Escolleia(6)
Yuria Frenda looked down at Dolores, who had gone down.
'Dolores Jade.'
She was the eldest daughter of the Baldschmidt family, but she became a heretic who left the family on her own and became a tower mage.
She became a member of the tower at a young age, and after inheriting all the secrets of the Tower Master, she became a better incarnation of coldness than her predecessor.
'Surely I can surpass her.'
Yuria underestimated Dolores.
Unlike the graduates who vent their anger on their senior due to dissatisfaction with Anton, it was arrogance that came from believing in her own potential.
She had pride as a workshop mage and treated tower mages as enemies because she was a workshop mage.
Although she was an innocent girl who had completely fallen for the Tower Master of Silence, her image of tower mages had not changed.
'Since the dean looks favorably upon me, it won't be a big deal to push her out of the Tower Master's position!'
If she pushed Dolores out of her position, the status of the workshop would undoubtedly rise.
In her mind, Anton was already stroking her head, and Dolores, who had become a laughingstock, was crying in a corner.
With such thoughts in mind, she looked down at Dolores.
And then, Dolores declared.
"I'll give up the first attack. I want you all to attack me at once."
Yuria doubted her ears at the groundbreaking remark.
'Is she going to face 30 people alone?'
On top of that, she gave up the first attack.
No matter what, they were skilled mages.
Since they could attack Dolores with 30 kinds of magic at the same time, she had given herself a disadvantage.
"Yuria."
Zekeheil looked down at Yuria and spoke.
"Such opportunities are rare, so open your eyes wide and watch."
"What do you mean?"
Yuria asked Zekeheil with a coquettish face full of affectation.
Zekeheil brushed her red hair aside and brought his face close.
"Seeing the fight of a genius, the favored disciple of the dean, with your own eyes is a rare opportunity."
Yuria was displeased that Zekeheil was praising someone other than herself as a genius.
She thought the word genius was only for her to hear.
"But isn't information the ultimate weapon of a mage? What's the difference between fighting in such a public place and revealing yourself?"
"Haha! My daughter, you're just as smart as me!"
Zekeheil laughed as if he was in a good mood and praised Yuria.
The battle of mages is about information.
To gain the upper hand in that information war, they wear robes and hide their trump cards.
However, high-ranking mages like the Tower Masters and Workshop Masters wear formal attire like nobles rather than robes.
Especially, since the Tower Master is the face and leader of the tower, they have a duty to be more confident than anyone else.
It's like walking around naked without hiding their hidden cards.
"But if you think of something that ordinary people can't think of, that's what makes you a genius. And that Tower Master is stepping into a realm that even geniuses can't think of. Even the most accomplished chief mages in the empire can't unravel her secrets."
"Do you not know, father?"
"Unfortunately, that's the case."
Zekeheil's words didn't sound empty.
Was it because of what he said?
Yuria saw Dolores differently again.
"Is the Tower Master of Wallinthat amazing?"
"She's an extraordinary mage. To the extent that even I, your father, am telling you this."
When Zekeheil said that much, Yuria began to doubt her arrogant thoughts.
"Daughter, I can't solve that woman's secret, but you might be able to uncover the secret of that genius. Keep your eyes wide open and watch the fight. Everything from the magic chant, the trajectory of the hand, and even the posture and breathing method."
Although she was a daughter who shamelessly manipulated her father, she did not take her father's words lightly, as he was also a workshop mage and her teacher.
A moment later, the severe cold wind blew, touching Yuria's face, and her narrow and arrogant perspective froze.
The students prepared their first attack.
The barrier mages used their magic first since Dolores had given them time.
"<Mana Field>."
It was a magic buff that increased the mana requirement of all mages' magic within a certain range, but the damage increased as much as the mana requirement.
All the mages in the buff range began their chants.
On the blue mana ground, the wands and staffs they held began to emit light.
"<Flame Hole>!"
"Elementals, respond to my call and sweep away the enemy, <Calling Sylph>!"
Elemental mages launched elemental attacks, and summoners summoned elementals to attack Dolores.
Dolores stood in place and tapped the ground with her staff.
"<Ice Amber>!"
As soon as a circular magic circle was created at Dolores' feet, white ice covered her up to her head.
It took 0.25 seconds for the white frost to stick together and form a hemisphere.
The transparent ice barrier defended Dolores from the magic that was coming at her from all directions without any gaps.
Bang! Clash!
Elemental magic from mages and elementals violently collided with Dolores' ice barrier.
The sturdy ice barrier cracked, but in the end, not a single magic spell directly hit Dolores.
"Excellent, graduates."
Sincere praise. Along with that, it was Dolores' turn.
A white light gathered at the tip of Dolores' ice staff.
The blue mana was compressed, and the white light followed the movement of the staff, drawing a white circle.
Finally, when the staff was placed in the center of the circle, beams of light stretched out into the air, drawing a magic circle.
"Try to block this once, <Thousand Ice Needles>!"
A thousand ice spikes flew towards the graduates.
"Barrier mages, activate the defense!"
"It's complete! <Elemental Barrier>!"
A defense magic optimized for elemental attacks.
Knowing that Dolores Jade uses ice magic, they deployed an ice-optimized barrier.
Crack! Crunch!
The harsh sound of the ice rain pouring from the sky and shattering on the ground rang out.
A specialized elemental barrier had eight times higher efficiency than a general-purpose barrier, so it was strong enough to be considered high-level magic.
Creak, creak.
However, it was impossible to block all the attacks of <Thousand Ice Needles>.
Even though they had gathered enough information and created a barrier, it was not easy to block <Thousand Ice Needles>.
As cracks began to form in the barrier, the barrier mages hurriedly infused magic power to repair it, and the last ice spike shattered, completing the barrier's role.
For that moment, at least.
"<Iceberg>."
The shattered ice fragments on the ground gathered and turned into a giant ice spear that pierced the barrier.
Crash!
The concentrated strike was enough to finish off the breaking barrier.
The barrier broke, and the graduates were pushed back.
One graduate who was directly hit by the ice spear was pushed out of the arena with fire in the artifact he was wearing.
One person was knocked down.
"Maintain formation! Barrier mages, prepare to defend against the next magic, and the rest, target the Tower Master!"
Graduate representative Jao commanded and fought with the remaining 28 people.
After that, something surprising happened.
"Helpha, ugh!"
"Attacking with Sylph... wait, Sylph?"
Except for the first attack, no one could use attack magic on Dolores.
The students who were watching from afar said with puzzled faces.
"What are our seniors doing right now?"
"Why are the top students of each grade hesitating like that?"
The students made expressions that they couldn't understand.
The more you know, the more you can see.
That's why Yuria was horrified, unlike the other students.
'She binds the hands of alchemists, steals elements from elemental mages, and constantly causes mana collisions to disrupt concentration. Moreover, she uses reverse summoning on summoners and shatters the barrier mages' techniques by attacking their weak points...'
It was all textbook countermeasures.
However, applying them all depended on the mage's discretion, and using them as fluidly as water was literally possible only for a genius.
Combining all this chaotic information was by no means easy for Yuria, who was watching from afar.
But Dolores was doing it all.
Her vision never narrowed during the fight, and she followed the graduates' movements and continued the fight to the end.
She responded to 30 mages, 30 secrets, in a single breath, as if skewering them all at once.
'And she didn't move a single step.'
