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As she was holding her black greatsword aloft, Leone watched Weinsel’s movement. The moment she saw an opening, she would extend her sword and attack!

「Huh, so it was more than a flying Gift!」

He leaped as he made that comment. He would be able to dodge the blizzard with that leap… but that move seemed a bit too careless to Leone. If he jumped that high, he wouldn’t be able to change his posture in the air!

Now!

He shouldn’t know about Leone’s Gift yet!

「Take that!」

Leone swung down her greatsword diagonally. When she did, the blade of the sword was extended, bringing Weinsel well within her sword’s range at once.

「I see! So you won’t miss any openings! However…」

Weinsel then made a strange movement, bashing his sabatons together in the air. At first, it seemed like a futile evasive maneuver, but it wasn’t.

As if on cue, a black and red patterned horse of magnificent stature appeared directly beneath Weinsel, crowning him on its back. It instantly leaped low and fast, out of the range of Leone’s sword.

「Sorry, it wasn’t an opening at all!」
「A horse from a Gift?!」

Leone saw that those sabatons were an Artifact and that the large black horse with a red pattern was something created by its Gift. It wasn’t unheard of, as Leon also used an Artifact that produced lightning beasts, but…

The lightning beasts were not a truly tangible entity, and yet that horse was clearly tangible and looked like a real, living being.

「Fire Horse Sleipnir! My beloved steed!」

Weinsel’s voice quickly grew louder, stronger, and closer.

The flaming horse rushed toward Leone at a tremendous speed, taking advantage of the opening she made by swinging her gargantuan sword.

The horse sported heavy-looking warhorse armor, and yet it barely affected its speed, if at all.

「—!」

There was no time to dodge to the side, the flaming horse was that fast. However, she had to avoid being hit by that charge at all costs! Leone pointed the tip of her sword to the ground.

「Extend!」

The instantly extended blade lifted Leone’s light body into the air, removing her from the path of the flaming horse’ rush.

The horse passed the spot where Leone was, and Leone would neatly land behind it, but before she did, a torrent of blue lightning bolted in front of her.

The origin of that was Weinsel who was looking back at her on horseback.

He had already pulled out a lance and was pointing it at her from his saddle. The lance was short and appeared to be a jousting lance, easy to maneuver.

Lightning was radiating from the tip of the lance. This was, of course, the power of a Gift.

I can’t evade it!

Right as Leone was bracing for the pain, her body was subjected to another force that was causing her view to slide sideways. It was Liselotte who scooped Leone up and flew horizontally.

「Liselotte! Thank you!」
「Why of course, we are cooperating after all!」

After the evasion, Liselotte dropped Leone and turned around to once again sandwich Weinsel.

Reacting to that, Weinsel aimed at Liselotte in the air with the lightning of his lance. The flaming horse’s legs were halted!

With that chance, Leone rushed forward to close the gap at once. Her sword couldn’t expand infinitely.

If she attacked from afar, her enemy could still escape somewhere past her sword’s extendability. But if she got close enough, even her enemy would find it hard to escape her blade.

It was still much more certain to attack from up close. By doing so, that horse wouldn’t be able to build up momentum either.

「HYAAaahh!!」

About 20 paces away from Weinsel, Leone swung up her greatsword. Weinsel must have thought that she would cover those 20 paces with her extending Gift. However, the blade of the black greatsword didn’t extend. Instead, something else came out…

The Phantom Dragons roared, rushing towards Weinsel.

「——!」

Weinsel paid extra caution to the attack that he saw for the first time, intercepting the incoming multiple Phantom Dragons with the lightning from his lance. Meanwhile, Leone approached further in a circle.

「Here! Hyaaah!」

This time, she directly unleashed a slash that would strike down both Weinsel and his horse.

And yet, Weinsel simply held out his free left hand at it. He made no indication of evading. Was he going to stop Leone’s attack with a hand? There was no way he could do that.

—But, right then, the tail of the flaming horse moved dexterously as if it had a will of its own, picking up another lance that was attached to the saddle and placing it in Weinsel’s left hand.

The jousting lance and the black greatsword collided, producing a high-pitched metallic sound.

「I can go on…!」

Push it down with force!

He was only using one hand. She was using both! Due to the obvious difference in strength, Leone was steadily gaining the upper hand.

But, before that happened… the right lance, the one with lightning that was intercepting the Phantom Dragons, finally annihilated all the phantasmal beings and was freed.

「NAIVE!!」

Weinsel thrust down the right lance toward Leone.

「You won’t!」

Leone leaped, removing the downward force of the sword at once. At the same time, she took advantage of the opposite force Weinsel was applying at her sword to softly float out of his right-handed lance’s range.

Aiming for her landing, a band of flame erupted from Weinsel’s left-handed lance. That one had the Gift of fire, it seemed. However, Leone had anticipated Weinsel would attack her right at that moment. She extended her black greatsword diagonally downwards.

It scraped the ground at an angle, shifting the position where Leone landed. As Weinsel’s flame missed her, Leone immediately swung her sword to the side, producing a Phantom Dragon.

Weinsel’s right-handed lance went to intercept it. But, before it was done…

「Another!」

The black greatsword was once again swung, and another Phantom Dragon was born. Unlike using Gift, Leone wouldn’t become fatigued no matter how many times she used Dragon Roar to create the Phantom Dragon.

That was because the Dragon Roar didn’t go through her Rune, but was attached to her Artifact itself. She still didn’t know if the effect would wear off or if she could use it endlessly, but she felt like she could keep using it. It was astounding how tenacious it was.

「More, more, more!」

Another, and then another! A large number of Phantom Dragons swarmed Weinsel.

「Hoh! That’s quite the pressure…!」

Weinsel’s left-handed lance also moved to intercept the Phantom Dragons. Both hands were occupied now!

「HYAAaaah!!」

Leone strongly thrust out her black greatsword. This time, instead of producing phantom dragons, the blade extended and weaved its way through the crowd of phantom dragons to close in on Weinsel’s throat.

「——?!」

Weinsel shifted his body on top of his horse to avoid the thrust. However, his position was awkward. If Leone swung her sword horizontally and extended the blade further, she would cut him!