Chapter 81: What Happens if She Doesn’t Believe You?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Mia and Vidomina’s second match had begun. Despite having a scroll in one hand, Vidomina dispatched an unknown 5th grade spell that had been pre-enchanted within her Saint Quartz-embedded staff.
Mia was no less peculiar in her defensive tactic. Instead of bracing for the incoming attack with her scrolls or equipments, she chanted the spell the Archmage had tailored for her, "Pavise."
A shield was erected immediately before her just in time to deflect the opponent’s strange attack. From the looks of it, the two had struck another tie. Nonetheless, as energy clashed between them, the crowd’s applause grew louder.
Without sparing a moment for her opponent to think, Vidomina struck again, feigning an attack from her scroll before going for a critical swipe. Yet again, Mia seemed to have read her intention as she dodged and defended herself against the onslaught of attack.
The crowd cheered, each entertaining the possibility of Mia winning against a mysterious heavyweight.
A large number of the audience seemed to be rooting for Mia. "You blocked a 5th grade attack, man! That. Was. WICKED! You can do it, Mia! Hold on! Don’t lose to that weird transfer student!"
There were others that were not particularly optimistic too. Among them, someone voiced out their concern, "Defensive magic is good and all but it easily backs her into a corner, right? She’ll be forced to be the punching-bag from now on!"
"That spell… if I’m not mistaken, it’s Pavise, right? That's the spell that is frequently praised by the Church, isn’t it?"
The Church had long promoted Pavise to the public, making it so highly commercialized, literally anyone would be able to pick it up if they wanted to. True to the advocation of altruism, the spell was a decent defense to both oneself and one's comrades, but it came with a potentially sacrificial drawback. The spell required consistent and continuous channeling of mana, which meant that the caster cannot quickly prepare for their next spell after casting Pavise as it would take a significant amount of time to regroup and reshape one’s mana and concentration.
In real battles, that little extra time would be enough for a hard punch to the face— metaphorically and literally speaking.
Mia must have chosen a technique like this as her last display of courage, most of the crowd concluded internally.
Contrary to the crowd however, the elder did not show any sign of relief— in fact, his expression was even more intense than before. A strong sentiment of dread could be seen on his face.
"Mia didn’t choose the wrong defense! That lady’s spell required constant channeling of mana too, so using something like Pavise is appropriate!" Someone exclaimed.
The discovery shattered the crowd’s previous opinion as they scrutinized the scene critically.
"Gravitas"— that was the spell released by the Vidomina’s Saint Quartz staff. Just as the name suggested, the spell increased its opponent’s weight continuously, exponentially adding the target’s inertia to the point that the force required to overcome it would be so massive that it would be impossible to even lift their hands in surrender or to open their lips to chant any magical spells.
The point of the spell lay in its discreetness when it was cast— there were no visual cues and no special effects around its surrounding. What’s more, since Gravitas had no specific counter-element, only generic energy or magical shields could deflect it. Because the spell is continuous, Gravitas would slowly exhaust the opponent’s mana as they tried to protect themselves by also continuously keeping their shields up. It would usually end in two ways, either the target watched themselves grow weaker and weaker as their energy were drained from sustaining their shield or they succumbed completely to the spell and collapsed helplessly as their mass increased to ungodly proportion.
It was a truly cunning technique. And the fact that it was not commonly used, hence gving it the advantage of a surprise attack, was just the icing on top.
Using that in battles between Intermediate Level students would no doubt seal the fates of Vidomina's opponents! No wonder those who faced Vidomina crumbled before her, no matter how quickly those challengers had advanced through quarter-finals.
That was why the crowd once again burst into thunderous ovation, even if some of them could not properly discern the exact technique Vidomina used. Because to be able to correctly cast Pavise, that was the perfect counter to a continuous offensive spell such as Gravitas in the nick of time, already warranted admiration.
Once again, the elder's concern was not fixed on something so superficial. The girl’s timely defense against Gravitas was not out of his calculation— after all, Vidomina had used that spell once already. He had no doubt that it did not escape the opponent’s Soul Armature's eyes.
What puzzled him was the choice of defense. In fact, it was so perplexing that the elder felt like strangling the answer out of Baiyi's throat. Instead of using a heavyweight defensive magic to counter what was Vidomina’s ace card, Mia had only used a simple, flimsy spell.
It did not matter at all if Mia could or could not protect herself from that attack. In the elder’s book, the only two techniques an Intermediate Level sorcerer could employ to counter "Silence Spell"—used to render the accompanying spell undetectable— was a Dispel Scroll or a magical tool.
If Mia had spent her energy on countering the Silence spell, the ensuing offensive attack would have caught up to her and to protect herself, she would have been forced to activate her pre-installed defensive magic from her equipments. However, abilities provided by equipments can't be replenished easily, hence stripping off another line of defense from Mia.
Next, let’s say Mia ignored the Silence Spell. She would still have to counter the offensive spell! Even if Mia decided to just charge straight on and let her equipmwnts take the damage, Gravitas would have eroded the protective shield of her equipments and again, removing one line of defense from her arsenal. Based on his calculations, that strategy alone would have been enough to checkmate her!
But Mia’s technique had tipped the scales to her favor. Ignoring the Silence Spell and then using Pavise to avoid falling into the elder's trap. Instead, because Vidomina could only use 5th grade spells twice in one setting, she had just wasted one.
Anxiety and fury had permeated the elder’s mind. For once, he had to brace himself for the possibility that Vidomina might lose.
He shook his head to clear his mind. Vidomina had a lot more than just Gravitas to offer, even if it seemed like she was in a disadvantageous position. They still had one trump card left. The only thing that was holding her back from using it was that if she used it, it would have been no different from losing. It would be a Pyrrhic victory.
She wouldn’t dare to use that. The elder thought to himself. But the problem still persists— how dare this little girl ignore Silence Spell?
The Archmage apparently shared the same sentiment. "You taught her that strategy, didn’t you? …Why would you even teach her such a weird strategy?"
Me?! You actually think your disciple would be this noob?! Baiyi exclaimed hotly. If it was me, I would have advance during their second clash. I would decimate her armor using ice element magic and then squirt that white goo right at her face. See how she Gravitas that!
" That’s a pretty good strategy. It leaves a lot of time for Mia to follow up with offensive spell…" The Explorer cut in. "But to use that goo spell on a beautiful lady seemed pretty odd, don’t you think?"
Are you kidding? It is precisely because she’s beautiful. No sane beauty would be able to maintain their composure after having their adorables face subjected to a sudden explosion of goo and slime, right? Baiyi defended his choice.
The Archmage interjected. "The goo spell would have worked, I concede. It’s fast and it does seem to be one of the more effective spells that Gravitas would not affect. It’s just that… I was wondering why you would ignore the Silence spell?" He paused for a moment. "Or is it that you already have something to deal with the Silence spell in her equipments? Although I don’t recall you having enough time to obtain equipments that could counter a Silence spell."
Meh, I have long prepared for that sort of sticky situations, Baiyi replied nonchalantly. What else was that hammerhead shark plushie supposed to do? If Mia was hit with a Silence spell, all she had to do was use that plushie and then it’s Game Over, Chapter Cleared, GGWP.
Baiyi was really well prepared. When Mia was having lunch with him, he had the urge to tell her to just use that hammerhead shark and instant-kill her opponent without spending too much time on the battle. He only stopped himself because a swift victory like that would have been akin to cheating and it would not have meant much to the girl.
It was about gaining experience, after all.
So all he did was told Mia what tricks and sleights-of-hands she should expect and what to do to counter them.
What would the elder think if he knew the truth?
The battle proceeded to the third or fourth clash, Mia had suffered quite an amount of damage as Vidomina regained the upperhand, forcing Mia back into defending with only Pavise to shield her.
Damn. Being inexperienced has caught up to Mia, huh? In the end, she still can’t help but follow the familiar combat patterns. Baiyi thought flatly as he watched his pupil.
He eyed the shield Mia had erected for the nth time. Uh. Pavise is sturdier than I thought. Totally blocked every effing thing Vidomina had thrown at her so far.
"Listen, child! I must correct this grave mistake that you keep committing!" The Archmage’s thunderous voice boomed across the Void.
"The name of that spell is NOT Pavise, okay? It’s called ‘Pseudo-deployment/Foundation of Anthropic Principle’, child! At least respect the name it was given!" The Archmage continued in his best Zeus-imitation.
"Just as expected, using your regal bearing to correct a ‘mistake’ the size of a strand of nosehair!" Baiyi rolled his eyes. "At least pretend to worry about Mia, would you?"
"Were you talking to yourself out loud? You’re her teacher, you should be the one worrying about her. Besides, you’ve already told her about the hammerhead shark plushie— with that she isn’t going to be defeated."
The Archmage paused for a while, a new question forming in his mind. "Little girl really loves that hammerhead shark though—why didn’t she throw a tantrum when you’d told her you had done something to the plushie?"
Because I didn’t tell her I enchanted it! All I said was, ‘Do you know? The hammerhead shark is your spirit animal. In times of crisis, all you have to do is to ask it to deliver you from danger… Just like that night, two years ago.
The Voidwalkers’ mouths were all agape, as they shakily said, altogether,
"Whaaaaattt? That’s all ? What if she doesn’t believe you?!"