[V5C16] A Red Flower, Blooming in the Sky
Translated by Jodas 5: The Magic BattleFrederik watched from high up in the air.
As Tia fell to the ground, she spun her body around, positioning herself to take the fall feet-first.
Then, Just below Tia’s feet-first fall, Gerald held his arms in front of his body, and dropped his hips.
Tia landed directly on Gerald’s hands.
“Tia, it’s all up to you!”
“Piyopp!”
In the split second she was on the ground, Wren handed something to Tia. A silvery tube, different from the wooden tubes they’d been using up to now.
Tia took hold of the silver tube, then reactivated the Magical Leaping Device.
At that timing, Gerald heaved his arms up.
Combining the power of his arms with the Magical Leaping Device’s thrust, Tia soared into the sky with unprecedented velocity.
— Should he intercept? Or should he evade?
To deny him the opportunity to choose, Julius let loose countless flame arrows. He most likely set their power to the minimum in order to increase the quantity as high as possible. The hail of flame arrows coated the sky.
Once he’d successfully dodged the flame arrows, Frederik looked back to catch a glimpse of Tia.
In Tia’s hands was the silver tube. Inside, a piece of paper with inscription magic.
However, Tia shouldn’t be able to activate inscription magic.
(No, wait…)
Two Apprentices: Tia Vogel and Ella Frank, couldn’t activate inscription magic. Frederik had heard as much — but where?
It was most likely the truth that neither Tia nor Ella would be able to fill the role of activating inscription magic.
…But, what if that information had been spread on purpose?
Looking up at Tia leaping into the sky, Wren prayed.
(Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework—!)
Tia had been handed a silver tube.
That was yet another of Rukiye’s secret weapons. It had three effects.
First, it would adjust the flow of mana from the user to the inscription magic to a desired level. With this, even Tia would be able to activate inscription magic.
Second, it would preserve the inscription magic once it was written. While inscription magic had to be activated immediately after being written, once placed in this tube, it would be preserved for a few minutes. This allowed the user to pour mana in and activate it at the timing of their choice.
Third, it would amplify the effects of inscription magic.
That silver tube was a magical device designed to empower inscription magic.
However, it took a considerable amount of time and effort just to make this one. After all, it was a proper, metal magical device.
They could not mass-produce these. In that case, it would be best for them to use the one they could make as a trump card.
To serve this plan, Wren intentionally spread a rumor.
— That Tia Vogel and Ella Frank couldn’t activate inscription magic.
By doing so, their opponent would convince himself that Tia and Ella wouldn’t be candidates for activating inscription magic.
He was relieved to see that Frederik, convinced that Tia had no means of attack, allowed her get close to him.
“Piyopp! Pretty Boy Cannon, kaboom!”
Tia poured mana into the tube, and reached her hand out immediately next to Frederik.
Soon, the tube started to glow and a magical circle emerged from it. Lightning jumped out at Frederik when he touched the circle.
The full force of the lightning magic Wren spent considerable time writing was multiplied by the magical device. A direct hit from this was not to be scoffed at.
“—Ngh, Eugh, Argh…!!”
The electricity had struck Frederik.
However, it was only for the briefest of moments, as the silver tube was slapped down by a water serpent. Helena had come to the rescue.
“Ah, the fruits of all the Apprentices’ hard work… To think I stopped it with my own hands… My heart aches… I’m so sad…”
“No need to be sad, miss.”
Wren smirked.
“Behold! The works of our leader!”
While it had only been for a moment, he suffered the effects of the high-powered lightning.
To ensure that his tingling hand did not drop his spear, Frederik tightened his grip on his spear.
(I don’t have much time left with my flight magic.)
Flight magic had considerable mana consumption compared to other forms of magecraft. At this rate, he’d knock himself out just by flying.
Now that it’s come to this, perhaps he should head down to the surface. Sevil was fearsome when mounted on the red lion, but he could only count on Rikard to do his best keeping her at bay.
As he lowered his altitude, he noticed something on the very edges of his vision. The smallest fish of water he’d seen so far seemed to be holding something in its mouth.
A wooden tube. Now that he thought about it, all of the tubes were stained with a waterproofing agent. It was designed to keep water from seeping through — all for the sake of this moment.
Roswitha lifted up the hem of her pointy hat and declared with pride.
“Ella, look! The magecraft you wrote is about to wrap this up in style!”
It was possible to build in a slight time lag between when you poured mana into inscription magic and when it activated.
Most likely, Roswitha had poured mana in on the surface, then had her water fish bite onto it and sent it flying towards him.
The hail of flame arrows Julius fired must have been to divert his attention away from this fish.
(This has to be their most powerful magic!)
Helena’s water serpent slithered into the gap between the tube and Frederik. Helena’s water should be able to mitigate the effects somewhat.
With Frederik’s attention focused on the tube, he entered evasive maneuvers. The paper inside the tube began to glow. The moment he thought ‘What kind of magecraft is coming?’ he felt a shock from behind.
A searing pain sapped away at his mana.
“………….Huh?”
Turning around, he looked up to the sky. The countless flame arrows Julius fired were all directed straight at him.
(Wait, weren’t those supposed to be just distractions….?)
Even the arrows that were on a trajectory that had no chance of hitting Frederik were now all headed straight for Frederik.
( — Was the magecraft in this tube… a guiding formula?)
Such formulas existed to draw mana towards their position. However, it wouldn’t be effective against more powerful magics.
Considering how difficult it is to activate, and how it could only attract weaker forms of magecraft, it was considered a weak technique that wasn’t practical for actual battles.
But, what if you were to use it when there was already a large volume of low-power attack magic around?
The great volume of flame arrows bore down on Frederik — or, more accurately, the tube in front of Frederik.
The magecraft Ella wrote attracted Julius’ flame arrows.
The scene before her resembled countless shooting stars tracing red arcs through the sky, all to gather at a single point. It was precisely the type of showy magecraft Ella aspired to.
Looking up at the sky, Ella clenched her fist above her chest.
She still hadn’t grown to the point where she could pull off showy, cool magic like this by herself.
This scene was only possible thanks to the support of Julius’ flame arrows and Roswitha’s water fish.
(Still… I’m the one who wrote that magical formula.)
That truth warmed her heart.
This was Ella Frank’s first step as a mage of the Wedge Tower.
Beside Ella, as she tried to hold in her glee, Wren muttered proudly.
“It really did it, the Pretty Boy Cannon.”
“Ultimately, wasn’t it Ella’s guiding formula that dealt the final blow?”
Wren scoffed at Rukiye’s correction.
“Does it matter? Leaking misinformation about inscription magic to the enemies, using the metal tube as a diversion… All of those little tricks I thought up are part of the Pretty Boy Cannon, okay?”
“It’s true, you’ve come up with a lot of ideas for us, Wren.”
Ella thought back to their strategy meeting.
At that strategy meeting, Wren threw out one idea after another.
“At the end, Julius is gonna suddenly launch a huge wave of a whole bunch of flame arrows, and Fredrik’s gonna be on edge, like ‘a big attack’s coming!’ right? So, I want Julius to just start throwing flame arrows one after another right from the get-go as suppressing fire. The kind that’s low power but high volume. I want our opponent to come away with the impression that Julius’ job is just suppressing fire.”
“Roswitha’s can control her fish with decently high precision, so she could work to deliver the tubes, but I think we should hold off on that early on in the battle. I also think we should hide the fact that she can make tiny fish. That will help us catch him off guard.”
“Both the big ol’ lightning and the guiding formula are gonna take a long time to write, so we should split up the tasks. Sophie will do the lighting, Ella will do the guiding formula, and I’ll help whichever needs the most help depending on the situation. It’s okay, I can copy… no, inscribe both formulas perfectly.”
“I want Rukiye to carry the metal tube and Magical Leaping Device with her so we can take those out at any point. When Gerald is protecting the inscription team, I want him to prioritize guarding Rukiye because she’s holding the most important items. Rukiye, if you get knocked out, I want you to try to hide your bags somewhere nearby. Anyone with free hands should try to recover them.”
“Once I start shouting about the ‘Pretty Boy Cannon,’ that’s the signal. When our opponent’s attention is enraptured by my pretty boy power, Ella and Roswitha should get the guiding formula ready.”
Plenty of times, people took issue with Wren’s ideas. Julius and Roswitha especially butted heads countless times over this stuff. When that happened, it was always Ella who stepped in to mediate.
Wren would propose the ideas, Ella would get everyone on board, then during the battle, Sevil — who excelled in real combat — would take the lead.
This time, everything worked out like that, but Ella felt like she should still be able to do more than this.
(Up to now, all I’ve done has been gathering knowledge.)
When it came to knowledge relating to magecraft, Ella was far ahead of Wren.
However, even when Wren lacked the knowledge, he would experiment through trial and error. By coming up with enough crazy ideas, he could find a way to turn his dreams into reality.
It wasn’t just about expanding her knowledge; she had to learn how to put that knowledge to use. Ella saw that as her next big challenge.
(…I’m glad.)
Previously, when she was attending the magical school, she hadn’t known what courses to take and ended up uselessly cramming all sorts of knowledge.
Each time she searched for something she might be able to do, she worried more and more that she might never find any such thing.
(To have a task means I have possibilities.)
She wasn’t about to give up. Ella quietly clenched her fists, and pumped herself up.
All of the tiny arrows of flame that were floating around rained down on Frederik at once. Helena tried to send her water serpent as fast as it could go to cover him, but it was impossible for her to guard against that many attacks.
Recognizing the danger, Rikard chanted and slammed the shaft of his axe into the ground.
The earth rose up, forming a wall. Frederik disabled his flight magic and ducked behind this wall.
All of the many flame arrows were flying directly towards the tube with the guiding formula inside, so it wouldn’t be that hard to defend oneself if they had cover to hide behind.
(However, Frederik can’t keep up his flight magic any more. It’s only a matter of time before he’s knocked out…)
As he worried how to provide support, he felt a tremor. It was the tremor caused by the massive red lion dashing across the ground.
Rikard moved quickly to build a wall of dirt in front of Sevil.
But, mounted on the red lion, Sevil smiled with indomitable confidence.
“Nothing is impossible for me! Jump, Agniol!”
“I’m jumping! Grand one!”
The red lion bounded high into the air, flying over the wall of earth.
Riding on the back of a leaping red lion, the princess’ hair billowed in the breeze, with her curved sword raised high — It resembled a painting of a war god, filled with energy and strength.