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A moment later, the small stone that fell from her hand burst between the two, producing a bright flash and a thunderous sound.

「Ghuh…」

There was a groan. Just like before, she had successfully stunned Fuzzy Dice. But this time, Mira was so close that it also had an effect on her. She had closed her eyes to avoid the flash, but the noise still made her mind blank out.

Still, she was able to cast the Sage Art Fire Clad, which quickly burned off the spiderwebs restraining her.

「Ow…that burns!」

As her surroundings burst into flames, she jumped back with all her strength, but as she was still dizzy, she missed her landing and rolled on the ground. Thanks to the Dark Knight Frame, however, she only felt some of the heat, and suffered no damage from the fall.

(This is definitely a discovery for the history books!)

Amidst her confused state, she still gloated to herself, realizing Exo-Summons would come in handy when fighting large monsters. But that did not last long, as Fuzzy Dice also recovered and jumped back, and she had to look around for him. That was an almost impossible task in the dark, now that her night vision goggles had been taken away from her.

「How annoying…」

While her eyes could not spot him, she could detect the mana clinging all around him. He had rebuilt his spiderweb barrier in the short time since the flashbang Magic Bomb Sealing Stone went off. His reflexes were immaculate, just like his skill.

But Mira still had some uncertainty about that barrier. The earlier one restrained anyone who approached him, but there was no guarantee that this one worked the same way.

There were a multitude of different Forbidden Arts involving spiderwebs, and without a clear look at them, it was impossible to tell which type he was using currently.

However, there were some properties shared by all types of spiderwebs, which was connected to a weakness she could exploit. They were all flammable. So Mira decided to use yet another new ability.

Exo-Summon: Vermilion Frame

That was another Exo-Summon (as Mira decided to call them) she had come up with after the Dark Knight Frame, by using the Spirit King’s Divine Protection to imbue it with power from the fire spirit Salamander.

By adding the power of fire to her Exo-Summon, she would be able to easily burn away any spiderweb that tried restraining her.

「I feel slightly bad to exploit your weakness, but that’s that, and I have no choice.」

There were a few select spider types that did have resistance to fire, but they were more deadly types, and if everything people said about Fuzzy Dice never harming others was true, then he would never use them.

Taking out another Arresting Cloth, Mira began dashing at Fuzzy Dice, breaking through the barrier of spiderwebs. The barrier still tried to restrain her, but everything burned away on contact with her.

「I’ve got you now!」

His movements were still sluggish, so Mira assumed he had not fully recovered yet. That made it easy for Mira to wrap the cloth around him to restrain him.

「Hm… what’s this?」

They tumbled on the ground together as Mira quickly wrapped the cloth around him and tied it firmly, but then she realized something was not right.

「I have to say, you really have some strange abilities. That one was a bit too close.」

A bundle of spiderwebs, almost like a cocoon, sprouted from the ground on the spot where Fuzzy Dice had been standing earlier. As it opened, Fuzzy Dice stepped out from within it.

「So there was a backup…」

She opened the Arresting Cloth to reveal a scarecrow made of plants and flowers. Fuzzy Dice had created that with an illusion to make it seem like he was standing there.

Usually, Mira would not be fooled by even the strongest of illusory Forbidden Arts, but as the night obscured everything, it made it harder for her to tell, managing to trick her.

On top of that, he had been hiding within a bundle of spiderwebs right beneath the clone, which also tricked Mira’s Life Sensing.

(He’s a more difficult opponent than I anticipated.)

The most shocking part was that he had done all of that while recovering from the flashbang. Mira would need to take things seriously if she wanted to have a chance at capturing him.

(I guess I have no choice but to unleash my trump card…)

All she wanted was to obtain information from him. That was accomplished the easiest by capturing him, while hurting him as little as possible.

But Mira could hardly feel any pride in defeating Fuzzy Dice through brute force when he never used any force against others, and that held her back. Or at least on the surface. What she really was afraid of were his fans.

Using excessive force against someone known as a hero who never harmed anyone would make Mira not just a rival, but a villain in their eyes. Not to mention that they would all know her as the person who put an end to the person they idolized.

(I really don’t want to have to watch my back around dark alleys for the rest of my life…)

At the very least, she wanted to defeat Fuzzy Dice in an honorable manner, standing on equal ground as him.

「In that case, I have no option left.」

She had also prepared non-lethal ways to fight against someone of Fuzzy Dice’s caliber. So she reached into her pouch while looking straight at Fuzzy Dice.

Fuzzy Dice carefully watched her movements. She had managed to stun him twice, so he was fully aware of the effect her Magic Bomb Sealing Stones had. There was only so much he could do to avoid their effects, so he wanted to be ready.

(This won’t be as easy as I was thinking.)

Seeing Fuzzy Dice’s reaction to her hand movements, she understood he was rather cautious of the Magic Bomb Sealing Stones, and that gave her the confidence to proceed.

She quickly used Blink to vanish and reappear next to Fuzzy Dice, facing the river.

「Then what about this!」

Shouting that, she threw more than a dozen Magic Bomb Sealing Stones at the same time. That was different from the first two she had used, and was a rather forceful way to act. Not to mention that she was using an excessive number of them.

「Wha..?!」

Fuzzy Dice reacted with shock. He had been expecting her to try restraining him again, so seeing her throw the stones like that shocked him. But he still knew how to react to that.

He quickly shot out strands of spider silk to catch all of the stones. Then he enveloped them in tightly woven spiderwebs, reducing their explosion to a dull pop.

(Hmm, he switched to Predator Spider’s Web.)

Those spiderwebs were a favorite of Forbidden Arts users to catch flying objects, and could even endure a rain of arrows. They were not the most resistant spiderwebs, but were more than enough to stop the flashbang Magic Bomb Sealing Stones.

That he knew how to use those spiderwebs meant that he probably would not get stunned again if Mira threw those stones directly at him, but she just grinned daringly, unbothered by that.

Those spiderwebs were the best to catch flying items, but that strength also required a lot of focus from the caster.

Because of that, Fuzzy Dice did his best to keep his eyes on Mira.