Tag-Team Ch. 18

Chapter 18: Nadine Amaryllis, Second to none

---

[Story so far]

Tanya and her party advanced through the Sparring Tournament to exact revenge on her former party leader and childhood friend, Ryan. Finally, they meet in the Championship round.

Nadine, who had been acting as a level 3 Healer, has decided to use her skills as a former Assassin to fight for Tanya’s sake.

The chapters are a lot longer this time round.

Chapter is slightly more rated towards the end (not by a lot) so reader discretion is advised if you’re sensitive to those kinds of stuff.

---

Championship round, match 1: doubles. Win condition: When the opponent team surrenders, or when one of member is defeated. Not only were the participants expected to fight as a team, they would have to defend each other too.

“Honnyara kanchanchanara unarasawaka! Eeeeeeeeee!”

“Wha—! Uhm, Laplace? What are you doing!? It’s seriously freaking me out!” Nadine snapped. The championship match was no time to start making weird noises! And just when I was starting to respect you!

“Hm? Oh, I’m just pretending to chant something. Tanya said it’ll be too suspicious if I just snap my fingers, you see.”

“I-I see… although frankly speaking, that weird incantation was more suspicious than anything else, Laplace—”

“Non non! Don’t call me that. I’m Venus Beauty Hoe! Anyways… it looks like that guy in the black armour might be a little tricky to deal with!”

As soon as she finished speaking, her body lifted completely off the ground as she activated her levitation magic. The entire crowd went wild.

“Wait, is that levitation magic!?”

“And without the use of a magic circle either! Impossible!”

“Holy crap! She’s gotta be master caster!”

The cries of astonishment could be heard around the arena.

Laplace rose to about Nadine’s height, her gaze fixed on the black-armoured man, Clarke.

“Well, let’s have a trial run, shall we?” Laplace shot forward and closed the distance on the black armoured knight. She couldn’t use attack spells, so what was she planning?

With a snap of her fingers, the sand in the arena rushed towards her as though it had a will of its own and formed a whip in her hands, strong enough to tear through metal. Without pause, she swung it full force at Clarke.

Unfortunately, Clarke deflected the attack with a single swing of his sword.

Of course, the attack wasn’t one that any regular sword skill could have stopped. Which meant that, almost instantly, he had conjured up a spell strong enough to withstand the attack. A move that spoke volumes of his skills.

A second later, his silent blow struck.

“……huh?”

Laplace was blown away by the intense pressure and slammed into the side of the arena with a loud boom! Dust and debris were thrown into the air.

After a moment of stunned silence, a deafening cheer rose from the crowd. In everyone’s head, the match had already been decided.

In that moment——

“Hahaha!! Incredible!!!!” Laplace’s gleeful laughter echoed through the arena.

Surrounding the Great Sorceress was a barrier strong enough to protect a huge castle, and thus, not a single scratch nor a speck of dust could be found on her. Nadine let out a sigh of relief.

It looks like his title as a Magic Swordsman wasn’t just for show. His proficiency with magic spells seemed high, and one could only guess how much mana he had, but—

“It’s probably around Tanya’s level, or slightly more than that, I think!” Laplace smiled. “Tres bien! Things are starting to get interesting! Nadine, leave this black knight to Miss Venus Beauty Hoe! The Great Sorceress going to get serious now!!”

The battle that unfurled was not humanely possible.

Save that energy for the second match, Nadine thought stiffly.

***

“Then my opponent is…… Katherine?” Nadine murmured.

She didn’t know who the black-armoured guy was, but Nadine wasn’t reckless enough to jump into a fight when Laplace—er, Venus Beauty Hoe—was throwing out those superhuman attacks.

Her gaze landed on Katherine, who was presently sneering in her direction. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Nadine commented after a moment.

“Right back at you. Me, I just figured I’d land myself a good catch if I managed to win this thing.”

“…a good catch?”

“A guy.” Katherine spat. “If I stood out here, maybe a hot guy might notice me. Get me?”

“……what about Ryan?”

“Ha?” Katherine narrowed one eye in contempt, her fox ears twitching. “THAT USELESS GUY? NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!!!!!”

“That bad, huh?” Nadine couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. But then again, she’d only been in that party a short time; in comparison, Tanya deserved a medal for tolerating him for all those years.

CRASH!

Meanwhile, Clarke and Laplace were fighting it out on the entire arena. Despite their flashy attacks, Nadine noticed that there wasn’t a single stray bullet that flew their way and wondered if either of them had gotten serious. The thought sent shivers down her spine.

“Pretty good idea, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“Playing Adventurer for a while, then getting married and having kids. That’s what it means to be a winner in life, you know?” Katherine said smugly. Those words brought Nadine distant memories of her father.

“…I don’t think that’s all there is to life.”

“You’re just jealous because you’re not popular with the guys. Fortunately for me,” Katherine readied her staff. “I’m pretty confident in my skills!”

She began to chant. “Round and round the wheel turns! Hellfire, I summon thee!” Katherine’s full blonde hair fluttered with energy as she engaged her magic circuits.

It’s coming, Nadine noticed.

“Heed my call and give chase!!!”

The second part of that chant was for… fireball? I’ve never heard that first part before.

“Fufu….. I fused the basic Fireball with the Foxfire spell from my clan~”

There was a rumble as over a hundred blue fireballs flicked to life around Katherine.

“Seriously!?”

***

“Holy crap. What is that?” Tanya muttered to herself in the waiting room. The current match had tickled her senses as a Mage.

“Low skill and low accuracy…… but how did she cast that many Fireballs at once!?” She could think of every conceivable skill available but there wasn’t a single one that came remotely close. Seriously, what skill is that. She assumed Katherine was just posing as Mage, but it turns out the fox lady was a lot more talented that she thought.

“Wait… fox…….” She thought back to Katherine’s incantation. What if she combined the beastkin’s secret arts with ordinary magic? “Of course! By switching to a more natural method of magic control, she converted the mana consumption and skill delay into additional attacks!! This is amazing! I’m getting excited!!!”

Katherine acted like a bimbo, but she was actually an extremely brilliant person!

“So that’s her secret! I get it now! Well played, Katherine!” Tanya shouted to herself. Her inner-nerd had surfaced and she was fully geeking out (a little too much) at the moment.

Then, in a much softer voice, she murmured to herself. “If we had met on different terms… could we have been friends, I wonder…”

***

Meanwhile a hundred blue fireballs descended on the level 3 Healer, burning her to a crisp… or not.

“Whoa! Amazing! Who is that?!”

“Look at those move! Is she really a Healer!?”

The crowd roared in excitement as Nadine dodged the incoming balls of fire with the grace of a dancer. Rather, with how skilful she wove through the attacks, it felt as though the Fireballs were avoiding her.

“Oi oi, isn’t she on par with a Thief!? Or a Brawler?”

“I bet she faked her registration as Healer!”

“No wait… holy crap, guys, I don’t think it’s a class skill, she’s just dodging them!”

“HUUUH!!!?”

“You mean it’s not the skills or the equipment… she’s just doing this because she can!?”

“I thought Black Armour and Beauty Hoe’s match was crazy, but this is just straight up insane!”

As she danced, Nadine was forming a strategy to win. She was equipped with a Healer’s staff and had two knives hidden in the hem of her pants while a large dagger was strapped to her back. It was only thanks to Lilium’s equipment policy. None of this would’ve been possible if she was wearing the usual skimpy Adventurers’ outfit.

“Why can’t I hit you!?” Katherine screamed in frustration. Even after all hundred Fireball have been fired, Nadine remained standing. Worse still was the fact that she was inching closer and closer whilst avoiding each attack. A Mage was put at an instant disadvantage once the fight turns to close distance.

Katherine grew anxious.

“Round and round the wheel turns—”

And that was the moment Nadine closed in. The audience gasped.

“THAT’S SO FAST!!!!!”

She threw the staff in her hands, lowered her centre of gravity and shot forward like a bullet. She pulled out one of her hidden knives.

Nadine still wore her lavender hair in braids and her usual round glasses, but the gentle light in her eyes were replaced by the cold, empty ones of an Assassin.

The knife in her hand gleamed. Nadine let out a low growl. “Think you’re faster than my dark blade?”

“Hii—!?” The thick killing intent in the air caused Katherine to stiffen.

All of a sudden, the black armoured knight appeared in front of her, blocking the way.

“……tch.” Nadine clicked her tongue in frustration. The black-armoured knight was too big of a variable, especially since she didn’t recognise his armour; engaging him would be too big of a risk.

She made a split-second decision. In the first place, her assassination techniques relied on the element of surprise, and there was doubt whether she could match a Magic Swordsman in terms of pure combat ability…

“Hey hey, Nadine!” A second later, she heard a snap! She turned her head reflexively and saw Laplace grinning at her.

“How about a trip back to the clock tower?”

Nadine couldn’t stop the corner of her mouth tugging up at those words.

***

The cold metal of the knife pressed against her neck caused Katherine Foxxi’s breathe to catch.

A woman’s voice, devoid of any warmth, sounded behind her. “Surrender or die. Your choice.”

Behind those round glasses, Nadine glared so fiercely at Katherine, as though she was about to plunge the knife into her neck.

“Ah……”

I’m going to go die, Katherine’s instincts screamed at her. Her body threatened to collapse. Suddenly, there was a wet sensation at her feet.

Overcome by terror, Katherine had wet herself…

Katherine’s face burned with shame. She wanted to cry. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She wanted to turn heads but not like this!

“Ggghhh….! I forfeit…” Katherine began to sob. “Please don’t kill me……”

“We have a winner, folks! Championship match, round one goes to…… Lilium!”

The arena that had been deathly silent suddenly burst to life.

***

“Welcome back, ladies!” Tanya exclaimed when they returned to the waiting room.

Nadine stiffened immediately.

“I didn’t expect that last part at all! Using levitation to get Nadine behind the opponent’s blind spot, when did you guys get the time to practice a move like that?”

“Haha, that’s a secret! Right, Nadine?” Laplace replied with a grin. They hadn’t expected that night’s moonlight walk to have helped them here in the Sparring Tournament. As for Nadine, her body still felt light and floaty, and for some reason this made her a little bashful.

“Oh no, it only worked because our opponents were too busy showing off to take us seriously. It’s pure luck that we managed to catch the black armoured knight off guard too.” She tugged at the hem of her shirt.

“Before I forget! Nadine, I didn’t know you had those moves in you! Why didn’t you tell us?! Wait, let me guess… you wanted to surprise us, didn’t you?!”

“Uhm, well… uh… you see……”

Steeling herself, Nadine chose to reveal the truth—the entire truth.

i

“I see… It must’ve been hard on you.”

“It’s alright, I’m okay. I just can’t believe you’d still want to be friends with someone like me… words can’t express the gratitude I’m feeling. Which is why, in exchange… please use me as your personal blade. The Assassin class is one of the highest ranking classes. Once I re-register my job and swap out my equipment, I’ll definitely be more useful to you—”

“What.”

“…huh?”

The look of absolute bafflement on Tanya’s face made Nadine tilt her head in confusion.

“Did… did I say something weird?” Or… maybe she just doesn’t want an Assassin hanging around… Nadine hung her head down the moment those thoughts entered her head.

“No at all! What I meant was, Nadine, you chose to be a Healer, didn’t you?”

“Ah, yes, I did.”

“Then go for it! Who cares if you’re good at it or not? Who cares if you’re ‘useful’? I’ll admit it, it’s reallllllly annoying when people claim that women are ‘supposed’ to be Healers, but if that’s what you want to do, then who cares if you’re only level 3? If it makes you happy, then go for it!”

Nadine’s chest tightened when she heard those words. That’s right, to be someone that heals others instead and not someone that kills—that’s the path she’s chosen.

She bit her lip. “But… what can good is a level 3 Healer?” I can’t heal others, and I can’t get stronger either. Is it really fine for me stay this way?

“Who cares about that!” Tanya wore her usual carefree smile—a smile that Nadine loved dearly. “Nadine’s our Healer, and that’s that!”

There was no way she could hold back the tears that were welling up.

“Wehh… weeehhhhh….!”

Tears smeared her glasses. Ahh, how long has it been since she last cried.

“Nn… weeeehhhh….bbbhhwwweeaaahhhhhh!!!”

“Uhm, Nadine!? Those are some really weird crying sounds!!”

Hearing Tanya’s remark, Laplace burst into laughter. “Ahaha! Reminds me of someone I know!”

“Guh….!!!”

“Hehe. It’s okay Nadine, just cry it out. We’re all girls here too.”

Tanya recognised her words as the same ones she said on a certain day back in the Western Wilderness. She pulled the sobbing Nadine into her arms, then turned to look at Laplace. Together, they recited:

“Sometimes, a girl’s just gotta cry.”

Soon the singles match of the Championship round would begin.

***

“Setting aside everything with my father,” Nadine continued once she stopped crying. “There’s a reason why I stopped calling myself a female Assassin.”

“To protect your identity or something?”

Nadine shook her head. “Not really… For some reason, the old men I encountered, they’d always ask me ‘if you’re a female Assassin, does that mean you do lewd things on the job?’, and I never get how they came to that conclusions……”

And it’s for the exact reason why a lot more women prefer being a Healer than an Assassin.

“Whaaaaat?!! You totally should’ve assassinated their asses!!!!” Tanya shouted.

---

TL Note: ive started reading jwqs once again… spare qijing thoughts please………