The Return Of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 117

Time flew by quickly.

The first three matches of the quarterfinals were over.

Only the last match of the quarterfinals, Adela vs. Kyle, remained.

—Well, everyone has been waiting for the match between Adela Steart and Kyle Bentia! It’s just around the corner.

The current time is 11:10 AM.

The match will start in 5 minutes.

—The atmosphere in the stadium is incredible!

—The previous 1st to 3rd matches were also intense. It’s natural for the atmosphere to be like this.

As usual, the commentators and casters exchanged words, heightening the anticipation.

—Moreover, this match is important as it could break the Olympiad record. I’m so nervous, I can only imagine how the audience feels!

—Ah! That’s right!

—Haha. You’ll have to be a bit nervous today. If Korea wins and the record is broken, our names and videos will definitely be recorded! If we make a mistake, we could be immortalized for 100 years!

—You’re making me so nervous! A permanent black history record.

The caster spoke with a genuinely nervous expression.

Suddenly, their expression hardened.

—Haha. But you don’t need to be too stiff. The charm of the Talis announcers is their cheerfulness! If we’re going to be recorded in history, we should be at our most charming, right?

—That’s true! Yes! I’ll do it as usual!

The caster’s completely stiff expression relaxed somewhat.

—Well, as I was saying, the two players are entering the arena.

—With 3 minutes left until the start of the match, both players are finalizing their equipment checks.

—Engineers from the Green Magic Tower and the Blue Magic Tower are helping with the checks. It’s a rare sight, even for me.

—Then, we should quickly introduce the players, right? First, from England, Kyle Bentia…

Thus, the caster began the player introductions in earnest.

It was an exaggerated introduction to build up the atmosphere before the match, so it wasn’t particularly important.

And in the resting area in front of the vending machine in the center of the player waiting room, where the commentator’s voice was echoing, two unexpected people were talking.

“Shin Hayul. Who do you think will win?”

Dahlia Salentia.

She spoke casually, looking at Adela and Kyle on the large screen.

It seemed she had planned to get a drink before the match, as she was holding a bunch of sports drinks in her arms.

“Adela will win.”

It was Shin Hayul who answered Dahlia’s question.

Like Dahlia, Shin Hayul was also holding about 10 sports drinks in her arms.

“…Are you serious?”

“Of course. I’m definitely serious.”

It was a coincidence that these two met here.

They both came out to get sports drinks for their teammates and just happened to run into each other.

“Does that mean Adela Steart is also a 5th circle mage like you?”

“No. Adela is a 4th circle.”

Shin Hayul used magic to float the sports drinks she was holding in her arms and stacked them neatly on a small table next to the vending machine.

Then, she also floated the sports drinks that Dahlia was holding and neatly arranged them nearby.

It was an action that suggested the conversation would be long.

It wasn’t good to keep holding cold drinks in your arms.

“…Your magic control is still amazing.”

“You can do this much too.”

Floating sports drinks itself wasn’t a big deal. Dahlia could also use such light telekinetic magic.

If you register telekinetic magic with AI, you can float not only sports drinks but also cars in the air.

“I can float them, but I can’t manipulate them as finely as you do.”

The telekinetic magic listed in the open-source library only lifts and moves objects. That’s about it.

Even moving them is very rough, only moving them a few meters left, right, up, or down.

It’s impossible to move them so precisely.

“No, more than that, how did you float the sports drinks without any mana touching me?”

Even though she used telekinesis on the sports drinks she was holding tightly, there was no magical contact on Dahlia’s skin.

How good would your control have to be to do that?

“Just think about not making magical contact with the other person and use telekinesis only on the object you want to move.”

“…Thanks for the textbook answer.”

Dahlia replied with a slightly annoyed expression.

It felt like asking a soccer player how to shoot well and getting the answer, ‘Just kick the ball with your foot.’

“If you don’t want to tell me, just say you don’t want to.”

Dahlia pouted.

She looked sulky.

“I’m telling you the truth. This is really the trick.”

Shin Hayul uses magic through her mind, that is, her thoughts.

Therefore, what she said earlier was 100% pure truth without any lies.

“Okay, you could have just said it was a secret… It’s not like I was prying into the secrets of magic.”

Dahlia grumbled.

Dahlia, who knew nothing about the Bytener method [a specific method of magic control], could only hear Shin Hayul’s words as sarcasm.

“More than that, we got off topic. Is it true that Adela Steart is a 4th circle?”

“Yeah. Adela is a 4th circle right now.”

Shin Hayul answered casually, looking at Adela’s face on the large monitor.

“But you’re saying Adela Steart will win?”

“Yeah.”

Dahlia’s eyes sharpened.

“You know the historical statistics of 4th circle mages versus 5th circle mages, right?”

“I know. 7.374%.”

It’s a statistic that says they can’t win even once out of 10 times.

“And yet you’re saying Adela will win?”

“Yeah. I can’t say 100%, but she’ll win with about a 73% chance.”

Not 7.3%, but 73%.

Shin Hayul’s expression was so confident when she said that.

“I can’t understand it. It’s not like their compatibility is advantageous. In what way is Adela at an advantage?”

Adela’s moon attribute magic has the disadvantage of not being very fast.

Naturally, it’s weak against speed-specialized types like Kyle.

This alone is a sufficient penalty, and since Adela, a 4th circle, has no close-range response other than her halo, she is also at a disadvantage against close-range specialized types.

In other words, Kyle, who is a speed-specialized and close-range specialized type, is a complete counter to Adela.

Moreover, Adela is one circle lower [referring to a lower rank in magical power].

No matter who looks at it, the weight of victory is leaning towards Kyle.

In fact, the American analysis team, including Dahlia, predicts that Kyle will win 99% of the time.

Despite this, Shin Hayul is asserting that Adela will win.

‘Is there something I don’t know?’

That means Adela has some kind of hidden card.

“Do you think I’ll answer that?”

“…No. You won’t.”

Shin Hayul is not foolish enough to easily reveal her team’s player information to the opposing team.

“I just asked thinking it was worth a shot. It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer. I’ll find out by watching myself.”

Dahlia glared at the monitor with a sharp gaze.

“Oh. Really? I was going to answer, but if you don’t need it, never mind.”

Shin Hayul said with a smirk.

The corners of her mouth were playfully raised.

“…Huh?”

The venom disappeared from Dahlia’s expression. She was dumbfounded by the unexpected words.

“You’re going to answer?”

Dahlia tilted her head with a ‘why?’ expression.

“It’s going to be revealed when she fights Kyle anyway.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Adela will give her all in this battle.

If that’s the case, there’s no point in hiding information.

As long as it’s not too detailed, it’s okay to talk about it.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to hear it?”

“…I’ll hear it.”

Dahlia answered after a short pause.

Information is always good to have. It’s a bit annoying, but it’s better to listen.

—Well, the countdown is starting!

[10, 9, 8…]

The countdown announcing the start of the match had begun.

“It’s perfect timing. It would have been hard to explain in words. I’ll tell you while watching the match.”

Shin Hayul turned her gaze to the monitor, and Dahlia also followed Shin Hayul’s gaze to the monitor.

[3, 2, 1]

[Start!]

As soon as the match started, a whirlwind swirled around Kyle’s body.

He had immediately cast Wind God [a powerful wind magic spell].

“First of all, Adela is not an ordinary 4th circle user.”

Adela also raised her mana to respond to Kyle.

Mana resembling moonlight flickered like an aura around her body.

“…What do you mean?”

“It means exactly what it says.”

And about 2 seconds passed.

Kyle, who had finished all preparations, lowered his stance.

All his power was concentrated in his lower body, and the floor of the arena trembled slightly.

If it had been concrete instead of the highest-grade magic stone prepared for the match, the entire arena would have cracked like a spider web just from that preparatory movement.

“Adela is a genius.”

Dahlia glanced at Shin Hayul and frowned.

“What kind of nonsense is that…”

A 4th circle is a 4th circle.

What kind of nonsense is she talking about?

Just as she was about to say something, it happened.

Kwaang-!

Kyle’s figure disappeared from the monitor.

He had finished all preparations and started attacking Adela.

‘As expected of Kyle. I can’t even see him properly from the monitor.’

Kyle, who had already arrived right in front of Adela, swung his rapier, which was imbued with a whirlwind.

A sharp and precise cut that seemed to cut through even air resistance.

The rapier flew straight for Adela’s neck.

‘It’s over.’

Once Kyle has approached that far, the outcome is as good as decided.

‘I can’t win if I allow him to approach that close.’

It would be the same even if Dahlia herself were in Adela’s position right now.

The game is over the moment Kyle gets within 3 meters.

There’s no way to reverse it.

The only way to beat Kyle is to keep him at bay as much as possible and drag the fight into a long-range battle.

‘She’s not an ordinary 4th circle, but what is that? It ended in the first strike.’

Dahlia clicked her tongue softly with a disappointed expression.

“It’s over…”

And when she turned her gaze to Shin Hayul, about to say, ‘It’s over,’ it happened.

—Waaaaaaaah-!

Cheers erupted.

The loud cheers of the audience were transmitted unfiltered through the speakers and the walls of the waiting room.

—Adela Steart! She perfectly blocks Kyle’s sword!

Then, the commentator’s excited voice was heard.

Dahlia quickly turned her head back to the monitor.

But the situation was already over. Now, Adela and Kyle were just facing each other.

‘What? What happened?’

Dahlia’s eyes trembled with bewilderment.

“You shouldn’t have taken your eyes off it.”

Shin Hayul smirked at Dahlia.

“…What did she do?”

Dahlia asked in a trembling voice. How did Adela avoid Kyle’s attack?

“She didn’t do anything special. She just bent down to avoid it.”

“I know that. I’m asking how she avoided it.”

Just by listening to the commentators, you could tell that Adela had avoided the attack.

The problem was how she avoided it.

“How did she avoid it? She avoided it because she knew where the sword was going to come from.”

“She knew where the sword was going to come from…?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“Through prediction and analysis.”

I smiled slightly, looking at Kyle, who was holding his rapier diagonally downward.

“Prediction and analysis… You’re saying she read Kyle’s pre-movements, his motions? No. That can’t be…”

Dahlia doesn’t want to admit it, but Kyle and Dahlia are rivals.

As such, Dahlia was more enthusiastic about analyzing Kyle than anyone else.

If you were to collect all the analyzed data, it would probably be the length of a completed long novel.

“Maybe 2 years ago, but the current Kyle doesn’t have any pre-movements.”

That’s why I can say it with certainty.

Kyle doesn’t have any pre-motions. If he did, Dahlia or the American analysis team wouldn’t have missed it.

“That’s right. As you said, Kyle’s motions don’t have any habits.”

Whether he holds the sword diagonally, upright, or forward.

You can’t tell where the next cut will come from.

There are no habits in his body movements, including his stride.

“Then what…”

She saw and analyzed it.

Before she could finish her sentence, Shin Hayul cut off Dahlia’s words and answered.

“But that’s only limited to physical motions.”

“…Physical?”

Shin Hayul twisted the corners of her mouth, looking at Kyle, who was attacking again.

“Kyle’s habit is not in his body, but in his mana.”

“Mana…”

Adela perfectly evaded and blocked Kyle’s attack again this time.

—Ah! Adela! She perfectly blocks Kyle’s attack again! This time it was Kyle’s specialty, a 4-hit combo! She perfectly blocked it with two steps and one barrier!

Dahlia’s eyes widened in surprise at Adela’s perfect evasion maneuvers.

“When Kyle uses a technique, there’s a tell in the flow of his mana.”

“There’s no way that could be.”

Kyle’s mana has also been analyzed dozens of times.

But no peculiarities could be found.

“It’s natural that the analysis team, you, and Sara don’t know. It’s a habit that I barely found after fighting him directly twice, even with my Divine Eye [a special ability to perceive magic].”

A characteristic that was barely found even with the Divine Eye.

A pre-movement that can be seen with mana.

“Your eyes… You’re saying it’s a special flow that only the Divine Eye can see…?”

Dahlia’s expression became serious.

“No. It doesn’t make sense. Even if I concede that you saw something like that, there’s no way Adela Steart could see it…”

Dahlia’s pupils gradually dilated.

“Could it be that she’s using the Steart family’s Mind’s Eye [a unique ability to perceive mana flow]?”

“Correct.”

Shin Hayul smiled slightly, looking at Adela, who was still focused on defense, or rather, at Adela’s golden eyes.

“Adela can also read Kyle’s movements through Kyle’s mana.”

The Mind’s Eye.

It’s a detection eye with a somewhat inferior effect, rated between B and A, but it can see how and in what direction the target’s mana is moving.