The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Lovelace

"Living among humans, taking human form... have you no shame, ■■■■■■?"

Tsk.

He keeps provoking me, trying to get into my emotions. But I feel that what he says has a background of truth to it.

But this is not the place or moment for that. The way that hole opened below the girls seems to be the vampire's work. I need to defeat this thing so I can go look for them.

He seems to be immune to the dark element, though. So I'm having to resort to other elements for attacking, and even then he seems to have a high resistance to magic.

He isn't attacking me seriously, either. He seems to be merely toying with me. Like a cat with its prey.

Lightning, fire, ice... nothing seems to seriously hurt him. He just brushes off and keeps laughing and taunting. And repeating that annoying word.

It's annoying because it seems to be my name, or the name of the kind of being I am, but I simply can't register it. Every time he says it, it's like his voice is overcome with a distortion that transforms it into an undecipherable blob of sound.

So annoying.

:::

PoV: Yaci

My goal here is clear: to be Ingela's shield.

I have to protect her from any incoming attacks while leaving the path clear for her to hit him. And, if possible, to pin him down to make aiming easier for her.

The spear is still a bit humid from the blood of that weird guy who impaled himself on it. And the air around us smells of putrid flesh, but the vampire in front of us looks like he's feeling quite at home in this place.

He is fast, but still a little bit slower than me. I mean, if it wasn't for the strengthening spell Lovelace cast on us, I wouldn't be able to follow his movements at all.

He comes at me with the sword hand low to the side and the free hand in my direction. So I launch a flurry of thrusts with my spear, landing some hits on his torso and arm.

He doesn't even flinch and keeps moving the arm around, trying to grab my spear. In the meanwhile, his wounds are already closing.

The damn thing has regeneration.

I step back, right in time for a fireball to fly towards him, making him jump back, out of reach.

Ohh, so he dodges when it's a fire attack, huh?

"Ingela, keep on the fire spells!"

"I noticed, too!"

Of course she noticed. It's Aurea's genius student we're talking about here.

She unleashes a full barrage of fire spells unto him, one after the other, and he keeps dodging or blocking with magic of his own.

I seize the moment and launch myself forward to try to take advantage of the situation. My spear won't do the same level of damage, but it is not zero damage.

Finally, an opening! Now it's the time to...

"Careful, Yaci!"

I was almost getting him but had to jump back to avoid being hit by her spell myself.

Damn!

Wait, what?

Something is pulling me... what in the hell? ARGH!

It's HOT!!!

I'm burning!

"AAAARGH!!!"

:::

PoV: Ingela

No way...

I can't believe I did this... I was aiming at him; Yaci was completely out of the way.

How did...

"Hahahahahahahah. Yesss... That face suits you so much better."

"You!!! You pulled her, didn't you?"

"Of course I did. Or did you think that I would simply stay still and let you kill me? I hope you had fun killing your companion."

That can't be true. He's bluffing... right?

Yaci wouldn't have died from a simple fireball... would she?

Please, Yaci...

"She's not dead yet, if that's what you're asking yourself. But she will if she's not treated. But you won't have time for that, of course."

Why's he walking to her? No!!

The sound of her bones crushing under the weight of his kick snaps me back in.

I don't care if I use too much mana at once now.

Just

Stay

Away

From

My

Yaci

:::

PoV: Lovelace

It doesn't matter how many spells I throw at this guy. Nothing seems to faze him.

What a nuisance.

There's an alarming burst of magic energy coming from far below us. It seems to be from Ingela. I'm worried, because the strengthening spell must be waning soon.

I need to go down and meet with them. The anchor to open the portal back is with me.

"Ooooh. It seems that the contractor is dead. That's a nice feeling."

"The contractor? You mean the one who brought you here?"

"Yes. Martius, I think that his name was."

"Oh? That's good news. It seems that you can go back home, then?"

"I can, indeed... there's nothing chaining me here. But that's not motivation enough for me to do that, you know. His command was to kill you, but the thing is... I've been wanting to kill you for a time longer than humans have been living on this little planet."

"You're one to hold a grudge, huh?"

"Well, you know how it is for beings like us. We have to find little things to amuse ourselves with. Otherwise, the eons would be so much more boring.

"No, I don't know. And I don't want to know."

"A boring thickhead one, aren't you, ■■■■■■? You used to be so much more interesting than this..."

I need to go down there and see if those two are right. I'm having a really bad feeling about all this.

And I've been using so much mana attacking this guy... I'm starting to feel hungry.

I understand now the reason for dark elemental magic not affecting him. He's an elemental being just like me. An elemental of the dark element.

Man, it's been years since the last time I felt this hungry. And even longer since the last time I had a meal of dark element matter.

Without a thought, I jump on him again. But this time I don't use magic or anything. There is no plan, no rationale.

Only hunger.