Child Vs. Adult (2)

Professor Louis studied Leonard with open interest.

Body-hardening magic, is it.

According to Ethan’s report, Leonard Felix seemed to have picked up body-hardening magic on his own, the very moment his magic first awakened.

Body-hardening magic.

It let mana soak into the caster’s skin and muscle to strengthen the body. At a glance it looked easy to use and handy to have, but the reality ran the other way entirely.

A mage was the single strongest force a nation could field, the one piece that could flip the whole course of a war.

So when fighting broke out, mages were posted at the rear, where they were safest and where long-range magic could do the most damage. Body-hardening magic showed its true worth at the front, which meant its strength never got used at all.

On top of that, it lost efficiency twice over unless fine mana control and focus backed it up. If all you wanted was defense, a magic barrier did the job better, and close combat was the knights’ business anyway.

So in a sense it was only natural that body-hardening magic had started down the road to obsolescence.

And yet, at a mere nine years old, he can use body-hardening magic at that level.

Professor Louis’s anticipation only grew.

Let’s see it, then — just how far you can go.

He cast a spell with the staff’s help, and a huge mass of flame flared into being above the examination hall.

Is the professor even sane?

Apparently he’d meant it when he said there’d be no handicap. Monster-grade magic, aimed at a mere student! Meanwhile Leonard was straining just to keep his own power in check!

Leonard clicked his tongue in disbelief.

— FWOOOOSH!

Countless beams of light shot out of the flame and drove into the ground, and blast after blast of fire erupted in their wake. Leonard darted through the gaps between the heat-rays, racing back and forth across the hall.

Now!

Professor Louis was so caught up in attacking that his defense had gone slack. Leonard didn’t let the opening slip. He swerved into a surprise charge, but the staff came flying in out of nowhere, threw up a barrier and cut him off.

“Oh, come on!”

That staff snapped the thread of his attack every single time, and Leonard turned his anger on it.

“Using a staff against a student — that’s cheap!”

“Without it, I think I’d lose in no time!”

The flattery didn’t do much for Leonard’s mood.

A staff didn’t just amplify its user’s mana efficiency. It came with functions of its own built in, which was exactly why Professor Louis’s staff could cast magic by itself.

“Earth Trap.”

With a single pointed finger, Professor Louis turned the ground into a sticky swamp in one stroke. Leonard had nowhere to set his feet, so he leapt into the air, but vines shot up in an instant, caught him and slammed him down onto the floor.

“Urk!”

“Don’t make such a pathetic showing this early. I expected far more of you than this!”

In truth, being able to use body-hardening magic freely was enough for a passing mark all by itself. Praise would have been the proper response. Yet set against what he’d done in that village, it fell a long way short.

— Snap!

Professor Louis snapped his fingers, and the sticky ground hardened back to the way it had been, pinning Leonard so he couldn’t budge an inch.

“Nnngh!”

Leonard broke the floor with sheer strength and pulled his feet free one at a time. Professor Louis stared at him for a moment, as if taken aback.

“…Tremendous strength, truly. Still, couldn’t you have found a smarter way out?”

“This is the easiest way.”

As if in answer, the mass of flame Professor Louis had left hanging in the air began to build up heat again.

— Fwoooosh!

Countless rays came pouring down like rain. Leonard got his barrier up in time, but he couldn’t withstand the aftershock of that tremendous bombardment, and he was flung away.

“Guhk!”

The instant he slammed into the hall wall, Leonard threw himself sideways, and the icicles Professor Louis had loosed buried themselves in the spot where he’d just been.

“Running away won’t get you anywhere!”

The professor gestured as he said it, and sundews and Venus flytraps big enough to swallow a person whole sprang up in front of Leonard as he ran a curve along the wall.

Leonard swung a magic barrier honed to a keen edge. But a mushroom hidden among the plants was cut along with them, and it scattered spores everywhere.

“Cough, cough!”

Leonard had breathed the spores in without meaning to. While he stood there coughing, a ball of flame from Professor Louis’s staff touched them.

— KA-BA-BOOOM!

The chain explosion sent Leonard rolling across the floor once more. Professor Louis looked down at him and barked out a rebuke.

“I’m disappointed, Leonard Felix! Where’s the real skill that cut down hundreds of monsters? Is dodging around the best you can do?”

Utter nonsense.

One mage skilled in combat was more of a threat than several hundred stupid monsters. Louis was in a different class altogether from a clumsy half-wit like Graham.

As befitted a professor of combat magic studies, he had a deep command of every element, and a staff on top of that. There was a gap in Circles, too, and Leonard, of all the luck, couldn’t fight properly while he was holding his own power back.

As things stood, Leonard was at an overwhelming disadvantage.

If he could fight on even terms even this far, it was probably because Professor Louis had almost no experience against an opponent who used body-hardening magic so skillfully.

— Tap!

Leonard kicked off his barrier, sprang up on the recoil and retreated a good distance. He set both palms to the ground, and the fine metal particles buried deep within it rose above the earth at his will.

He fused the particles into small beads, then raised a finger and marked his target.

— Shhhwip!

Countless metal beads flew, splitting the wind, and hammered Professor Louis’s barrier with fearsome force. There was decent power behind them, but nowhere near enough to pierce it.

What’s this?

Professor Louis cocked his head, puzzled. Leonard of all people would know that perfectly well, so why waste mana for nothing?

— Clamp!

Leonard closed his right hand hard around empty air. The lightning gathered in his palm flickered with blue light, and he hurled it with all his strength, like someone throwing a ball.

It was then.

The lightning shot out in a straight line, then seemed to swerve right under Professor Louis’s nose. It bent its course again and again and struck him from behind.

“Wha—!?”

Thrown by the attack from his blind spot, Professor Louis turned to look, and in that moment Leonard closed to within a step and drove his palm straight in.

— THOOM!

Guts Shake detonated, and a wave of mana swept over Professor Louis. Taken square on at point-blank range, the shock was all the greater. Louis staggered back as the air was driven from his lungs.

“Gurk!”

His ears rang. The strength drained from all four limbs, but somehow Professor Louis held on.

What in the world was that just now…?!

Bending the path of a magical projectile once it had left the hand, whether fire, lightning or anything else, was no easy matter. All the more so for a nine-year-old.

“…Don’t tell me?”

Sure enough, the countless metal beads Leonard had laid down were rolling about on the floor. With a good conductor to help it along, lightning could change course far more easily, and for less mana.

It dawned on Professor Louis late, and a snort of laughter escaped him before he could help it.

— Krrzzt!

Countless strands of lightning gushed from Leonard’s hands and crawled along the ground, leaping from bead to bead. The current writhed like snakes as it circled the hall, a sight spectacular enough to raise gooseflesh.

“Hrgk!”

Lightning sprang out of the blind spot and struck Professor Louis, and Leonard charged in on the beat, landing palm strike after palm strike on the barrier. Each hit was strong enough to choke off his breath.

To keep Leonard’s lightning in check, either the staff or Professor Louis had to stay on the defensive at all times. Once the targets dropped from two to one, Leonard, with his better mobility and attack power, would have the upper hand.

On top of that, he had a special technique that could pass through a barrier and deal damage directly. It was nothing short of checkmate.

Splendid. But…

For all Leonard’s effort, there was a gap between him and Professor Louis that he could never close. Leonard was a third-Circle mage.

As long as he had less mana than Professor Louis, it was clear who would win a long fight. To know that and still go to the trouble of such a laborious, roundabout method, he must really hate losing.

“Agh!”

A palm strike landed, and Professor Louis dropped to one knee, but he stood right back up. It was only fitting for a professor of combat magic studies, you might say. For a mage, Louis could take a hit better than anyone had a right to expect.

Three more minutes? No — within one, perhaps…

Louis couldn’t help admiring Leonard for overcoming so many obstacles and landing a telling blow in the end. If there’d been no difference in their absolute mana, this would have been settled much sooner.

In any case, it ends now.

Perhaps impatience had set in. Leonard’s movements seemed to be picking up speed little by little, and before anyone noticed, the hall was thick with dust that hung like fog.

— WHACK! Thump!

“Kh!”

Leonard’s attacks still came flying in now and then from beyond the dust, as heavy and fierce as ever. But Louis had got the knack of defending against them, so they felt far less threatening than at the start.

Sensing that Leonard had reached his limit, Professor Louis braced for the final attack. Yet the instant Leonard reappeared through the dust, the professor’s eyes flew wide.

— Fwaaash!

The dust cloud lifted entirely, and there stood Leonard, geometric patterns risen across the whole of his skin. The design looked like flowing water and waves, and it gave off a light of its own that lit up everything around him.

“Wh-what is that?”

He’d never seen anything like it in all his life, and Professor Louis was truly thrown.

That light could only come from Overflow. But Leonard should have spent every last drop of his mana, so he couldn’t possibly have the reserve left to cause it.

“Uuuwaaah—!”

Leonard came on with blue light flashing in his eyes, and his presence was immense. When he drew back a hand brimming with mana, Professor Louis threw up a magic barrier.

It wasn’t a reasoned decision. He’d simply followed his instincts without thinking.

“…Huh?”

The blow he’d braced for never came.

Professor Louis eased open the eyes he’d shut. Leonard stood in front of him, blank-faced, by the look of him drained to the dregs. The momentum of a moment ago was gone, and all that remained was an emptiness like a hollow shell.

“Felix?”

Professor Louis waved a hand lightly in front of his face, but Leonard showed no reaction at all.

— Thump!

“Whoa!”

Leonard toppled limply sideways, and Professor Louis started in alarm and checked him over.

Fortunately nothing was wrong with Leonard’s body; it seemed he’d simply run dry. Professor Louis let out a sigh of relief and sank down where he was. Getting worked up and running wild against a student was a shameful business.

That aside, though, what on earth had that been just now?

…Oh — this is no time to be sitting still!

Coming to himself at last, Professor Louis hurriedly hoisted Leonard onto his back, grabbed the staff rolling about on the floor and left the examination hall at a brisk pace.