'What if it's a trap...?' Seraphina hesitated, her pupils flickering with doubt.
Claire was not someone dumb, she surely did not think she could actually beat her using only [Water Bullets] and [Sea Waves], right?
Although it was what the dark-blue haired girl had implied when she had taunted her, she obviously did not truly mean it.
It was just to tease her, to embarrass her and to annoy her—
'Wait...'
'...Did she provoke me to cloud my judgement?' pondered Seraphina, quickly coming to a deduction.
The options were laid before her, she could easily pass through the inoffensive [Sea Waves] instead of being hit by Claire's [Water Bullets].
But this, it seemed too obvious, as if Claire had deliberately pointed it out for her.
The dark-blue / dark-purple haired girl had even taken the time to taunt her before throwing her second volley of [Water Bullets], she had also started by gathering her [Sea Waves], which could not damage her, instead of directly launching her [Water Bullets], as if she was buying time to do something.
Seraphina was very familiar with tactics used to buy time, after all, wasn't it what she had been doing just yesterday in her fight against the [Poisonous Venom Tree]? Moreover, Seraphina knew regeneration magic, together with that blue energy, it gave her an unhuman endurance, and often, she could win fights by simply outlasting her opponents.
By inflicting just a simple injury, she could stall a fight until her enemy died of blood loss, like a snake injecting its venom inside a target and waiting for it to do its job.
All this was to say that Seraphina was a natural when it came to buying time, and that she recognized some kind of patterns in Claire's actions.
However, it seemed like the 'master of buying time' had wasted too much time on debating what she should do, because Claire's [Water Bullets] were now mere inches away from hitting her!
Seraphina's pupils dilated, trying to find her next move. Because she had looked for a better way out, she had ended up in cutting the one easy route available to her.
*THWACK!*
Claire's second volley of [Water Bullets] darted through the air at astonishing speed, brutally hitting the [Sea Wave] opposite from her with a loud *Thwack!* sound, similar to steel hitting steel.
"Tsk." Claire clicked her tongue, irritated. That wasn't a very noble sound, dare I say, but whatever...
'It doesn't matter, I still have my ace...' thought Claire as her gaze wandered to the ceiling.
"Phew..." Seraphina said, letting out a sigh of relief. "...That was close."
The silver-haired girl had narrowly dodged Claire's attack by redirecting her propulsion upward. Fortunately, The Third Daughter of Arest and The High Priestess rarely had any practice match, otherwise Claire would have most likely predicted her movement, as Seraphina was always so quick to take it to the sky whenever she felt threatened...
Seraphina did not know where this habit had come from, but somehow, no matter what the situation was, she always felt safer in the air. Perhaps it was due to having a highground, and thus, a full-view of what was happening down there...
Anyway, during her jump, Seraphina had spun her body in a way that her feet would reach the ceiling first, so now, in this exact moment, the silver-haired girl was upside down, with her shoes planted to the ceiling.
She looked down, her gaze meeting Claire's dark blue eyes in an intense but short staredown.
Seraphina calculated in less than a millisecond that the distance between them was about 436 Macarons (or 17.44 meters), this fast thinking ability was all thanks to her magically enhanced brain obtained from her Fourth Star.
This distance was so...so short, incredibly short even. All Seraphina needed to do to reach Claire was to propel herself against the ceiling, towards the dark-blue haired girl and victory would be within reach.
Seraphina did not have a choice here, and both girls knew it. Without her magic and weapons, Seraphina's only win condition was close quarters combat, and since she was slightly stronger physically, a situation like this was to her advantage.
*FWOOSH*
Pushing herself from the ceiling, Seraphina's figure darted through the air at a speed not inferior to Claire's [Water Bullets], and rapidly closed the distance between the two.
Claire took a step back, trying to move away from the silver-haired girl under the coverage of her [Water Bullets].
Normally, if anyone else had casted [Water Bullets], they would have already run out of ammunitions a long time ago, and would have needed to chant the incantation again to continue their barrage.
However, for Claire being the genius she is, her spell was obviously not normal. From a single incantation, Claire could keep forming [Water Bullets] for a long while, even now that she had sent three volleys of [Water Bullets], her mana kept reforming them automatically.
Ah, and of course, being the dishonorable and unfair noble she is, Claire had chosen the spell [Water Bullets], which barely cost any mana to cast, as most of its offensive power came solely from the natural properties of water.
Do remember that [Water Bullets] would have not worked against Seraphina, had she been allowed the use of her mana. No, it would not have worked against anyone with a purer mana than Claire, in fact, this spell was known as a 'Paper tiger', strong against the weaks, and weak against the strongs.
Anyone with a stronger mana could have easily overtaken those pathetic bubbles, yet this cheater was actually spamming [Water Bullets] like it was the only spell she knew!
Where had the Nobility's honor gone in this most dishonorable way of fighting!?
*SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASHH!!!*
"Hargh!" Seraphina groaned. She had just landed next to Claire that she was immediately bombarded by her continuous barrage of [Water Bullets].
Individually, the [Water Bullets] did not cause that much damage to Seraphina and mostly served as crowd-control, however, a dozen was a completely different story! The silver-haired girl felt her body growing slightly heavier, first her whole body was completely drenched, then the impact of so many [Water Bullets] had somewhat tired her.
While Seraphina was occupied by the [Water Bullets], Claire quickly backed off, widening the distance between them.
'If this keeps going, I'll lose...' realised Seraphina after seeing Claire getting away from her.
She had to find a way to turn things around or this spar would end in her loss, but how could break this disadvantageous stalemate?
Seraphina's golden eyes looked around the room to see if anything could help. That was when she saw Claire's four [Sea Waves] converging rapidly towards their summoner.
Then, it hit her. When she had narrowly dodged Claire's second volley of [Water Bullets], the [Water Bullets] had not just disappeared. If she recalled correctly, she had been completely surrounded by the [Sea Waves], meaning one of the [Sea Waves] had been behind her and took the full brunt of Claire's [Water Bullets] volley.
Yet, the sound of the impact had been a loud *Thwack* sound, similar to metal hitting metal. Adding to that, the number of [Sea Waves] present was still four, meaning it had not been destroyed!
This could only mean one thing. Either the [Sea Waves] were actually more than durable enough to withstand even an entire volley of [Sea Bullets] or the [Sea Waves] had absorbed them!
If Seraphina was not in such a high speed battle, she would have probably realized it sooner. After all, water from the same source hitting each other, did it truly do anything interesting?
'This is my chance!' thought Seraphina, her eyes shining with an excited light after finally seeing a path to victory.
Gathering her strength, Seraphina broke into a sprint, but this time not towards Claire, where the [Water Bullets] were coming from. Her short legs carried her sideways at a very swift pace, allowing her to evade most of the [Water Bullets].
When Claire's [Water Bullets] finally caught up to her, Seraphina slid across the wet floor and finally took cover behind one of the [Sea Waves]. Since the [Sea Waves] were already converging towards Claire, Seraphina was not very far from Claire anymore.
Although Seraphina had taken cover behind a [Sea Wave], Claire did not stop shooting [Water Bullets] as the spell's mana cost was really low, and it would not affect her mana reserves much if she stopped.
Seraphina moved behind one [Sea Wave] after another, her figure appearing and disappearing from Claire's line of sight like a phantom.
There was not much the dark-blue haired girl could do except keep shooting [Sea Bullets], right now. As for unsummoning the [Sea Waves]? That was not a possibility Claire nor Seraphina had ever considered at all.
Suddenly unsummoning a spell of controlling-type would earn Claire had guaranteed backlash, unless she was a 6-Star which she was not. Receiving a backlash in such a situation basically meant losing for Claire.
How could she possibly survive without her mana? This debuff was only meant for Seraphina not her!
In just a short time, Seraphina was already at Claire's doorstep. All she needed now was a singular jump, roll or even slide and she would reach the dark-blue haired girl and thus, win.
"Hmph!" Seraphina lightly huffed, sounding more cute than threatening. "I'll teach you a good lesson for fighting in such a dishonorable way!"
With that, Seraphina went out from her safezone, leaping towards Claire without giving her the time to shoot more [Water Bullets].
However, now that she was face to face with Claire, Seraphina could see that the young noble lady bore her usual sly smirk and not the anxious expression she had been expecting. Seeing this, a faint sense of crisis began welling up inside Seraphina's heart for the first ever time in this entire spar.
Her instincts proved to be correct, as in the next moment, all the water inside the room and even Claire's spells disappeared, leaving only the two girls face to face with a dense and powerful presence of Water-elemental mana.
"Genesis."
Claire muttered this single word, her sly smile transforming into a full-on grin. "[Water Annihilation Canon]!"