Anime, starting from Re:Zero (Zero - Starting Life)

Gawain interrupted, holding his teacup:

"Let me explain. After all, Rudy doesn't know the situation in Gileno."

Rudeus looked at Gawain with gratitude:

"I'm sorry to bother you again, Brother Gao Wen."

Gawain simply nodded and began to explain. After all, he was the only one who truly understood the whole process:

"At first, Gileno moved behind Rudy and used the sword-drawing style of the Light Sword, intending to cut open Rudy's side skin to declare victory."

"However, Rudy simultaneously injected magic power into the magic armor worn on his hands and feet, and activated magic, allowing the magic armor to pull him forward a sufficient distance. In fact, as a pure magician, Rudy didn't have time to determine the current situation. He would have done so even if Gileno hadn't drawn his sword. After all, if you can't see the enemy in front of you, you can only assume that the enemy is behind you or above you. Plus, Gileno is a pure swordsman of the Sword God style, so it can only be behind you. At the very least, you have to avoid the opponent's arm span and blade length to ensure safety."

"While dodging, Rudy was also preparing high-level healing magic. His body simply couldn't withstand this level of acceleration. Damage would be evenly distributed throughout his body, and he needed to be treated immediately to ensure he didn't lose his combat effectiveness."

"After the healing began, Rudy immediately locked onto the general area behind him and used wind magic indiscriminately upwards."

Although they used it publicly, the four of them tacitly concealed the specific information of the new magic that should not be made public for the time being. In fact, all of the above are [Momentum Magic].

"After sensing that Gilena was briefly controlled, Rudy finally had the time to turn around and re-lock the enemy with his naked eyes, and officially began trying to distance himself. Basically, he used wind magic to block and push Gilena away, and then used wind magic to move backwards."

In fact, [Vacuum Field] and the reverse [Increase in Atmospheric Density] were used, while movement still relied on the [Momentum Magic] added to the magic arm armor.

"After gaining some distance, Rudy noticed that Gilena had sunk his sword into the ground. He had a combat-minded mindset and used earth magic to temporarily lock Gilena's sword, causing Gilena to fail in his first attempt and wasting time."

"This made Rudy change his mind and start trying to lock Gileno with earth magic with a steel core."

"But this is actually a cover-up. Unless the Rock Pillar Shackles are fully formed, they can't lock Gilena. So Gilena will think it's a delaying tactic and rush to escape. However, the steel core inside will make Gilena change her mind, thinking that Rudy has probably already used all his strength. If he escapes with all his strength, he can regain the initiative."

"Whether she did this or not, she'd already lost. If she didn't run away with all her might, she'd be defeated instantly by the more powerful lightning magic. If she ran away with all her might, she'd be briefly controlled by the lightning magic of average power, and be dealt a decisive blow."

As for the final bombardment, it was not mentioned at all. It was actually just a high-speed shooting with multiple momentum magic added to the projectile. The principle was very simple, but there was no suitable reason to explain it.

At this moment.

Gilenu, who had been cured, came over with a wry smile and said frankly:

"That's why I said I completely lost. Aside from the first strike where I took advantage of the Sword God Swordsman, I was led around by Rudeus the rest of the time."

Everyone stood up and applauded. Even Alice, who was very unhappy with the result, just crossed her arms and snorted at Rudeus. In fact, she had completely accepted the fact that Gileno had lost.

Gao Wen asked:

"Kilenu, how are you? Do you need to rest for a while before sparring with Sylphy?"

Gileno shook his head:

"Rudeus's lightning strike is very refreshing. I feel that my current condition has never been better. However, can you play another game with me later?"

Gawain nodded:

"I've already told you that I can do it anytime I come to the Boreas house."

Alice couldn't help but ask:

"Kilenu, have you ever sparred with this man?"

Gilenu touched the young lady's hair and smiled:

"You want to call me Mr. Gawain? We've sparred four times."

Alice didn't care about the first half of the sentence and just continued to ask:

“How many times have I won?”

Gileno replied with a smile:

"Not once. Every time I lose, it's even worse than the last time. Gawain sparring with me is probably like me practicing with you."

Although Alice felt regretful, her expression when she looked at Gawain immediately became respectful. Or rather, because her grandfather had taught her several times, Alice felt that she had not been disrespectful to Gawain before.

Gao Wen clapped his hands and got down to business:

"Sylphy's combat ability is much worse than Rudy's, so the rules need to be changed this time."

"First, the restrictions on magic use remain unchanged. Second, the victory rule is changed to Sylphy successfully restricting Gilena's movements, and Gilena successfully entering a one-meter radius around Sylphy. Finally, the starting distance is changed to fifty meters."

No one has any opinions.

Gileno walked onto the court and began warming up.

Rudy asked:

"Sylphy, you didn't bring any equipment, did you? How about using my magic armor? I'll tell you about the recent modifications I made."

Sylphy chuckled and refused:

"Stupid Rudy, have you forgotten that my brother made me some exclusive equipment?"

Of course, Rudy hadn't forgotten, and he was quite dissatisfied with Sylphy's sister:

"Those magic stones will be worn out if used frequently. Are you willing to do that?"

Sylphy placed her hands on her chest. Under her clothes was the pendant her brother had given her on her fifth birthday. She shook her head.

"It's new equipment, Rudy, you don't have it~?"

Rudy shrugged indifferently. If he had that thing, he wouldn't have to worry about constipation when going to the toilet.

Seeing that Rudy was not jealous at all, Sylphy took out the second glove from her arms with satisfaction. Unlike the white glove on her left hand, this glove was black and had no magic stone embellishment. It looked like an ordinary silk lady's glove.

Gao Wen helps Rudy solve his doubts at the right time:

"This is the initial product of the magic stone transformation experiment. Currently, it's a magic circle woven directly from magic stone threads. It's basically a consumable item, so today we're testing its effectiveness in assisting spellcasting and amplifying magic. If it passes muster, it can be incorporated into the next version of magic armor, serving as the foundation for a smaller magic circle."

Rudy understood it immediately. It was probably the same work as turning carbon into carbon fiber fabric. Of course, it was unlikely to be that complicated.

Sylphy twirled her little hat and gave everyone a cheerful and cute smile:

"Stay tuned."

Chapter 9 Bitterness

Sylphy walked to the designated spot.

She then used her left hand to remove the jeweled hairpin that held the petal bun in place. Yes, this was also a magical device that served as a replacement for a magic wand and came with a magic circle with defensive functions.

Her waist-length emerald green hair immediately fell down, fluttering in the breeze, like the tender scenery you would see when you look up in the forest in mid-spring.

The fire lit up—"Begin!"

At the first moment of the battle, Sylphy used absolute speed and skill to drain all the oxygen from the entire sparring area, even the area around her.

Of course, only oxygen is involved.

Although Gileno was paying attention to the changes in the air with every breath, which was a lesson she learned on the previous stage, it was obvious that one or two breaths were not enough to make her realize that she was constantly exhaling precious oxygen and inhaling worthless waste gas.

At this time, the distance between the two had been shortened to almost half.

Then, Sylphy clenched her hands, creating a huge amount of water in front of herself and behind Gilena, and at the same time draining away their internal energy. Although she didn't have time to freeze Gilena directly into the ice, her legs were temporarily sealed. By the time she pulled her legs out, Sylphy had completed the expansion of the ice surface and thawed the surface of the ice.

She herself was carried farther by the wind, standing on the edge of the ring and using rock pillars to lift herself up to ten meters high, then letting in normal air from the outside to allow herself to breathe again.

Although he was a little unsteady at the beginning, the experienced Kieleno increased the strength of his steps from the third step to ensure that each of his steps was firmly embedded in the ice.

But she was immediately fooled by this idea. Even though she was paying attention to the stability of the ice surface, she still stepped into the ice pit that instantly thawed inside, and staggered.

Gilenu simply gave up moving and instead drew his sword to directly destroy the iceberg basin where he was.

Sylphy just tirelessly created water flows, froze water flows, and restricted Gilena's movement until Gilena became increasingly tired and completely realized that something was wrong.

Gawain then declared Sylphy's victory.

After the competition, Gileno, who was almost suffering from a psychological trauma regarding breathing, hurriedly tried to take a few more breaths before he recovered.

Sylphy only then realized that even this seemingly gentle way of winning could cause great psychological trauma to others. She worriedly supported Gilena's hard as steel back and said guiltily:

"I'm sorry, Gileno, I should have stopped the sparring earlier. I made you feel uncomfortable again."

Gilena put on the blindfold again, stood up, and comforted Sylphy in turn:

"No, Miss Sylphiette, this is also an important lesson for me. Every experience of failure is invaluable to a swordsman. I should be thanking you."

Sylphy casts healing magic on Gilena again:

"Just call me Sylphy."

On the other side, Saulos asked loudly again:

"What's going on?"

Alice looked at Sylphy, her green hair flowing freely, her eyes sparkling with excitement, as if she was completely captivated by this girl who was even younger and smaller than herself.

"Alice wants to know too!"

Originally, Gawain had intended to explain the matter himself, but seeing Alice speak, he continued to sip his tea calmly. Rudy noticed Gawain's attitude and stood up to explain in a teacher's tone:

"Sylphy actually won from the start. From the moment the fight began, she used magic to drain all the oxygen from the entire sparring area. This oxygen is essential for the normal life of most animals, including humans."

"Killenu, who failed to notice this, was restricted by Sylphy's subsequent water magic. However, even with Sylphy's continuous replenishment, this restriction could not trap Gilena without killing her. Gilena must have realized that water magic could not be Sylphy's killer move, so she has been carefully guarding against Sylphy's subsequent moves and trying to counter them. This made her even less able to take care of her breathing."

"Kilenu is probably defending against earth magic, right? Especially after Sylphy created the rock pillars. But Sylphy actually used the rock pillars only to reach a higher altitude to recover her breath. Creating distance and distracting her are just unnecessary side effects. After all, Sylphy's breath-holding ability is far inferior to Gilenu's, and she has to pretend to be breathing normally to avoid exposing her strategy prematurely."

"But in reality, Sylphy doesn't need to plan any back-up plans. As long as the oxygen depletion remains unnoticed, it's only a matter of time before Gilena is defeated by suffocation."

Gilena, who came with Sylphy, also admitted:

"If you want to use water magic to restrain me, you can only freeze me completely, but that's against the rules. And I think wind magic is impossible to restrain the enemy, especially if I can breathe smoothly all the time. Fire magic also feels unrealistic, so I'm really only considering earth magic, or a combination of water and earth magic."

Gilenu smiled helplessly:

"If I still felt a little hope last time, this time there's really no hope at all."

She looked at Gawain bitterly, even wanting to change her mind:

"It looks like I'm going to have my third consecutive defeat today, Mr. Gawain."

Gao Wen said casually:

"It's okay, it'll be quick. Rudy, can I borrow your arm armor?"

Gawain took off his coat, revealing his usual training clothes. He put on a pair of arm armor, used momentum magic to make himself float slightly, and floated to the predetermined location with his hands behind his back.

Gileno also smiled at the rest of the people, then slowly walked towards Gawain, constantly accumulating murderous intent and fighting spirit.

Alice, who was watching Gilena fight Gawain for the first time, sat in Gawain's seat and leaned over to ask Sylphiet and Rudeus, seemingly trying to fit in.

"Is Mr. Gawain really more powerful than you two?"

Rudy thought these topics were a good start, and he gave an example:

"If Gawain's magical power is only a fraction of mine, then my combat ability and magic manipulation ability are only a fraction of his."

Alice immediately turned to look at her grandfather behind her and said bluntly:

"Grandpa, why don't you ask Mr. Gawain to be my magic teacher?!"

Sauros folded his arms and spoke bluntly:

"I can't do that! We were able to invite Rudius to be your teacher because he is our relative, his father owes us a favor, and his brother Gawain is also our friend. Otherwise, Rudius would not be the teacher we hired for you. So, you have to respect Rudius, do you understand? Alice!"

Alice said loudly:

"I understand! I will respect the young teacher!"

This time it was Rudeus' turn to empathize with someone:

"Where...where is it smaller!"

Sylphy turned her head and laughed in an unladylike manner, and Saulos took the lead in bursting into laughter.

However, this can be considered as recognition.

Chapter 10 Test

The distance between Gawain and Gilenu in the battle was five meters.

Since the rules were the same as before, neither of them explained them. To avoid the guests and the young lady from watching the sparring with confusion, the butler stepped forward and announced:

“The rules of the competition are:”