Midterm Exams (3)
Behold.
That plump, juicy grasshopper.
It was the size of a grown man, and judging by how swollen its belly was, it looked to be gravid with eggs.
Crunch!
“Chiiiik!”
“Ha, what a satisfying feeling.”
Abortion Punch!
I drove my fist into its belly, and with a wet burst of viscous fluid, a heap of fingernail-sized eggs came spilling out in a gush.
The monster convulsed and thrashed on the ground. I stomped its skull into pulp and finished it off.
You're asking if I feel sorry for it?
Don't worry. It's not human.
Against man-eating monsters, mercy is a luxury. All I did was grant the monsters—who were fated to die in the Colosseum from the moment they were born—a peaceful present instead of a cruel future.
I mean, if they'd never been born in the first place, they wouldn't have to suffer at all, right?
Watch me, citizens of the Max Republic! Witness me slaying these monsters!
“I bagged five, so that should get me above eighty points. Not a perfect score, but close.”
Of course, in the original novel it hadn't been Metal Hoppers but an entirely different monster that appeared, which made guessing my score tricky.
“Hey, Writer, what do you think my score's gonna be?”
I glanced at the chat window I'd shoved off to the side. I wanted the answer from the foremost expert in this particular field.
<...>
“Is it frozen or something?”
She'd been awfully quiet lately.
Was she sulking over me having sex with the other girls? Though if that were it, she'd have blown up at me already.
She hasn't said a word since we arrived in the Max Republic.
Ever since I'd boarded the ship to Purity Academy, I'd tried striking up conversation with her now and then, but she just gave me the silent treatment. I even kept up my usual one-sided chatter, but with no replies coming back, I was bored out of my mind.
No Chloe either, and the others are all resting in the waiting room.
Having no one to talk to was excruciatingly boring—and it was in that moment I came to appreciate just how precious the Writer was, that previously useless lump of nothing.
And realizing that this lunatic was neglecting her duties made my blood boil even more.
“That's it—time!”
“Great work out there, students!”
Dong-dong-dong!
The match was declared over. The giant scoreboard flashed a huge STOP!, and officials rushed into the arena to pull the students away from the monsters.
The beasts were subdued through devices implanted in their bodies beforehand, shocks rendering them docile.
“And with that, the first match—Group A's bout—has come to an end.”
“We'll bring up the rankings right away.”
The moment the MC finished speaking, the rankings, first place on down, were tallied and displayed across the scoreboard and broadcast alike.
First place went to Chloe, who had annihilated the Metal Hopper swarm in a blistering opening blitz. Then second was Cash, third was Rice—names I didn't recognize after that.
And I placed fifth.
A ranking that drew no attention while quietly securing the goods. Neither low nor high—right in the sweet spot, you could say.
It wasn't the overall standings anyway; only the first group had finished, so the numbers would only drop once everything was tallied together later.
Regardless—the match was over. Great work, everyone.
I bowed politely to the waving, cheering crowd and made my way toward the arena exit.
“Look who's here. Fifth place?”
Whoosh!
The moment I stepped into the waiting room, Chloe greeted me by hurling something at me.
I snatched the mystery object out of the air and examined it.
“You bought me a drink? The sun must be rising in the west.”
“Oh, shut up. This much I'd do for a friend anyway.”
Friend. What a lovely word. This feeling, like an electric jolt straight to the heart—if only I could've gotten one more dose of it.
“Why you little—Sol's eyes, you goddamn drink!”
“Puhaha!”
Did I sweat enough to need to brush my teeth? Without a single moment's hesitation, I chucked the full can into the trash.
“Throwing away a drink your friend bought you? You'll get an earful from Eva.”
“She's out in the arena right now, isn't she? She can't see this, which is exactly why I tossed it in there.”
Having delivered my answer, I walked over to the trash can and fished the drink back out.
Psst!
Pop went the tab, bubbles fizzing up. I downed the refreshing, effervescent thing in one gulp.
“Wait, why are you drinking it?”
“What? Weren't you giving it to me? I drink whatever people hand me.”
“It went in the trash. If that's what you were going to do, what was that whole tantrum for?”
“You bought me this strongly divisive can on purpose just to see my reaction, didn't you? So I gave you the reaction you wanted. Obviously.”
“...I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're not right in the head.”
“But it was fun, right? Bottoms up.”
Glug glug. I gulped it down so ferociously you'd never guess the can had visited the trash can once already, and Chloe made a face like she was going to be sick.
Guess my answer satisfied her.
“Where's Marin? Did she go somewhere?”
“No idea. She wasn't here when I got back.”
“Great, now what.”
This was a headache. I couldn't care less about other people, but if Marin got lost, that was a problem.
Inside the Colosseum I could manage, but if she'd wandered outside, then even with a phone in hand, me—a guy with no sense of geography—setting out to find her on GPS alone was asking for trouble.
Riiing!
“...She's not picking up either.”
“Are you actually worried? She's not a kid. She'll come back on her own.”
“Tch. I suppose?”
Chloe was right—it was needless overprotectiveness.
At most she'd gone as far as the bathroom. Worst case, she'd mixed up the schedule and barged into the arena by mistake. That was the extent of it.
I knew that in my head. And yet—
Why does this feel so ominous?
“By the way, how are the others' matches going?”
“See for yourself. They just started.”
I glanced at the TV screen in the waiting room, where a camera in the sky was panning over Arlan and Eva.
“And now, at long last, the match you've all been waiting for—Group B takes the stage!”
“That's the Great Archmage's own daughter, everyone! No wonder the crowd's been champing at the bit.”
Eva Amethyst.
Daughter of a Zerta Kingdom noble house whose prestige, by name alone, rivaled—or exceeded—that of the crown itself. Pile on top of that her pedigree as the daughter of Tyloane, the Great Archmage who had ended the Third Great Monster War, and the crowd's expectations shot through the roof.
And in inverse proportion, Eva's burden grew heavier by the day.
“Do you think our Eva will be okay?”
“Have a little faith. She may look like that, but she's got a spine of steel.”
I answered with complete confidence—I knew all too well the exploits she'd pulled off in the original novel, and the magnificent way her arc had ended.
“There's no time to dawdle. Let's move straight into the next match.”
“Group B's opponent—come on out!”
Krrrsh!
The massive iron gate ground upward. The Purity Academy students of Group B, now standing in the arena, stared at the opening with tense faces.
The next monster was the Black Eagle.
A flying monster boasting a body the size of a small aircraft. A hunter that split the open sky and snatched its prey with a beak and talons reinforced by mana.
The textbook counter was ranged attacks or interception magic.
It was a stage built for Eva, and the Colosseum had chosen this monster specifically to showcase her.
Or so we all believed.
Thud. Thud.
Footsteps?
But the footfalls echoing through the screen were nothing like the wingbeat flutter I'd expected from something soaring through the sky—they landed on solid ground.
What emerged past the gate was not, in fact, the Black Eagle.
It wasn't a monster at all.
“The taste of freshness. The warmth that all life should rightfully possess.”
What walked out was a man.
A middle-aged man clad in rusted, battered armor, distinguished by an unkempt mane of dark green hair and an equally neglected beard.
Slurp.
Licking the crimson liquid smeared around his mouth, rolling his tongue lazily, the man narrowed his eyes into slits. Then, without ceremony, he carelessly tossed something he'd been holding onto the floor.
“But it's not enough.”
Thump.
The round, lumpy thing rolled—and it was wearing an expression twisted in terror.
A human face, caught on camera. A torso that simply wasn't there, and a dark red river of blood flowing from the severed cross-section.
The arena fell silent for several long seconds.
Then, like a bomb going off, the screams erupted all at once.
“KyaAAAak!”
“A—a person! That's a person!”
“What is that thing?!”
As the audience grasped what they were seeing, shouts of sheer terror and horror rang out across the stands. The commotion was violent enough to shake the waiting room, and no one here could manage to keep their mouths shut either.
“AAAAH!”
“Did he just kill someone? In the middle of the city?!”
Chloe reeled in shock, stumbling back among the collapsing students, unable to hide her dismay.
She was right—someone had died. A murderer had barged into the arena out of nowhere.
I was stunned too, of course, but the reason I went pale went far beyond surprise: it was the man's face on the camera.
That guy—!
Anyone who had read Academy Yuri Princess would recognize that face in a heartbeat. His portrait was right there in the setting collection. But there was absolutely no way he should be appearing at this point in the story.
Vital!
Heir of the God King. A member of the Celestial Clan who believed, without a shred of doubt, that he was the world's rightful ruler and the God King's legitimate successor.
Why was he here? Of all times, why now?
“Men alone cannot sate my hunger.”
“What I crave is women. Ones brimming with mana.”
“Wouldn't you agree, little runt? No—daughter of that bastard.”
The moment his words ended, crimson trees erupted from his body.
Enormous trunks, like a mountain range given form, twisted and intertwined, and at the end of their tangle they seized the entire arena in their grip. The space that had been packed with people became, in the blink of an eye, a dense jungle of grotesque timber.
It was the moment an alien world was born in the heart of the city.