A Returner's Magic Should Be Special

Chapter 158. The Ruler of the North (4)

Adjest quickly judged that she couldn’t face Donape head-on.

Against the King Class Donape, the Knight Class Adjest didn’t have a chance of winning. [Ice Orb]

Adjest unleashed a flurry of ice bolts towards Donape.

As soon as she attacked, Adjest also invoked defensive magic in preparation for Donape’s axe. [Sigh of Kizard]

Making up for insufficient swordsmanship with magic. Adjest’s method of fighting with magic assisting her swordsmanship increases her fighting power by several magnitudes. By dealing damage with magic, she could avoid colliding with Donape.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

But Donape wouldn’t let Adjest maintain her distance. He doggedly chased her down and readied his axe for another swing.

As skilled as she was, with her physical abilities, it was impossible for Adjest to completely repel Donape. His axe easily shattered Adjest’s defensive magic, and swung towards her arm *Boom*

*Boom* “… … … !”

The training ground vibrated as ice columns ruptured forth from the snow. What started as a few columns quickly soared and reached the dozens!

[Forest of Crying White Crows]

Donape quickly found himself surrounded by ice columns, imprisoning him. Compared to the flat and open arena they had a moment ago, his movement was now extremely limited.

This didn’t seem to phase Donape much, as he simply punched at a column blocking his way.

*Boom*

Even with Donape’s fist, which exerted considerable force, the ice column that Adjest created was only slightly cracked and didn’t collapse under the pressure.

Adjest had poured her unnaturally large mana pool into the spell, resulting in extraordinarily resilient pillars. Yuria, who had been watching the duel up until now, was impressed. .

"She is stronger than I thought."

Adjest wasn’t limited to using her pillars to restrict Donape’s movement. By retracting the ice columns as she launched her attacks, she was able to employ hit-and-run tactics to whittle down Donape’s stamina.

By employing strategy to build an environment that benefitted herself and was detrimental to her opponent, Adjest had demonstrated the keen battle sense required in order to defeat an opponent that was effectively more powerful than her.

But Donape wasn’t a pushover. He was one of the strongest barbarians of all time, and he had also reached his peak level of performance. There was a reason he would eventually go on to reach the end of the Shadow Labyrinth. He swung his axe with all his might and knocked down six columns in the one motion.

Adjest leaped back and began invoking magic, shooting the shards of the shattered ice columns at Donape. In response, Donape’s eyes narrowed on Adjest in disappointment. Though he used no words, it was as if he was asking Adjest, ‘Is that all?’

Rather than deflect, dodge, or defend against Adjest’s attack, Donape took it head on and used the opportunity to yet again swing his axe at Adjest.

Judinging that impact would be unavoidable, Adjest swung her sword in front of her in a last-ditch effort to deflect the attack.

*Kaang*

As soon as the axe and the sword collided, a huge explosion rang out everywhere. Donape didn’t stop there, but instead continued to swing his axe.

*Kaannggg*

Adjest was unable to withstand the attack, and her knees buckled under the pressure. Her sword wasn’t in much better condition; a few more hits like that, and she’d be left with naught but a shattered blade.

[Crown of Regret]

An enormous crown of ice formed overhead Donape. The magical chill that Adjest had desperately invoked was tremendously potent. Even Donape, who had lived in the savage north his whole life, barely endured against the sheer cold unleashed by Adjest’s attack.

Donape had no choice but to withdraw his relentless onslaught. Adjest, barely escaping with her life, used the opportunity to catch her breath and assess the situation…

When she took in Donape’s condition, she was shocked. Despite him taking a direct attack from her spell, he appeared to have sustained no serious injury.

An overwhelming difference in power and ability.

Most people would give up and fall to helplessness; it was only rational to give up in the face of such an overwhelming gap in strength. But Adjest’s resolve never flickered; instead, it only grew stronger.

‘Desir trusted me to win this fight, I can’t let him down.’ She kept her cool and maintained focus on her goal: victory.

Donape, who had been observing her reaction, acknowledged her strong resolve. “I like the look in your eyes. But can you see this, too?”

Despite the large distance between the two, Donape lifted his huge axe back, and drew himself into a pose to strike. At that moment, a ferocious spirit began to spring forth from him.

The pressure alone made it hard for Adjest to breath. His killing intent was so powerful the air itself was scared to move. At that moment, Adjest’s instincts switched into overdrive.

‘This is dangerous!’

Donape slammed the raised axe straight into the ground! *Boom*

A fissure opened up beneath them and a terrifying sound resounded across the entire mountain range. That wasn’t all; the smashed earth began to soar into the air, and began to be imbued with a reddish aura.

The mouths of those watching the battle unconsciously dropped open. Even for those unfamiliar with the way of the sword and the power rankings that measured one’s skill, it wasn’t hard to guess that Donape was at the apex of power.

Out of the entire crowd, only one man was analyzing the situation with an unnerving calmness.

‘Mountain Stamp… ’

Of course, the man was Desir, one of the few people in the world who was well aware of the technique that Donape had just used. The fact that Donape was willing to go as far as using [Mountain Stamp] meant that he was sincere in testing Adjest’s skill.

The chunks of frozen ground, imbued with Donape’s blood-red aura, launched themselves at Adjest. She frowned at the sight of a huge landslide flying through the air, aimed exactly towards her. It was an incomparable level of aggression relative to what she had dealt with so far.

If Donape was going to hit her with all his power, she was going to respond in same. [Frozen Palace]

The atmosphere froze. The snow, which had been driven everywhere, began to gather unnaturally under Adjest’s control.

A splendid and shimmering ice palace, completely unsuitable for the rugged mountains, appeared in the middle of the battlefield.

Adjest employed her visionary technique, something that only she could use, to combat Donape. Now, instead of individually computing and invoking each spell, Adjest could complete hundreds of spells at the same time.

Dozens of quickly made ice walls were thrown up in front of Adjest in the blink of an eye, followed by a huge crash a moment later.

*Boooom*

The layered ice wall was rebuilt even faster than it could be broken, and completely negated Donape’s attack. The blizzard whipped up by the two powerful spells acted as cover for Adjest and Donape, and the outside surroundings became calm in contrast.

Eventually, the impromptu blizzard began to settle down. As soon as visibility was restored, those who were witnessing the epic duel also bore witness to a bizarre phenomenon, one that made their jaws drop yet another inch.

Though the weather hadn’t changed much, the snow around Adjest began to freeze into ice, starting with the sword Adjest was wielding.

The searing cold of the north bowed its head to Adjest and united with her blade. [Magic Sword: Ice Blessing]

This was a magical swordsman’s unique magic, a spell that allowed her to meld both her magical prowess and physical strength into a unified attack.

After lifting the walls of the [Frozen Palace], Adjest pointed her sword at the King of the Barbarians and once again challenged him head on with her greatest offensive technique.

But Donape unleashed an attack at the same time. Even as she launched her attack, containing an alarming amount of mana, Donape began to smile. He launched his axe towards Adjest with both hands. A surge of red aura shot out of his body.

His aura was as ferocious as a beast. Rather, after witnessing this aura first hand, people would likely claim that beasts tried their best to mimic the ferocity of Donape’s aura.

*Boom*

When Adjest made contact, she felt as if she was striking the core of the mountain itself… "Arghhhhhh!"

They were equally matched. However, the chill of Adjest’s magic sword began to freeze Donape’s body, despite his aura’s best efforts to shield him.

As Donape’s posture and force gradually collapsed, Adjest poured all of her remaining mana into her [Ice Blessing] without missing a beat.

*Koogoogoogong*

The atmosphere reverberated. ‘It’s not enough.’

No matter how hard she tried, it was impossible for her to make a fatal blow through the red aura that enveloped his entire body.

Realizing she needed a new strategy, Adjest stepped back after releasing her magic sword. Donape was immediately suspicious. She definitely had an opportunity to win; even if the attack didn’t work, stepping down from the assault wasn’t the right choice.

Did she forfeit the duel?

That said, however, Adjest’s eyes didn’t contain a trace of defeat in them.

While Donape was lost in thought, the chill of the snowfield began to converge towards Adjest as though it had a will of its own.

Her hair, which normally shone like polished gold, quickly shifted into a frozen white, and a silver light began to emanate from her.

In response to the phenomenon in front of him, Donape felt something unusual stir within him. His expression, which had always felt at least partially relaxed, slowly began to harden.

“Kun Lona.”

Donape’s axe lost its finesse and dexterity it once displayed. Instead, it was imbued with raw power and concentrated aura.

However, when a powerful barbarian who had reached the King Class of martial arts wielded his aura, the resulting power was almost like a natural disaster.

At the same time, Adjest’s sword was headed for Donape, drawing a silver trajectory in its wake.

The moment the two clashed, the ground shook as though there had been a massive seismic quake, and the soaring snow swept everywhere like a tidal wave. Adjest was swept away by the aftermath and buried in the snow.

“Pant… Pant… ”

Bursting forth from her temporary snow coffin, Adjest leapt to her feet. She eagerly caught her breath and wielded her sword, now broken in half.

Adjest pointed her newly broken sword at Donape, ready to continue the duel, but dropped her blade when she realized it was meaningless.

The winner and the loser had been decided.

Donape wiped the blood from his cheeks with the back of his hand.

For a moment he looked at Adjest with astonished eyes, but he simply recovered his axe and left.

It was apparent that Adjest had lost, yet many of the tribal chiefs looked at her in shock; they couldn’t believe that she had endured that much against Donape…

As soon as Donape was out of sight, Adjest fell over, as the adrenaline that was keeping her upright left her system.

Desir, Romantica and Pram hurried to her at the sight.

Adjest apologized to her party members.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure if I could win, but I had no idea there was such a huge difference in our ability.”

Desir smiled, helping her to her feet.

“He said Kun Lona. That means he fought with you as a warrior. It means that he acknowledged you as a true warrior, and that we’re entitled to pull out the sword.”

“Alright. That’s a relief.” Adjest finally let herself sigh.

Yuria approached the rattled party, and looked down as she addressed Adjest.

“I admit you’re pretty strong, even for a person from the continent. But the oath we swore to Melger Khan is what has allowed Harrowind to persevere this long. You trying to pull the sword is a futile effort.”

She continued to talk.

“I’ll arrange for a place for you to stay. When you’re well, I’ll show you to the sanctuary.”