I Refuse the Tragic Ending

The smaller stranger’s smile widened as she studied Garrick.

”Well, now. This might actually be fun.”

Garrick rolled his shoulders, allowing his dark mana to spread across his arms and chest. Unlike the purple mana surrounding Rovan’s sword, his energy carried a dense, shadowy quality that seemed to weigh down the air around him. The ground beneath his boots cracked as he lowered his stance.

He glanced at Rovan. He noticed Rovan was no longer capable of fighting. He barely stood up.

”Selene, Liora. Don’t let her get behind us,” Garrick shouted at his two companions.

”Understood,” Selene replied.

Liora nodded, raising her hands as pale green mana gathered around her fingers.

The opponent tilted her head. ”Three against one? How rude.”

She no longer counted Rovan looking at his miserable state.

”You came here to attack the people under our protection,” Garrick answered. ”I’d say you’ve lost the right to complain about manners.”

”Fair enough.”

She disappeared.

”Above!” Selene shouted.

A crimson streak descended from the branches, aiming directly for Garrick’s head. He raised his forearm to intercept it, but the moment her attack touched his mana, the force behind it abruptly changed.

His defensive reinforcement flickered.

Garrick immediately twisted aside. The crimson strike grazed his shoulder and struck the ground, creating a shallow crater.

Before the enemy could follow up, Selene swept her hand sideways.

”Frostbind!”

Blue-white mana spread across the ground, forming a series of icy tendrils that shot toward the stranger’s ankles. At the same time, Liora extended both hands and sent several compressed blades of wind toward the space above her shoulders, cutting off her escape routes.

The stranger glanced at the incoming attacks.

Instead of dodging, she raised one hand.

A crimson ripple expanded from her palm.

The ice shattered. The wind blades scattered in different directions, losing their shape before they could reach her. One struck a nearby tree and sliced through its trunk, while another buried itself in the earth.

Selene’s eyes narrowed.

Her magic had not been overpowered through brute force. The stranger had disrupted the structure of the spells themselves, causing their mana to lose cohesion before the attacks could land.

Liora recognized the same phenomenon.

”Her ability interferes with mana control!” She warned.

”Then stop giving her time to interfere!” Garrick barked.

He charged.

His enormous fist cut through the air, backed by a concentrated layer of dark mana. The enemy raised her arm to counter, but Garrick’s fist continued forward even as the crimson ripple spread across his reinforcement.

Her expression changed.

The disruption weakened his mana, but it did not collapse it entirely. His physical strength and the density of his reinforcement carried the attack through the interference. She ducked beneath his fist, yet Garrick had anticipated the movement. He planted his foot, twisted his waist, and drove his elbow toward her ribs.

The opponent crossed both arms.

BOOM!

The impact sent her skidding across the clearing. Her boots tore two long furrows through the soil before she regained her balance.

For the first time, her smile disappeared.

Garrick glanced at his shoulder. The place where her earlier attack had grazed him was bleeding, but the wound was shallow.

”So you can disrupt mana,” he said. ”That’s troublesome, but it doesn’t make you invincible.”

The stranger flexed her fingers.

”No. It doesn’t.”

Crimson mana gathered around her body, twisting into thin, threadlike strands that floated through the air. They moved independently, curling around branches and weaving between the trees until the clearing resembled a web of glowing red filaments.

Selene immediately sensed the danger.

”Everyone, watch your mana!”

Too late.

One of the strands brushed against a patch of ice near her feet. The frozen surface instantly lost its magical reinforcement and crumbled into ordinary water. Another filament touched a wind barrier Liora had raised, causing the entire construct to dissolve.

The enemy had spread her disruptive ability across the battlefield. She was not merely interrupting individual spells anymore. She was turning the surrounding space into an area where controlling mana had become increasingly difficult.

Liora quickly retreated behind Garrick.

”She’s making it difficult to cast anything complex.”

”Then we won’t use anything complex,” Garrick replied.

He slammed his foot into the ground. Dark mana surged outward from his body, reinforcing the earth beneath him. Rather than shaping it into a spell, he relied on raw physical power and a simple reinforcement technique. The crimson strands trembled as the shock wave passed through them, but they failed to dismantle his entire defense.

Garrick rushed forward again.

Seeing Garrick’s dark energy, the enemy frowned.

”You’re quite a difficult one,” she said.

She did not expect to meet an opponent with a Villain Core as well. And it was a troublesome one.

This time, the enemy did not dare attempt to meet him directly. She slipped between his attacks with unnerving precision, allowing his fists to pass inches from her face. Whenever he changed direction, she seemed to recognize the movement before he completed it.

She struck his ribs with two fingers.

Garrick felt the mana reinforcing his side flicker.

Her knee followed, driving into the weakened point.

He grunted and staggered half a step.

The enemy spun, her heel cutting toward his temple. Garrick raised his arm to block, but the impact still forced him sideways. She was smaller than him by a considerable margin, yet her movements were so efficient that her size barely mattered. She did not waste energy on unnecessary movements, and every strike targeted a weakness in his defense.

Selene moved to support him, sending a small ball of fire toward the enemy’s back.

The woman turned her head.

The fire ball disintegrated less than a meter from her body.

However, the brief distraction was enough.

Garrick caught her wrist.

”Got you.”

His grip tightened, and his dark mana surged around her arm. He pulled her toward him and raised his other fist, preparing to end the exchange with a single, decisive blow.

The enemy’s eyes widened slightly.

Then she smiled again.

”Not quite.”

A crimson pulse burst from the point where Garrick held her.

His mana reinforcement flickered violently, and the strength in his fingers weakened. The stranger twisted her wrist free and drove her palm into his chest.

Garrick was thrown backward.

He landed on one knee, his boots dragging through the dirt. Before he could rise, she appeared in front of him and brought her heel down toward his head.

A bluish barrier emerged between them.

The opponent’s heel smashed through it, but the barrier bought Garrick enough time to roll aside. Her attack struck the ground, and the resulting shock wave scattered dirt across the clearing.

Garrick stood, breathing more heavily now.

Liora and Selene joined him, their expression grim.

”You all right?” Selene asked.

”Somehow,” Garrick replied.

Liora took position several steps to their left. Her mana gathered around her hands, but she refrained from forming another elaborate spell. She had understood the problem: the enemy’s ability punished techniques that depended on maintaining a complicated mana structure. Simple attacks could still work, provided they were fast enough and supported by sufficient physical force.

Unfortunately, their opponent had both the skill to avoid most attacks and the strength to punish any mistake.

Across the clearing, the enemy brushed dust from her sleeve.

”You three are more capable than I expected. Especially you,” she pointed at Garrick.

”Should I be honored?”

”You shouldn’t be. I was hoping this would be easier.”

She raised her hand, and the crimson strands surrounding the clearing began to converge.

Selene felt the mana pressure change.

”She’s preparing something!”

The strands snapped toward the three instructors from every direction.

Garrick braced himself while Selene erected a layered ice barrier. Liora created a rotating wind current around them, deflecting several strands before they could make contact.

The remaining filaments struck the ice.

The barrier began to collapse.

Garrick pushed his dark mana through the fractures, reinforcing the weakened structure long enough for Selene to retreat. Liora redirected the wind current upward, carrying several crimson strands away from them before they could wrap around their bodies.

Even so, one filament slipped through and grazed Selene’s forearm.

Her mana immediately faltered.

She hissed and pulled back, clutching her arm as the spell around her feet dissolved.

The stranger appeared through the thinning barrier.

Her palm aimed at Selene’s chest.

Garrick intercepted her, but this time he could not launch a counterattack immediately. The disruption spread through his reinforcement as soon as their arms collided, forcing him to concentrate on maintaining his defense.

Liora seized the opportunity.

She compressed the air around the enemy’s legs, creating a sudden downward force that disrupted her footing.

Selene followed with a burst of ice that locked the ground around her boots.

For a brief moment, the smaller enemy was trapped between their techniques.

”Now, Garrick!” Liora shouted.

Garrick drove his fist forward.

The enemy’s eyes sharpened.

Rather than attempting to disrupt the entire attack, she concentrated her crimson mana on a small point directly in front of his knuckles.

The resulting pulse tore through his reinforcement.

Garrick’s fist slowed, but it did not stop.

His knuckles struck her shoulder.

The impact lifted her from the ground and sent her crashing through a cluster of shrubs. Branches snapped as she tumbled across the clearing.

Garrick immediately withdrew his arm, flexing his fingers.

His reinforcement had been disrupted at the moment of impact, leaving his knuckles bruised and his forearm numb. Nevertheless, he had landed a clean hit.

Selene stared at the wreckage.

”Did we get her?”

”No,” Liora answered.

The enemy emerged from the broken shrubs, rolling her shoulder with an expression of genuine irritation. A thin line of blood ran down her arm.

”You actually hurt me.”

Garrick raised his fists again. ”Would you prefer an apology?”

She ignored him.

Her crimson mana gathered more densely around her body, and the air began to distort beneath its pressure. For the first time since the fight began, the instructors sensed that she had stopped holding back.

Liora’s face tightened.

Whatever their opponent had shown them so far, it had not been her full strength.

And that realization was deeply troubling.