"Now then, don't go dying too easily, little lady."
A razor-sharp flash of flaming sword light came flying at me.
To intercept it—
"'Freeze Magic' — Frozen Lancer!"
I fired off several short lances of freezing ice.
Each one individually dispersed the flaming sword strike and continued toward Ash.
"Impossible! Even holding back, to cancel out a strike from Flamburge!"
The ice lances, their speed undiminished, grazed past Ash, and one of them struck Flamburge, freezing the crimson flame sword in an instant.
"Now then, don't go dying too easily, big brother."
I tossed his own words right back at him to taunt him, but—
"Looks like I can go all out! Here I come! Prominence Blade!"
Ash flooded the frozen blade with an enormous amount of magical power to melt it, set Flamburge blazing with intense flames, and charged straight at me.
I drew Twin Star to defend myself.
The impact on Twin Star triggered a counter barrage that filled Ash's entire field of vision.
"What the hell is this!!"
Those were his last words. In the same instant, I slashed across Ash's armor with the sword in my right hand in a diagonal downward cut.
The star barrage triggered again with that slash, dealing even more damage, and right as Ash was staggering, I drove a spinning kick into him.
Ash went flying, spitting blood from his mouth, crashed back-first into the arena wall, and collapsed face-first onto the ground.
"Ooooh! Alisa's amazing!!"
The commoners—who had probably bet on me—were cheering wildly.
In contrast, the nobles sitting in the VIP section wore bitter expressions.
Perhaps it was because I was stronger than they'd expected, or perhaps because Ash had lost so easily that the noble who'd entered him felt humiliated.
No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't him going easy and letting me win—he'd been thoroughly destroyed.
Furthermore, when I'd slashed him and kicked him, I had used my Snatch Skill to steal [Blessing of Heat] and [Sword Demon].
[Blessing of Heat] became [Flame Spirit's Protection] when I inverted its skill rank.
[Sword Demon] became [Phantom Demon] when I inverted its skill nature.
For skills owned by a show-off noble, these were pretty decent ones.
[Sword Demon] was a strong enough skill to rival even [Sword Saint].
[Sword Saint] focused on physical damage while [Sword Demon] specialized in elemental enchantment to exploit an opponent's weaknesses—a difference in direction, but still.
Now then, who will my next opponent be?
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[Flame Spirit's Protection] — A skill necessary to bring abilities like the Crimson Flame Sword to their maximum. Also provides other fire-element enhancements.
[Phantom Demon] — A skill that enables the use of advanced magic across the board. Support magic and illusion-type magic receive additional bonuses.
Skills: [Reverse], [Divine Eye], [Sword God], [Phantom Thief Gentleman], [Dark Magic], [Rock-Iron Magic], [Holy Magic], [Space-Time Magic], [Scorching Magic], [Freeze Magic], [Magic Hand], [Sedation], [Pain Relief], [Complete Status Ailment Resistance], [Flame Spirit's Protection], [Phantom Demon]
Rank: Silver (Alisa: Gold)