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–––Ciel’s viewpoint

“I’m surprised. You’re moving completely differently than you did during our first match. I guess this is what your true power looks like.”

Her face looked exactly the same, as if she was not really surprised. Still we paid little attention to her words, we were far more focused with the fight.

When Karin had to pull back, Luvias would get closer, and when Luvias was pushed away, Karin charged in. And if they both were struggling, Diaria and I would support them. I had lost track of the time since the fight started, and now I wondered how long it had already been, hearing nothing but the clang of swords in the empty room.

We were essentially in a deadlock, and while it could be thought we were matched in strength, I could see that Luvias and Karin were slowly struggling more. The reason for that was simple, our resilience was inferior. Selene was much stronger than each one of us, so we had to fight with everything we had, which placed a heavy burden on our bodies, magic, and mind, quickly depleting our energy. But Selene looked the same, calm and composed, barely moving only when necessary. We all knew that we would lose if this continued for long enough.

“I guess we’ll have to risk it then…”

Our condition to win was to leave at least one scratch on Selene. So if we just grazed her, we would win. It sounded easy enough, but seeing how long it had taken us without being able to touch Selene, we could see why she was so confident. If we tried to fight her head on, it would be impossible. We had failed with everything we tried so far, so now our only option was to hit a surprise blow. I held my staff against my chest and began gathering all my magic power.

“Augh?!”
“Ghah!”

At the same time, Karin and Luvias were attacked simultaneously. They had managed to avoid passing out, but they looked to be in so much pain they could hardly move. Looking to the side, I saw Diaria hastily preparing more arrows and shooting them at Selene, but I could not imagine those would do anything.

(This is starting to look like last time…but!)

In my mind, I was picturing Lapis’ face. Quite a long time had passed since I had met her, and she had taught me a lot. Since then, she had praised me the most for one particular skill, not one of offense or defense, but the mobility focused Flight Magic.

“You really have a talent for Flight Magic. There aren’t many magicians who can fly at such high speeds. If you fly with all your power, almost no one will be able to catch up to you.”

She had praised me for it. I had to find a way to utilize my strengths and turn the fight around!

“That won’t work.”
“Ugh…I’m not giving up! I’ve only gotten..?!”

Selene easily dodged Diaria’s arrows as she approached Luvias, raising her hand to strike her again. Luvias managed to twist her body out of the attack’s path, but then was surprised when she looked behind Selene. I was there, holding my staff ahead of me as I flew towards them at full speed. A magician from the rear guard attacking with a body slam, that was such an odd sight that everyone there was shocked.

“What the hell?!”

Selene also turned around noticing Luvias’ reaction, and finally raised her voice in surprise, unlike her usual composed manners. She tried to move out of my path, but Karin and Luvias stopped her, clinging to her body with pained faces.

“L-let go!”
“Never!”
“Ciel! Keep going!”

It would have been easy enough for Selene to kick them off her in that situation, but when she tried to lift her foot Diaria used her spiritual magic again, bounding her feet to the ground.

“Ciel! Gooooo!”
“Taaake thisss!”

I used all the magic power I had, my mind starting to black out from the effort. An instant later I felt a hit through my whole body, I had collided with something at a high speed and now was rolling on the ground like a ball. My body kept getting hit all over, the pain reeling my consciousness back as I grit my teeth and barely managed to kill my momentum and stayed still.

“Owww…”

How did it go? What happened to Selene?! I forced myself through the pain and stood up, seeing Selene standing imposing in the same spot as earlier. Karin and Luvias were a small distance away lying on the ground, out of strength. Had…had I failed again? I had poured everything I had into that surprise attack, but my sight was turning black as I felt like I had failed.

“Hmm…I guess this can be considered a win for you.”

Hearing Selene say that, I snapped my head up. There was a drop of blood streaking down from the corner of her mouth.

“Ah…a wound..?”
“Yes. I was too taken aback by seeing a magician attack like that, so I reacted too late. As a result, you were able to connect an attack. There’s still a lot I can learn as well, it seems.”

She shrugged after saying all that. She was hurt…in other words, we had won. When I realized that, my entire body felt weak, my knees giving in and making me fall flat on the ground.

“I’ll have to uphold my side of the bargain as well, I’ll let you see Lapis. We can go right now if you’re not too tired…what do you say? Or would you rather take a rest first?”

She looked at Luvias and Karin saying that, but we were not the type of person to take a break at a moment like this. They used their swords to prop themselves up, then helped me on my feet as I looked at Selene.

“We’ll go now. We have to see Lapis as soon as possible.”
“I see, follow me then.”

Noticing she had been worrying needlessly, Selene turned around and began walking. Forcing our aching bodies to move, we hurried behind her. Lapis…we’ll be there soon.