Pfeil moved behind Jared, his fingers touching the string of his drawn bow.
Without nocking an arrow, he gently released his fingers from the bowstring, which had been drawn to its limit. The string snapped with a sound, releasing an arrow of green light composed of magic power.
There wasn’t just one arrow; there were over fifty, at a rough estimate.
Jared stomped on the ground, creating an earth wall with magic. Arrows struck the earth wall, continuing to roar.
He tried to reinforce the earth wall by channeling magic power into it. However, before Jared could finish reinforcing the wall, cracks appeared.
“—Tch”
Clicking his tongue, Jared abandoned the earth wall, kicked off the ground, and moved far to the side. Simultaneously, the hastily constructed earth wall was destroyed by a multitude of arrows.
Jared, intending to attack Pfeil hidden in the dust, moved in.
“Too slow.”
Pfeil was already there, drawing his bowstring.
However, Jared charged towards Pfeil without slowing down.
“That choice is not wrong.”
As Jared charged, Pfeil fired magic arrows again.
A multitude of arrows assailed him, but Jared did not flinch, charging into the swarm of arrows.
“UOOOOOOOHHHHHH!”
Not all the arrows would attack at once. Even if there were over a hundred arrows, if they were fired in sequence, only about ten would hit Jared’s body, which would be a waste of magic power.
Of course, Pfeil understood this, so even if many arrows were fired at once, it was the total number, and they wouldn’t all attack simultaneously but would come one after another with a time lag.
Jared saw through this in a single attack. However, because the next arrow was approaching in less than a breath, it was practically simultaneous.
There were few solutions. He didn’t know if the fired arrows could change trajectory, but first, he had to dodge. However, there was the danger of homing, making it risky. If so, his only option was to charge head-on and cut them all down with his sword.
Sparks flew as his sword clashed with the arrows.
Midway, he refined a chunk of obsidian to use as a shield. Jared continued to advance, reliably protecting only the areas that would be fatal.
His shoulders, arms, and legs were pierced, but as each arrow was thin, the pain was minimal, allowing him to move.
“—Impressive.”
Jared threw the obsidian shield at Pfeil, who was watching him with admiration. Pfeil, who was about to fire magic arrows again, had his hand attacked, his movements halted. Seizing that opening, Jared closed in and struck.
However, he couldn’t capture Pfeil’s body. But, in exchange, he managed to cleave his bow in two.
Jared, keeping his eyes on Pfeil, who leaped back to create distance, pulled out the arrows embedded in his body. The arrows made of magic power, when thrown to the ground, dissolved into particles and disappeared.
A significant amount of stamina had been depleted. His magic power was still conserved, but due to the location, he couldn’t use much magic. However, the enemy continued to attack without holding back. It was quite difficult to fight.
It was fortunate that the bleeding was not severe, but Pfeil’s magic arrows, which could easily wound his body even through his combat uniform, were a real nuisance. Being able to fire a large number of arrows with a single draw of the string was, frankly, unfair.
What was more troubling was that he didn’t know Pfeil’s magic attribute. Consequently, he couldn’t devise much of a counter-strategy.
“I guess I’ll just have to fight simply.”
He once again readied his short sword and kicked off the ground. Raising his speed from before, he intended to end the fight quickly, even at the cost of more stamina.
Pfeil no longer had his bow. He might use some kind of magic, but he could just kill him before that.
However—
“I can shoot arrows even without a bow.”
“—What!?”
He was surprised that Pfeil would persist with arrows, but he didn’t stop moving.
Pfeil pointed his left hand towards Jared as if he had a bow, and with his right hand resting on it, he made a motion as if drawing a bowstring.
Jared felt magic power concentrating in both of Pfeil’s hands.
Jared accelerated further. The fight was decided by whose attack would land first, Jared’s or Pfeil’s.
Then—
“Uraaaaaahhhh!”
“—Magic bullet, pierce him.”
The moment Jared’s slash completely struck Pfeil’s body, an arrow fired from Pfeil pierced Jared’s abdomen.
Both of them succeeded in landing a blow, and then they collapsed to the ground.
A sword-like arrow was impaled in Jared’s abdomen. It was a strike with a lethality far beyond that of the previous arrows. Jared, hit directly, felt intense pain, and blood began to flow.
Discarding his short sword, he gripped the blood-soaked arrow and channeled magic power into it to destroy it. However, the pain did not subside. It was merely an impediment to standing up.
He put strength into his legs and arms, spitting blood-mixed saliva and coughing repeatedly. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but it required prompt treatment.
As he somehow managed to stand up, Pfeil was also getting up.
With a diagonal cut from his left shoulder to his right flank, he was bleeding profusely and pressing his wound. His black robes were gone, revealing blood-stained skin from his sleeveless black garment.
“You’ve done well, Jared Murphy. You’re the first to inflict such a wound upon me.”
“I could say the same. I never expected you to fire arrows without a bow. I mistakenly thought you were using your bow as a catalyst for your magic.”
“I am the bow and the arrow myself. Without a bow, I cannot fire a rapid succession of magic bullets, but in return, I can unleash a powerful single strike. You seem to have considerable magic defense. It should have been enough to cut a dragon in half…”
“Unfortunately, I have various measures against magic.”
His combat uniform, reinforced against magic, combined with his usual magic practice to increase magic resistance, and a barrier prepared just in case, proved fortunate. If any one of these had been lacking, he might have died.
“Are you going to retreat again?”
“Of course not… Now that I know your weakness, my victory is assured.”
“My, weakness?”
“That’s right. The reason you drew your sword was that you didn’t want to use your renowned Earth Magic here. I was surprised by your swordsmanship, which I believed you lacked talent in, but a magician who cannot use magic is not to be feared.”
“You certainly have a lot to say.”
But it was true.
Jared, as Pfeil pointed out, could not use Earth Magic. The location was a factor, but it was more efficient to fight with a sword than to use magic against the swift Pfeil.
In fact, although he had only used the minimum amount of magic, he had exerted his full power with everything he could do, resulting in a significant exchange of blows for both of them.
“More importantly—”
“Is there more? My weaknesses?”
“Your attacks seem reckless, but you have no intention of dying. You cannot die because you wish to protect Hannelore Alway and Olivier Alway. However, I only need to kill you. You are inferior to me, who has resigned myself to death.”
“The will to live is more important.”
“Believe that if you wish. The desire to live, the desire to protect someone—all of it makes you weaker.”
Jared scoffed at Pfeil, who was pointing out his weakness.
“What’s wrong with the desire to live, with the desire to protect someone?”
“Everything. Humans are weak and foolish creatures. They are not worthy of protection, and for a weakling to try and protect someone is sheer arrogance.”
“That’s your standard! I, too, have only recently learned the feeling of wanting to protect someone, so I can’t speak with authority, but the will to protect those you care about makes me stronger!”
“Then show me that strength.”
Pfeil readied his left hand and pulled back his right.
In response, Jared honed his magic power, interfering with the spirits.
Both had prepared their ultimate attack, the one they could unleash now. The next blow would likely decide the outcome.
“Are you ready, Pfeil?”
“And you, Jared Murphy? Are you ready to die?”
Their eyes met, and they both laughed. It was a laugh acknowledging each other as formidable rivals of equal strength.
“—Earth Saber.”
“—Magic bullet, pierce and kill.”
