“Kaah!”
Heal!
“Haaa!”
Short Jump!
We cut them down as they came, burning them with spells, dodging them with warps, and healing through the damage. None of the hits had been lethal so far, but our mana was constantly draining. We weren’t the only ones with a mana upkeep, though. Phelms was feeling it, too.
Should we turn on Flashing Thunderclap and go into overtime? I could easily heal through Phelms’ attacks, and it seemed like the older man would run out of mana before we did.
“Augh!”
What the—?! Greater Heal!
A gash appeared on Fran’s leg. I quickly healed it, but she was hit with another that took off her arm.
“What is—argh!”
Greater Heal!
What was going on? Why wasn’t our barrier working? Did Phelms have an attack that can go through barriers? This was bad!
Dimension Shift!
I used a Timespace spell to get us out of there, but the strange attack kept happening.
“Ungh!”
Heal!
A wound formed over Fran’s cheek, despite the fact that we were mid-Dimension Shift. The attack didn’t just go through barriers! I wracked my brain, trying to figure out what would be capable of such a feat, and noticed then that some threads were passing through others, and right through our barrier. They had the same attribute as my Dimension Sword.
I remembered the skills on one of the threads. King Baleen Battle Wire’s Timespace Element! That was what gave them the ability to pass through barriers.
“Our barrier’s useless.”
Pretty much.
We couldn’t keep dodging like this. Dimension Shift was rendered useless, too. But his Timespace threads might be difficult to weave, since he hadn’t used them right away. Maybe I was looking at things wrong. His Timespace threads would soon overwhelm us, leaving us with no way of defending ourselves. Even teleportation was useless.
There was no more room for doubt.
Teacher, I’m using our trump card!
Yeah, let’s finish this fight!
The longer this fight dragged on, the worse it was for us. We had to finish it. We charged up our mana while desperately dealing with Phelms’ intense assault. We managed to avoid any fatal blows, thanks to Sword King Mastery and the training of our Sense skills, but we were losing mana fast.
Phelms’ barrier would block any light attacks we made. His threads had high mana conductivity on top of being plain strong. It would take a powerful attack to break through. Well, we would just have to hit his barrier with our most powerful attack.
Fran!
Is it ready, Teacher?
Yeah, sorry it took so long.
Fran grinned with a satisfied smile, even though her body was covered with wounds. Her aura even gave Phelms cause for concern. We would definitely lose if this attack failed, but Fran was happy to unleash all our strength for once. She was smiling in the heat of battle, thankful for such an opportunity.
Jet, start running.
Woof.
Do it.
You got it!
I cast the spell, putting every bit of my mana into it.
Haaaa! Kanna Kamuy!
Collateral damage was inevitable. This move was almost impossible to control. The only reason why I was comfortable using it was because I could prevent it from going completely berserk by using Double Mind. This was a spell unlocked only at the highest level of Thunder Magic—the most powerful thunder spell in the world.
It came to fulfillment as I unleashed the concentrated mana.
Grooooar!
The thunder dragon descended with a roar, striking the arena with a pillar of light. Kanna Kamuy, the pinnacle of Thunder Magic, looked more like a natural disaster than a spell. I had doubts about whether a human could cast this, even if they had maxed-out Thunder Magic—the mana cost was just that high. They would either run out of mana, or their brains would fry. Even Fran couldn’t use this spell.
I could cast it, but controlling its force was so difficult that it made me uncomfortable. It came with a nasty headache too, preventing me from moving afterwards. I couldn’t use it in the heat of battle, at least for now.
“Gaaah!” Phelms screamed as he watched his precious thread barrier scatter and burn.
“Black Thunderfall!” Fran unleashed her Black Lightning, piercing through his damaged barrier. With Kanna Kamuy having consumed his threads, Phelms had no way of defending himself.
“Uraaaagh…” White and black electricity snaked around Phelms’ body. Just as with Gaudartha, we were immediately blown away by it. Fran coughed up blood as she smacked into the barrier protecting the audience from the arena.
Long Jump!
I focused my remaining energy and warped us out, all the way above the arena.
“Urgh…Heal!”
You okay?
“I think…?”
Black Lightning wasn’t something we could use in this kind of enclosed space. It caused too much damage. We looked down on the arena and saw that the black and white lightning had joined together in a marbled pattern. The electric chaos prevented us from seeing what was inside.
That was close.
Yeah. We’d be dead if we’d stayed in there.
I’d thought about using both Kanna Kamuy and Black Lightning even before the Gaudartha fight, but decided against it. It was too dangerous, even for us. But I had an idea after seeing Jet escape out of the dome during the Gaudartha fight. I checked the rules, and found that we wouldn’t be disqualified for leaving the ring, as long as we didn’t touch the ground. Thanks to the barrier, we could escape the wrath of our own spells.
Or so I thought.
“Teacher, look!”
Oh no…the barrier…!
The dome expanded like a balloon. We could feel the electricity, even from outside. This might be bad.
Can’t you do something about this?
Jeez, I dunno…let me think…okay. Dimension Gate!
I created a gate linking the inside of the barrier to the outside. Once it found a hole to escape from, the pent-up storm exploded in a backdraft. But that didn’t stop the dome from expanding. It slowed its rate down…but only slightly. Then, my worst fears came true.
Kabooom!
The dome exploded. Violent winds tore through the stands.
“Kyaaaa!”
“Eeeek!”
“H-help!”
I saw pandemonium for the first time. With no time to run, the audience could only panic in their seats. Fortunately, they didn’t have to deal with lightning bolts, since they
