“That won’t solve anything either. You’re way too tough, you old man!”

“If you could take me down that easily, I’d be ashamed to call myself your dad.”

The light of the explosion faded, revealing Anticas standing unharmed where he’d been. He seemed to be pinching something between the fingers of his left hand, then casually flicked it away and flashed Aya a grin that begged to be punched.

Aya knew how powerful the Star-Piercing Heavy Lance was. Saying he could knock his old man down in one hit was just something he’d thrown out there—but its single-target damage was absolutely on the level of grand magic. There hadn’t been nearly enough time for Anticas to prepare a defensive spell of that caliber. So how had he come away without a scratch?

“Again!”

Aya gritted his teeth and lunged forward again. A mass of arcane arrows flew alongside him, all converging on Anticas and forcing him to block.

“But now that I know how it works, it’s just an ordinary energy arrow.”

With defensive magic layered over his fists, Anticas threw a rapid flurry of punches. He easily parried Aya’s blows and kicks while smashing every arcane arrow to pieces.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…

In the middle of that relentless exchange of punches and kicks, Aya had started the attack, but he was gradually being pushed back and put on the defensive. His chi scales trembled with every clash, as if they might shatter at any moment.

“My son, you weren’t this reckless before. You know your chi scales and strength can’t match mine, yet you still chose to fight up close. Are you really that confident in that magic you pulled out of nowhere?”

“Hmph. I’ll let you gloat for three more seconds.”

Though he was being pushed back, Aya still met Anticas’s gaze with a confident expression.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

As the final number left his lips, Aya surged forward and released his chi scales. A blast of wind swept his old man several meters away.

“That’s all—whoa!”

The instant the dangerous pressure of wind hit him, Anticas leaned back and dodged by a hair’s breadth. The teal knight’s lance, wrapped in a swirling gust, passed within a finger’s width of his nose.

Dragon Knight Combat Art: Thrust

The thrust, concentrated into a single line, left no trace in the clouds. Since the attack focused entirely on piercing through its target, its area of damage was only a finger-width hole—and the clouds filled it in again in an instant.

But its power was very real.

After dodging Aya’s thrust, Anticas showed the first hint of panic. He quickly put some distance between them, staring at Aya in stunned disbelief as cold sweat broke out across his back.

That sense of danger he’d felt earlier had been real. What was that lance thrust?

There was no doubt that the weapon in Aya’s hand was just a grand-magic Storm Lance. Using grand magic as a weapon already took tremendous strength, but that move just now couldn’t have come from magic alone.

“Was that a martial technique?”

“Something like that…”

Aya suddenly felt a little guilty. He hadn’t learned the Dragon Knight techniques from his parents. He’d found them in ruins while traveling around the continent in search of his parents and going on adventures. So even Anticas, a Dragon himself, couldn’t recognize where they came from.

After all, Aya still hadn’t told him that he’d made a Dragon Knight pact with Tiran… He couldn’t imagine how his old man would react to learning that he’d become Tiran’s mount.

While the battle continued in the sky, the people of Godkust on the ground began to notice something strange about the clouds. The first punch Aya and Anticas exchanged had cleared away a huge swath of cloud, leaving a massive hole in the sky. It looked wrong no matter how you looked at it.

Before long, plenty of people had stopped on the beach and in the streets to look up at the strange sight. A few painters who’d come out to sketch set up their boards and started drawing on the spot.

To ordinary people, it was just a curious sight. But to certain professionals, it was another matter entirely.

On the beach in the seaside town of Alakushko, a man lounging in a deck chair and basking in the sun took off his sunglasses and squinted at the sudden hole above the volcano.

“Hey, old man. What do you make of that?”

He nudged with his elbow the old man beside him, who was studying an old-looking parchment scroll beneath a sunshade.

“There are signs of a surge in magical power. The elemental turbulence is strong enough to feel even from here… Looks like two formidable people are fighting.”

Old man Domingosen, the Dragon-Slaying Party’s only professional magic user and a man known as the “Silver Void Magus,” gave his assessment.

“Stronger than you?”

“Hard to say.” The old man’s attention was entirely on the scroll in his hands. He didn’t seem particularly interested in the battle in the sky.

“Why don’t we go take a look? We’ve been on vacation so long my bones are going soft. I need to get moving.” The lancer was raring to go.

“Those guys don’t look like they’re sitting around with nothing to do. If you’re bored, go play with them.”

The old man couldn’t be bothered to entertain him. He casually pointed down at the three people having a blast playing water volleyball in the sea.

“Byron and Justin, sure, but why’s Blade out there too…?”

At the mention of his three remaining teammates, Ransel was at a loss for words. There they were, each wearing nothing but swim trunks and clumsily batting the ball back and forth in the water. You’d never guess they were members of an adventuring party famous throughout the world. They’d blended perfectly into the scene.

What shocked him most was that the usually taciturn assassin, who normally kept himself half-hidden in that mist-like shroud of Chi, was clearly having the most fun of all.

Playing with them… No, he’d pass.

The lancer felt he couldn’t let his own image fall apart too. But the old man really didn’t seem interested in joining him to watch the two unknown experts battling in the sky.

“Oh, right. Old man, don’t you have those alchemy gadgets that can measure combat strength and stuff? Why not take one out and check?”

At last, fed up with the pestering, the old man put down the scroll and rubbed the storage ring on his left hand. He pulled out a fully enclosed helmet, just like a heavy cavalry helmet. “Go check for yourself. And don’t forget to give it back.”

“Why’s it so heavy…? I thought everyone else used thin lenses and stuff.”

“Have you been reading too much manga?” The old man was barely holding back his irritation. “This is the most fully featured one there is! If you can make something with the same functions in the form of a lens, I’ll file an application with the guild to give you the title of Saint Magus myself.”

Once he had the helmet, Ransel finally settled down. The old man felt he could at last relax and get back to his book.

“Tussman silver has a greater change in conductivity in water-based magic arrays than it does under normal conditions… If it’s used for cooling a magitech cannon, that could solve two problems at once. But the size might be an issue…”

But barely a minute later…

“Old man! Old man, come look! There’s a huge problem!”

“That’s enough, Ransel!”

The old man nearly tore out another handful of his already thinning hair. He glared at the lancer, bristling with anger.

“No, no! It’s the results from your helmet! That thing in the sky… Forget it, just look for yourself.”