The Blood Golem charged forward like a mobile fortress, kicking up a thick cloud of dust. Andre's summon, Ensifer, rained blows upon the golem's frame with its greatsword, but the creature didn't even flinch. In fact, one swing of the golem's arm sent the greatsword flying.
'Ensifer is being overpowered...!'
Andre chewed his thumbnail, his anxiety mounting. How on earth could a first-year student use a third-year student's technique? To be fair, Simon's Blood Golem wasn't perfect. Its body dripped and oozed, and it was smaller than a fully formed one.
'Right, it's just a clumsy imitation. No need to panic.'
Steeling his resolve, Andre swept his arm downward.
'VWOOOOM!'
Ensifer's greatsword, swung with more force than ever, dug deep into the charging golem's shoulder.
'SPLAT!'
At the same moment, a matching wound split open on Simon's shoulder, spraying blood.
'It's a fake, but it even has the Life Link effect? In that case...!'
Andre immediately cast a magic circle on the ground. The moment the Blood Golem reached him, he activated it.
<Solutio>
The lower half of the golem dissolved as it stepped on the magic circle. 'Solutio' was a curse that melted objects.
'This should be perfect for your shoddy, imitation Blood Golem!'
With the golem's feet melted and stuck to the ground, Ensifer swung its greatsword relentlessly. Wounds appeared one after another on the golem's body, and with each one, a corresponding gash opened on Simon.
Andre clenched his fists. 'The Blood Golem is a double-edged sword! He'd be better off just dispelling it!'
Suddenly, the golem, which had been taking a one-sided beating, planted both hands on the ground. Using only its arm strength, it launched itself forward.
'CRASH!'
The impact sent Andre flying several meters, and he tumbled across the ground. The noblewomen nearby cried out and scrambled back.
'Ugh!' That was close. By the time Andre pushed himself up, Ensifer had vanished.
"A fixed magic circle, I see," Simon said, panting. It was the kind of spell that couldn't be maintained if the caster moved.
"I knew what you were aiming for," Andre snarled, laying a new magic circle on the ground. Thick smoke rose around him, and Ensifer materialized once more. "This was well within my calculations! Do you think I've only practiced coordinate recalculation once or twice?"
The royalist nobles erupted in cheers. Simon, however, showed no sign of wavering, even though his decisive blow had been thwarted. A faint smile even touched his lips.
"Ha! You have the luxury to smile in this situation?"
"The Blood Golem has served its purpose." Simon raised an arm above his head and deployed a magic circle. "Return."
The dissolving golem's body turned to smoke and was sucked into the swirling vortex. For Simon, the Blood Golem was merely a stepping stone. Reaching behind his back, he grabbed the empty air and pulled.
'Hmph!'
A massive portal, over sixty-five feet long, tore open in a straight line before him.
From within emerged a troop of skeletons-twenty-three in total, including archers.
"What's this? I thought you were bringing out something special, but it's just skeletons?" Andre scoffed, but those in the know gasped in admiration. Princess Molly, in particular, was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her eyes sparkling. Finally, smiles broke across Lorraine's and Serne's faces. In contrast, the royalist nobles turned pale.
"Your Highness! You must stop him!"
"That's the technique from the Kizen exam...!"
It was too late. Simon swept his arm down. "Here I go."
An emerald Cloud descended from the magic circle, infusing the bodies of the twenty-three skeletons. Their white bones took on a vibrant green hue, and the swords in their hands blazed as if they were wielding beams of pure light. Behind them, the Cloud extended from their spines to form ethereal capes.
'Clatter. Clack.'
The transformed skeletons adjusted their grips on their weapons, their capes fluttering in the wind. A turquoise glow flickered from within their empty eye sockets.
<Simon Original - Royal Guard>
'Ugh! What the hell is that?!' The color drained from Andre's face. Twenty-three undead were moving with the fluid grace of living beings. It was a technique he had never even heard of.
'Don't tell me it's an Original!'
Though stunned, Andre reacted quickly, opening a Subspace to summon his own forces to match the numbers. Limp corpses tumbled out and, under his command, began to rise.
'GRRR-OWL! WOOF! WOOF!'
They were zombies crafted from the corpses of canine monsters-a pack of eight Zombie Dogs. Using them would diminish his control over Ensifer, but at least he could somewhat even the odds.
"Our resources are on a different level!" Andre shouted. "The cost invested in these is incomparable to your pathetic basic skeletons-!"
Just then, the Royal Guards bent their knees and shot forward like bullets. They crossed thirty-three feet in an instant. As they swung their turquoise swords, a sharp sound echoed as a Zombie Dog's torso was severed.
'In a single blow?'
The skeletons' swordsmanship, like they were wielding lightsabers, was all the more spectacular in the dim light. The Zombie Dogs were being systematically dismantled.
"Ugh!"
Panicked, Andre continuously summoned more Zombie Dogs from his Subspace, but Simon's control was impeccable.
The swordsmen fell back as the spearmen of the Royal Guard charged forward, thrusting their weapons. The swordsmen then flanked the enemy, smashing into their sides and shattering their formation.
'WHOOSH! WHOOOOSH!'
To make matters worse, turquoise arrows flew toward Andre himself. He was forced to drop his control and throw up a Jet-Black shield. The Royal Guard archers were picking off Zombie Dogs while constantly seeking an opportunity to strike him.
'Damn it!'
Andre had summoned over twenty Zombie Dogs, but he hadn't taken down a single member of the Royal Guard. More importantly...
Smoke rose from the wounds Simon had sustained from the Life Link, and they began to heal. Andre stared in horror.
"H-How do the skeletons have the Blood Golem's healing effect...!"
Simon, who had expended a great deal of stamina summoning the golem, looked visibly refreshed.
'You must be surprised if it's your first time seeing this.'
The Royal Guard wasn't created simply by draping skeletons in Cloud. A Blood Golem had to be completed first, its constituent Cloud then transferred to the skeletons. Simon was still maintaining the 'Summon Blood Golem' spell. In other words, the Royal Guard wasn't just skeletons wearing Cloud; they were skeletons wearing a Blood Golem.
The Royal Guard carved through the Zombie Dogs and closed in on Andre. Flustered, he flailed his arms and commanded Ensifer.
'CLANG!'
A Royal Guard, struck squarely by Ensifer's sword, exploded into a cloud of bone fragments. Even as Royal Guards, they couldn't escape the inherent fragility of skeletons.
"Ugh!"
Far across the field, Simon staggered from the shared damage. A glint appeared in Andre's eyes.
'Life Link is a double-edged sword. By using that technique, he's putting his own life on the line. If I stay calm, I can win!'
Ensifer swung its menacing greatsword again and again, thinning the ranks of the Royal Guard and wounding Simon in the process. But for every hit he took, the Royal Guards would cut down another Zombie Dog, healing him. It was a cycle of damage and recovery. This couldn't go on forever.
Andre had no choice but to recall the Zombie Dogs to his Subspace. It was a fatal mistake. With the supply of Zombie Dogs cut off, Simon used his numerical superiority to control the field. In an instant, two Royal Guards were behind Andre.
"Ugh!"
Andre ducked just as a turquoise sword sliced through the air where his head had been. With attacks pouring in from all sides, he was overwhelmed. He had to use Ensifer for defense while simultaneously fighting with his own martial skills.
Cuts from the Royal Guards appeared all over his body. Outnumbered, he was the sole focus of their assault.
"Gaaaaah!"
Andre threw his arms out, unleashing a Jet-Black shockwave that blasted two Royal Guards to pieces. He panted, a triumphant smirk spreading across his face.
'Clack clack.'
He then realized that the bones of the shattered Royal Guards had frozen in midair. From a distance, Simon spread his palm wide.
<Bone Nail>
From every direction, emerald bone shards rained down on Andre. The sharp fragments embedded themselves in his body like spears.
The pain snapped his concentration, and Ensifer, which he had been maintaining, vanished. A Royal Guard seized the opening and swung its sword.
He gasped.
At the last second, Andre used 'Spirit Form,' the signature skill of a Spiritology major, to escape the encirclement. The Royal Guard's sword passed harmlessly through his incorporeal form.
[You did it, boy! You made him use his Spirit Form!] Pier's voice echoed in his mind.
With rare exceptions like Cindy Vivace, Spirit Form had a cooldown. There was even a saying that the first step to defeating a Spiritmancer was to force them to use it. This was his chance.
Andre couldn't maintain the form for long and solidified back in the physical world.
'The final stage.'
Simon played his trump card. Activating the magic circle above his head once more, he drained all the Cloud from the Royal Guard. The skeletons froze, like machines that had been powered down. He then modified the magic circle's formula, distorting the Cloud's ratio, and pulled a bow and arrow from the swirling vortex.
"It's over, Your Highness. Surrender," Simon warned, nocking a dark blue arrow to the string.
A tremor ran through Andre's lips. "Sur... render?"
If word got out that he'd lost to a first-year, his reputation would be beyond repair. He had even wagered the exclusive rights to a dungeon on a royal oath without his father's permission. This wasn't just hitting rock bottom; this was being buried alive.
"I have nowhere left!" he roared, thrusting his arms forward. "Nowhere left to retreat!"
Multiple layers of magic circles unfolded before him as the high-tier defensive spell 'Jet-Black Great Gate' materialized, one layer after another. It was the strongest defense he could muster.
'I have no choice.'
The arrow's emerald glow faded completely, replaced by an inky blackness. Simon released the taut bowstring.
<Simon Remake - Blood Arrow>
With a sound like a cannon blast, the arrow shot forward and slammed into the five-layered Jet-Black Great Gate.
Two layers shattered on impact, and the subsequent gates crumbled in succession. In the blink of an eye, only a single, cracked gate remained. Andre's clothes were torn to shreds by the force, but he gritted his teeth and held his ground, letting out a desperate roar.
The arrow erupted in a massive, dark blue explosion. The ground split apart, and rock fragments flew in all directions.
"Huuuh!"
Just as a large chunk of debris was about to crush a group of nobles, Lorraine, daggers in hand, flashed past. The rock disintegrated into fine dust.
"He's making me work," Serne sighed, floating in the air with her legs crossed. She controlled a swarm of countless feathers, effortlessly lifting a boulder-sized fragment with a single, tiny quill. It was an incredible display of power.
Simon let out a long breath and stared ahead.
"Heheheh! Hehe!" Laughter echoed from the smoke. "Hahahaha!"
Andre emerged from the explosion, his clothes in tatters and blood streaming down his face. His legs trembled as if they would give out at any moment, but he remained standing through sheer force of will.
"I endured it! I endured it! What are you going to do now, Simon Polentia?!"
Pier's clone clicked its tongue. [Did you hold back at the end? You're too soft.]
'Of course I did. I can't kill a royal. But...'
Simon slowly lowered his finger. Andre's gaze followed it.
His own shadow was glowing red, and it was connected to Simon's.
'That bastard! When did he cast a curse...!'
"'Indolence.' The curse of painlessness."
"A curse like that exists?"
It was no surprise that Andre didn't know. 'Indolence' was one of the four great curses Bahil had created specifically for Simon.
"It's a curse that accumulates all sensations, including pain, into a magic circle so that my body doesn't feel them for a set period. The duration is almost up," Simon explained with a small smile. "Shall we share the pain?"
All the pain Simon had endured until now crashed over Andre like a tidal wave, and his consciousness went white.
'...Aaargh!'
'Indolence' worked by storing all pain and then, at the end of its duration, sharing it with the linked target.
'M-My shoulder feels like it's going to fall off!'
As a prince, he was unaccustomed to such agony. He froze for a split second, overwhelmed by the pain. But Simon, who had been through countless trials, merely winced and charged forward.
In a life-or-death duel, that brief hesitation was all it took. Simon's Jet-Black-infused fist slammed into Andre's jaw. The prince's body flew into the air before crashing to the ground.
The head butler rushed over to check on the fallen Andre. His eyes had rolled back into his head; he was completely motionless.
"M-Match over! The winner is Simon Polentia!" Simon lightly dusted off his hands.
'I'll be taking that dungeon, thank you very much.'

Comments

Loading...