Chapter 115: Qualifying Matches Begin!

◆ Liliera ◆

“The Dragon Princess Rite qualifiers will now begin.”

The referee’s voice echoed through the arena.

“Due to the large number of participants in the qualifiers for the rite, we will proceed in a battle royale format where multiple contestants fight simultaneously. The qualifiers will end when the number of contestants standing in the arena is reduced to 5 or less, and the standing contestants will advance to the main tournament. We will do this in 4 groups. Also, any contestant who falls out of the arena will be considered out of bounds and immediately disqualified.”

“In other words, 20 people are guaranteed to advance to the main tournament.”

Mina, who was listening beside me, calculated the number of main tournament participants.

“No, it’s a maximum of 20 people.”

And Ryune immediately corrected her.

“Eh? 5 people over 4 matches, right?”

“Mina, it doesn’t necessarily mean 5 people will remain.”

“…Ah, I see.”

Pointed out by Meguri, Mina accurately understood Ryune’s intent.

As expected of someone who has survived carnage, these girls are remarkably quick on the uptake for rookies.

Yeah, well, the carnage they get dragged into is that kind of carnage.

Or rather, is it hell instead of carnage?

“Depending on the match, there are cases where only one person remains. It seems there’s a consolation match if the number of people is too small, though.”

“I see. As expected of a local, you know the details.”

“Ah, yes. I’ve been gathering information for when I participate someday.”

Ryune, praised by Mina, smiled shyly.

“Well, there are 4 of us, so even if we end up in the same group in the worst case, all of us can survive.”

“Pf, kuku…”

Hearing Mina’s words, someone let out a small laugh.

Looking around, it seems contestants who looked like adventurers standing nearby were listening to our conversation.

They, or rather one of them to be precise, was laughing at us.

“Kate, that’s rude.”

“Sorry, sorry, but it was just heartwarming. Saying you’ll all survive together, isn’t that too cute?”

“You really… sorry about that, my companion has a sharp tongue.”

“No, please don’t mind it.”

For now, I, being the eldest, decided to deal with them.

“Have you participated in this rite before?”

“Oh my, you… yes, about twice.”

Twice, huh… I wonder if I can get some useful information?

“You girls, you better not let your guard down just because this is a tournament where only women can participate.”

Said the adventurer called Kate, who laughed at us earlier.

“Even in the first tournament we participated in, some ridiculously strong person snatched the championship. That was undoubtedly S-rank level strength.”

“Kate’s right. Precisely because only women can participate, powerful women come. Despite everything, men are often the ones active on the battlefield, so many people come out to public tournaments to demonstrate their ability.”

Hmm, hmm, it’s true that male adventurers often win tournaments and such.

Well, this is partly because men generally have better physiques or gain muscle easier.

However, just as I became an A-rank adventurer, there are definitely powerful women too.

Even if you can’t win with simple muscle strength, you can respond with agility, and for mages, muscle strength and physique don’t matter.

This means it’s also a place for people who have such ability but aren’t recognized to show off their power.

“Don’t think about frivolous things, focus on the enemy in front of you. Even powerful people can lose in the blink of an eye in the qualifiers.”

“That’s right, if you show off your ability half-heartedly, you might get focus-fired by the surrounding adventurers, so be careful.”

“Thank you for teaching us various things. You are good people.”

“C-Cut it out.”

“Fufu, it’s an apology for laughing.”

Kate turned away with a red face.

Did she perhaps teach us as an apology for laughing?

She might be surprisingly nice.

“Now then, I will call the numbers of the contestants for the first match! Called contestants, please go up to the stage over there.”

The facilitator called the numbers, and the contestants went up to the stage.

“Number 76!”

“I was called, so I’m off.”

“Be careful, Liliera.”

“Good luck.”

“G-Good luck, Dragon… Liliera!”

“Do your best~”

“I pray for your success. Well, I think it’ll be easy for you, though.”

Not just Mina and the others, but even Kate and her companion offered me words of encouragement.

And when I went up to the stage, the gazes of the contestants gathered on me.

“…That’s the Dragon…”

“As expected, first is…”

Ah, they’ve completely noticed.

This is definitely coming.

“Now then, Qualifier Match 1…”

The contestants in the arena readied their weapons, but their tips were pointed at me without even trying to hide their aim.

“Haa… can’t be helped, I guess.”

Responding to that, I also readied my spear and kneaded my magic power.

“BEGIN!!”

“Aim for the Dragon Princess!!”

With the referee’s declaration, the contestants rushed at me.

I’m not the Dragon Princess, though.

Lightly equipped contestants who seemed to be thieves attacked me from the front and sides.

Good coordination, maybe they are companions?

Or perhaps they teamed up beforehand.

Well, either way is fine.

“Got you!”

“No you don’t.”

Activating ice attribute enhancement with Body Enhancement Magic, I froze the ground beneath my feet.

“Uwah!?”

Naturally, with the ground frozen, the three slipped and lost their balance.

Into the solar plexus of the girls flustering to regain their posture, I thrust the butt of my spear in succession.

“Guh!?”

“Gah!?”

“Goh!?”

Charging at high speed, they took a counter that added their own speed and fell to the ground writhing in agony.

“Fire Arrow!”

“Wind Arrow!”

“Ice Arrow!”

Immediately after the three fell, magic attacks fired from behind approached.

“Naive!”

I passed ice magic power through my spear and intercepted all the fired magic.

“No way!? Magic was deflected!?”

“Could it be a magic item!?”

True, this is a magic item, but the cause was that your magic was weak.

Probably they aren’t professional mages but learned magic as a support to catch opponents off guard.

So compared to the magic Mina or Rex unleash, the power was overwhelmingly weak.

Because it was magic of that level, just strengthening the weapon with Body Enhancement Magic was enough to intercept it.

“Haha, you let your guard down!!”

And finally, the group heading towards me arrived.

They spread out like the thieves earlier and surrounded me.

“What should I do?”

For now, I parried the sword of the warrior attacking from the front with my spear and made it stab into the ground.

“Uoh!?”

With this, the front is blocked by this contestant, so the ones following can’t attack.

“Haa!!”

Contestants jumped and attacked from left and right.

Thinking not to slip on the frozen floor, huh.

“But you can’t dodge with that.”

I twisted my body and dodged their attacks.

“Fast!?”

Actually, I myself wasn’t moving that fast.

It just looked that way because I was sliding while rotating on the ice spread over the arena floor using thin ice blades created by magic on the soles of my feet.

Actually, these boots are magic items that create ice blades on the soles when magic power is poured into them.

Using these boots, the tactic of fighting while sliding at high speed on ice, which I did before, became easy to perform.

Furthermore, this ice can also become a weapon as is, and its length and hardness can be adjusted by the amount of magic power infused.

Like this.

“Haa!!”

When I raised my leg high and performed a roundhouse kick, the ice blade growing on the sole of the boot extended long and swept away the surrounding contestants.

Yeah, I’m glad I tested it on dragons before the match started.

If I had tested the new equipment’s functions unrehearsed against humans, it would have been a disaster.

I dodged the contestants’ attacks while sliding my body, and swung my spear using the speed of rotation as force.

Thrusting at the enemy in front. Then, without looking back, slamming the butt end into the enemy behind with my pulling hand.

“Kyaa!? Wh-Why did an attack come without looking this way…”

One interesting function was added to this equipment Rex made for me.

That is the function to intuitively sense the surrounding temperature.

He said this is a magic item reproducing the ability of a snake, a function to make it easier to detect enemies’ body temperature.

Especially by lowering the surrounding temperature with my specialty ice magic, the difference in temperature becomes more noticeably clear.

Thanks to that, I could sense the body temperature of contestants attacking from invisible directions and intercept without looking back.

“This is quite useful.”

Well, it’s more accurate to say the other equipment is too dangerous so the equipment usable in this kind of situation is limited.

“But staying inside an encirclement forever isn’t good either.”

No matter how well I can deal with surprise attacks from behind, numerical disadvantage is still dangerous.

I headed out of the encirclement while dodging the surrounding contestants’ attacks.

“Don’t break the encirclement! Attack all at once from all directions!”

The contestants outside the encirclement gathered in the direction I was moving and returned me to the center of the encirclement again.

“Good coordination for a makeshift team.”

The contestants who returned me to the center of the encirclement unleashed attacks all at once from all directions.

“Toto, as expected, I can’t dodge this… at this rate.”

I poured magic power into the ice blades deployed on the soles of my feet, extending the blades that were short like knives to a length that could be called great swords.

“Wh-!?”

The ice blades deployed on the soles of my feet extended, and my body was pushed up higher than the surrounding contestants.

“Hup!”

Jumping further up, I soared above the encirclement net.

“Then this is the end!”

Since you kindly gathered for me, let me take you all out in one fell swoop.

“Ice Blizzard Sphere!!”

A fierce blizzard raged from the sky, enveloping the contestants directly below, and in the blink of an eye, the arena stage was wrapped in snow and ice.

“C-Cooolld!!”

The contestants were desperately bracing themselves not to be blown away while freezing.

But what this magic creates isn’t just a blizzard.

“KYAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Mixed in the blizzard, what blew the contestants away were large chunks of ice the size of human heads.

Yes, what raged in this magic included not only wind and snow but also ice.

Contestants were blown away by chunks of ice one after another and dropped from the arena stage.

And when the ice blizzard created by magic stopped, I was the only one standing on the arena stage.

“Wi-Winner, Liliera!!”

The referee declared my victory while shivering from the cold.

“Phew, somehow managed to win safely.”

Even so, this magic is amazing.

I’m glad I learned it from Rex before the match.

But without the magic support of the new equipment, activation on my own might be a bit difficult.

◆ A Certain Female Adventurer ◆

“What is that…”

Kate, standing next to me, muttered blankly in too much shock.

But that was only natural.

She, called the return of the Dragon Princess in town, handled the other participants who marked her and attacked all at once with overwhelming skill, and even wiped them out with a grand magic we had never seen before.

That duration was merely a dozen seconds.

In just dozens of seconds, the Dragon Princess annihilated dozens of participants.

Frankly speaking, that’s superhuman.

“As expected of Liliera, an overwhelming victory.”

Someone voiced the words I was about to say before me.

Looking, it was the girls who were with the Dragon Princess.

They were not surprised by the Dragon Princess‘s fighting style, but rather watched it as if it were natural.

“Yeah, there were some people who looked quite strong, but it was an easy win. I can’t use magic that targets everyone like that, so I might struggle if targeted.”

Far from that, they are talking about how they would fight.

Don’t tell me those girls can do the same thing as the Dragon Princess?

No… surely that is impossible, right?

“Lady Dragon Princess is amazing… Ugh, I wonder if I can win.”

Beside them, the girl holding a spear muttered anxiously.

No, no, facing that is impossible no matter what, you’ll die.

We also marked the Dragon Princess who was said to have defeated a dragon, but we never thought she was such a monster!?

I won’t say anything bad, so stop trying to fight something like that.

“No need to shrink back. Just clash with full power.”

Wait, you shouldn’t say irresponsible things!?

That girl’s life is on the line!?

“I’m back.”

While listening to their conversation, the Dragon Princess returned from the arena stage.

Seeing the Dragon Princess up close, there was not even a disturbance in her breathing, letting us feel not a fragment of fatigue from activating grand magic.

“Welcome back. That was an easy win.”

“Not really. Being targeted by everyone, I didn’t feel alive.”

Liar! You were totally at ease!

“Really? You looked totally at ease.”

That’s right, that’s right! Tell her!

“That’s not true. I was barely hanging on too.”

…Is that true?

“Come to think of it, the matches over there must be starting soon too.”

The Dragon Princess turned her gaze outside the match venue.

By over there, does she mean the Dragon Emperor Rite?

“Yes, they must be doing it flashily over there too. Since Rex is there.”

Rex? Does she mean the Dragon Princess‘s companion?

“Surely the disastrous scene unfolding at the venue over there is even worse than here.”

Worse than here? …Umm, what? Could it be that a monster like the Dragon Princess is participating in the Dragon Emperor Rite too?

“Haa, I feel sorry for the other participants.”

Ahaha, the Dragon Princess’s companion girl laughs, but this didn’t sound like a laughing matter to me at all.

Because right nearby, there are three companions of hers who remain unfazed even seeing the Dragon Princess’s fight.

Moreover, all three haven’t fought their matches yet.

In other words, the possibility of fighting us is very high…

“Hey Kate… wanna withdraw from this tournament?”

I propose to my partner in a whisper to give up on the tournament.

But my partner doesn’t say anything.

Don’t tell me you intend to say you want to fight the Dragon Princess!?

Were you such a hot-blooded character?

I turn my face to Kate who maintains silence.

“…”

Ah, no good, she’s just dazed from too strong a shock.

◆ Jairo ◆

“Then we will begin the next group’s match.”

The referee calls the numbers of the contestants.

I hurry the referee in my heart to call my number quickly.

“Number 27.”

“Alright, it’s here!”

With my number finally called, I head to the stage briskly.

“G-Good luck, Jairo!”

Norb‘s cheering can be heard from behind.

“Yeah! Big Bro Rex‘s number one disciple Jairo! I’ll go grab a quick victory!!”

Answering without looking back, I climbed onto the arena stage.