"1st Circle fire magic—Fireball."
—*Boom!!*
The first strike was naturally mine.
After all, learning magic had extended my attack range.
In the past, I would have clashed swords with her and faced off at close range,
but there was no need for that now.
I suppressed her with 1st Circle magic that I could cast almost instantaneously.
If I had tried to suppress her from afar using aura, I would have had to extend it continuously while maintaining the connection through my sword, so in terms of power, aura consumption, and every other aspect, it would have been a loss.
'This is seriously broken.'
Now, it was possible with just a simple flick of mana.
But,
just because I could now harass her effortlessly from a distance didn't mean I could let myself get too cocky.
—*Swoosh...*
A mere 1st Circle spell couldn't accumulate meaningful damage against Veronica, a high-level Expert.
As expected, she easily sliced through the incoming fireball as if it were nothing.
'If that's the case, I should give up on trying to deal damage with magic.'
A battle between a martial artist and a mage.
Of course, I wasn't a pure mage, but regardless, the most important thing in this fight was undoubtedly distance control.
The mage widens the distance; the martial artist closes it.
That was the single most important prerequisite for victory.
The way for a martial artist to close the distance was simple.
Just run like hell.
With a body strengthened by aura, unless the distance was extraordinarily great, narrowing the gap with a mage wasn't impossible.
So then, how does a mage widen the distance from a martial artist?
There are four ways in total.
1. Create distance through Blink, a simplified teleport.
2. Hinder their approach by firing off spells indiscriminately.
3. Fight in a place where the mage has already laid numerous traps. (ex: a mage's workshop)
4. Other special circumstances.
But right now, I was in a situation where I couldn't do any of the four.
Blink wasn't difficult, but I hadn't learned it yet;
3 and 4 didn't apply to me;
and as for 2, the level of magic I could spam was too low to be particularly effective against Veronica.
However,
'As I said before, I'm not a pure mage.'
Her closing in on me wasn't particularly a problem.
Because fundamentally, I'm a swordsman.
"1st Circle fire magic—Fireball."
I chanted the activation words for Fireball once more.
—*Boom! Boom!!! Boom!!!!!*
Mana was being drained in real-time.
No matter how low-level the spell was, no matter how much proficiency I had in rapid casting.
A 3rd Circle realm still wasn't high enough to provide the mana needed to use 1st Circle magic almost infinitely.
Nevertheless,
this action yielded returns commensurate with the cost.
"Ungh."
The fireball I'd used at first was merely for suppression, but this time, it was because I was coordinating with my sword in a rhythm of striking and retreating.
The fireball flying in from behind and the sword swung from the front.
No matter how outstanding a martial artist she was, she only had one sword. It was quite difficult to block attacks coming from both sides simultaneously with such tricky timing.
Of course, continuing this kind of attack was incredibly difficult for me as well.
Because simultaneously using aura and mana was still difficult, I was switching between the two in real-time depending on the situation.
The concentration consumed and the skill required were immense.
I was continuing such a difficult technique.
Because of that, my current attacks weren't actually very polished.
Neither the magic nor the sword.
Both lacked decisive power,
making them tricky for Veronica to handle, but were they actually that fatal if they hit?
Or unconditionally effective against a strong opponent?
Stronger than attacking using only aura?
The answer to all three was negative.
But at this stage, polish wasn't that important anyway.
I had planned to challenge the fusion of magic and sword after mastering both fields.
All I needed to show now was possibility.
Utilizing fireballs in this manner was a coexistence of martial arts and magic, different from how conventional mages used them.
Or, for instance...
"!!!!"
Even something like this could be considered a possibility.
—*Crack.*
Suddenly, a small rock burst up from the previously flat ground.
There were other reasons I'd been spamming nothing but fireballs until now, but one of them had been to lull her into complacency.
With visual information about fireballs flooding her mind incessantly, her field of vision had temporarily narrowed,
and thanks to that, I had been able to create an opening with the 1st Circle earth magic, Stone Rise.
Veronica, her stance greatly broken, couldn't swing her sword properly,
and I exploited that opening,
—*Clang! Clang! Clang!!*
immediately pressing her with sword strikes.
And so, in the end,
"The winner is Evan-nim."
I had been able to emerge as the winner of this spar.
If we had been allowed to use finishing moves, or if we had fought with the intent to kill, it might have been different, but this was just a normal spar.
As I'd said before we began, the objective wasn't actually victory or defeat, but verifying various applications I'd thought of,
so the spar ended anticlimactically with Veronica's clean declaration of surrender.
***
"Good work."
"Good work, Brother, and Bel."
"It was an impressive application."
"Ugh... I wish it had been a little more *whoosh! boom!*"
After cleaning up and returning to them, who had been watching the spar, they each showed their own reactions before moving on to earnest feedback.
Since I'd only learned magic three days ago before using it in actual combat, most of the discussion was about proficiency and fundamentals, but there had been some useful advice as well.
For example,
"Can't you fire fireballs in all directions simultaneously?"
Elladrin asked such a question.
I too became quite interested upon hearing it.
'Right now, I have to throw fireballs one by one, but if I could figure out a way to fire them simultaneously, it would definitely yield good results...'
So I had been contemplating the usefulness of her question alongside her.
"That already exists. It's called Fireball Impact, a 4th Circle spell."
....
Unfortunately, Noona said it was already an existing spell.
"Then...!!"
Various magical ideas came up after that, but
not a single one of them received the answer 'That application doesn't exist' or 'That spell doesn't exist' from Noona Signika.
'Too bad...'
In that case... the most useful feedback was simply to improve my fundamentals.
'I'll have to try again once I'm more accustomed to magic next time.'
And so, I soothed my disappointment and postponed the opportunity.
***
'So... what was this date, anyway?'
Bel and the others had left first.
Saying they would go prepare by packing their things in advance.
Noona Signika and I remained here, pouring all our remaining time into magic.
Now it was time for us to join up with Bel's group as well.
After all, it would be easier to spend the last night nearby everyone.
We had been separated briefly to pack our things, but it seemed about time to go get Noona.
"Hmm... I'll teach this first... and then Dual Casting...."
When I went to find her, she was muttering to herself about magical things.
From what I could hear, she seemed to be planning a curriculum for what else to teach me.
"Excuse me..."
I had tried to call out to her and say it was time to go, but.
'No. Right now...'
I changed what I was going to say, thinking that now would be the best time to ask the question I had shelved earlier.
"Hmm?"
"Do you mind me asking, in what way do you like me?"
"H-huh? So suddenly???"
Hearing my question, she blushed slightly and turned her head.
"Yes. I heard that you reject men who approach you in social circles, and that you like handsome men... things like that."
"Did El tell you that too?"
"Ah... yes."
Sorry, Elladrin.
It was a question I absolutely had to ask, even if it meant dropping your name...
"I was curious what kind of feelings you have for me. What aspects of me you like."
She hissed in annoyance at El for a moment,
"No. I won't tell you."
Noona turned her back to me entirely and refused to answer.
But,
"Won't you answer me?"
I asked her persistently.
It felt like there wouldn't be another chance for us to be alone like this,
and her reaction made it seem like it wasn't something she absolutely couldn't say.
"Well then..."
Fortunately, my guess was correct.
"Fine. I'll tell you."
She finally answered my question.
But not all of it. Only half.
"I don't particularly like men just because they have handsome faces."
"Then?"
"Of course I like handsome men. That's a given. But beyond that, I see magical beauty."
Magical... beauty?
That's a phrase I've never heard in my life.
"A person's magical talent... how much they are loved by mana? I can see things like that with my eyes. That's what I'm talking about."
Hmm...
It might be a bit difficult to put into words,
but after hearing more explanation, it was roughly this:
'She just likes handsome and capable men.'
....
Of course, I probably shouldn't interpret it so simply.
But sorry, I really don't get it.
"Then what about the date? Is this the end of it?"
I asked her a second question.
The time we'd spent together this time felt more like magic tutoring than a date.
I wondered if perhaps there would be a next time to continue it.
But,
"Yes. It's over."
That didn't seem to be the case.
"Teaching you magic was my date plan from the start. I could feel your brilliant magical talent; how could I resist teaching you magic? This time was incredibly happy and satisfying for me."
Uh...
I-I see?
So... anyway, to her, this magic tutoring had apparently been a satisfying date.
'Well, as long as she's happy.'
It was a bit strange, but we had still achieved the goal we'd started with.
Getting closer to each other and raising our understanding of party members, coordinating in combat and maintaining good party morale.
From this objective standpoint, this date had been quite successful.
But still...
'I guess an ordinary person like me can't understand an extraordinary mage.'
I decided to just accept it and move on.
I hadn't fully accepted their way of thinking.
This date had truly been one with a different approach—a date with a mage.