Chapter 211: Vs Amanda — Finale

Chapter 211: Vs Amanda — Finale

Both Fran and Amanda began giving off an aura of battlelust as they stared each other down.

I appraised Amanda and reaffirmed that she was a versatile fighter capable of adapting to any sort of situation. She totally trumped us in terms of how experienced she was, but our weapon-related skills were at a higher level than hers, so it wasn’t like we were at a complete disadvantage. I was confident we’d be able to use our Sword Lord Arts to find an opening we could make use of.

_______________________________________________________________

General Information

Name: Amanda

Age: 58

Species: Half-Elf

Class: Celestial Whipmaster

State: Normal

Status Level: 71

HP: 651

MP: 808

STR: 330

VIT: 298

AGI: 457

INT: 383

MGC: 406

DEX: 359

Skills

Intimidation: Lv 7

Chant Shortening: Lv 6

Espionage: Lv 8

Dismantling: Lv 8

Flame Resistance: Lv 6

Bare Handed Combat Techniques: Lv 4

Bare Handed Combat Arts: Lv 7

Wind Magic: MAX

Crisis Perception: Lv 9

Presence Detection: Lv 8

Herculean Strength: Lv 5

Mining: Lv 7

Harvesting: Lv 8

Blink: MAX

Blink Step: Lv 7

Drowsiness Resistance: Lv 6

Elemental Blade: Lv 7

Throwing: Lv 8

Poison Resistance: Lv 6

Ice/Snow Resistance: Lv 5

Whip Techniques: MAX

Divine Whip Techniques: Lv 4

Whip Arts: MAX

Divine Whip Arts: Lv 6

Storm Magic: Lv 5

Paralysis Resistance: Lv 8

Magic Perception: Lv 5

Lightning Resistance: Lv 7

Orc Killer

Vigour Manipulation

Giant Slayer

Bodily Reinforcement

Demon Slayer

Dragon Killer

Greater Agility Boost

Storm Element Reinforcement

Magic Manipulation

Whip Reinforcement

Innate Skills

Heavenly Whip Techniques

Unique Skills

Spirit’s Grace

Titles

Orc Killer

One Who Protects Children

Half my blade turned to dust and crumbled as Fran and I were both sent flying into the barrier set up to protect the audience.

「Grfhhh!」

I almost instinctively began regenerating my blade, but immediately stopped as I realized that Fran needed my attention.

A warm liquid, Fran’s blood, flowed down my blade. Its source was Fran, or more specifically, the wounds that covered her from head to toe.

『Heal!』

Sheet!

I needed to tend to her right away. There was still a chance for us to pull something off so long as Fran managed to steer clear of instantly dying.

My hopes remained unanswered; Fran’s body was enveloped in light as the Cradle of Time activated and restored her to her prior state.

「It’s already over! The match only lasted a total of 10 seconds! What the hell just happened!? I could’ve sworn I saw something blow away the spells Fran had fired, but that was it! Everything that happened after was just way too quick for me to make out!」

I was confident that we would’ve won if we’d just managed to land that one hit, but unfortunately, we weren’t. Amanda’s whip had both far swifter and more powerful than I’d been expecting it to be.

「But you can still tell just how intense their duel was from the state the stadium’s in! They only fought for 10 seconds, but the entire stage’s been totally destroyed! You can’t even tell what shape it started off with anymore!」

The caster’s words were spot on. Over half the stage had been shredded to bits. Even the few parts that remained were barely recognizable given how busted up they were. Amanda’s technique, the ability that’d caused all this destruction, was truly one to be feared.

「...Lost?」

『Unfortunately.』

Fran rose to her feet as she picked me up. The fact that she was unable to really fight back or accomplish much had made it so she was still in a bit of a state of confusion.

「Already?」

『Already.』

Amanda ran up to Fran as the smaller girl stared out into space.

「Are you okay Fran!?」

The half-elf seemed to be completely out of breath. Using just that one move had totally exhausted her and eaten through half her mana pool. She eventually managed to recover her breath, but as one could expect, her mana showed no signs of rejuvenating.

Despite that, she remained completely unconcerned with her own state of well being. She didn’t bother to check how she was doing, as she was instead patting Fran all over while asking her if she was hurt in any which way.

Amanda really loved children. Killing Fran once the way she did had really pained her, as evidenced by the look on her face.

She wasn’t able to calm down until after Fran demonstrated that she was alright by working through a few morning exercise-like motions.

「You’ve grown quite strong, Fran! You really had me feeling the pressure even though you’ve yet to catch up to me.」

「Nn.」

「However, it seems that the same can’t be said for my whip.」

The move Amanda used had been so powerful that it’d caused her whip to end up getting torn accross its midsection. We weren’t just talking about any other whip either. Amanda’s whip was one becoming of her rank and power.

Thinking about it, it was kinda a given. I’m pretty sure my durability would plummet if Fran ended up using Amanda’s technique. Every single one of those strikes of hers had enough power to totally wreck the arena, after all.

To me, her whip looked like it was flat out beyond repair. She had thought so much of Fran’s strength that she’d been willing destroy her weapon in order to pull out a win.

「I saw your semifinal match. You’ve already surpassed me in how well you handle your weapon. You’re also really fast, and you can deal an incredible amount of damage with each hit. I didn’t think that it would be a good idea for me to fight you using conventional means.」

It seemed like watching just that one battle had allowed Amanda to see right through us.

「I also noticed that you had either Physical Damage Nullification or something similar to it.」

「That’s...」

「Don’t worry, I’m not going to force you to tell me what it is. What I wanted to say is that my realization allowed me to understand why you had fought Colbert the way you had, and that I knew the ability weakness. Physical Damage Nullification is incredible, but it consumes a lot of magical energy. Using it non-stop will eventually run your mana dry.」

Amanda had literally figured out everything we had. She had us dancing in the palm of her hand from the very start; she’d long known that all she needed to do was kite us while waiting for us to run out of mana.

Sheet!

Well, I guess it couldn’t really be helped. I shouldn’t have expected anything else from an experienced A ranker like her.

「Total loss...」

「It’s okay Fran... Chin up, alright?」

「Didn’t train enough.」

「Fran...」

Amanda started to get a bit flustered as she watched Fran squeeze my handle with a downcast gaze. She seemed to have misunderstood Fran’s actions as one’s meant to express her disappointment.

But she was wrong.

Fran wasn’t nearly that soft.

「Will definitely win next round and take third place!」

There was no denying that Fran was feeling a bit vexed that she’d lost, but she’d already moved. In fact, she’d already started reflecting on the mistakes she’d made so she could win the next battle.

Fran was positive, she always looked ahead as opposed to lamenting over the past. In that sense, one could say that her personality made her rather suited for combat.

That wasn’t all there was to it either. Fran had also, in a way, derived a sort of pleasure from the duel she’d just experienced. Though she didn’t think of Amanda as her master or teacher, she did at least think of her as a veritable, experienced adventurer. She was glad to know that Amanda was still stronger than her, and that she still had a cliff to surmount. And honestly, I kind of felt the same. It was nice to know that we hadn’t made a mistake in viewing Amanda as a sort of target, as an incredibly strong entity we someday wanted to overcome.

「Do your best!」

「Amanda too. Win.」

「Okay! It’s a promise!」

***

Though we’d suffered quite a bit of mental exhaustion, we decided to do the usual and watch the day’s second match regardless so we could learn a bit more about whoever we’d end up fighting for third place. Unlike usual, however, we ended up finding ourselves inside of a gaudy looking private room that overlooked the arena.

It was something the tournament’s managers chose to provide for us the moment we asked if there were still any seats available. Amanda had wanted to join us, but she’d been dragged off to a meeting for the sake of the final round that she’d soon be participating in.

Both Fran and I waited excitedly for the match to begin, as it was going to be one between two strong championship contenders.

Forrund and Fermus both were rather popular, but it seemed that Forrund had a bit of an advantage in that regard because he was still in active duty.

Their match, unlike ours, actually ended up dragging on for a decent chunk of time.

Fermus evaded Forrund’s strikes by dodging the blades that flew at him, whereas Forrund nulled Fermus’ threads by shredding them to pieces.

It looked like Fermus had both an an edge and control over the fight’s momentum, but he wasn’t able to bring the battle to a close.

The sword user ended up turning everything around at what seemed like the 11th hour by suddenly summoning 100 different magic swords simultaneously. He independently controlled each and every single blade and had them chase Fermus down, an action that ultimately forced the retired adventurer to yield.

『Looks like we’re going to be up against Fermus.』

A wave of relief washed through me, not because I felt that we would have a better chance against Fermus, but because I was worried about Forrund’s ability to copy any magic sword he touched. Specifically, I was kinda terrified of finding out what would happen if he ended up duping me.

『Our next match is going to be another tough one.』

「Powerful threads.」

『Yeah. Alright, how about we make use of all the stuff we learned today so we can win tomorrow’s match?』

「Nn!」