Scoreboard Shenanigans

Zernya frowned. The steady climb of third, fourth, and fifth place had been expected. Nothing worth worrying about. There was only one problem.

Why the hell had she dropped back to second?

She’d taken down five golems, for crying out loud. So the person in first must have…

“Twenty-four hundred points?”

The moment the words left her mouth in a dumbfounded stupor, another six hundred points slammed into Idel’s team.

“This has to be straight-up cheating, right?”

It was absurd. But fine. She could live with it. Three thousand points split evenly among three people meant roughly a thousand for Idel. Even accounting for that, Zernya still held the advantage. Yeah. Absolutely. No question.

“……?”

Wait just a second.

Something was happening. Something very wrong.

“This is obviously rigged,” she muttered. The scoreboard had to be broken. Or that bastard Idel was pulling some kind of trick. There was no other explanation for such a grotesque spike in points. What the hell? What was he doing?

While Zernya clutched her head in frustration, a boy burst out of the bushes to her right.

“……Those damn supervisors are out of their minds!”

A savage-looking youth with hair as red as if he’d been dipped in a vat of dye. She’d seen that face before. A classmate, wasn’t he? She thought his name was Matus.

“How is that thing only B-rank? It’s clearly A-rank at minimum! Are they doing this on purpose just to screw with me? Huh? Is it because I’m from the borderlands?”

Matus’s face twisted in fury as he shouted. His gaze was locked on the bushes behind him, where two golems now emerged.

Zernya grinned and drew her sword.

“Ah-ha.”

She’d been running low on golems to hunt. Whatever the reason, this was perfect timing. With her blade in hand, Zernya’s body shot forward like an arrow.

Matus had seen it. A tail like a scorpion’s. A body like a lizard’s. But the upper torso was a grotesquely elongated human shape. An enormous, monstrous thing. Its entire body was wrapped in a dark, blade-like aura, like some twisted abomination.

At first he’d thought it was just a B-rank golem and charged in. He’d told himself not to judge an enemy by appearance alone. That judgment had been spectacularly wrong.

The creature lived up to its looks. It was strong. In a single exchange, Matus’s sword had been sent flying.

“……Ugh!”

A numb jolt shot through his arm. The next instant, the monster’s tail whipped around. With a sickening crack, Matus’s body was hurled through the air. His ears rang. His gut burned. What the hell had just happened? What had he been hit by?

Before he could even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠process it, the monster was on him again. He had to move. Had to survive. Matus shook his head and forced himself up, then ran. He sprinted for his life toward where he hoped the supervisors might be.

Along the way he’d even been chased by a real B-rank golem, but that felt almost cute by comparison. The real monster—the one that had been pursuing him—was something else entirely.

“Hah… hah… damn it…!”

In his frantic flight he’d somehow stumbled into a small clearing where Zernya stood.

“Lucky me.”

Zernya smirked as she dispatched the two golems in the blink of an eye. She’d reclaimed first place once again. But she wasn’t satisfied. She would widen the gap even further.

Zernya intended to snatch back the top spot she’d lost at the entrance ceremony—and do it with an overwhelming practical exam score. Just wait, Idel. I’m going to crush you completely.

With that vow burning in her chest, Zernya turned her head. There stood Matus, still panting heavily.

“Haa…”

Zernya let out a sigh.

“Pathetic. Can’t even handle a single B-rank golem.”

“……What?”

Matus whipped his head around, face contorted in anger. He had plenty to say himself.

“Pathetic, huh? You’re the one who’s ridiculous.”

“You really think I couldn’t take that thing down?”

“Well, yeah.”

Zernya sheathed her sword and lifted her chin slightly. Her expression was coldly composed—and utterly arrogant.

“If you want to make excuses, go tell them to that tree over there.”

“It’s not an excuse…! There’s some weird monster hiding in the bushes besides those golems!”

“Oh, is that so?”

She didn’t believe him. Why would she? The words of a loser who’d turned tail and run from a B-rank. Sure, the scoreboard suggested Matus had taken down a few golems himself, but that could easily mean he’d only managed cheap ambush kills. There was a world of difference between sneaking up on something and winning a straight fight.

Zernya kicked one of the fallen golems aside and scanned the path Matus had come from. She saw nothing that could be called a monster. Besides, the bushes he’d emerged from were thick with foliage. Visibility was terrible.

She shrugged and turned to hunt the next golem. Watching her back, Matus ground his teeth.

“Damn it…”

That was when it happened.

BOOM!

The ground shook violently. A flock of birds exploded from their nests. Zernya’s vision trembled for a brief moment.

“What the…?”

Thud. Thud. Thud!

The heavy footsteps showed no sign of stopping. It sounded like a giant hammering the world itself on an anvil. The tremors continued even after Zernya scanned her surroundings, until finally two girls came tumbling out of the underbrush.

“Haa… haa…!”

“We’re screwed!”

One was a tall girl ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with wavy chestnut hair. The other had a short, vivid green bob. Both collapsed in front of Zernya and Matus, retching violently. Their faces were flushed bright red—clearly they’d been running at full sprint.

“You two are…”

She recognized them. They were classmates she’d seen in passing.

“……Run! You have to run!” the chestnut-haired girl—Kristin—screamed.

“We’re all going to dieeee!” the green-haired girl—Mezlen—added desperately.

Were they really making this much noise over a single B-rank golem?

“Good grief.”

It was laughable. The longer this went on, the more Zernya felt like she’d been stuck in a class full of underachievers. Frankly, it was disgusting.

“Are you scared of golems?”

“……No! That’s not it!”

“I don’t know. It’s not even A-rank, yet here you are trembling at a measly B-rank. Are idiots like you really going to go around calling yourselves alumni someday? Ugh, this academy’s reputation is going to tank.”

“What are you even talking about?! If we don’t run right now, everyone will—!”

Kristin’s words cut off. A chill ran down her spine. A dark shadow fell over her head.

“Ah… ah… ah…”

Behind Kristin and Mezlen appeared something utterly inhuman. It resembled a pitch-black scorpion, a lizard, a centipede, or perhaps a human. Like a chimera from myth, a steel reaper stitched together from countless beasts had manifested on the earth.

“Fuck, that’s it! That’s the thing I saw!” Matus cursed, voice cracking.

While everyone else panicked, Zernya simply tilted her head with calm indifference. She looked up at the monster’s form.

“What is this supposed to be? Another golem?”

“Does that look like a golem to you?!”

“They could have designed it this way just to scare the students.”

The intention was obvious. A field boss meant to test crisis response. For someone who had received elite education like Zernya, it was well within expectations. Of course, it was rather grotesque for a B-rank. And huge. The number of weapons it carried seemed considerable even at a glance.

“Whoa, what the hell is that?”

A boy emerged from the opposite thicket, letting out a low whistle. He wore sunglasses. His name was Welton Yusford. He had been wandering around hunting golems and had only just arrived at the clearing.

“The visuals are completely insane,” Welton said.

Watching her classmate dry-heave, Zernya fell into thought. Every single one of them—utterly subpar. The only one even worth acknowledging was Idel. She grinned and drew her sword once more.

“It’s certainly big. Think it’ll give me about a thousand points if I take it down?”

Rustila and I were literally just hunting golems. She would tank, and I would finish them off with the Caliper of Wisdom. Of course, Rustila could have handled it all by herself. She took down three or four at once. Her potential was ridiculous. This was what a future Sword Saint looked like.

Thanks to her consideration, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I was able to better understand exactly what role the Caliper of Wisdom played. It worked not only on humans, but on any conscious being.

“You’re amazing, sis!”

Rustila and I moved in perfect sync. Thanks to that, our score skyrocketed.

“Haa… that should be the last one.”

Rustila lowered her sword after finishing off the final golem.

“Idel, don’t you feel a strange presence?”

“A presence?”

“……Definitely.”

It looked like some kind of monster had crawled its way in. Yeah, I’d been wondering why nothing had gone wrong yet.

“Idel, I think we should start moving somewhere else.”

I nodded.