I realized that the Zweite Aura support magic I’d cast on Raphtalia had been erased. That’s right . . . I conjured the magic myself and successfully cast it on Raphtalia, and yet it had been shattered into pieces.

Hold on now! I’d heard that even drifa-level magic could be obstructed, but to block zweite-level magic with such a short incantation . . . Just how skilled was this woman?!

Nadia had rendered my Zweite Aura ineffective. It took a few seconds before I fully understood what had happened, and Raphtalia had also made her attack under the assumption that her stats would be increased, so she ended up missing by a long shot.

“Wha . . .”

“You’re wide open!”

With her harpoon in hand, Nadia crouched low and thrust at Raphtalia. The attack was powerful and heavy, just like the one she had delivered to the mercenaries back when we got ambushed.

“Ugh! Ahhhh!”

The attack connected, and Raphtalia went flying and smashed into the arena wall, which let out a loud cracking sound.

“Ra—Shigaraki!”

That was close. If a monster skilled enough to nullify support magic figured out who we really were, there was no telling what kind of attacks she would come at us with.

“I . . . I’m okay.”

Raphtalia wobbled to her feet. She had her hand on her shoulder, where the harpoon had connected.

“Ugh . . .”

Nadia went right into casting another spell, as if to say she wouldn’t let an opening go to waste.

“Should I throw jingle-jangle?”

“Let’s not do that. It would be no joke if that weapon ended up getting used against us right now.”

We were already struggling against a single harpoon. We could end up forcing ourselves into a corner if we let her steal that morning star from us. Right now, we had to focus on making sure Raphtalia could continue fighting. I pulled some healing medicine out of my pocket and ran over to Raphtalia. I rubbed it on her wound while casting healing magic. Surely healing magic cast at point-blank range couldn’t be obstructed, right?

“Thank you, Mr. Nao . . . Mr. Rock.”

“No worries. Anyways, that woman is a monster!”

Our stats may have been lower than normal, but we were undoubtedly still far stronger than your average adventurer. And yet she had easily dodged all of Raphtalia’s and Filo’s attacks. She must have been ridiculously strong. I had expected the fight to end with Raphtalia’s and Filo’s opening attacks.

I checked my status screen and several sections were blurred out. I’d suspected this might be the case, but apparently the arena area was under the effect of some kind of magic. I wasn’t sure if it was Nadia’s doing, something paid for by the spectators, or if the organizers were secretly interfering, but I guess I was going to have to get out in front and restrain Nadia myself.

“Is it my tuuurn?”