Chapter 107: A Hundred Point Bounty

The room went quiet.

Several observers paused mid-movement, glancing toward the main overseer like he’d just suggested setting the campus on fire. To be honest, he probably kinda did.

“…New?” one of them said carefully.

The main observer kept his eyes on the dormitory district—the one currently being shredded apart by violet tendrils and abyssal blades.

Concrete collapsed.

Buildings split.

Two silhouettes kept clashing at the center like natural disasters wearing human skin.

He smiled.

“Nothing complicated,” he said lightly. “Just a little incentive.”

*** Dormitory District – Ruins

ZIP!

A spike of darkness slit my throat.

ZIP!

Another one cleaving straight through my eyes.

[Profaned Recovery]

At this point, the entire street looked like it had been chewed up and spat back out. Walls perforated. Asphalt gone. Lamp posts twisted like wet rope.

Honestly?

Kind of nostalgic.

Reminded me of when I was deployed to a battlefield to eliminate a high-value general.

“S-Stop!” Herman roared, his voice cracking as the pressure squeezing his skull mounted, grinding down his will to fight.

He split his focus, attacking while flooding his skull with dense dark magic, the only thing keeping it from popping like an overripe egg.

“Then hit me,” I shot back.

ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP—

Needles of darkness rained down like a storm.

Normally, that kind of attack would force someone to retreat.

I planted my feet and refused to move, fingers locking tighter around his head as a wild grin carved across my face in the heart of the chaos.

Skin tore.

Closed.

Tore again.

Closed again.

Echo was disgusting.

Every recovery spell I used stacked twice more behind it. Every manipulation multiplied. Every action echoed.

It felt less like fighting and more like cheating.

Which, to be fair, it kind of was.

“Y-You’re a monster—!”

“Yeah,” I said calmly, tightening my grip another inch. “That tends to be the conclusion.”

His skull screamed under my fingers. Not metaphorically—literally. Dark magic shrieked as it was compressed, bent, forced to reinforce something that was already failing.

ZIP!

Another spike punched through my chest.

ZIP!

Two more tore through my abdomen.

[Profaned Recovery]

The wounds sealed instantly, violet light flaring as Echo doubled it, then doubled it again. I barely felt the impact anymore, just a dull pressure, like rain hitting armor.

Herman’s breathing turned ragged.

His spells were losing rhythm.

This is why I didn’t rely on being a pure mage; just even the slightest lack of focus and your entire strategy crumbles.

“You’re making a big mistake,” he rasped. “If I fall here—”

“—I gain twenty points,” I finished for him. “Yeah, I know.”

My grip tightened.

Then… as expected.

FWOOSH!

An observer flew in on a hovering disc, his coat and entire body wrapped in layers of shielding magic cast by the others who stayed behind.

It was the only way they could step in between us without risking the observer being injured—or even killed—in the crossfire.

[Ding!]

[Arden and Illinalta: Eliminated Herman Frey, 20 Points]

Did it still count as Kevin being part of my team?

Well, that makes things easier.

At least…

[Special bounty event started]

[Arden: 100 Points]

E-Eh…?

*** Academy Lake

Evelina walked through a field stained with blood and ash, the remains of professors and students alike, each one snatched away by the Observers before she could deliver the killing blow.

It was a massacre.

An entire camp of students and an ambush party of professors were wiped out by a single person.

“What a bore.”

She scoffed, inspecting the area for any valuable artifacts that could have dropped.

’I should have stayed with Cael for longer…’

Evelina couldn’t help but regret her choice; surely another three hours wouldn’t have made much of a difference, right?

[You’re insatiable, master]

’I don’t want to hear that from a succubus.’

Evelina snickered. She was starting to get used to her presence, well… she had to, considering it now lived in her thoughts and was granting her power.

[Ding!]

[Special bounty event started]

[Arden: 100 Points]

All the academy speakers chimed in all at once.

Evelina’s eyes widened at the reveal. Did she hear that right? Was I really granted a bounty of a hundred points!?

“What did he do this time!?”

Evelina turned in the direction where she sensed I was, using her succubus powers to track the faint traces of my magic.

The instant she locked onto my location, her knees nearly buckled under the sheer, crushing density of the magic that slammed into her mind.

’W-What was that…!?’

She thought with wobbly legs, summoning a pillar of darkness to help support herself from collapsing onto the ground.

[It’s your instincts. You have a natural attraction to powerful magic users, especially the ones you’ve already… well, you know, slept with.]

’T-That’s a thing!?’

[Well… makes sense you humans never documented that behaviour, most would kill their host before a discovery like that could even happen.]

The succubus inside her choker giggled. Should she have told her master that information earlier? Yes. But would that have been any fun? Not at all. Besides, it wasn’t a violation of their demonic contract.

It wasn’t as if Evelina had asked for the information in the first place anyway.

She steadied her breathing.

Slow in.

Slow out.

The pressure didn’t disappear, but it stopped overwhelming her.

Like standing too close to a bonfire. Still hot, still dangerous. But just… survivable.

“…Idiot,” she muttered under her breath.

Not annoyed or angry.

Just exasperated.

“What are you even fighting to make that much noise…?”

A hundred-point bounty.

That wasn’t something the academy handed out casually.

That was reserved for monsters.

For walking catastrophes.

For things that warped the balance of the exam just by existing, like Corvus.

And apparently.

I qualified.

[What do you plan to do?]

Evelina hesitated slightly, sure I was powerful and could handle myself.

But a hundred-point bounty was still a hundred-point bounty; the sheer concentration of students who would gang up on me would be insurmountable.

She wasn’t even sure if I could survive something like that.

And even worse, she was supposed to stay solo the entire examination and only interact with me when she knew no one was looking.

But…

The succubus knew exactly how to get her master moving.

[Y’know, what if other girls try to save him before you?]

’W-What did you say…?’

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