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Chapter 94. As Expected, The Commander Is Strong

Right, behind, left, left, right, front, behind, down, right, up, left... I'm barely dodging these super-fast attacks by a hair's breadth. Am I actually amazing?

Liester-san is attacking relentlessly, wrapped in lightning, her tension high, but all I’m doing is dodging like crazy. I thought about drawing my Grimoire and countering, but I’m too scared I'll get hit in the middle of drawing it. I’m holding Verethragna in my right hand, but it’s pointless; her speed is so overwhelming that I can't even think of countering. She’s running circles around me faster than I can swing.

What the hell am I supposed to do? Should I just keep dodging until Liester-san runs out of stamina?

"Umm..."

The moment I began feeling drained, Liester-san suddenly stopped a short distance away.

"This isn't going anywhere."

"Agreed. How about we say I’ve passed the promotion test because of my extreme dodging?"

"I’ll go all out."

In the blink of an eye, Liester-san vanished, leaving the sound behind. At nearly the same instant, I reflexively thrust my hand forward and caught her fist.

“Huh?”

“[Yaldabaoth].”

Liester-san’s Grimoire, [Ramiel], is one of lightning. Of course, touching it with bare hands would result in electrocution... but my constantly active [Demiurge] protects me. It’s currently in the form of a ring on my right index finger, and it repels magic. Thanks to this power, I can touch Liester-san’s active Grimoire barehanded.

Taking advantage of her moment of shock, as she doesn’t seem to understand why I’m able to touch her, I activate [Yaldabaoth] and start absorbing the magic from her Grimoire, [Ramiel].

“This is…”

“Phew.”

I haven’t completely neutralized her, but at least her Grimoire’s power is halved now. She won’t be moving at speeds too fast to see anymore. Liester-san, now wrapped in lightning again, starts running toward me, but this time I can barely keep up with her speed. Dodging a kick from behind, I swing Verethragna, charged with magic, to increase its sharpness.

“Got her!”

“!?”

She must be confused. The speed she’s consciously trying to use and the speed she’s actually outputting are completely different. Even though she should’ve easily dodged my slash, it still grazed her.

"My speed has dropped... I see."

Realizing her power’s diminished, Liester-san opens and closes her hand. Now that her speed is down, I can deal with it. The only problem is figuring out how far I have to go to satisfy her.

“Heh... this is getting fun!”

“What!?”

With a fierce grin, Liester-san releases lightning from her entire body. It doesn’t seem like an attack, but unlike before, her entire body is now crackling with lightning. I have no idea what she’s planning, but since I don’t know her fighting style, I need to be cautious. Just as I was thinking that, she started walking toward me slowly, still cloaked in lightning.

“Let’s settle this head-on... That’ll be more fun for me.”

She swings a punch at me, which I dodge by stepping back half a step. Since she’s not drawing the sword at her waist and is fighting barehanded, she’s probably still not going all out. Her speed isn’t all that impressive either. Compared to earlier, she’s fighting at a much more reasonable pace. In that case, I’ll hit her with a counter.

“Hah!”

“…Hmm.”

Huh? I hit her with a perfectly timed counter when she couldn’t possibly react in time... yet Verethragna, magically enhanced, only barely cut into her shoulder before stopping. It’s hard. Or maybe... I don’t understand. This person was moving at high speeds just a moment ago.

“You’re still not going all out?”

“You’ve got to be kidding…”

As I ducked my head, a kick whizzed overhead. The impact sent Verethragna flying, and when I tried to strike back with my fake book, she stopped it with her fingers. She was moving at lightning speed just a second ago, but now she’s suddenly become this gorilla-like, muscle-bound brute. What’s happening?

A very slow punch is aimed at my stomach, so I try to block with my fake book... but I get sent flying along with my sword, crashing into the arena’s far wall.

“Ugh... that hurts…”

I was thrown so suddenly I couldn’t brace for impact. My back slammed into the wall hard, and it really hurt... I guess I’ll just have to numb the pain with healing magic. While I was at it, I grabbed Verethragna, which had fallen nearby.

"Now, I’ll get serious."

Oh, crap... She just drew her sword. Her toughness is insane. If I hadn’t absorbed magic with my fake book, I would’ve been done for. Since her Grimoire controls lightning, she doesn’t seem to burn through magic too fast. On the other hand, the magic I’ve absorbed with the fake book is off the charts. She’s probably using a massive amount of magic to push her physical abilities to their peak. I guess she shifted from extreme speed to brute strength now.

“In ability battles, it’s such a cliché for the simpler power to be the stronger one.”

I never thought I’d experience it myself. Liester-san closes the distance instantly with a powerful step, her punch aimed at me. There’s no way I can block this, so I dodge. Her fist smashes into the wall behind me, completely destroying the upper stands... What kind of power is this?

“...Breaking it to this extent is going to require a written apology, right?”

“Give me a break! We already wrecked one arena during the last attack, and now we’ve trashed another one!”

“It’s fine. The Captain will handle it.”

Yeah, right.

I can see lightning wrapping around the sword Liester-san is holding. I barely have time to think before her sword comes crashing down. I try to block it with both Verethragna and my fake book... but I’m steadily being pushed back.

“Damn it!”

“What!?”

At this rate, I’ll definitely lose... So, I release the magic stored in my [Yaldabaoth], hitting Liester-san with it. She couldn’t react in time and was blown to the opposite side of the arena, slamming into the far wall. The impact collapsed the stands over there too. Ah... I wrecked the arena too... Since I’m a student, does that mean I’ll have to write a reflection essay instead of a written apology?