I knocked against the hands clamped around my wrists. Once I confirmed they were metal, I grabbed the puppet’s arm and cast Frozen Soil Judicator.
It was a spell meant to freeze and slow the enemy, but in terms of raw physics, it was the one spell I knew that could push temperature the lowest.
That idea came from the spell I’d used just now.
When I’d used Ice Spike earlier, even though the enemy was humanoid, its arm joints had completely locked up from the ice.
That meant that against non-humans, magic didn’t just slow and frostbite. It also carried a real, physical freezing effect.
And some materials had a ductile–brittle transition temperature. Take metal: when it dropped to a certain critical temperature, free electrons lost mobility, the toughness plummeted, and it turned brittle. Impact toughness hit rock bottom. In plain words—it shattered easy.
That was why I’d checked whether the thing on my back was really a humanoid. Since its body was metal, this kind of flash-freeze spell would turn its material nice and crisp.
Not that I was planning to eat it. And I could only pull this off because my spell didn’t hurt me; otherwise the one turned into an ice sculpture would’ve been me.
Ice Spike Assassination!
Countless ice spikes shot out from my body, stabbing straight through the humanoid behind me!
The moment I felt those hands around my torso loosen, I knew it had fallen apart into pieces.
I already had one hand resting on the use key of my item bar. That attack had left me pretty banged up. Even if my level was higher than theirs, I honestly had no idea how they calculated levels for humanoids.
And now the problem was…
Up ahead, a humanoid Yuyi with a clear personality stood waiting. Down below… damn. She was dropping landmines all over the ground while flinging humanoids out of her ring one after another.
One, two, three… twelve humanoids? Plus the one from before, that made thirteen puppets total?
Was she really a mage?
I knew the answer, but if I hadn’t crammed lightning-type mage knowledge in the library yesterday, I’d be seriously doubting my own worldview.
But still…
She was controlling humanoids with just a few waves of her staff. Just how insane did her control have to be to pull that off…?
Don’t tell me she’s played Monster Continent or Star Realm RTS or something?
The twelve humanoids charged straight at me, leaping into the air and flying right at my face!
On the other side, Yuyi also rushed straight toward me. She could even fly!
What kind of logic was that? How was she flying?
I shifted my staff to my left hand and drew my katana with my right.
I blocked attacks from two directions at once, while countless ice shields layered themselves around me.
My mana bar was like a spring bouncing back and forth. The mana I’d just recovered was instantly drained again. The shields were being shattered faster than I’d ever expected.
Damn it, why did all these guys have spells above their level, and I didn’t?
Comparing people just pissed you off.
Still, since things had already escalated like this, all I could do was go all out.
Flash Step!
The next second, I was behind Helena. My blade was resting against her neck.
“You lost.”
I smiled as I spoke.
“Controlling thirteen humanoids is exhausting, isn’t it? That’s why you’ve been standing still the whole time. You don’t have the spare focus to control your own body.”
“Mmm~ is that so?”
She suddenly spun around, knocking my blade aside, raised her staff, and swung it downward.
…
But nothing happened.
She looked up, confused. The humanoids overhead were all frozen in midair, not moving at all, while a massive block of ice was falling from the sky.
“You must be wondering why your humanoids and your brother are stuck in the air, unable to move. And why a giant block of ice is dropping, right?”
That ice block was obviously Princess Cher’s Ice Fall. Before I’d spoken to Helena just now, I’d already pinged Princess Cher inside the Ice Palace. I’d found a small opening and figured dropping a super–large-caliber ice chunk on thirteen targets huddled in the sky wasn’t exactly hard.
She turned back to look at me. A second passed before she asked,
“Alright, tell me. How did you do it?”
As she said that, Ice Fall had already crashed down onto the thirteen humanoids, including that puppet named Yuyi.
With a deafening boom, a mess of twisted metal and shattered ice slammed together in midair. Even if their HP bars weren’t completely empty yet, once they hit the ground, they were done for either way.
Fortunately, they were all humanoids, so my guilt was… much lighter.
“First off, when I was in the library I read about how lightning magic is used to control humanoids. I found out the technique relies on fine, invisible electromagnetic fields to command them. So I made a bold assumption. I took the tinfoil I’d originally prepared for a barbecue, shredded it into little pieces, then froze them onto your humanoids with ice. You know metal dust can interfere with signals, right? I pretty much went through an entire roll of tinfoil. And even if it didn’t work, I figured those ice blocks would still mess with their movement.”
I pointed toward the Ice Palace beside us.
“Then I added an Ice Fall. After that, things got pretty simple.”
“I see. That’s an excellent idea.”
She nodded.
“But you still haven’t defeated me. Even without humanoids, I can still use magic.”
She raised her staff as she spoke.
“No, no, you really should take a break.”
I waved at her, signaling her to lower her weapon.
“Your movements just now looked off no matter how I watched, and you’ve kept that same posture since the start of the match. Let me make a bold guess: you actually can’t control your body by yourself. You use magic to move those metal pieces in your hand, and they in turn control your body. Don’t ask me how I can tell. When it comes to lightning magic applied to metal, I’m pretty sure I understand the mechanics better than you.”
All that physics study wasn’t for nothing.
“…I understand. The victory is yours.”
“Contestant Helena has just conceded! Fir has finished his second battle!”
Caro loudly announced my win. At the same time, the system prompt popped up again.
Quest Notice
Main Quest: Grade competition 2/3 complete
Bonus Goal: Let Cher land the finishing blow in every fight 2/3 complete
