New Game Plus

The Tournament Finale

Looking up, I notice that the bolts of lightning and the storm of bullets are actually being fired from magic circles automatically generating themselves above me. So they're now able to combine spatial magic with other ones like this? Something like this, I can greatly benefit from, because magic like this will allow me to set up traps that automatically fires projectiles like these. I leave a note in the back of my head to research a little bit more about this topic later, and climb out of net. Right under it, was a small flat stone floor, which was surrounded by a large field of spikes. If I missed the net, my body would be impaled on those spikes right now.

At the bottom of the pit, there was a door at the edge of it, and I walk in between the spikes to enter through it. Inside, was a large spiral staircase with a radius about as large as the pitfall. After the first story of stairs, a huge storm of shrapnel was flying around, along with several missiles of magic from all elements. [Fireballs], [Water Bolts], [Earth Spikes], [Wind Arrows], they all flew around wildly.

One fourth of the way to the top, I see Thoth climbing the spiral staircase. Her progress was being hindered greatly by the storm. She's being forced to stop in order to evade with her strange motion magic, so she couldn't advance very quickly. Using this to my advantage, I begin sprinting up the stairs, blocking the magic flying at me with my own, and grabbing the blades by their flat sides. My speed perception has been greatly changed as I practiced using the [Magnum], so I was able to see the trajectories of these projectiles.

Thoth notices my quick ascent, and begins sprinting up herself. Her speed's greater than mine, but her vitality is not. She's being forced to take some of the hits from the storm, weakening herself quickly. I, on the other hand, am able to rush through because of my high defensive abilities. I don't have to worry about the magic because I don't have to touch them to deflect them, and the metal shards scratch me slightly. I could easily proceed to the top without much trouble, but the wounds I sustained from the free fall earlier really puts a heavy toll on me.

I run right behind her when we're three-fourths of the way up, and her body was full of scratches, burn marks and other wounds from the storm. Yet, she's still running with everything she can. She was extremely determined to get an actual win over me, to the extent where she'll break her body to win. I can see the expression on her face, an expression of someone doing all they can to reach their goal.

Seeing Thoth currently in a moment like that, and honestly, I'd feel kind of guilty making her experience losing to me again despite giving it her all. Well, I'm still not going to go easy on her because of that. Letting her win intentionally would be an insult to her abilities, so I'll still give it my all to win.

"...ah!" As I think this, I carelessly let a blade through my defenses and hit my legs, causing me to trip forward.

A chain reaction starts after this, because my concentration for my magic defense broke. A [Fireball] flies by right in front of me, incinerating the area I was just about to walk through, a [Wind Arrow] hits me right in the kidney, slamming me against the wall. More metal blades come flying and scratches parts of my body, but nowhere lethal. I quickly start casting magic again to deflect the magic projectiles, and I start to catch the flying metal coming at me whilst laying down on the stairs.

Slowly, I'm able to stand back up again, but at this point, Thoth has already reached the top. She's finally got a proper win against me, and I can only imagine how happy she is. But for now, I need to survive this mayhem and reach the top before I run out of mana, otherwise, I'll die and my time in here counts for naught.
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"Hahaha! Eat that! I beat you fair and square in a contest of speed! Woohoo!" Thoth celebrates with an extremely cheerful expression, rubbing it in my face that I lost.