Chapter 161 – #34_Red Cliff(5)
#159
1.
What is combat using magic?
Many apprentice witches ask this question during their lessons.
There is a game that many witches use as an analogy for it.
A small war that takes place on a narrow board of 64 squares, chess.
Magical combat is very similar to chess in that it requires a battle of wits, strategy, and calculation to read each other’s intentions.
However, when this analogy is made, an additional explanation is always added.
Magical combat is not a fair game where both sides take turns with the same pieces, the same time, and the same rules.
The stage is not a chessboard of 64 squares, but a board of 10,000 squares, or even larger in some cases, and the number of pieces used, the number of moves that can be made, and even the movement of the pieces are different for each player.
The amount of magical power you possess determines ‘the number of pieces you can have in a game.’
How skillfully you can wield magical power limits ‘the number of pieces you can move in one turn.’
How excellent your magic is changes ‘the movement and performance of the pieces.’
It is a battle of wits where all these variables are placed on the board to see whose magic is more refined and how sharply it has been honed.
In that respect, Della overwhelmed Siwoo in every way.
Della, a 20th-tier witch who has honed her magic for many years.
Siwoo, a makeshift witch who was hastily created in just one generation.
It’s pointless to even compare the two.
Since the players’ skills are different, there is naturally a huge gap in the cards they hold.
However.
“Ugh!”
The battle, which was expected to end in a minute, keeps dragging on.
-Clang!
The blade that Siwoo swung with all his might was blocked by the ‘hardened fire’ that Della had deployed.
It was a fierce blow that could split a large granite rock in two with pure strength, but it was not enough to break through Della’s defense.
At the same time, Siwoo, who blocked the flames that were spewing out in reverse with his shield, swung his longsword with all his might at the wall of fire that was guarding Della again, before the flames that were engulfing his shield had even disappeared.
-Clang!
“What is this…”
When Siwoo first rushed at Della, she thought highly of his decision.
Of course, this was an evaluation made by a strong person who was confident of an overwhelming advantage, looking down on the weak.
Della’s only weakness is that there is an interval because her magic is manifested through ‘relay formulas.’
The stronger the magic she tries to use, the more relay formulas are needed, and the longer the delay required.
Therefore, the best choice for Siwoo, who lacks magical power, operational ability, and magic level, was to relentlessly push Della without giving her any openings.
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
He sticks to her with a barrage of attacks without giving her any room, preventing any big attacks.
As you can see, it’s an idea that anyone can come up with.
But it wasn’t something that anyone could easily do.
Della’s ‘hardened fire’ has an automatic counterattack system like an autonomous defense system.
When attacked, it spews out flames accordingly.
As long as they are sentient beings, they are bound to shrink back instinctively in the face of fierce flames.
Even if they block the flames, they are bound to step back in fear if the flames and heat obscure their vision and their skin is scorched.
-Clang!
Nevertheless, the shadow sword clashes with the wall of fire once again.
Sparks rain down and hot flames graze Siwoo’s cheek.
His face, already exposed below his helmet, is red from burns.
In a fleeting moment that flows through the dazzling flames, Della made eye contact with Siwoo.
His black and gold heterochromatic eyes stare at Della without wavering.
Even though he could be seriously injured or lose his life with the slightest mistake, he continues his relentless attack like a hunting dog chasing its prey, without looking away.
Now Della was convinced.
This man has had this kind of battle before.
That he is an experienced person who has been in similar situations.
“Are you really Count Geminai’s secret weapon…?”
It was reasonable to have such a question, but no answer came.
It wasn’t that he was ignoring her.
There was no way her voice would reach Siwoo, who was swinging his sword in a semi-trance.
Della, who couldn’t know that fact, bit her lip.
A piece of trash that she could turn into ashes if she gave him an opening for just 5 seconds, no, 3 seconds, is sharpening his fangs and constantly aiming for Della’s neck.
What’s even more infuriating is that she can’t shake him off, who is sticking to her so persistently.
-Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Della briefly shifted her gaze to see the cause.
A single black ribbon that starts from Siwoo’s back and moves freely, piercing the air.
Every time the ribbon, which moves swiftly like a hungry viper, pierces the core, the structure of the formula is broken and the relay formula itself shatters like glass shards.
“Eeeek…!”
Relay formulas are the preparations Della needs to use magic.
A certain number or more are needed to use large-scale magic, not just shabby magic like hardened fire.
It’s as if Siwoo knows that, as he is preventing and breaking the deployment of the relay formulas themselves from the start.
Because of that, she hasn’t been able to exceed 40 since earlier.
As time passed, Della’s relaxed face began to stiffen.
Scattering relay formulas is not free.
As magic, it requires a cost, which is magical power.
While continuing meaningless consumption, Della’s relaxed magical power was slowly being depleted, like clothes getting wet in a drizzle.
“You despicable bastard!”
Della shouted without realizing it.
This is not a duel.
A duel is supposed to be a high-level confrontation where they compete with each other’s strategies and abilities, using their honed self-magic as weapons.
It was a great insult to Della that he was dragging her into a mud fight like a dog biting and clinging to her arm.
“Okay, I have a way too.”
Della maintained the wall of fire while reorganizing her magic.
She knew that if she continued like this, she would be played by his pace, and she could see the ending.
The two words ‘defeat,’ which she had never even thought of, clearly popped into her head.
She lowers the cost of magical power required, but weakens the power.
The formula she is aiming for is ‘dancing fire.’
It’s a useless magic that wraps around the enemy’s arms and legs and roasts them.
However, since it has physical stopping power, it should be helpful to hinder Siwoo’s fierce movements.
“Burn!”
As Della swung her arm, some of the scattered relay formulas began to vibrate.
The minimum number of relay formulas required for the transformed dancing fire is 5, and the number of relay formulas that Della just squeezed out her magical power to link and scatter is 16.
In addition, there are already 38 relay formulas floating in the air.
Even if the ribbon, which is mercilessly massacring the relay formulas, destroys more than half of the newly scattered 16 relay formulas, the dancing fire will activate as long as 5 or more remain.
She not only transformed the form of the magic in that short time, but also set up additional insurance and a smokescreen at the same time.
Della is also a 20th-tier witch who is called a ‘Great Witch.’
She was not an easy opponent to be defeated helplessly like this.
Good.
Now this tedious stalemate is over.
-Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Or so she thought.
Until the black ribbon, which had been piercing the relay formulas at random, pierced ‘only the 16 relay formulas’ that were set up to activate ‘dancing fire’ exactly.
“……How?”
Her desperate counterattack, which had squeezed out half of her remaining magical power, was thwarted in the blink of an eye.
This accuracy is no coincidence.
He is not destroying the relay formulas at random, but is selecting and destroying the ‘relay formulas that will be the core’ in order.
At that moment, Della remembered.
This man, who seemed weaker than even a high-ranking homunculus on the surface.
What if this man, whom she thought was in a much lower position than herself, hadn’t induced a dogfight from the beginning?
What if there had been even the slightest hesitation during this stalemate?
The goddess of victory would have kissed Della’s cheek without hesitation.
But reality went the opposite way.
As soon as he entered the battle, he jumped into the flames without any hesitation.
He doesn’t miss even the smallest fleeting weakness, and he doesn’t give up the initiative.
In the end, he managed to turn the situation around in an overwhelming disadvantage.
The reason for the victory or defeat was not grand.
While Della was thinking about the game with her hands behind her back, this man was thinking about a life-or-death battle.
Is this something that can come from an untrained person?
Absolutely not.
A ring indicating that he is a guest of the Geminai family.
A man with a brand.
Formidable combat sense.
A peculiar shadow that disrupts the structure of the magic formula and the armament made of it.
Perhaps eyes that read the flow of magical power.
And even a ribbon to cover the gaps.
No doubt about it.
He is a secret weapon of the Geminai family, created to replenish the dwindling number of witches or to hunt down homunculi or public enemies.
Otherwise, there is no way she would be driven into such a disadvantage.
It was not simply a matter of superiority in power.
He is a very difficult opponent, as if he was specialized for a battle against a Great Witch.
Della acknowledged Siwoo.
He is an opponent worthy of showing his skills without holding back.
A worthy rival who she must exert all her strength to deal with.
The prejudice that he was a man and his apparent power had been hiding the truth until now.
“Okay, if you want a dogfight, I’ll play along.”
She has almost no magical power left.
This is probably her last move.
Della took advantage of the gap when Siwoo raised his shield and withdrew the wall of fire made of hardened fire.
At the same time, she redirects the magical power that was being invested there to strengthen her body.
Magical power rushes through the circuits that extend throughout her body.
The durability of her spirit body rises to its highest hardness.
The fastest way to apply magical power is, needless to say, the witch’s own body.
She invests almost all of her remaining magical power to maximize her physical enhancement and autonomous defense.
She immediately moves her feet forward and rushes into Siwoo’s wide open arms before he can swing his sword.
Close combat.
It was an action that Della would never have even attempted under normal circumstances, but now the outcome of this battle was more important.
She thought that it was worth rushing into the gap in Siwoo’s defenses, who had been mechanically pounding the wall of fire all this time.
If he likes close combat so much, she can do the same.
She will block one blow with her autonomous defense.
After that, she will use the rebound of the autonomous defense to create distance and buy time, and then use the relay formulas that have already been scattered to deliver the final blow.
When she threw herself with a firm determination.
Was it a coincidence?
She made eye contact with him.
The moment she met the intense gaze that was being shot from within his half-destroyed helmet, Della naturally realized.
That even her last desperate struggle, which she had planned by abandoning her pride, was being read by his eyes.
“Wait…!”
Siwoo, who had been clinging to her so desperately until now, stops attacking and creates distance at the same time as Della throws herself.
It was the development that Della had been hoping for so much, but not now.
Right now, her magical power is entirely invested in strengthening her body and activating her autonomous defense.
He must block her attack for the autonomous defense to activate, and she must buy time to reactivate the relay formulas and deliver the final blow.
At this rate, she would be wasting her magical power meaninglessly.
Della urgently diverted the flow of magical power that was being invested in her spirit body.
As her last chance was about to be lost in vain, she hurriedly tried to activate the relay formulas that she had turned off.
-Bang!
And half a beat later, the black ribbon pierces Della’s side.
The ribbon, which had been flying through the air to destroy the relay formulas and had not intervened in the battle until now, throws a cross counter as if it had been waiting for this moment.
It was an attack that she had never expected, as it had never been directly involved in combat before.
“Ugh!”
With a strange scream and saliva flying from her mouth, Della’s body was folded sideways in mid-air and tumbled helplessly to the ground.
