With a heavy clack and a rising, mechanical whir, Jessica equipped the massive heavy machinery she had pulled from her subspace, locking it onto both arms before hoisting it up. The huge engine roared to life, and a split second later, something fired from the muzzle.
Simon snapped his head back to dodge.
His eyes tracked the projectile’s path. It flew past him and struck the barrier wall, shattering upon impact and splattering a viscous green liquid.
Naturally, it was packed with poison.
"Here I go!" Jessica shrieked, unleashing a barrage. The magic circles spread around her stabilized the tremendous weight and recoil of the heavy machinery as the muzzles spat fire, belching out a relentless hail of bullets.
Simon immediately kicked off the floor and broke into a sprint.
"Ahahaha!" Jessica cackled like a madwoman as she poured out the ammunition, but her mind remained entirely cold and calculating.
’Just one shot! I just need to land a single hit!’
The poison in the bullets wasn’t lethal, but even a mere graze would be enough to paralyze her opponent’s movements and disrupt his nervous system.
She knew Simon’s jet-black martial arts were formidable. In contrast, her own techniques required a significant amount of preparation time. Therefore, she had one primary objective.
’I need to bind his legs! That’s the most crucial part of the plan!’
Up in the stands, the external scouts widened their eyes, and the match commentator leaped to his feet.
"This Duel Evaluation is taking a completely unexpected turn!" the commentator’s voice boomed over the arena. "Jessica is on a fierce offensive! Student Council President Simon is on the run!"
The twin heavy cannons spat fire, unleashing a deafening staccato of bullets. But Simon’s evasive maneuvers were equally breathtaking. He kicked off the ground, weaving in a rapid zigzag to slip right through the trajectories of the projectiles.
"Whoa!"
"Holy crap. Can a person even dodge like that?" the students gasped in awe.
Simon wasn’t even trying to defend himself. Jessica’s plan had been to corner him, force him to deploy a jet-black shield, and then crush it by concentrating all her firepower onto the barrier. But instead...
Footwork. Rhythm. Irregularity.
He was using techniques specifically designed to throw off an opponent’s aim.
Jessica was a powerhouse in Venomology, but her marksmanship was nothing special. As a novice shooter, she simply couldn’t read Simon’s erratic pathing.
’No! No!’ she panicked, her expression twisting with frustration. ’If this keeps up, I’ll run out of ammo...!’
With a hollow clack, the empty magazines began clicking uselessly. Jessica turned pale with shock as the gunfire ceased, and Simon finally skidded to a halt.
’I didn’t land a single hit.’
Her opening barrage, prepared specifically to counter a martial arts specialist, had completely failed. Now, it was Simon’s turn.
She watched as he lowered his stance.
A low hum resonated through the arena, but Simon didn’t charge in. Instead, he stretched his right arm back and began layering a magic circle.
"Student Council President Simon!" the commentator roared. "He isn’t relying on martial arts this match! He’s preparing a magic circle for a devastating single strike!"
Seeing this, Jessica’s face contorted in disbelief.
’What? Why isn’t he rushing me? There’s no way he doesn’t know I’m vulnerable right now.’
According to her analysis, Simon had relied on a strategy of overwhelming his opponents with an early offensive throughout the entire second-semester Duel Evaluation. Because of that, his matches had ended quickly, offering little in the way of a spectacle.
Yet that same Simon was now going out of his way to prepare dark magic against her.
’Why!’ she seethed, a vein popping on her forehead. ’Why does he always act so relaxed when he fights me? He did the exact same thing back then!’
Heat flared up the back of her neck as she recalled Simon’s eccentric behavior during their first-year midterms.
’Right, right! So you’re underestimating me that much, huh? Fine, have it your way!’
Furious, she spread her arms wide and deployed her own magic circles.
Without exchanging a single blow, the two students layered their magic circles as if locked in a silent competition.
"Oh! The tense early game has shifted into a spell duel!" the commentator cheered. "The second-year Duel Evaluations usually end in a flash, but these two are playing for the late game! This is turning into my absolute favorite kind of match!"
For a long moment, not a single minor attack or mind game was exchanged.
In the heavy silence, the magic circles stacked higher and higher, until Jessica finally made her move.
"Ahaha!" she laughed, throwing her hands out.
Countless subspaces opened around her, causing the students in the stands to widen their eyes.
"Just how many subspaces is she using?" someone muttered.
Various pieces of mechanical equipment, steel rebars, conveyor belts, and more poured out from the glowing portals.
With a chorus of wet squelches, slimes—the favored summons of Venomology majors—rose from the magic circle she had spread across the floor.
The gelatinous creatures scattered in multiple directions, picking up the mechanical equipment to move and assemble it.
Clanks and clicks echoed loudly as heavy metal parts interlocked and snapped together.
Towers were erected across her side of the arena, conveyor belts aligned perfectly, and complex assembly lines fell into place. Some devices floated in the air, powered by jet-black, while others were physically operated by the slimes.
"I’ll show you," Jessica said, crossing her arms with a triumphant smile. "My true power!"
[Jessica Original: Chemical Factory]
The closely connected artifacts clattered noisily to life, operating the makeshift facility. The slimes acted as the tireless workers in the heart of the moving factory.
Jessica continuously pulled large boxes out of her subspace.
Inside were raw chemicals. Every vial and canister was loaded onto the conveyor belts, where the slimes and mechanical arms swiftly moved them to their proper stations.
"Did you know, Simon?" Jessica called out over the mechanical din. "The most powerful deadly poisons in the world either can’t be preserved in their natural state, or their effects drop rapidly after just a few minutes. Meaning, you can’t just conveniently prep them in advance and fire them."
Smoke billowed from chimneys scattered throughout the setup as mechanical arms stirred bubbling liquids.
"In other words, the most effective poisons are the ones mixed on the spot, right on the battlefield," she continued. "I heard from Professor Starry Night that your resistance is outstanding. She uses you as an example every time she teaches a class."
She elegantly raised her hands and placed them on her magic circle’s output device.
"I’ll make the ultimate deadly poison to pierce that resistance you’re so proud of, right here, right now."
Her fingers danced rapidly, tapping the device as if striking piano keys. Jessica controlled every process of the factory through her magic circle. The slimes and artifacts moved using her jet-black as power, while her spell mapped out the complex processes and formulas.
By combining the raw materials with her specific manufacturing methods and jet-black, the chemicals were preparing to be reborn as pure magic.
It looked exactly like a witch’s workshop from a dark fairy tale.
’Amazing,’ Simon thought, a smile creeping onto his face. Just thinking about what incredible result would emerge from that factory made his heart pound. ’It’s like a physically moving magic circle.’
Theoretically speaking, a traditional magic circle that arranged runic words and formulas to produce high-tier dark magic operated on the exact same principles as Jessica’s Chemical Factory, which extracted a powerful, compounded deadly poison.
However.
’It’s too big to be a magic circle. Doesn’t it look vulnerable to attacks?’
Simon’s original plan had been to hold out without launching any offensives until he completed the Chaos Dullahan’s magic circle. But if she was going to build an entire factory, things were different.
He pulled a few skeleton bones from his pocket and hurled them across the arena.
His targets were the seams and joints of the artifacts holding the factory together.
"It’s useless," Jessica scoffed.
At her command, the slimes immediately surged upward, forming a gelatinous wall. The flying bones sank into their bodies with a dull plop and dissolved.
"They’re slimes mixed with Kabara’s poison components."
’So she has at least a minimum level of defense,’ he noted.
He needed to keep Jessica in check without interrupting the completion of his chaos magic.
This time, Simon opened his subspace.
’Go!’
Two zombies dashed out and immediately charged at the factory. A wall made of slimes could easily be blown away with Corpse Explosion, but before they could reach it...
"Intruders detected," Jessica announced. "Preparing firing sequence."
With wet gurgles and sharp clacks, the slimes pulled out machine gun artifacts and attached them to the mechanical arms connected to the factory.
The Chemical Factory’s operations paused momentarily. Instead, the mid-completion stage poisons were assembled into the form of bullets and cycled into the chambers.
"Commence firing."
The shooting artifacts unleashed a volley of deadly poison bullets, melting the charging zombies without a trace.
With a mechanical whir, the muzzles shifted to aim directly at Simon. Her factory had actually initiated a counterattack, forcing him to retract his half-finished magic circle and throw himself out of the way.
The bullets struck the ground with explosive force, forming a horrific puddle of poison that was incomparable to the ones from earlier.
’That’s dangerous,’ Simon thought, his eyes narrowing. ’It’s only in the intermediate stage, but she’s already synthesized a poison like that?’
’Should I cancel my magic circle and use all my strength to tear down that factory right now?’
’No.’
That was exactly what Jessica wanted.
Even if the factory fell, she could still fight using the poison she had already completed.
’In theory, my Chaos Dullahan is invincible once it’s summoned. Let’s not get swayed by her pace.’
However, he still needed to keep her in check. Even if it delayed his own spell a bit, he had to apply stronger pressure.
Simon grounded his left foot.
’Open!’
The Overlord’s blades shot out from the floor, wrapping around four additional zombies he had just summoned and launching them into the air like a catapult.
"Airborne intruders detected," Jessica stated calmly. "Initiating wind-power equipment."
A propeller device clanked as it rose from among the artifacts. Following that, a mechanical arm scattered deadly poison into the spinning blades, sending a toxic gale sweeping in all directions.
Two of the flying zombies were caught in the deadly wind. They rotted away instantly, dissolving before Simon could even trigger Corpse Explosion. The remaining two were swiftly taken out by the machine guns’ precision fire.
"Mages!" Simon shouted, opening a massive subspace and unleashing a barrage of his Skeleton Mages’ ’Dark Blaze’.
Jessica simply snorted.
"Extracting serotinic acid components."
With a sharp click, a mechanical arm extracted a toxic substance mid-production and hurled it forward. The incoming flames collided with the liquid and were instantly extinguished, as if doused by water. The dying embers crackled as they settled onto the ground.
Any remaining fire that wasn’t fully neutralized was easily dodged when Jessica used her jet-black to shift the entire factory to the side.
"There are no fewer than sixty types of poison being handled in this factory right now," Jessica boasted. "I can counter whatever attack comes my way."
She let out a triumphant laugh.
"Welcome to the Great Chemical Era, Simon."
The vats in the factory began to vigorously boil over, releasing thick plumes of toxic steam.
"The real start is right now," she declared. "I’ll show you my ultimate technique, created through the Chemical Factory!"
At the same time.
"Ugh, we’re late!"
Three people were sprinting across the first-year campus. Special Admission Number One, Sasha, shouted while wildly flailing her arms.
"Hurry up, Idiot King! Simon’s match must have already started!"
"It’s Mercenary King, not Idiot King! ’Hrrnggh’!"
The guy currently sprinting across the campus while getting smacked in the head by Sasha was Special Admission Number Two, Mercenary King Arthur.
He was running like a wild horse with the two girls slung over his shoulders. Every time his boots struck the ground, the scenery blurred past, kicking up massive clouds of dust.
Princess Molly, sitting on his other shoulder, had her eyes squeezed shut.
"I am so sorry, Royal Father," she whimpered. "The dignity of the Dresden royal family is..."
"If you’re gonna act all high and mighty, get off," Arthur grunted.
"I’m only coming along because I don’t know what kind of trouble you two will cause next!" Molly shot back.
The other first-years who spotted the trio sprinting across the campus reacted as if it were a completely normal occurrence.
"What are those three idiots doing now?"
"Who knows. Probably off to cause a scene somewhere."
A former Saintess candidate from the Neutral Zone, the Mercenary King, and a royal princess.
They were a trio unlike any other in the world.
Just then, Sasha’s eyes widened.
"There it is! The second-year campus’s Indoor Arena Three!"
Deafening cheers were already ringing out from the building. Arthur grinned.
"Hold on tight, both of you!"
He bounded up the stairs, his heavy footfalls practically shattering the stone, and leaped straight into the spectator stands. Amidst the heated cheers, Simon and Jessica came into view.
"We’re late," Sasha panted. "But I’m sure Simon is—"
"Ah."
Sasha’s pupils trembled in disbelief as she looked up at the arena’s mana screen.
[Simon Polentia: 8%]
[Jessica Kananor: 100%]
"Simon is... losing?"
The first-year trio hurriedly grabbed the railing and leaned over. Down in the arena, in front of the second-year opponent named Jessica, a monstrous creature made of horrific green poison was roaring.
[Jessica Original: Poison Hydra]
"Give up," Jessica demanded.
A toxic fog as thick as soup clouded the inside of the barrier, and the arena floor was boiling like a swamp of pure venom.
In the center of it all, the massive poisonous monster glared down at Simon.
It was the most powerful deadly poison summon she could create using her ’Chemical Factory’.
Cornered at the edge of the arena and slumped on the ground, Simon gasped for breath. Strange, sickly patterns had broken out all over his skin, and tears of blood were streaming from his eyes.
"Now that my final technique is complete, there’s no chance of you winning no matter what you do," Jessica declared. "Now, to end this..."
Right at that moment.
"You can do it!"
Sasha’s voice rang out, echoing clearly over the din of the arena. Everyone’s heads turned toward the stands.
"What’s with that first-year?"
"She has no manners."
Amidst the murmuring crowd, Simon let out a faint smile and forced himself to his feet.
"My juniors came all this way," he rasped. "I can’t show them an even more pathetic sight."
"Don’t you think you’re pushed a little too far to the edge to be acting tough?" Jessica scoffed.
The Chemical Factory was still running at full capacity.
The poisons synthesized within its vats continued to feed Jessica’s masterpiece, making the ’Poison Hydra’ bigger and stronger by the second.
Its mere existence polluted the earth and the air. Physical attacks wouldn’t work on it. No matter how Simon countered with jet-black elemental magic, the beast would endlessly regenerate using the power of the factory.
Jessica’s hidden card was truly formidable. It was the first time she had managed to summon the Poison Hydra so cleanly in a Duel Evaluation, and she firmly believed there was absolutely no way she could lose.
"Here I go, then," Simon muttered.
He opened his subspace.
With a heavy thud, a massive headless body descended from the portal, crouching low and gripping a greatsword. Seeing it, the audience erupted into passionate cheers.
"It’s out!"
"It’s the President’s Dullahan!"
The crowd roared in excitement.
Simon pulled Manus’s skull from another subspace and placed it securely atop the Dullahan’s neck. Then, he attached the magic circle he had been painstakingly preparing onto the undead’s body.
A brilliant purple radiance burst forth. Powered by chaos, the Dullahan slowly rose to its full, imposing height.
"I heard that thing sliced through ten thousand monsters," someone whispered.
"That’s gotta be a lie."
The third-years in the stands clicked their tongues skeptically.
His opponent, Jessica, still had enough composure to smile.
"You finally brought it out. But don’t you think it’s too late? In another minute, your stamina will completely—"
"Jessica."
Despite groaning from the searing pain of the poison, Simon staggered forward and interrupted her.
"You said it earlier, right? That the Chemical Era has arrived."
"So what?"
"Then I’ll make a declaration of my own."
Simon raised his hand.
The Chaos Dullahan’s jet-black engine activated, beating like a massive, mechanical heart. At the same time, ethereal purple wheat began to sprout from its armored body.
Simon lowered his hand.
"Welcome back to the Stone Age."
A deep rumble shook the arena as something initiated from within the Chaos Dullahan’s body.
At that moment, Jessica looked back in shock.
With a deafening crash and the sickening crunch of tearing metal, her setup began to fail.
The Chemical Factory, which had boasted ironclad defense, suddenly began to collapse as if its very existence were a lie. The slimes went limp, the power to all the artifacts and conveyor belts abruptly shut off, and the jet-black fueling the machinery vanished completely.
The poisonous fog filling the arena sizzled, turning into harmless particles that settled like dust on the floor, while the surging puddles of toxic sludge rapidly dried up.
Just then.
"Ah!" Jessica gasped.
With a pathetic gurgle, the Poison Hydra she was so proud of began shrinking in size.
Soon, the Hydra became smaller than Jessica herself, melting into a tiny puddle before even that completely evaporated into nothingness.
All that remained were a few dried-up flakes of green residue.
"Wh-What!"
Panicking, she trembled and backed away.
"What did you do! Simon!"
Simon grinned and mimed drawing a sword. Behind him, the Chaos Dullahan stylishly drew its massive greatsword, mirroring Simon’s exact stance.
"I hope you’re used to the battles of this era too, Jessica."
The Sword Master’s skull seemed to smile, flashing a vicious, bloodthirsty glint in its empty eye sockets.

Comments

Loading...