Even if I spoke with all that confidence before... this is going to be difficult.
Ai might be strong, but Akane is even more so. She casts spells at an incredibly fast speed, and that's with a full chant. Just imagine if she was able to cast without a chant... that might lower the straight power, but the speed alone would be unbeatable. At that point, she might be comparable to someone casting multiple spells at once. I wouldn't even be surprised if she could do that, too...
"Fine, if you can dodge my spells so well..." She took a step to the left, looking towards me, "Wind Magic: Wind Cutter!"
Wait, she's sending that spell at me? Really? But... why? I mean, I get it, actually. As long as I am here, she'll have to worry about two people.
Oh, shoot, I don't have time to worry about that! Oh, gods, I'm not fast enough to get out of the way... what am I supposed to do? Ai probably won't help me, she'll just use this to attack her once again...
But... despite what I thought would happen...
"Earth Magic: Earth Wall."
Appearing in front of me was a wall of the ground of which defended me against the wrath of the spell... oh, she actually defended me. I really didn't expect that... she seemed heartless and all. No, no, she probably just saw me as an asset-- oh, wait, she said she didn't want my help... weird.
"Damn it... Fine, sure, just know that you forced my hand!" She took a deep breath, standing still inside the barrier she created, "Third time today... this is okay... Summoning Magic: Middle-Spirit of the Wind, Vernix Eagle."
She seemed desperate, I guess she's now using her ace in the hole... behind her appeared a huge eagle made up of concentrated wind mana. I've done some research into how summoning magic truly works and seeing how she has summoned it multiple times today, it must be putting a huge toll on her body... is she really that determined to win?
"Look, this really isn't anything personal! I'm going to win this because I don't want to do any extra work!"
Don't... want to do any work? That's a surprisingly simple reason... what does that even mean? It just... makes me curious who these three are, I guess.
"With this barrier protecting me, I won't have to worry about my own spells affecting me..." She wiped some of her hair out of her eyes, focusing a huge amount of mana around her, "Fire Magic: Flame Perimeter!"
Coming from around the barrier in all directions was a tall wave of fire, at an astounding speed.
Ai quickly rushed towards me, or really, the wall of stone she created in front of me.
The flames collided with the wall, seemingly melting some of it... whoa, what? She melted stone? That fire must be incredibly hot...
Wait, hold up, That's not the most strange thing here! She's using fire magic too? That's three attributes... wind, fire, and summoning. Is she an elf or something? I've heard that they can use three separate attributes... no, first of all, she's definitely not an elf. Her ears not being pointed is what easily clued me into that. And, then there are the fact elves will never have two attributes from the same two basic categories.
So, what's really going on here? Just who is she really? With her strength in magic, she almost seems otherwordly...
There's no time to think about that, she'll do something in the meantime...
"Fine! Fire Magic: Flame Perimeter Reversal!" Before the spell disappeared, she regained full control of it, changing its direction right back at us.
Huh? You can seriously do that? That's actually a notably good idea... Manipulating a spell after you cast it, chanting once again. With that, you can keep complete control over the spell... that's actually genius! I've always had a problem keeping control over my spells, but by doing that-- I, I could properly cast spells enhanced with Focus Mana!
Oh, right, the flames.
Ai doesn't have enough time to cast another earth wall spell, I'm sure of that. She takes an above-average amount of time to chant. I think this is probably because Larfus is most likely not her original language since she's a beastman. Why she doesn't cast in the beastman tongue, I don't know.
But, can I even cast a water spell fast enough? A chant wouldn't be fast enough, no...
I could skip the chant, visualization and everything...
Mana is the basis of all magic, and a chant exists to improve the visualization of a spell in order to form that mana into a spell of your attribute.
So, to cast a spell without a chant is to be able to visualize something completely without affirmation with words, and to then have an ability to control mana with notable skill.
The basics, fundamentals... water. Visualize water... a large guard, defending against the flames. Water is calm... like a serene lake. See specifically a wall of water, thick enough to protect against the boiling flames.
Okay`, and now make that a reality! Form the water mana into a large wall of water, and condense that water even more! Put just enough mana into the water to properly protect against the flames, so that nobody will be hurt!
Wait, whoa! I did it! Without a chant, and just in time, too! Any moment later and we might be burned to ashes! The water, despite most of it being turned to steam, it just barely quenched the fire opposing us.
"You didn't chant..." Ai seemed surprised, but her expression barely changed all the same, "but I could have easily cast another wall."
Right... of course, she's not thankful, I should have guessed...
"But... thank you..." She spoke, sighing at herself.
Oh, I really didn't expect that! She's actually thanking me? She didn't seem the type to even think of thanking anybody for anything...
"Oh, um... you're welcome, I guess!" I accidentally spoke like I was a bit frantic... which I admit, I maybe was.
"I have an idea. I might need your help, maybe. Just a bit, though..." She seemed a bit annoyed saying that, "But, first, Enhancement Magic: Magic Sense Surplus."
She cast an enhancement spell... on a skill? I've heard it's possible, but it's surprising nonetheless. With that spell, the range of her mana sense must have grown. Maybe she cast it to keep track of Akane?
"That proves it... I need you to act as a distraction."
A... a what? I need to act as a distraction? Really? Oh, that face... she's being completely serious.
"Just cast a few water spells or whatever you wanna do, all you have to do is distract her. I only have enough mana left to cast one more spell, so I need it to count." She glared at me, although, that wasn't anything new.
"Alright, alright..." I nodded, and with that, she lept out of the defence of the wall of stone, and I did the same in the other directions.
"Damn it! Just lose already!" She shouted out, keeping her focus on Ai instead of me... the direct opposite of what we need for whatever plan Ai has.
"Water Magic: Water Ball!" I cast a few water ball spells, sending them at her in succession. I do want to try out Chantless Casting a bit more, but that can wait until later.
The water doesn't even make contact with the barrier, losing all momentum and falling to the floor as the wind pushed it away.
She shifted her attention back on me, "That won't even do anything! Just shooting water at me is literally useless, it won't do anything!" Shouting at me, she shifted her gaze towards me.
Alright, that's good! Despite the situation, a slight smile escaped my face.
"Smiling...? Why-- huh? Where's the beastman girl?" She seemed panicked, attempting to turn around to find her...
However, she was too slow.
"Earth Magic: Earth's Skewers." Directly behind Akane, maybe just out of her Mana Sense range, was Ai, in the middle of casting a spell, one that was sure to lead to our victory!
From the ground directly underneath Akane appeared sharpened pillars of stone, ending up between her limbs, completely limiting all movement of escape she could make.
Wait, how? A barrier spell will usually work by first creating a shape of your choosing out of a certain attribute of mana, reinforcing it so that it can protect well. Then, inside of the barrier, there'll be mana of your attribute inside, not allowing any spells to be cast inside of it, aside from the caster themself.
"It was difficult to tell while also trying to get close to you, but I realized it after you gave us time to think. After all these battles, you're probably low on mana. You weren't able to recover nearly enough mana to properly fight at your full capabilities, which is why you needed to cut back on certain aspects of spells. That's why you didn't have any wind mana trapped of your barrier, allowing for me easily to cast a spell inside of your 'barrier'." Ai proceeded to explain exactly why she lost, a bit frighteningly so, too...
"I'm assuming you didn't attack us while we were coming up with a plan protected by that earth wall was so that you could take a breather, giving you enough time to recover some mana. However, that action was your worst move. I might not have realized it wasn't a real barrier rather than a bluff, and you could have still won. A bluff only works if you don't give your opponent time to think about its possibilities."
Oh, geez, Ai is even smarter than I thought. She realized all of that while we were at that stone wall? But, it makes sense... she was hurt pretty badly in the last round, too.
"Damn it... I even used two of my trump cards... what a pain, seriously..."
"Oh! And in a sudden twist of the tides of battle, the two members of Dest team come out victorious! Looks like Akane is now out, return back to the waiting room, wouldn't you?" The announcer spoke, speaking of Akane's loss...
Wait, we won! We actually did it!! I can't believe this, we actually did it!
-Side Chapter, end-