by Yuu Tanaka
The crowd roared again. It was familiar by now. They received Fran with feverish enthusiasm. And here I thought they were just here for the finals.
What about Phelms? He’d said he only wanted to reach the semifinals the last time we talked. I hoped he hadn’t lost his motivation.
“There he is.” Fran directed her gaze towards the lean gentleman at the other end of the stadium.
I hate to admit it, but he looks like he’s in top shape.
Phelms smiled casually as he walked into the ring. He wasn’t nervous, and I knew he wasn’t about to go easy on Fran, either. His oppressive aura was more apparent when he was right in front of us. He was like a deep river, as the old cliché went—calm on the surface, with a strong current rushing underneath. I didn’t expect any less from the veteran A-Rank.
Good.
Yeah, for you.
Fran would be disappointed if Phelms wasn’t at the top of his game.
“Coming in from the East Gate: Dragon Hunter Phelms! He’s a retired adventurer, but this old dandy can still run circles around his spry juniors! He may be fighting for third place, but his old strength is alive and well!”
Phelms wore his usual light armor, if you could call it that—a white shirt and black slacks. The man looked like a butler who had taken off his suit jacket. Of course, if you looked closer, you’d see it was all made of dragon materials. Scales were even woven into the fabric of his shirt to reinforce it.
“Hello. It’s been a while.”
“Hm.”
“Would you be upset if I said that I didn’t expect to see you here?” he asked.
“I feel the same way about you.”
“Ha ha ha. You got me there.”
We’d fully expected Royce to win his earlier match, but the old man had proven his mettle. I didn’t know what to expect from his strings. How did you even fight like that, anyway? Most worrying of all was his combat experience. That was one way to overcome our superior stats. If we were more experienced, we could’ve handled Amanda’s reckless tactic yesterday.
“The young rising star versus the wise former A-Rank! Who will win this battle of extremes?!”
“Me,” said Fran.
“Ah, but you’re mistaken. I am going to win.”
Fran readied her sword and Phelms dropped into his fighting stance. He looked like a karate fighter, with his spools of thread probably hidden under his gloves. I checked the threads out, just in case.
Name: King Baleen Battle Wire
Attack: 100-489; Mana: 500; Durability: 500
Mana Conductivity: C-A
Skills: Timespace Element, Flash Element, Ocean Element, Frost Element
Name: Dragon-Eater Spider Thread
Attack: 55-455; Mana: 300; Durability: 700
Mana Conductivity: D-B+
Skills: Flame Element; Sand Element; Land Element; Storm Element; Steel Element; Thunder Element
That was a lot of elements. Could he change each thread at will? I guessed their attack power changed depending on their length and thickness.
“The combatants look ready to tear each other to pieces!”
Fran and Phelms locked eyes.
“Let the match for third place…begin!”
I immediately launched the spells I had prepared.
“Thunderbolt.”
Gale Hazard.
Blaze Wave.
Acid Venom.
Our spell salvo should work against Phelms, even if it failed against Amanda. His threads would conduct enough electricity for Thunder Magic to be effective. The wind spell was there to blow his threads away, and I threw in a flame spell just in case they were flammable. The poisonous acid was there just in case they weren’t.
Our spells mowed down the threads Phelms sent after us. The strategy worked for defense, but our spells were soon overwhelmed by the sheer multitude of wires. I felt powerful mana emanate from each thread. Magic wasn’t going to be enough.
We have to get closer.
“Hm.”
Phelms had the advantage in ranged combat and could easily dissipate any spell we threw at him. Ironically, if we had an extra couple hundred meters between us, we would have the upper hand. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough space. We couldn’t retreat far enough to escape his threads.
The only thing left to do was get into close quarters. We decided to forego Physical Immunity this time, Amanda’s million lashes still fresh in our minds.
We need to get closer.
Yeah.
We needed speed. Speed enough to break through the threads unscathed.
“Flashing Thunderclap!”
“Hrm!”
Black Lightning accelerated Fran forwards, the sudden boost in speed startling the veteran. He should’ve anticipated Flashing Thunderclap after watching Fran’s fight with Gaudartha, but there was a difference between watching it and seeing it activate in front of your eyes.
He sent more threads after her, but there was no stopping us. Besides, speed wasn’t the only way to avoid his wires.
Teacher, the plan!
Got it! Dimension Shift!
Short Jump!
He could tell where would go, so I used Dimension Shift to cover our tracks. The Timespace spell allowed attacks to go right through us. Activating it took a few seconds, but I just needed it to cover the gap that teleportation left in our defense.
Phelms looked up, read our move, and surrounded the space above him with threads, but Fran slipped through all of them unscathed.
“Hrm! Timespace Magic…! Dimension Shift, I see!”
He’d figured it out?! I hated dealing with veterans. They had ways of dealing with everything, even Timespace manipulation!
“Haaa!”
Fran brought me down from the sky, but Phelms had taken this into account. A barrier of threads encased the old man, stopping us mid-plunge. Each individual wire was reinforced with mana, dissipating the force of Fran’s sword. Despite our advantage in skills, we didn’t know how to deal with these threads. Fran couldn’t see what he would do, even with her Sword King Mastery.
Well, we’re just getting started!
The black lightning covering Fran’s body ran down my blade. I hoped the current would run through the threads and electrocute Phelms. It was a noble wish.
“That’s not going to work.”
“Hrmph!”
The power of the black lightning faded instead of shocking the old man. He had spun enough threads to disperse the electrical current. Fran began hacking away at the barrier, dishing out more electricity with every slash. However, the barrier held. How did he handle this so well?!
One more time!
Dimension Shift.
Short Jump.
Create Clones!
I repeated the teleport strategy, but this time I made clones to provide a distraction. They would be destroyed in a second, but that was okay. Phelms wouldn’t ignore them, even if he knew they were clones, especially since they had physical bodies. Watching copies of myself die was unsettling, but I was getting used to it. Still, I didn’t expect the shape my three copies took this time.
“Hm?”
What?
Name: Clone
Attack: 100; Mana: 50; Durability: 100
Mana Conductivity: C
Instead of creating human bodies that reflected my past life, I made swords. They were exact replicas, and Phelms became more wary of them than I expected. His concentration was split between the multiple swords that suddenly surrounded him. I could ponder why I’d made swords instead of bodies later. We had a battle to win.
Go!
I sent my replicas flying into Phelms. Well really, I just let them fall. I didn’t expect any of them to do significant damage. He destroyed them with his threads in one flick. They didn’t have the durability to last, but they made for a good distraction. We were lucky that Phelms had just lost to Hundred Blades Forlund. He was really scared of our replicas. In fact, he paid more attention to them
than he did to us.
“Tsch!”
Eat this!
Fran accelerated with Flashing Thunderclap, amplified with myriad other spells. It was her fastest attack so far today. She broke through the thread barrier and charged Phelms. He didn’t see it coming, and we took advantage of his surprise.
“What?!”
Phelms dodged the bulk of our blow, but a thin line of blood flowed from his arm. Nothing much, but I had coated my blade with Venomfang. I doubted it would do significant damage, considering his Abnormal Status Resistance. Still, I was hoping that the poison would throw him off a little bit. Manipulating that many threads must require his whole attention.
Fran pressed the advantage and went on the offense. She was doing a lot better now that we were at close quarters. Wounds began to pile up on Phelms’ body, and he jumped back to give himself more distance. Was he really that bad at melee? As we were about to give chase, however…
Fran, wait!
“Hrmph!”
A geyser of threads erupted from under Fran’s feet. They moved like tentacles, tracking her down to tie her up. Phelms must’ve set this up in case he got drawn into melee combat. We’d played right into his hands. Fran managed to dodge, thanks to her Trap Sense, but we needed to be more careful. Phelms’ Lay Trap level was pretty high, and there was no telling where his tripwires might be. Even worse, the old man had managed to escape. This left us in the red—Flashing Thunderclap had eaten away at Fran’s life while I spent mana on the Timespace spell. These wires were a lot more dangerous than I thought!
“One more!”
Yeah!
We charged forward with Dimension Shift. Phelms started to move away, but we were prepared for it this time.
Jet!
“Grrr!”
“What?!”
Jet stuck his face out of Phelms’ shadow and clamped his jaw around his ankle. We told Jet to wait for our signal, since we knew he couldn’t keep dodging Phelms’ innumerable threads. Phelms must’ve known about our direwolf, but had probably forgotten about him. Fran moved in for the kill, but Phelms’ defense proved too formidable.
“Grargh!”
“Jet!”
Blood dripped from Jet’s face as wounds opened up on his muzzle from the multitude of invisible threads. Jet yelped in pain and let go.
Jet, get back in the shadows!
“Arf…”
Phelms was a tough opponent for Jet, who focused on evasion more than defense. We should probably keep our distance if a single thread did him that much damage.
“Hmph!” Phelms made a large gesture as Fran continued her advance, creating a wall of wires.
Teacher!
On it!
We were ready to teleport and continue our charge, until we were suddenly thrown into the air.
“Gah!”
Another trap?!
It happened again. Tentacle-like threads chased after Fran as she tripped another wire. Phelms didn’t attack with his left hand, but that didn’t mean it was idle. The fingers moved intricately, unlike the grand gestures of his right. I had no way to be sure, but I assumed his left hand was the reason my Trap Sense going crazy.
We have to get rid of these threads!
Hm!
Burning them would be better than just dodging them.
“Inferno Burst.”
Inferno Burst!
Inferno Burst!
Inferno Burst!
We focused our flame spells on a single point. The move was similar to when the P.A. focused her spells on one point during the Lich fight. It wasn’t perfect, but it was far more powerful now that synergy gave it a penetrating property. The flaming snake chased him down, burning everything in its path. This should work!
To our surprise, Phelms managed to handle it. He whipped his threads around the flame to weaken it, which made sense. But then he threw himself into the fire.
“Hiiiiyaaa!”
He punched the roaring flames with his right hand. It was weaker now, sure, but it was still a blazing inferno! Was he going to sacrifice his own arm?
Before our shock could wear off, Phelms extinguished the flames entirely. His arms were now encased in woven mana threads. Paired with his high-level Flame Resistance, he was pretty much flameproof.
“They call me the Dragon Hunter for a reason, you know. Their breath tends to be quite fiery.”
Phelms had fought dragons all his life, and our spells did resemble a dragon’s breath attack. No wonder he handled them so easily.
We switched gears and turned to the wind element.
“Wind Cutter.”
Tornado Lance.
Gale Hazard.
Hexagon Tornado.
But Phelms took our wind spells in stride, too. He broke up the gusts of wind with his threads, even forming walls to divert them away from his body. I guess there were dragons who produced hurricanes with their wings and breath, too. He handled the attack with ease, as though he had seen it a thousand times.
With fire and wind out of the question, we were forced to resort to thunder and Timespace.
Let’s start with Timespace.
Not that Timespace Magic offered many offensive spells to begin with. Dimension Sword was the only one that fit the bill, and even that could only be used up close. We warped in and fired one off. The spell moved through physical objects to cut a specific point in space. In exchange for this extraordinary penetrative capability, it had a very short range. You also couldn’t change the spell’s trajectory, and moving even an inch would cause it to miss. Given that Phelms was mostly stationary, I hoped it would land.
“I’ve seen that before.”
“Tch!”
Earth Digger!
“That one, too.”
But the veteran proved his experience. He knew Dimension Sword and dodged it completely. I thought taking the ground from under him would prevent him from moving, but he predicted this move and formed a web over the pitfall.
“Now it’s my turn!” he said.
“These threads…!”
Some of the threads formed sickles and whipped into Fran. The smaller threads formed spears and launched at her from all sides. Each point was strong enough to pierce plate armor. The hidden threads were even more dangerous. On top of being practically invisible, these thin wires were charged with Phelms’ mana and sharp enough to lop off an arm or two. Our barrier managed to hold them off, but we couldn’t let our guard down.
Fran, things are only going to get worse for us the longer this drags out. He can probably keep making threads indefinitely. There’s no end to them!
Hm! Got it.
Phelms continued weaving, despite all our attempts at burning, cutting, and destroying them. I didn’t know if it was his Create Mana Thread skill or something about his equipment, but the wires kept on coming. He was even able to control the threads after they were cut off, further adding to his web.
Teacher, use Thunder Magic.
Sure.
He’d dispersed our thunder spells earlier, but there had to be a limit to that. A spell like Thunderbolt should be able to overload him. Black Thunderfall would immediately kick Fran out of her awakened state, so we held off on using that for now. Its area of effect was far too focused. We needed something that would prevent Phelms from running away.
Thor’s Hammer!
The Level 8 thunder spell covered a sufficient amount of ground—not enough to set the plains on fire, but good enough for the purposes of this arena.
“Hrmph!”
Get those threads out of here!
A giant magic circle formed over the arena, and large pillar of lightning shot out, crushing everything like the hammer of an angry god. We could mitigate its wrath with Fran’s Thunder Resistance and my Dimension Shift. Phelms should be the only one fried to a crisp.
“…!”
Seriously?!
But it was not to be. I lost count of how many times our expectations had been subverted today. The th
ick bolt of lightning disintegrated upon touching a single thread. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
But that was a high-level thunder spell!
“This is a barrier I prepared specifically for thunder dragons. It’s served me well, even after all these years.”
There goes lightning! His weave must be strong if it could fend off thunder dragons. I realized there must be a dragon for every element, and started having second thoughts about using magic.
“Tidal Weave!”
Fran’s shock at seeing our attack fail hadn’t worn off, and Phelms exploited this chance by sending a wall of threads that looked like a tsunami. Should I teleport us away, or break through it with sword and spell?
I’m going in!
Got it. Dimension Gate!
It was Phelms’ turn to be shocked as he saw us charge through his wall. Dimension Gate was much easier to control than Short Jump. He tried to get away from Fran as she stepped out of the gate, but it was too late.
“Haaa!”
Fran slashed right across Phelms’ body. I gasped in surprise, startled at the odd sensation of cutting through his flesh. It was a lot more brittle than I remember.
This is…!
“Hm…?”
A dummy!
Threads burst out of the body instead of blood. He had crafted a puppet of himself, even casting a spell on it to make it look like him—all in the time it took us to break through his wire wall. Fran shook off the threads and looked for him. He was right behind us!
Swoop! Wires shot from Phelms’ hand and looped around Fran’s neck. It was only a few strands, but they could easily chop off her head.
“Ha!” Fran dodged and pivoted. She tossed me into her free hand and stabbed Phelms’ right side.
“What?!” Phelms contorted his body, evading our counterattack. He whirled and launched more threads from the back of his hand.
Fran pressed on, cutting through the threads that were reaching for her neck, but Phelms was persistent. He set tripwires around Fran’s feet to disrupt her. She only managed to keep her feet attached thanks to her barrier. She made another attempt at stabbing him, but he leaned back like a limbo dancer. However, that was the limit of his movement. She immediately brought her sword down on him. He shouldn’t be able to dodge that.