[3rd Person POV]
The crowd's cheers filled the arena as they welcomed the most beautiful young lady of the kingdom.
With strong, dignified steps, Alterisa made her way towards the center of the arena. Her pure platinum hair swaying against the wind.
Normally, Alterisa wouldn't have shown such a soft, gentle smile in front of this many people. After all, she needed to protect her "image" of a strong, noble, and chivalrous young lady. But, she forgot all about it and let her "soft" side show as she watched her best friend, and in this match, her opponent made her way towards her from the opposite side.
The timid little Illya she met at the ball had grown so much. Just like the little princess in the story she told her, Illya had become such a beautiful and strong girl.
"Alterisa-sama..."
Illya's gaze melted from all the love and affection she held towards the figure standing before her. Alterisa... the person who came into her life that night and pulled her from the dark and into the light.
She gave her courage... She gave her the courage to stand up to her bullying sisters. But that wasn't all. She also gave her a goal.
To stand by her side. That was Illya's goal and dream.
That's why she worked so hard to become as strong, as elegant, and as beautiful as Alterisa. So that she could proudly stand by her side as her close friend.
"I'm so happy to be with you here, Illya. I'm so proud of you. You've become so strong."
"The honor is mine, Alterisa-sama! I shall do my best in respect to your strength!"
Happiness welled up within Illya's heart. Even if her words were simply sophistry, she was still happy to receive it from her beloved Alterisa.
Illya didn't know that Alterisa had watched her fight in the first round with her magic senses and knew perfectly well how much she had grown. The words she uttered came from her heart.
"Fubuki, I'll need your strength, okay?"
"Kyuu~"
Alterisa whispered, and the little elemental fox answered by rubbing her fluffy cheeks against her master.
This proved that her words weren't empty compliments.
Alterisa originally didn't want to exhaust her or Fubuki's magic power this early in the tournament.
However, her opponent was Illya. Her swordsmanship was almost on par with the genius young knight of this generation, Luke. And her talent with magic had also bloomed splendidly.
No matter how strong she was, she'd lose if she held back against Illya.
She took a deep breath, and sighed deeply.
Even if Illya was one of her best friends... No, especially because she was her best friend, Alterisa wouldn't hold back in this match.
Illya drew her sword and took a deep breath as well. Her gaze immediately changed into one that belonged to a warrior.
The referee raised his hand up in the air, and swung down, signaling the start of the match.
"BEGIN!"
"Haaaaaaah!!!"
Immediately, Illya charged towards Alterisa with a battle cry.
And seeing this, Alterisa couldn't help but be very impressed.
Normally, her opponents wouldn't charge at her like this the moment the fight started. Even Luke would use either his earth or wind spells first to obstruct her or buff himself before charging.
But Illya charged at her immediately without giving her a chance to summon her spear of ice.
Unlike warriors, who could draw their weapons beforehand, mages can only start casting their spells when the match starts. It was a rule made so warriors can fight against mages on equal grounds since they're starting quite a distance away from each other.
Illya used that rule to her advantage and charged towards Alterisa.
She knew she was still inferior to Alterisa as a warrior, but Alterisa wouldn't be able to fight as one without her spear.
She is currently a mage, and Illya has an advantage in melee combat against one.
Illya readied her sword to her side, charging up an attack and readying to cast a skill.
But in that moment, a massive wall of ice burst forth from the ground, reaching more than six meters in height and one meter in thickness in an instant.
Gasps erupted from the audience.
Alterisa had just created such an enormous wall of ice without a chant in an instant. Even royal court magicians aside from Lawliela and a few senior mages couldn't create such an enormous wall of ice that fast.
It was a shocking sight. They all knew how talented and powerful Alterisa was. But perhaps, they were still underestimating her.
But not Illya.
She had expected this. After all, Alterisa was incredibly powerful. Although she was quite surprised by the sudden appearance of the wall, Illya had expected this level of strength from her beloved friend.
"Haaaah!!! Shatter before me!!! <<Triple Slash>>!!!"
Her sword shined with brilliant light. And in an instant, three arcs manifested with one swing of her sword, shattering the wall of ice into pieces and revealing Alterisa's figure behind it, smiling brightly.
In her right hand, a beautiful spear of ice had already manifested. But instead of charging towards Illya, taking advantage of the opening created from casting a skill, Alterisa raised her left hand.
"That's impressive, Illya! Then, what about this?"
She swung her left hand down, and the shattered pieces of ice suddenly shot towards Illya.
"What...?!"
Her eyes widened in shock.
Having known and trained with Alterisa for so long, Illya had seen many of the spells she was capable of casting.
She knew, first hand, how unparalleled Alterisa's magic was. But even then, she didn't expect her to be able to control the pieces of ice from the shattered wall of ice.
Magicians can turn their mana into elements. But after casting a spell, those elements were no longer linked to the magician. They simply exist as a part of nature after the mage casts their spell. That is why mages can't change the trajectory of a fireball once it's cast, or stop a lightning in its path.
Very few archmages of the past had theorized its possibility, and the royal court magicians have been researching its possibility.
A breakthrough happened recently, and the kingdom's magic research department, which was a part of the royal court magicians, managed to prove it, albeit on a very small scale.
Alterisa was the one who helped them with it. There was a paper written by the royal court magicians that proved the possibility of controlling the element of a spell after casting, and Alterisa was one of the authors who worked on it. It was actually one of her "homework" she had to do while she was in the academy.
However, since the paper hadn't been published yet, no one, even her best friends, knew about it.
And now, people saw it with their own eyes, and they all gasped in amazement.
It was their first time seeing such a thing. They didn't even know it was possible in the first place!
But Alterisa was indifferent towards it and kept her focus at Illya.
After all, it was far simpler than making an animal made of ice move.
She had been training to create animals from ice that could move for one of her ultimate spells. And she found out that as long as she infused her mana into the ice and kept it linked to her, she could control it like a puppeteer would. The only disadvantage to this was that she needed to continuously supply it with mana.
But, she had trained to reduce its mana consumption, and with her natural immense mana pool, she could now control tens of small animals for hours.
So, launching these pieces of ice to a target was very easy for her.
Illya jumped back to avoid the rain of icicles, but Alterisa didn't let her retreat easily and pursued her.
She brandished her spear, making a consecutive series of slashing, sweeping, and thrusting, forcing Illya into the defensive.
But even after dedicating herself to defend, it was still extremely difficult. Alterisa's swing and thrusts were extremely fast and powerful. Each strike she defended against numbed her hands more and more.
This is... Ah, so that's it! Alterisa-sama is using wind magic from her familiar to enhance the strength and speed of her attacks as well!!!
Illya would've normally noticed such a thing if it was someone else. But Alterisa used it as naturally as breathing that she only noticed it after she was this close to her.
Illya had no leeway. She was so busy parrying and defending her spear that she couldn't even find an opening to retreat and regain herself.
And without giving her even a chance to breathe, icicles and large spikes of ice began raining down and bursting up from the ground towards Illya.
Kuh...! This is bad!!!
In addition to Alterisa's relentless attacks, there was no way Illya could defend against even her magic spells.
I need to fall back, even if I were struck!!!
This was the best decision she could make.
Getting hit by this many icicles and spikes would be more dangerous than a few cuts from Alterisa's spear.
So she gave up on defending against Alterisa's spear and jumped back to retreat, even if she was forced to create an opening to herself.
But to her surprise... Alterisa's spear didn't reach her. Even though she was open when trying to retreat, none of Alterisa's attacks reached her.
Did Alterisa-sama missed this chance... no, it's a trap!!!
Illya realized it too late.
Her decision to create distance between herself and Alterisa after being overwhelmed by her spear was correct. But it was also a terrible mistake.
Alterisa's true strength was her magic. And she just created distance between herself, a warrior, and Alterisa, a mage.
Illya looked up towards Alterisa, and saw her smiling with her hand raised in front of her.
And the moment she landed on her feet, a massive wave of ice that enveloped even her shadow, reaching more than 6 meters in height and 5 meters in width appeared and charged towards her.
It was reminiscent of the high ranked water element spell <<Tsunami>>, but instead of water, it was completely made of ice. The level of destruction it could cause was a world's difference, and it was coming fast towards Illya.
It was as if she was being swallowed whole by a giant beast... There was no way to escape. She was caught perfectly into Alterisa's trap.
But... even so... I won't be able to face Alterisa-sama if I give up here!
Against imminent defeat, her eyes never lost their light. Instead, it burned brighter than ever.
She raised her sword up high, pointing it towards the sky, and cast her greatest skill.
"Let my devotion be displayed. And my might manifest. <<Grand Smite>>!!!"
Her sword shone with a brilliant light as she cast her skill. And as she swung her sword, a powerful burst of magic emanated from her sword.
With a single, powerful swing, her blade once again shattered the towering and all encompassing ice that almost swallowed her whole.
The ice tsunami shattered into thousands of pieces...
"Hah... Hah..."
Illya stood wIthin the cloud of dust and ice particles, panting in exhaustion.
She was forced to use up most of her mana to destroy Alterisa's spell. She knew she would've lost if she didn't do it.
And when the dust settled, she saw Alterisa smiling at her proudly.
"You've grown so much, Illya. I'm so proud of you. You are amazing."
"Illya-sama..."
"But... I'm sorry. I have to win this tournament."
At that moment, hundreds of icicles suddenly appeared around her.
No, they're not icicles, but ice spears, identical to the one Alterisa was wielding.
They all floated all around Illya, encompassing her like a dome.
Seeing this many spears that could pierce her hundred times over in an instant, Alterisa sighed and smiled helplessly.
"It seems like I'm still lacking..."
Illya stood up straight, sheathed her sword, and curtsied.
"It is my defeat. It is an honor to fight you, Alterisa-sama."
"Likewise, Illya. Let's fight again in the future and improve together~"
"Yes!"
AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter~! Please vote and comment your thoughts~!