"Boom!!!"
On a quiet little path in the woods, the sound of an explosion blasted out without warning, creating buffeting tempests blowing every which way, carrying it dirt and dust into the air in an awe-inspiring sight.
Within the tempest, two figures leaped out one after another.
"Ha!"
Leisha moved back like she was flying backwards. While flying, she still extended her hands towards Shien, and with a feminine shout, released her magical power.
That magical power turned into real-like gravity waves like the invisible waves from a black hole and shot towards the similarly moving Shien.
Shien of course couldn't see those formless gravity waves.
Perhaps that's why those kind of magic are hard to deal with. They are hard to defend against.
However, it was fine even if he couldn't see the gravity waves.
That's because Shien has the [Dodge] skill in effect. Add to it the battle instincts and skills brought by the [War God] skill, there's no need to Shien to do anything at all. His body just naturally and automatically shifted to one side and another, avoiding all those unseen magical bullets.
"Bang!"
The powerful gravity waves grazed by and missed Shien's body, fell onto the ground, and blew that location up.
Shien just let himself carried by the blast wave from the explosion, using the force created to speed up and charge to right in front to Leisha.
The next moment, the broadsword fell like a bolt of lightning. It made a cold, metallic curve in the air, and mercilessly slashed towards the girl before him.
"Clang!!!"
A roar like the ringing of a large bell thus rang out between the two currently fighting.
Shien's merciless blow was blocked by Leisha thin and beautiful hand.
Leisha blocked Shien's strike with her bare hands, which created that kind of loud impact sound.
Shien could feel it . That blow of his felt like it fell into a sea of soft yet unyielding water. The energy was completely dissipated.
With a more careful look, when Leisha raised her hand, at some point, a circle of constantly flowing magical power had appeared.
That magic power turned into gravity, like countless flows of gravity mixing together, forming into a gravitic anomaly.
That strike from Shien didn't hit Leisha's hand, but rather that gravitic anomaly. It became like a stone tossed in an abnormal tidal flow. It couldn't fall down, nor could it float up, nor could it move in any particular direction. It could only stay in the middle without going anywhere.
The ringing sound wasn't the sound of physical objects colliding either. It was created from the high speed vibrations that the blade of the broadsword underwent in the anomaly.
It was obvious just how amazing a magic that Leisha just used.
But, she herself was the one showing amazement.
"Are you really just a level 10 new adventurer?" Leisha spoke extremely surprised, "To have that degree of power without even using the Holy Sword, just how did he do that?"
Hearing that, Shien replied with a smile that held no mirth.
"I'm the one who should be saying those words, right?" Shien gave a mirthless smile, "Isn't magic supposed to be something that could only be used after a long chant? Just what's with your ability to just toss out spells at a whim!"
As he said that, Shien didn't wait for Leisha to respond. Instead, he freed up a hand, grabbed the bundle on his back, and viciously swung it toward Leisha like it was a club.
Leisha just calmly dispersed the gravitic anomaly and instead lightly floated off like a leaf in the wind. She seemed to have changed her own weight and flew off like a kite, opening up some distance.
"So long as the [Chanting] skill is high enough level, then you can abandon the chant to a certain degree and still be able to release magic you know?" Leisha said with a smile, "Of course, no matter how high leveled [Chanting] gets, normally you'd still need to at least speak out the spell's name to activate it. My situation is due to the effect of my unique skill, which let's me leave off even the spell's name. So long as my magic power is enough, I could successfully activate spells with just a thought."
That means that so long as she had enough magic power, she could insta-cast magic without limits?
"Mah. That kind of setting is also pretty common."
Shien placed the bundle back on his back and pointed the broadsword at Leisha with one hand.
Toward that, Leisha still had a smile on her face.
"Speaking of. For Heroes, beside their Holy Sword, they also have an extremely powerful unique skill right?" Leisha appraised Shien with some interest, "For you to be this strong when you're only level 10, could it be the effect of your unique skill?"
Before she even got an answer to her question, Leisha's turned serious for a moment and floated upwards into the air.
"Bang!!!"
A heavy broadsword slashed through the air and fell heavily onto the position where Leisha just was a second ago, struck the ground, and shattered the rock there. It impaled right through, blasting a cloud of gravel and dust into the air as well as creating an explosive sound.
Shien actually directly threw his weapon at Leisha, almost hitting her.
"Oy! That's really dangerous!"
Leisha who was floating in midair shouted angrily at Shien who was still in a throwing pose.
"Were you really thinking that I'd properly explain my own ability in the middle of combat just like you did?" Shien looked at Leisha like she was an idiot, "Don't you know not to try to show off if you can act instead, and that bad guys normally die from talking too much?"
As he said that, Shien also raised his eyebrow and dashed to the side.
"Bang!!!"
And explosive sound just like before rang out again, echoing in the surroudings.
An invisible gravity wave struck at where Shien was before, blowing dust into the air.
"How underhanded!"
Shien, who dashed to the side to avoid that strike, couldn't stop himself from accusing.
"No, do you really have the right to say that to me?"
In midair, Leisha also couldn't help but shoot back.
The two were acting like they were just playing around. Their conversation was really lacking in any sort of tenseness.
However, while they were making completely lighthearted conversation, they were actually exchanging blows without holding back at all.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" …
With the constant sound of explosions, countless gravity waves bombarded the ground like they were a rain of bullets, creating waves after waves of explosions and blasting dust into the air.
Facing those unceasing explosions, Shien moved like a wraith. His body rapidly dashed about, dodging each and every single one of Leisha's attacks. He even succeeded in taking back his own broadsword and, with a leap, blasted toward Leisha in midair like a meteor.
Leisha used her own gravity magic to control the gravity around her and, just like Shien did, avoided Shiens slashed again and again. Any time that she couldn't dodge, she would activate gravitic anomalies. Either she's disrupt Shien's body to make him unable to close in, or she'd bounce away Shien's sword to cancel out his attack.
At that time, waves of magical power ran amok, and the flashes from the broadsword also created countless afterimages.
The battle between the two were extremely fierce, but either in the end could do anything about the other.
"I already said it, at your current level, you can't deal with me without the Holy Sword." Leisha so declared, "Although I never imagined that you'd be able to show this kind of power even without using the Holy Sword, but if you want to win against me, just that much isn't enough."
"Alright, now draw your Holy Sword."
"Allow me to witness it. The Hero who came after a thousand years. Just how strong are you."
Hearing that, Shien shot back.
"Did you really think I'm such an obedient goody-two-shoes protagonist?"
Use it the moment you tell me to?
Putting aside the issue of face, just the matter of whether there's a trap or scheme involved was enough to make one hesitate.
For those kind of protagonists who would do it as soon as they get provoked a bit by their opponent, Shien had always felt that they had some kind of problem with their brains.
Therefore…
"I refuse!"
