Many civilians have never witnessed the terrifying sight of a massive dam releasing floodwaters.
Though not on such a grand scale, the moment the stadium glacier melted and transformed into a roaring flood left everyone in the stands momentarily speechless, unable even to gasp.
BOOM!
High in the air, a towering force gathered behind the petite girl.
The swirling currents coiled like massive water dragons hovering in mid-air.
'That volume of water... if it fell directly from above, the impact would be enough to crush the concrete ground.'
'A human body would have no chance of withstanding it—even a steel bunker would be shattered by the pressure.'
The range of magic that can be manipulate via Spell-Weaver is a five-meter radius centered on themselves.
If it were standard attacks like water whips or fireballs, they could be decomposed upon entering the Spell-Weaver's range, reverting to harmless natural elements.
But with a scale like this... it would be impossible to decompose millions of gallons of water in a single instant.
This was the limit of Spell-Weaver.
There is no flawless Ability in this world.
How one arms their Ability to reach near-perfection depends on the user's calculating skill.
"Even I cannot guarantee your safety while controlling water of this scale. I must ask you to forfeit," Shizuku said.
Elevated by the roaring water like a Queen of the Tides, she looked down with a serious expression.
With her declaration, the stands felt this match was a foregone conclusion.
Facing the Lorelei who commanded the ocean itself, everyone felt a sense of suffocation.
She was too strong!
Though it was by borrowing the power of Noah's own natural disaster that she could display this move, her current state left almost no match among the student knights.
Noah sighed softly.
In terms of pure water abilities, Shizuku and he were at a four-to-six ratio in her favor.
But he had the advantage of being able to use multiple attributes.
Shizuku knew this well, which was why she staked everything on overwhelming him in a single strike.
Because she trusted her own Abilities, she chose this risky strategy: using the enemy's massive power to strengthen herself!
Element manipulation-type Blazers possessed some unconventional environmental abilities.
For example, wind mages could gather weather winds to enhance their power, while thunder mages could absorb natural lightning strikes to strengthen themselves.
Water mages could unleash their abilities to two hundred percent, or even more, as long as they were fighting in a water-rich environment.
Noah looked up at Shizuku, whose power had reached its theoretical peak, and the corners of his mouth lifted.
"Don't push yourself too hard. Controlling high-pressure water on this scale... your B-Rank mana must already be nearing its limit."
Shizuku saw through his bluff but remained unfazed. "Haha, I suppose we are in the same boat on that, Noah-kun."
"That is your misunderstanding," Noah shook his head, denying Shizuku's judgment.
"Trying to act tough to the end? But the facts won't change. Since you refuse to forfeit, I will just have to hurt you a little!"
Shizuku watched Noah's confident demeanor and felt a flicker of doubt.
'Could it be true?'
'In the previous round of attacks and defenses... was my mana the only one running dry?'
'No, that cannot be!'
'Both of us have a total mana capacity of C-Rank! Even if his efficiency is slightly better, there cannot be such a huge gap!'
'He is bluffing!'
'With this one strike, the winner will be decided!'
"Come on!"
The raging torrent surged skyward.
As it rushed toward Noah, it continued to accelerate, carrying immense kinetic energy capable of bending solid steel.
Faced with such an unavoidable attack range, evasion was impossible.
But... if he tried to take that hit head-on, he would be engulfed by the crushing water and left at her mercy.
She had won!
WHOOSH!
With a figure soaring into the sky, a deafening sonic boom erupted across the arena.
Shizuku's tsunami swallowed the battlefield, its tide spreading toward the spectator stands, barely contained by the magical intervention of the stadium's emergency shields.
By now, the arena floor had been transformed into a deep, churning lake.
But he was gone.
Noah's figure had simply vanished.
Shizuku followed the vapor trail of the figure that had just broken the sound barrier, tilting her head back to locate her target.
"In the sky?!"
"He... he's flying?!" Kagami screamed into the mic.
Noah hovered silently in mid-air, as if standing upside down on the ground, gazing down at the flooded earth below.
"Whoa?!" Nene Saikyo watched Noah suspended in the sky and let out an astonished cry.
"Contestant Noah! Contestant Noah is flying! He has stopped dead in mid-air! In that very instant, he reached that impossible position! Evading the Lorelei's most powerful attack!"
The commentator's seat roared with excitement!
The spectator stands erupted into a frenzy as well.
'It wasn't over yet! The Calamity hadn't lost!'
Shizuku's breathing grew ragged.
That massive tsunami had drained her magical power dry.
Not only that, her spirit was tired, making it impossible for her to concentrate and control her magic perfectly.
"I can manipulate localized gravity, so naturally, its possible to achieve something like this. In fact, I already demonstrated this ability back at the shopping center. It seems you didn't make proper use of that information, Shizuku."
Perhaps it could be called being too emotionally concerned to think clearly.
At that time at the mall, her brother Ikki was in critical danger, so Shizuku likely had no mind to consider how Noah's movement was accomplished.
Hovering upside down, facing Shizuku, who had missed her ultimate attack, Noah offered the same suggestion she had just given him.
"Your magic power can no longer sustain you. Surrender."
"..."
Shizuku tightened her trembling grip on the short sword in her hand, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
She straightened her posture, spin the reverse-gripped short sword and switched to a forward grip.
Noah watched as she raised her inherent Device and pointed the blade toward him.
Deactivating his anti-gravity ability, his figure began to free-fall toward the flood, while several compressed ice-crystal weapons materialized in the air around him.
There were heavy swords, jagged spears, curved blades, massive halberds, and various other weapons, each with a distinct design.
He manipulated the airflow to launch all the weapons around him at once.
Facing the descending blades, Shizuku floated atop the churning lake, gliding across the water's surface using it as propulsion, like an ice skater.
The heavy ice blades fell from the sky like missiles, freezing sections of the water solid upon contact.
Although Shizuku could evade the falling weapons, the liquid surface beneath her feet shrank as the lake froze over.
Noah landed on the newly formed ice sheet, grabbing two ice blades from the ground as he charged toward Shizuku.
He swung one blade down, and Shizuku hastily formed a water shield.
With a single strike, the shield shattered.
The girl used the impact to retreat, trying to create distance, but she felt her feet stuck to the ground.
She looked down in horror to find that the water beneath her had frozen solid, trapping her boots along with it.
'Damn it!'
'There is no dodging this!'