Tournament Preliminaries (3)
Tournament Preliminaries (3)
Tournament preliminary arenas usually don't draw much of a crowd.
Half the cadets can't watch because they're participating in the tournament themselves.
The remaining half get scattered across too many simultaneous preliminary matches happening at the same time.
Scheduling overlaps with other events, too, so most arenas run in a quiet, sparse atmosphere—with a few exceptions.
The arena where Lee Ha-yul fought his preliminaries fell squarely into those exceptions. Not many seats were empty. Even with no outside guests present, the stands were packed with cadets.
"...That was an expansion ability just now, right?"
So the match that had just ended was witnessed by a great many pairs of eyes firsthand.
A cadet who'd been sipping a drink cautiously spoke up. It had taken him a moment to put his thoughts into words.
At his question, the cadet sitting next to him gathered his own tangled thoughts and answered.
"Yeah. A technique-category expansion ability. Looked like an independent technique rather than something from an established martial sect, though..."
In a world overflowing with every kind of supernatural ability, skill with weaponry might seem like a modest sort of unique ability at a glance.
Even when you fight using body reinforcement, aura, mana properties, and the like, that impression never quite goes away.
That doesn't mean technique-category unique abilities are looked down on.
Because the true worth of the technique category emerges in its expansion abilities.
It's not simply about clutching a sword and wielding it well. The real value lies in swordsmanship techniques that bend the laws of the world as they slash.
Down there.
Like the enormous slash mark carved into the floor of the sparring ground.
"I know it's a technique category, but an expansion ability already... we haven't even finished the second semester yet. The name was... Aiden Reynolds? What faction's he from? Is he in the Advanced Class?"
"No. From what I heard, he's from a non-superhuman family and in the Basic Class. His grades are mid-to-lower tier?"
The cadet who'd voiced his puzzlement cocked his head.
Manifesting expansion abilities from the technique category is relatively easier than other categories.
"...Is that kid special?"
Relatively easier. Manifesting an expansion ability is never that simple in the first place.
Even the technique category, considered relatively easier, is no simple matter.
And yet an expansion ability like that... manifested and used by a cadet who hasn't even completed his first semester. It was staggering.
It was only a shame that this same cadet had been eliminated in his very first preliminary match.
"Still, after that match alone his stock is going to shoot way up. They said he isn't affiliated with anyone yet, so his messages are about to get flooded."
Of course, news would spread from this match regardless, but if he'd shown that in the main tournament, the impact would have been far greater...
And also.
"Hmm..."
The cadet let his words trail off and turned his head. His gaze swept over the slash mark—and the other mark carved alongside it.
That wasn't a slash launched from a single direction.
Dodging the slashing attack that had torn lethally across the ground, then—without a moment's delay—unleashing an identical slash from the opposite side and carving that mark into the floor.
No matter how many times he replayed the memory, he still couldn't quite believe it. He'd almost suspected a hallucination spell and found himself reflexively drafting a counter-spell formula.
"...Whether it won't just get buried."
A technique-category expansion ability manifested by a Basic Class cadet who hadn't even finished half his first year.
Frankly speaking, that alone was far from ordinary.
It wasn't unheard of for a cadet to reveal hidden potential late or for a Recommended Admission student to suddenly spread their wings and soar.
But.
Glancing once at a flying bird's wingbeat...
...and immediately copying it to fly up alongside it and shoot it down in return... next to the news of that much-talked-about Special Admission Cadet, the impact was considerably diminished.
"...Starting."
Some time passed, and the next match got underway.
Not much time had passed. So there hadn't been much time to recover stamina, either.
That was the deliberate design of the Midterm Evaluation Tournament. A format where you had to manage your stamina distribution and recovery across back-to-back preliminaries and the main tournament.
Soon, Lee Ha-yul stepped onto the stage again.
Two cadets had taken the stage, but the overwhelming majority of gazes were fixed on just one of them.
Partly because of the "Special Admission Cadet" label that had followed him since he enrolled.
Partly because of the steady stream of positive growth reports, and partly because of the heroic deeds rumored out of Sipnaha.
And partly because of the unbelievable feat he'd just shown in the earlier match.
"Hoo..."
That might have been uncomfortable in many ways, but the cadet on the opposite side didn't find it strange.
If anything, the atmosphere was one of acknowledging it as only natural.
[Then, evaluation begin!]
"───, ───, ───..."
But the atmosphere wasn't one of merely accepting defeat.
The cadet on the other side steadied his gaze and brought his hands together into hand seals.
At the same time, his lips murmured. An incantation carrying will and mana spread through the surroundings.
Hand seals and incantation to harmonize mana.
His clothes fluttered. Mana surged out, generating a small whirlwind as it assembled a spell formula in the air.
Whoosh! In rapid succession, spheres of flame formed.
A swift attack through formula unification and high-speed casting.
Roughly a dozen or so fireballs launched all at once. Crimson trajectories streaked across the air, cutting through the arena.
All gazes converged on Lee Ha-yul, who stood at the impact point of those trajectories.
Lee Ha-yul opened his hand.
He wasn't holding a sword the way he had in the earlier match. The sword simply hung quietly at his waist.
He had no two hands to form hand seals like the cadet opposite him, and no voice to murmur an incantation.
So he couldn't bring his hands together, either. A voice carrying will couldn't resound from him.
But.
Whoosh! Behind his back, dozens of flames simply manifested and fired.
The trajectories of flame that erupted from both sides of the stage finally overlapped.
KWAGANG! The flames that collided burst into explosions one after another. The roar hammered at eardrums. Then black smoke rose, obscuring the center of the stage.
And.
- Whoosh!
The cadet's expression crumpled as countless spheres of flame flew through the smoke without a moment's delay.
- BOOM!
Explosions erupted in quick succession on one side of the stage.
"......"
Magic manifested without incantation or hand seals.
Most mages can do it. It's difficult when you've just begun learning magic, but later on, it becomes an art most can manifest.
But few mages actively employ it in combat.
There was no reason to keep two hands and a mouth idle and not use them.
High-speed casting, the advantage of chantless magic? Manifesting a spell with a single incantation and a single hand seal is far faster and more advantageous.
Magic, manifested one after another, embroidered the sparring ground.
Trajectories of every color cutting across the air, spells bursting and shattering the floor. And counter-spell formulas clashing in the air.
It was one-sided.
The magic from one side unilaterally overwhelmed the magic from the other. It was greater in number and far superior in power.
The stage's occupancy was eaten away toward one side. The spell formula meant to counter the opponent's magic was itself read and countered in turn.
The deployment and manifestation of magic was as if someone could see right through this whole space.
Just as he had overwhelmed his opponent with the sword earlier.
This time, he was overwhelming his opponent with magic.
"...Detection type."
Lee Ji-yeon, who had been staring blankly at the spectacle, murmured to herself.
Her green eyes watched the spell formulas that filled the air in rapid succession.
Extremely sharp and efficient spell formulas. And not rigid ones, either, but fluid formulas ready to reshape themselves at any moment.
"Huh?"
The friend beside her reacted to her mutter, but Lee Ji-yeon had no attention to spare for him.
...Detection type, she says?
At the time of enrollment, they'd said it was a detection-type unique ability.
The match just now... he'd driven a cadet with a sword-technique category into a corner and then outright embodied the expansion ability his opponent had manifested.
And now, he was crushing a cadet who likely held a mana operation or magic aptitude unique ability—with magic.
On top of that, lately the rumor had been spreading that he was even born with an affinity for the five elemental spirits.
Physical ability, mana operation, unique ability, swordsmanship, magic, spirits...
Shining talents, any one of which would let a person hold their own or even stand against a hundred alone, were all concentrated in a single individual.
His talent was shining. Potential was blazing with brilliant light.
A brilliant light that drew everyone's eyes and, in the end, made them respect him and root for him.
Lee Ji-yeon knew that kind of light, too.
The people she'd known since childhood were like that.
It was the light that Hong Yeon-hwa, who'd run around so energetically, had possessed.
It was the light that Baek A-rin, who acted utterly innocent but was full of mischief, had also possessed.
It was a light she, standing among them, had never had.
That very light... or perhaps a light greater than that, was on the stage now, flaunting just how brightly it shone.
- Clench
"......"
Emotion surged. Even by her own estimation, it was a truly pathetic and cloying emotion.
* * *
Abruptly, a dizzy sensation crawled up from my toes. It felt like an electric prickling, and then the strength drained from my legs and they started quivering.
Tired...
My body swayed. I tried to hold out for a moment, then figured I'd just topple over, so I braced myself against the wall with my hand.
My breathing was ragged. I took a moment to steady my panting.
I had fought three preliminary matches in total.
The first match was against Aiden. The second match was against a Magic Combat Major cadet. The third was against a Combat Major... a cadet who focused on their unique ability.
The rest periods between matches had been short. Maybe because of that, the three matches hadn't taken all that long.
But since the preliminaries had started in the afternoon, outside even the sunset glow was gradually fading by now.
An expansion ability... did I use it for nothing?
The All-Rounder expansion ability.
Myriad Transformations.
An expansion ability meaning "boundlessly changing." I'd manifested it while receiving instruction from my teacher.
Its effect was the imitation of techniques and actions. To be precise, imitating techniques solely within fields where my All-Rounder proficiency had been sufficiently built up.
It was an expansion ability that suited the All-Rounder category.
It's similar to Homogenization.
Homogenization imitates special and attribute-type unique abilities and the properties of mana.
Myriad Transformations imitates the techniques and actions of technique-category skills.
The commonality was copying what belonged to others rather than myself.
If I operated both at the same time, I could certainly expect an enormous synergy effect.
Depending on my own capacity, of course...
And right now, my capacity couldn't keep up, which is how I ended up in this state.
Ugh...
The strength in my legs gave out. I just leaned my back against the wall and slumped right down.
Did I really use it for nothing...
Technique-category expansion abilities generally consume heart power.
They say that while other unique abilities manifest based on mana, the technique category is, after all, in the domain of... what do they call it, techniques.
Of course mana is consumed too, but they drain mental strength and heart power and the like far more than that.
Pwoohoo... I let out a deep breath and shook my head from side to side.
I did wonder if I'd used it for nothing.
I'd had no intention of using Homogenization from the start.
It wasn't a desperately dire situation that would require mobilizing it, and I had no confidence I could handle the aftermath.
It's not like the imitation of unique abilities was unprecedented. But those imitations were only possible under strict conditions and in limited forms.
Moreover, imitating the Calamity Flame, the Azure Sea... things commonly spoken of as being on a different level—those had always been fundamentally impossible.
Homogenization was on a different level. If my proficiency could only keep up, I could imitate most special and attribute types with relative ease.
The resources it draws on were nothing more than my own heart power and mana.
It was a subject that would stir up a storm fiercer than the one at Sipnaha. If the Association hadn't been controlling the information, I'd have been hounded nonstop by now...
But Myriad Transformations was a little different.
Unique abilities in the technique category are generally easier to manifest expansion abilities from than other categories.
There are probably several reasons for that... but what I know is that it's because constructing innate talent is easier.
To take the most representative example, the sword-technique category... The finer traits may differ, but fundamentally, the part that is "handling a sword" is consistent.
As a result, the expansion abilities of the sword-technique category are fundamentally similar.
Swing and cut. Thrust and pierce. Strike with the sword and break.
Swing once and cut three times. Launch a slashing strike to cut an enemy far away.
The trajectory of a thrust twists, ignoring defense and piercing through. Or smash downward and break through along with the defense.
Because the framework is similar, the results are more or less alike.
And so, people who hold technique-category unique abilities often gather together and develop their innate talent as a group.
These are the factions commonly called martial sects.
In such sects, they take superhumans with technique-category unique abilities as disciples, teach them, and guide them toward manifesting the expansion abilities the sect has constructed.
A representative martial sect... is the Three Calamities Sword that Katsuki Yusei belongs to.
A faction formed by the alliance of three sword-technique sects, it's one of the few truly massive power groups in Japan.
You get tangled up with the Three Calamities Sword if you build up affection with Katsuki Yusei.
Anyway, for those reasons, the hurdle for imitating technique-category expansion abilities is low. I should say it's at a sufficiently acceptable level.
I'd already discussed it with my teacher. The conclusion we reached was that there was no need to hide even Myriad Transformations.
So I tried using it... Maybe I overestimated my heart power.
- Squirt
Ah.
Just then, my nose started to tickle, and with a spurt—a nosebleed gushed out.
I grimaced and wiped the blood trickling down.
- Clack
Footsteps echoed from across the hallway. I flinched, still wiping the nosebleed.
I'd narrowed my Observation Authority because my head was aching. So I couldn't see who was beyond the hallway.
But I knew this presence.
The footsteps, the breathing... and the nature of the mana, too.
It was someone I didn't want seeing me in this state right now.
I scrambled to pull myself up.
- THUD
Ah, ow.
And then my strengthless legs twisted, and I toppled over with a crash. A loud thud rang out through the quiet hallway, and the presence that had flinched at the sound rushed over urgently.
"Ha-Y-Yul?!"
The person I didn't want seeing me like this...
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a shrill cry and came running at me.