I'm a Villainess but So Popular

Episode 23

Translator : Missme Editor : Aru

Every time the tiger’s feet, which fluttered golden fur and flashed bright yellow eyes, touched the ground, there was a thud all over the stadium.

The entire stadium shook like an earthquake.

In an instant, the tiger, who narrowed the distance from me to the first half, roared, revealing its fearsome teeth.

Looking at the figure, there was a slight smile.

‘You’re really going to do your best.’

I didn’t watch Cassius’ first round, but I knew he didn’t transform and dealt with his opponent in his human form.

The magic that turns into an animal requires a great deal of mana and skill.

I don’t know how to do it, and very few of the Seven Imperial Family members were good at transformation magic.

For your information, the symbol of the Tigris Empire and the Imperial family is the tiger.

In other words, the magic of turning into a tiger is a tie and special magic for the imperial family members.

There was no time for delay.

Immediately I activated the magic fire and flew it at Cassius.

But the speed of Cassius, who turned into a tiger, was incredibly fast. To be honest, it was hard to read the move without concentration.

Unexpectedly light-heartedly averted the fire, the tiger flashed its eyes and rushed at me with its front paws.

“Ugh……”

Immediately I threw myself to the left and slipped out.

As Cassius, who reached the end of the court line, turned himself around and prepared to rush in, I pulled out a huge fire from my hand and sent it as hard as I could toward the other side of the stadium.

After narrowly avoiding the fire, Cassius began to run at a fast pace, regardless of the tanning fur.

Perhaps it’s the merit of his transformation magic, the speed of Cassius was so fast that I, a human being, couldn’t catch up.

If the fight to avoid and attack continues like this, I was at a disadvantage in the physical battle.

‘That magic must have a lot of mana in it….if I hold out until that cooldown time is over…..!’

Lowering my back, I put my hands on the ground, following the tiger’s movements with my eyes.

When the magic was activated, the ground split apart.

Soon a huge, thick wall of soil and stone was made between Cassius and me.

“The wall…”

“I guess she’s trying to compete again with the magic soil.”

I heard the students chattering.

In fact, if my opponent was an ordinary opponent, I would have been able to prevent the attack to a certain extent with a small, low wall.

But Cassius certainly was no ordinary opponent.

‘That definitely would break.’

I went a few steps back in front of the wall and leaned my hands forward as much as possible.

Sure enough, I heard thumping footsteps and a tremendous sound like a stone breaking down.

The tiger’s head, which appeared in an instant breaking the wall, roared with a tremendous roar, revealing its long fangs as long as the human forearm.

“Argh!”

Some students were screaming because Cassius, who broke the wall at once, was quite grotesque.

“At maximum power!”

Even if the mana was a little bit reduced, it was worth taking the risk.

I faced a tiger attacking me with sharp claws and drew a magic circle in my head.

With the heat likely to burst from both hands, a massive amount of flame formed a pillar and struck Cassius.

It wasn’t an ordinary magic fire.

It was a special magic to create a massive firestorm that tripled more than the output of my usual magic fire.

“Oh, my God…”

It was no exaggeration to say that the entire stadium was filled with flames, except for space barely enough for me and Cassius.

If I were to use this magic fire, surely Cassius would return to human form to avoid fewer flames or to stop the flames.

‘The cooldown should be almost over, a little bit more…..!’

But no matter how much I looked in front of me, I could not see the golden fur.

By now, he would have already come this way and landed.

“What–”

When I looked up, thinking it was strange, white fangs that shone white appeared.

“It doesn’t make sense……!”

“That’s possible?”

Beyond the shield, I heard the murmuring of students.

Amazingly, Cassius was flying towards me “through” the flames without avoiding the fire or changing its course.

‘Maybe he maximized his healing power?’

As I hurriedly lifted my arms to protect my upper body and turned my body sideways, the tiger’s paws brushed past my hair.

Fortunately, I didn’t get hit by his paws, but when it landed on the floor, I unexpectedly was struck by Cassius’s tail.

It wasn’t really a leg, it was only a tail, but I was blown away by that force and rolled over the ground of the stadium.

“Keugh…….”

It was only after I managed to roll my hand on the ground and made a wall of dirt behind my back that I could stop rolling.

‘If I had been a little late, I would have been out…….’

I stood up and faced a tiger that was blowing its nose.

When I saw that he had no fear of breaking through the fire pillar earlier, he seemed to have healed, but Cassius’s condition was in a mess.

The fur, which used to show off its golden gloss, was charred and turned black in some places, and his eyes, which shone bright yellow as if they were swallowing the stadium, were clearly tired and exhausted.

Moreover, the movement was considerably slower than before.

Not missing anything, I pulled both hands and prepared to defend against the next attack.

Cassius ran again, showing his sharp teeth, whether or not he had in mind the last attack, and jumped up big with his front paws in the middle.

“Oh, my God…..!”

“Is that the last……”

There was a murmur of students.

I looked at the enemy before me, trying my best not to pay attention to the murmur.

With both hands raised against the tiger in the air, I scraped together all the remaining mental strength to invoke the magic of dealing with ‘air’.

With the magic actuation, Cassius stopped in the air with his front feet lifted as if blocked by an invisible wall.

But as soon as he was about to break through the wall, he had been pressing the walls I had made of air with great force, and I, who controlled the air whenever he tried to move his feet, and whenever he gave me pressure, also stumbled and staggered.

“Look at them! Those two are very tense!”

“Oh, by the way, I don’t think Miss Spade is being pushed a little bit……?”

They were right. The tremendous wind pressure caused by the collision between my air wall and Cassius’s body shook my hair and hem, and I had to tie my body to the ground with magic soil in order not to get out.

‘I can’t fall down here.’

With a little patience, Cassius won’t be able to hold out either.

Unless I fall down first.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

I shouted a shout like when I was at Taekwondo during my past life and drew the remaining strength from my body to focus on my fingertips.

At that moment, I could feel that the force pressing down on the air wall became very light.

“……..!”

The tiger’s body was getting smaller.

The golden fur that shone in the middle of the stadium gradually lost its light, and soon the tiger was reduced to as small as a human.

Kudangtang-

It was then.

Blowing up a reduced tiger.

When I saw the tiger scattered in the distance, I ran forward and took out the fireworks.

I flew Cassius, but not even outside the court line.

Therefore, to win, he had to be bound or out right now.

In an instant, when a lump of golden light enveloped Cassius’s body, I made a narrow fire column pierced in the middle and put it on Cassius.

The high flames, as high as the walls of the prison, wrapped Cassius in a circle, and at that moment the professor referee’s countdown began.

“10, 9-”

Controlling the fire with both hands, I came up with measures in my head that Cassius could use to break through that fire again.

‘He’s on his human form, so he could control the soil and drops it down–’

“1, 0.”

The countdown ended without much trouble, and a clear whistle echoed through the stadium.

“Yerine Spade victory. Cassius Tigris defeats.”

With the sound, I fell right down on the ground.

“<i>Gasp</i>, haah haah …….”

With one hand on my head, I put my hand on my knee and managed to lift the other hand to remove the pillar of fire that was blocking Cassius.

I’ve never used as much large-scale magic as I did today.

It was natural to be tired because it must have consumed a lot of mana.

Seeing from afar, Cassius lay tired at first.

“Are you okay?”

But when he heard my voice, he jumped up like a spring and rose from his seat, dragging his legs and walking to where I was sitting.

“I’m…… Whoo, I’m okay.”

But his greeting eyes seemed to have lost their taste.

Maybe I did, too, but he didn’t look very well anyway.

“It was cool…… Yerine.”

“……you too. This is the first time I’ve struggled like this.”

“What do you mean struggled? You played the game so calmly. It seemed like you already knew what kind of attack I was going to do.”

I laughed at his remark.

“I just did what I felt. There was no such thing.”

I said so and tried to get up from the floor, but I couldn’t put strength on my legs, perhaps because I was out of strength.

“Oh, my…”

Cassius, who was staring at me, spoke to me with a face full of self-interest, for some reason.

“Yerine, if it’s too hard, I can give you a piggyback–”

“Yes, I’ll reject it.”

Bouncing my fingers as I sat down, I cast levitation magic on myself.

When Cassius saw me floating up off the ground, he looked as dejected as the dog whose snack had been taken away from me.

“…wow, you’re so mean.”

I seriously pondered how to answer that remark.

“……Shall I float you too?.”

“No, thanks.”

“I can float one more person.”

“No, really.”

So I turned to my friends who greeted me, leaving Cassius with his shoulders shrugged off.

‘It was really strong……..’

Reminding of the golden tiger left with a strong impression.

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