‘Magic!’ I exclaimed in my mind.

Magic is the capability to use mana to create different phenomena. It allows the user to display all kinds of abilities that seem to come out of fantasy.

Although magic is similar to skills, it’s very different. Unlike skills, magic needs knowledge and calculations to be displayed. It’s like a science born from the use of mana.

Generally, the power of skills is stronger than magic. However, magic has the advantage that it can be taught, moreover, it’s much more versatile than skills. There is a saying that goes, ‘anything that skills can do, magic can do too’.

Unfortunately, humans don’t know how to use magic. Although they have tried to trade or steal the knowledge of magic from foreign races, they have been unsuccessful until now.

It was my first time seeing magic, so I was very surprised. Fortunately, my fights against the demon every night helped to react just in time, allowing me to clad my body with mana and protect myself from the flames as I retreated hurriedly.

Even so, the whirlpool of flames burnt my arms, legs, and abdomen. The burning pain almost made me scream.

I gritted my teeth and regenerated my body immediately. In a couple of seconds, my injuries disappeared, and I stood in front of the eblor woman completely uninjured.

Unfortunately, my clothes had been burnt in several parts, and my shirt was almost unusable.

I tore it off and threw it to the ground as I faced the eblor woman warily.

The whirlpool of flames disappeared a few seconds after appearing, showing the eblor woman looking at me perplexed.

She seemed confused about why I was not injured by the flames.

However, she did not bother about it for long. One second later, she charged toward me again.

But this time, a magic circle appeared on her chest, summoning a gust of wind that increased her speed by one level.

She was so fast that my eyes could barely keep up with her. In an instant, she appeared in front of me, brandishing her daggers toward my neck and face.

I tilted my head aside to avoid the attack as one of the daggers left a cut on my cheek. At the same time, I kicked one of the woman's legs, but she raised her leg to avoid the kick and one of her daggers stabbed toward my shoulder.

My mind moved at a fast speed as I decided to receive the blow. I endured the pain of the dagger breaking through my skin and bones and I stabbed my spear in the woman's abdomen.

But the woman did not care about her wound. She brandished her second dagger and tried to slit my throat with it.

I knew that receiving that attack mean dying, so I pulled my body back and used my left arm to hit the woman’s chest as my right hand pulled out my spear.

The abrupt move widened the wound in my shoulder, almost tearing off my right arm, but I endured the pain and swung my spear towards the woman’s chest.

But she stopped the attack with one of her daggers as several magic circles appeared behind her, summoning dozens of wind arrows.

I gritted my teeth and decided to disregard the arrows and chase after the eblor woman.

My crazy action surprised the woman, creating a small gap in her defenses. I used that gap to thrust my spear straight into her heart.

But to my surprise, a magic circle appeared in front of her at the last second, creating a mana shield that stopped my spear.

Although the shield shattered almost instantly, it allowed the woman to jump back and avoid my attack.

“… Shit.” I cursed in a low voice while panting heavily.

Right now, I was filled with injuries. My left arm was dangling powerlessly from my torn shoulder, and the wind arrows had created several holes in my body.

I endured the pain and took a deep breath, ordering my body to recover.

In seconds, all my injuries had disappeared, and I was in top condition again.

However, my expression was grave.

Just now, I disregarded my defenses and focused only on attacking the woman, but even though I almost died, I only managed to land one blow on her.

‘As expected, a difference of three tiers is not easy to bridge.’

The only reason I have not lost yet is that I’m cheating. Otherwise, I would have been eliminated in the earlier exchange.

But to my surprise, I was not discouraged.

Instead, I felt my fighting intent becoming stronger.

‘I want to win!’

And I’m going to win.

In the next instant, the eblor woman charged towards me again.

A magic circle appeared behind her, creating two blades of wind that extended from her daggers.

She swung her daggers like swords, trying to cut my body into two.

I filled my spear with lightning and rotated it in front of me, using it to stop the two wind blades. Then, I kicked the ground and rushed toward her.

Our weapons clashed as we tried our best to kill each other. The woman's movements were much faster, but I focused on defending against her attacks while I waited for an opportunity to deal a fatal blow.

The problem was that she could cast magic while fighting against me. Different kinds of magic spells appeared one after another, forcing me to retreat continuously, and almost killing me on a couple of occasions.

Several times, I allowed the woman to land a blow on me and tried to exchange injuries with her, but the woman was wary of it after seeing it once. She relied on her faster speed to kite me slowly, not allowing any of my attacks to land.

I was not discouraged. Instead, my mind seemed to enter into an intense state of focus as I calmly observed every one of the woman’s movements.

‘Should I summon Saphire? No, I must not.’

Before coming to the entrance examination, the demon asked me to not reveal the existence of the summons during it.

According to him, I needed to keep a trump card hidden, and my summons could fulfill that role.

I agreed with him, so I did not summon Saphire or Scarlet during the previous battles, and I don’t plan to summon her now either.

‘Then, how do I defeat her?’

I didn’t know how long I could keep fighting against her. Even though I can heal my wounds every time, this high-intensity battle is burdening my mind. If I lose focus once, I fear the eblor woman will land a fatal blow and I will be finished.

If I want to win, I need to act fast!

At that moment, a vague plan appeared in my mind.

I did not bother to think if it was feasible or not. I knew I could not last for much longer.

Either I succeed, or I’m stopped here.

After stopping one of the woman’s daggers from slitting my throat, I released my only crowd-control skill.

[Killing Aura]!

The powerful killing intent stiffened the eblor woman for an instant, but she recovered almost immediately. She recovered so fast that I did not have time to perform an attack.

However, I never expected to defeat her with just that.

Taking advantage of her brief pause, I send an enormous amount of lightning to my spear.

It was the prelude of Lightning Beam.

The woman felt the change in my aura, but she did not retreat. Instead, she attacked even more ferociously than before.

‘Fuck! She noticed!’

I thought I could intimidate her and force her to retreat, allowing me to charge [Lightning Beam] and deal her a fatal blow, but the eblor woman noticed that I needed a bit of time to charge this skill.

But I did not panicked, instead, my mind became even calmer.

When the daggers were about to pierce my chest, I raised the arm holding the spear to block them.

“Ugh!”

One of the daggers pierced my arms, disrupting my flow of mana and interrupting my skill.

But I smiled.

In the next instant–

*BOOOM!!!*

The lightning rampaged inside my arm and exploded.

My right arm was blown off together with part of my shoulder and chest. But at the same time, the hands of the woman were crushed by the shockwave.

The woman was stunned by the sudden explosion, and then–

*Spurt!*

My spear pierced her neck.

She opened her eyes wide as I held my spear with my left arm, staring at her with a smirk.

Blood flowed out of the woman’s neck, then, her eyes became dim.

In the next instant, her body turned into fragments of light that scattered in the air.

I smiled satisfied and collapsed. My vision became hazy, and my body felt heavy.

I was dying.

However, that was not a problem.

I tried to regenerate my body again, but all of sudden, I blacked out.

‘Huh?’

Before losing my consciousness, I managed to see a dagger stabbed into my heart.

‘So she managed to kill me, huh.’ I chuckled in my mind.

And my consciousness disappeared.