In addition to her initial sluggishness, Fran’s movements were visibly deteriorating due to the backlash of being forced out of her awakening.

Her advantage in terms of status, especially in terms of speed, has already been lost.

Diaz’s movements on the other hand are fluid and refined. It does not mean that there is no wasted movement. But I’m sure that wasted movement was intentionally left to bait us.

(Master, slip past him!)

『Ou!』

I followed Fran’s instructions and activate the Dimension Shift. We should be able to slip past through his attack so that we can buy some time for Fran to regain her composure with this, however―

As we tried to slip past him with Dimension Shift, Fran suddenly twisted her neck as fast as she could.

「Kuh!」

At the same time, blood starts to spurt out from Fran’s nose. It seems that she managed to dodge just in time as she was about to have a sword thrust into her nose. Even so, she was unable to completely dodge it and got the entrance of her nose pierced.

「I’ve already seen that trick a lot!」

「Muh…!」

So he has taken measures against Dimension Shift! Weapons with Space-time attributes are rare, but this is Diaz we’re talking here, he should be able to get his hand on one. Was it a dagger with Space-time and Life attributes? Or was it separate swords with one attribute on each? But since Fran’s wound won’t heal, it must be a single sword.

『Fran, how’s your condition?』

「The blood, won’t stop…」

Her regeneration did not begin due to her inhibited regeneration. Using Heal didn’t help either. Fran is sobbing up the dripping blood, but that is not enough to stop the bleeding.

For the few minutes that the regeneration inhibition is in effect, the pain from her wound and the smell of blood will no doubt reduce her sense of smell.

Diaz must have thought that a beastmen’s sense of smell was troublesome so he was aiming for this.

But still, how could he bring himself to plunge a dagger into a girl’s face without hesitation…!? But I guess that’s just how serious Diaz is about this.

The effect of having her awakening forcefully stopped has disrupted the magic within her body and she may not be able to use her awakening again during this match. To make it worse, she is deprived of her sense of smell, doesn’t know her opponent’s weapon capabilities, and is already at the mercy of her opponent’s Illusion magic.

It would be bad for her to keep on engaging in close combat at this point. Fran seemed to think so too, and tried to keep Diaz in check by releasing some magic from distance.

However, as if her magic got deflected by something, the lightning and fire attribute magic that Fran fired missed their target and passed right next to Diaz.

「Eh?」

『Fran, what’s wrong?』

(I don’t know!)

Did Diaz do something?

But the flow of his magic hasn’t―― No, now that we’re affected by his illusion magic, I may not be able to rely on my sense anymore. My resistance skill was able to prevent technique like Thought and Vision Mislead, but for him to be able to do this much to me while my resistance skill is active… He sure is a troublesome opponent.

Getting stuck like this, things are getting dangerous for us.

I also tried releasing some magic at him, but my shots keep on missing their target. He must have done something! But how!? And what had he done to me!?

Diaz’s attack caused more and more wounds on Fran’s leg. I tried using the Dimension Shift again, but the result was the same as before.

So far, Diaz keeps on aiming for Fran’s legs, eyes, or heart, as if he’s only going for an attack that can inflict effective damage.

『Let’s try teleport!』

(Nn!)

I then activated Teleport as quickly as I could. I thought Diaz would immediately come after us, but to my shock, Diaz looked surprised.

It seems that he did not think that Fran could teleport. It’s possible that he has some kind of teleport-sealing magic-tool, but it won’t work on me!

Unless he’s directly interfering with my space-time magic just like Weena Rhyn, though I don’t know how, sealing-type magic tools and abilities don’t work on me.

Though having said all that, something is still bugging me. We had teleported to the far end of the stage but my aim is still off.

Well, it should be easier to move on to our next move here, so it’s still a good thing.

『Fran, move to plan B!』

(Nn!)

『I’ll leave Fran with “that”』

(Okay!)

Abbab lost to Diaz in the other day’s match. However, even though Abbab lost, his fight left us a very important hint. Especially the strategy he used.

And that is: use a technique that is unavoidable or has a wide range of effects.

「Thaa!」

Fran opened her Dimensional Storage and a large amount of lava from our match with Mordred overflowed from it.

The torrent of lava that poured down quickly covered the stage like maple syrup being drizzled on a pancake.

Diaz barricaded himself with earth magic but it only served our purpose of stopping him on his track.

And that’s not all that the lava served us.

(Something, dissapeared?)

『He must have planted his illusion magic on the stage and the barrier then!』

He probably used illusion magic to slightly alter the height difference of the stage and distort our sight onto the audience seats using the barrier. By doing so, he managed to disrupt our sense of perspective. This is probably also the reason why our magic keeps on missing its target.

The illusion magic that he had set up got destroyed by the lava and vanished.

It seems that Diaz was so good at concealing his magic that I didn’t even notice that he had planted his magic right after the start.

『Fran, keep him busy with magic!』

「Nn!」

Yosh! This time for sure we’ll send him flying!

「Muh! They’re destroyed, huh!?」

Diaz frowns as he cuts away Fran’s magic with his sword. How you like that now! But this is him we’re talking about, even that could be an act.

『Yosh! Let’s do this!』

「Nn!」

『Take this multiple activations of Kanna Kamui!』

And then, the three poles of extreme lightning I released popped and covered the inside of the barrier with white flashes.