Battle of Attrition

Oswald stood in front of Reagan, with blue translucent strings that flowed from his fingers.

『...Teacher, leave the rest to me.』[Oswald]

Reagan seemed a little pissed, but he was also a bit too tired.

『...You bastard, you came back?』[Reagan]

Oswald disregarded him almost instantly.

『Teacher, I saw the explosion and rushed back. Derenne and Hanzo rushed to Miss Raina's aid.』[Oswald]

He turned around with a stare that radiated intensity.

『...So please, leave it to me.』[Oswald]

Reagan looked up at him for a moment before coughing and nodding.

『...Go ahead.』[Reagan]

With that, a whole slurry of lances manifested themselves at once, blowing up a large majority of the flaming orbs.

He closed his eyes as he concentrated on healing himself.

No sooner than he did, the Domain vanished into particles of mana in the air.

Though Nezha was no longer here, his Domain somehow persisted, with new orbs and silhouettes forming endlessly.

Oswald stared about analytically, before closing his eyes for a moment.

Once he opened his eyes, a bright purple light filled them, and he suddenly moved his hands, causing the blue strings to suddenly tense up.

『Poltergeist, assist me, my friend!』[Oswald]

A summoning symbol appeared over his shoulder as something that looked similar to a floating transparent rag appeared.

It seemed to wrap itself around Oswald affectionately, but he completely shrugged it off.

『Not now, Poltergeist. These orbs explode violently and I am not able to reach some of them. Are you able to detonate each one of them for me?』[Oswald]

The rag floated off of him before doing loops in the air, seemingly showing it's approval of his request.

He suddenly loosened his hands, allowing the strings to fall to the ground.

Afterwards, he quickly flicked his hands in every direction until remnants of blue strings could be found everywhere.

The orbs of course- gave them almost no waiting time.

After they were done regenerating enough to cause the heat to hit them in waves, they began to fly towards Oswald and Reagan once more.

Oswald's Poltergeist also didn't hesitate, quickly meeting with the first fireball.

The moment it came close, it wrapped around the orb, detonating it and moving on to the next orb without so much as a scratch on it.

Once the blue strings were everywhere, Oswald suddenly knelt to the ground and placed his hands on them before taking a deep breath.

『...Domain!』[Oswald]

Blue mana began to dissolve off of them, causing Oswald's bangs to begin floating ever so slightly.

『...Chessboard Royale!』[Oswald]

The strings suddenly straightened out, forming a crisscut pattern akin to a chessboard.

Following this, he suddenly stood up and threw his hands out to his sides, making him look extremely similar to a conductor at an orchestra.

『Come forth!』[Oswald]

No sooner than he said that, two rows of pale blue phantoms materialized, one row holding swords and shields, while the other row held bows and arrows.

Though Poltergeist managed to defuse a good chunk of the flaming orbs, it still had its limits, and tens of them got past it.

『Archers, fire away!』[Oswald]

Simultaneously, they all raised their bows and blasted all the orbs to nothing in almost no time at all.

『...Excellent, now knights, go forth!』[Oswald]

The phantoms with swords and shields suddenly ran forth, attacking the silhouettes that were slowly walking forth.

They didn't explode instantly like the orbs, which prompted Oswald's eyes to glow purple once more.

『...They're slowly strengthening the longer they stay in that Domain.』[Oswald]

He watched his "knights" clash with the silhouettes over and over, with not much to show for it.

As more orbs showed up, the archers blew up whatever Poltergeist did not get, but it was beginning to look like a battle of endurance.

『Damn it! This is endless!』[Oswald]

Each time a silhouette was taken down by the knights, a knight was taken down and reformed by Oswald.

They endlessly went back and forth for over 15 minutes, until Oswald had finally looked like he was worn down.

His sweat ran down all the way to his uniform and he seemed much more sluggish in comparison to when he first showed up.

However, to show for it… the staff's light was way dimmer than it was before and the silhouettes had stopped forming.

After his phantom knights took out the final silhouette with Poltergeist's help, the mana in the air finally began to contract back into the staff.

Oswald huffed and huffed, his sweat dripping to the ground.

『...Is it… Is it.. over?』[Oswald]

Reagan's voice came from behind him.

『...Oswald… you idiot.. Grab the staff… quick..!』[Reagan]

He suddenly turned back and nodded before quickly dispersing his knights and archers.

The mana suddenly turned back into his translucent strings.

Quickly moving his hands, the strings made contact and wrapped itself around the staff, just as it began to shine.

Oswald was shocked by the sudden flash of light.

『What?! Kinesis!』[Oswald]

The staff was sent flying towards Oswald almost instantly.

He made contact with the staff, suddenly suppressing the orange light.

『Wh...What just happened…?』[Oswald]

Reagan was heard stumbling around behind Oswald.

He quickly turned around and ran to support Reagan.

『Teacher!』[Oswald]

He lent Reagan a shoulder, allowing him to get a steady footing.

『...Why the hell did you come back?!』[Reagan]

『...I'm sorry, teacher. I wouldn't be able to face Miss Raina without you.』[Oswald]

『...Tch.』[Reagan]

Reagan looked at the ground, averting his eyes from Oswald.

『...Thanks, Oswald. Don't tell the others, but you're my favorite student.』[Reagan]

Oswald looked at Reagan with a shocked expression.

『...Teacher!』[Oswald]

Oswald's tears dripped down to the floor along with his sweat.

『...Tch, just get a move on and get me to Raina. Let's have Nova fix us up.』[Reagan]

Oswald trudged forward while wiping the tears under his glasses.

『Nghn… Yeah..!』[Oswald]