“And now, the final battle, the Shooting Royale Finals! First up, the beautiful and strong princess, Barra!”
Barra bước ra phía trước, gửi nụ hôn gió như thường lệ.
Tiếng hò reo vang dội từ đám đông nam giới.
“The pride of the East, consistently strong, a favorite to win, Hemrooth!”
Hemrooth bước ra với vẻ điềm tĩnh.
Những tiếng reo hò không phân biệt giới tính vang lên.
“The true essence of strategy, Katrina!”
Katrina cúi chào và bước ra phía trước.
Những tràng pháo tay vang lên chủ yếu từ đám đông nam giới.
“And the unprecedented surprise package, Marius!”
Marius bước ra phía trước trong im lặng.
Chỉ những người có liên quan đến Filat mới vỗ tay.
“So, what are your predictions, Mr. Felix?”
“Simply put, it would be a one-on-one match between the all-rounder Barra and the power-focused Marius. But the two of them wouldn’t be here if they let that happen so easily.”
“Yes. Hemrooth is one of the favorites to win, and he defeated Lucas, another favorite. Katrina reached the finals after defeating favorites Philip and Warren. Both have already proven they can defy expectations.”
Someone gasped.
Weiss took a deep breath and declared.
“Now then, the Shooting Royale Finals begin!”
Marius created Magic Bullets with all his might.
There were twenty-eight in total. He allocated twelve to Barra, ten to Hemrooth, and six to Katrina, then fired them.
Barra countered with twenty Magic Bullets, but they were all easily pulverized.
However, the trajectory of the Magic Bullets shifted slightly, and Barra dodged them by swaying her body, intentionally taking one hit to her arm.
The impact, though supposed to be weakened, resonated to her core.
(As expected of Marius-sama!)
Barra’s fighting spirit was not dampened but rather ignited with fierce intensity.
Katrina and Hemrooth also employed similar methods to evade Marius’s attacks without taking any damage.
(His control and aim are sloppy… He’s truly a power-focused type. If so, there’s a way to fight.)
Katrina had identified Marius’s weakness.
While the battle-hardened Hemrooth was expected, it was an unforeseen variable that even the seemingly inexperienced girl Barra managed such a skillful counter. Nevertheless, Katrina decided to showcase her own strengths.
She maneuvered herself out of the opponents’ direct line of sight, attacking from their blind spots.
Simple to state, but it required complex, adaptable movements and relied heavily on intuition.
Katrina excelled at this and had indeed defeated strong players like Philip and Warren with it.
Barra, Hemrooth, and Marius could not react in time to Katrina’s attacks and were hit.
“Oh, a preemptive point for Katrina! And Marius loses points for hitting Barra and Hemrooth anywhere other than their pads!”
“Wow, isn’t Katrina amazing?”
“They couldn’t react to her just now, could they?”
The audience was finally beginning to notice Katrina’s brilliant maneuvering.
“Katrina’s movements are quite ingenious, aren’t they, Mr. Felix?”
“Attacking from the enemy’s blind spots, minimizing the risk of being hit. It’s one of the essential skills for a mage on the battlefield. Philip and Warren were also defeated by this, weren’t they?”
“With a mage’s defense, they’d just die in a melee.”
The audience voiced their agreement.
Katrina’s advancement to this stage was by no means a fluke.
(I knew it, this is quite troublesome.)
Hemrooth clicked his tongue.
While Barra was his strongest opponent, Katrina was his most difficult.
Furthermore, Marius was by no means weak, possessing the power to end the match in an instant if given an opening.
It was a paradoxical and tense situation, requiring him to concentrate all his nerves on multiple opponents simultaneously.
However, Hemrooth had to win.
This was the first time the King had permitted “full combat.”
(Philip lost to her too, she’s troublesome… But I’ve learned!)
Barra’s senses had instinctively, yet accurately, memorized Katrina’s attack pattern.
Her evaluation as the second greatest talent in Ranleo’s history, after the founding father Klaus Adler, was not an exaggeration.
She neutralized Katrina’s attack and, against the momentarily stunned opponent, unleashed ten Magic Bullets at once.
When you know it’s coming, it’s no longer an “attack from the blind spot.”
Attacks from Hemrooth and Marius followed in quick succession, and Katrina was promptly knocked down.
“Katrina is down under a concentrated barrage! Has her strategy finally been read?”
“It seems Barra read her perfectly. Her combat sense is terrifying.”
Approximately one minute had passed since the match began, and Barra was currently in first place, with Marius in last.
The audience, gripped by the intense match, cheered with bated breath.
“What’s surprising is Marius’s performance so far.”
“When everyone defended with the risk of injury, he showed unexpected fragility. It might be the downside of being power-focused.”
“Go Marius, loseー!”
“Barra-sama is a goddess!”
Such shouts began to be heard.
The efforts of Barra, Hemrooth, and Katrina had dispelled the fear of Marius.
Marius, who had been performing so poorly, was not holding back.
He was careful not to use full power to avoid killing them, but other than that, he was completely serious.
So why was his performance so dismal? Simply put:
(I’m finally getting the hang of it!)
He was just now grasping the essence of fighting with Magic Bullets.
According to Raymond, magic is “the manifestation of magical power as imagined in the mind.” Magic Bullets, on the other hand, are simply the expulsion of magical power from the body.
Magic Bullets require the additional process of compressing the expelled magical power into a bullet-like form.
Since only Magic Bullets were permitted for defense, he had to be careful not to expel any excess magical power from his body aside from that used for creating the bullets, which was greatly taxing on his nerves.
These were all things he hadn’t done in the game, and the three minutes of the preliminary match were not enough to get used to it.
Marius didn’t realize it at the time, but he was able to adapt to these new tasks in just a few minutes thanks to his “Sage Correction” which granted him enhanced learning abilities.
Barra, Hemrooth, and Felix were the first to notice the change.
Then came Katrina and Weiss.
“Ah!”
Those who heard Weiss’s scream wondered what had happened, but were horrified and froze at the sight unfolding before them.
The Magic Bullets Marius created now numbered well over fifty.
And they were fired all at once.
(So many! And faster than before!?)
Barra, who had displayed prodigious talent multiple times, couldn’t react properly and was hit.
Hemrooth and Katrina were also hit, and all three were knocked down.
“What an incredible number, what a firing speed! Marius has overturned the situation in an instant with sheer power!”
Weiss’s scream echoed in the now silent venue.
“It feels like he’s just finished his warm-up.”
Felix’s commentary sounded like a death sentence to many.
Hemrooth, then Barra, and finally Katrina got back up in that order.
Seeing this, Marius began creating new Magic Bullets… approximately one hundred.
“Wh, what is this…? Mr. Fe-Felix? Could it be that Marius, until now, was actually holding back?”
Weiss, unable to hide his fear in his tone, received a reply from Felix, who managed to maintain his composure.
“No, it gives me the impression that he’s finally getting used to it and can unleash his true power. …But that’s impossible, surely.”
“H, hah… That can’t be, right? If that were the case, Marius would have been fighting solely on his innate strength until now. After all, creating Magic Bullets is a fundamental part of mage training.”
Nervous laughter rose from the venue.
Everyone assumed Felix was making a joke to lighten the mood.
“Nah, there’s no way that’s true.”
“To be that strong without training… he could beat Auraniess easily.”
“Mr. Felix is interesting, or rather, he’s an elf!”
Slowly but surely, the atmosphere in the venue began to liven up.
The three facing him, along with everyone else, began to suspect that what Felix had said might actually be true.
Hemrooth, who had nurtured many students who grew like sponges absorbing water, was stunned by Marius’s growth potential, which resembled that of his own students.
(Could it be… but there’s no other explanation…)
His control was still rough, but it was gradually improving.
He was undoubtedly growing during the match.
Possessing power equal to past heroes was one thing.
But to be in such an unfinished state… was that even permissible?
A irreparable crack formed in Hemrooth’s resilient spirit.
(Wh-what is this…)
Katrina was crushed by the desperate situation.
She chided her own weak desire to stay down and not get up, gritting her teeth and rising to her feet because she could not show further disgrace for the sake of her homeland.
It was this patriotism and sense of duty that narrowly pushed Katrina, whose spirit felt like it was dying, forward.
The horde of Magic Bullets unleashed by Marius had reached two hundred.
(Is Marius-sama perhaps surprisingly young?)
Barra mused about unrelated matters, thinking that an old person couldn’t possess such growth potential.
Since he always hid his face with a hood, one could only guess about his age.
Being relentlessly beaten by the swarm of Magic Bullets yet still thinking such thoughts proved Barra to be quite tough.
It was rare for someone to maintain their fighting spirit without their heart breaking, even when Marius displayed his power.
(Could this be… a development that benefits me!?)
Regardless of the motive.
“Match End!”
“Well, the developments kept changing, making it a very watchable match.”
Felix wiped his brow as he summarized.
As he said, Katrina initially took the lead, then Barra reversed it, Hemrooth showed his presence, and as the three-way battle ensued, Marius suddenly grew.
The final two minutes were a one-sided affair.
“The scores are: Marius with two hundred and sixty points for first place, Barra with twenty-four points for second, Hemrooth with twenty-two points for third, and Katrina with nineteen points for fourth!”
Marius’s total became two hundred and eighty-five points, Barra’s forty-four, Hemrooth’s thirty-seven, and Katrina’s twenty-nine.
“Individually, Marius takes the overall lead with a stunning reversal of three hundred and seventy-two points. Second place goes to Barra with one hundred and forty-six points, third to Hemrooth with ninety-nine points, Katrina rises to fourth with fifty-nine points, and Philip comes in fifth with fifty-three points!”
“My word, that was an incredible comeback.”
“Indeed. In terms of nations, Filat wins. This is their first victory in three tournaments. Second place is Ranleo, who, despite coming in second, showcased the power of a magical superpower.”
“And the rest are omitted.”
Laughter finally returned to the previously silent venue.
“Don’t just skip over us,” someone said with a wry smile.
