Midterm Exam (7)
Vital Sentry refined his mana. When he extended his hand, the very weight of the air changed.
Kugugu!
At his will, living things drew breath and heaved themselves up from beneath the earth. Trees sprouted and grew — but "growing" was far too tame a word for the explosive, violent surge of it. Dozens of colossal trees, each centuries old, were crammed by force into a single point, and they came crashing forward like invaders trampling into enemy territory, sweeping aside everything that dared to stand in their path.
"Eva, get behind me!"
Chloe pulled Eva back and gripped her sword hilt.
Click!
The blade slid free of its sheath, and in that instant the darkness coiling within it burst out. Morphic: Dark Shadow. Like paint brushed onto a blank white canvas, black lines layered themselves over every empty space, weaving a wall of shadow that diced whatever touched it to ribbons. The charging wall of trees shattered on contact, dropping fragments to the ground as they were ground to dust.
"A battōjutsu, with mana that resembles the night sky. A technique of Erebus, is it? However—"
Kuuung!
"—how about this?"
Vital stomped his foot. He kicked off the earth and spread his mana into the ground, and the trees swelled even larger than before. The wall of darkness Chloe had raised was shoved back; her feet carved deep into the soil as she was dragged helplessly backward.
It wasn't even a contest of strength anymore. In a heartbeat Chloe lost her footing — and at the very moment her stance failed her—
Ding!
A clear, crystalline chime rang across the battlefield. The trees, thrashing like mad things as they forced their way into every narrow gap, froze as if it had all been a lie.
Time Freeze. The gears etched into the nape of Eva's neck glowed, seizing the incoming hostility by force.
"C-come on, Chloe! I'll back you up!"
"Thanks, Eva!"
Chloe winked her gratitude to the girl who had bought her time, then drew her blade into ready stance once more. Standing still and parrying wasn't going to be enough. Trading blows with that earlier technique had taught her something: this man's mana and skills might be unstable, but he was stronger than she was. The gap in power was plain. She needed a single move that could overturn a losing situation.
'I'm cutting straight through!'
Faster. Fiercer. No dragging it out — she committed herself to a single, decisive strike that would end him on the spot.
Kugugu!
Chloe tensed her legs, channeling mana into both to add thrust.
Crack!
The sound of bones being ground. The pain that came with it. Her fragile legs felt as though they would snap from the slightest push. But she clenched her teeth and bore it.
Ta-at!
A full-power dash. The ground was crushed beneath her, spiderwebbing with cracks in every direction. The drawn blade in her hand, flying as if soaring through the air, blazed with light.
Floating Shadow: Ink Line.
A black line drawn horizontally — a perfect single stroke, perfectly symmetrical, cutting straight across. It carved through the trees and carried her all the way to Vital's very feet.
"Clumsy."
With the blade nearly in his face, Vital slyly thrust his mana-laden leg forward.
Clang!
The clash of two forces. A resonant ring like metal striking metal hammered against their eardrums. Their blows locked together, the aftermath of the collision made the very space shudder — and within it, green and black strained against each other in a taut tug-of-war to decide which held the upper hand.
"You dare oppose me with such a pathetic trick?"
"Ngh!"
When Vital poured strength into his leg, Chloe was driven backward. The disadvantage was obvious, but she didn't retreat. She was trusting in those words — I'll back you up.
"Hah!"
Eva didn't miss the opening while Chloe held Vital in place — she cast.
Chwararuk!
Chains of mana coiled themselves around Vital's limbs. Gravity magic, stacking weight upon weight dozens of times over, tightened their binding, and on top of that she hurled a fireball brimming with gathered heat. Multiple-casting, Eva's specialty — her magic, grown another layer stronger through the practical exams and her training, swept over him like a storm.
"Pointless."
Vital circulated mana through his entire body. His muscles swelled as he reinforced his flesh and drew out more strength. He pulled against the chains, and they tore away slack and useless like rubber bands.
Kwaang!
"Attacks so predictable I could weep. Not even a flicker of cleverness — all it draws from me is a sigh."
He didn't forget to raise one of the trees he'd summoned as a shield against the flames. Tadak-tadak — the wooden wall burned to ash. A clean response, and Eva had more or less expected it. She had judged that splitting his attention alone was enough, and so had committed boldly to the move.
Hwak!
The moment the gap opened, Chloe — still locked blade-to-leg with him — knocked his leg aside and scattered her mana around her. Black mist billowed across the area, shrouding his vision.
"How unsightly."
Vital resolved to sweep away the crude technique cluttering his sight. The flow of mana moved at his will. Spheres laden with compressed wind rose around him, and he scattered them in all four directions before detonating them.
Paaang!
The black mist vanished in an instant. A technique that was mere eye-obscuring trickery posed no threat to Vital whatsoever.
'But at this range, it's enough.'
That alone was enough. If she could buy a split second to set her stance—
Chloe's Black Night was already stored in its sheath. Having slipped behind Vital, she drew once more.
"Another draw strike? Apparently you have nothing better, do you?"
Vital didn't look back. The mana he had already streamed through his foot into the ground was pooled beneath Chloe's feet. If he wished, he could collapse her stance that very instant and drive a wedge into the opening. He was certain of his victory—
Ding!
—until the chime rang out.
'M-my body...!'
Vital froze in place like a statue. He couldn't so much as twitch a finger, and for the first time, bewilderment crept across his face. There was only one person who could do such a thing, so he rolled his eyes toward the presumed culprit.
"Khh!"
Eva Amethyst. As expected, she had used her Divine Artifact to forcibly stop his time. The backlash had blood trickling from her eyes, ears, nose — from every opening she had — but she calmly steadied her breath and held the spell.
'Impossible! How can that brat—!'
Freezing the actions of a superhuman wielding mana with a Divine Artifact was a different order of magnitude from simply stopping an attack. Vital, admittedly, had weakened from his prime — but he was still of the Celestial Clan, the very pinnacle of superhumans. Even her father, the Archmage Kairos, had managed to freeze him for mere seconds. And yet this little brat, weaker than Kairos and clumsy with her relic besides, was holding him in plain sight.
'How?!'
Vital studied her closely, trying to decipher her trick. And he found it.
Sharara!
Her violet eyes were blazing in five brilliant colors. The window of her soul, steeped in mystery, was staring straight at him.
Vital could barely contain his shock.
'That's a... another one?!'
"Die, you bastard!"
'Oh no—!'
Chloe never let the perfect chance Eva created slip away. What she revealed was the strongest technique she could bring forth. Shadowless: Dark Shadow Whirl. Countless black lines, as if slicing the blue sky itself to shreds, tore Vital's body apart. Defenseless, he took her assault dead-on, and blood erupted from him like a fountain.
'This can't—!'
A single, unpredictable variable had snagged his ankle. Had he simply ended it at full power from the start instead of toying with them, this disaster would never have occurred — but that was the belated regret of the defeated.
'No. I cannot lose here! After everything it took to get me here!'
"Graaagh!"
Driven past the edge, Vital pulled the mana of the humans he had absorbed in the colosseum out of his Divine Artifact. It was a trump card he had been hoarding to check others of his own Celestial Clan. But at this rate he would be neither alive nor dead — so in this do-or-die moment, he spent it all.
Kwajangchang!
"You little—!"
The sound of shattering glass rocked the battlefield. The Time Freeze was forcibly released. Barely tearing free of Eva's binding, he grabbed Chloe's arm with his eyes rolled back in frenzy.
Kwadeuk!
The mana rippling from his fingertips poured into Chloe's body. From her seized wrist, her veins writhed and swelled abnormally.
Pussh!
"Aaaagh!"
Blood vessels burst through her skin. The pain traveled up her arm to her shoulder, her neck — and Chloe collapsed with a scream.
"Then I'll at least drag you down with me as company on the road, you insect!"
Dying without finishing anything was a disgrace. Even if it killed him, he swore he would crush the woman who had cut him down—
Ding!
The chime rang again. With the toll of a death knell, the world came to a halt; the axes of Vital's and Chloe's time were pinned in place.
"..."
Eva said nothing at all. Her expression was unnervingly, eerily calm, her indifferent gaze fixed upon Vital.
"W-wait a moment! Hear me out!"
The binding was weaker this time, so Vital could barely move his lips as he shouted. He shook his head with a desperate expression, begging for mercy — but Eva remained silent.
Hwak!
Instead, she condensed mana at her fingertips. A spear of fire that burned the very air came to rest in her hand—
Swaaek!
—and she threw it.
Puk!
The blazing spear cleaved the wind as it flew, and pierced Vital's throat without the slightest deviation.