Chapter 245: Episode 245

After a final glance at each combatant, the head butler lowered his arm. “You may begin!” The moment the duel started, the two boys moved differently. Andre immediately deployed a magic circle, focusing on preparing a high-level spell.

Simon, however, drew a single circle behind him before charging straight at his opponent. ’Good call.’

Watching Simon rush forward, Lorraine crossed her arms. ’The black magic a second-year can wield is on another level entirely. It’s best to take out a minimal insurance policy and try to end this with close combat early on.’

’Thud!’

Aiming for a melee, Simon leaped, stepping on a platform of Jet-Black. Andre’s eyes widened in shock at the maneuver. ’What is wrong with this bastard?!’

From Andre’s perspective, a distant black line had suddenly shot forward and was now right in his face. Andre’s expression contorted as he crossed his arms to block the kick. ’What kind of power is this!’

His feet slid back, carving long gashes in the ground. Simon pressed his advantage, unleashing a flurry of kicks that blurred like spear thrusts. Andre struggled to parry the onslaught. One of Simon’s kicks shot deep into Andre’s guard. His upper body followed, leaning forward at an extreme angle as he brought a powerful straight from his right arm, lashing out. The fierce blow tore through the air. Andre, having tilted his body to evade, saw his chance to counter. ’A mere freshman!’

He stepped forward and threw a punch of his own.

’Thud!’

He thought he’d found an opening, but Simon’s arms had already snapped back into a defensive position, catching Andre’s fist. “Agh!”

The moment his arm was caught, Andre’s vision tilted toward the sky. His body was being thrown. “Ugh!”

Before his back could slam into the ground, he summoned Jet-Black to his feet, landing firmly and absorbing the impact. Simon intended to follow up immediately, but seeing the magic circle Andre had deployed in mid-air, he leaped back. A blade of pure darkness grazed his coat as it sliced past. ’Damn it…! No more letting my guard down!’

Hastily scrambling to his feet, Andre wiped his mouth and summoned his own Jet-Black. Three magic circles materialized around him. Jet-Black Arrows. A flicker of confusion crossed Simon’s eyes as he watched. ’A second-year is using Jet-Black Arrows?’

Then, another magic circle materialized in front of the first, spinning like a carriage wheel at an incredible speed. A torrent of arrows shot out in a straight line like a machine gun. Startled, Simon threw himself to the side. Everywhere he ran, a wall of arrows blocked his path.

[The distance is widening again, boy! You have to close it somehow!] ’I know!’

At least he had confirmed his superiority in close combat. Simon began to zigzag, closing the distance to Andre once more. Just then, a shiver ran down his spine. He sensed something pitch-black hurtling toward him from the side. On pure animal instinct, he raised Lorraine’s dagger. The force of the blow bent Simon’s body at an unnatural angle.

A greatsword materialized from thin air, lunging for his side. He barely managed to parry it with the tip of the dagger Lorraine had given him.

The force of the blow sent Simon skidding backward, gouging a long scar in the floor. He glanced at Lorraine’s dagger; nearly ten percent of the blade’s crimson aura had already vanished. The impact felt like being struck by a charging carriage.

“I didn’t think you’d be able to react to that,” Andre sneered. The weapon that had struck Simon was already gone.

’What was that?’

A cold sweat broke out across Simon’s brow as he raised the dagger defensively. He couldn’t risk closing the distance until he understood that technique.

Meanwhile, Andre’s spell was nearing completion.

“Open your eyes and watch closely!” he boomed, raising his arm high. “And understand what it means to have survived a year longer at Kizen!”

Black smoke billowed from the magic circle, shrouding Andre. A moment later, the spectral figure of a giant emerged from the smoke. Its body was encased in black armor, and a baleful light emanated from its helmet. In its right hand, it clutched the same greatsword that had just assaulted Simon.

<Advent – Ensifer>

’THUD!’

The giant shouldered its greatsword and loomed over Simon, who felt a paralyzing tingle spread through his body.

’A Spiritology major, I see.’

It was a form of black magic that used a spirit to grant a special wraith a physical form, allowing it to manifest completely. It was known as ‘Advent,’ the pinnacle of Spiritmancy.

“Now that he is complete, this match is over,” Andre declared, extending his arm. “Die.”

Simon threw himself backward as the greatsword sliced through the air, leaving a shimmering black line in its wake. The hair on his arms stood on end. If he had been a fraction of a second slower, he would have been cleaved in two.

’The greatsword itself isn’t that long. I need to create some distance.’

He spun around and broke into a sprint. The monster was enormous, but its swings were centered on Andre. It couldn’t have much range, he reasoned.

But the descending greatsword suddenly elongated, its size swelling impossibly. As the blade plummeted toward him, Simon snapped the dagger up to block.

A deafening roar erupted as the two weapons collided.

’Ugh!’

It was like an ant trying to cross swords with a human. Thanks to Lorraine’s dagger, he was spared the full force of the impact, but another significant portion of its Jet-Black energy drained away.

“Did you really think you could get away just by making some space?” Andre taunted. Ensifer’s attack range exceeded over a hundred feet; its blade could reach any corner of the vacant lot they were using as an arena. “Run for your life, you pathetic little thing!”

Panting, Simon raised his dagger again.

The weapons met with another shriek of metal, and more of the dagger’s energy dissipated.

’Power, speed, range… I’m outmatched on every front! What kind of black magic is this?’

He couldn’t think of any way to counter the monster. The only option was to strike the caster, Andre, directly. Fortunately, Andre had remained rooted to the spot ever since summoning Ensifer. Perhaps the magic circle’s coordinates were fixed, preventing him from moving.

’Good.’

With that thought, Simon summoned six skeletons from his Subspace and sent them charging forward. They didn’t get far.

A deafening sound tore through the air, and the skeletons exploded into a shower of bone fragments.

“Hahahaha! Don’t you think there’s a bit of a gap between our summons?”

Several of his mental links snapped, sending a sharp pain through his skull. He focused on the skeletons he could still feel. The scattered bones froze in midair, their sharp ends swiveling to face their target.

<Bone Nail>

As the bone shards flew forward, Andre casually raised a Jet-Black shield to deflect them.

Just as he blocked the Bone Nail, several zombies descended in a wide arc—a delayed attack. Simon had used his Overlord to launch them like a catapult.

But before Simon could detonate them with a Corpse Explosion, Ensifer’s greatsword swung out and sliced them in half.

’Ugh, this is tough.’

He couldn’t find a single opening. At this rate, he’d have to complete his own spell. From then on, Simon focused solely on evasion. Of course, Ensifer’s blade was faster than he was, so he was mostly just absorbing the blows with Lorraine’s dagger. But even that was reaching its limit.

The nobles began to murmur amongst themselves as the battle became increasingly one-sided.

“At this rate, the student Simon is going to lose.”

“I’d say the two ladies were far too reckless.”

“Will they really kneel before the prince?”

“Who knows? Either way, it’ll be front-page news.”

Lorraine, however, stood with her arms crossed, while Serne watched with a hand on her hip. Both wore impassive expressions.

“Why did you bet on Simon’s victory?” Serne asked.

“And you?” Lorraine countered.

“Because you did, so I thought I’d join in.”

“You’re insane.”

Serne smiled and shrugged. “More importantly, you still haven’t answered my question.”

“It was a logical decision,” Lorraine replied with a sigh. “Ensifer is something second-year Spiritology majors learn. Simon can use something far more powerful.”

With a final, sickening crunch, the dagger Lorraine had lent him shattered against Ensifer’s greatsword. Simon staggered back, panting.

“Your only hope is gone now,” Andre said, savoring his advantage. “What will you do? When are you planning to use that little trinket the Ivory Tower girl gave you?”

“I’m already using it,” Simon replied, pulling a golem’s core from his Subspace. “And thanks to it, I’ve just finished.”

With his free hand, Simon activated the magic circle he had been weaving behind his back. It detached and floated into the air, where he instantly merged it with the golem’s core.

“Insolent brat…!”

Andre extended his arm, and Ensifer’s greatsword descended. Simon stood his ground. He no longer had Lorraine’s dagger.

The spectators screamed. A thick cloud of dust billowed outward.

The head butler, acting as referee, cried out in alarm, “Y-Your Highness! If a Kizen student gets hurt…!”

“It’s fine,” Andre snapped, clicking his tongue. “This is a legitimate duel he agreed to. Whatever the Witch of Death might say… Huh?”

Through the swirling dust, Ensifer’s greatsword was trembling. Andre’s eyes widened in disbelief.

’He blocked it? How?’

As the dust settled, Simon was revealed, kneeling on the ground. In front of him, an emerald arm had erupted from the golem’s core, its hand clamped firmly around the greatsword.

“Here I come,” Simon declared, raising both arms.

The golem’s arm was instantly enveloped in a swirling green Cloud. He had been continuously generating and refining it with the magic circle behind his back, allowing it to form much faster than usual.

’It took thirty minutes during the BMAT, but now I did it in ten.’

The difference in his concentration with and without Serne’s feather was immense. Lorraine had given him the power to endure; Serne had given him the speed he needed.

The result was…

A torso materialized from the golem’s core, and a second arm shot out to grip the greatsword. Two legs squirmed into existence as the creature began to rise.

“No way!” Andre’s face went pale as he recognized the spell. “How can a first-year use a third-year’s technique…!”

“There’s no rule that says we can’t,” Simon retorted as the golem, now ten feet tall, slowly pushed itself to its feet. “Is the custom you prize so highly that first-years must only learn first-year techniques, Your Highness?”

“You bastard!”

The golem wrenched the greatsword free, sending Ensifer’s massive blade spinning into the ground. The Blood Golem was stronger.

“Now,” Simon said, linking the magic circle on his chest to the golem and activating the Life Link. “It’s my turn.”

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