414 Chapter 414: Diabolos

Even Kureha couldn't help but be surprised at the sudden turn of events. Her lips pursed and she thought about her next move, looking troubled for the first time. Initially, she wasn't worried – the defeat of Lute Dragoon was well within her expectations, even if unlikely, but to think Eliza also fell to defeat at my hands as well.

And Eliza Franklin was supposed to be her trump card. As a Paladin, her buffs and abilities would be indispensable to the Saint Teresa Academy team during the team match, but now one of their pillars had been eliminated. Their team match had just gotten exponentially harder – especially with two of their core members already knocked out of the battle today.

Her eyes moved to the rest of my team, assessing the members and trying to make a gues as to who Harrison would send next. Probably it might be a better idea if she waited a moment longer for the opposing team captain to make his decision.

Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long. Miura La Noir stepped forward, brushing a hand casually along her long, black hair that reached past her shoulders. Two red and white ribbons pinned her bangs at the sides, and her deep blue eyes scanned Jing Tian Academy team with amusement. Flicking her hand in a playful manner, she strode up to her captain.

\"Captain, why don't you send me for the third match instead?\"

\"Are you sure, Miura?\" Kureha asked somewhat uncertainly. The black mage nodded.

\"Yes. I am confident I will be able to handle whoever they send out next.\"

Kureha hesitated for a moment, looking deep into Miura's eyes. After a few seconds, she finally took a deep breath and nodded. Placing a hand on her teammate's shoulder, she offered an encouraging smile.

\"I'll be counting on you then.\"

\"I won't let you down!\"

Back at our corner of the stage, Harrison was gesturing for me to descend from the stage. However, I raised my hand.

\"Captain, do you mind if I stay on stage for the third round as well?\"

Harrison glanced at the chibi Black Tortoise who was comfortably nestled atop my shoulder, and then pondered for a moment before nodding.

\"If you think you can handle it…\"

\"Yeah, I can. No point risking any of our members. Now that I'm committed, I might as well fight until the end.\" I grinned. \"I might just be able to surprise everybody.\"

\"Okay, but don't force yourself.\" Harrison looked a little concerned. \"Your health is the most important thing.\"

Raising my hand, I gave him a thumb's up and a reassuring grin.

\"Sure. I'll surrender if I can't handle it.\"

\"You had better,\" Pearl warned with a knowing glare. \"You always over-exert yourself. It's not good for your body.\"

\"I'll keep that in mind.\"

Taking a deep breath, I used the time between matches to recover as much mana as possible. Resting and recovering mana was permissible, casting any new spell was not. Besides, recovery was an unconscious biological reflex, so it wasn't something you could stop unless you put every participant in stasis between each match, which was highly impractical.

\"So you're going to be my opponent?\"

I turned and caught sight of Miura stepping onto the stage, running her hand through her long, silky black hair again. She smiled, a beautiful but terrifying expression that sent chills down my spine. At once I knew she wasn't going to be an ordinary opponent.

This girl is going to be very troublesome…

Unlike Lute Dragoon or Eliza Franklin, Miura La Noir did not rely on overwhelming combat power or superior physical prowess to overcome her enemies. She was a cunning person who made use of schemes and tactics to deefat her opponent through guile and trickery.

\"You don't have to be so afraid of me.\" Miura chuckled as she covered her mouth in a mockingly shy manner. \"I'm not going to eat you. Don't worry…I'm not as strong as Lute or Eliza, both of whom you had just defeated.\"

\"…right.\"

Yet she was going to be a much more difficult opponent to deal with than those two put together. At least with Lute and Eliza, I knew what I was going to get. With Miura, she seemed dangerously unpredictable.

\"Both contestants, get to your positions!\" the commentator's voice was booming above. We obeyed, standing opposite each other and waiting for the signal. It didn't take long, and a buzz sounded across the arena. \"Match start!\"

At least it wasn't \"let's go ahead!\" or some weird Japlish term.

Unlike Lute or Eliza, Miura unsurprisingly didn't charge forward. Instead, she stayed where she was. Her hands moved across the air as she murmured incantations softly. They sounded like gibberish to me, but they had effects on reality. I could see ominous black scripts manifesting in the material universe, hovering in shimmering symbols as they trailed Miura's finger.

This wasn't good.

I had Black Tortoise transform from his chibi self to his gigantic form, hurling a barrage of icicles at Miura. She turned to smile at me, but didn't pause in writing her runic script in the air. She didn't have to. The icicles passed through her body, and her figure shimmered for a moment before disappearing along with the script she had written.

\"!!\"

As I thought, she was going to be a very troublesome opponent.

Spinning around intuitively, I caught sight of Miura appearing somewhere else, her hand lashing out in my direction. The black arcane script had evidently teleported along with her (or more likely followed her when she moved under cover of her invisibility or illusion spell), and they turned into deadly shadow bolts that seared across the space and hammered against the water sphere that my Black Tortoise had conjured up.

\"Oh, what a perfect defense.\" Miura was smiling despite her words. \"It's going to be hard to crack that shell of yours.\"

\"Canis Minor!\" I shouted, unleashing a pack of hunting hounds upon her. The large number of Constellation spirits bounded forward, heading straight for the Diabolos. Even if Miura cast her invisibility or illusion spell, that wouldn't be able to fool the senses of my Canis Minor, who relied on their sense of smell rather than sight or hearing.

\"This is going to be troublesome.\"

Miura frowned, and she waved her hand. Black darts shuddered in the air, and then streaked toward the approaching pack of Canis Minor. They weaved through the barrage, dodging and evading the deadly projectiles, and closed in on her. With an impatient gesture, Miura conjured a black barrier to enclose herself, causing my Canis Minor to bounce off the spherical screen when they pounced on her.

My Constellation spirits landed on their feet nimbly, righting themselves and snarling at Miura. She watched them for a second, and then wore an amused smile.

\"I'm sorry, but I'm more of a cat person, you know?\"

\"No, I don't know,\" I retorted. And honestly, I wasn't interested in knowing either. Behind me, a new Constellation spirit reared up. \"Canis Major, Sirius!\"

His jaws yawned wide and an icy torrent rushed out to engulf the black barrier. Miura's eyes widened, and then she staggered as her defensive spell was frozen solid. With a click of her tongue, she shattered the ice with a burst of black magic to free herself, but the Canis Minor were upon her almost immediately.

\"Well, well…\"

Her fingers twirling about, she conjured a black staff into being and warded off the lunging Canis Minor. A shadowy scythe sprang to existence from the top of the shaft and she cleaved one of the pouncing Canis Minor into two. The poor Constellation spirit fell to the ground with a yelp before dissipating into mana.

Spinning her scythe about, Miura fought her way through the pack of Canis Minor while firing shadowy bolts about. Canis Major and I approached, but she cleverly kept her distance, knowing that she possessed neither the raw physical strength nor the combat skills to deal with us. She practically pranced away in an infuriating manner, almost as if she was waltzing across the arena in a teasing manner. Canis Major pursued, but I hung back, realizing that something was amiss.

\"!!!\"

I was right. The moment Canis Major stepped onto a certain area in the arena, a colossal magic circle lit up beneath him. Tendrils of shadow leaped up to engulf him.

\"That's…!\"

My shocked voice was drowned out by the agonized howls of Canis Major. I quickly dismissed him before the formation spell could take full effect, his bristling fur smoking from where the shadows touched him.

\"You've got good instincts. Not bad.\"

\"?!\"

I spun around upon hearing Miura's voice in my ear. That very same instant, her scythe slashed down toward my throat, but I managed to parry the deadly, curved blade with my two swords. Crossing them, I forced her back almost too easily.

Then I recalled that I had been fighting warriors such as Lute and Eliza this entire time. Of course Miura wouldn't possess as much physical strength as them.

However, what she lacked in power, she more than made up for in guile and trickery. Dozens of black orbs surrounded me before exploding at pointblank range, knocking me over and sending my fuming body crashing onto the ground.

…or so Miura hoped, but instead I emerged relatively unscathed. Broken frost fragments slid off my body, the remains of the defensive ice spell I had desperately cast as a last-ditch attempt to protect myself.

\"Oh…?\"

Miura's eyes narrowed, but she didn't relent on her attacks. Instead, she swung her scythe at me, but I blocked it with Bai Ri. With my right hand, I thrust Hei Yue forward, forcing her to throw her head back to prevent the tip of my blade from piercing through her face. Reversing her grip on her scythe, she pushed me away before delivering a kick, but I managed to retreat a step back to avoid having my nose broken by her foot.

She then brought her scythe back around and I deflected it to the side with my swords, sparks flying between us in the clash. While she staggered from the impact, I closed in to finish her off, but a magic circle appeared beneath my feet.

\"!!\"

I jumped back before shadowy appendages emerged to ensnare my limbs. Both of my swords flashed and I sliced apart the trap, breaking free to withdraw to a safe distance. As I did so, Miura righted herself, but that was when my remaining Canis Minor seized the chance to pounce on her from behind, their claws and fangs outstretched.

\"Hah…how annoying.\"

She swung her scythe backward to discourage them, and a few of my Canis Minor forcibly halted in midair before retreating. The length and reach of her weapon meant that she was able to cut down at least one of my slowly dwindling number of Constellation spirits.

Whirling her scythe around, Miura then cast another dark spell, conjuring countless dark orbs that surrounded her. With a flick of her fingers, she had them blasting in all directions, the projectiles streaking toward both me and my Canis Minor.

Bounding to one area, my Canis Minor congregated before a water sphere surrounded them and deflected all of the exploding orbs. As for me, I summoned Scutum Sobiescianum again, the Constellation shield withstanding the vicious onslaught from Miura's spell. Sheathing my swords, I summoned Sagittarius and took aim. The moment her bombardment ceased, I had Scutum Sobiescianum hover to the side and released my flaming arrow.

Alnasl screamed across the arena and detonated against Miura's hastily conjured barrier, enveloping her in a hellish inferno. The blast was so powerful that even her protective sphere shattered and she was engulfed in flames. She shrieked for a moment as she toppled over, rolling desparetely to extinguish the flames on her immolated body. Casting a hasty dark spell, she managed to layer a thin shadow over herself, which somehow put out the fire and left gray smudges across her otherwise pale skin.

\"Huff…\"

She glanced up at me and shook her head with an amused smile.

\"You really are a troublesome opponent, aren't you?\"

\"I could say the same for you,\" I replied as I took aim at her with another flaming arrow. The devastating power of Alnasl could punch through whatever protective barrier she conjured and blow her up. Unlike Eliza, she didn't have any Blessing to heal herself, and her defensive capabilities were somewhat inferior.

As long as I didn't fall into any of her traps, I could defeat her. She certainly wasn't as powerful as Lute or Eliza. I just needed to be careful and remain alert and that would allow me to overcome her with raw power.

\"!!!\"

Unfortunately, as I suspected, things weren't going to flow so smoothly when I was up against an opponent like Miura. Despite what seemed like a precarious situation, she was smiling, as if to say everything was going according to her plan.

And it was.

Too late I noticed that I was standing on top of one of her carefully prepared formations, the ominous-looking formation circle glowing under my feet as she activated it. Black lightning danced around and formed a cage, and even though I swiftly jumped to exit the formation, I found myself blasted back by the dark energies.

\"I caught you,\" Miura sang playfully before she snapped her fingers. And then everything within the circle formation vanished in a blinding, black explosion.