The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 223

223.

The compatibility between a swordsman and a magician is typically 7:3 or 8:2.

Moreover, the Supreme Star Sword, Schürping, has the unique ability to absorb an opponent’s powers, making this match, at best, around 9:1.

In short, there’s no time for hesitation. Clearly.

– Now, let’s begin the battle of the century!

Friede’s voice, which shouldn’t have been audible, seemed to ripple on the breeze.

– On the left, we have Rista Alter Schürping, currently a celebrated hero of humanity with tremendous fame!

Perhaps it’s because this face-off is so familiar, or maybe it’s because the place where that match took place is right here, 300 years ago.

– And on the right, we have the weakest member of the Hero’s Party, the puny magician, Lynn!

– Puny, puny, puny. Lynn is puny.

– Hey, can that chain-smoking shrine maiden and that flashy sun parakeet be quiet?

– What’s your problem?

What would you have done if you were in my place?

If the situation were reversed, what expression would you be wearing right now?

Me, I mean, Rista.

“Wandering Worldly One: Azure Lightning and Fire.”

I shout until my throat is raw, as if tearing apart the chains of lingering thoughts leading to the distant past.

To face the old hero, I needed the power of fire and lightning, the strongest and fastest runes among the eight attributes.

The combination of the strong but slow Fire and the fast but weak Lightning. The fusion of these two origin runes brilliantly etches my inner world onto the stage.

“Line Iron Halberd.”

The rune used first is Lightning.

A wedge of light rises with incredible speed, and those wedges stack up like a massive barrier.

To block the slash that shatters space-time.

Clang!

A piercing sound that could rupture eardrums cuts through the wall of electricity, conceptually. [Conceptually means the sound is so intense it feels like it’s cutting through the very idea of electricity.]

Moreover, the trees and buildings in the path of the slash were instantly severed as if by magic.

People of the past saw hope in that sight. But now…….

“Setsunen!”

Whirr, countless lightning chains sprouted, linking the structures together to prevent collapse.

[Aruu!]

No sooner had I steadied my tense gaze than Rista’s body outline wavered, disappearing like a mirage.

Dugun.

Dugun dugun.

Dugun dugun dugun.

My heart beats seven times in less than an instant, and at the seventh beat, I turn around and raise my staff.

“Form 4, Elephant.”

A speed so brutal it’s almost laughable.

Rista’s specialty, the Mirage Footwork, disrupts the opponent’s breathing rhythm and gets behind them. I knew it was coming.

The dragon’s flame and the holy power of the sacred sword collide, and an intense pain, as if my tendons were tearing, surged.

“Fire Rising Canopy.”

Spinning backward, I simultaneously construct a magic circle, and a wave of fire rises, forming a large canopy.

– Lynn, can you create magic like that?

The fire rune application I used to block both riverbanks and catch countless fish—the day Rista said those words.

Will you recognize this?

The flames rise from both sides into cliffs, gradually narrowing the gap until they merge into one, swallowing Rista, who was in between.

“Swallow it, Schürping……”

The moment the holy light concentrated dazzlingly in Schürping, ten consecutive slashes were executed at a speed invisible to the eye.

Schürping, modeled after the true sacred sword Sharillion, absorbs the opponent’s powers and makes them its own, just like Sharillion.

Sharillion amplifies that power several times over and explodes, but fortunately, Schürping didn’t imitate such unrealistic functions.

“Even so……”

The fire wall crumbles powerlessly. Schürping’s blade absorbs that power, scatters it, and begins to glow with flames.

The aftershock of the slash spreads sharply in all directions, scratching buildings, cutting palm leaves, and drawing a bloodline on my cheek.

Now it’s coming, the sword energy emission that only masters of the sword can perform…….

“Thunder Flash Cannon!”

“Slash!”

The flame sword energy fired from the tip of the sword and the flash of lightning collide in mid-air.

In the intense explosion that creates an updraft, the paving stones of the plaza turn to ashes.

Of course, it doesn’t end here. Experts aim for a fatal blow in just such chaos.

If I stop, I’ll die.

As I run along the wall of the diagonally tilted four-story stone building, Setsunen urgently warns.

[Aruu!]

At the same time, I could see Schürping spinning above my head.

Schürping is warning me…… If this were a real fight, Schürping would have silenced even its own voice.

“Magic circle construction.”

The next moment, the hero’s puppet, which appeared like an arrow in mid-air, grabbed Schürping’s hilt.

“5-Star.”

The sword’s edge pointed straight at me. I kicked off the magic foothold created in the air with all my might and plummeted.

“Fire Mirror Lotus.”

The magic Pipi loved.

The magic Pipi danced with.

The magic Pipi loved, so Friede loved it, so Keyes loved it, so Rista loved it, and so I loved it—our memories of that time.

[Aruru!]

Originally a magic where water droplets dance, but renewed with 5-star fire magic, it becomes a defensive barrier with definite practical abilities.

Boom!

In the roar where the sound explodes like an impact, cold sweat momentarily beaded on my temples.

“It’s not there?”

Only Schürping covered the barrier.

Schürping, having absorbed the barrier’s power, is once again changing the shape of its blade into flames.

That means…….

Clang!

Was it instinct from experience? It was the staff that blocked the fingertips that flew towards my cervical vertebrae in an instant.

When the hero’s gauntlet and the staff collided, emitting a brutal metallic sound.

Rista’s spinning kick, which rotated the body’s center of gravity one revolution with the heel, was planted in my abdomen. If Setsunen’s power hadn’t corrected my strength before it landed, my joints would have broken just now…….

As I somersault backward to create distance, Rista leaps powerfully, leaving cracks in the ground, as if not to miss me.

As he extends that hand to his partner, Schürping, which was stuck over there, soared into the air. It spins fiercely and flies into his grasp.

“Yeah, that’s how you’d come out.”

Schürping’s weakness is that it cannot absorb other powers until it absorbs and releases one power.

I aimed for that blind spot.

So I led the fight.

Right now, so that the rectangular current barrier can trap Rista for a moment. Unlike when fighting the Dragon Slayer, I can now use my main attribute.

“……!”

It’s a barrier made by hammering in only five amplification-type Orbios series runes. [Runes are symbols with magical properties.]

The moment he explodes the power of fire to break through that barrier, the power of the current becomes even stronger.

And I don’t give him time to think. Chains of fire writhing like snakes from all sides of that barrier.

“Pierce through.”

The moment those chains recklessly pierced through the barrier, Schürping exploded the power of fire, and the current barrier was scattered with a dazzling explosion.

The heatwave that swept through the collapsed plaza, taking away all the moisture in the atmosphere, made my lips parched.

Do puppets feel fatigue? In the smoke, we both caught our breath and stared at each other for a moment.

– A gap!

In that moment when I had to calm my body, what really hurt was not the flesh but the heart.

Because Rista’s face from that distant summer day, poking my side with a wooden sword and giggling as he stepped back, was superimposed on that puppet.

Rista valued actual combat above all else when teaching staff techniques, and we had to engage in sparring like that for an hour every day.

– Why do I have to learn staff techniques? It’s not like I’m from the Chaihark School [A school known for close combat], and there’s no need to learn close combat.

In fact, I didn’t want to learn it. It was almost forced.

– Lynn, demons think too. They also know that if they get close to a magician who uses wide-area magic, they will definitely win.

– …….

– The key to close combat is to exploit weaknesses. Erasing my weaknesses and inducing the opponent to open their weaknesses is the flower of close combat.

At that time, Rista looked at me and seemed to smile strangely and vaguely.

– If Lynn learns close combat, any demon can take advantage of being able to exploit weaknesses as long as they approach.

Because no one would even think that a magician is so skilled in close combat.

The day came when the staff gradually took shape in my hands, and now I no longer received any particular teachings from Rista.

As twilight fell and dusk faintly bloomed on the horizon, Rista said, looking at the stars in the sky.

– Lynn, do you like staff techniques now?

– To some extent. There’s a saying that anything is fun if you’re good at it. But why?

– That’s a relief.

– What’s a relief?

– Because that staff technique will be the only trace I can leave in Lynn’s heart.

Why did the moonlight look so bleak that day?

Why did your back, with that moonlight breaking down so white above your head, look so sad?

I didn’t know it then, but now I feel like I vaguely know.

– Unlike me, Lynn will live a long and long life. You’ll become an adult, get married to someone, have children, and become a grandfather.

– Marriage? What am I…… Who would like someone like me.

– In those moments of life, there will be many days when this staff technique will be helpful, whether big or small.

Saying that, Rista’s eyes, turning to me, were softly curved, but the dew in those eyes reflected the moonlight sadly.

– Lynn, will you remember me then?

You idiot.

Even without this staff technique, I…….

[Aruuu!]

Not for a moment.

Not even for a single moment.

I swear, not even in any moment, have I ever forgotten you.

“……!”

At that time, the Supreme Star Sword Schürping cut through space-time. Did he minimize the power and increase the speed? The pressure knocked my body away and slammed it into the outer wall.

The staff soars spiraling into the sky, and before that staff reaches the highest point of ascent, the blade rushes into my eyes.

At that time, a red flash grazed a corner of my vision, collided with Schürping’s blade, and scattered countless sparks.

“You idiot, get in position!”

It was ironically Rista’s voice that awakened me, who was sinking into the memories with Rista, into the swamp of sad longing.

No, it’s not Rista.

You mustn’t be mistaken. That’s Miria.

The Demon Sword, colliding with Schürping, roared loudly. That cry was just like Link telling me: Wake up, Lynn.

“Rain, Rain, Rain.”

Pipi, who landed on my head, pecked at the crown of my head as if to wake me up, and spread her wings of fire to join Miria.

Pipi.

I didn’t want to show you this fight.

[Aruu.]

It hurts.

It hurts in a way I can’t describe.

It’s such a painful fight, but let’s do our best. Now, let’s put an end to our sad farewell story.

“Magic circle construction, dual 5-Star.”