Chapter 339
"Whoa~ Whoa~ Savage."
By the narrowest margin, Milena dodged Maelyn's attack and clicked her tongue.
A section of the fortress wall was frozen solid, like an ice kingdom. Shaking her arms to brush off the frost clinging to her body, she looked at Maelyn.
"Nice to meet you."
Before a strong opponent, etiquette demanded formality. Milena lightly held the hem of her school skirt and lowered her body in greeting.
"Milena Hartz from Class G."
"Maelyn Villene, Class A."
Maelyn replied curtly, almost spitting out the words, while weaving a magic circle above her palm.
"Wait, Maelyn!"
At that moment, Dick, who had been completely immobilized by Milena's curse, shouted from behind.
"Watch out! That one is... Uwaak!"
Dick's body was lifted onto a chunk of ice that had shot up from the ground. He slipped and fell, sliding down the slanted ice like a slide.
Before they knew it, the icy path stretched far into the distance.
"You're in the way, so stay far away, commoner."
"No! Listen to me... Uwaaaah!"
Riding the ice slide, Dick disappeared at an astonishing speed. Milena looked slightly disappointed.
"I was planning to finish him off quietly, too bad. Still—"
Her gaze, which had followed the retreating Dick, shifted back toward Maelyn.
"Compared to some no-name, it's better to take down a named one, right?"
"Funny."
Maelyn sneered, and Milena smiled back.
Shaaah!
Between necromancers, there was no such thing as a starting signal. A glacial spear shot out from Maelyn's palm, and Milena dodged it simply by darting to the side.
Her physical ability is impressive, on the level of a Magical Combat candidate.
Maelyn made the assessment instantly.
Kuguk!
Kuguguk!
Now it was Milena's turn.
When she swept both hands through the air, bricks ripped from the fortress floor floated up and flew toward Maelyn.
"Petty tricks."
With a dismissive wave of her arm, Maelyn reacted.
Kwaaaaduduk!
The difference in mass was decisive. The wave of glacier from her palm swallowed all the flying bricks and surged toward Milena.
But once again, Milena avoided it easily, shifting just a little to the side.
'So you're just going to keep dodging like that, huh?'
Quickly readying her next move, Maelyn stepped onto a magic circle on the ground.
'This works like a charm on Magical Combat types.'
Centered on her feet, a wide field of ice spread out. Standing still, Milena swayed once.
"Wow, ice with such a low friction coefficient, amazing! Did you mix in a curse formula, too?"
Without answering, Maelyn raised both arms high, and the surrounding ice floated into the air.
When she brought her arms down, countless ice shards fell toward Milena. Trying to flee in haste, Milena wobbled again, finally slipping on the ice and landing on her backside with a squeal.
The ice fell over her head.
Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!
As a mountain of ice piled around Milena, Maelyn smiled in satisfaction.
Cut off her escape with the ice field, then finish with the stored ice. Even she thought it was a perfect victory.
"Wow."
Just as she turned to leave, Maelyn felt her heart drop and looked back.
"Impressive."
All around the still-seated Milena, the mountain of ice Maelyn had dropped was piled high, yet not a single shard had touched her.
Maelyn's expression hardened.
'What? Did I miscontrol it?'
Milena rose to her feet with a sinister smile, then instantly surged forward, Darkness flaring at her feet.
"Tch!"
Still fast.
Startled by that momentum, Maelyn raised an ice wall in front of herself.
"Hoit!"
With a strange shout, Milena leapt with incredible power, vaulting over the ice wall in a single bound.
"Idiot, aren't you?"
Backing away, Maelyn hurled an ice spear at the airborne Milena. But with one hand holding her skirt and striking a dainty pose midair, Milena giggled.
"The idiot is you."
The precisely aimed ice spear missed Milena by the smallest margin.
Maelyn's eyes shook in shock.
'No, what the hell is she?!'
Taat!
Landing on the ground, Milena charged with killing intent blazing in her eyes.
Swinging her left hand as she ran, the handful of Maelyn's ice she had grabbed earlier scattered in the form of shuriken.
"How dare you use my ice!"
"Heehee."
It was Milena charging from the front, while the ice shuriken spun and flew in from all directions toward Maelyn.
No room to evade. Raising ice walls on all sides would take too long.
"My win~"
The curse magic circle flickering in Milena's right hand headed straight for Maelyn's face.
Kugugugugugugu!
But at the critical moment, Maelyn vanished from Milena's sight.
"Ah!"
In the blink of an eye, Maelyn stood atop an ice pillar that had shot up from the ground. Milena's right hand swiped at empty air, and the shuriken struck harmlessly into the pillar.
Not escaping sideways or backward, but upward.
Looking down at Milena from above, Maelyn irritably raised a leg.
"Tch!"
And as she stomped on the pillar, kwaaaarrr! it collapsed, the ice debris crashing down onto Milena.
"Fall!"
Ku-goong!
Kung!
Kukukukukung!
Of course, this time as well—
"You know, I've always been in the upper squad—"
Out of all that ice, not a single shard touched Milena.
"You're the strongest opponent I've ever faced, Maelyn!"
Jumping down from the pillar to land on the ground, Maelyn panted as she glared at Milena.
'This is my first time facing a necromancer whose main specialty is telekinesis, too!'
From Maelyn's perspective, it couldn't be more troublesome. Milena was simply twisting the trajectories of incoming projectiles with telekinesis.
She wasn't strong enough to steal and control heavy, forceful magic outright, but just slightly altering the path of anything aimed at her was enough to make her practically immune to ranged attacks.
On top of that, this Milena wasn't just adept in Darkness Dynamics telekinesis, but also in Magical Combat and curses.
How could a monster who could use three subjects at a major-specialist level not be a special admissions student?
"Alright, here I come, let's go!"
Pabababababat!
Milena came running, swinging both arms violently. Maelyn, knowing it wouldn't work, still had to fire ice to slow her opponent down.
Darkness was gradually being consumed.
* * *
"Uuugh, I'm dying here."
Dick was walking while gasping for breath. Soldiers at his sides were supporting him.
"A-are you alright? Tchiik!"
"Yeah, my body just feels disgustingly heavy, that's all."
They were heading toward the site of Maelyn and Milena's battle. As the fierce scene of ice surging and shattering drew closer, the soldiers' expressions darkened.
"Tchiik! You're already injured, going any farther will be dangerous, won't it?"
"I've got information that needs to be delivered right now."
In Team 7, Dick and Maelyn clashed over everything. Their personalities were complete opposites, and so were their combat styles.
Dick's style was to thoroughly dig into his opponent's weaknesses with his own unique information network and analytical skills, then crush them.
Maelyn, on the other hand, was a lone wolf. She valued only her own strength.
Of course, if she had information on her opponent, she'd use it, but her basic belief was that if she herself was strong and upright, nothing else was a problem, and any time spent analyzing the opponent should instead be used to improve her own abilities.
But if Maelyn knew that her opponent, Milena, was using telekinesis-type magic, Dick believed she would have no chance of winning.
Against a telekinetic, Maelyn would never use Darkness Flame type magic.
Fire was far easier to disrupt with telekinesis than ice.
Because of its color and heat, a telekinetic could immediately recognize and counter it. Use Darkness Flame at the wrong time, and the user might get burned instead. Simply put, it was a counter.
Against a telekinetic, the most effective attacks were wind-type, which showed little sign of approach, or earth-type, which rose from the ground and was harder to respond to. But Maelyn was still at beginner level with both elements.
So she'd just keep firing ice, and once Maelyn's Darkness ran out, it would be her defeat.
But Dick knew the truth, Milena wasn't using telekinesis at all.
She didn't know the first thing about telekinesis, her Darkness Dynamics grade was near the bottom, and the only subjects she excelled at were Magical Combat and curses.
"Please don't let me be too late... huh?"
The two girls, overheated from fighting, had left the fortress wall and were now battling in the residential area between the outer and inner walls. They leapt from rooftops, fiercely trading black magic blows.
"Ah, crap."
Seeing them in the residential district, Dick's expression turned to despair.
This damned 3-stack Exhaust showed no sign of ending. Maybe the formula was tangled, but with his pathetic Cancellation, he couldn't undo it.
This was why he hated curse users.
'What do I do?'
While fretting and lost in thought, Dick suddenly raised his head with a flash of realization.
"Lieutenant! Go to Simon— no, the Supreme Commander right now and tell him my message! As fast as possible!"
"What should I tell him? Tchiik!"
* * *
Tap.
Maelyn landed on the roof of an old shack, breathing hard.
Milena, looking as relaxed as ever, landed lightly on the roof beside her with a smile.
"Almost at your limit, right? How should I cook you?"
"You...!"
Maelyn spread her palm, sending a series of ice spikes flying.
"Predictable."
With light movements, Milena dodged the attacks and only twisted the direction of the ice that might have hit her.
But, being human, Milena sometimes made mistakes in control, and an ice spike would occasionally graze her body.
Ironically, Maelyn, who prided herself only on her own strength, now pinned her hopes on her opponent's mistakes.
'Humiliating!'
She clenched her fist.
Telekinesis and Magical Combat, the matchup was too disadvantageous. Even if her opponent had been a pure telekinetic, she would've had confidence in winning by sheer mass and power.
"Then, shall I finish this?"
Just as Milena was about to bring down the roof and charge—
Shweeee!
A sudden tearing sound filled the air.
"Mother!"
Thrown off balance, Milena ducked quickly.
A black arrow, dyed in Darkness, passed her and stuck into the nearby wall with a thud. Because of it, Milena tumbled off the roof and rolled across the ground.
"Owww! What the hell?!"
Milena's annoyed cry rang out, but Maelyn wasn't listening.
'An arrow?'
Maelyn turned her head. Simon, who should have been defending the city gate, stood there with a bow in hand, looking picturesque.
Though she couldn't see his face well from this distance, he soon returned to the wall to command the skeleton mages.
'Simon's clothes!'
Attached to the arrow was a piece of Simon's clothing and a note. Maelyn quickly unfolded the note to read its contents.
"...."
The reason he didn't use telecommunication but sent an arrow instead.
Realizing Simon's intent, she quickly kept a poker face. Folding the note and tucking it into her clothes, she heard a thunk! as Milena smashed through the roof and climbed up again.
"Forget the meddler, let's get back to it!"
As Milena charged, Maelyn leapt from the roof, running into a narrow alley with no one around.
Naturally, Milena was faster, and Maelyn lured her in close.
Just as Milena raised her palm to press a curse onto Maelyn's body—
Fwoooosh!
From Maelyn's palm, for the first time, a line of Darkness flame shot straight ahead.
And then—
"Aaaaargh!"
Milena, the one who hadn't let a single clean hit land until now, got caught by something so obvious.
Writhing in pain, Milena rolled across the ground as the flames consumed her.
It was ironic, the woman who hadn't allowed Maelyn even one solid strike was now engulfed by a simple flame blast.
"Strange."
Maelyn walked toward her.
"If you were a telekinetic, couldn't you reverse the fire the moment I breathed it out and burn me instead?"
"M-my mistake."
Milena forced a smile as she created a fire-quelling curse to barely put out the flames and stood up.
"There won't be a second mistake like—!"
From Maelyn's hand, a small fireball bounced toward her.
Puh-ong! Puh-buh-bung!
"Kh!"
The same Milena who had said there'd be no second mistake scrambled to dodge, even taking a few fireballs to the shoulder before collapsing onto the ground.
"Don't you think it's ridiculous yourself? Why can you control the direction of ice as a telekinetic, but not the direction of fire?"
Maelyn's smile was triumphant.
"...You dare toy with me?"