—
Shuna stood with her arms crossed.
She didn’t stop Leah from doing anything—whether it was handing Will the staff or tidying herself up a bit.
Of course, part of the reason was that Leah was too close to Will. There was no way for Shuna to bypass her and rescue him—besides, even if she did, they wouldn’t be able to escape.
It was better to let Leah finish whatever she was doing and then have a proper fight.
The other reason…
Shuna wasn’t entirely sure of the witch’s strength and abilities.
If Leah were a proper dungeon boss, Shuna could estimate her power based on the floor she was on and the dungeon’s overall difficulty.
But Leah wasn’t a boss, and she had poured all sorts of catalysts onto herself, making it impossible to gauge her strength.
From just one Flaburst, who could tell if that was her ultimate move or just a basic attack?
By observing her movents and behavior a little longer, Shuna could fight with a better understanding of her opponent.
—This was Shuna’s dungeon exploration style.
—A thodical approach based on reason and as much information as possible.
—It was eerily similar to the way Will approached dungeons, the sa Will who was now slumped in a chair.
However, Shuna couldn’t shake a strange feeling. Judging by how things had unfolded, Leah seed to have done a lot since entering this room.
But Shuna distinctly rembered that only about an hour had passed since she and Will had split up.
How had Leah managed to do so much in such a short ti?
Shuna’s gaze briefly landed on the only table in the otherwise empty room.
It was cluttered with witch tools bearing the witch’s hat insignia, one of which appeared to be an hourglass.
Then her attention was drawn back to Leah, who was walking toward her.
“Well? Are you ready?”
Shuna clapped her hands together.
But…
The Leah before her now seed slightly different from the one she had seen earlier.
Her hair was still the sa golden color, but the tips had taken on a strange reddish hue.
“—Have you heard the pulse of life?”
“Hmm?”
“—Have you heard the breath of the earth?”
“Oh? Already starting a chant?”
“—Have you heard the heat of the sky?”
Shuna stopped speaking, because before her, the cheap-looking staff in Leah’s hand was already radiating an intense glow of energy and fire.
“—Listen, listen, for this is—”
Then, in the instant Leah swung her staff, “so ancient magic” would undoubtedly be unleashed toward her.
It was a large-scale fire skill with a very short cast ti.
“Brilliant Light, Silent Echo—”
Five seconds.
As Leah uttered the phrase, all sound around Shuna vanished in an instant.
During combat, Shuna heavily relied on her senses, always attuned to the sounds around her.
Whether it was the clinking of tools and test tubes in the room.
The rustling of the witch’s clothes as she raised her staff.
Or even Will’s labored breathing as he sat injured in that strange chair.
She noticed it all.
But in that mont, as if her hearing had been stripped away, all she could hear was an endless silence.
Four seconds.
Shuna guessed that this was so kind of ancient magic that absorbed the energy of surrounding sounds before detonating—only ancient magic often manifested in such bizarre ways.
But… where would it detonate? As Leah completed her chant, the light in her hand disappeared…
Three seconds.
Shuna took a deep breath.
She could already feel the temperature around her rising sharply.
Two seconds.
A dazzling light began to bloom before Shuna’s eyes.
One second.
All the sounds that had vanished exploded back into Shuna’s ears.
—
“Hah… as expected, that was a bit tiring.”
On the other side, Leah stood in place, still holding her casting stance, breathing heavily.
The mass-produced staff from the adventurer’s shop in her hand turned to ash as she spoke.
This was sothing she had anticipated.
Ancient magic was extrely draining, and while a witch’s magical circuits could handle the consumption and release the magic efficiently…
It ant that very few weapons could withstand their magic.
Even within the Witch Association, this was a common topic of discussion, but… most of the weapons they shared were individually crafted, with no universal solution.
Even those crafted by witches themselves often had significant flaws, and only a rare few could fully endure a witch’s magic.
Gazing at the smoke…
Leah clenched the ring on her finger tightly.
She didn’t believe she had won.
Because Will had once seriously analyzed this for her: her skills were the most likely to create smoke that could obscure the battlefield. The more this happened, the more cautious she needed to be.
The enemy might be hiding in the smoke she had created…
And might not have been hard by her attack at all—
Swish—
Several ice bullets shot out from the smoke, aiming directly for Leah’s face.
But Leah, prepared, sliced through them all with a streak of fire in the air.
She carefully maintained her distance from the smoke where Shuna was and kept her fingers on her ring.
Though the ice bullets were small, they clearly packed a punch, targeting her limbs rather than her vital areas.
What’s this? That bad woman is holding back even in a place like this?!
But if she doesn’t, she won’t be able to take Will away.
So…
She must be planning to go all out.
Fla bullets, imbued with a targeting function using a witch’s tool, shot out from Leah’s ring.
At the sa ti…
She fired another fla bullet in Shuna’s direction.
Though both of their ice and fla bullets were basic spells, in a battle of speed, they were the most efficient.
“?!”
In the smoke, Shuna saw a high-speed fla bullet heading straight for her.
This told her that not only had Leah deflected all her ice bullets, but she also had the energy to counterattack.
“…Tch.”
The distance was too close, and having just used magic, she hadn’t fully recovered. She dodged to the side, but the fla bullet grazed her waist, leaving a burn mark on her exposed abdon.
Of course…
For Shuna, this was probably the lightest injury she’d sustained so far.
Her jacket had already been burned by Leah’s earlier fire attack, and her exposed shoulders and arms were covered in small burns from the steam.
These burns were all too familiar. The first ti she had helped Will solve a problem, she had seen similar burns. It proved that her hastily conjured ice armor had underestimated Leah’s power.
The last ti…
She had been this injured in a dungeon adventure, when was it again?
It must have been back in the Ice Abyss.
Though her shoulders and arms ached, the battlefield didn’t allow her any distractions.
More importantly, she didn’t have the resources to divert her precious ntal energy and magic to healing.
Swish, swish, swish.
More fla bullets ca hurtling toward her.
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