Do Dreams Always Come True? (5)

The dirt floor of the bamboo grove heaves up in mottled colors.

I take a step back at the exact moment it erupts. A dagger charged with mana absorbs the impact with a clear, ringing note.

It won't end with just one.

A skeleton that had been hiding among the bamboo leaps forward with its spear tip leading, and from farther off comes the sound of horse hooves. No need to look—the source of that sound is a Death Knight. Direction: rear right.

Falling back would be an option, but for now, I'll break through head-on. The surrounding undead will become my shields instead.

I bat away the bone spears raining down in a storm. I dodge what I can, but when something would impede my movement, I try to parry first. I throw a dagger ahead of time and slide across the ground as I enter.

From the dirt floor, the Corpse Summoner's undead rise to become meat shields—a wall of flesh reeking of thick corpse stench.

That's why I hate the Necromancer line. My synchronization rate is pretty high, but my sense of smell is especially sensitive. Regardless of winning or losing, it just puts me in a foul mood first.

Through that choking stench—I finally succeed in closing the distance with the Plague Doctor.

"You're pretty good at working these stinking things."

"The mask I'm wearing isn't just for show. You can pack herbs inside the beak."

"What?"

There was a secret like that? You cowardly bastard...!

I thought we were both enduring this smell together. The deep betrayal in my chest soon twisted into a thirst for revenge. A dagger swung with hatred and rage cleaves through the bone shield. The next attack barely grazes his wrist, and the one after that successfully stabs the opposite shoulder.

Sensing this couldn't continue, a rusted spear shoots up from Crow's shadow. An undead bursting from the darkness quickly takes form.

A second Death Knight. I was wondering why he hadn't brought it out—so he'd hidden it near himself after all. The corpse knight, receiving its orders, moves its spear with ferocious speed.

There's a difference between a player and a summon that could be called absolute, but that doesn't mean I can kill a high-ranking undead in one go. In the end, I have to let the fleeing Crow go.

It's fine. Let's think calmly. The opponent also picked the most standard combination.

From the semifinals onward, unlike before, it's a best of five. If I can just shed my own impatience, handing over one set as a scouting match isn't that big a burden. And Crow's skill selection openly carried the intent to counter me specifically.

For two people meeting in the semifinals, information was lacking. My remaining footage only amounts to about ten matches, and Crow had a bit more than me. He'd come having mastered what had already been shown to near perfection, of course. But the question of Is that really everything? would still remain.

That was the correct answer. At least I still had a lot left to show.

It worked out well. There's no time cushion between the semifinals and the finals. Giving a variation around this point wouldn't be bad. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠If Luce and Kelberos are watching this match, it'll be a fresh shock.

Combat habits? Sword paths that follow what's been drilled into the body? There's no way I have something like that. Even if I did, there's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even less chance I wouldn't know about it.

The monster I faced was the kind you couldn't possibly beat while carrying a weakness. So the person I analyzed most bloodily in my entire life was my friend, and the next was myself. It's not that I left things unfixed because I couldn't fix them. There just hadn't been a need yet.

If I lost him, I just need to chase him down again.

I sever the Death Knight's neck and find the Corpse Summoner's position once more.

Corpse Summoners have more means of protecting themselves compared to ordinary mages. The bone sphere I had to break through in the first ambush, the flesh walls the ghouls create, the Death Knights that make excellent bodyguards. But in exchange, they can't use Blink, the common survival skill of other mages. A bit tougher—but if you cling on to the end, you can win.

I move through the shadows with the dagger I'd thrown earlier. I stomp on the head of a dead man trying to grab my ankle and leap, using a bamboo stalk as a pole to change direction midair. Long chants can just be interrupted with throwing weapons.

A ghoul's corpse explosion that chased me all the way into the sky. I take it by exhausting my guard gauge. Rotten meat fragments fail to pass my collar and fall to the ground.

Corpse Explosion is a fairly powerful skill. But the consumed undead never return until the match ends. Normally, the standard is to slowly use the ones that have outlived their usefulness first. This time, he'd used it more hastily than initially expected. I can ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠interpret this as the opponent's cards being consumed rapidly.

If this approach succeeds, the skills he'd been tightly hiding will probably start popping out one by one. After dealing with a few undead blocking my path annoyingly, I can drastically close the distance with Crow again.

"......!"

"Got you."

I slash my daggers in an X to destroy the bone fragments. I carve up the mage's body whose defense has been broken, in order from wrist to thigh to side. The skill with which he moves his staff is more composed and clean than expected. A couple of attacks get blocked, but it's still just a mage's derived class. In a state where the distance has been closed like this, he's nothing but an assassin's prey.

While driving a blade into his abdomen, mana gathers at my feet.

His gaze checked above, then moved down. Something's coming, but it doesn't look ready yet?

I backflip through the air to avoid the surging bones and throw a dagger with a rope attached. The flying dagger uses the bones as a pillar and spins several times around them. Confirming the rope is firmly fixed, I pull on it and maneuver rapidly. A refreshing wind and the sense of speed rising with it. When I release the rope at the right moment, the black robe comes back into range. Two daggers immediately pierce the shoulder blades and draw blood.

"If you don't pull out everything you've got, you die next time?"

"I know......!"

Once more, the staff pounds the ground. At the same time, every undead's eyes turn red. From Crow's shadow, the last Death Knight and high-ranking undead like Dullahan burst out indiscriminately. What that means is crystal clear. The Corpse Summoner has initiated an all-out war.

The writhing of ghoul flesh is the precursor to Corpse Explosion. While cleaning up the high-ranking undead, the distance opens again. I bat away a few flying fragments and resume the chase. As I try to pass through the bamboo forest, a massive shadow falls from the sky.

Bone Dragon.

The highest-ranking undead a Corpse Summoner can bring out has revealed itself.

The silver-haired assassin carved through the undead. She slipped clear of the blast radius before the corpses could explode and lightly avoided the skeleton spears and blades. A speed even the broadcast cameras couldn't fully capture pressed relentlessly forward.

A judgment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Ga-wol of before would never have made. Her methods had always been somewhat aggressive, but until now this assassin had chosen slow, certain victory. And yet this time, she made a choice that accepted risk. Only a handful of people could guess why.

Fortunately, Kelberos was one of that handful. A hollow laugh of pure disbelief escaped him.

"Pulling a stunt like this in the semifinals. She must have had quite a bit of room to spare."

A thick stack of papers went straight into the trash. It was the report the analysis team had stayed up nights writing over the past several days. He already had the contents memorized cold, but as of this moment it had become garbage.

Her tendencies and playstyle had completely changed. Even her habits had vanished, as if she'd become a different person. Starting a fresh analysis from here would produce conclusions entirely different from before, and what that fact meant was clear.

All the half-baked analysis until now had been meaningless. Even if they analyzed her anew right now, the authenticity would be suspect. If you wanted to understand that rampaging assassin, the only way was to face her on the battlefield yourself.

The spectacular self-destruction of the low-ranking undead. The Bone Dragon's wide-area breath. Before long, the bamboo grove battlefield had become a single hell. The densely grown bamboo toppled under blue flames, and the gouged earth was littered with shattered corpse fragments.

The assassin's body wasn't unscathed either, but none of the injuries could be called fatal. From the sky. From the ground. Sometimes from empty air. Not a single bone fragment summoned without regard to position managed to pierce her. A gap no wider than a fingernail. That tiny difference was all that kept them from tearing open the assassin's skin.

The end of a mage who had used every prepared card was a foregone conclusion. The assassin who had overcome every trial drove her blade mercilessly into his throat.

A scarred female form filled the screen for a brief moment, and the match was over.