Next
Around the time Tiss made contact with Katie, Lukeshire and the rest of the Hero Class students visited the Selection Chamber, just as the Hunter Class students had.
“Why…?”
But not a single one of them was chosen by the Holy Sword under the same conditions as Tiss.
Not everyone, of course, but most of these kids genuinely wanted to protect people.
“Does it make any sense that we—the reserve heroes who protect the cities run by the Management Bureau—can’t even draw the Holy Sword that chose that tiny little brat?”
“Forget the Holy Sword. Only one person even got chosen by a Hero Party member’s treasure. The Hero Class’s pride is in the gutter.”
Not every student in the Hero Upper Class was an idiot.
“Daniel, why are you hesitating to join? It’s not even the top or second-ranked student. What are you so scared of?”
“Scared? Don’t you get that just fighting her is a loss?”
Even after Lukeshire’s words, the orange-haired boy named Daniel, slouching with his feet up on the desk, only gave a half-hearted reply.
Lukeshire had secretly hoped Daniel would participate. He was the son of a famous hero who protected Area 1 and ranked high on the hero charts. All he got back was a cold rebuke.
“A bunch of so-called reserve heroes swarming a little girl because they can’t accept her? That’s already humiliating enough. And if you lose on top of that? How do you think people will look at us? They’d treat us like complete morons, obviously.”
Lukeshire was going out of his mind with frustration.
Students with top grades or from prestigious families quickly calculated the costs and benefits and backed out. It was a pride fight where winning was just breaking even and losing meant total disgrace. No reason to jump in.
For similar reasons, the upperclassmen completely sat this spar out. The seniors who had already passed through the Selection Chamber knew they weren’t qualified, and if they showed off against a freshman and lost, the aftermath was obvious.
With things settling that way, it turned into something closer to a slightly childish pride match among the first-year Upper Class.
Among everyone recruited so far, only two people with top-tier grades had actually signed up: the Grand Duchess Eileen, and Lukeshire himself.
“I came to the Hero Class because I wanted to learn about a field I don’t know. I have no intention of hanging out with you people.”
The Grand Duchess drew a line with Lukeshire from the start. She said she’d only joined because she purely wanted to test herself against the next-generation Hero out of competitive spirit, and that she had no interest in the Holy Sword’s qualifications. She even made it clear she already acknowledged Tiss.
Everyone else who signed up was just an ordinary-level student.
Can I even win?
Lukeshire, too, flinched involuntarily whenever he recalled the killing intent Tiss had shown for that brief moment. He grew more and more anxious.
Aaaagh!
Overwhelmed by rising rage, Lukeshire stormed into the forest on Academy grounds and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“You cowardly bastards! You said we’d charge in no matter what, and now you’re all running away?! Prestigious families my ass—you’re all just spineless trash with no pride!”
Boom!
When Lukeshire slammed his fist down in fury, a tree on the Academy grounds split in half.
Back when he’d been raising his voice in his own class before going to the Hunter Class, everyone had seemed ready to go along with him. But now that the subspace spar was right around the corner, they were all just looking for excuses to slip away.
Including himself and Eileen, there were only five of them.
Lukeshire was impulsive and hot-blooded, but he’d made it to the Upper Class, so he had at least a minimum of judgment. He’d looked down on Tiss for claiming she’d beaten a dying Cheon Geomhwa, but a former A+ Hunter was on the same level as Academy faculty heads like Lionel.
No chance of winning.
He knew perfectly well that if he were in the same situation, he wouldn’t just lose—he wouldn’t even be able to escape alive. He’d been trying to at least increase their numbers, but only five? Even if he planned a war of attrition, he doubted the guys in front could even wear her down.
As Lukeshire wondered whether he should just run away now, someone approached him.
“Lukeshire, you look like you could really use some help. What’s troubling you?”
“Bumblebee… sir?”
“I believe I might be able to assist you.”
Wearing a kindly smile, Bumblebee slowly walked toward Lukeshire’s group.
There was no morning assembly.
While they were warming up in the waiting room after Baba Yaga’s summons, an announcement came that the arena had been set up, and the class students moved first to take their seats.
Ugh… t-to become a s-spectacle for this many h-humans. I-it feels awful.
Quite a few students had gathered in the arena. When Baba Yaga posted a notice that she’d be covering class, the place filled with upperclassmen who’d come to watch the subspace spar instead of boring theory lectures. Of course, the other freshmen—Upper and Lower Class alike—had all shown up to see the big event that had popped up right at the start of the semester.
A spectacle? How about thinking of us as the stars of the show instead?
Tiss… you know. I-if there’s a show like that, I’d rather just burrow under the blankets, eat snacks, and watch it on the net.
Shan made a disgusted face, but at least she wasn’t getting motion sickness or rainbow-vomiting, probably because a fight was coming.
“You gathered more than I expected. I thought you wouldn’t even get five.”
Guh!
Just that one remark, and Lukeshire’s group was already overreacting. Besides Lukeshire and his crew who’d come to the classroom, I hadn’t expected this many to actually participate.
I didn’t even care about Lukeshire and his lackeys. The only ones I was watching were the main characters you’d meet whether the player chose the Hunter route or the Hero route. The protagonists with enough talent to take the top and second-rank spots even if you didn’t raise them as playable characters were distributed pretty evenly across both the Hunter and Hero Classes.
“Lukeshire, is this all ten of them?”
“Yes, that’s every participant.”
“Alright. I’ll take it that there won’t be any more recruitment.”
The remaining four besides Lukeshire and his goons were pretty formidable. Notably, there was the Grand Duchess, the poster heroine who appears first when you visit the game company’s official homepage, and Daniel, who shows up as something of a rival character when you play as the male lead.
I didn’t think they’d actually show up. I thought they were kids who could think… or did someone properly incite them?
“The rules are simple. Unlimited artifacts, no restrictions. Victory or defeat is automatically decided by surrender or the enemy’s death. If all challengers lose, Tiss wins. If Tiss fails to take down every challenger, Tiss loses.”
There’s no rest time in a subspace spar. The moment a challenger surrenders or dies, the next registered challenger in line enters.
“Brats, even setting aside how this spar came about, there’s no prize money or honor on the line this time. Are you still going to fight?”
For me, it’s a chance to prove my qualifications as a Hero. For them, it’s a fight for their pride. I have nothing to lose even if I lose, but to wipe away the doubts in their hearts, I have to win on this stage they’ve set. And overwhelmingly.
Tiss, y-you’re going to try hard, right?
There’s a saying that if you win you’re a psycho and if you lose you’re a loser… but I at least have to win.
O-okay. I’ll take it seriously too.
“Are both sides ready? This old woman would prefer to wrap this up before lunch if possible.”
“Ready.”
“Ready.”
“Good. Then the subspace spar begins now!”
Snap!
When Baba Yaga flicked her fingers, a hemispherical barrier formed around me and the Hero Class students, and the surrounding scenery inverted to black and white. The inversion was very brief, and it soon returned to normal, but this place we were in wasn’t reality—it was inside the subspace.
Physical damage taken here doesn’t affect reality. Which means the mental shock stays.
The strategy I’d set was simple. Use only the necessary energy and techniques, minimizing calorie waste. So this time, I planned to make use of this guy.
Gloop, gloop.
I entered the arena with Ichor I’d formed into a colorless, transparent shape wrapped around my skin like a bodysuit.
Waaaaaah!!!!
“Tiss Unnie, you can do it!!!”
Whether it was for the performance or not, the cheering from outside the arena briefly carried inside.
“Thanks.”
At Sia’s booming shout, I smiled brightly, waved toward where she was, then took my stance.
Looking at the matchup, the first five were Lukeshire’s lackeys. They were probably trying to wear me down even a little. No need to drag things out against guys like that. I set a goal of ten seconds per person, cleaning up all the lackeys within a minute.
Ssshhh.
I stood in place and raised my right hand. While my opponent, sword in hand, was watching, the moment I flicked my finger—
Puh-boom!
With a sound like a watermelon bursting, the first challenger’s head vanished without a trace.
Thud.
The headless body staggered and collapsed to the floor, then turned into fine sand and disappeared from the subspace.
“Next.”
“Wh-what!?”
The moment Lackey Number Two, automatically transported into the arena according to the registered order, panicked, I didn’t miss it. Still standing in place, I lifted my leg and threw a kick. The formless Ichor extending from my body followed my motion exactly, flying several meters and splitting the axe-wielding challenger clean in half.
“Guh… ack.”
Crunch!
I flicked my finger at the guy whose upper body had been separated, just like the first. The Ichor gathered like a bead at my fingertip received my mana and underwent primary acceleration the instant I flicked. The small core inside the fired Ichor collapsed, causing secondary acceleration.
A new technique combining the division-body skill I’d received from Katie. Colloquially known as Finger Flick.
Tiss… c-couldn’t you have just called it a finger cannon?
Techniques like this are supposed to have lame names. It pisses the other guy off more.
By the time the double-accelerated Ichor hits the enemy’s body, it’s as fast and powerful as a large-caliber firearm artifact that uses high-grade Magic Stones as its energy source.
The instant the second challenger’s head vanished, the newly entered third challenger charged at me with swords in both hands.
Whoosh!
He’d trained somewhat; a faint blue sword aura sprayed from his blades. It flashed with a fairly sharp momentum, but there was no reason to face something like that head-on.
“Next.”
After dodging the sword aura right in front of my eyes, I concentrated all the Ichor wrapped around my body into my legs, just like Violet had done at the Abandoned Factory.
Paat!
Using the Ichor’s elasticity, I closed several dozen meters in a single step.
“What the…!”
I dodged the sword swinging toward me, lightly rolled, and slipped behind the challenger’s back. By the time the third challenger, who’d already finished his swing, tried to pull his sword back, it was too late.
Crack.
I stepped on the challenger’s shoulders with both feet, grabbed his jaw and head with my hands, and snapped them.
“Next.”
The fourth and fifth opponents after that were the same.
“Next.”
All five were defeated in a single blow without even exchanging a single exchange with me, and vanished.
The arena that had been filled with heat had gone quiet at some point.
Shan, time?
I-it took exactly forty-five seconds.
Even though half the challengers had fallen, not a single drop of blood or speck of dust had landed on my school uniform.
Inside the now-silent arena, only my short word calling for the next opponent rang out clearly.