115 Episode 115: Preliminary Match Begins!

◆ Liliera ◆

"We will now begin qualifying for Princess Ryu's ritual."

The voice of the referee echoes on the playing field.

"Because of the large number of participants in the ceremonial qualification, the Battle Royal will be fought in a random format that will allow multiple players to fight simultaneously. The qualifying round ends when there are five players left standing on the playing field, and the players standing will move on to the main game. Do this in four groups. Athletes who fall out of the match venue are disqualified immediately after being off-site."

I mean, the 20 of us are sure to make it to the main fight.

Mina, who was listening on the side, calculates the number of participants in the main battle.

"No, up to 20 people"

And Lune immediately made the correction.

"Huh? Five people play four games, right?

"Mina, not everyone stays"

"... oh, that sort of thing"

Pointed out by Megli, Mina understands exactly what Lune intends.

You've just dived through the training grounds, and these kids don't seem like newcomers.

Yeah, well, there's a training ground to be dragged into.

More of a hell than a Ning Lo training ground?

"There may be only one person left in some games. Looks like there's a loser comeback if there's not too many of them."

"Well done. There are only boulder locals."

"Ah, yes. I was gathering information for my participation one day."

and Lune, praised by Mina, grins shyly.

"Well, we're four, so we can all stay in the same group at worst."

"P, Kuk......"

and someone who heard Mina's words leaked a small laugh.

Looks like the adventurous athletes who stood nearby were listening to this one.

They, no, rightly one of them was laughing at us.

"Kate, excuse me."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I smiled. You're too cute to let us all win."

"Hey you...... sorry my buddy has a bad mouth"

"No, never mind"

In the meantime, I'll deal with them as an elder.

"Have you ever participated in this ritual?

"Oh dear...... yeah, about twice"

Twice, or... can we get any meaningful information?

"You guys, you better stay alert because this is a competition only women can attend."

was an adventurer like Kate who laughed at us earlier.

"Even at the first tournament Atashi and the others participated in, the bullshit resistant guy won the championship. That was definitely S-rank strength."

"Kate's right. Only a woman can participate, which is why a woman of strength comes. Because there are so many men who play in battle, so many come out to public competitions to show their strength."

Hmm, it's certainly a lot of men adventurers who win games or something.

This is, well, sometimes it's simply because a man is more physically fit or more muscular.

Nevertheless, even women are sure to be powerful so that I could be an A-rank adventurer.

Even if you can't win with simple muscle strength, you can handle it with lightness, and if you're a wizard, muscle strength and physique don't matter.

So this is also a place for people who can't be recognized for that kind of strength to show off their power.

"Don't think about floating, focus on the enemy in front of you. Preliminary qualifiers can lose in no time."

"Well, if you show your strength halfway through it, you may eat a concentrated attack from the adventurers around you."

"Thanks for sharing everything. You guys are good people."

"No, no, no, no."

"Hehe, I laughed. Apologize."

Kate turns her face red and turns that way.

Could you have told me to apologize for laughing?

Maybe he's surprisingly good.

"Then I'll call the number of the players in the first game more than this! The player you've been called to is asked to step up to the other stage of the game."

The facilitator calls the number and the players go up on stage.

"Number 76!

"I'm coming because they called me."

"Be careful, Liliera."

"Good luck."

"But good luck, Ryu...... Mr. Liliera!

"Good luck."

"I wish you a good fight. Well, I think you can afford it."

Not only Mina and the others, but even Kate and the others hang words of support on me.

And when I go on stage, the gaze of the athletes gathers to me.

"... that's the dragon..."

"I knew at first..."

Uh, this is totally noticed.

This is definitely coming. Hey.

"Then the first round of the qualifying match......"

The athletes on the playing field set up their weapons, but their cutting-edge is pointing this way without concealing their aim.

"Ha... can't help it"

I also put up my own spear to cope with it and work out my magic.

"Start!!"

"Aim for Princess Ryu - Yikes!!"

With the proclamation of the referee, the athletes arrived at me.

I'm not Princess Ryu.

Bandits and skinny light-dressed athletes attack me from the front and left and right.

Good collaboration, but could it be one of us?

Or were you working together beforehand?

Well, either way.

"Got it!

"I didn't get it."

I froze my feet when I activated Ice Attribute Enhancement with Body Enhancement Magic.

"Wow!?"

Naturally, the ground freezes, and the three slip their legs and lose balance.

They rush into each of them in a hurry to get in shape, pushing the spear stone punch in a row.

"Gu!?"

"Damn!?"

"Oops!?"

As they stormed at high speed, they fell to the ground stuffing themselves under a counter with their speed on it.

"Fire Arrow!

"Wind Arrow!

"Ice Arrow!

Immediately after the fall of the three, a magical attack was imminent released from the rear.

"Sweet!"

I speared through the magic of the ice and intercepted all the magic unleashed.

"Lie!? Magic played!?"

"Could it be a magic item!?"

Sure, this is a magic item, but it's because your magic was weak.

Maybe they were learning magic not as a wizard in their position, but as an aid in closing the gap between them.

So you were overwhelmingly weak compared to the magic unleashed by Mina and Mr. Rex.

Because it was magic to that extent, strengthening the weapon with physical strengthening magic was enough to intercept it.

"Ha ha, you're alarmed!

And finally the group that came this way reached me.

They spread out like bandits earlier to surround me.

"I don't know what to do"

In the meantime, let the sword of the warrior attacked from the front pierce the ground without a spear.

"Wow!?"

Now the front is this player is in the way and the follow-ups can't attack.

"Ha!!"

Athletes jumped and attacked from left to right.

I mean, don't let your feet slip on the frozen floor.

But you can't avoid that.

I evade their attack.

"" Fast!? "

Actually, I'm not moving that fast myself, am I?

It's a thin ice blade magically created on the back of my leg, just because it's slipping around on ice strewn out on the floor of the game field, it just looks that way.

Actually, these boots are magic items that create ice blades on the back by running magic.

By using these boots, it's easy to get the tactics to fight while gliding fast on the ice you've been to before.

Furthermore, this ice can be used as a weapon and adjust the length and hardness with magic.

Like this.

"Ha!!"

When I raise my legs wide and turn and kick, the ice blade that was growing behind my boot stretches long enough to get rid of the players that were surrounding me.

Yeah, it's good to try it on the dragon before the game starts.

It would have been catastrophic if I'd hit a human opponent and tried the functionality of the new gear in production.

I dodge the athletes' attacks as I slip my body and use the speed of rotation to wield the spear.

Poke at the previous enemy. Then, without looking back, he hits the enemy behind him with a puller.

"Caah!? So why don't you look at me and attack me..."

One interesting feature was added to this gear that Mr. Rex made for me for personal use.

It's the ability to sensibly sense ambient temperatures.

He said this seems to be a magic item that reproduces the ability of snakes to detect enemy temperatures more easily.

Especially by lowering the ambient temperature with my good ice magic, I think I'll be able to see the difference in temperature more noticeably.

Thanks to this, I felt the temperature of an athlete coming from an invisible direction and was able to intercept without looking back.

"You can use it quite a bit, here."

Well, you're right to say that other gear is too noisy to have limited gear to use in these situations.

"But you'll always be in siege."

Even though we can now deal with the unintended blows from behind, the number of disadvantages is still dangerous.

I head outside the siege avoiding the attacks of the players around me.

"Don't break the siege! Attack from all directions at once!

The athletes outside the siege gather in the direction I was traveling to bring me back to the center of the siege.

"Cooperate well for the sake of blade cooperation."

The players who brought me back to the center of the siege will unleash a simultaneous attack from all directions.

"That's exactly what I can't avoid..."

I pour magic into the ice blade that was unfolding behind my feet, stretching the blade, which was as short as a knife, to a length that could be called a great sword.

"Become!?"

The blade of ice that was unfolding on the back of my leg is stretched and my body is pushed upwards than the players around me.

"Ha!

By leaping further up, I flew up over the siege net.

"Then this is it!

You've come all the way to me because of this, and let me get a grip on it.

"Ice Blizzard Sphere!!"

The game stage is quickly engulfed in snow and ice as the blizzard blows to envelop the players directly below from above.

"Sa, chilly!!"

Athletes are desperate to keep frozen but not blown away.

But this magic isn't just a blizzard.

"CARRYYYYYYYYYYYY!!"

It was a huge chunk of ice that was as good as a man's head that blew the athlete apart in a blizzard.

Yes, it was not only the wind and snow that blew away with this magic, but also the ice.

The players are blown off the game stage one by one ice chunk after another.

And when the magically generated ice blizzard stopped, I was the only one standing on the game stage.

"Shit, winner liliellah!!"

Declare my victory as the referee shivers his body in the cold.

"Phew, you managed to win."

And this magic is amazing.

I'm glad you learned from Mr. Rex before the game.

But it might be a little difficult to activate on your own without the magic aid of the new equipment.

◆ A woman adventurer ◆

"What are you..."

Kate, standing next to me, squeaks surprisingly, not too squeamishly.

But I could take that for granted.

Called Princess Ryu's comeback in town, she swept away the other participants who had marked herself and attacked her in unison with overwhelming skill and with great magic that she had never even seen.

Only a dozen seconds in between.

In just a few decades, Princess Ryu wiped out dozens of participants.

Clearly, it's not human.

"Sarasu is not a winner, Liliera."

Someone put the word I tried to say first.

These are the girls who were with Princess Ryu.

They were not surprised by the battle of Princess Ryu, but rather saw it as a matter of course.

"Yeah, it was an easy win even though some seemed pretty strong. I can't use the magic of dealing with everyone like that, so if I'm targeted, I might struggle."

On the contrary, he says what he would fight for.

Are you telling me those kids can do the same thing as Princess Ryu?

No... I can't do anything for you, can I?

"Princess Ryu, it's amazing... Ugh, I wonder if I can win"

A girl with a spear beside them like that groans anxiously.

No, no, you can't deal with me for as much as you want, you're dead.

We also marked Princess Ryu as defeating the dragon, but we never thought he was such a monster!?

I won't say anything bad, so stop trying to fight that.

"I won't shrink. You just have to hit it with everything you can."

Hey, shouldn't you say something irresponsible!?

That kid's life is on the line!?

I'm home.

I was listening to them, and Princess Ryu came back from the game stage.

Princess Ryu, seen nearby, did not even disturb her breathing and did not make her feel fatigued by activating the Great Magic.

"Welcome home. That was easy."

"I don't think so. I didn't feel comfortable being targeted by all of them."

You're lying! You could have afforded it at all!

"Oh? You look like you can afford it, don't you?

Yeah, let's do that! Tell him!

"That's not true. There were plenty of them."

... Is it true?

"Speaking of which, it's time for the game to start over there."

and Princess Ryu gazes outside the match venue.

You mean the Dragon Emperor's ritual?

"Yeah, you must be flashy over there, too. Whatever. There's Rex."

Is this about Princess Ryu's people?

"I'm sure there's more misery going on in the other venue than this."

More than this one?... Uh, what? Are you saying that the Dragon Emperor's ritual is joined by a monster like Princess Dragon?

"Ha, other participants are going to look cute."

Ha ha, Princess Ryu's buddy girl laughs, but this one didn't sound very funny.

Because there are three of her people flat out watching Princess Ryu fight right next door.

Besides, none of the three of them have played the game yet.

I mean, you're very likely to fight us...

"Hey Kate... Won't you abstain from this tournament?

I whisper to my partner to suggest I give up the tournament.

But my partner hasn't said anything.

What are you going to say you want to fight Princess Ryu!?

Were you such a bloody character?

I turn my face to Kate, who pierces my silence.

……

Oh, no, I'm just relieved that the shock is too strong.

◆ Gyro ◆

"Then we'll start the next group of matches."

The referee calls the player's number.

I'll hurry my judgment in my heart to get my number.

"Number 27"

"Oops!

With my number finally called, I'm off to the stage early.

"But good luck, Gyro!

I hear Norb cheering from behind.

"Ouch! Brother Rex's Most Apprenticed Gyro! I'm going to win a little victory!!"

When I answered without looking back, I climbed onto the game stage.