And looking at how Koutarou moved his body, she noticed that he had an abundance of actual combat experience. The way he moved his legs and body were flawless. Those kind of movements could only be gained through repeated combat.
Koutarou was slower than Maya and he was unarmed, but he was more skilled than Maya. Because of that, he was able to fight against Maya, and this was the reason why she praised him as being special.
“I'm not very special myself. I've just been part of a few wars”
“All truly strong people call themselves weak. And those who call themselves strong end up dying... It looks like I can't take it easy this time around”
Maya smiled again and readied her scythe. Though her lips had formed a smile, the eyes peeking out from under hood were not.
“...An enemy on the same level as Theia, and I'm unarmed... Seriously, I'm not like landlord-san...”
Koutarou took a stance as well and grieved at his current predicament. However, he still hadn't given up.
“Onii-chan, don't get hurt”
“I don't know if I can avoid it. But I'll give it a try”
Kii was behind him. Regardless of his situation, he couldn't afford to lose. He just couldn't abandon her.
Victory goes to those who make the first move!!
Koutarou didn't want to go too far ahead and leave Kii, but he couldn't hold back against this opponent. She had a longer reach and more power. If he just sat there waiting, he wouldn't be able to get in range. Because of that, he had to charge in himself.
“You can do it, Onii-chan!!”
Receiving Kii's cheers, Koutarou dashed forward. As he did, he unleashed the spiritual energy that Sanae had planted in him to its very limit. That instantly increased his speed.
I'm counting on you Sanae! Last just a little longer!
In reality, Koutarou's spiritual energy had been growing weaker and weaker. He wasn't capable of using it to begin with and he was only able to do so after Sanae had created routes in his body. However, since this practically meant that his original routes had been forcibly overwritten, his ability gradually weakened as time passed. When he had been with Sanae, she would regularly rewrite them, but quite some time had passed now. Because of that, he was at less than half of what he had been at the start. That was one of the reasons why Koutarou was slower than Maya. But right now, this was all he had. All he could do was pray that it lasted long enough for this battle to end.
“Good call, boy! You might even be able to beat me!”
“I'll wipe that smug off your face soon enough!!”
The scythe that Maya swung down grazed Koutarou's hair. While a portion of his bangs were floating in the air, Koutarou poured all of his force into his fist and thrust it towards Maya.
“Our weakness is that we're weak in close combat, but―”
However, Maya showed no signs of trying to dodge it. Koutarou's fist was travelling towards Maya's defenseless stomach.
What? No, keep going!!
Koutarou had noticed Maya's strange behavior, but he ignored it and continued thrusting his fist towards her. Hesitating in the fight would spell his doom.
“Through thorough preparation one can make up for that weakness”
However, Koutarou's fist never reached Maya.
“Kuh, you've put up a barrier here too!?”
”Precisely!!”
Just before his fist was about to crash into Maya, it stopped like it had collided with a wall. Her defensive magic had stopped his attack. All of a sudden, a translucent yellow light had appeared and shielded Maya.
“Which means I can focus on just attacking!!”
Maya never had any intention to defend herself so she had already readied her next attack. Since she had such a large weapon, there were large openings. But relying on defensive magic, she could ignore those openings and focus on the offense. Surprisingly, if one could use powerful defensive spells, a large weapon could become a powerful tool for a magician.
“How about this!?”
The large scythe approached Koutarou. And on its way, it began emitting an indigo colored light.
I can't allow that to hit me!!
Koutarou instinctively sensed the danger and tried to distance himself by kicking off of Maya's handle. But that was when something strange happened.
“Kuh, you've put up a barrier here too!?... Huh!?”
After kicking the handle, Koutarou stopped moving and he repeated what he had said a few seconds ago. He was puzzled, the last thing he remembered was that he had just thrown his fist at Maya, but his body had just kicked off her scythe.