The battle with Albert was a series of complex tactical exchanges.

 

He was the most orthodox mage out of all the humans Iria had seen so far.

 

His specialty was magic sniping from long range.

 

As befitting the name of a sniper, it was troublesome when he kept his distance, but it was difficult to gain meaningful ground because he didn’t give an angle to close the gap.

 

The mana covering the space was like Albert’s territory.

 

It makes the movement of things other than mana sluggish while accelerating the movement of his attacks.

 

That was the reason why it was hard to avoid his sniping.

 

She could see it with her eyes but felt intense resistance as she moved, so she could barely avoid it even if she reacted immediately.

 

Entering Albert’s territory makes moving hard.

 

Of course, trying to keep distance wasn’t an option either, as there was no means to attack him.

 

Iria first exited the territory and slashed the incoming lightning bolts with her dagger.

 

Even with her innate physical ability, the fatigue accumulated in her body was honest.

 

Her movements had become noticeably more sluggish compared to before.

 

“Haa…”

 

There was no time to rest.

 

Just because she got out of the territory didn’t mean she was safe.

 

It just meant she had a little more time to react to Albert’s barrage.

 

The range was also wide, so there was no blind spot to avoid it.

 

“Blue Flame.”

 

The blue flames extending from Albert’s hand covered the corridor.

 

He was pouring out high-level spells layered and compressed all at once.

 

Amazingly, there were no restrictions in performing all those tasks.

 

Since it was a silent incantation, the casting speed was fast.

 

The speed at which the flames spread was also fast.

 

You might think the power would be lacking since everything is fast, right?

 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case either.

 

Albert’s instantaneous firepower was similar to or even greater than Eve’s.

 

If there was one more unreasonable point, it would be that flames weren’t his main attribute.

 

-Crackle, crackle!

 

Purple lightning bolts flew in behind the fire.

 

The lightning that extends in a straight line may seem to have weaker firepower than other magic at first glance, but the reality was different.

 

Albert condenses a vast amount of mana into a single point and then fires it.

 

It has the precision and power befitting the title of a magic sniper.

 

The lightning accelerating once more while passing through the mana’s territory pierces even Iria’s skin.

 

A bolt of lightning that she couldn’t avoid in time penetrated Iria’s right shoulder.

 

She frowned at the numbing pain in her body.

 

Blood flowed from the pierced wound, and there was a slight smell of burning flesh.

 

She dropped the dagger in her hand due to the strong electric current felt in an instant.

 

The situation wasn’t good.

 

She had to get close to attack Albert, but she couldn’t do that because of the thickly laid mana territory.

 

Entering it now was dangerous.

 

Beyond that was literally Albert’s territory.

 

Iria thought while avoiding the lightning bolts flying towards her.

 

A long-range attack.

 

It’s not like she didn’t have one.

 

“…”

 

It was a somewhat outdated and primitive method, though.

 

Iria took out the throwing daggers she had purchased in large quantities before coming here.

 

She took out three daggers hooked on her fingers, then gripped one of them with her right hand.

 

And she slowly put strength into it.

 

To penetrate the mana’s territory and reach Albert.

 

Long-range attacks can be done not only with magic.

 

-Whoosh!!

 

Iria threw the dagger towards Albert.

 

The sharp blade cutting through the air brushed past her ears.

 

The flying blade immediately entered the territory.

 

One that slows down the movement of everything except mana.

 

The flying dagger also couldn’t escape that yoke,

 

But even if slowed down, an object with overwhelming speed is still fast.

 

Throwing daggers are literally for throwing, so they have low air resistance and are easy to accelerate.

 

The physical force fully imbued with Iria’s strength brushed past Albert’s cheek.

 

Red blood flowed out from the grazed cheek, pushing through the wound.

 

Albert brushed his cheek with his hand to check.

 

There was blood on his hand.

 

“Hmm.”

 

He briefly stopped his attacks, then formed a barrier by layering mana.

 

It had been a long time since he received a direct attack from someone else.

 

From his gaze, the blue-haired intruder looked like a beast.

 

She must be quite exhausted after coming down this far.

 

Considering her an injured monster, he didn’t guard against her much.

 

It was a little different.

 

Considerable pressure was felt from her sharply raised eyes.

 

Although injured, her fangs were as sharp as new.

 

Could Albert have dealt with her if that thing was in perfect condition?

 

“…”

 

There was no certainty.

 

That’s why he judged it as dangerous.

 

Albert released a little more mana to expand his territory.

 

He surrounded himself with a barrier and deployed spells.

 

All the mana in the vicinity headed towards Iria.

 

***

 

The physical tears through magic.

 

Iria raised her sword and slashed the flying magic.

 

It’s not just about defense.

 

Whenever there was an opening, she threw a dagger at Albert.

 

The mana barrier was blocking it, but how long could it last?

 

-Clang!!

 

The throwing dagger collided with the barrier.

 

Is that all the power it had after being decelerated while passing through the territory?

 

The power of Iria’s thrown daggers was not much inferior, even when compared to top-level magic spells.

 

If it had been received directly without the mana territory, it would have been difficult to endure it even for a moment.

 

A slash was etched into the barrier Albert had deployed.

 

It remained to be seen whether Iria’s daggers would run out first or the barrier would collapse first.

 

If the barrier collapses, Iria intended to rush towards Albert.

 

Ultimately, she had to get close to him to finish it.

 

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

 

Entering the territory meant having to endure all of Albert’s mana.

 

It was almost like gambling.

 

Iria, with daggers in her hands, kept throwing them towards Albert.

 

Three daggers flew through the air at once.

 

It was a skill shown while avoiding all the lightning magic.

 

But it was blocked.

 

Albert made the first move.

 

“Blue Ice.”

 

Pieces of blue ice rising from the floor blocked the daggers.

 

That wasn’t all.

 

The ice spikes rising from under Iria’s feet threatened her.

 

In the end, she had to step back one more step.

 

Now, it wasn’t just the territory blocking Iria.

 

The ice shards blocked the corridor and obstructed her path.

 

There wasn’t an angle to throw the daggers.

 

She had to let Albert gain an advantageous position once again.

 

It seemed impossible to destroy the barrier from this distance after all.

 

The probability of gambling got a little lower.

 

So she had to use a different method.

 

To turn the tide, Iria took out a high-grade magic stone from her chest and crushed it.

 

“Wind.”

 

And she poured all the mana into one place.

 

Originally, she would appropriately distribute and use the mana from a single magic stone, but this time was different.

 

She burned all the mana at once and wrapped it around her body.

 

It was because she thought she shouldn’t drag out time against Albert.

 

The longer she dragged out time against him, the more disadvantageous it was.

 

Especially if this was the Empire’s headquarters.

 

There was nothing worse than reinforcements arriving when all her stamina was drained.

 

-Whoosh!!

 

Blue-green wind wraps around Iria’s body.

 

It wasn’t just lightly wrapped.

 

She, who had absorbed all the mana from the high-grade magic stone, was like a storm in itself.

 

She intended to pierce through everything at once.

 

The blocking ice, the mana territory, and even the barrier he had deployed.

 

The daggers won’t be able to withstand it, so she discards them.

 

She wrapped the wind, larger than ever, around her fist.

 

Seeing Iria, who had finished all her attack preparations, Albert grasped the spell in his hand as if telling her to come at him.

 

He had also finished his sniping preparations.

 

“Haa…”

 

Iria took a deep breath.

 

And then.

 

She leaped, leading the storm.

 

-Crack!!

 

The ice shards shattered and broke in an instant.

 

After breaking the blocking ice with her whole body, she advanced.

 

After entering Albert’s territory, she felt considerable resistance in her movements.

 

It was as expected.

 

As her speed slowed down and her stamina was severely consumed, she ignored it and advanced.

 

She slashed the sniping and smashed the barriers.

 

She accomplished all those things in the blink of an eye.

 

It was the moment she arrived in front of Albert.

 

Iria threw a punch at him.

 

“Did you know…”

 

But it never reached his body.

 

Albert grabbed Iria’s fist with his hand and opened his mouth.

 

“When you use mana inside my territory,”

 

The wind wrapped around Iria’s body and dispersed.

 

“It becomes mine.”

 

It shattered into fine pieces in the air, and control was transferred to Albert.

 

The direction of what was once Iria’s wind changes.

 

It circled once in the air and pierced into Iria’s body.