"Alright…..Begin!"

At Bagiran"s words, our battle began.

I first used【Anti-wall】to launch myself over Luluna to create some distance between us.

Luluna uses nullification magic; so it’s best if I keep my distance from her.

However…

"Hmm? Lute, you went behind me? I thought you’d come straight at me."

Luluna comes closer to me as she says this.

"Honestly, I thought about doing that, but….you also know many different forms of martial arts."

At the same time Luluna approaches me, I run the opposite direction and place【Thunder Trap】between us.

But, Luluna just walked through the 【Thunder Trap】without even noticing it.

That’s because【Thunder Trap】never activated.

"Ah, I guess you did something just now. I’m not sure what it was, but that doesn’t matter."

Luluna says this and shows a sweet smile.

It’s just like her normal smile, and yet…..I feel terror looking at it.

I can feel a shiver run down my spine…

"It’s just as Lute said. My magic can’t be used to attack, but I needed a way to defend myself. And so, I trained myself in martial arts."

Even though I am nothing but an amateur in terms of martial arts, I can tell that Luluna is very skilled.

Even so….I see Luluna"s feet step on my trap and nothing happened.

This is due to her nullification magic. After all, it really is difficult to deal damage directly to her using trap magic.

I also seriously doubt I can beat her in hand-to-hand combat. I"ve never really even practiced martial arts.

….What should I do?

"He~y, are you not going to come at me? If not, then maybe I should come to you?"

Luluna charges towards me.

At the same time, I used【Anti-wall】to launch myself backwards.

My【Anti-wall】activates just before Luluna reaches me.

If she gets close enough, my【Anti-wall】will be completely disabled. I"ll be left completely defenseless; I need to do whatever I can to avoid her attack!

I continuously used【Anti-wall】to fly around Luluna.

Fortunately, when we had shown each other our magic, I was able to learn the range of Luluna"s nullification magic.

"Not bad, Lute. Luluna won"t be able to catch you if you keep that up."

"I don"t really have a strategy beyond this."

I can"t beat Luluna by just flying around her.

I can"t even attack her. How do I…..

As I was beginning to tire, I could hear Luluna"s voice.

"But if you keep using it that much —"

Luluna suddenly turned in my direction and ran towards me. The distance between us was suddenly gone and【Anti-wall】disappeared.

"Wha-!?"

I"m unable to keep my balance and fall to the ground.

When I was finally able to stand, Luluna was right in front of me.

"Lute, you gave me too much time to see your movements. Even I would be able to see the pattern given that much time."

"A-As expected of Luluna…"

I can feel a spasm in my cheek after falling on my back. I looked up into Luluna"s eyes.

Bad, this is very bad….!

"Thank you for the praise. Now then, shall I go?"

Luluna stuck her pink tongue out at me, then licked her lips.

She formed a small fist and swung at me.

"Uwaa!?"

I roll to the ground and somehow manage to avoid it.

However, I"m not sure I"ll be able to avoid the next one.

I can see Luluna looking around nervously.

"That face, it"s causing my inner s.a.d.i.s.t to come out! This is a lot of fun, right Lute?"

Luluna was laughing wildly.

Her cheeks are starting to turn red.

"…Luluna, hasn"t your character changed a bit too much!?"

"Is that so, gehehehe~."

Her voice is still pretty, but her face is still flushed.

"You were an extreme S!?"

"Of course not. I just get a little excited when I see someone suffering or in trouble!"

Luluna puts all of her power into her next punch that connects with my stomach. I fall to the ground in pain.

"Gah….T-that"s exactly what an S is….."

Her punch hit me right in the torso, I looked up at her through teary eyes.

"Lute, don"t look at me with that face…! I"m getting excited….!"

Luluna stopped and looked at me with glazed over eyes.

Oh my G.o.d, I have no idea what she"s saying.

I thought Luluna and I were part of the alliance of normal people at the Academy….but that"s definitely not the case!

Before Luluna could hurt me anymore I ran and climbed up a nearby tree.

It doesn"t matter how, I just need to get away from Luluna.

"Oh, nice idea, Lute. I"ve never climbed a tree before!"

Luluna tried to climb the tree, but quickly fell back to the ground.

Luluna gave up trying to climb the tree and kicked the tree out of frustration causing the tree to shake.

"Come down Lute, pleas~e! Weren"t we having fun together?"

"Luluna"s terrifying! Luluna"s terrifying!"

Why is such a cute voice so scary!?

I"m desperately continuing to climb upward despite the tree shaking.

Finally, I was able to climb out of the range of Luluna"s magic.

"【Anti-wall】!"

I again use【Anti-wall】and fly away from Luluna.

That was dangerous…..I"m glad she only managed to hit me once. I have no idea what would have happened had she hit me more than that.

I"m definitely going to win this….!

***

I lower my alt.i.tude and continue to circle around Luluna, just outside the range of her magic.

I need to stay away from her. I definitely can"t get caught by her again.

I shift my weight and jump.

I repeat this and my speed steadily rises.

I won"t fall for Luluna"s feint this time. I won"t make the same mistake twice.

"Lute, you"ve already fixed your mistake from earlier! This is troublesome for me."

Luluna said this and didn"t seem to be able to predict my movements.

However, I"ll get nowhere like this.

Once I have enough speed, this battle will be decided.

The moment I was behind Luluna, I used【Anti-wall】to change direction and aimed myself at her.

Thighs, knees, calves, and feet.

I put all of my force on the lower half of my body.

"Here I come, Luluna!"

Only "magic" can be invalidated by her nullification magic. That means, she can"t do anything to stop my momentum.

"Wha-! So fast….!?"

Luluna desperately tries to avoid my attack, but she can"t keep up with my speed.

I awkwardly smash into her.

My body crashed into her and we rolled across the ground together.

This is it, it"s all or nothing!

I stopped myself with my legs and straddled Luluna.

"Haa…..haa…..! E-even Luluna has no counter for this kind of attack!"

I say this to Luluna as she lay on the ground.

Luluna tried to move her arms, but eventually just let out a sigh.

"….Right, it"s my loss."

"It was a nice match, but Luluna needed to be more decisive at times. You would have won earlier if you weren"t playing around with Lute. And Lute, you need to keep your eyes open at all times. During the battle, you need to watch your opponent"s every move. Other than that, I have nothing to say. It was a hard fight."

Luluna and I collapsed to the ground after hearing Bagiran"s a.s.sessment of the match.

"Is your stomach okay?"

"Yes, I"m fine."

I lift my shirt to show Luluna my abdomen.

There"s a large red mark, but nothing that will require a doctor. This type of injury will heal in a day or two.

I"m not sure if it"s just my imagination, but Luluna"s eyes look like they"re entering S mode again…..It"s just my imagination, it is definitely just my imagination.

"I enjoyed the fight. I wanted our fun to last a little longer."

"It was definitely long enough for me…Was that your true personality?"

"Your true personality, is who you really are?"

"Is that really your true personality?"

Luluna laughed at my words. She"s really cute.

"For the longest time now, whenever I fight, my personality changes. The longer a fight goes on, the more enjoyable it becomes…."

How can this girl be so cute, yet say such scary things!?

"But, I return to normal pretty quickly."

"I"m glad for that…"

Honestly, I"m relieved to hear that.

But even this relief left me as I looked at Luluna"s face.

"….I"m sorry. I"m a scary person. I can no longer be Lute"s friend…"

Luluna looks down and tears form in her eyes.

I"ve never seen her like this, and so, I start to panic.

I stand up and try to comfort her.

"No, I wasn"t scared, I was just surprised! Well, I was scared, but I wasn"t afraid of you. I was even a little happy! I could tell that you were really into our fight! So, Luluna is definitely my friend!"

After hearing my panicked words, Luluna smiled and wiped her tears away.

***

"….Thank you, Lute….!"

"N-No problem!"

The smile she showed is the one I"ve gotten used to seeing from her.

That"s good. I"m relieved.

I was disappointed in Luluna for another reason, but I didn"t say anything.

I was only sad that we could no longer be be in the normal alliance together, but that was all.

After all, it"s not particularly a bad thing. I honestly believe it will be a useful characteristic in battle.

"He~y, so you enjoyed being hit by me~"

"Wai-! Where did you get that idea!? Luluna you definitely misunderstood my words!"

Does she think I"m as big a pervert as her!?

Then, Tsurugi and Patricia came up to us.

"Luluna and Lute-dono are so strong. I"m envious. I definitely need to train more!"

Her eyes looked dignified as she looked toward her future.

Tsurugi is such an honest person.

"I want to be a better singer as well kero!"

R-right. What is she talking about?

Luluna"s true personality was unexpectedly found out, but the practice battles were a success.