60 Experimenting
Miranda saw that Eren had retrieved his Tachi from his storage and knew the guy was not interested in talking anymore. She drew her water-element spear and swung it at her a few more times before assuming a natural state.
“Come.”
She said to Eren while being surrounded by waves of water circling her like a controlled typhoon. And in response, the position where Eren produced the chirping sounds of blue lightning.
Blitz Steps.
Eren used his movement spell and left tongues of lightning dancing around in his previous position. He approached Miranda at breakneck speeds while gripping his sword.
Blitz Wave.
The rookie imbued his mana into his Tachi and cast his weapon spell. He swung the blade in front of him and the runic inscriptions on the blade’s inscriptions lit up before sending a crescent-moon-shaped flying blade attack in the direction of Miranda.
He then changed his position midway using his movement spell and attacked her using the same move before repeating the same process. All this happened within a few seconds of Eren drawing his katana. He wanted to overwhelm the knight with the speed that his element had granted him.
Plus, he had a natural advantage over someone with water-element affinity. Or so he thought.
Miranda had a mild smile on her face as she kept track of Eren’s movement using all her senses. She raised her hands and started casting her spells.
First, a wall of water was created around her that was shaped at the same height as her. The defensive spell was just finished getting cast when Eren’s flying blade attack zeroed in on her. The water wall effectively took care of the lightning-element mana by sending it to the ground.
The water element rankers usually find it difficult to battle against someone with lightning elements because the spells of the two elements just bode well with each other. But the lightning was more destructive while the water acted as its ideal conductor.
The defensive spells created using water elements were unable to completely stop lightning-element spells. Especially if the attacks were based on a compressed form of lightning, instead of its wild streaks-like form.
And yet, Miranda had almost nullified all of Eren’s attacks effectively. The lightning-element mana did make it past the ultra-responsive wall that was covering her from seemingly all sides when it needed to. The wild mana that was compressed into the blade attack expanded, and Miranda’s water spell lost a significant volume of water.
Miranda was surprised when she observed Eren had mastered his weapon spell so much in such a short time. The mastery of his movement spell wasn’t something to be scoffed at either.
However, Miranda was close to the rank of Awakened. This much firepower wasn’t enough to make her reconsider her stance. She zeroed in on Eren with keen interest as he approached her fearlessly.
Eren’s visage was surrounded by tongues of blue lightning as he found himself a few meters away from Miranda. Before he could close the distance anymore, a spear slash was aimed in his path.
Miranda swung her spear around her in an artistic manner. She cast her weapon spell while she was at it. From each swing, spears made from the water element mana were released. These spears were of the same size and shape as her weapon. They would each assume a different position around her that was respected to the position of her Rank 1 artifact when she was swinging it around her.
Eren cast his weapon spells around him as well to counter the incoming spears that were closing in on him. One had to say his in-battle presence was top-notch considering he was a novice to the whole thing.
Swish. Swish. Boom.
The water element spears and lightning element flying blades met with each other all around Eren and the mana in them was detonated by their casters. The lightning dispersed and the water was just displaced. Some of the water was zapped away by lightning as steam. Despite this, a large amount of water remained and was once again able to make spears around Eren.
‘This…’
Eren could feel that what Miranda had pulled off wasn’t a spell but something her elemental attainment had granted her. The ability to control her element even after the spell was cast and destroyed.
Eren didn’t have much time to think about it and changed his strategy. Miranda was difficult to approach since so much water swirled around her, ready to take the shape of spears before attacking him at any moment.
Battlemage wasn’t supposed to purely stick to close combat fights though. The class also supported the incorporation of mid-range spells.
Eren put his sword into his storage and took out another weapon. A runic crossbow is meant to be used by lightning element rankers.
‘This guy is going to water his potential as a close combat expert at this point.’
Miranda sighed as she watched Eren retrieve a crossbow. She had told him that he was proficient at close range so he should stick to the class of close combat experts. But he wouldn’t listen.
Eren gripped his crossbow before imbuing it with his mana. Three lightning-shaped arrows were formed right where the loading bay was. They were ready to let loose at the trigger’s behest.
Aim. Shoot. Bzzt.
Eren shot a series of arrows at Miranda before jumping high in the air using his movement spell. As he felt weightless in the sky, he adjusted himself and took a shot at Miranda from a new altitude.
Eren smiled wickedly before retrieving the Rank 1 artifact that he had received from the guild on credit. He then used his mana circuits to cast a different spell for himself.
A bolt of lightning appeared in front of him that buzzed with tongues of wild electric current. This blue bolt of lightning did not consume as much mana as his flying blade attack. But what it lacked in density, it made up for in speed.
As Eren grabbed the lightning bolt with his bare hands, he tightened his grip around it, feeling that it was semi-solid. He then took another aim at Miranda before hurling the spell toward her.
Solid Spark.
Eren felt that the spell’s name was misleading since it wasn’t as solid as he thought it to be. But that didn’t stop him from checking out the effects of his spell that zeroed in on Miranda following the series of arrows that were about to collide with her near-impregnable defensive spell.
This time, Miranda was overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacks aimed at her. She was astounded at Eren’s combat style, which essentially said “fuck you” to the usual rankers’ norm of keeping mana consumption in check.
He acted like there was infinite mana to back him up and sustain his reckless use of spells. Her defensive spell couldn’t keep up with Eren’s attack. She managed to block the arrows.
However, Solid Spark penetrated her defensive spell and came out of the other side before hitting her in the right shoulder.
“Aaaargh!”
Miranda was pushed back from her stance as her body was invaded by Eren’s lightning mana. Her mana defense had been breached from the Solid Spark’s point of contact with her body, enabling Eren’s spell to inflict damage on her.
A first direct hit.
The captain had to send her mana circuits into hyperdrive to prevent Eren’s mana from doing any more damage to her. As a result, her rosy skin had turned red and her expressions told onlookers that she was annoyed.
Miranda was only playing defensive at this point. The spears she had aimed at Eren when he had gotten close were only meant to warn him against the idea of engaging in close combat with her.
However, now that Eren had rubbed Miranda the wrong way, she had decided to respond in kind. At this point, his test was already cleared. Even with his reckless use of spells that didn’t work with each other, the guy had immense raw battle talent.
Miranda had come to realize that Eren was also experimenting at this point. He was trying to use her as a litmus paper to test various combos he had in his mind. He’d get better as he refined his battle style.
Passing the test didn’t mean the end of the duel though. Miranda needed to make sure Eren understood who was the captain of the team. She geared up to overwhelm him with her potent offensive spells.
Unbeknownst to Eren, there was someone else in the audience booth who was rooting for him to hold his ground for two more minutes.
Elapsed time since the battle started– 1 minute.