Save Me!
"Well then, my dear freshmen. From this moment on, you will fight one another. Your performance will be reflected in full upon your grades. Begin!"
"…Before we do, however."
Chancellor Oh Yura’s soft, measured voice once more filled the hall.
"I shall first offer a brief explanation for those among our newcomers who may not yet know the rules. The method is simple.
The battle continues until only one remains standing. Your final evaluation will be determined by how many of your fellow freshmen you eliminate—and whether you yourself survive until the end."
The Chancellor’s calm explanation continued.
"As for weapons, simply pick up whatever catches your fancy from the assortment currently strewn across the floor at your feet.
Ah, and for any of you fretting about the possibility of dying—an artifact that prevents fatal injuries has been installed throughout the entire hall.
Should you sustain a life-threatening wound, you will immediately be processed as ‘retired,’ teleported outside, and given treatment. So please, set your minds at ease."
The kindly yet blood-chilling explanation came to an end.
"Very well, then… We begin in earnest! Fight to your hearts’ content until only one of you remains!"
BEEEEEEP!!!
The sharp blast of the starting whistle tore through the air, and the atmosphere inside the vast hall detonated.
"Uwaaaaah!"
"Out of the way, you fucker! That’s mine!"
As if they had rehearsed it, the students surged toward the weapons scattered across the floor like a pack of starving wild dogs.
Everywhere, savage free-for-alls erupted as they clawed and fought to claim a weapon first.
Thud! Crunch!
"Gyaaaagh!"
Fists flew with genuine killing intent, as though each student truly meant to murder the next.
Faces were smashed without mercy, throats choked, bodies kicked—raw, primal violence. Someone’s teeth shattered and spun through the air; the sickening crack of breaking bones echoed on every side.
Blood sprayed in every direction.
"Die!"
One male student who had managed to snatch up a blunt weapon brought it down mercilessly onto the skull of another student sprawled on the floor.
"Ghk—!"
With a final death-rattle of a scream, the struck student’s body was engulfed in a burst of brilliant white light and vanished from the hall as cleanly as if he had never been there.
That was the ‘retirement’ the Chancellor had mentioned.
Are these people insane?! Even if you want a good score on the evaluation, this is going too far!!
I swallowed a sharp breath as I stared at the blood-soaked pandemonium.
It felt exactly like watching a real-time 4-D movie of a brutal medieval battlefield.
I don’t even know how to use weapons, and I’m not strong either!
All I had were a handful of damn abilities whose activation methods I didn’t even understand.
I hadn’t used them once since possessing this body; I had zero idea how to trigger them.
And I sure as hell didn’t have the balls to test unknown powers bare-handed in the middle of a blood-spraying free-for-all.
In the end, only one choice remained.
I scrambled across the floor on pure instinct and wedged myself into a corner of the hall.
Curling into the tightest ball possible, I held my breath until even the sound of my own breathing vanished.
Fortunately—whether because my presence had always been faint to begin with, or because everyone was too busy painting the floor red—no one so much as glanced at the corner where I was hiding.
Like a Dark Templar who had completely erased his existence, I watched the battlefield unfold.
The hall was pure, unadulterated chaos.
Thunderous explosions and brilliant flashes erupted everywhere, as if a murderous fireworks show were underway.
Amid the building-rattling mayhem, most of the students were locked in messy one-on-one brawls with opponents of roughly equal strength.
But scattered among them were a few predators who cut through the battlefield like wild beasts on a slaughter spree.
Since the evaluation criteria rewarded the highest number of eliminations, the real powerhouses were farming kills by taking on multiple opponents at once and racking up points.
And right in the middle of those overwhelming monsters was a very familiar head of platinum-blonde hair.
"Come at me, you worthless pieces of shit!"
Anastasia.
Holy shit, she was actually this strong…
I had half-expected it from the way she towered a full head above me and spewed that unfiltered arrogance the second she opened her mouth, but I never imagined she would be this ridiculously powerful.
She swung a massive greatsword the size of her own body with one hand, casually shattering the skulls of every freshman who charged her.
Wherever her blade touched, white lightburst after lightburst exploded, and students toppled like wheat before a reaper.
Then Anastasia jammed her greatsword into the floor, grabbed a male student who had lunged at her by the collar, and hoisted him clean off the ground as if he weighed nothing.
"Trash like you can fuck off."
She hurled him through the air like a piece of luggage.
"Uwaaaaagh!"
The male student traced a graceful (?) arc through the air—and, by pure coincidence, came flying straight toward the corner where I was scrunched up.
KRA-BOOM!!
With a deafening impact, he cratered into the floor right in front of my nose.
Dust billowed up in thick clouds.
"Khrrk…"
Groaning as though every bone in his body had been pulverized, the student forced his trembling arms to push his upper body upright.
"That fucking monster bitch… how the hell are you supposed to beat something like that…"
He wiped the blood streaming from his mouth and snarled under his breath.
"Fuck it. I’ll just farm the weaklings for points instead…"
Muttering, he started to stand—then his gaze flicked sideways.
Our eyes locked perfectly across the empty air between us.
"……"
"……"
A suffocating silence settled over the corner.
I forced my convulsively twitching lips into a smile and croaked out a voice that barely left my throat.
"…Ahaha. H-hello…? Nice weather we’re having…"
Whiiiiip—
KAAANG!
The greeting hadn’t even finished leaving my mouth.
A dagger streaked past my cheek with a cold metallic shriek and buried itself deep in the wall behind me.
"Hiiieeeek!!"
I screamed and leapt up like a startled frog.
"Don’t you move, you walking point ticket!"
The guy yanked the dagger free from the stone wall, eyes rolling white with rage, and charged.
I ran without looking back.
I felt exactly like the disposable extra getting chased by the killer in the opening scene of a horror movie.
The one silver lining in this absolute disaster was that the bastard had just been ragdolled by Anastasia, so he was far from peak condition.
His pursuit speed, body broken and battered, was barely any faster than my own pathetic scramble.
I-if I just keep running like this…!
But that flimsy sense of relief lasted all of two seconds.
"You little shiiit—!!"
A furious roar exploded behind me, and a faint blue aura suddenly flared around his body.
In an instant the limping footsteps that had been lagging earlier accelerated to insane speeds.
What the fuck is that?! Why did he suddenly get so fast?!
A murderous chill closed in on my back like a blade already resting against my spine.
My legs turned to jelly under the certainty that a dagger was about to punch through my back at any second.
If I kept running blindly, it was only a matter of time before his blade kissed the nape of my neck.
Please, somebody save me! Anyone, just fight this guy for me!
Even while sprinting for my life, I rolled my eyes frantically, scanning the battlefield.
And then, right in the middle of the exploding chaos, I spotted a familiar back standing alone in solitary grandeur.
Anastasia.
She had cut such a wide swath of destruction that not even an ant remained within dozens of meters of her.
She stood with her greatsword planted in the floor, catching her breath.
Without a second of hesitation I poured every last scrap of strength into my legs and sprinted straight toward her.
The frantic footfalls made Anastasia whip her head around.
When she saw me charging toward her with a face the color of death, her brow furrowed hard.
"What? Ha, so you’re coming at me too? I already told you I wouldn’t hold back—"
"Noonaaaaaaa!!"
THWUMP!
Before she could finish the sentence I slammed into her, wrapping my arms around her waist with every ounce of strength I possessed and diving behind her back.
It was the single safest bomb shelter in the entire world—the one that would save my life.
"?! Hey—hey!! Have you lost your mind?! What the hell are you doing—let go! You crazy bastard!!"
Anastasia shrieked in pure shock.
Her face flushed crimson as she floundered, too flustered to immediately throw me off with full force.
"Th-that lunatic with the knife is chasing me! Do something about him, please!!"
I clung to her back like a pathetic barnacle and wailed. Only then did Anastasia notice the male student still charging after me.
"Argh, you absolute coward! If they catch us teaming up our scores get docked! Let go already!!"
"I can’t let go! If I do, that guy’s going to kill me!!"
When I dropped even lower and latched onto her leg like I was ready to sprawl on the floor, Anastasia bit her lip in pure disbelief.
"…Ugh, you are such a pain in the ass. Fine—then stay the hell out of my way."
With that she began violently shaking the leg I was stuck to like a cicada, trying to fling me free.
"W-wait—wha?!"
Whoosh! Whip! Thwip-thwip-thwip!
I clung for dear life, squeezing every last bit of strength into my thin arms.
But the recoil from this monstrous she-bear shaking her leg was beyond anything I had imagined.
My entire body flailed through the air like a flag snapping in a hurricane while still attached to her leg.
"Uwaaaaah—!"
In the end my hands lost their purchase and slid cleanly down her smooth calves.
I felt myself briefly soar through the air—
SPLORT—!
—and then landed with a beautifully wet, solid impact, slamming my ass straight onto the floor.
"Ugh…"
A groan escaped me, but it hurt far less than the terror had led me to expect.
Had she actually held back her strength even while thrashing me off so violently?
I was just rubbing my stinging rear and lifting my head when it happened.
Swoosh—
The figure of Anastasia who had been standing right in front of me vanished as if erased by a lie.
Because I had been watching from point-blank range, the sheer, grotesque speed of her movement stabbed into my skin like a physical force.
Fwaash—!
In the blink of an eye she had already circled behind the bastard. Her greatsword cleaved the empty air, and the maniac who had been raising his dagger toward me never even managed a scream before dissolving into white light and crumbling away.
That overwhelming power.
I clapped like a man possessed and shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Whoa! Amazing! That’s my noona! You’re the best!"
Anastasia let out a snort of pure incredulity at my over-the-top cheering and casually rested the greatsword on her shoulder.
"Ha. For taking out one little guppy like that. Now get the hell out of my sight already. If you show your face in front of me one more time, I’ll actually cut you in half."
At that murderous warning I nodded so hard my head nearly flew off.
I was just dusting off my ass and preparing to bolt without looking back when—
SWEEEISH—!
A piercing whistle of air that sent a chill down my spine, and something razor-sharp streaked straight for Anastasia’s face.
KAAANG—!
She twisted her greatsword instantly and deflected it.
Sparks of bright red metal showered in every direction with a shrieking grind of steel.
The metal mass that had bounced off her blade spun through the air in a tight arc before burying itself deep into the floor far away.
A dagger, its edge glinting coldly.
"……"
Anastasia’s eyes narrowed into a predatory glare.
Through the dust where the dagger had come from, two silhouettes were strolling casually toward us.
A massive man, and the female student walking in front of him.
Finally the girl with scarlet twin-tails stepped out of the dust cloud, smiling as brightly as if she had just run into an old friend, and waved her hand.
"Hiii~! Anna. Long time no see, huh?"