Hard Work Will Never Betray Me (WN) - Chapter 149

Now that the match between me and Iris is over, there is only one semi-final left. The winner of that match will face me in the final.

And the next match will be Gilbert, who is good at fighting like an authentic knight, vs. Eleonora, who is an upright mage. It is truly a battle of swords and magic.

　Gilbert, still fully equipped with knight’s armor and a two-handed sword, and Eleonora, wearing a robe like a mage, entered the ground and faced each other at a distance. Gilberto has a serious expression on his face, as is his nature, while Eleonora looks very relaxed and natural. There is no sign of tension at all. This is the kind of composure that a strong person can afford.

“Then let’s begin!”

　Gilberto made the first move. As one would expect from a knight with such a strong power of attack, his early onslaught was quite impressive. He easily cut down Eleonora’s magic attack jab to see what would happen, and then he slashed at her in a furious attack.

However, Eleonora, who is the next-generation hope of the “Eastern General” family, was a little more skillful than Gilbert, who gradually increased the power of his attacks and switched to full-fledged magic attacks before he knew it. It can only be described as a quintessence that Eleonora could launch a series of magic attacks powerful enough to suppress Gilberto from the top, even though he was attacking in a furious and continuous manner as if he did not give her any time to pause.

In the end, the situation remained in Eleonora’s favor, and after a few minutes, Gilberto was blown away by a hit from Eleonora’s spell attack.

“Eleonora is the winner!”

‘Well, that’s roughly how it went anyway!”

Eleonora declared her victory bravely, though not without breaking into a sweat …… and gasping for air. Gilberto also fought hard, but in the end, as expected, Eleonora seemed to have won.

　　　　　✳︎

The semi-finals were over and the finals were decided, so that was the end of the day for today. Marie was aware that it would not be good for stamina to have a final match after having fought a quintessential match at full strength. If this were a military exercise, she would have said, “The enemy won’t wait for you! But since the trainees other than Iris and myself were not yet military officers, we were not subjected to the rigors of the military.

“I won’t lose.”

　Eleonora comes to me after dinner and tells me so. It is a battle between the “Generals,” the frontier count families of the same rank as one another. Tomorrow’s final match will have a different meaning than just a match between two trainees.

“I won’t give up my position as the strongest of the four generals.”

You don’t have to give it up. I will not give up my position as the strongest of the four generals. I’m going to force you to win it!

‘You’re so courageous”.

If that’s the case, then I’ll have to be serious about winning. I had shown my seriousness in the match against Christophe and he was not timid, but rather, he was so spirited in his declaration. As an opponent, I have to make sure that I am not offensive to him.

　I took a bath and rested my body to give my all in tomorrow’s match, and went to sleep early.

　　　　　✳︎︎

“Now, finally, this is the final match. A lot has happened on the way to this point, but this will finally decide who is the strongest among our group. Do your best so that you have no regrets.”

“Eberhard!　Today is the day I will beat you fair and square with no handicap!

‘I accept!”

　A battle of perhaps the highest level is about to begin.

“…… then, let’s begin!”

As soon as Marie- gave the signal, we activated our magic at exactly the same time.

“Burning Fire!”

“Guided Impact!”

…… Eleonora’s used a big attack on me right away. The first time I saw her, she had used it after summoning the contracted divine beast, the “flame spirit Efreet,” but this time she threw the biggest amount of power she could muster from the very beginning without saving.

Thanks to this, the skillI had just released was drowned out. I was forced to use a countermeasure to block the fire that Eleonora had just released.

“I’m sure you’ve got a great way to put up a fight, ……!” Piaofu hyofu”!

By releasing a shockwave in a certain direction, “Piao Feng” creates a directional blow. The power is enough to blow away Eleonora’s “Burning Fire,” but the gap after activating it is large.

Normally, the first blow is a small attack to see how the opponent will react. If one launches a big move from the start, the repercussions of a missed or countered attack cannot be ignored, so this is usually not a tactic one would choose.

　Eleonora, however, was not ordinary. When she released a big attack, she had almost no time to pause, which is a common feature for ordinary mages. This time is faster than mine, except when using the “shock bullet,” which is the number eighteen OHAKO. She is the brilliant daughter of the Hoover family.

　In the end, I was forced to waste my precious first shot.

“The Magic Thread Blade Wire Blade!”

　However, if I give her a chance to take advantage of me, I will fail to become the next “Northern General”. To make up for the lapse in the first move, I uses a high-level killing power attack.

The “SPELL Thread Blade” is a skill that gives the wire cutting power by combining “shock” with the “Binding Rope Blades” that generate magic wire. This skill can cut through thin armor without difficulty, and can even lightly cut through unprotected human flesh. Eleonora is not the type of mage to engage in a physical battle, so it would be tough for her to avoid this or to repel it by applying “physical reinforcement. So, what will she do?

“Efreet the Flame Spirit!”

However, Eleonora was in a league of her own. In an instant, she summoned the contracted divine beast and blew away the wire with its blazing flames, burning it to the ground.

” Good!”

‘You too!”

　This is what I call a good rivalry. I’m not just talking about people of my age, but even if I look around the entire empire, there aren’t many people who could seriously match me, and Eleonora was one of the few people I could seriously fight with.

“But this is the end.”

　In this instant, I had kneaded all my magical power at once. In a moment, I activated the “Silver Armored Aegis” and converged it in my right arm. Incidentally, the reason it is not the full amount of the rest is simply because the energy is too vast to control. In other words, in terms of the scale of pure power, which is different from the destructive power and killing power, this is the most powerful attack I can produce right now.

“—- ‘GENGHOU’!

“What?　Hey, oh no, “Hellfire Dragoon, the Bakufu Dragon!”

Eleonora seemed to be in a hurry at this, but she still completed her interception spell perfectly and released it. The “Bakufire Dragon” is the same radiant flame magic that was used as the killing blow in the battle against Werner. Moreover, it is even more massive and more powerful than that time. A direct hit from this magic would have melted and blown away even the magnificent walls surrounding the city.

The super-powerful magic clashed with each other in mid-air, causing the air around to vibrate. The earth shakes from so much wind pressure that some of the trees at the edge of the training ground are reaped.

　———- –ohohohoh ！！！！

　The “Bakufu Ryu” lost its short life, and my “Gekikaze” won the battle.

…………ya!”

The impact, which could have been caused by a cannon shot, struck Eleonora, gouging out the ground around her and blowing her away. The match between Eleonora and me ended with such excessive force that I can’t say anything bad about Christophe, to be honest.

「「「「……………………」」」」

　A masterpiece. If I had to describe it in one word, that would be the most appropriate. I feel strange saying it myself, but it is clearly not the kind of power that a flesh-and-blood human being should be able to deliver.

The ground was deeply scarred, radiating out from the point of impact. On the other side of the dent, which was more than several meters deep and spread over an area of about several dozen meters, lay Eleonora, whose body (for the time being) was without a single wound. I felt uneasy, so I searched for magical reactions, but she seemed to be alive without any trouble. Her magic power seems to be exhausted, but …….

“Marie?””

…… Oh, the winner is Eberhardt, then.”

　Marie reacted as if she had forgotten about the judges and hurriedly declared the results. Even she was like that. Everyone else just stared at the scene with open mouths, somewhat distracted ……