The Strongest Villain Sets Out: Reincarnated into a Merit-Based Clan, I Become the World's Strongest Swordsman - Chapter 23: Won't Stop

While I was training magic with Sheila, a mysterious male student I called Seaweed-kun, who unilaterally knew her, came over (I don’t remember his name).

He directed jealous feelings toward me for being on good terms with Sheila, and of all things, challenged me to a fight. I had only just learned magic. Honestly, I wasn’t confident. But someone from the Salvatore ducal family couldn’t run away when challenged to a fight. It would be a trial by fire, but I would engage in real combat using magic.

“The rules are magic only. Aura, divine prayer, curses, and summoning magic are all forbidden.”

“I can’t use aura for defense?”

“No. Please defend properly with magic.”

“I see.”

Rules that magicians would really like.

Magic had defensive spells too. If this were divine prayer or curses, it would become a boring shit game lacking in interest, but with magic it would make for a decently good match. Besides, if I used aura I definitely wouldn’t take any damage, so it couldn’t be helped.

Seaweed-kun and I distanced ourselves from each other in a corner of the training ground. There were no other students nearby. Our fight wouldn’t involve anyone else. Incidentally, Sheila served as referee. She stood between us, somewhat apart, watching over the battle.

“Are you both ready?”

“No problems.”

“I’m good.”

“Then the match—begin!”

Sheila lowered the hand she had raised. Immediately after, I sensed magical power from Seaweed-kun.

Smooth magical power release. Very smooth from manipulation to activation. As a warm-up, he created a sphere of flame.

“Hehe. I was watching your target practice earlier. You have virtually no experience activating magic, do you? How well you accepted my invitation in such a state! I’ll make you regret it!”

Seaweed-kun showed a vulgar smile and released the flame sphere. The magic came straight toward me. If it hit, I’d take considerable damage. Right now I wasn’t using aura, and magical power itself had no body-enhancement properties. For now, I dodged to the side. Even without aura, I could follow it with my eyes sufficiently.

“! As expected, I can’t defeat you in one hit. In that case—I’ll increase my attacks!”

This time, Seaweed-kun formed flaming arrows. Multiple ones too. Blazing arrows floated up around him, their arrowheads continuously tracking me.

“Ho. Multiple spells at once… no, are they bundled together as one collective?”

Interesting. So magic could be controlled like that too.

But if my prediction was correct, that magic was flawed. Certainly the number of attacks was high, but since all the arrows were constructed as one spell, all arrows would fly in one attack. In the same direction.

In other words, he couldn’t control and manipulate them finely. It might be useful in group battles, but it was questionable in one-on-one matches. Besides, the power of each individual shot was low. The waiting time was also long, full of openings.

I watched my opponent’s reaction and kicked off the ground. I quickly closed in on Seaweed-kun. At that time, Seaweed-kun finished controlling his magic. The arrows were fired all at once.

“Fool! Approaching is suicide!”

Seaweed-kun was completely certain of victory. Indeed, with the distance between us closed this much, avoiding magic was nearly impossible. The flaming arrows approaching right in front of me—I defended with minimal defensive magic.

This was my first time activating defensive magic. I directly manifested the contents written in the book into reality. Naturally, my defensive magic was crude. I couldn’t defend against all of Seaweed-kun’s multi-hit attack magic.

The concentrated flames caused an explosion-like phenomenon. Arrows that didn’t hit me stuck into the ground, blazing at my feet. However,

“What?!”

Seaweed-kun showed astonishment.

Because I, who should have been hit by the magic attack, came flying out from within the flames. Grinning, I completely closed the distance with Seaweed-kun.

“Here, now taste my magic!”

If I got this close, you couldn’t defend against my magic either, right?

Since I didn’t need to control it, I released all my magical power. Any haphazard form was fine. I released flames—a strike pursuing only attack power.

Seaweed-kun reflexively deployed defensive magic, but he took my magic before he could fully deploy it. This also generated an explosion-like impact that blew Seaweed-kun about five meters backward.

Seaweed-kun rolled on the ground, his body burned. He got cooked before becoming dried seaweed. He hurriedly used water-attribute magic to extinguish himself.

“Damn! How dare you burn me!”

Roughly shaking his hair that had become moist with water, Seaweed-kun radiated glittering bloodlust.

Hmm, nice. The bloodlust felt pleasant.

“You burned me, so don’t complain about getting burned yourself.”

Saying that, I looked at my own arm. Actually, since I had normally taken Seaweed-kun’s attack, I had burns on my arm. My skin was slightly festering.

“Unforgivable! I’ll finish this with my greatest magic!”

Seaweed-kun stood up and built up enormous magical power. What he created was a giant sphere of flame. It was several times larger than the sphere he had shown first.

“Heh. You have unexpectedly high magical power.”

That attack was definitely dangerous. If I took it head-on, that alone could decide the match.

But for the current me to beat Seaweed-kun, making him take magic from close range was the quickest method. What I could do was limited. I lowered my posture and kicked off the ground.

In response to my approach, Seaweed-kun released his magic.

“I won’t show such disgrace as before!”

A flame sphere like a giant sun approached me. Against it, I activated water-attribute magic to endure the heat even a little. Thanks to what Seaweed-kun had shown me, the magic activated smoothly. My water and Seaweed-kun’s flames collided.

Naturally, the water became steam and the surroundings became smoky. My magic couldn’t cancel out Seaweed-kun’s magic. This time I deployed defensive magic while jumping to the side. Then the flame sphere quickly chased after me.

—This magic, is Seaweed-kun manipulating the magical power?!

If so, I couldn’t escape. Within the narrow training ground, I’d eventually be cornered by the magic. I was forced to choose and played my trump card I’d been saving.

The application of magic that occurred to me the moment Seaweed-kun used water-attribute magic. That was—spraying water-attribute magic onto the ground.

Like a firefighter shooting water from a hose, water-attribute magic was released with tremendous force. Immediately after, I was jumping. Using the water’s momentum, I accelerated toward Seaweed-kun.

“Huh?!”

Seaweed-kun panicked at my unexpected action. Panic created delay, and delay announced a fatal end.

Seaweed-kun and I collided. Strictly speaking, I, superior in athleticism, ended up pinning down him. While manifesting flame magic in my right hand, I pressed it against his abdomen. Seaweed-kun’s expression turned pale.

He muttered in a trembling voice.

“S-stop—”

“Won’t stop.”

Despite Seaweed-kun’s plea, my fire-attribute magic caused a light explosion in his abdomen.