[Calyra’s POV]
The barrage of [Magic Missiles] finally came to an end, and two figures were already sprawled across the ground with their surroundings glowing brightly.
The protective enchantments had activated just before the spells could land a direct hit, confirming that both scholars had already been eliminated.
Unsurprisingly, they were the ones from Class E and Class D.
Calyra barely spared them another glance, since removing those two hardly changed anything. They had been the weakest members of Julian’s squad from the beginning, so she had never regarded either of them as a threat.
But the remaining three were.
All three had slipped through the barrage without taking a single direct hit, weaving between dozens upon dozens of projectiles without allowing even one to trigger their bracelets.
Her gaze shifted toward the ground around them.
The area struck by hundreds of [Magic Missiles] had been utterly torn apart, with shattered earth scattered everywhere and a vast crater now carved across a large stretch of the ground.
Then, through the lingering cloud of dust below, Calyra spotted Loden standing near the centre of the crater.
He coughed several times while waving one hand in front of his face, trying to clear away the dust surrounding him. Despite the destruction around him, that familiar playful smile was still hanging on his face.
"My, my... that was terrifying indeed."
Loden slowly tilted his head upward until his gaze met Calyra hovering above.
"Lady Calyra, are you planning to use that spell again?"
His eyes briefly wandered across the ruined ground before returning to her.
"May I advise you not to? It seems like quite the waste of mana for a whole lot of nothing, and just look at all the natural beauty of this island you’re destroying."
Calyra’s expression remained completely unchanged as she looked down at him.
"Waste of mana?" she repeated calmly. "You don’t need to worry about that, running out of mana has never been a concern of mine."
For a moment, Loden merely blinked at that shamelessly confident answer. Then, the corners of his lips slowly curled upward again, and his smile grew even more amused.
"Wow, that’s quite a statement... Lady Calyra truly is something else."
He rested his scythe against his shoulder before looking up at her again.
"But anyway, are you planning to stay up there hovering in the sky forever? Would you mind coming down for a moment, it’s rather difficult for us to fight you while you’re all the way up there. It’s unfair, my lady~"
Calyra gave him no answer at first, instead raising her staff as mana immediately began gathering around its tip.
"Not a chance."
Just as Calyra was about to unleash another spell, Loden’s voice suddenly reached her from below in a playfully sinister tone.
"Oh well, if that’s how you want to do this."
His smile slowly widened.
"Sure. I’ll play your game."
A second later, something suddenly emerged from his dimensional storage and attached itself firmly to his back.
Calyra’s narrowed slightly.
It looked like some kind of strange artifact, though she could not immediately tell what its purpose was.
Before she could inspect it further, darkness began creeping across Loden’s body and flowing toward the artifact behind him.
The darkness quickly wrapped around it, twisting and spreading outward as its shape began to change; two long structures extended from either side of Loden’s back, growing larger as more darkness gathered around them.
Within seconds, they had taken the shape of a massive pair of black wings.
Immediately, the wings swept downward with tremendous force, blasting dust and shattered earth away as Loden shot high into the sky.
His body spun through the air several times before he finally steadied himself across from Calyra. Then, with a heavy flap, the enormous dark wings spread wide behind him.
Loden rested his scythe casually near his thigh, his playful smile never leaving his face.
"Now, this is much more fair, right? So, how do I look? Enchanting enough?" He tilted his head slightly as the dark wings slowly beat behind him.
Calyra’s eyes lingered on the wings for a moment before returning to Loden. Her grip around her staff tightened slightly.
’This is getting more troublesome.’
Rising from somewhere below, a [Magic Missile] suddenly tore through the air toward Calyra at high speed, but she noticed it immediately and raised her staff.
Easily, she blocked the spell with her [Magic Barrier].
However, Calyra immediately noticed that Loden was gone.
Using the brief moment when her attention had shifted toward the attack below, Loden had already closed the distance between them.
His dark wings folded behind his back as he rushed straight toward her, his scythe sweeping through the air in a wide arc toward her side.
Calyra’s eyes narrowed as the curved blade rapidly filled her vision.
Even so....
[Blink]
The scythe sliced through empty air.
Calyra vanished at the last possible moment and reappeared several metres away, her long hair fluttering behind her as she quickly turned back toward him.
’So that was their plan.’
A moment to distract her.
With Loden now capable of fighting her in the air, that single moment was enough.
A deep chuckle suddenly escaped from Loden.
"Ah~ that little [Blink] trick of yours, what a terribly annoying spell—" Loden slowly turned around in the air, only to be met with an unpleasant surprise.
Having no intention of listening to his pointless blabbering, Calyra had already unleashed several barrages of ice spears toward him.
’Oh my?’
Acting purely on instinct, Loden swung and spun [Nightwither] around his body, blocking, parrying, and shattering the ice spears that came rushing toward him.
"Not even giving me a chance to—"
Before he could finish his sentence, the last ice spear shattered against his scythe, only for another barrage of [Magic Missiles] to emerge from behind the scattered shards.
Loden’s eyes widened.
’This woman is crazy!’
Darkness immediately surged from his body, rapidly taking shape into a barrier in front of him just as the projectiles reached him.
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
Loden immediately readied himself, fully expecting another follow-up attack from her, but strangely, nothing came.
’Hmm?’
It was then that another pair of screams suddenly came from below.
Quickly, Loden looked down.
The two remaining members of Julian’s squad had already been frozen solid from the neck down, thick ice binding their bodies to the shattered ground while leaving only their heads exposed.
Calyra calmly [Blink] beside them.
Before either scholar could struggle free, she simply reached down and shattered both of their bracelets.
Loden’s lips twitched.
’Ah~ she got us. That was quite clever. I didn’t expect her to flip the same trick.’
Calyra then raised her head and looked directly at him with a cold stare. "Since you wanted a fairer fight, Loden, why don’t we settle this one-on-one?"
An awkward laugh escaped from Loden as he scratched the side of his cheek.
"Lady Calyra, I’m afraid you misunderstood me. Three against you was what I considered a fair fight..."
His gaze shifted toward the two eliminated scholars below before slowly returning to her. "But one against you? Oh dear, I fear the odds have become terribly unfair. This is no longer a fight that I can win."
But then, his gaze shifted toward the blazing miniature sun hanging over the other side of the battlefield.
Slowly, a wicked smile crept across his face.
"Well... or so I thought."
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[Chapter 309: Take to the Sky]
Plot Points= 56,500 PP
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