Chapter 22: Hierarchy - 4
Chapter 22: Hierarchy - 4
The day of the decisive battle against Quadoran.
Jiha sat in the Colosseum waiting room.
"Alright, then..."
As he circulated his Mana, his shadow shrank to half its length in an instant.
The tip rippled, and a black hand suddenly thrust out.
Shadow Hand — a subtle Special Ability perfect for catching an enemy off guard.
"Though Quadoran probably knows about it by now."
The fact that Jiha possessed Mana and could restrain enemies with Shadow Hand was public knowledge.
Anyone who'd done even basic reconnaissance would know.
"Still, it's easier to smack the back of some bastard's head when he thinks he's got me figured out..."
Jiha grinned and returned the shadow to its original length.
If the enemy had prepared countermeasures, he just had to outplay them.
He'd already finished every preparation for that, including his Shadow Hand applications.
He tucked it into the back of his black pants at the waist, covering it with his top.
As Jiha waited for the match to start, a familiar figure opened the door and entered.
A cold, aloof dark elf beauty beyond compare — Enril.
"What?"
Enril visiting the waiting room was genuinely rare.
"...I set the fourth match as you requested. And I arranged for all of Blue's Commons to watch from a dedicated observation box."
Commons watching other Commons fight was not normally permitted.
But when Jiha demanded it, Enril handled it using her Unique Grade authority.
"Good. Now go."
"..."
She'd want to leave quickly, obviously.
Jiha had told her to go partly as a consideration, but there was no response.
"What?"
Enril turned her head slightly and stared at the wall.
"It's nothing, really."
"..."
Jiha stared at her, but Enril just kept standing there looking at the wall.
This was a woman who'd despised Jiha so much she couldn't bear exchanging words with him, who wouldn't have wanted to share the same room — so why was she lingering?
"Are you trying to check my condition or something?"
"That's part of a supervisor's duties."
"Since when have you been so diligent? You never bothered looking in on whether I showed up to fight or not."
"...That was when you kept surrendering, before."
Enril let out a quiet sigh and asked,
"You're going to fight today, right?"
Enril knew Jiha had entered today's Summoning War targeting Quadoran.
She was the one who arranged Jiha's rotation, after all.
Though these days she merely executed whatever Jiha decided.
"Yeah. So if you don't have anything important to say, maybe leave so I can focus?"
"...Ah, I see."
Enril nodded meekly, unlike herself.
A strange awkwardness hung in the air.
Enril had consistently dismissed Jiha as a coward with no will to fight. But once he'd started fighting and winning, and after the two of them had tangled together, she was visibly flustered about how to treat him.
"Enril."
"...Yeah?"
Enril, who'd been staring at the wall even after being told to leave, glanced back when he called her name.
"If you've got something to say, I'll hear it later. Right now, get out."
"...Fine."
Enril nodded and turned her body. She paused at the doorframe, hesitated a moment, then spoke quietly.
"If you're going to fight anyway..."
She swallowed the rest of her words and left the waiting room.
Jiha, who'd been appreciating the eye-catching sight of her shapely brown ass, tsked.
"Did she come here just to show off her ass..."
Whatever Enril's deal was, the only thing that mattered right now was the showdown with Quadoran.
"Fourth-match Common, please get ready."
At the voice from outside, Jiha rose.
When he entered the circular arena, the spectators held their breath.
The gazes that had once been full of scorn and contempt now held anticipation and curiosity.
The first Common to wield Mana — the stands were packed because of the rumors about Jiha.
"Overcoming twenty-eight losses to rack up two straight wins! The human Jiha! The first Common in history to possess Mana! Ah, this is truly exciting! And now, his opponent from Purple Liberation's Commons! Eleven wins, four losses! The minotaur Calon!"
"..."
Jiha frowned at the words of the pretty rabbit beastman woman in the bunny-girl outfit.
Something was off.
Thud! Thud!
Heavy footfalls echoed as a massive ox-headed beastman entered the arena.
Regular fans in the stands cheered, calling Calon's name in welcome.
"Calon!"
"Fight hard today, ox-head!"
The minotaur, ever the showman, waved at the cheering spectators.
Jiha shook his head and crooked a finger at the announcer.
"Ah, just a moment. One moment."
"Contestant Jiha, what's the matter?"
The rabbit woman manipulated her aerial platform and approached Jiha.
He spoke quietly to the wide-eyed rabbit beastman.
"Change the fighter."
"Excuse me?"
"I didn't come out here today to fight a minotaur. Change the fighter."
When Jiha made the demand so abruptly, the rabbit beastman looked blank.
The spectators looked blank too.
What Jiha was asking had no precedent.
The rabbit beastman forced a smile.
"C-Contestant Jiha. You've participated in the Summoning War for a long time, so you should know the rules well. Who appears in which match is kept secret until just before the fight, and once a contestant has entered the arena, they cannot withdraw until a winner is decided."
"I know. But I came out to fight the giant Quadoran."
Jiha's reply was flat.
"I came to avenge my friend Hakal. Quadoran should be in today's rotation too, right? Isn't that so?"
"..."
"Your reaction tells me he hasn't appeared yet. Planning to come out for the fifth match, I take it."
The announcer's discomfort meant he'd hit the mark.
Jiha let out a dry laugh. The rumors about Quadoran being cunning were correct.
'Lacking information on me, so he's postponing the confrontation? Cautious, aren't you.'
Jiha's record was two wins, twenty-eight losses. He'd won exactly twice using Mana.
The first Common to wield Mana — Jiha's true strength hadn't been revealed yet.
Quadoran had pretended he'd appear in the fourth match, then switched to the fifth at the last moment to avoid Jiha.
The smokescreen was painfully obvious.
"Ah, I understand what you're saying, but that's... there's no precedent for it."
"Then today becomes the first precedent."
The rabbit beastman gave an awkward laugh. Even as a veteran announcer, she didn't know how to handle this.
The listening minotaur, Calon, snorted.
"Are you completely ignoring me right now?"
"I'm not in a good mood, so shut your mouth and sit down. Then you can go home without getting hurt, ox-head."
At Jiha's words, Calon's mouth fell open.
A human he could pound into paste with one punch was acting this insolent?
Was Mana such a big deal that it let him run his mouth like this?
At insults he'd never heard in his life, Calon's whole body tensed with rage.
Thud! Thud!
Calon stomped his feet, and the arena floor shuddered.
Jiha glanced around — the crowd's reaction, Calon, the rabbit beastman — and tsked.
"Fine. I'll deal with you. Come on."
Thud! Thud! Thud!!
As soon as Jiha turned, Calon came charging in, shaking the ground with every step.
Like a true minotaur, he lowered his head like a bull and barreled forward savagely.
A simple body slam, but against Calon, who weighed close to three hundred kilograms, few Commons could meet him head-on.
Taking a frontal charge head-on was a losing trade.
Jiha quickly reinforced his legs with Mana and leaped sideways to evade.
Calon immediately pivoted and charged again.
Totally brainless — attacks relying purely on physical specs — but effective.
An enraged bull's charge doesn't stop until the enemy is down!
"Simple-minded fellow, aren't you..."
He'd assumed Uben's rival and a match-fixing participant would have a sharper mind, but it turned out Calon was the type who went blind with anger.
When Jiha dodged the same way again, Calon pivoted once more, unfatigued.
"Calon! Grab him!"
"Human, how long are you going to run?! Fight!"
"Ooh! Gore him!"
Even when he kept missing, Calon didn't tire.
If anything, his charging momentum only built. Whether the opponent dodged or not, stubbornly repeating his charge to force close-quarters combat — that was Calon's match style.
Most opponents who took a hit from Calon's charge ended up gravely injured. Trying to keep dodging only tightened the psychological noose.
'Crude, but effective...'
A bull wasn't a bull for nothing.
The more Jiha evaded, the louder the crowd roared, and Calon, feeding off it, grew more excited and even faster.
After a dozen or so dodges, the charging mound of meat was twice as fast as at the start, barreling like a truck. Jiha watched coldly.
"In that case..."
When Calon came at him again, Jiha leaped once more.
A Mana-reinforced jump, but this time it wasn't sideways — it was straight up.
The rushing Calon noticed the change but didn't stop. Whatever Jiha was planning, Calon believed charging in and crushing him in close quarters would settle it.
Jiha tsked.
"Strong, but simple."
As he dropped, Jiha adjusted his posture and drove his fist down onto Calon's crown.
CRACK!
A hammer-blow impact. The sound of meat being pulverized rang out, and Calon's body staggered.
The charging bull stopped dead. Struggling to keep moving forward, Calon forced out two painful steps before his knees buckled.
Thump.
Calon collapsed onto the arena floor and moved no more.
The stands went silent.
Jiha brushed off his hands as he looked down at the fallen Calon.
The spectators probably hadn't grasped what happened, but Jiha's strategy was simple.
Keep dodging Calon's charges, then finish it with a strike to the top of the head.
Calon wasn't an idiot, of course — he'd try to counter. But even in midair, his shadow stayed where it was on the ground. Jiha had caught Calon's ankle with Shadow Hand.
Shadow Hand had its weight limits. Completely stopping a minotaur's full-momentum charge was impossible, but it could make him falter for a moment.
At that exact instant, Jiha had smashed his Mana-laden fist into Calon's head and knocked him out in one blow.
The strategy itself was simple, but the timing of the descent, the Shadow Hand, and the fist that didn't miss the crown — that single strike was an exquisite fusion of all three.
A victory earned because Jiha had spent the past week relentlessly studying Shadow Hand.
"Ah, the match has been decided. The winner is..."
"Wait."
Just as the announcer was about to declare the victory and the crowd readied its roar, Jiha crooked a finger.
He gestured for the microphone — a tool that amplified voices using Mana — and the rabbit beastman obediently approached and handed it over.
Well-known Commons doing mic work was a common enough occurrence.
Jiha was no longer the frail human on a twenty-eight-loss streak. He was a rising power with three straight wins. He had earned the right to speak.
But what Jiha said into the microphone shattered everyone's expectations.
"It's not over yet. The fifth match starts right now. I'm continuing."
"Excuse me?"
"I told you — I came here today to wreck Quadoran."
At Jiha's cold declaration, the announcer, the spectators, and even Enril, seated in the VIP section, were speechless.
Back-to-back matches. Jiha was announcing he would fight the next opponent immediately.
"I came here today to avenge my friend. So stop running, get your ass out here, and make your last words — Quadoran!"
"Waaaaaah!!"
A single fighter fighting twice in a row — it was unprecedented in Summoning War history.
At this unheard-of situation, and a declaration that he'd push himself for a friend's sake, the crowd erupted in wild cheers.
As the spectators went into a frenzy at Jiha's declaration, the rabbit beastman glanced at Enril. In situations like this, it was Unique Grade authority that made the call.
Once Enril nodded, the rabbit beastman shouted at the top of her voice.
"Th-Then! Though it's unprecedented, we will permit it for the first time! For the fifth match, Blue Seal's Common — two—no, three wins and twenty-eight losses — the human Jiha! The man who came to avenge the ogre Hakal!"
"Waaaaaah!!"
"Get out here, Quadoran!"
"Fight!!"
He hadn't stopped at cleanly defeating the minotaur — he was stepping right into the next match. And all of it to avenge a dead friend.
The spectators, electrified, rushed to place bets on Jiha's victory.
Amid the boiling fervor, Jiha remained cold and collected throughout.
He'd invoked Hakal's name to draw the crowd's favor and constructed a stage Quadoran couldn't run from.
'Today, you die.'
The bastard had shown he could use his head. Given more time, he'd become a nuisance.
Rrrrrrumble!
As the crowd's roaring continued, the iron gate on Purple's side finally opened.
The fifth match had begun.