The man who wore a mask swung his sword once again.
He swung it with such speed that a blur could be seen in the air along the path of his sword.
‘Ugh. Again?’
Nainiae’s face was already hideous, but now it was getting worse with her cringing.
By the looks of it, his sword appeared to be an ordinary iron sword without any special magical device attached to it.
However, just by swinging his sword, her opponent somehow destroyed all of the magic attacks that were targeted towards him.
‘I only heard theories about that being possible. To think I am witnessing it for real.’
Right around when the magic she launched dissipated, Nainiae coughed.
The black lights floating in the air shook for a moment.
‘No. Beta believes in me. I must return the favor. I must endure this…’
A narrow stream of black blood was flowing down from her lips.
Not wanting anyone to notice, Nainiae wiped off the blood using topside of her hand and started to cast magic once again.
Looking at the situation, she realized that, instead of shooting a powerful magic, it might be more effective to shoot smaller magic attacks in large numbers at once.
“Magic Missile.”
Numerous Magic Missiles appeared everywhere, not just in front of her hand, but also behind her. They looked like black, semi-transparent arrows.
With difficulty, Nainiae took a deep breath as her hand faltered.
If felt like her burnt face, which was from a chemical when she was at the Magic Tower, was hurting more than usual. The parts of her hand where her fingers were cut off were hurting as well.
‘Eat this!’
The situation changed.
Up to this point, there was one shot of magic coming at Riley at a time, but this time, there were several dozens of them.
Despite this,
“Is it a different magic this time?”
Nainiae’s masked opponent was not startled at all by the change in numbers. He was still calmly swinging his sword.
As if he was saying he had no reason to strike every single one of the missiles, he dodged a few and deflected a few.
For the ones he deflected, he deflected them toward other magic missiles to change their trajectory so that they would not hit him.
By this man’s swordplay, all of those magic missiles, which were launched for the sole purpose of piercing through this one man, ended up being scattered to the air or striking nearby buildings and structures.
“… They are getting lighter.”
After a quick sword dance, having completed his finish stance, the masked man said toward Nainiae in front of him,
“Unlike before, that was pretty light. I am not talking about just the decrease in numbers. The amount of mana in each is lighter as well.”
“…”
‘Is she trying to figure me out? Or…’
The masked man stopped talking. Instead, he looked at Nainiae’s chin.
Perhaps she was not able to completely wipe off all of the blood last time.
On her chin, there was still a bit of stain from her black blood.
“Nainiae. You can win, right?”
“…”
”Nainiae! Answer me! You can win, right?!”
From hearing Beta shouting from behind, Nainiae said,
“… Yes.”
She answered in exhaustion.
Her vision was already blurring.
It felt like she was about to collapse to the side, but Nainiae answered,
“Trust me. Beta, the favor you asked me… I will make sure to get it done.”
Along Nainiae’s cheek, which was red from the burn injury, a stream of pitch-black tear flew down.
It appeared that she had made up her mind.
She was bent on taking that man’s life.
***
‘Something… is not right.’
Riley sharpened his eyes. He thought about all of the magic attacks he deflected or dodged so far, and he suddenly turned his head.
Something was definitely odd.