By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 18

Chapter 4 Episode 18: The Leader Saw It 2

“It’s over! The winner is Lucas!” I announced as the audience cheered. The battles between the teachers were underway, and Lucas had won the third match. It didn’t really matter who won or lost, but it made me happy seeing one of my party members prevail. I had to take an unbiased approach as a judge, though. “Now it’s learning time. Talk about your weapons. Lucas, you start.”

“Got it. I talked about it before the match, but I use this hammer. People say hammers are heavy and tough to handle, but like you just saw, you can fix that with enough strength and training. And when you get a clean hit in, it does massive damage.”

“I blocked it with my shield, and it still knocked me away,” the swordsman he’d fought added with a smile. He fought with a wooden sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, but as soon as he took a direct hit from Lucas’s hammer, he was in an unfavorable position.

Many kinds of shields existed, but the one-handed shield he used wasn’t meant to take attacks from heavy weapons. It would be fine for regular swords or spears, but hammers had to be dodged or the impact could be fatal. The swordsman failed, taking a hit that dented his shield and made it hard to move his left arm.

When they finished reflecting on the battle and teaching about the unique properties of their weapons, I called out to the swordsman as they were switching places with the next participants. “Carmine, is your hand alright? Are you injured?”

“It’s very numb, but there’s no pain. I think I’m fine.”

“I hope you’re right, but don’t push yourself too hard. You should go ask Ryoma for healing magic from his slimes.” Ryoma told me before the first match that he brought a healing slime. He was saving his own magical energy for his match and leaving the healing to the slime instead. It was currently sitting on top of his head. “He says he’s providing healing for free throughout this camping excursion.”

“That’s good to know. Maybe I’ll go ask him for a checkup, then. Sure would suck if it turned out I’ve got some weird disease I didn’t know about, though.”

“I mean, if you do have a disease, you want to know about that sooner than later.” Also, healing magic could only cure injuries. And I had to wonder what he was thinking of when he mentioned weird diseases.

“Roche! We’re ready!”

“Oh, I’ll be right there!” It sounded like they were prepared for the next match. “See you later. Make sure you get your arm checked.”

I left Carmine and got back to my job as the judge. “Next up, we have Lucy wielding magic versus Bosco dual-wielding swords! Match 4, begin!”

The crowd cheered again, but then a throaty shout silenced the students. It came from Bosco, who sank into the ground, dropped his swords, and started writhing around. It wasn’t him trying to do that, but from one look at Lucy, it was clear she had done something. She looked at me calmly.

“Uh, looks like it’s all over. Lucy wins!” I announced, but nobody cheered this time. Instead, the students seemed confused.

First Bosco needed some help, but it looked like a few people went to drag him off the stage, so I didn’t need to jump in. He wasn’t injured, and while he was dirty, Ryoma could clean him up later. That kid was doing a lot of work behind the scenes. He worked fast too, and it was nice having someone like him around.

“Lucy, explain.”

“Right, right. Attention! So, do you understand that I’m the one who did that?” she asked. I declared her the winner, so all the students nodded. “And I’m a magician, so naturally I used magic to do this. Does anyone know what magic I used?”

“Earth magic!”

“It has to be water magic!”

“But she buried an adult up to his neck. Wouldn’t that be earth magic?”

“Take a close look at the ground. She turned it to mud using water magic.”

Most of them answered with either earth or water magic. They weren’t wrong, but they weren’t exactly right.

“Was it a composite spell using both earth and water magic?” Ryoma asked. He was sitting with the students like he was one of them.

“That’s correct, Ryoma! It’s a bit of an advanced technique, but you can mix multiple elements together. That’s called composite magic. It’s hard to use, but it stretches the limits of what magic can do. One example is the earth and water composite magic that I used, which is also referred to as mud magic. Mud isn’t an element and this is just a nickname, but as you witnessed, you can use it to turn the ground to mud and create nearly bottomless swamps.”

“She set up that spell before the match, then made a swamp for Bosco to sink into the moment the match began,” I explained. Bosco’s best attribute was his speed, which he made good use of. He was a reliable fighter and by no means weak, but this swamp completely took his speed advantage away.

“Using magic demands a lot of focus, so it’s easy to find yourself defenseless just before you cast a spell. So if any of you want to be magicians, remember to always stay far from your opponents. Coming up with ways to keep your enemies away is standard for any magician. Learning some close combat skills isn’t a bad idea either.”

Her advice was correct, but I thought she could’ve changed her teaching approach a little. She was the second youngest of the teachers after Ryoma, and the way she went about this demonstration was immature. Not to mention it was probably depressing for Bosco, but also a good lesson for him. I decided to go cheer him up later.

The next and final match was about to start. Ryoma and Howard stepped up.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah. And you, Ryoma?”

“All good.”

Howard whittled down a branch and wrapped the tip with a cloth to make a mock spear. Ryoma held a bow in one hand and carried a large quiver over his shoulder.

“What’s in there?” I asked.

“Some extra jinto arrows.”

I asked him what those were, and he showed me his arrows. They looked like they had fishing weights in place of arrowheads.

“You call these jinto arrows where you’re from?”

“Yes, but maybe they’re not common around here. They’re usually made of wood, but I was in a rush, so I used earth magic.”

“As long as they’re not sharp,” Howard said. “Here’s to a good fight, Ryoma.”

“Likewise, Howard.”

The match had yet to start, but still, they were pretty cordial with each other. Howard was always pretty relaxed, but I thought Ryoma would be tenser.

“As entertainment for New Year’s parties up until a few years ago, I used to show off my skills in front of an audience. It was the only talent I really had to show off at those events. I also met some sword dancers at this year’s Founding Festival and got up on stage with them, so I have some experience with performing for an audience.”

“I see.”

“Oh, but I don’t have much experience with combat competitions. When I showed people how I fought, I always demonstrated on inanimate objects.”

“Just do what you’d normally do in a fight. Fire off some arrows and don’t worry about it too much!”

“Right!” Ryoma answered with vigor and ran off to his starting position. To emphasize the advantages of using a bow, he was spaced twenty meters from Howard.

“Now, let’s get this thing started,” Howard said.

“Sounds good. By the way, Howard...”

“Hm? Something up?”

“You better take this seriously. Ryoma’s supposed to be pretty good in a fight.”

“Oh, that? I know.”

Howard’s expression tensed just a bit. He had a tendency to fool around, but he knew how to get things done when needed. He was probably taking things more seriously on the inside than on the outside.

“You ready?!” I asked of them one last time as they faced each other from their starting positions.

“Ready when you are!”

“I’m good!”

“Then let’s start! Match 5, begin—?!”

Suddenly but instantly, I felt the air become crushingly heavy, not so much with my brain as with my body and skin.