How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

The Orwen Empire.
One of the three ducal families,
The only son of the Buster family.
The sole heir.

A prodigious young magician who awakened his mana at ten and created a mana heart in his heart within a few years.

That was Rekas von Buster.

However.

‘What…! That impossible magic!’

Rekas, he was currently unable to relax his frown.

His gaze was fixed on Free, with his navy hair and red eyes, standing a few meters away.

The strange thing wasn’t just now.
It was the same earlier.

‘He completely erased all my Flame Balls without a trace from where he stood. And now he’s attacking with silent casting at the size and power of a full chant level with that Flame Ball?’

It was unbelievable.

It shouldn’t have been possible.

Then.

‘Could it be…?’

As if he had noticed something while thinking.

Rekas wiped his cheek with the back of his hand and glared at Free in front of him, saying:

“You, what you used to block my attack at first with silent casting. It was reverse calculation, wasn’t it?”
“Oh. You noticed that far.”
‘He seems to be a type that thinks better than expected. His situation judgment is quite fast too.’
“…Answer the question I’m asking!”
“Hmm, aren’t we in the middle of a duel right now? And you’re asking me, your opponent, to clearly give you that answer? During this battle?”
“You…!!”
“Alright. I understand. Well, there’s no need to hide it now that you’ve noticed. Yes, you’re right. It was reverse calculation magic. Cancel. At least for low-level magic, it’s one of my strengths and weapons that can instantly cancel most magic on the spot with silent casting.”
“……”

Rekas frowned even more at Free’s straightforward and honest answer.
It seemed to make him feel even worse, as if it was saying that even knowing this, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“…Damn it! Damn it all!”

Low-level magic doesn’t work.
Just as he had noticed.
He wasn’t sure if what Free said was really true, but he thought it was highly likely. Otherwise, there would be no reason to tell him so readily, and no one could normally do what had happened earlier.

He had just realized that against that guy, Free, all attacks using low-level magic wouldn’t work at all.

Free spoke:

“Is there no other means? At this rate, my victory is almost certain.”
“……”

What an annoying bastard.
Rekas thought so sincerely.

That guy in front of him, Free, hadn’t lost his composure even once since the start of the duel.

Not only that, he hadn’t moved a single step from that spot since the match began.

“You damn bastard─!”

Rekas was no longer in the mood to endure this humiliation.

Anyone who knew his usual hot-tempered personality would know.

That he had already completely lost his temper.

Rekas immediately spread both hands in front of him.

Then, in front of his palms, flames began to swirl.

Free spoke with a puzzled tone:

“Another low-level Flame Ball magic? I clearly told you it doesn’t work on me just now, didn’t I? Don’t you trust me?”

Free simply thought.
That Rekas in front of him didn’t believe his words at all and doubted until the end, wanting to confirm with his own eyes.

It didn’t matter.
Because what Free had said to Rekas was the clear truth without a single lie.

However.

‘…! Something, the signs are strange.’

It wasn’t the usual Flame Ball, that low-level fire-type magic.

“…! Could it be?”

Grin─

“It’s already too late! You damned bastard!!”

Rekas, who had sneered once, compressed the flames gathered in front of his outstretched palms in an instant.

Then he fired it at Free in front of him while shouting.

“Die-! Flame Burst!”
“…!!”

Flame explosion magic.
For the first time, Free’s eyes widened in surprise.

At the same time, that magic hit where Free was standing.

But.

“It’s not over yet!”

Rekas, who had shot the Flame Burst at Free with a short partial chant for initial power, accuracy, and range, continued with silent casting, aiming and firing at where Free was engulfed in the explosion.

“Hahaha! You fool! Disappear without a trace!”

As if pleased, unable to contain his joy, Rekas laughed loudly while continuously using silent casting to fire small-range Flame Bursts.

Soon, Rekas, who had calmed down a bit, stopped his magic while still not hiding the smile on his face.

He had gone all-in with a portion of his magical power on this one magic.

Although it was just a portion, for him who had been accumulating magical power in his mana heart for a long time by consuming all sorts of precious elixirs and medicinal ingredients since childhood, it was no different from an enormous amount of magical power consumption.

He quietly waited for the thick smoke that had billowed up to clear somewhat.

Then, Rekas discovered a black silhouette appearing in the dusty wind that had cleared, with surprised eyes.

“How…!?”

However, being surprised was one thing, and Rekas immediately bent his body forward and dashed quickly as if charging towards where Free was.

While doing so, he closed the distance a bit more and generated Flame Burst magic in each hand.

“This time I’ll definitely bring you down! Die!”

In the situation where the flow of the match couldn’t be seen properly due to the dust storm that hadn’t completely cleared in the spectator stands, Rekas abandoned any hesitation.

With an expression that said he didn’t care whether the opponent really died or not anymore.

“Flame Burst──!”

Rekas closed the distance with the silhouette and immediately fed him a Flame Burst at point-blank range right in front of him.

With an even bigger explosion sound than before, Flame Bursts exploded consecutively around the silhouette where Free had been.

This time by Rekas who came out as if he didn’t care about being caught in the explosion’s range.

But Rekas had already cast an enhanced version of a family secret magic, Protector.

He had cast the Body Buildup Protector magic beforehand.

Therefore, he was doubly protected from the explosion’s aftermath by the Life Protector magic that protects the lives of participants in the dueling ground, which had been activated simultaneously with the duel, and the family secret enhanced full-body Protector protection magic.

Rekas, who had delivered the final blow, retreated back to widen the distance again.

And finally, the area where Free had been was completely enveloped in silence.

‘This time, I’ve definitely taken care of him.’

That’s what he believed, at that moment.

Whoosh-!

“…What?”

Piercing through the billowing dusty wind, there was an unidentified trajectory that passed right by Rekas’s head where he was standing.

As if hit by a powerful crushing magic, a few strands of Rekas’s hair that were cut by the trajectory next to his head fell to the ground in disarray.

“Wh-What on earth…!?”
After a moment of confusion, several more light trajectories were fired from within the dusty wind towards where Rekas was standing.

“Ugh!”
Hurriedly, he barely managed to dodge those light trajectories by throwing his body to the side with a very narrow margin.

Rekas tried to respond and block those unidentified white trajectory light attacks by deploying a shield magic.

“…! How can this be…?”

The light trajectories that were fired easily pierced through even Rekas’s deployed shield, creating holes, and passed through instantly behind it.

At the moment when the shield magic deployed for defense against the enemy’s unknown attacks became literally useless.

Finally, the dusty wind completely cleared, and for some reason, the various light trajectories that were being fired towards Rekas’s direction stopped and became quiet.

And simultaneously, Free slowly revealed himself from within the cleared dusty wind.

The magic that had attacked Rekas was none other than his light magic, the flash magic, Rey.

As the dusty wind completely cleared, Free lowered the index finger he had been pointing forward and said to Rekas who was standing still:

“Now I can see clearly.”
“……”

Apparently, Rekas thought, this wasn’t an easy opponent.
At the same time, the flow of the match was gradually reaching its final stages.