted from the floor like the teeth of a rising monster.
"Accel!"
Staying put was suicide. I burnt more SP to trigger Accel, leaping sideways to clear the area of effect.
"Hahaha! Given your physical specs, I knew you'd dodge that. Let's keep going!"
Eva took to the air, her mana flaring again.
"Riku, Raku, Ra, Rakku, Lilac. Come, spirits of frost, spirits of darkness. Command the shadows and blow, everlasting snow of the eternal night… Dark Blizzard!"
The world went dim as a howling gale of black snow engulfed the courtyard.
"Tch!"
The blizzard was brutal. It didn't just obscure vision; it leached the heat from my limbs, slowing my reaction time. Unlike Frozen Earth, which had a narrow path, this was an area-of-effect nightmare. There was nowhere to hide.
I was being ground down. I needed a counter, but I didn't have anything in my inventory that could stop a storm… wait. Magic against magic. I had the staff Eva gave me yesterday and the fire spell I'd learned.
I pulled the beginner's staff from the Spatial Vault and channeled my SP into it with everything I had.
"Practe Bigi Nar… Ignite!"
The reaction was violent. Pouring nearly 50 SP into a single low-level spell created a sphere of fire three meters wide. The heat roared outward, incinerating the blizzard—or at least enough of it to clear my immediate surroundings.
But then—crack.
"Damn. The staff couldn't take it."
It was, after all, a trainer's tool. Unable to withstand the sheer volume of SP I'd forced through it, the wood charred and crumbled into ash in my hand.
"Color me surprised," Eva said, descending through the thinning mist. "To neutralize my Dark Blizzard with a novice-tier spell… but now your catalyst is gone. How do you intend to keep up?"
"I just need to survive this one exchange. I'll figure the rest out as I go."
"Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?"
"Like this!"
I glared at her and unleashed my Telekinesis. Just like two nights ago, I wrapped the invisible force around her to pin her in place, then lunged forward. Unlike a gun, this was an attack that required zero travel time. Even if she knew it was coming, it was nearly impossible to dodge.
"!?"
Eva's eyes widened in a rare flash of shock as her body seized up. I closed the gap in a heartbeat, pulling back my fist to drive it into her solar plexus—
"What?!"
My fist stopped inches from her chest, hitting an invisible wall. No, not invisible—a glowing magic circle had manifested in the air, catching my strike.
"Heh… did you think I'd challenge an opponent who hides so many trump cards without any protection? Besides, thanks to your blood, I've recovered nearly all my former strength. Your 'Telekinesis' is impressive, but…"
With a grunt of pure, vampiric exertion, Eva forced her limbs to move against the invisible pressure. I could almost hear the mental "ropes" of my telekinesis snapping like overstrained cables as she tore through the bind.
"Don't think you're the only one who can move fast."
Her image blurred. A fraction of a second later, she was gone, reappearing five meters away. Body-reinforcement magic.
"Watch your head."
She smirked as her mana spiked again.
"Ice God's War Hammer."
No long chant this time. With a single phrase, a colossal block of ice materialized directly above me and plummeted.
"Accel!"
I burned the command again, darting away from the shadow of the falling hammer. But she wasn't done.
"Too slow!"
"Ice Spear Rain!"
The spears were longer and sharper than before—the same ones that had almost impaled me earlier. I used the slime to swat them aside while trying to calculate the distance.
She had her barriers, but I had a "cheat" of my own: the Spirit Command Direct Hit. It was an unfair ability that ignored defensive properties. The only downside was showing her that I could bypass her magic circles, but in a duel like this, there was no point in holding back.
I focused my mind and met her gaze.
"I'm ending this now."
"Ho? And what other 'hidden ball' are you going to throw at me?"
She spoke mockingly, but her stance was perfect, mana swirling around her in a protective shroud.
I navigated the Spatial Vault and selected a stun grenade. Unlike a standard flashbang, this was a specialized "silent" variant—designed to maximize luminosity while producing almost no sound.
"Hah!"
I exhaled sharply and lobbed the cylinder at her.
"What, this again? I told you, the same trick won't work twice—"
She moved to conjure another ice shield, but she was too late. The grenade detonated with a muffled pop, filling the courtyard with a light so blinding it felt like a sun had collapsed on the pavement.
"Tch! A flash?!"
If she had used an earthen shield, she might have been fine. But her ice shields were translucent. The light bypassed her defense and burned straight into her retinas.
…Granted, it blinded me too. I couldn't risk closing my eyes for even a second against her, so I had to take the hit. But unlike Eva, I was the one who threw it. I was prepared. And more importantly, I had Telekinesis to "sense" her position even without sight.
"!?"
Total white-out. My vision was gone, but I didn't care. I tracked her presence through the mental tether of my telekinesis and lunged through the light.
"Direct Hit."
I activated the command. My right hand shot forward, passing through her flickering magic barrier as if it weren't there at all. My fingers locked around her throat.
"Ghk!"
I still couldn't see, but the muffled gasp was unmistakably hers.
However… I felt something cold and sharp pressing against the soft skin of my own neck.
"A draw, then?" I asked.
"…So it seems," Eva replied, her voice sounding a bit disgruntled.
A few seconds passed before the spots cleared from my eyes and the world came back into focus.
My right hand was clamped firmly around Eva's throat, ready to squeeze. At the same time, Eva's right hand had manifested a blade of pure magical energy—a beam sword of sorts—pointed directly at my jugular.
Name: Axel Almer
LV: 38
PP: 625
Melee: 262 | Ranged: 282 | Skill: 272 | Defense: 272 | Evasion: 302 | Accuracy: 322
SP: 462
Ace Bonus: SP Boost (Consumes SP to increase Slime performance)
Growth Type: All-rounder/Special
Terrain: Air: S | Ground: S | Water: S | Space: S
Spirit Commands:
Accel (4 SP)
Effort (8 SP)
Focus (16 SP)
Direct Hit (30 SP)
Awakening (32 SP)
Love (48 SP)
Skills:
EXP Up
SP Boost (SP Up Lv.9, SP Regen, Concentration)
Telekinesis LV.10
Attacker
Gunfight LV.9
Infight LV.9
Morale Limit Break
Geass (Gray)
Magic (Fire)
Magic (Shadow)
Magic (Summoning)
???
???
Kills: 376
-------------------------------
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