Chapter 38 Strongest Sage, Fights Demon

 

The umpire pointed at drawn circles.
Two drawn circles for the First and Second Academy reps, with a 20-meter gap between them.
I wonder if this gap is in consideration of the First Academy students who cannot use swords.

By the way, we've confirmed that there's no rule that disallows getting close to your opponents.
Carrying weapons like swords or bows are also allowed.

"Are you both ready!"

"Second Academy, we're ready!"

"Representatives of the glorious First Academy don't need to get ready to beat these bunch!"

This demon sure always finds a way to speak ill.
Well, a demon with polite language and good conducts can't possibly exist though.

"The 65th Royal Academy Interpersonal Match, begin!"

"Alright, let's go!"

I stepped forward as the match started.
Alma put an arrow on her bow, Ruli began to construct a magic.

"""Fire Mana that dwells in my body--"""

Our three opponents had begun to chant a spell.
No. That's not exactly correct. The demon's mana had moved before it started its chant.
In other words, the demon is just pretending to chant.

An arrow and a magic passed beside me as I ran forward.
They hit the the two people beside the demon splendidly, destroying the outer layer of their dual-layered barrier completely.

"Lychese, Jias, double knock out!"

"Wha..."

The audience were surprised.
Two of the First Academy reps forfeited the match five second after it started.

The demon is the only one left now.
Judging from the presences behind me, it seems Alma and Ruli are properly taking evasive maneuvers.

"Oraa!"

The demon finished its pretend-chant and shot its magic.
Even if they were weaklings, the demon didn't look perturbed at all with its teammates defeats.
Its face looked upset for an instant when it saw Ruli's and Alma's magic, but that seemed more like because of the chantless magic.

And the magic were directed at--Alma and Ruli.
Two magic were activated at the same time.

Moreover, the mana put into the magic is quite significant. Its power is clearly intended to break the defensive magic and make it into an 『Accident』.
If it can hit that is.

"Ha!"

"And...there!"

The two evaded the demon's magic by jumping assisted with magic.
The heat and blast reached even me, but all of us are safe.

Evasion magic was one of the things I taught to these two during this one month.
The two used that to evade the demon's magic and ran to the waiting room.

"A-awesome! What power!"

"I didn't know that Devilis's magic was that strong! Surely he can beat them 1-on-3?"

The demon's name appears to be Devilis.
The audience doesn't seem to notice its fake chant magic just now at all.

"Look those two are running away! Laaame!"

"Get him, Devilis!"

I ignore the audience's voices and thrust my sword at Devilis's neck.
I haven't buffed it with magic. Since this attack won't kill it anyway, I'm saving my mana even a little.

However, an attack to the neck is the weakness of demons.
Devilis itself couldn't afford to ignore it, it invoked a light evasion magic and evaded my attack.
--Chantlessly.

"Oy. What about the chant?"

The demon's face warped when I said that. Looks like it noticed its blunder to hide it.

"Fire mana!"

Devilis shot a magic at me with an extremely slovenly shortened chant, filled with murderous intent.
I evaded it with jump magic and took a bit of distant away.

A demon that could use magic without chanting deliberately pretended to chant.
....It's all clear now.


--The one that popularized chant magic is demons.


That explains the favoritism for First Crest and the cold treatment for the Fourth Crest.
Humanity getting weaker at magic is a good thing for demons, and magic of Fourth Crest that has a bad affinity for them must be undesirable for them.

Getting people to treat the Fourth Crest coldly should be quite easy if they slipped into a body of authority that decides on the standard of magic.
They can simply make the assessment require hitting a faraway target.

A question remains, why did they take such a roundabout fashion instead of just simply destroy humanity.... Perhaps, it's because the demons lack the manpower.
Demons have low reproductive power in the first place, they were already driven to the brink of extinction in my era. Their number might still haven't increased even after all this time.

In fact, this demon is the first demon-like mana reaction I've ever encountered since my reincarnation.
And this demon doesn't look seem like it has an abundance of combat experience.
Even putting aside the pretend chant matter, its combat spec doesn't live up to demon's standard.

After thinking all that, I constructed three magic while pointing my sword at the demon.




























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