CH 193

“Gravity.”

“Ugh…”

Sophie’s gravity magic almost crushed me to the ground. I unintentionally got down on both knees. This time, the gravity of the magic was so much stronger than before that I felt like she was just playing around previously. But just because I was on my knees did not mean I could not move, so I swung my sword and tried to cut the magic. But before I could swing my sword, the gravity magic was released.

“Area lock.”

“Hm?”

Since the gravity magic was lifted, I tried to move normally, but I couldn’t move at all. Could this be the spatial magic that fixed a part of my body earlier? Was that spatial magic able to cover the entire body, not just a part of it?

“If you move at that speed, you won’t stand a chance, so don’t move, okay?”

Was Sophie trying to trick me when she said that she knew my speed and that I would be fine…?

Then, Sophie slowly began to prepare her magic. Hmm…? Slowly? If it was the usual Sophie, she would have finished her preparations instantly and unleashed her magic on me. Come to think of it, why did she cancel the gravity magic earlier? Or rather, what was the meaning of that gravity magic? If it fixes the space, why bother using gravity magic at all? There is only a downside to being alerted.

…Perhaps it is difficult to fix a large space? Is that why she wanted to make the space to be fixed as small as possible by making me crouch? And since she’s concentrating on fixing the space, she has to slowly prepare the magic?

“Thunderburst!”

Just because I can’t move doesn’t mean I can’t use magic. At any rate, I hurriedly unleashed thunderbolt magic in order to interrupt Sophie’s magic preparations.

However, the thunderbolt magic was evaded. Yes, she avoided it. Normally, she would have just canceled the magic. But I guess Sophie didn’t have much freedom to do anything else right now. If she thinks I only use thunderburst magic, she’s mistaken. There is no one around but me and Sophie. And we are far enough away from the tree that it doesn’t matter.

“Thunder Spark!”

I fired lightning indiscriminately over a wide area. Although less powerful than Thunder Burst, it would be impossible to avoid. It also hits me and recovers my magic power.

“Magic release!”

Poof! And the Thunder Spark disappeared. At the same time, the space loosened its hold. It seems my guess was correct. With this, I could break through by force.

“Lightning shrink”

For the time being, I used the “lightning shrink” to get away from the place in a hurry. It would be impossible for Sophie to let me escape from the spatial fixation just like that. She will take some kind of countermeasure. I don’t want to be caught by that anymore.

“Lightning shrink, lightning shrink, lightning shrink.”

I used the lightning shrink three times, and then I got behind Sophie. The reason why I’m not running is because I’m in double enchanted recovery mode, and I’m starting to feel a dull ache in my body. I want to minimize moving as much as possible.

Sophie noticed the moment I came around directly behind her. She then tried to guard against my attack with her mace.

“Thunderburst!”

“A-a-a-a”

So I dared to attack with magic instead of physical. The reason is that it’s almost impossible to stun Sophie with a single blow with my physical attack. No matter how much I attacked her, she would be somewhat knocked out and would not pass out. But that doesn’t mean that I can attack with a force that might kill her on the assumption that she will pass out. So, instead of thinking about how to strike a second blow, I decided to make it impossible for the first blow to be ignored.

What I employed was Raiden magic. Since I had never used magic in close combat before, she would be less wary of magic. Even with Sophie, if she were to be hit by a high-powered Raiden magic at close range, she would indeed go numb, and she would also take damage. And, as a matter of course, Raiden magic didn’t knock her out. I had expected that though.

“Mari…”

“Too late!”

Sophie tried to do something even though she was numb. But I was quicker than that and hit Sophie in the jaw with my sword.

“Agh……..”

Then Sophie floated a little in the air and fell on her back.

“Kaha…!”

And at about the same time that Sophie fell, my magic power was reduced to zero, and all enchantments were forcibly removed.

“Hah… hah… hah…!”

My enchantments were removed, so my magic power immediately became full, but it was a close call. Even though the enchantments were reducing the magic power little by little, I used too much magic power with the Thunder Burst. If I had been a little slower and had less magic available for Thunder Burst, I might not have been able to use the thunder magic that was powerful enough to paralyze Sophie.

“Zero-kun! Good work!”

As I sat down to rest, Yug appeared dragging a limp…demon in both hands. What happened over there?