漫画大王

Chapter 311 [Illustration]

This was a new magical system that combined rune magic and scroll magic with the human body. Louis Ankton, who had come up with the initial concept, had been skeptical.

Magic had evolved, after all, and runes were considered primitive.

Abandoning advanced systems and reverting to an ancient magical language in order to implement modern magic seemed highly inefficient. It required reinterpreting and reverse-engineering modern magic into runes, which necessitated a deep understanding of runes.

However, Harriet could do that. The Grand Duke of Saint-Ouen had emphasized the importance of runes from a very young age, so Harriet had a deep understanding of runes, even if she wasn’t a lifelong scholar.

To make sure it worked, Harriet would also have to memorize a vast array of rune formulas and learn to activate or rearrange them as needed, but she could do that too. Memorizing was exceedingly easy for her.

In this new system, Harriet’s body now performed most of the practical tasks required for Mana Manipulation after Magical Computation instead of her mind. All she needed was to memorize the combinations of runes for various spells.

Her body was essentially a magic scroll that could be used indefinitely as long as her mana permitted it. Therefore, while Harriet didn’t have the supernatural ability of No-Casting, she had acquired a similar capability comparable to Rudina’s.

.

.

Rumble...

The bout had yet to be declared in Harriet’s favor, which meant Olivia had not given up or been considered incapacitated yet.

Harriet stretched her hand out through the thick smoke rising from the ruins of the arena floor.

Blue mana lines formed in the shape of runes along Harriet’s right arm. The larger the scale of the magic, the more extensive the mana lines that covered her body.

At this moment, runes glowed across the entirety of Harriet’s upper and lower right arm.

Rumble...

The magic, reconstituted and activated through runes, was a spell called Thunder.

Instead of a mere electric shock, she intended to finish off her opponent with a thunderbolt that struck from the sky. As sudden darkness enveloped the previously clear sky, the crowd began to murmur.

Flash!

A streak of lightning struck the arena.

BOOM!

The thunderbolt superheated the air around it, sending out a massive shock wave that shook the entire arena. Complete silence followed the massive lightning strike.

“...”

“Hah...”

Harriet smiled as she saw Olivia emerge from the debris. Although the outcome had yet to be decided, she was confident she had landed a significant blow.

Olivia Lanche, battered and bruised, emerged from the wreckage of the arena.

“This is... really pissing me off...” Olivia said.

Harriet had managed to land a hit, but it didn’t change the fact that Olivia Lanche was a monster.

The fact that she hadn’t been recalled by the artifact meant she had withstood both Flame Strike and Thunderbolt with just her bare body.

Flame Strike was a large-scale destructive spell, and Thunderbolt, despite having a smaller area of effect, was still a powerful anti-personnel attack.

Yet Olivia had endured both.

The audience was in shock, unable to believe not just that someone in this tournament could cast such high-level destructive magic, but that there was also someone who could withstand it with just their bare body.

The smile had vanished from Olivia’s face. Clearly, the time for playing around was over.

Mana lines began to appear on Harriet’s right and left arms again, hidden under her sleeves.

The arena was in ruins, and the concept of out-of-bounds had lost its meaning. Harriet would lose if she allowed even a single attack to land, while Olivia Lanche would lose if her impenetrable Mana Reinforcement barrier was broken.

The condition of the arena favored Harriet, since the uneven ground made it difficult for Olivia, who needed to get close, to move.

However, such mundane concerns did not affect Olivia. She leaped across the uneven ground, approaching Harriet without missing a step. Of course, Harriet, who had done something unprecedented by engraving magic onto her body, was hardly ordinary either.

Harriet cast a spell aimed at the debris on the arena floor where Olivia was about to land. The spell was a simple Psychokinesis spell—in other words, telekinesis.

Thud!

With a dull sound, the rock Olivia was about to step on suddenly flew to the right.

Her foothold had suddenly disappeared.

Thud!

“Argh!”

Olivia, having lost her footing, stumbled and fell.

In the midst of such an intense battle, suddenly losing one’s footing and falling was critical. However, Olivia’s exaggerated forward tumble was so comical that it was unexpectedly humorous to watch.

“Pfft!”

Instead of casting an offensive spell, Harriet laughed at the sight of Olivia stumbling.

“Wow... just wow...”

As Olivia staggered to her feet, she looked at Harriet, who was smirking at her. She had never imagined she would be subjected to such ridicule by a mere child... By a mere mage.

“This is really... really infuriating...”

A dark fire ignited in Olivia’s heart. With veins bulging on her neck and forehead, she gritted her teeth and approached Harriet once more, this time with caution. The childish trick had caught her off-guard the first time; the same trick wouldn’t work again.

Being cautious in her approach would be enough to avoid another miscalculation. Olivia lunged at Harriet, but Harriet vanished using short-range teleportation.

However, the moment Harriet reappeared, she found herself looking at a flying rock.

She was too late.

There wasn’t even a brief moment to cast a protective spell.

Swish!

Harriet didn’t dodge the rock because of her quick reflexes; it missed her purely because its trajectory had been slightly off. The rock flew through the air with such force that it would have killed an ordinary person if it had hit them.

“Missed,” Olivia said, clicking her tongue in disappointment.

She had known that Harriet would escape using short-range teleportation when approached, and so she had thrown the rock the moment Harriet teleported. Fortunately or unfortunately, the distance had been too great for her aim to be pinpoint accurate.

Harriet felt a chill run down her spine. Olivia was adapting to her patterns of attack and evasion and finding ways to counter them. She had been ready to snipe her with a rock the moment she’d teleported. Next time, she wouldn’t miss.

This was her last chance.

She had already used many powerful spells, and was low on mana.

“You seem to be running out of mana,” Olivia noted, aware of Harriet’s condition.

Thud!

As Olivia advanced, Harriet chose to use the terrain around her rather than strike with offensive spells. She used telekinesis to lift debris from the arena floor and hurl it at her opponent.

Bang! Crash!

The chunks of debris flew towards Olivia, but she dodged with ease, her movements fluid and unimpeded by the uneven ground. Harriet knew she had to act quickly. She couldn’t afford to waste any more mana or time.

With a determined look, Harriet began to prepare her final spell, knowing that this was her last opportunity to turn the tide of the battle.

Olivia smashed through the debris, which was as solid as rocks, advancing relentlessly.

Ellen had used her divine sword Lament to break through walls and cut down doors, but Olivia Lanche was doing it with her bare hands.

There was a limit to how many fragments of the arena Harriet could throw at the ever-approaching Olivia. But Harriet continued to hurl debris, as if it were her only option, while Olivia shattered them and pressed forward. The arena began to be covered in a cloud of dust.

When Olivia reached Harriet’s position, Harriet used Blink to escape again, causing Olivia to grit her teeth in frustration.

“How annoying.”

Olivia found her vision obscured by the dust cloud. This had probably been Harriet’s plan all along. In such conditions, it was impossible to determine where Harriet had teleported to. The dust also made it difficult for the audience to follow the action.

Olivial let out a sigh. Suddenly, the blue mana enveloping Olivia’s body flared up explosively.

BOOM!

Just like when Sabioleen Tana had fought the darkness-imbued Charlotte, the mana shockwave exploded, instantly clearing away the dust.

Olivia blew away the dust like it was fog, and once again, she spotted Harriet on the opposite side of the arena.

The arena was now beyond a mess; it had been practically obliterated.

“Nothing left to throw?”

From Olivia’s perspective, Harriet seemed exhausted, barely managing to teleport and only able to launch feeble attacks using telekinesis.

However, Olivia had shattered all the large pieces of debris, leaving only small stones lying about.

The window for using short-range teleportation and dust-raising tricks was over. She had spent too much time dealing with this little mage.

“There’s no need to throw anything anymore,” Harriet said, smiling. “I’ve already thrown everything I’ve needed to.”

“... What?”

‘“Thrown everything”? What did she mean?’

Only then did Olivia notice the stones embedded around her, fixed in place despite the mana shockwave. They should have been blown away, but had somehow remained in place.

Olivia saw it. The scattered fragments and stones were laid out in a peculiar pattern. She couldn’t fully understand what it was, but there was an undeniable, strange regularity to it.

“My mana is almost depleted, but I don’t need to use my mana for this,” Harriet said.

Harriet had thrown the fragments and arranged them around Olivia without her noticing, and she was going to harness the natural mana in her surroundings. Reinhart had told her to figure it out, but Harriet still didn’t know how to do that. However, there was a way to tap into natural mana—through the form of a magic circle.

Magic circles were used in various ways, and large-scale magic circles often drew mana from nature, though they could also be fueled by mana stones.

In that brief moment, Harriet had accomplished the monumental task of setting up a magic circle in the arena.

Whoooom...

“Damn it...!”

Olivia watched in disbelief as the magic circle, which spanned an extensive area, began to activate.

“I’ve won,” Harriet declared with a smile.

The magic circle Harriet had set up formed a complete array. It glowed blue, and the spell activated. The spell was Inferno, a fire-based destructive magic spell that was even more destructive than Flame Strike. Its area-of-effect was so large that there was no escaping it.

Olivia realized she was doomed. As the crimson flames began to surge beneath her feet, she cried out in dismay, “You...! Just wait and see!”

“The person who says ‘just wait and see’ is the least scary!” Harriet retorted.

Their exchange seemed overly childish for the conclusion of such a meticulous and intense battle.

BOOM!

The hellish flames engulfed Olivia and shot skyward. This time, Olivia couldn’t withstand the magic.

The announcer’s voice rang out through the stadium.

—H-Harriet de Saint-Ouen takes the second set!

The audience stared in awe at the terrifying flames writhing like a serpent’s tongue towards the sky.

***

Harriet wasn’t accustomed to fighting, but she knew what was important in a battle: to keep as much information hidden as possible.

Harriet had concealed her trump card well. She had hidden her true capabilities and intentions, making it seem like throwing debris was her only remaining means of attack while secretly setting up a large-scale magic circle on the ground.

In the end, though, it was all a stroke of luck. Olivia had underestimated Harriet, and Harriet had skillfully employed deception. Moreover, Olivia had not used her Divine Power throughout the fight. She hadn’t summoned Tiamata either. If she had used her Divine Power, she might have survived Harriet’s final attack.

Ultimately, Olivia’s downfall had come from underestimating her opponent while being under numerous restrictions. Regardless of the outcome, the audience was thrilled to witness the most spectacular fight of the tournament so far.

The score was tied 1-1. Olivia would no longer be complacent.

The arena was restored with restoration magic, and Harriet and Olivia were re-summoned. Olivia glared at Harriet as if she would devour her on the spot. She wouldn’t be complacent, wouldn’t underestimate her, and wouldn’t fall for any more tricks.

Harriet looked at Olivia, who was waiting for the match to start, and raised her hand.

“I forfeit,” she announced.

Olivia’s face turned pale at those words, a natural reaction.

“No, no! You! Youuu! Don’t! Don’t forfeit!” Olivia shouted, her voice filled with frustration.

“I’m too tired to continue,” Harriet replied calmly.

She could not use the excuse of mana depletion. While Reinhart couldn’t recover from the condition caused by Mana Reinforcement, a mage could recuperate from a regular state of mana exhaustion by replenishing their mana from a standby mage using a mana replenishment spell like Siphon Mana.

The sudden declaration of forfeit took everyone by surprise.

“Uh... Um. Due to Harriet de Saint-Ouen’s forfeit, Olivia Lanche is declared the winner of the final match of Group C,” the announcer declared.

Naturally, no one could force a player to continue fighting if they chose not to.

“You...!! Don’t forfeit! I said don’t!” Olivia shouted, fuming, but Harriet had no intention of continuing the fight.

Harriet knew she couldn’t defeat Olivia.

“Just one more bout, one more! If you win the next one, I’ll forfeit and you can win!” Olivia pleaded.

“No, I don’t want to. Why should I do that? You’re not even good at fighting,” Harriet retorted.

“Aaaagh!”

Harriet’s goal had never been to defeat Olivia, but to ensure that she couldn’t be ignored.

Harriet had indeed succeeded in that.