23. Shura vs Troll

“Goraaa!!!”

“[―――――――― umph!!!!!]”

The forest was flattened due to the collapse of {Troll}.

The fist of a giant and the fist of a petite girl collided.

Powerful fists covered with Red Mana exploded with each other, causing bright red sparks to scatter in the sky.

The girl offset all the slamming with punches and kicks.

“Daaaryaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”

The girl, Shura, ran to the {Troll} while raising dust, jumped and made a flying kick to its leg. But, {Troll} gathered Red Mana to its legs to offset her attack, and as a counter, it swung up its right leg to blow Shura off.

“――As expected”

Shura gained one conviction.

She corrected her posture in the air and landed with both legs.

“If you’re just a normal {Troll}, you can’t control Mana so skillfuly like that. Hey, how long are you going to pretend you can’t speak? ―― ‘Human Demon’ “

{Troll} Scratched his cheek.

“[You’re sharp. To notice that I’m a ‘Human Demon’.]”

A neutral high-pitched voice.

Faced with {Troll}’s calm demeanor that didn’t match its appearance, Shura found it creepy.

“I’m happy. That you’re the type who uses physical attack. It’s been a while since I could hit others head-on like this…!”

“[I’m happy too. After all, it’s fun to collide fists with fists.] “

While saying so, {Troll} created a ball of earth at the tip of his mouth.

The Mana of Creation.

“F**king liar…….!”

Shura pulled out the cane from her back and dashed forward at full speed.

The earth bullet was released.

While dodging it, Shura passed under {Troll} through the gap between its legs, jumped up and hit its back with the cane.

――No response.

{Troll} grew a spear of soil from the ground and extended it toward Shura who was floating in the air.

Shura kicked the tip of the spear to destroy it and used the side of the spear as a foothold to go down. And she landed on the ground. 

At that moment, {Troll} stomped with its right foot.

Shura crossed her arms to catch the attack.

{Troll} whole weight was put into that foot. Shura clenched her teeth, released Red Mana and repelled its legs.  She then took a distance while it was out of balance.

“……That is…”

Shura noticed that the green hair that had grown on {Troll}’s right foot was gone. Its hair had disappeared, and its bare skin was exposed. Certainly, before the battle, Shura wasn’t attacking that part.

Once again, {Troll} used earth magic to make bullets from the soil.

While dodging it, Shura observed the part where the hair was gone.

――The amount of body hair was gradually decreasing.

“So that’s it. Your body hair, you use it as a substitute for <Rolling Bottle>. I see.”

<Rolling Bottle>.

It was a bottled liquid sold in the market. If you drink it, you can make up for the lost Mana.

There are various ingredients for <Rolling Bottle>, and the effect differs depending on the ingredient. One of the materials is, {Troll}’s green body hair.

“[ <Rolling Bottle>…? This? Do you call it that way?] “

“Are you for real… so, all hair on your body is a lump of Mana――”

Shura put her cane on her back and put her hand on her waist.

“It can’t be helped …!”

A strange air started emanating from Shura.

At that moment, {Troll} started to fear the creature much smaller than itself. {Troll} stepped back two steps.

“I’ll pluck off all that hair.”

Shura put on her《Sub-source Colors》―― White Mana.

“Coloring, ‘White’――Regeneration Technique, ‘Snow Lamp’.”

Wearing white armor, Shura kicked the ground. The kicked ground rose up.

{Troll} couldn’t follow Shura’s movements with its eyes, and when it noticed, its cheek had been hit.

“[What――?!]”

“If you don’t put more Mana, you’ll die?”

Shura’s high-speed attacks with increased speed.

She ran around the whole body of {Troll} while attacking it in the order,

The back of the head → neck → back → waist → back of the knee → heel.

After being hit in the heel, {Troll} slipped, and fell onto its back.

All the hair on its lower body disappeared. 

Shura’s movement was much faster and stronger.

‘Snow Lamp’.

Shura was a White Magician. 

Shura used that Regeneration Technique on herself and prepared for the impact of the attack that would damage her own body. She moved with everything she had.

Jumping to the point of breaking her own legs.

Even making a fist that might breaks her own arms.

Immediately after the pain, the parts that was broken regenerated. Naturally, considering the damage to her own body, she reduced the Red Mana that was worn on the whole body to the limit at the moment of attack, and concentrated on one point.

The downside was that the technique drained the White Mana, so there was a time limit and ―― an unavoidable pain.

“This, is … !!!”

Pain filled Shura’s thoughts. Still, she held her fist.

Shura planned to give another attack, so she aimed to land on the fallen {Troll}.

“[I came up with a good idea. I should wear armor too …] “

“――m?!”

Just before Shura hit the forehead, a helmet from soil equipped on {Troll}’s head. It was clay soil, so the impact of Shura’s attack was scattered.

“Tch!”

Shura kicked the soil and as if dancing in the air, she retreated to a position where she could see the whole body of {Troll}.

{Troll} created an armor with Green Mana and covered its whole body with it.

“[It doesn’t hurt anymore]”

“Are you going to imitate me? It’s not enough to stop my attack! “

Shura disappeared, she made an elbow attack in {Troll}’s belly. But there was no reaction. 

Since {Troll} wore armor, its movement was slowed down. 

In exchange for defense. {Troll} abandoned its speed.

“I won.”

Shura was convinced.  

However, that conviction was soon changed by the growth of thorns from the attacked soil mass.

“Soil blade?!”

An automatic counterattack system was set at the moment of being attacked, that moved the soil around the attacked area with a Blue Mana, gathered it, grew thorns, and counterattacked. Since {Troll} didn’t to gather the soil from scratch, the speed of that counterattack was beyond the level at which Shura could react.

Shura was attacked by a thorn on her flank. However, the wounds recovered instantly with White Mana. She landed right in front of {Troll}.

“[Repeating this is a pain. It doesn’t completely prevent your attack. It consumes a lot of Mana … but,]”

{Troll} knew that Shura’s White Mana, was about to run out.

“I’m the one who will run out of Mana first, is it?”

“[That’s right. Why don’t we slow down the pace once? At this rate, you will lose] “

Shura sneered at {Troll}’s suggestion and put out her tongue.

” Beh―― I don’t want to.”

Shura wore white mana over her whole body and charged forward.

Her right fist exploded on {Troll}’s belly. Thorns made from soil bounced off at the same time. 

Shura didn’t stop even if the thorns pierced her shoulder or thighs and kept hitting repeatedly.

“[Stop your meaningless…]”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuu Oooooooooooooo!!!!”

Hit, kick, hit, kick.

Each time, the counterattacks of the thorns hurt her body.

The place that Shura protected was the brain and heart. Other than that, she didn’t care, after all it would heal soon.

(It hurts ―― hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, huuurrrrttts!!!!)

Even so, Shura still continued to attack. All of it was for one chance ――

{Troll} was fighting back by collecting the soil around the attacked part, but the time for {Troll} to lose its armor would come if she kept attacking the same area continuously. 

She bet on that one chance.

That was why Shura didn’t pause. She was aiming for a momentary gap…

“[So persistent …!]”

The armor started peeling off.

{Troll}’s hair disappeared, and the chance that Shura was aiming for came. Its bosom had no more soil obstruction.

“[Hmm?!!]”

“Here it is, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

Shura tried to accumulate all of her Mana on one point but,

“It’s a, lie right? Why now ――!”

The white armor became dust.

―― The limit of her Mana had come.

{Troll} slapped Shura who had stopped in the air. Her back struck against a large tree outside the flattened area and she was spitting up blood. The wound would not heal anymore.

“[Huh… huft…! It was dangerous. It was unexpected for you to last this long. But I could see the result. Your Mana is exhausted as I expected. I still have a little Mana left. This battle, is my ――] “

“It’s ‘me’ who loses――But it’s ‘Our’ Win! “

“My Mana is only as much as dust now. Yours is almost gone. But there’s one more person…… left with full mana.”

Shura pointed to the shining sun.

“[Bluffing, is an unsightly act]”

“Five seconds left.”

{Troll} swung its fist down…

Shura made a big leap with the last little Red Mana on her feet and felt the heat of the sun directly on her neck.

“[Stop struggling….]”.

{Troll} glared at Shura.

” ―― It’s the ‘Time limit’.”

At that moment, the brown-haired Shura disappeared.

“[What?!]”

Next up was a girl with golden hair.

The girl pulled out her cane and made the black jewels at the end shine.

“[The appearance has changed …? ―― Well, it doesn’t matter!!!] “

{Troll} pulled his left arm back, preparing to attack.

The blonde magician didn’t show any impatience and indifferently looked down at {Troll}.

” ―― ‘Fireball’ “

A mass of crimson was formed behind the blonde magician, Ash.

The mass of flame, it was bigger than {Troll}’s fist.

But, that was not the end.

Black Mana was coming out from the cane.

“Coloring, ‘Black’ ―― Black Flame Magic Technique, ‘Roiro Homura’ ” [TN: The kanji use for Black in here is actually Black for lacquering, and the kanji for roiro is the Black lacquer, so the technique if were to roughly put it in English, ‘Jet-Black Flame’]

The mass of flame covered in Black Mana.

{Troll} who had launched its hand, tried to withdraw it in front of a foreign Mana, but it was too late.

“[What?! That Mana is ――] “

“You bullied my sister… I won’t forgive you!!!”

{Troll}’s fist collided with the black ball which looked like a black-colored sun from {Troll}’s eyes.

“[Uuu――uuuuaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhh!!!!]”

The part that touched the Black Mana immediately becomes dust.

‘Roiro Homura’ released by Ash was a three-color Fire Magic Technique that combined three different Mana. Its power far exceeds the power of normal two-color Fire Magic Technique.

Still, if there was Mana left in {Troll}, it might make an armor to defend against it or avoid it. But {Troll} already couldn’t afford to block or dodge it. {Troll} was too exhausted in the battle with Shura.

“[In a place like this, I…! {Corpse Emperor}-sama, please… my corpse ――!!!] “

―― It was absolutely inevitable. The Black Flame ruthlessly burned {Troll} from the chest up.

Ash fell from the sky into the ground and her hips hit the ground hard.

Numbing pain ran all over her body.

“Uhu… my sister’s an idiot. I, am not good at handling Red Mana… I couldn’t land passively if dropped from such a height…”

Ash shed tears while rubbing her hips.

Ash couldn’t move from the spot for a while due to back pain.

{Troll} ―― Defeated.