The story of the black silk female knight

"Tsk."

Valensa knew she had failed again and was very unwilling, but there was nothing she could do. She could only gather holy light again and unleash an ordinary holy light blade, which canceled out the holy light demon-slaying blade she had released earlier.

"Did you see that?"

Whether it was due to overconfidence or something else, Tia actually started explaining with a smile at this moment:

"This is my self-created secret technique—Simple Domain. Infinite Corridor. I referenced the domains of lord-level monsters and the magic circle technology of the gray rats, using ley lines as the source of magic power, magic cards as the array base, and family secret techniques to completely link the space around you, forming an absolute closed loop."

No matter how strong or fast you are, it's useless... In the infinite corridors where space is connected, neither you nor your attacks can reach the place you want to go.

You're trapped! If you don't want to lose face, you'd better admit defeat, Valensa.

"Then why don't you defeat me?"

Valensa didn't interrupt Tia's confident commentary. Instead, as if she had suddenly realized something, she relaxed her guard as if she were opening a new leaf, and just stood there with a strange smile:

"Don't forget, I'm a paladin. Compared to attack, defense and endurance are my strengths... If you can defeat me, then come and try."

"you……!"

A fleeting look of annoyance crossed Tia's eyes, and she muttered irritably:

"Hey, you idiot, don't be so ungrateful! I just don't want you to lose too badly in front of the younger students. You don't really think I can't beat you, do you?"

"Yes, I just don't believe you can beat me... Your feigned composure from the beginning until now has all been an act, trying to trick myself into admitting defeat, right?"

Tia's behavior further convinced Valensa of her suspicions, and she crossed her arms over her chest:

"Your skill of trapping people with spatial links is indeed impressive. I can't get out, and I can't launch an effective attack on you... But how are you going to win?"

Chapter 37: They're all women, who can't act?

Valensa's confidence was not unfounded, but rather a deliberate deduction.

Tia's family-inherited secret techniques and the secret techniques she learned from the Sage's Tower are both very powerful, but they also have their drawbacks.

One of the biggest drawbacks is that the secret techniques Tia practices are extremely precise, requiring pure magic power to be used without any impurities.

This prevents Tia from practicing elemental magic suitable for direct combat, and even some powerful attack techniques; she can only focus on support roles.

She can use magic cards to create traps that inflict various powerful negative statuses on enemies, such as weakness, slowness, and mental confusion, but it is difficult to cause effective damage.

According to the game, it has a lot of powerful control and debuff skills, but you can't damage it.

Valensa is well aware of this, and it is the source of her confidence.

Even if the magic supply for such a powerful skill as Simple Domain: Infinite Corridor can be obtained by drawing power from the earth's veins using the technology of the gray rat, maintaining the operation of the skill will still require considerable effort.

Tia hasn't moved an inch since the start of the battle... She seems very calm, but Valensa thinks that Tia probably can't move even if she wanted to, in order to maintain the activation of the secret technique.

Given that maintaining such a powerful secret technique requires immense energy, how much mental strength does Tia have left for attacking? Even if she does have other offensive methods, they probably won't be very strong, and they would only further increase the energy drain.

Valensa is least afraid of a war of attrition... Paladins are inherently very durable, and Valensa has a secondary core that can double that durability.

So when faced with Tia's words trying to trick her into surrendering, Valensa immediately opened up.

I'm trapped and can't get out, but can you move me? If you can, then come on over!

"you……!"

Given their close relationship, Tia naturally saw through Valensa's thoughts at a glance and couldn't help but feel annoyed:

"This is a performance battle that the younger students are watching! You idiot, are you trying to waste time? Don't you feel ashamed?"

"As long as you win, it's not shameful."

Valensa continued arranging:

"Come on, Tia, if you can take me down, then go for it. Don't hold back, I can handle it."

"you……!"

Tia was even more annoyed, but she quickly adjusted her mindset. After a few deep breaths, she once again showed a relaxed and calm smile:

"I really can't do anything with you... Okay, okay, I admit that this secret technique consumes a lot of energy and I don't have any strength left to attack you... But you really can't get out, right?"

"In that case, let's each compromise and call it a draw, shall we?"

A draw? No way!

Valensa immediately refused:

"Do you really think I'm an idiot? You're the top commander of the command department, and I'm the top soldier of the elite department... Even if this battle is a draw, or even if I just didn't win gracefully enough, it's still a loss for me."

"...Tsk, you really care about saving face."

Tia complained irritably:

"So what are you planning to do? You're not really going to keep dragging this out, are you? I'm not afraid to tell you, my secret technique can last for at least a few hours, and the junior students are all sleepy."

"No, it will be over soon."

Valencia suddenly stopped playing idly, and her aura became sharp once again:

"I've roughly figured out how to break your secret technique... Hah!"

With a sharp cry, Valensa's round shield on her arm scattered and transformed into six fan-shaped alloy blades, which attacked in six different directions at the same time.

Tia frowned slightly upon seeing this, but quickly relaxed her brow.

Two of the fan-shaped alloy blades, just like the Holy Light Blade that Valensa had previously unleashed, moved in other directions after hitting the edge of the arcane area, shooting towards Valensa, who was in the center.

The remaining four fan-shaped alloy blades were stopped as if they had hit a wall.

"Just as I thought."

Valensa's expression brightened, her eyes gleaming, and she retracted all the fan-shaped alloy blades.

It's impossible to openly perform... Anyone can act.

Valensa was just pretending to be open, but she was actually thinking hard about the flaws in this secret technique.

Valensa had known about the Britannia family's secret arts since she was a child... all of which Tia had told her herself.

The reason why successive heads of the Bretania family have been able to maintain their position as the chief military advisor of Fran is because they can link space, which allows them to move soldiers on a large scale on the battlefield, greatly improving the mobility of the army.

However, connecting to space is not so easy... Normally, the direct heirs of Bretonia would only begin connecting to space once they reached the peak level of the Lighthouse. Before that, they would only practice some relatively mild linking techniques.

Previously, Tia mainly cultivated the connection of fate, the fate of meeting with vague precognitive abilities, and the fate of entanglement that allowed her to secretly observe her wife.

For Britannia, whose strength is insufficient, forcibly linking to space is not impossible, but it would be like a toddler trying to lift a steel plate. She could barely lift it with all her might, but a slight misstep could injure her—it's extremely dangerous.

Therefore, the Britannia family has always prohibited its heirs from accessing the dimensional space when their strength is insufficient.

But Tia was an exception. Not only did she possess the family secrets of Britannia, but she was also chosen as a disciple by the seventh seat of the Sage's Tower, who taught her another secret technique—the Card Secret Technique.

Card magic is also a powerful support magic that can seal spells in cards in advance and activate them when needed, greatly reducing the cost or increasing the power.

The principle is similar to that of magic scrolls, but card magic is many generations more advanced, roughly equivalent to the difference between a calculator and a computer.

It is true that it is dangerous for a young child to lift a steel plate with his bare hands, but what if he had a jack?

For Tia, the card magic acted like a jack, allowing her to use some of the space-linking abilities even when she was still a pearl, playing a crucial role on many occasions.

Now that Tia has arrived at the Lighthouse, both Link Arcane and Card Arcane have become incredibly powerful. It's not surprising that she can create an arcane that even Valensa can't escape from.

Even if a child has a jack, they cannot move a steel plate as easily as an adult, and will inevitably be subject to many limitations.

The same applies to Tia's secret technique of linking spaces.

Using the abilities of a Radiant rank below the Radiant rank is not easy, even with the assistance of magic cards; one must use the highest-level magic card—a gold card.

Before Tia breaks through to the Lighthouse level, she can only use one gold card at a time. Using two cards in a row will exhaust her, and she may even need to replenish her strength and nutrition in Valensa's arms.

Now that Tia has broken through, the number of gold cards she can use at the same time will definitely increase, but it won't increase by a lot all at once.

Chapter 38 Valensa Wins

Tia used the secret technique of linking spaces, which Valensa had seen before.

Simply put, it uses the power of the golden card to connect two spatial coordinates, allowing you to ignore obstacles and strike the enemy's vitals, or to bring an enemy who has run far away back to their original position.

It's really powerful, but it also consumes a lot of resources and can only be used for a very short time.

Tia has indeed become stronger, but she hasn't broken through to the Radiant Rank yet, so there can't be a qualitative change. This secret technique that can infinitely throw people and attacks from the edge of the domain to the center of the domain is a bit outrageous.

Valensa guessed that Tia must have used some technique of the Gray Rat Magic Circle to use the power of the ley lines to sustain the energy consumption instead of her own, allowing the spatial link, which should have only been able to be maintained for a short time, to be maintained for a long time.

However, using the golden card to maintain the spatial link consumes not only magic power, but also Tia's mental energy and brainpower.

Moreover, this spatial link should not cover the entire edge of the secret technique's range, but rather there are several doors at the edge of the secret technique, and these doors are connected to each other, thus forming the so-called infinite corridor.

If Tia reaches the Radiant rank or higher, this Infinite Corridor should truly take shape, trapping enemies with interconnected spaces without any blind spots.

However, right now, this infinite corridor is only a simplified realm. Tia is most likely manipulating several spatial link points in real time to send Valensa's charge and sword light back.

Considering the flexibility of this spatial link, Valensa estimates that Tia would need at least two gold cards to maintain a spatial link.

When she was at the Pearl level, Tia would become weak after using just one gold card. Now that she's at the Lighthouse level, Tia can definitely control more gold cards at the same time, but not by much.

The number of attacks that Tia can throw back at once is limited.

Valencia's recent volley of fan-shaped alloy blades was a test of this limit.

Now she has the answer... There are two spatial link points that Tia can control.

Of course, as Tia's proud new secret technique, this simple domain, Infinite Corridor, cannot be said to be broken by being attacked from more than three directions at the same time... Even the edge without spatial connection points has a defensive power no less than that of a lighthouse-level magic barrier.

In other words, to break Tia's secret technique, one would need to use power sufficient to shatter a lighthouse-level magical barrier and launch an attack simultaneously in three different directions.

There aren't many lighthouse-level cultivators who can do this... An ordinary cultivator can break through a magic barrier of the same level with a full-force attack, but it's very difficult to break through two at the same time, let alone three.

Fortunately, Valensa is not an ordinary cultivator. Since obtaining the divine runes and mental power, she has often been able to kill enemies of a higher level. Not to mention that she now possesses divine magic, the bloodline of an evil god, and even a pseudo-treasure.

Simultaneously unleashing three attacks capable of breaking through magical barriers of the same level is somewhat difficult for Valensa, but not impossible.

Holy light once again converged on the blade of Moon Kiss, and accompanied by Valensa's soft prayer, it prepared to unleash the Holy Light Demon-Slaying Blade, a divine spell specifically designed for magical barriers.

At the same time, one of the six fan-shaped alloy blades also floated behind Valensa, constantly being strengthened by mental power and accumulating kinetic energy.

Valensa herself also squatted down slightly, her long legs in black stockings bent in an arc, ready to sprint at any moment.

"Tsk."

Just as Valensa understands Tia, Tia understands Valensa.

She saw through Valencia's plan at a glance and knew that she probably couldn't stop her.

"Alright alright."

To lose with some dignity, Tia conceded defeat before Valensa could finish charging up her power.

"You win this round... Honestly, you're really competitive."

"It's you, Tia, who's the one with a strong competitive spirit, isn't it?"

Seeing that Tia had voluntarily stopped her secret technique, Valensa also stopped charging up her power and said irritably:

"I wonder who kicked me out of my room last night and stayed up all night to prepare... You must have only recently completed this secret technique, right? Maybe you even completed it just last night?"

"...Hmph, idiot."

Tia looked away.

Seeing that the bald man was about to turn the friendly competition into a flirtatious performance, he quickly jumped onto the stage to stop the two and announced Valensa's victory.

The fight between the two looked like a game, but none of the freshmen underestimated it; each one was deeply shocked.

Whether it was Tia's secret techniques or Valensa's various methods, they were far superior to them, completely eroding their pre-enrollment arrogance.

No doubt about it. Starting tomorrow, I'd better behave myself and cultivate myself properly. I still have a long way to go.

Even some second- and third-grade students were whispering among themselves, discussing what they should do if they were in this situation.

However, some people don't care much about the details of the battle, but are more interested in other things.

For example, Chiba poked Melody next to her, puzzled:

"Since you two are such good friends, why didn't you go easy on her a little? It wouldn't have been a problem to agree to a draw earlier, would it?"

"Because agreeing to a draw would mean Valensa lost, and she doesn't want to lose."

Melody clearly understood, and explained with a light laugh: