[Book 1 Completed] Industrial Mage: Modernizing a Magical World [Kingdom Building LitRPG]
B2 | Chapter 42 – Fighting the Barbarian Princess

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Juliana inquired, but her tone of resignation indicated that she was already aware of the response she'd be getting.

Freya put the practice sword she'd been playing with back in its place, bounced on her feet, and cocked her arms.

"Of course I want to! This is the most interesting thing that's happened in weeks! I've been holed up in a carriage, travelling, dodging and killing assassins left and right, and now I get to let loose a little, and you want me to stop?"

Juliana let out a sigh. The kind that said she'd been through this exact conversation before and knew how it ended.

"Right. Of course." She rubbed her temples. "Just... try not to kill him, okay?"

"I'll limit myself to Rank 2," Freya said, as if this was the most reasonable compromise in the world. "To be fair. Since Theodore's also Rank 2."

Something twisted in Theodore's chest. Not precisely fear. More like annoyance? No, that wasn't correct either. It went deeper than that, more intimate in some ways.

"Why not go full Rank 4?"

As if he had just made a ridiculous suggestion, Freya stopped bouncing and stared at him.

"What?"

"You heard me. Full Rank 4. No holding back."

She blinked. "But... that's not fair. I'd demolish you."

"I don't want fair," Theodore said. "I want you to stop holding back. It'll be great training. I want to see how well I can hold my own against someone far stronger."

The words came out harder and challenging than he'd intended.

He was mildly irritated.

"No, I can't do that. Maybe Rank 3? I'll see if I need to use Rank 3 strength," she said.

"I am going to make you stop holding back," Theodore said.

Freya's expression shifted. The bouncy enthusiasm morphed into something sharper, something predatory. Her eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Theodore caught a glimpse of what she really was underneath all that cheerful philosophy about violence.

Her face lit up with a savage smile.

"Give it to me, then! Come on!"

Glancing between them, Juliana shook her head.

"You're both insane." She raised one hand and stood at the edge of the training field. "Three!"

Before she had completed saying that, Theodore sensed his mana reacting. More like muscle memory than conscious thought. His limbs began to feel the familiar weight of power that was building in his chest.

"Two!"

Freya was still grinning, but her posture had changed, lower, more balanced, ready. Her hair had begun to flicker, with tiny strands of flame dancing at the tips.

"One!"

Theodore's focus narrowed to a single point.

"Fight!"

Six thermal energy javelins erupted from Theodore. They whipped through the air toward Freya, detonating on impact and sending heat and the resulting explosion rippling outward with her at the center.

The explosion should have been her end. Instead, through the smoke and dissipating energy, he heard something that made his blood run cold.

Laughter. Wild and utterly delighted.

"What was that? It's delicious! Give me more!"

When all the smoke had cleared, she was seen to be not only smiling but practically glowing with anticipation.

Her hair, which was blazing red and orange like a living torch, had grown from tiny wisps to full-blown flames. Her eyes had also changed, becoming a rich red that seemed to radiate from within.

And then she disappeared.

Theodore's enhanced reflexes and [Mana Reinforcement] activated instantaneously, even before his conscious mind could fully process what had happened. His [Mana Shield] was already in place. If someone could move with such incredible speed, they would undoubtedly attempt to get behind him.

He began to pivot, his mind already formulating a counterattack. Maybe if he let her hit him, he could suddenly transform into slime and surprise her by letting her attack pass through him without harm.

But something held him back. Maybe it was just good tactical thinking, or maybe it was just instinct. He wanted to know what she was capable of first, to observe what she could do when she thought she had the upper hand.

Her hand swished past his face by mere inches as he swiftly twisted out of her path. It was close enough that he could feel the intense heat radiating from her skin. Yet, she was undeniably faster than him and seemingly more experienced too. He had known this intellectually, but experiencing it firsthand was an entirely different matter.

Her other fist was already arcing upwards, aimed directly at his ribs, before he had even completed dodging the initial attack, which he now realized had been nothing more than a cunning feint.

Her fist cracked through the [Mana Shield] he had erected and then tore through the new ones he created to save himself, and when her fist hit him, the impact sent a jarring explosion of force through his torso.

Theodore had braced himself for pain, but what he hadn't anticipated was the sheer, unadulterated force behind the blow.

Even with [Mana Reinforcement] surging through his body, strengthening his bones and muscles, the impact lifted him clean off the ground.

The world tilted on its axis, and he was sent hurtling across the practice field like a discarded ragdoll, the world around him blurring into an indistinct swirl of sky and earth.

This was Rank 2? Bullshit. Theodore grinned. He'd already made her use more strength than mere Rank 2. Or was it that she was like him in that she could hit way above her Rank?

Midair, he managed to regain some semblance of control. He pivoted, skillfully using kinetic manipulation to arrest his momentum and expertly guide himself toward the ground.

His "clothes" were still miraculously intact, he noted with a surprising degree of satisfaction. But his ribs ached intensely where she had struck him, and he gritted his teeth through the dull, throbbing pain radiating from the impact point.

"I need me some clothes like that," Freya called out, raising an eyebrow at his pristine appearance.

Even though the situation was serious, Theodore couldn't resist a little chuckle.

"They're custom-made, I'm afraid. Trade secret."

"I bet they are."

Her grin persisted as though this was the most delightful experience she had had in months. And maybe his decision was ultimately cemented by that very casualness. She handled this fight in a casual manner, treating him more like entertainment than a real opponent.

He did not want that.

"A little more oomph than you expected, huh?" Freya said with playful malice. She did not await his response, because she was already a blur, getting closer with her next blow going straight for his mid-flight path.

Just as his feet touched the ground, Freya blinked next to him, and her follow-up kick snapped out, targeting his head. Theodore didn't even flinch. He ducked beneath the kick while simultaneously lashing out with a thin, almost invisible whip of condensed air.

It wasn't meant to hurt her, just to disrupt. The air whip snaked around her ankle, barely grazing it, but it did pack enough of an explosive punch to throw her off balance for a second.

It was all he needed. He exploded forward, not intending to retreat but moving into her space. One hand slapped against her extended leg with a sudden, localized burst of kinetic energy that whipped her leg backward. The other hand moved even faster and thrust toward her face, not for a direct strike, but to create a violent vacuum of air directly in front of her.

As Freya's leg seized from the sudden whiplash from the air and the abrupt lack of air choked her for a moment, her eyes snapped wider and a look of real surprise crossed her face. Her attack stopped, but just for a second.

She forced through the feeling of shock with a savage smile, dropping the kick to throw a barrage of quick punches at his head and body, and as she got out of the area where he'd created the vacuum of sorts, she could breathe again.

Each punch literally exploded on impact.

He used a low-force thermal blast to parry one blow, causing her fist to snap back. To avoid another, he shifted his center of gravity slightly, allowing her fist to whistle past his ear as he snapped his own hand out and threw a pulse of [Mana Bolt]. She scowled, ducked, and sprang to attack his legs.

Theodore exploded upward with air, dodging out of the way, and his mana erupted outward once more, but this time it was fundamentally different. Not in the form of javelins or narrowly focused attacks, but instead this was pure, unadulterated presence.

A baleful aura descended upon everything around him like an immense mountain of oppressive force.

Freya's grin faltered, if only for a fleeting moment, but it was enough. She grimaced under the sheer weight of his aura, her current Rank 2 body and mana struggling visibly against the immense pressure.

Before she could possibly adapt to this new pressure, Theodore seized his advantage. He reached out with his thermal manipulation, beginning to rapidly suck the air out of the immediate environment around her. He created a tight, airless sphere centered precisely on where she stood. This sphere, in fact, encompassed even himself and, indeed, the entire training field.

The effect was instantaneous and quite dramatic.

Her hair-flames poofed out like candles deprived of oxygen.

More importantly, he could distinctly see the moment she realized she couldn't breathe.

Her eyes widened, and a look of genuine, almost childlike interest appeared on her face.

She appeared utterly fascinated, as if he had just presented her with an intriguing new toy.

Theodore didn't give her a second to formulate a counter because he could only hold back air from entering the radius for so long. He erupted forward, using kinetic energy to propel himself with incredible speed while simultaneously rapidly condensing mana as he drew it toward himself, forming razor-sharp ice javelins in mid-flight. He saturated these nascent weapons with an overwhelming amount of mana.

So much mana, in fact, that their crystalline structure simply couldn't contain it all.

The excess energy desperately needed an outlet, and he allowed lightning to erupt outward as he hurled all the javelins at once.

They whipped through the atmosphere and Freya tried to avoid them. Her enhanced reflexes were undeniably impressive; Theodore had to concede that much. He wasn't just tossing spears, though. Even as they flew, he was actively manipulating them, using the crackling lightning that was passing through their cores to accurately alter their paths. Like directed missiles fixed onto their target, they relentlessly closed in on her.

Three of them found their mark, striking her center mass with enough concussive force to send her hurtling back several feet like a ragdoll. Freya slammed into the ground, rolled, twisted, and then, with an explosion below her snapping her body upright, she landed safely and perfectly on her feet.

The javelins hadn't even managed to scratch her.

They had shattered upon impact, leaving her completely unharmed.

The only discernible sign that his attack had affected her in any way was a single bead of sweat glistening on her forehead.

***

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