Chapter 263 – Steff Against the Magic Lord

After breakfast, the next day, we got ready to head out to Shiggy’s palace at the pole.

We put some cattle covers over Moofy and Femm to keep the from the cold.

We had gotten them from Cruz.

「You don’t need those, the heater’s on already.」

『I’ll take them off if it gets hot.』

「Mooo moo」

Then I put Shiggy’s little coat on.

「Just in case.」

「ryaa」

It was the coat that Vi-Vi had made, very cute.

After we finished with our preparations, we all left with Timi to the palace.

As we left the house, Vi-Vi was there with her winter clothes. She was ready to go too.

「A magic battle! I can’t wait to see it!」

「You’re coming too, Vi-Vi?」

「Yeah! I can’t wait to see it!」

She said, and came with us.

We passed through the magic circle, and ventured to the polar palace.

「It’s been a while since we’ve seen your palace, Shiggy.」

『Hot, even.』

「Because we knew you were coming. The heater was turned on again.」

Timi said proudly.

「ryaa!」

「Shiggy’s hot too. Here. Let me take this off.」

「ryaa」

We took all the covers off the beasts.

Millet and Collette also took off their coats.

「Master, I’ve awaited you.」

A mysterious woman was waiting for us as we left the room.

She bowed deeply before Shiggy.

She looked like a normal, young lady. You could tell though that her whole body was radiating magic.

She was no regular person. She had to be an ancient dragon.

「I will take all your overcoats.」

She said, and took all the coats we had taken off.

After we handed them over, she smiled and said,

「It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, Master Alfredora.」

「….」

I had no memory of ever meeting her. I just kind of smiled and faked it.

I tried my hardest to remember, and Timi laughed.

「Baroness. Is this the first time Alfredora has seen you in this form?」

「Excuse me…I thought he would remember from the time that Sighisoara took the throne.」

In other words, the day that Shiggy ascended the throne. She was one of the dragons that had come to see the process.

「I was in quite a rush. I was asked by quite a few others to observe the process in their place.」

「I see.」

「Yes. Alfredora, my name is Govas. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.」

「And I yours.」

「ryaaa!」

「I’m not worthy of such praise.」

Shiggy cried one, and Baronness Govas bowed lowly.

Shiggy had probably complemented Govas.

I had no idea what was going on, but it must have gone that way.

On the other hand, Timi was pacing the floor.

「I’ve readied the place for the battle. Come with me.」

The place was, of course, massive. Made for an ancient dragon.

It took us three minutes of walking to get there.

「Here it is.」

Timi had prepared just a normal room for us.

There were no objects around. It was just a floor and walls covered with a strange material.

「If we use this room, there’s no problem with magic getting loose.」

Timi said with a laugh.

On the other hand, Vi-Vi carefully checked the floor and walls.

I checked it as well. I had no idea how much it could withstand.

「This is a complex magic circle.」

「Yes, yes. These walls are magical toots descended from the ancient days.」

「That is correct.」

It would be hard to break, but it still might be broken.

「It’s not easy to break?」

「Heh heh, it would be hard for even you to break, Alra.」

「I see.」

「No need to worry. I told you these walls are magical, right? As long as you don’t blow them to pieces and spread them over the sea, they’ll repair themselves.」

「Wow, that’s strong.」

「Right? Well, if they weren’t that strong, there’s no way they’d survive the ancient years, right?」

Timi said with a smile. She was right. Things break quite easily in this world.

Without the ability to repair itself, it would erode.

And it’s true that we could toss around destructive magic then. Full power.

While we were checking the battlefield out, Timi held Shiggy and smiled.

She was ready to show Shiggy a good time.

「Who wants to start. Should you and I go first?」

「No, we should leave that until the end.」

I didn’t want this place to be scarred up from the beginning.

No matter how much restore magic this place had, the battle was going to take a long time.

「First, let’s have Steff, Collette, and Millet in that order.」

「Understood, master.」

「Okay, old man.」

「I’m nervous…」

All of my disciples responded.

「Anytime is fine.」

「Then, I’m ready!」

Steff fired a chantless fireball at me.

The fireball squiggled randomly through the air.

It was very good fireball for battle. It was hard to read where it would go.

That’s what I had taught her. She remembered it well.

「Good job. Excellent.」

Without taking a step, I blocked the fireball.

But blocking it alone wouldn’t be enough training.

I then attacked her to a suitable degree. Of course, it was just enough that she could defend herself.

「Aggh!」

Steff quickly shifted to putting up a defense to stop the attack.

After seeing my attack defended, she quickly shot an ice spear at me.

I quickly melted it and the water fell to the ground.

With that, anyone could freeze the puddle and use it as an offensive strategy.

「That was quite fast.」

I complimented her, as I attacked her next spear as it came very close to me.

The reason I did so was to allow Steff time to arrange her next attack.

As she got ready, I shot some weak magic at her.

She defended and attacked. If she couldn’t, she wouldn’t be a worthy magician.

I tried hitting her blind spot, and other techniques.

Steff showed her skill in quickly defending from my attacks.

While this was happening, her fallen ice bolts had melted from the heat and there was water all around me.

Then Steff cried,

「Fire arrow!」

「Whoaa!」

Steff fired a quick fire arrow from her right hand.

At the same time she threw a lightning bolt from her left. Multi-casting.

She tried to shoot lightning at me while I was focused on the arrow.

And she didn’t attack me directly. She tried to electrocute me from the water around my legs.

A normal magician wouldn’t respond to that attack.

「Excellent.」

I said, and raised a magic barrier before the lightning touched the water.

After that, Steff tried a lot of other sneaky means to attack me.

After blocking everything she tried, she ran out of magic and gave up.