I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 172: Does This Count as a Lover’s Quarrel...?

"Hope your father won’t mind the damage."

"Don’t worry, we have plenty of earth mages to fix it later."

We clashed a heartbeat later. No testing strikes, and she wasn’t holding back—she came at me like a drawn arrow finally loosed.

[Abyssal Lance]

[Abyssal Lance]

Spells flew the instant we closed the distance, her physical blows threading seamlessly between bursts of magic.

THUD!

THUD!

Dark lances slammed into the ground a breath before skewering me, leaving pits and spiderweb cracks in the stone. I slipped between them, feeling the cold rush of magic as they tore past, never taking my eyes off her.

Evelina only grew faster, each step lighter, sharper, her silhouette blurring at the edges.

[Dark Bind]

Shadows writhed under my feet. Black tendrils erupted upward in a sudden, snapping cage—I leapt back as they clapped shut where my legs had been, the air shivering with the force of their impact.

She was already on me.

Darkness wrapped around her arm as she drove her palm toward my chest. I raised my forearm—

THUD!

The impact rattled my bones and sent a jolt up to my shoulder. I skidded across the dirt, boots carving twin trenches before I dug in and killed my momentum.

She lifted her hand again, eyes never leaving me.

[Abyssal Lance]

Three this time. Dark spears ripped through the air, shrieking as they cut the distance.

I exhaled.

Black fire roared to life along my arm. Not heat. Not normal flame. Something heavier. Hungrier. It dragged at the air, warping the light around it.

I swung.

The flames lashed out like a whip, cracking with a low, hungry snarl. The first lance disintegrated on contact, the second shattered into a spray of dissolving fragments, the third forced its way through—barely—its edge eroding as it pushed.

I tilted my head and let it whistle past my cheek.

CRACK!

It blew a jagged hole in the ground behind me, shards of stone pelting my back.

Evelina was already back in my face, closing the gap in a blur of motion. She had started to like fighting up close.

Good.

Her heel flashed toward my ribs, the air popping around the strike. I caught her leg with my flaming hand, black fire crawling eagerly over my fingers toward her skin.

Her expression flickered.

"You’ll burn yourself," she warned.

I grinned. "That’s the idea."

The flames surged, thickening, coiling higher. Heatless pressure pushed outward. She twisted, tearing her leg free before they could spread, spinning the motion into an elbow strike aimed at my jaw.

I ducked, stepped in.

I ducked under it and stepped in.

Black fire coiled around my fist, condensing until it felt like I was gripping a solid weight of shadow, as I drove it toward her stomach.

BOOM!

The explosion hurled us apart in opposite directions. The ground between us cratered, dust and pebbles erupting into the air. We skidded across the dirt, footwear hissing against stone, dust hanging in a thick curtain between us.

She straightened first, brushing stray dust from her sleeve.

Darkness gathered around her, thicker now, shadows crawling like something alive.

"You’re holding back," she said quietly.

Black fire climbed my arm to my shoulder, the weight of it settling along my spine.

I replied, "I never meant to really hurt you."

She smiled faintly, eyes sharpening.

The shadows around her burst outward in a sudden shockwave. The ground shuddered under my boots, thin cracks racing away from her feet.

She vanished.

My instincts screamed. I turned—too slow.

THUD!

Pain exploded in my side as her kick slammed into my ribs, the world flipping as I went flying. I tumbled, rolling to a stop just short of the stone boundary, dust scratching my throat with each breath.

When I looked up, Evelina was already approaching. Slow and certain. Each step left a faint smear of darkness behind, shadows boiling around her like a living cloak.

"...Alright," I muttered as the black flames roared higher around me, licking up past my shoulder and casting warped light across the arena.

Maybe it was time to stop warming up.

[Echo (On)]

[Requiem]

The ground beneath me detonated in two sharp bursts—first to blast dust into the air, second to hurl it across the arena.

A smokescreen.

Evelina slammed her heel down, darkness spiderwebbing through the floor as she cratered it. A surge of shadow wind howled out, ripping the dust away.

But I was already on her.

[Eclipse Immolation]

Heat and cold flared around my hands, twin extremes wrapping my fingers as I drove my palm toward her shoulder—non-lethal, nothing permanent, but a spot that would make her feel it.

[Dark Step]

Evelina blinked out, trying to escape.

I’d been waiting for that.

[Requiem]

The ground beside her erupted twice in rapid succession, shockwaves kicking dust straight into her face, breaking her focus.

My palm smashed into her shoulder. The compressed flames detonated on impact.

BANG!

Then—

[Echo]

BANG!

The second strike slammed home, the echoed force ripping through her. She flinched, eyes squeezing shut from the pain.

And still, she smiled.

[Shadow Parade]

Dozens of shadowy figures bled out of the darkness around us, all of them lunging straight for me.

[Black Threnody]

Black pillars of flame speared up around us in a star-shaped pattern. With Echo still active, the formation warped into a hexagram, the number of pillars doubling. I didn’t feel like waiting for the full buildup.

So I altered the spell mid-cast.

"Be ready." I smiled.

FWOOSH!

The pillars snapped inward at terrifying speed, converging on our position. The instant they met in the center—

BOOM!

Flame and force swallowed the arena.

When the smoke finally thinned, Evelina lay on the ground, hacking up dust, her body bruised and scorched. I stood over her, untouched—black fire curling harmlessly around me.

"Did I go too far!?"

I snapped back to my senses and crouched down to check on her.

Bad move.

[Demonic Transformation]

The moment I bent down, her succubus form finished manifesting. Her spaded tail snapped around my legs, and she whipped me off my feet, hurling me across the yard.

I slammed into the dirt.

Yeah, of course, she wasn’t going down that easily.