Chapter 348: Air Superiority
"That is... Shadow?"
"Just like the rumors say, a long black trench coat, black gloves, and black boots..."
"But isn't the mask color wrong? I heard from Players who have seen Shadow that he wears a dark gray mask. Why is it black this time?"
"Maybe his equipment was upgraded. Would the Ashikaga Budo Association really send an impostor to compete? It has to be Shadow himself."
...
Listening to the discussions coming from the spectator stands, Eriri, who wore a white mask covering only the upper half of her face, her golden hair tied into twin tails, bared her cute little fangs and complained in dissatisfaction.
"What is this? From the introduction to the audience's reaction, it's like the three of us are just dispensable extras..."
"Because we are, aren't we?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha, dressed in a black outfit with dark red patterns, spoke calmly.
"In this so-called Tokyo Tournament today, aside from who becomes the champion, the most anticipated event is Shadow's first public appearance. Especially since Players have basically reached a consensus that Shadow is the strongest Player at the current stage. Everyone wants to see what kind of power this so-called strongest possesses."
"Anyway, let's just do our best."
Shijo Maki, who was usually very confident in herself, did not have much confidence when facing Asagiri.
After all, just a few days ago, she had witnessed his battle with her own eyes.
Even so, Shijo Maki still wanted to try fighting him.
She wanted to see how large the gap truly was between herself, Eriri, and Kasumigaoka Utaha at full strength, and Shadow, the ceiling of Player strength at the current stage.
"Now, please have both sides get ready. The match officially be..."
"Wait a minute!"
Seeing that the host was about to announce the start of the match, Shijo Maki hurriedly interrupted her.
"The other members of the opposing team haven't come on stage yet, right?"
The female host seemed to have been waiting for Shijo Maki to ask this. A meaningful smile appeared on her face as she raised her voice.
"The members of the Ashikaga Budo Association's Team A consist only of Mr. Shadow!"
Hearing the host's words, not only Shijo Maki and the other two girls on the opposing side, but even the spectators in the stands were stunned.
After a long while, whispers began spreading through the audience.
"Really? Participating as a one person team? Isn't that a bit too arrogant?"
"Was there no team to begin with, or did he split away from his original teammates for this tournament?"
"Hiss... This is good news. I originally thought first place in this tournament would definitely belong to the Ashikaga Budo Association, but since Shadow is participating alone... the Ashikaga Budo Association has almost no chance of winning."
Obviously, most of the audience felt that the Ashikaga Budo Association's decision to let Shadow fight alone was truly stupid.
This was not a game of house.
This was a tournament with the city of Tokyo as the stake.
Every other place in Sakura Province, Kyoto, Chiba, Hokkaido, Okinawa, none of them could compare to Tokyo. The saying that "only Tokyo is a city, and everywhere else is the countryside" might be slightly exaggerated, but it still had some logic behind it.
In this tournament, the Ashikaga Budo Association had no chance of winning.
"Too slow."
Just then, Asagiri looked at the female host and spoke in a flat tone.
"Start the match. Stop wasting my time."
"Sorry, sorry."
The female host nodded, then hurriedly retreated to the entrance of the passageway and immediately announced,
"Now, the match officially begins!"
"It's started."
Shijo Maki, Kasumigaoka Utaha, and Eriri felt completely different from the spectators in the stands.
Even three against one, they might not win.
Hearing Shijo Maki's words, Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri immediately followed the tactics they had discussed beforehand and began casting their skills.
"Text Magic: Defense!"
"Drawing Magic: Thunder Beast!"
Accompanied by Eriri and Kasumigaoka Utaha's spellcasting, a dense circle of pitch black characters spelling "Defense" appeared around the three of them, forming a protective barrier.
At the same time, pale blue paint gathered in midair as Eriri's fingertips slid through the air, forming a beast resembling a tiger, with electric light crackling around its body.
"Playing with art again."
Asagiri shook his head.
His figure instantly vanished from where he stood.
In the next second, he had already crossed a distance of several dozen meters and appeared in front of the protective barrier made of text.
"Bang!"
Asagiri punched the protective barrier.
With a tremendous impact, even the air trembled slightly at that moment.
"It didn't break..."
Seeing that the protective barrier she had cast blocked Asagiri's attack, Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately spoke to Eriri and Shijo Maki beside her.
"Now! Dark Text Magic: Agony!"
Kasumigaoka Utaha's index finger slid through midair, and a line of pitch black text immediately appeared before attaching itself to Asagiri's body like vines.
As the Thunder Beast summoned by Eriri lunged toward Asagiri, Shijo Maki also raised both hands, formed a circular opening, and aimed it at Asagiri, who stood there.
"Explosion!"
"Boom!"
The instant the explosion's wave of fire erupted, the beast created by Eriri also turned into a burst of lightning.
This skill of hers was not truly a summon. It was a lightning attribute magic attack similar to a summon, capable of moving freely, tracking targets, and exploding after getting close.
Amid the heat wave interlaced with fire and lightning, Shijo Maki suddenly felt her heart tighten. A look of worry appeared in her eyes.
She hoped she had not accidentally killed her savior...
Just then, Shijo Maki suddenly heard gasps rising from the surrounding stands.
"There... seriously?"
Shijo Maki, Eriri, and Kasumigaoka Utaha noticed that the spectators' gazes were not directed at the heat wave where lightning and fire intertwined.
Instead, they were inexplicably looking up into the air.
The three girls could not help feeling puzzled, and subconsciously raised their heads.
The scene that entered their eyes made all three of their pupils shrink in shock.
"Seriously..."
Asagiri had already risen nearly twenty meters above the ground.
The hem of his black trench coat fluttered gently as he looked down at them from above. Far from being injured, not even a speck of dust had touched his clothes.
"Frost Spear."
Seeing an ice spear exuding cold air condense in Asagiri's hand, Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately used Text Magic to form a protective barrier above their heads.
The ice spear collided with the barrier, shattering into a cluster of ice crystals that reflected dazzling light under the sun.
Kasumigaoka Utaha breathed a sigh of relief.
"Blocked it..."
"Frost Spear."
Before Kasumigaoka Utaha could relax, she saw Asagiri condense another cold ice spear and throw it down from high above.
Then came a second.
A third.
A fourth.
Occupying air superiority, Asagiri was like a magic turret, continuously creating ice spears that exuded cold air, and like a warrior, throwing them with terrifying power at the text based protective barrier.
Because the surroundings and the top were all sealed by the text based magic barrier created by Kasumigaoka Utaha, Shijo Maki and Eriri, who were inside, were unable to use their abilities.
They could only watch helplessly as the ice spears Asagiri created continued to fall.
"Click..."
By the time the fifth ice spear struck, the characters forming the protective barrier finally shattered.
"Oh no..."
Before Kasumigaoka Utaha could create a new barrier of characters, Asagiri, who had been high in the air, appeared before the three of them like a comet, moving at a speed that left afterimages behind.
"Time to surrender, right?"
Seeing Asagiri so close, along with the black Rope Dart wrapped around his right arm, Shijo Maki instantly recalled that shocking scene.
He had thrown the Rope Dart, pierced straight through the Tank's two thick arms, then through its head.
She sighed softly, then raised her right hand and shouted,
"Shijo team, we forfeit."
Upon hearing Shijo Maki declare their forfeit, the female host immediately announced,
"The match is over! The winner is Ashikaga Budo Association Team A, Shadow!"
Yuuki Asuna, who had witnessed the entire fight through the large screen in the lounge, could not help smiling when she saw Asagiri's nonchalant demeanor as he slowly walked toward the Player tunnel without saying a single word of nonsense.
"He really doesn't hold back at all. It was a completely one-sided crush."
Kaguya Shinomiya looked at Shijo Maki's figure on the screen and spoke softly.
"The three of them didn't use their full strength. That was a wise choice. After all, Utsunomiya-san didn't even use his Persona. Even if they had gone all out, they still would have lost, and they would have exposed their own abilities for no reason."
The girls in the lounge could all see that Shijo Maki, Kasumigaoka Utaha, and Eriri must still be hiding certain abilities.
If nothing else, how could all three members of a team only have magic type long range abilities?
Even if they had all been magic type classes when they first formed the team, after experiencing more Dungeons and realizing that their team lacked close combat capability, they would naturally have obtained corresponding abilities after clearing Dungeons.
Of course, even if the three of them revealed all their trump cards, they still could not possibly win against Asagiri.
At that moment, the audience outside was whispering among themselves.
Everyone was shocked by one thing.
"Shadow... actually possesses the ability to fly? And it's not the kind of flight that is only good for travel and lacks flexibility. He can move freely in the air as if walking on flat ground?"
Even among Players who possessed extraordinary powers, those with flight abilities were extremely rare.
And a flight capability like Asagiri's, where he could move in the air as freely as on the ground, was something every spectator present was seeing for the first time.
This level of flight ability was no longer merely an improvement in combat strength.
It had reached the level of strategic significance.
Possessing the ability to move rapidly at high altitude meant that Shadow could withdraw from the battlefield at any time. Unless there were items or abilities capable of sealing space, killing him was simply impossible.
Conversely, if he wanted to assassinate someone, defending against him would be nearly impossible.
That was the terror of air superiority.
.....
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