The layer of fine dust and frost I created began to thin out, no longer as dense as before. The phase interference I maintained also gradually weakened according to the law of conservation of energy.
On the opposite side, I saw Kanade blinking continuously, her pupils gradually regaining focus. Her cognitive system was rebooting after the sensory overload shock.
"I can finally see..." I heard her whisper, her voice still trembling slightly from the aftershocks of the flashbang.
The exact moment her gaze touched my silhouette gradually becoming clear behind the mist, I knew the timing for the psychological finishing blow had arrived.
Without wasting a second to chant, I focused ice-element mana to the tip of my finger.
One-star magic: Ice Arrow.
Instead of creating a standard arrow like magic textbooks usually taught, I deeply intervened in its crystal structure. I tightly compressed the water molecules, creating an incredibly dense ice arrow with an extremely high light refractive index and a perfectly polished surface, as smooth as an expensive crystal prism. It wasn't designed to pierce Kanade's shield, but to serve a singular optical purpose.
The moment the real arrow took shape, I activated the decisive phase of the plan.
The scene right now was an ideal physics laboratory: the dense hovering water vapor and the residual heat from the small fires on the training ground created a distinct temperature differential in the air.
I manipulated a microscopic amount of water-element mana, adjusting the density of the water vapor layers around the real arrow, turning the space ahead into a complex system of lenses and reflecting mirrors. By utilizing the ambient basic magical light, I triggered a complex mirage phenomenon right in the middle of the training ground.
But I did not flick my finger to launch it.
Instead, I held the real ice arrow hovering silently right above my palm. Bending my knees slightly, lowering my center of gravity to the absolute minimum to reduce my body's cross-sectional area, I kicked hard off the ground, turning myself into a living arrow darting straight toward Kanade.
Through the aerial lens system I had just established, the image of the single ice arrow in my hand was continuously refracted and underwent total internal reflection into the air.
In Kanade's newly recovered vision, a terrifying scene unfolded. Behind the hazy mist, dozens, then hundreds of sparkling, sharp ice arrows suddenly appeared, filling the entire space, forming a rain of death aimed straight at her. The glitter of hundreds of mirage prisms struck her vision hard, completely overwhelming the psychology of a mage who had just experienced blindness.
Kanade's eyes widened to their limits, her eyelashes trembling violently. She looked up at the empty space overflowing with that fabricated killing intent, unconsciously letting out a cry of despair:
"How could he... without any chanting... this massive amount of magic..."
Panic and survival instincts had deceived her. Kanade focused all her concentration, vision, and mana upward into the air to prepare to counter an ice rain that did not exist.
And because she was too focused on the magnificent mirages above, she completely failed to notice the most dangerous variable. I, along with the only real arrow, was silently tearing through the wind approaching her at a low altitude, the distance between us shortening to a matter of footsteps.
In the moment of facing what Kanade believed to be the "rain of death" pouring down from above, her survival instincts immediately and completely overrode her rationality.
"Oh sturdy fortress of wind and fire, protect me... Aegis Shield!"
Kanade hastily blurted out the disjointed incantation. A massive volume of mana erupted from her core, condensing into an incredibly dense and solid, hazy arc-shaped shield of light (similar to the magic shield Sebastian used to test Zero, but with some differences), blocking the line of sight right above her head—where she firmly believed hundreds of ice arrows were about to collide.
According to the most basic anatomical reflex when preparing to receive an extremely strong impact force from the front, a human's center of gravity will automatically lower. Kanade bit her lip, tensed all her muscles, and forcefully took a long step backward with her right foot to create a solid base, bracing for the explosive collision.
That was exactly the reaction a physical system had calculated.
In mechanics, to maintain balance while tensing up to create an anchor force, the body relies entirely on static friction between the contact surface and the shoe sole. If that coefficient of friction is abruptly nullified, the reactive force generated by the body itself will turn into a pushing force that knocks the subject over.
Waiting precisely for the moment Kanade's heel was about to stomp onto the ground, I glided in at a low altitude, completely escaping her upward-directed line of sight. With a slight twist of my wrist, I plunged the single, real ice arrow in my hand straight down into the gray dirt ground right beneath her right foot, simultaneously releasing a small additional amount of water-element mana.
The arrow immediately shattered. Water and sub-zero temperatures spread in the blink of an eye, laying out an incredibly thin, perfectly smooth, and transparent layer of ice on the ground in just a tenth of a second.
Kanade's right foot stomped hard onto the ground to anchor herself. But instead of the usual rough surface, the sole of her shoe stepped onto an absolutely frictionless surface. The friction force was reduced to zero.
The bracing force channeled into her own leg immediately backfired. Her anchoring foot slipped along the thin layer of ice at an uncontrollable velocity. Her body's center of gravity was abruptly broken, and the massive magic shield above, losing its energy supply, immediately flickered and shattered into shards of hazy light. At the same time, the entire "rain of ice arrows" above also vanished into nothingness as the mirage mist was torn apart.
"Ah...!"
Kanade let out a panicked, startled cry. Her lemon-green eyes widened in shock as she realized the sky was empty, with no arrows raining down. Her entire body completely lost its balance, staggering and collapsing backward, exposing all her weak points.
Kanade's body fell backward, completely losing its fulcrum. The free-fall trajectory was established, and with this acceleration, her back and head violently slamming into the hard ground was inevitable.
But I did not let that happen. The empirical test had yielded satisfactory results, and there was no reason for me to injure a lady, my precious academic assistant.
Utilizing my forward gliding momentum, I closed in on her in just the blink of an eye. My mana core might be weak, but the agility and kinetic energy control of this physical machine were astonishingly perfect.
I reached out my left arm, decisively wrapping it around Kanade's slender waist, using just enough mechanical force to brake her entire falling inertia. My hand held her firmly, creating a solid fulcrum in mid-air. At the same time, my right hand swung up slightly. The wooden training blade tore through the wind, then stopped silently, exactly a few millimeters away from her pristine white neck.
All movement in the training ground seemed to freeze at that very moment.
The space returned to silence, the mist and mirages had completely dissipated, leaving only the sound of Kanade's rapid, heavy panting. Her eyes widened to their limits, looking up at me with extreme bewilderment. In the depths of those eyes was an intense turmoil: the remnants of fear from the mirage "rain of death", the shock of realizing she had been completely deceived, and the fluster as the distance between us right now was closer than ever.
The wooden blade pressed near her neck was proof of absolute tactical dominance. Yet, the arm firmly wrapping around her waist, saving her from a painful fall, brought a strangely protective and safe feeling.
"It seems I have won this sparring match, Kanade."
My words acted like a switch, waking Kanade from her daze. Her sensory system seemed to have just undergone a full reboot. Her eyes blinked continuously, her pupils dilating as she became aware of reality: the physical distance between us right now was a round zero. My arm was still tightly holding her waist, our faces so close that our breaths almost mingled.
In a split second, a surge of heat rushed straight to her face, making Kanade's cheeks as red as a ripe tomato. Her heart beat so erratically that I could clearly feel the vibrations transmitting through my shirt. Even the tail behind her back jerked up and immediately puffed out its fur as if electrified.
Forgetting all about magical defenses, forgetting even the wooden blade pressed near her neck, Kanade frantically brought both hands up to cover her burning face.
"KYAAAAAAAAAA!"
A high-frequency scream of a young maiden echoed throughout the enclosed training area, marking the perfect conclusion to my first practical combat data test.
End of Chapter 16.3