With Sivina leaving the team and going after the killer, there were three of them.

As in a typical mage battle, there was a certain distance between them. In fact, Lylphia had tried to close the distance by relying on her melee skills, but Sony had managed to parry Lylphia and put some distance between them.

When Sony and Lylphia were compared in terms of sheer power, it could be said that their strength was close, but the important point was not the power, but the types of magic used in their fights.

Even though everyone in the field was a wizard with their own type of magic, even if there were two of them facing Sony, the problem of their type of magic remained.

First of all, there was the possibility that the destructive power of Lylphia's magic could reach uncontrollable proportions. A large area had been cleared of trees because of the light spell earlier, but there was still the possibility that Lylphia could lose control and start a fire. Moreover, the trees had not completely disappeared, they had just fallen to the ground and piled on top of each other.

Sony, on the other hand, had no such concerns when he used his magic. Even though he was one against two, he was in an advantageous position. He had earth magic and could defend himself against both fire and wind magic.

Also his opponents had only fire and wind magic and were therefore vulnerable to Sony's light magic.

Sony's light magic, unlike Yurine's light magic, had taken on an offensive dimension. Light magic was his main offensive power, and if Lylphia and Ana were not careful, they could die. Light mages were indeed the last mages those two wanted to face.

“He spent a lot of mana building those walls, if fight goes long, we can win.”

“But don't we have to catch up with Sivina? We can't waste time, let's finish this and go to her.”

“What a Sivina! Don't worry, she'll take him one versus one. Didn't you see her fight like a maniac?”

Ana had a fondness for Sivina beyond that of ordinary friends. Lylphia understood this even better when Yu took Sivina to the capital to bait her. Ana had been depressed without Sivina, and though she and Raul had tried to lift her spirits, they had failed. Without Sivina, she was very lifeless.

“But she's wounded!”

Lylphia sighed as she tried to escape Sony's halos of light.

“Are you in love with her or something?”

“W-what's that got to do with it?”

Ana blushed as if an embarrassing secret had been revealed and became quiet and focused on the fight.

Sony's attacks continued to come at them relentlessly. With no way to stop the halos, all they could do was run away from them.

As they ran, they both had the same thought, they suddenly changed direction and started running towards Sony. They both knew that this wasn't going to end by running, they had to get close to Sony and finish the job. They dodged Sony's attacks from a distance and ran.

Lylphia's melee strength alone would be enough to defeat Sony, and if she and Ana teamed up, they would end the fight at close quarters, leaving Sony no chance. This was reinforced by Sony's reluctance to fight at close quarters.

Seeing Lylphia and Ana approaching him without slowing down, Sony used earth magic to stop them, creating two parallel pillars emerging from the ground.

One of the pillars hit Ana in the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. She tumbled over the pillar and landed with a tumble. Lylphia dodged the pillars and kept running at Sony.

Her efforts to avoid the pillar had slowed her down a little, but she could not even think of doing something like jumping over it, because she would be completely defenseless in the air.

In fact, Lylphia could use mana and her body to gain direction in the air, but a wizard like Sony would not give her that chance. When she jumped in front of him, Sony would finish her off so fast that she could neither evade the attack by gaining direction nor defend herself with fire magic.

She stayed on the ground and kept running, still keeping the possibility to dodge the attacks. She dodged all of Sony's spells and as soon as she got close to him, she spun around and tried to kick him in the head.

Sony backed away, avoiding the first kick to the head. Without waiting, Lylphia tried another roundhouse kick, which Sony dodged by backing away. After repeating the same move several times, Sony had nowhere to go back. He was forced to stop because of the tree he had hit and the kick to the head sent him skidding several meters to the ground.

Lylphia's kicks were not to be taken lightly. If Sony had been a normal human being, Lylphia's mana-enhanced kick would have had the force to shatter his skull, but because Sony had mana-enhanced his body, he would have survived the kick.

“Would you like to explain why? Because I can't understand why a young and powerful mage from a noble and wealthy family, who has a wonderful career ahead of him, with the possibility of living an untroubled life, would steal and collaborate with a murderer.”

“I don't want to be understood anyway, just leave me alone,” Sony said from where he was lying.

“We can't just let a criminal go. Otherwise we would be guilty of helping you, and I don't want to end my career in this way. Surrendering before we have to deal with you here is the best choice you can make.”

Lylphia had a rare type of magic and was one of the best students at the Wizarding Academy. She had no intention of just throwing her dreams away.

“And who is this ‘her’?”

The blow to her stomach and her rolling on the floor had torn the pajamas Ana was wearing. She could tell she was crying because her eyes were red. She came to Lylphia holding her stomach.

“I guess we'll have to find whoever it is that needs to be saved. If she is not someone you are holding hostage, which I assume she is not since you want her saved, she should be prosecuted for cooperating with you. More important than that, of course, is for you to tell me where the Blessing you stole is. I need to take it back with you.”

Sony swallowed. He was about to stand up slowly when he was sent flying backwards by a tornado sent by Ana, breaking a few trees he hit.

“Stay down!” shouted Ana. “If you try to get up again, you'll get an even harsher reaction this time.”

If he stood up, Sony would keep fighting. Lylphia would have done the same in his place. She recognized the determination in Sony's eyes.

“Damn your magic-!”

Lylphia stopped herself from swearing at the last moment. Their goal of not letting him stand up had not succeeded. As Lylphia and Ana tried to dodge the halos of light that suddenly appeared in the air, Sony knocked them both to the ground with the rock he raised beneath their feet.

“I wish everyone would shout the spell name before casting it...”

Both had suffered injuries from the halos of light when they fell to the ground, but had survived.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

When they stood up, they again encountered the halos of light. Even if they dodged them, Sony had again put distance between them and kept its guard up.

“He's got so much mana, it's endless.”

“Oh... I can't attack either... I don’t care trees, but if I attack he'll burn to ashes.”

Ana threw a horizontal wave of wind in an arc. Sony jumped and dodged the spell, but it continued to move forward, cutting down more trees and enlarging the area where they were fighting.

Seeing the trees fall to the ground, Lylphia had an idea.

“Keep cutting down trees!”

After giving Ana the command, Lylphia rushed forward to attack. She was going to engage in melee combat again and buy time for Ana, who was cutting down trees without knowing what the plan was.

“Tch, you're so persistent.”

Sony would create rock pillars in front of Lylphia to stop her, or sudden walls to make her make a mistake and jump, but Lylphia would successfully evade them all, suddenly changing course and going around the walls if necessary.

Even the light magic Sony used to attack was useless against Lylphia's astonishing speed, no halo could hit her body or her breasts, which swayed as if independent of her body.

Sony again formed a horizontal beam that traveled in an arc and shot it at Lylphia. His aim was to make Lylphia jump over the beam and finish her off in mid-air.

But instead of jumping, Lylphia rolled on the floor and landed in front of Sony. She hoped Ana had also recognized the light wave and survived, but she didn't have time to turn around and confirm that she was alive.

She tried to drive her fist into Sony's jaw, but instead of dodging, Sony grabbed Lylphia's fist and punched her in the stomach, knocking her off her feet.

To save her hand, Lylphia used fire magic to briefly increase its temperature. This was a less preferred method as it was considered dangerous, and when it was used, it was to protect against the sudden attacks of water magic. In unprofessional hands, use for more than a few seconds would cause permanent damage to the user.

Even though Lylphia is a pro, she didn't have to use the spell for long, Sony let go of Lylphia's hand with a scream and Lylphia nimbly moved behind Sony and kicked him in the back, sending him flying meters.

So she was free of Sony's spell and in the middle of the empty space created by Ana, who had cut down the trees.

“Get out of the area and prevent the flames from spreading to the trees and I will finish this.”

Ana did as she was told and left the area. After she left the field, Lylphia raised her hand high and threw a fireball into the air that was at least five times bigger than her own body.

The fireball rose in the air, then exploded and the flames descended in a dome. Lylphia and Sony were left alone in this dome.

***

Yu didn't want to be disappointed, so he tried not to think of Yurine as too strong before the fight started.

She seemed to be doing a pretty good job, though. At least she was doing a much better job than Yu would have done. Even though she couldn't put pressure on Sharley, she was good when it came to defense. None of Sharley's attacks were able to penetrate Yurine's wall of wind.

But it was unclear how long this could go on. Yurine was slowly retreating while Sharley continued her non-stop attacks. It was hard to notice at first, but Yurine was much closer to Yu now than at the beginning of the fight.

“Why are you protecting this bastard, Neko? You're crazy!”

Sharley made sure that his attacks did not hit Yurine in particular, his target was Yu, but Yurine was standing right between them, making it difficult to hit him.

“I don't have any pride anymore, I've never been so humiliated before. Of course, I'm happy at the same time, but...”

When the night was over, he would still have to heal his shattered pride. He knew Yurine was a sword fairy and a mage, but in the end she was a little child and Yu was a grown man hiding behind a little child.

But he still couldn't do anything about it, so he could only stand there and hope Yurine won.

“Huh? What insolence is this! Look at this low life form that calls me crazy, you are in no position to comment on people's mental health.”

Taking advantage of the gap in Sharley's speech, Yurine went on the offensive for the first time since the fight began, directing the storm around her in one direction - Sharley.

The storm Yurine sent was not an attack that Sharley could shield or dodge. The winds that swept through the entire street shattered the crystal wall he had created in front of his opponent without giving him a chance to escape and slammed into Sharley, dragging her away.

“I can't believe I wanted to save you when that animal attacked, seems even superior beings can be wrong sometimes. I wish you had died for good when the gorilla attacked you. Leaving you to die was the third of the three best decisions my mother ever made.”

“LIE!” Even though there was some distance between them, he heard Yurine's words and was able to make his own voice reach her. “LIE! LIE! LIE! LIE! YOU'RE LYING! LIAR!”

Hearing that Rie had left him made his head spin. Normally he chose Yu as his target, but this time he targeted Yurine, the little girl he had accused of being a liar. He threw the hundreds of crystal swords he had created at Yurine.

“Nonsense,” Yurine whispered. The strong winds had shattered all the swords into pieces.

“WHY DID YOU LET THAT BASTARD BRAINWASH YOU! WHY! WHY! CAN'T YOU SEE ALL THE THINGS I'VE DONE FOR RIE?”

Sharley had no intention of getting an answer, she was just shouting to justify herself. The bandages covering her body were also torn, exposing her burned body.

“Don't be ridiculous, a mere human can’t brainwash me.”

“THEN WHY!”

This time Sharley made a vertical attack, not a horizontal one. The purple-colored crystal rock he created in the air appeared on top of Yu's head and quickly fell down.

Yurine could not see because the attack was from behind her, but as soon as she sensed the mana, she turned around and prepared her wind spell to push the rock away.

“I was fucking dying!”

Yurine took a deep breath when she realized that her worry was in vain. Yu dodged the rock that was about to fall on his head and leaned his back against the wall. He looked at Yurine as he caught his breath.

Yurine was quicker to sense the mana this time, she noticed the swords coming from behind her and quickly spun around, creating a wind field. This shattered the crystal swords into pieces and the mana that had formed them dissipated into the air.

“WHY! WHY! WHY! WHY!”

Sharley was constantly creating swords and sending them at the duo without discrimination.

Yurine, too, was shattering the swords coming at her and gathering the wind around her body for her next attack. A storm was about to break.

“You have so much mana, it never ran out. Whereas when I was with my mother, it was always running out.”

Yurine did not know how to use light magic for attacking, and using light magic for healing required too much mana.

Actually, mana was not the problem. Yurine had enough mana in her body to make most mages jealous, and even when she couldn't use magic in the Sigma Tower, she could feel it coursing through her. In fact, the mana in Yurine's body was even more than the mana in her mother's body.

But still, Yurine had spent half of her mana stockpile. Despite her huge stockpile, it was because of the healing spell she had cast for Yu.

In the healing spell, when transferring mana from one body to another, much of the mana was lost into the air, causing it to expend more mana than necessary.

Yurine didn't want to spend unnecessarily as she had used up half of her mana because of this. Sharley, on the other hand, was constantly spending mana despite the state of his body and seemed to be fine with it.

Since she couldn't tell how much her opponent's mana stock was, she couldn't decide whether to attack or not. Should she wait for his opponent to run low on mana and then attack, or did he already have a small amount of mana left?

Yurine could feel through the attacks of her winds take, Sharley's crystal swords were constantly increasing in power. Clearly Yurine was scared.

Nevertheless, there was no expression on her face that would show her opponent her fear. She had learned from her mother to be a poker face, as Yu called it during the fight.

Or rather she should say she had seen it from her mother. Although her mother gave her small lessons now and then, she was often ignored during magical training and other training and did not receive much education.

Yurine could digest this. Because Rie, a dark mage, was limited in what she could teach Yurine, who used wind and light magic.

Yurine could understand why her mother didn't teach her what other children were taught, since she could read, write, knew history and math thanks to Emily

“I realize now that there are many more things I have been ignoring...”

But she couldn't help feeling sad that her wishes were not being fulfilled, that she was not getting the attention she expected from her mother and that her ideas were being ignored.

Yet this never diminished her love for her mother. Yurine resented the fact that her mother was teaching Sharley magic and caring for him more than she cared for her, but she kept it to herself and continued to love her.

“I think that's why I hated Sharley, not because he loved her, but because she was more interested in him than she was in me.”

She wiped a tear from her eye with the back of her hand and smiled.

“Hate doesn't give power, it won't be enough for me to stop him. YOU!” Yurine called Yu.

“Yes?”

“He's stronger than I thought.”

“So?”

“On the count of three, you will pick me up and jump behind the wall. ONE, TWO, THREE!”

Yu was given no time to say anything. Yurine immediately counted to three and at one she threw the storm that had gathered around her at Sharley. By two Yu had her in his arms and at three Yu jumped.

Yurine supported him with her magic and even though Yu's body was weakened, he managed to jump behind the wall thanks to Yurine.

“RUN!” Yurine shouted. After slowing their fall with wind magic, she used the rest of her mana to make Yu run.

“What happened to magic lesson?”

“Shut up.”

Yurine was hugging Yu's neck. Yu noticed the tracks on the ground and ran, thinking that following them would lead them to their estranged friends.