Act 2: Chapter 21: 《Ground Detonation》

Act 2: Chapter 21: 《Ground Detonation》

Rosemonde made a beeline towards us.

So he* was attacking for real this time.

(*Kanata doesn’t realize that Rosemonde is a woman so the dialogue from his perspective will have male pronouns when referring to her!)

「Leave this to Philia! Leave this to Philia!」

I hurriedly stopped the over-enthusiastic Philia.

「N-Not now, please!」

A magic circle appeared when Rosemonde raised his giant cross.

And then, he swung down his cross as if trying to erase the magic circle.

「TAKE THIS GREENHORN! EARTH MAGIC, 3rd RANK; 《EARTH NEEDLE》!」

An earth needle around fifty centimeters long materialized then fired towards me.

I stepped forward and reached out my hand toward the earth needle.

「FOOL! YOU THINK YOU CAN CATCH THAT WITH YOUR BARE HAND?!」Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

The earth needle broke apart before it hit me. Its fragments fluttered about in the air.

「What... the? Are you using an item?」

Rosemonde groaned in a low voice.

That magic just now was repelled by Lunaire’s robe.

Low rank magic doesn’t work on me.

「Please excuse my rudeness just now. We have no intentions of quarreling with you, please lower your weapon.」

「How dare you ask me to let you go after making a fool of me and erasing my magic... DON’T LOOK DOWN ON AN A-RANK ADVENTURER!」

Hearing my request, Rosemonde became even more enraged instead of calming down.

「I WON’T HOLD BACK! NOW YOU’LL SEE THE ORIGIN OF MY ALIAS, 《ROSEMONDE OF EXTERMINATION》!」

Oh crap, it seems I stepped on a landmine.

Looking at this situation, it seems that Rosemonde wouldn’t back down obediently.

Should I play dead after letting his magic hit me?

I mean, he was somewhat famous in Manarak after all, we’re going to be in deep shit if he spreads unpleasant rumours about us...

「Earth Magic, 4th Rank;《Clod Mine》」

Rosemonde fired a lump of earth toward me.

The moment those lumps of earth arrived in front of me, they immediately got repelled by my robe and fell to the ground.

「It seems you’ve prepared a countermeasure! But, that magic is going to explode, you know!」

The 《Clod Mine》 that fell on the ground beneath me exploded.

Naturally, it doesn’t work on me due to the power of this robe.

Rosemonde swung down his cross.

The giant lump of earth was heading toward me as it slowly inclined to the ground and fell right in front of me.

Its earthen surface collapsed and the red light inside exploded, covering the area with intense light.

I saw the ground inside that light distort due to the sheer heat. The trees nearby were burned black within a moment and broke apart.

When the explosion stopped... I saw Rosemonde was breathing roughly in front me while propping himself up with his arms.

One part of his armour and overcoat was blown off due to the explosion.

Half of the goat mask that covered his face was also destroyed.

Though I failed to see it before due to the overcoat and metal protector, after looking at Rosemonde’s slender body and the half-face that didn’t get covered by the goat mask, I realized that I mistook Rosemonde’s gender.

The red makeup that she applied around her eyes really stood out.

She had a pair of impressive cat eyes, or rather, ferocious tigress’ eyes.

She was a beauty, but there was this beast-like aura around her.

Come to think of it, though I didn’t realize that fact due to her masculine voice and her mask, Pomera seems to have realized that Rosemonde was a woman at first glance.

Looking at her, it seemed she was out of breath.

Since she fired magic with such devastating damage at a large area from such a distance, it seems she also received the damage from 《Ground Bomb》.

... By the way, since the effect of 7th-rank magic was negated by my robe, I was unscathed like before.

Though I know that they’ll be alright, I still glanced at Pomera and co just in case.

Two giant white arms were growing from the ground to protect them.

There was one huge eye on the back of the hand of one arm, and mouth on the other arm.

The arms giant hands then untangled its fingers, and went back into the earth.

Pomera and Philia’s figure could be seen from inside the arms untangled hands.

It seems those enigmatic white arms were created by Philia with 《Dream Sand》 to protect Pomera.

「I’m... not done yet! Who said that magic is all I have!」

Rosemonde abandoned the metal cross in her hands and rushed toward me.

「My glove’s claws will tear you to pieces!」

Rosemonde stretched her metal covered arms.

Ominous looking claws grew from her metal covered fingertips.

「NO MATTER HOW POWERFUL YOUR MAGIC SKILL, YOU MUST BE SUCK IN CLOSE COMBAT! EVEN IF I’M RUNNING OUT OF MANA, MY PHYSICAL POWER WILL TRIUMPH IN THE END! ONLY THOSE WHO MASTERED THOSE TWO ASPECTS CAN BE REGARDED AS TRUE COMBAT MAGES! YOU LET YOUR GUARD DOWN, GREENHORN!」

I caught Rosemonde’s oversized gauntlets and threw them down to the ground.

The impact of that fall raised a cloud of dust.

「H-How...」

Rosemonde fell to the ground along with her gauntlets in the shape of “大” letter and muttered so with a vexed voice.