Mushoku Tensei: Sword, Magic Hats, and Romance!

The moment the signal rang out, the ground at Allen's feet erupted.

He shot forward like a cannonball, barreling straight toward Rudeus.

And then—a real cannonball appeared in front of him.

Dense clusters of water orbs, each nearly a meter in diameter, floated in midair like a wall of shimmering blue balloons. Packed tightly together, they formed a spherical wall—no, walls—because this wasn't just a single layer.

The barrage was still expanding. Layers upon layers of water orbs continued to stack, thickening the wall with each second.

Allen grinned, one hand resting on his sword hilt, eyes narrowing.

Even the wind seemed to quiet.

Nice display. But I'm not going to stick to just Sword God Style this time... I'll have to cut through while keeping my momentum, with enough reach to cleave deep. [Twenty-Fold Slash] won't cut it. Then...

North God Style – Practical Combat School – Common Form, Second Pattern.

The dirt behind him exploded as he launched off his foot. His right leg rose, his body twisted mid-air, and the blade in his hand swung in a wide circle with him. The strike he'd charged up burst outward just as the wall of water closed in—so close he could already see sunlight refracting off the orbs' glossy surfaces.

Aura surged through his limbs.

[Circle Heaven Slash]!

The aura wrapped his blade, extending its reach with a glowing trail.

The water wall split open in a horizontal arc, and Allen shot through the gap like a bullet!

Another orb came crashing toward him—he cleaved it in a single stroke. Weaving effortlessly through the widened gaps in the magical formation, he slipped past each water orb in a blur, each one bursting around him, soaking the grass in streaming waves.

He sprinted forward, light and fast, stepping on rippling puddles that only sped him up.

Raising his eyes toward the distance, Allen saw Rudeus continuing to launch [Water Ball] spells one after another. At the same time, his body bounced backward—like a balloon in reverse—using Wind Magic to catapult himself away while simultaneously extending the distance between them.

No wonder the [Water Balls] are scattering—they're being cast mid-jump. So he's using [Air Step] to leap and retreat at the same time... Two spells per jump—one blasts him away, the second softens the landing and lets him bounce again.

But... not fast enough.

Without proper aim, the rapid-fire [Water Balls] couldn't touch him. Allen's kinetic vision was operating at peak capacity—he slipped through the gaps with inhuman precision, the blasts breaking harmlessly around him like waves against a rock. He advanced, fluid and untouchable, like a butterfly skating across a pond.

The distance between them shrank—fifty meters!

Rudeus gritted his teeth.

"[Waterfall]! [Ice Pillar]!"

Allen reflexively sidestepped, expecting an ice spike to erupt from beneath his feet—but nothing came. He looked up.

A torrent of water was already cascading down from above, summoned into a massive cylindrical waterfall around Rudeus. It flooded the field in moments, creating a shallow river at the hill's base.

Then—crack—a forest of ice pillars sprang up under Allen's feet!

"[Rock Bullet]!"

Rudeus whipped his arm, firing a compressed [Rock Bullet] shaped like a blade. Snap! It shattered the top of the ice pillar into shards, leaving behind a flat platform.

Then he stepped onto it, raised his hand, and shouted—

"[Rock Bullet]!"

Allen twisted to dodge, but no projectile came.

He looked up.

Rudeus hadn't actually cast the spell. Instead, he'd fired a small [Air Step] again, using the recoil to propel the ice shard beneath his feet like a sled. It glided rapidly across the watery terrain, moving twice as fast as a normal air blast.

Allen gaped.

He can do that?

Just then, a real [Rock Bullet] screamed through the air—Allen batted it aside with a flick of his blade. Deep within, the embryonic core of his aura pulsed tightly, surging into his limbs like a stream flooding through his muscles and veins.

He cut down an oncoming ice spear and sprinted forward, kicking up waves with each step. [Rock Bullets] slammed into the mud behind him one after another, but they couldn't catch his shadow.

His aura was running wild—he moved so fast that afterimages trailed in his wake.

In just a few breaths, the distance shrank again—thirty meters!

Seeing his spells failing to land, Rudeus didn't flinch. If anything, his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Allen! Watch this—my hybrid magic!"

"[Quagmire]!"

The moment the spell left Rudeus's lips, Allen's eyes gleamed with understanding.

Of course. How could I forget the signature move?

As a reader of the original novel, Allen knew all too well—this was the signature spell. But the current Rudeus shouldn't be able to cast a full-area [Quagmire] instantly. In the novel, during his duel with Paul at the end of childhood training, he'd only managed a two-meter diameter patch.

Allen chuckled and slashed downward, cutting the softening ground beneath his feet apart with a wind-enhanced strike. His feet caught solid ground, and he leapt skyward, escaping the range of the trap.

A quick twist of his blade cleaved apart a sneakily placed ice spear—and he landed cleanly, five meters away.

Right into a patch of [Quagmire].

"...?"

Allen stared down at his legs, now buried in muddy sludge. Then he looked up at Rudeus in disbelief.

The boy had stopped retreating and was grinning ear to ear.

"My [Water Balls] and [Waterfalls] weren't just for show! Look around! This whole thing was a setup!"

Allen swiped his blade through another flying ice spear and narrowed his eyes, scanning the terrain.

The hill's base—already soaked through—had turned entirely to swamp.

Rudeus might not have been able to cast a wide-area [Quagmire] on demand, but if the conditions were already in place?

The constant barrage of water-based magic had saturated the hillside in advance. All Rudeus needed was a trigger.

Now, the entire hill base was a mirefield.

Allen stared silently at his sunken legs, while Rudeus casually fired off a few more massive [Ice Blades] to stake into the field.

"But!"

Rudeus crossed his arms with a proud smirk.

"Even if you're stuck in [Quagmire] and can't move fast, I still can't hit you. You'll sense all my spells with Water God Style and cut through them, right?"

Allen narrowed his eyes, smiling faintly.

"So what now?"

Rudeus fired a [Fireball] that exploded through the nearby [Ice Blades]. The impact of ice and flame churned the air, filling the base of the hill with thick mist.

Then Rudeus pointed to his eyes.

"So I'll block your senses."

He bent down and touched the ground with both hands, keeping his eyes locked on Allen through the fog, grinning smugly.

"Intermediate spell—[Heat Island]! Hybrid magic—[Deep Mist]! C'mon, oh native of the sword-and-magic world! Let's see how you handle physics!"

Allen could feel heat bubbling beneath the swamp. Steam coiled upward in thick wisps, and in seconds the field around them was swallowed in white haze.

Wow. Cocky much? He's even monologuing his thought process. What, does he think I don't understand him?

He cracked his neck, raised his long blade, and pointed it at the crouched silhouette in the mist—Rudeus, still in contact with the ground, barely visible.

Smiling, Allen called out:

"But if you have to stay connected to the ground to maintain [Heat Island], all I have to do is kill the caster to cancel the spell, right?"

Rudeus's brows twitched hard.

"...What's that supposed to mean? Even if you could reach me, I'd just use magic to get away."

Allen tilted the blade beside his ear, shifting into a throwing stance.

His voice dropped, clear and deliberate:

"North God Style includes techniques for throwing swords. If this were a real fight, you'd be dead the moment I crouched."