Magic Knight vs. Mage

Afternoon. The break ended and Round One resumed.

Match Five.

Entering the arena were a mage who looked every bit the part and Alexia with her battleaxe.

Alexia stretched her whole body with the battleaxe in hand, as if to say she'd been kept waiting long enough.

Her battle dress left rather more skin exposed than was modest, drawing stares from the men in the crowd.

The pointy-hatted mage held a large tome in his right hand.

Yaafan, a wandering mage.

A youth… closer to a boy, really.

But with mages, appearance was no measure of age.

The referee declared the match open.

As if Alexia would charge headlong at a mage with her battleaxe… of course not.

Both sides began chanting the moment the match started.

Alexia chose fire magic, bolstered by her fire brooch's enhancement.

Yaafan chose lightning.

Red light swelled around Alexia as she wove her incantation, while crackling purple electricity enveloped Yaafan.

Both selected mid-tier spells.

Powerful, fast to cast, and easy to land.

A practical choice.

Alexia wove wind into her fire spell.

This dramatically widened the area of effect.

She'd fully mastered the technique she'd gained during the prelims.

Alexia leveled her battleaxe at Yaafan.

She was certain her spell would overwhelm his.

"Burn Storm!"

"Energy Bolt!"

Their incantations finished simultaneously.

A firestorm surged toward Yaafan.

Yaafan's lightning discharged all at once within the firestorm, annihilating roughly half of it.

But at that point its magic power was spent, and the lightning vanished.

The remaining firestorm engulfed Yaafan.

"Compound-element magic, huh."

With that murmur, Yaafan gripped the spine of his tome and, unbelievably, swung the book into the firestorm like a club.

Water magic erupted from the point of impact, carving away the flames.

No incantation from Yaafan. Not even a trace of one.

Magic simply triggered with each swing of the book.

Once the firestorm was mostly extinguished, Yaafan faced Alexia.

"… My, how unusual."

Auto-Spell.

The concept of automatic magic.

Similar to magic tools that used magic stones.

He'd sealed spells inside the book and triggered them by will alone.

If Yaafan hadn't found that book but made it himself, then he was an exceptionally skilled magic tool craftsman.

From what Alexia could tell, Yaafan had only spent the mana for his lightning spell.

The water magic that snuffed the firestorm hadn't cost him anything.

How many spells and how much mana were packed into that book?

Alexia readied a probing spell while studying the tome.

"Heh, not surprised? Did you watch my prelim match?"

"Hardly. It simply isn't surprising enough to warrant a reaction."

"That so? Then maybe I'll have to surprise you."

Yaafan opened the book.

Magic circles deployed on their own, spells activating automatically.

While the book ran its magic, Yaafan himself began a separate incantation.

This was different from the technique Alexia had picked up in the prelims.

These were independently prepared spells.

It effectively doubled the number of mages on the field.

Alexia canceled her probing spell and began chanting a wall of fire.

Lightning from Yaafan and water from the book fired simultaneously. Alexia tried to hold them back with her firewall.

But a single firewall, enhanced or not, was too weak against two spells at once.

It did buy her a sliver of time.

Alexia wreathed her battleaxe in fire magic and swatted aside the two spells that broke through the wall.

She managed to cancel them out, but the impact forced her back.

"Well done. A magic sword… no, a magic axe, I suppose. Powerful, but it has its drawbacks. Though I needn't tell you that."

Enchanting a weapon with magic drained mana continuously.

Casting separate spells at the same time was possible but burned through reserves even faster.

"Well, I'm not a mage by trade, after all."

Alexia swept her hair back with a flick.

Her true calling was that of a knight.

She had a talent for magic and had studied it because it was useful in combat. Nothing more.

She'd been operating primarily as a mage at her Master's direction.

For party balance, he'd said.

Still, it had served as excellent magical training.

And she'd confirmed how well she could hold her own against a real mage.

But winning this fight purely as a mage would be an uphill battle.

Then she'd fight as a knight.

"Right then. Here I come."

She spun the fire-enchanted battleaxe overhead.

Flames traced a circle, the flashy display seizing every eye in the arena.

Then she swung the axe forward, hurling that ring of fire straight at Yaafan.

At the same time, Alexia charged.

The axe's weight might as well have been nothing to her.

Yaafan chose to dodge.

He boosted himself with lightning magic, whipping around to Alexia's flank.

But the ring of fire tracked him.

Yaafan opened the book again and deployed a spell to deal with the flames.

Water magic collided with the fire ring, producing a massive burst of steam.

Even with visibility ruined, Alexia closed the gap without hesitation.

Yaafan drew an iron staff from inside his coat and channeled lightning magic into it.

He caught Alexia's descending battleaxe on the staff.

Even with body reinforcement magic, Yaafan barely managed to hold.

"Allow me to return the compliment."

"Graciously… accepted."

Yaafan forced the words out.

Every time Alexia pressed forward a step, Yaafan was driven back one.

A mage winning in close combat against a knight, former or otherwise, was a tall order.

But Yaafan smiled.

"Quite the dripping beauty, aren't you."

Having charged through the steam, Alexia was soaked. Her dress clung to her body.

And Yaafan's specialty was lightning magic.

He released the lightning stored in the staff.

"I saw that coming."

At the same instant, the fire magic sealed in Alexia's axe was unleashed.