TBAGM Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Part 2

“Th-Then we will begin the third match.”

After the weapon inspection was finished, Mint and Loren took their assigned positions.

Loren fought by making use of his large build and swinging an axe imbued with water magic.

For a mage like Mint, Loren was the most troublesome kind of opponent, one who fought through sheer force. If he got inside her guard, it would be all over.

And yet there was not a shred of anxiety in her.

(Sorry, Loren, but we’ve got a monster of an Advisor on our side. This is the fruit of that monster’s guidance. I’ll show you.)

Mint turned a smile on Loren.

That smile, on the face of someone who should have been at a disadvantage, sent a chill down his spine.

“R-Ready… fight!”

Though even he was trembling from the pressure reaching him, the referee still opened the match.

“I’m going all out from the very start! 【Water Blessing】!”

Loren activated his skill the moment the battle began.

That skill was the very origin of the name Azure Sea Whitecaps. Normally, it was nothing more than a low-level skill that granted resistance to the water element, but by raising it to A-class, he had evolved it into a powerful ability.

Its effect was complete control over water. It was a cheat skill that let him do anything with water.

That was why Mint could not use water magic in this match. The moment she did, Loren would seize control of it and cause her to destroy herself.

“Oraaaaaaaahhhhhh!”

Loren lowered his massive axe and charged at Mint.

There was not the slightest opening in that charge. He remained wary of every possible move she could make as he came in.

After all, Azure Sea Whitecaps had already lost the first two matches to utterly abnormal tactics. It was only natural for him to suspect that Mint might have grown stronger as well.

“【Ice Wall】!”

Mint discarded her chant and instantly cast a hindrance spell.

The magic she unleashed rose up like a wall in Loren’s path, blocking his advance.

But it served only to buy her a brief moment.

“That won’t stop me!”

Loren swung his axe and used the momentum to smash the wall apart.

This was magic cast by the genius Mint. Every spell she used should have surpassed others in both precision and potency. Yet Loren destroyed it with absurd ease.

This was the power of the axe wielder called the strongest in the Fereia Kingdom.

“Sorry about this! I don’t hold back just because my opponent’s a woman! Hah!”

“【Defensive Barrier】, ngh!”

Closing the distance in an instant, Loren slammed his axe into Mint’s side.

The sheer force of it was on an entirely different level from other axe users. Since she had cast a defensive spell at the last second, she was only sent flying, but if her reaction had been even slightly slower, her ribs would have been shattered.

“Whew, you really are monstrously strong.”

“That’s my best quality!”

Mint pulled away from Loren and steadied her ragged breathing.

She did not have Marcus’s striking power, nor did she have Alterna’s shooting ability.

The only thing she possessed was the magic she had pursued to the utmost.

No matter how high the wall before her might have been, the effort she had put in until now and the knowledge she had learned became the force that drove her onward.

“【Levitation】!”

Using 【Parallel Casting】, which Lloyd had drilled into her, Mint cast a levitation spell.

Levitation magic was on a completely different level when it came to the complexity of its spell structure. It should have been impossible to use it simultaneously with another technique.

That was why no one expected her to attack while remaining airborne.

“【Wind Cutter】!”

Mint manifested numerous 【Wind Cutter】 spells in midair and fired them at Loren.

Loren responded in kind, swinging his axe blessed by water and sending blades of water flying.

The slashes from both sides exploded in midair with a thunderous roar.

Loren was canceling out multiple spells. Mint was casting multiple spells at once.

The spectators watching this battle from another dimension seemed less excited than relieved.

“Thank goodness. This is what a fight’s supposed to look like.”

“Yeah. What we had before wasn’t even a fight. What the hell was that, smashing a defensive barrier with bare fists?”

“That mana shooter was insane too. Every single shot hit like advanced magic. What kind of joke was that?”

A clash between A-rank adventurers was, by nature, a rare spectacle that people normally never got to see.

But this time, the appetizers alone had already left the audience full.

After witnessing unknown monsters like a Mana Shooter and an Arcane Pugilist, the spectators found this match oddly underwhelming.

Mint puffed out her cheeks a little at their reaction.

(So you’d rather watch Alterna and Marcus than me? Fine then. I’ll wake you all up.)

Not all A-ranks were equal.

There were A-ranks closer to B-rank, and A-ranks closer to S-rank.

The difference in strength between them was so vast that it hardly felt like they belonged to the same class. There was enough of a gap that another class could probably have been made in between.

And yet no such subdivision existed within A-rank. In this country, merely reaching the A-rank standard meant you were treated as one of the strongest. The S-rank above it was only a formal rank reserved for exceptional monsters.

Luce, the man Marcus had fought, might have been A-rank, but among them he had been on the weaker side.

“Loren. Let’s do this seriously.”

“Works for me! If you’re serious, Mint, then I’ll get serious too!”

Loren and Mint belonged to the category of A-ranks closest to S-rank.

The sight of the two of them clashing was on an entirely different plane from the second match.

“Haaaaaaaaahhh!”

“Seiyaaaaaahhh!”

Roaring, the two of them closed the distance between them in an instant.

Loren unleashed slashes wrapped in water, while Mint cast support magic on herself and used blades of wind to knock his attacks aside.

Their battle unfolded at a speed that B-rank adventurers could barely follow with their eyes. To ordinary spectators, all that registered were metallic clashes and shockwaves.

“What in the world is happening!?”

“I think Loren and Mint are trading blows!”

“Mint’s a mage, and she’s actually keeping up with Loren!?”

Even without fully understanding what they were seeing, the spectators cried out in excitement.

The only reason Mint was able to keep up with Loren’s attacks at all was because he was an axe user.

Axe users lacked agility, but made up for it with brute strength. That was why Mint’s stats were just barely enough for her to keep pace.

“Ora ora ora ora!”

“Haaaaaaaaah!”

The two of them carved at each other again and again, wearing each other down.

Of course, Mint was exhausting herself faster, since she was using two spells at the same time.

(Why is she fighting like this? This only puts me at an advantage!)

That was what Loren thought as he traded blows with Mint.

Once their abilities were this evenly matched, it became a battle of stamina. Even simply swinging a staff built up physical fatigue, so as time passed, Mint’s arms would eventually stop rising properly, and Loren would win in the end.

There was no way Mint would fail to realize something so basic that it could be called Adventuring 101. That was what kept nagging at Loren.

But at the same time, she was deliberately choosing to fight on his turf. That undoubtedly made this an opportunity as well.

Loren gave a light leap backward and put a suitable distance between himself and Mint.

Resting his axe on his shoulder, he lowered his stance and prepared to unleash the finishing blow.

“【Aquaberg】! Third Form!”

Loren’s secret technique, 【Aquaberg】.

It was a technique derived from 【Water Blessing】, and it had four forms: First, Second, Third, and the ultimate technique.

The higher the number, the greater the power, which meant the Third Form packed tremendous force. As for the ultimate technique, it was not something one got to witness very often.

“Oh? So you really are trying to finish me off.”

Mint released 【Levitation】 and dropped back down to the ground. Then she stared at Loren, who was poised in a gathering stance ahead of her.

Loren was famous for never using 【Aquaberg】 on anything other than monsters. It was because it held enough power to kill a person.

And yet he had chosen to use 【Aquaberg】 here. That alone was proof that he acknowledged Mint as a powerful opponent.

“Loren’s 【Aquaberg】!? This is my first time seeing it!”

“Well, obviously! He’s famous for only using 【Aquaberg】 inside dungeons!”

“Getting to see it right in front of us is incredible!”

The spectators’ eyes were shining too.

This was the secret technique used by the strongest axe wielder. They were about to witness its power with their own eyes. Anyone who was not excited would have been the strange one.

Loren flashed a fierce grin and roared.

“【Aqua Breaker】!”

Using his axe as a medium, the water granted by 【Water Blessing】 transformed, swelling to more than a hundred times its original size.

It became a gigantic axe made of water, so large it nearly filled the entire stage.

The audience stared wide-eyed in shock at the utterly otherworldly sight.

“Wh-What is that giant thing!?”

“It’s way too huge! How are you supposed to block something like that!?”

“So this is Loren’s 【Aquaberg】… If that hits you head-on, you’ll be blown to pieces!”

Faced with such an enormous axe, anyone would lose the will to fight.

There was nothing waiting beyond it except death.

And yet, even in that situation, there was one lone exception who could still smile.

“Heh heh heh…”

This situation, this position, this development. Mint wore a twisted smile, because everything was unfolding exactly as she had expected.

(So Lloyd had predicted this situation too.)

The Mint from before she met Lloyd would have forfeited here. No human could cast magic capable of standing against 【Aquaberg】.

But the Mint of today was different.

(This is where I shatter 【Aquaberg】. This is the scene Lloyd saw.)

“Dual Formula Deployment! 【Rail Lancer】! 【Large】!”

Mint cried out in a sharp voice, as if proudly displaying her magic to the world.

On both her left and right, two enormous spell formulas unfolded, layered over and over again.

The eyes of the audience, who had been captivated by Loren’s 【Aqua Breaker】, all turned toward Mint.

“Hey… hey, hey, hey!?”

“Dual Formula Deployment!? What the hell is that!?”

“And that spell, 【Rail Lancer】… isn’t that an original spell!?”

The wave of shock from the crowd showed no sign of fading.

Formula Deployment was a method of activating magic in place of chanting. Instead of constructing the spell formula in one’s mind, the caster used mana to unfold it in a visible form. Since the formula was being visualized, there was no room for mistakes. The spell could not be cast unless the caster understood it perfectly.

On the other hand, Formula Deployment allowed enormous spells to be used in an instant. One might think it unnecessary for Mint, since she did not chant in the first place, but that assumption would have been entirely wrong.

(Loren, your mistake was not trying to understand why I chose to fight you at close range.)

Simply put, a spell formula was a prepared stock.

While engaging in close combat, Mint had completed the formulas for 【Rock Lancer】 and 【Wind Wave】, then used 【Parallel Casting】 to create 【Rail Lancer】.

And now she was attempting to fuse 【Large】 into that already fused spell.

“Nngh… done!”

This time, because she had taken the time to construct the formulas in advance, she had managed to fuse even such advanced magic.

In practice, once a formula had been built, it required no further thought. That meant she could devote all of her thinking purely to the fusion process.

(I’ll use formulas for this from now on too.)

And so Mint steadily climbed another step up the staircase toward becoming a monster, though she herself never noticed it.

“Fusion Formula Deployment! 【Large Rail Lancer】!”

Mint unfolded the fused formula and brought a gigantic spell into being.

This too was a gigantic spear of rock and a controlled gale powerful enough to fill the entire stage.

Faced with magic on the same level as 【Aqua Breaker】, the spectators could only stare in shock.

“Hey, hey, hey!? What is that spell!?”

“The magic fused together!? And it’s that huge! It’s as big as 【Aqua Breaker】!”

“Magic fusion isn’t supposed to be possible! How is this happening…?”

“So this is the real A-rank… This is way too insane!”

The spectators watched the match as though they were witnessing the ultimate clash between colossal monsters.

And that climactic showdown came to an end almost immediately.

The two of them roared as they unleashed the full extent of their power.

“Smash it to pieces!”

“Pierce through!”

Loren brought the enormous axe down at Mint, and Mint launched her massive spear straight at Loren.

Their two spells collided with a thunderous explosion.

“““Gulp…”””

Dust billowed into the air, and the spectators held their breath as they watched the stage, barely able to see through it.

Mint’s ultimate technique, 【Large Rail Lancer】, had clashed with Loren’s secret art, 【Aqua Breaker】.

The management had already layered the stage with multiple defensive barriers, so the audience was unharmed, but several of those barriers had shattered. The spectators could only stand there in stunned silence at the sheer force of it, something none of them had ever experienced before.

Little by little, the dust began to settle, and the result of the battle came into view.

“Good grief… what unbelievable power…”

A shadow with a heavily muscled frame began to emerge from the dust.

Even without seeing the face, that build alone made it obvious who it was.

“D-Did Loren win!?”

“That voice is Loren’s!”

“So even Mint couldn’t overcome 【Aqua Breaker】, huh?”

That was what the spectators began saying one after another when they saw the figure. But among them, there was one lone voice that objected.

“No, wait a second. Doesn’t Loren look… strange?”

It was only one person’s voice, and no one paid it any mind.

But the truth of those words was proven almost immediately.

“To think… I’d be the one to lose…”

“My mana’s run dry too. This is the first time I’ve ever had to go all out like this.”

Perhaps no longer able to stay conscious, Loren pitched forward and collapsed face-first onto the ground. Then, as if taking his place, Mint slowly rose from where she had been lying.

The spectators let out bizarre cries of disbelief.

“““Wha!?”””

She had defeated Loren, the man known as the strongest axe wielder, the guildmaster of the third-ranked guild.

A single mage had defeated an axe wielder.

That alone was more than enough to shatter the fixed idea that mages were weak in close combat.

“““Ooooooooooooooooooh!!”””

At that moment, the arena was swept up in a wave of jubilant cheers from the crowd.

†