Chapter 727

727: A Serious Diaz

In addition to her original sluggishness, Fran's movements were visibly deteriorating due to the recoil from the forced removal of her awakening.
Her advantage in stats, especially in speed, was probably already gone.
In contrast, Diaz's movements are fluid and refined. Though he was not without openings, those openings were only left behind to lure us in.
（Master, the phasing thing!）
『On it!』
Following Fran's instruction, I activate Dimension Shift. This would negate the attack, allowing us to regain our composure. That's what I had thought.
Immediately after using the Dimension Shift, Fran twisted her neck to the side as hard as she could.
「Guh!」
At the same time, a lot of blood spurted out from Fran's nose. It seems a blade was thrust toward her nose, but she managed to avoid it in the nick of time. Still, she was unable to avoid it completely, and the blade cut through the entrance to her nostrils.
「I've seen that spell plenty already!」
「Mrgh……」
He has countermeasures to Dimension Shift?! Weapons with the space-time attribute are rare, but Diaz might have been able to obtain one. A dagger with both space-time and life attributes? Or is he wielding two weapons? No, it must be the same blade, since this wound isn't healing.
『Fran, are you okay?』
「I… can't stop the blood…… Sniff.」
Our regeneration is blocked, and healing via magic doesn't work. Fran is trying to sniff up the dripping blood, but that's not nearly enough to stop the bleeding.
For the few minutes that the regeneration block is in effect, there's no doubt that Fran's sense of smell will be impeded due to the pain and blood.
Even if he can mask his scent using illusions, maybe Diaz still considered her beastman senses as a nuisance.
But still, he didn't hesitate to plunge a dagger into a young girl's nose…… Once again, Diaz shows how serious he is.
Since the forced termination of her awakening has disrupted the magic in Fran's body, I'm unsure if it is possible to use awakening again during the match. Moreover, she is deprived of her sense of smell, we don't know our opponent's weapon capabilities, and we are already at the mercy of his illusion magic.
Would we be at a disadvantage if we try to engage in close range combat now? Fran seemed to think so too, and tried to check Diaz by releasing magic.
However, her magic swerved away. Fran's lightning and fire magic missed their target, passing just beside Diaz.
「Eh?」
『Fran, what happened?』
（I don't know!）
What did Diaz do?
But the flow is magic should be…… No, now that we've been bewitched by the illusion magic, our senses may be unreliable. My resistance skill prevents me from being affected by his Thought Guidance and Eye Guidance, but Diaz's illusion magic is troublesome enough alone.
It would be dangerous to continue staying close to him.
This time I release my magic along with Fran. But again, the aim is off. Something is definitely going on! But what? What is he doing?
Meanwhile, Diaz's attacks are leaving more and more wounds on Fran's legs. I activate Dimension Shift again, but nothing changes.
Diaz is only targeting the legs, the eyes, or the heart. He must be trying to make doubly sure that he can inflict effective damage.
『I'm going to use teleport to get away from him!』
（Nn!）
I activated the teleport as soon as I could. I thought he would chase after us, but Diaz stood there looking surprised.
It seems like he didn't expect Fran to be able to teleport. Maybe he has a tool to block teleports, but I have Sealing Nullification.
It would be meaningless if my space-time magic itself was interfered with, as happened with Weena Rhyn, but sealing skills and magical tools won't work on me.
But this time, too, something is wrong. I planned to escape to the far end of the arena, but I had teleported into the air instead. something is definitely causing my aim to be off.
Well, it's easier to move from here, so I guess that's all right.
『Fran, plan B!』
（Nn!）
『Do it.』
（Okay!）
The other day in the Diaz vs Abarb match, Abarb lost, but he left us with something big. The hint was in that strategy of his.
Before he can bewitch us to take the initiative, we should decide the match with a unavoidable move with wide range. Abarb failed because Diaz had countermeasures against poison, but we could do something that is harder to counter.
「Taaah!」
Fran opens the dimensional storage and a large amount of red-hot liquid flows out of it. It was the lava that she had stored at the end of the battle against Mordred.
The lava poured down like maple syrup on a pancake, covering the stage in no time at all.
Diaz had protected himself with a barricade made using earth magic, but we had succeeded in our goal of stopping him in his tracks.
And the lava did more than just stop him.
（Something disappeared.）
『He must have used illusion magic on the stage and the barrier!』
He probably used illusion magic to slightly change the height of the stage and distort our view of the audience through the barrier. By doing so, he messed with our sense of depth perception. This must be the reason why our magic kept missing.
The illusion for the distance trickery was destroyed by the lava and vanished.
To think that he used such an extensive magic right from the start. Diaz was so good at hiding his magic that I had not noticed it at all.
『Fran, let's use our magic to keep him pinned!』
「Nn!」
Yes! Now they're flying straight!
「Mrgh! You broke through it!」
Diaz frowns as he cuts away our magic with his sword. We managed to really tick him off! No wait, this is Diaz we're talking about. Even that could be an act.
We'll just do what we have to do, and avoid playing into his strengths.
『All right! Let's go!』
「Nn!」
『Kanna Kamui, multi-activation!』
And then, the three giant bolts of lightning I had fired burst forth, covering the inside of the barrier in a white flash of light.