“Die…”
“Take this!”
—Snap!
As Suimei’s fingers made this sound, the ground under the Mazoku – about to fly straight for him – suddenly exploded.
“Wha—!”
The sound of an explosion filled the air.
But that was just a smokescreen.
The magic invoked by the snap of his fingers obstructed his enemy from continuing forward.
At that moment, Suimei leapt backward to create some distance. Exhaling, he activated another magic.
“…Now then, let’s see just how strong these enemies of this world’s humans are.”
With a low mutter, Suimei gathered the requisite mana.
With a sideways glance, Suimei pictured in his mind the numbers and corresponding equivalence relation of his magic array, and spoke to activate his prepared magic.
—This was the Kabbalah’s most prized technique, the Sefirah.
“—Flamma est lego. Vis wizard…” (By this magician’s will, flame, converge.)
From the scattered magic arrays that appeared in the air, a raging flame burst forth.
The flames soared toward the Mazoku, as if attracted to it.
The Mazoku, however, didn’t move. It allowed itself to be drowned in fire.
Eh?
Seeing that his opponent hadn’t bothered to so much as dodge, Suimei was taken aback. Was it that his enemy was stupid or that it had a way to deal with his attack?
As his spell continued to wreathe the Mazoku in flame, Suimei pondered what kind of countermeasure his enemy might have prepared.
This was magical fire, a blaze that would never be extinguished until it had disintegrated its target… Or at least, that’s what was supposed to happen. Instead, peering into the fire’s depths, he saw his enemy’s carefree figure, completely unharmed.
At long last, disturbed by some force or another, the flame was blown away.
“…No use, huh?”
The remnants of the inferno fading from its body, the Mazoku, perhaps responding to Suimei’s mumbled words, spoke in a stunned tone.
“…You seriously thought you could defeat me with a pitiful magic like that? I’ve been seriously underestimated here.”
“…”
…The magic just now had been too weak, huh. The Mazoku’s body showed no signs of having been burned.
Even though his enemy seemed to think that he had been looking down on it, the truth was Suimei really hadn’t been all that stingy with either mana or spell technique. Nevertheless, the Mazoku standing before him didn’t look to have so much as been singed.
He’d originally thought to decide the battle with a single spell. Indeed, he looked to have severely underestimated his opponent. He’d used a spell in accordance with what he judged the enemy’s ability to resist to be based on the amount of mana he sensed within the its body. The effected result, however, had been entirely outside of his expectations.
Once more, the Mazoku extended an arm, gathering power.
This time, however, it didn’t bother with arm motions. The lump of power shot forward on its own.
His foe seemed intent on a long-range battle. Suimei casually dodged with room to spare. Power gathered once more on the Mazoku’s hand.
Thereafter, as though a solo marksman, arrows of energy flew at Suimei one after another.
Suimei raced around, evading each attack, taking care never to get too close to the wagon carrying the caravan’s cargo.
Trying to suppress me with sheer numbers, is it…?
As Suimei ran, he observed his foe’s facial expression, which began to grow ever more anxious.
Any normal person would already have been done in. It seemed he was more of a troublesome foe than the Mazoku had expected.
Anyway, if his opponent wanted a long-range battle, then that was rather advantageous for Suimei as well. Trading blows from a certain distance was an ideal situation for a magician.
Hounded by transparent arrows of energy, Suimei constructed another magic.
—Since last time’s magic had failed, he would use an even more powerful offensive spell.
“—Flamma est lego. Vis wizard hex agon aestua sursum!” (By this magician’s will, flame, converge. Raging flame, give form to its death throes!)
The scene from earlier repeated itself as numerous magic circles appeared once more. This time, however, they weren’t solely to be found in the air, but were rather also on the ground, and all over their surroundings. Moreover, there were at least fifty percent more appearing than had previously. Their destructive might was also incomparably greater.
Fire poured forth once more, both raining down from the sky and surging up from the ground, swallowing the arrows of energy whole as it screamed toward its target.
“Sh…”
The fire this time unsettled the Mazoku. It started to dodge, but it was too late. Its delayed movements were meaningless in the face of the approaching flames.
The brilliant flames seized upon their target.
However.
“…How weak! These flames!”
“…!”
Fiery lines drew a whirlpool of flame encircling about the Mazoku, caught in the eye of the storm. Noticing that the flames were again unable to cause it harm, it ceased its attempts to evade, instead opening its mouth to speak.
Ignoring the searing flames, it waved its arm in Sui