Disciple of Immortal

Act 2: Chapter 21: 《Ground Detonation》

Rosemonde made a beeline towards us.

So he* was attacking for real this time.

(*Kanata doesn’t realize that Rosemonde is a woman so the dialogue from his perspective will have male pronouns when referring to her!)

「Leave this to Philia! Leave this to Philia!」

I hurriedly stopped the over-enthusiastic Philia.

「N-Not now, please!」

A magic circle appeared when Rosemonde raised his giant cross.

And then, he swung down his cross as if trying to erase the magic circle.

「TAKE THIS GREENHORN! EARTH MAGIC, 3rd RANK; 《EARTH NEEDLE》！」

An earth needle around fifty centimeters long materialized then fired towards me.

I stepped forward and reached out my hand toward the earth needle.

「FOOL! YOU THINK YOU CAN CATCH THAT WITH YOUR BARE HAND?!」

The earth needle broke apart before it hit me. Its fragments fluttered about in the air.

「What… the? Are you using an item?」

Rosemonde groaned in a low voice.

That magic just now was repelled by Lunaire’s robe.

Low rank magic doesn’t work on me.

「Please excuse my rudeness just now. We have no intentions of quarreling with you, please lower your weapon.」

「How dare you ask me to let you go after making a fool of me and erasing my magic… DON’T LOOK DOWN ON AN A-RANK ADVENTURER!」

Hearing my request, Rosemonde became even more enraged instead of calming down.

「I WON’T HOLD BACK! NOW YOU’LL SEE THE ORIGIN OF MY ALIAS, 《ROSEMONDE OF EXTERMINATION》!」

Oh crap, it seems I stepped on a landmine.

Looking at this situation, it seems that Rosemonde wouldn’t back down obediently.

Should I play dead after letting his magic hit me?

I mean, he was somewhat famous in Manarak after all, we’re going to be in deep shit if he spreads unpleasant rumours about us…

「Earth Magic, 4th Rank;《Clod Mine》」

Rosemonde fired a lump of earth toward me.

The moment those lumps of earth arrived in front of me, they immediately got repelled by my robe and fell to the ground.

「It seems you’ve prepared a countermeasure! But, that magic is going to explode, you know!」

The 《Clod Mine》 that fell on the ground beneath me exploded.

Naturally, it doesn’t work on me due to the power of this robe.

… What should I do now? Should I give a light warning to avoid any future trouble?

「… Hou, unscathed huh! Fine! Let me show you the true power of a sorcerer! Earth Magic, 5th Rank; 《Clod Bomb》！」

A blazing red ball materialized in front of Rosemonde.

The soil beneath his feet got peeled off, and then wrapped around the blazing red ball. The result was a beautiful earth sphere.

That magic… was explosion-type magic huh.

It was said that sorcerer types have an overwhelming advantage in long-range combat.

Since his aim is me, let’s get away from Philia and Pomera for now.

「… You two, please step back for now.」

I stepped forward as I told them to do so.

「Finally! Have you realized that you can’t win against me!」

「Sorry but that’s not what I mean…」

「This magic is going to blow you up! Now let’s see what are you going to do against this!」

The earth sphere fired toward me when Rosemonde swung down his metal cross.

I stretched my arm forward to stop the earth sphere.

Red light leaked out from the crack on the surface of the earth sphere and then exploded.

Though the grass and the ground around me got peeled off due to the shockwave of the explosion, only the ground where I stood was completely unscathed.

「H… how can it be? Am I… under the effect of an illusion?」

Rosemonde was rooted on the spot, his metal cross slipping from his hand as he saw what just happened.

Lunaire’s Robe could negate magic spells of 10th rank and below. Not even that Notes, a 《JinMaRyuu》, could breach the defence of this robe.

Since I pretty much realized how far an A-rank adventurer can go with their magic, I could say that ALL Rosemonde’s magic was pretty much wouldn’t work on me.

I even said before that this was an unproductive fight.

And since Rosemonde was a spellcaster, he pretty much couldn’t even scratch me.

I mean, he has a higher chance of hurting me if he tried to bash my head with his giant metal cross rather than his magic.

「Anyhow, please calm down. Even I have no choice but to retaliate if you keep attacking me one-sidedly.」

「… Ku-KUKUKU.」

Rosemonde grabbed his giant metal cross again.

A magic circle deployed from the tip of his cross, and then, a shining red sphere appeared from within.

「I never expected that I’d meet a mage who could corner me this far in a one-on-one fight. Fine, my apologies for underestimating you… this Rosemonde acknowledges your strength. After this, I shall fight with my life on the line!」

「Cornering you!? The heck, I don’t even do anything yet!?」

「BEHOLD! MY GREATEST SPELL! EARTH MAGIC, 7th-Rank; 《GROUND BOMB》!」

The ground beneath his feet got peeled off and then covered the shining red sphere.

In just a moment, the shining red sphere was transformed into a giant earth sphere with a diameter close to one metre.

Rosemonde swung down his cross.

The giant lump of earth was heading toward me as it slowly inclined to the ground and fell right in front of me.

Its earthen surface collapsed and the red light inside exploded, covering the area with intense light.

I saw the ground inside that light distort due to the sheer heat. The trees nearby were burned black within a moment and broke apart.

When the explosion stopped… I saw Rosemonde was breathing roughly in front me while propping himself up with his arms.

One part of his armour and overcoat was blown off due to the explosion.

Half of the goat mask that covered his face was also destroyed.

Though I failed to see it before due to the overcoat and metal protector, after looking at Rosemonde’s slender body and the half-face that didn’t get covered by the goat mask, I realized that I mistook Rosemonde’s gender.

The red makeup that she applied around her eyes really stood out.

She had a pair of impressive cat eyes, or rather, ferocious tigress’ eyes.

She was a beauty, but there was this beast-like aura around her.

Come to think of it, though I didn’t realize that fact due to her masculine voice and her mask, Pomera seems to have realized that Rosemonde was a woman at first glance.

Looking at her, it seemed she was out of breath.

Since she fired magic with such devastating damage at a large area from such a distance, it seems she also received the damage from 《Ground Bomb》.

… By the way, since the effect of 7th-rank magic was negated by my robe, I was unscathed like before.

Though I know that they’ll be alright, I still glanced at Pomera and co just in case.

Two giant white arms were growing from the ground to protect them.

There was one huge eye on the back of the hand of one arm, and mouth on the other arm.

The arms giant hands then untangled its fingers, and went back into the earth.

Pomera and Philia’s figure could be seen from inside the arms untangled hands.

It seems those enigmatic white arms were created by Philia with 《Dream Sand》 to protect Pomera.

「I’m… not done yet! Who said that magic is all I have!」

Rosemonde abandoned the metal cross in her hands and rushed toward me.

「My glove’s claws will tear you to pieces!」

Rosemonde stretched her metal covered arms.

Ominous looking claws grew from her metal covered fingertips.

「NO MATTER HOW POWERFUL YOUR MAGIC SKILL, YOU MUST BE SUCK IN CLOSE COMBAT! EVEN IF I’M RUNNING OUT OF MANA, MY PHYSICAL POWER WILL TRIUMPH IN THE END! ONLY THOSE WHO MASTERED THOSE TWO ASPECTS CAN BE REGARDED AS TRUE COMBAT MAGES! YOU LET YOUR GUARD DOWN, GREENHORN!」

I caught Rosemonde’s oversized gauntlets and threw them down to the ground.

The impact of that fall raised a cloud of dust.

「H-How…」

Rosemonde fell to the ground along with her gauntlets in the shape of “大” letter and muttered so with a vexed voice.