The Water Magician

Ryo's body was in tatters.

His face, along with various parts of his body, showed signs of lacerations and bruises.

Underneath his robe, which was invisible from the outside, there were actually considerable amounts of internal bleeding.

Although he didn’t have any fatal injuries, his sustained combat ability was being gradually worn down.

All of this was due to Pastra's magical attacks.

Ryo's robe was the Robe of the Fairy King.

Because of that, it could deflect magical attacks.

After seeing that his fire attribute attack magic was deflected by the robe, Pastra immediately switched to attacks using only earth attribute magic.

A saturation attack with stones.

Ryo could cut down dozens or even hundreds of attack spells with Murakumo, but dodging or cutting down all the stones being continuously showered upon him was impossible.

Ryo had practiced using the castle walls of the royal capital to reflect his own icicle lance, slicing through anything that came at him with Murakumo... but even so, he couldn’t completely defend against it.

No, it might be precisely because he had that absurd training experience that he was able to stand without taking any decisive damage.

He was managing to avoid damage to his eyes, but...

Certainly, the Robe of the Fairy King deflects magic.

However, even if the robe deflects it, physical damage does not disappear.

In other words, even if it doesn't pierce the robe, it still hurts if it hits.

Wouldn't it hurt if a stone hit you even through your clothes?

That's how it was.

The repeated volley of stones... although tens of thousands were released... had led to this situation.

The result was the internal bleeding he had all over.

"Hehehe, Ryo, are you not considering giving up and cooperating with the experiment soon?"

"There's no way I would."

"Experiencing pain here is less beneficial than experiencing pain in the experiment for research purposes."

"I don't understand what you mean."

Ryo firmly rejected Pastra's words.

He held Murakumo ready, but his body was in shambles.

The contrast of Murakumo, untouched by a single scratch, and the robe stood out.

Of course, Ryo had not given up.

Objectively, the situation seemed desperate.

He couldn’t use magic, and Pastra always maintained a distance, preventing close combat.

Of course, it wasn’t that he couldn’t use magic at all.

However, even when he tried to use magic, he would immediately lose magical control.

In theory, he could create an ice wall to deflect the attack at the moment Pastra cast a magical attack.

But the attack didn’t end in an instant.

Even if he could deflect the first few hundred or thousand stones, the moment he lost magical control and until he could create another ice wall, many stones would hit him...

The icicle lance would lose magical control the moment it was generated... he couldn’t even launch it.

And then again...

"Stone Rain"

"Ice Wall Level 20"

After taking hits from stones for a second, the ice wall disappeared.

"Ice Wall Level 20"

He attempted to create it again, but during that time, damage accumulated.

However, this time was different from before.

"Layered Ice Wall Level 20"

He continued to thicken the ice wall.

The ice wall loomed closer to Pastra.

"Too soft! Usurpation Copy"

The moment Pastra shouted, the thickened ice wall that had been layered suddenly disappeared in an instant.

"Impossible..."

Ryo was momentarily stunned.

If he would lose control of each layer one by one, he could just create more than he would lose... that was his reasoning for layering them...

"Hehehe, it was a good idea, but futile. It was troublesome to take them one by one, so I took them all at once. Since they're all the same ice wall, I could do it."

Pastra laughed happily.

She had prepared a countermeasure against Ryo's layering technique.

"Now, once and for all, it's time for my experiment..."

"Not yet! Water Jet Thruster"

Ryo shouted as he launched himself toward Pastra.

"Stone Wall"

Pastra generated a stone wall to block Ryo's charge.

But it was immediately sliced by Murakumo.

"Stone Wall"