Bait and Switch
Countless mages tangled together, and the surrounding area instantly transformed into utter pandemonium. With his back to the chaos, Jeon sprinted toward Aaron and thought, I have to hurry.
Ennya Dexspin and Ilon Doyan were both clearly 3-star mages—powerhouses few students could hope to match. Yet even among 3-stars, the gap in skill was obvious. The two of them were barely at the threshold of 3-star. They could never stand against Baraki Nepiri and Silvia Cristel, who had already reached full mastery.
Right now they're holding their own thanks to the element of surprise, but…
Given enough time, that difference would inevitably reverse. So while the others bought him time, Jeon had to deal with the monstrous student council president as quickly as possible.
It’s possible.
Defeating him through raw strength was impossible. Unless they could pull off some wildly unorthodox strategy like the one that had sliced through the virtual world during the fight with Chris, Togun had almost no chance of beating Aaron. Still, that didn’t mean there were no options left.
There’s no need to take down the student council president directly.
He would use the rules of the “Capture the Leader” match. The target wasn’t Aaron himself. Once the bracelet was destroyed, Aaron Dice would be eliminated from the game anyway. So Jeon would focus every attack on the bracelet. A single clean hit and the game would be over. Victory would be theirs.
“Hoo.”
With that thought, Jeon hurled himself into the inferno where Togun and Aaron clashed. Enduring the pain of his lungs cooking, he let out a long, deep breath and spread a faint electric current across the ground ahead. What he sensed beneath his feet was the blue-wave sword Togun had thrown during his fight with Aaron—the blade Jealousy had given him, now embedded in the earth.
Baraki stretched his arm far behind him, then swung it forward like a whip, striking the space ahead.
“Kugh!”
Ilon caught the blow with both hands, the sheer force driving his knees into the ground. The tough muscle of Silver Fang tore open, exposing stark white bone beneath.
“Hup!”
If you take a hit, you give one back—that was only natural. Before Baraki could pull his arm away, Ilon seized it and spun, using centrifugal force to hurl the larger mage aside.
Quaaddd!
Baraki skidded across the ground, carving a long, straight furrow. Just as Ilon leaned forward to charge the fallen Baraki, the earth erupted.
Poof!
A yellowish-brown spike burst upward from below. If Ilon hadn’t jerked his head back, it would have pierced straight through his jaw. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.
He really is strong.
Another mage who specialized in transformation magic. Unlike Ilon, who mimicked a monster’s form to reshape his body, Baraki focused on altering the shape of his own flesh. A body like rubber that could stretch endlessly beyond its elastic limit. Hardness raised by rearranging the carbon structure. The Nepiri family’s secret art had created a body capable of achieving anything physically possible.
A spell any martial artist would envy.
Baraki’s fingers rose from the ground and spread wide. A dense cage of spikes materialized right in front of Ilon’s eyes. Ilon retreated swiftly, riding the sharp wind blades unique to Silver Fang, his gaze narrowing.
Even a fighter this strong couldn’t reach the top at Benedict Academy?
That meant if Ilon had gone to Benedict instead of Dominic Academy, he wouldn’t even have qualified for the Academy Tournament. He was glad he’d chosen Dominic after all.
“Are you just going to keep running away like a coward?!”
While Ilon felt a surge of pride at his own tactics, Baraki’s face twisted in irritation at the sight of Ilon constantly dodging by the skin of his teeth.
Faster than a damn fly!
He was wasting precious time. Baraki knew that even if Togun and Jeon attacked Aaron together, they still wouldn’t win. His friend, the pinnacle of Benedict Academy, was simply a monster.
The real problem is the other one.
Chris. Another 4-star mage, just like Aaron. The issue now was that after dealing with the juniors, they would still have to face him in the final match. To do that, they needed to preserve Aaron’s stamina and mana as much as possible—yet here they were, dealing with this pointless interference.
“Aaaagh! This is so annoying!”
Baraki wasn’t the only one irritated by their opponents’ behavior. Silvia stomped her feet, grinding her teeth. With volcanic heat plastering her usually flowing hair to her skin, she glared at Ennya. She leaned forward naturally, dodging a spell that flew in from the side.
Paak!
Still in that posture, she hurled an air shell she had gathered in her hand and instantly retired the mage who had targeted her.
Is she a monster?
Including the one just now, five of their teammates had already fallen to her. One shot, one kill. Her sniping had reached the level of a divine art—every attack guaranteed to eliminate one person. On top of that, she had wrapped herself in a storm that completely blocked any attacks from reaching her. Though she had been in a tight spot under the combined assault, she was steadily overwhelming the situation.
“You! If I catch you, you’re dead!”
The reason she was still annoyed was simple: the one she wanted most—Ennya Dexspin—kept using others as shields to slip just outside her range.
In every field of study, including magic, the number of stars carried more weight than anything else. Just as no one in the Academy Tournament could stand against the 4-star mages Chris and Aaron, even ten or more 2-star mages couldn’t defeat a single 3-star. Yet the encirclement around Silvia was still effective for one simple reason: the 3-star mental mage Ennya Dexspin. Through her magic, she was efficiently coordinating the surrounding mages. She had woven a network centered on herself. While she lacked direct offensive power, her control and interference allowed the group to pressure Silvia with sheer numbers. In other words, this standoff was only possible because of Ennya Dexspin. Conversely, if Ennya were removed, the formation would collapse instantly—and Ennya knew it, which was why she was desperately protecting herself above all else.
In reality, this would be impossible.
Who would risk their life for a girl they had only met two days ago? This kind of sacrifice was only possible because it was a virtual world where death wasn’t permanent. It was pure time-buying with no intention of actually winning. Though they were being overwhelmed, they were completely dancing to the enemy’s tune.
“……”
Baraki, still entangled with the persistent Ilon, and Silvia, surrounded by Ennya’s encirclement, exchanged glances in the air. They couldn’t let it continue like this. Their thoughts aligned perfectly, and both nodded at the same time. A strategy meeting conducted entirely through eye contact. The first to move was Silvia Cristel.
Whooooosh!
The storm wrapped around her body intensified. She cloaked her legs in wind and charged straight forward.
“Stop her!”
Ennya frowned and shouted at the sight of a ranged mage launching a reckless physical assault. The encirclement she had built wasn’t so loose that it would be breached by such a simple, brute-force attack. Mental waves spread outward from Ennya. Watching the storm shake the space ahead, she fired her magic precisely into the opening.
“……!”
An invisible, formless attack. Yet Silvia dodged it with ease, as if she could see it coming. Ennya realized the truth: the gap she had aimed for had been deliberately created by Silvia.
“Everyone, get back!”
No matter how invisible an attack was, once its trajectory was clear, dodging became simple. This had been a trap exploiting Ennya’s carelessness. Naturally, Ennya shouted in panic as the encirclement tightened, expecting Silvia to take the hit as before—but Silvia was faster.
“You’re too late.”
Smiling faintly, as if she intended to repay every hit she had taken, Silvia’s storm expanded violently, pushing everything around her away.
“……!”
In that instant, all the air around Silvia was forced outward, creating a brief vacuum. Lasting only one or two seconds, the silence born from the sudden depletion of even mana made Ennya’s eyes widen. The ground around Silvia had begun to swell upward without warning.
“Gyaaaah!”
An unexpected ambush flew in from beyond the encirclement Ennya had built, piercing every participant surrounding Silvia. What formed in front of Ennya was a dense cage of yellowish-brown spikes. She whipped her head toward the source of the attack.
“How’s that taste, you bastards!”
Baraki had ignored Ilon’s assault to support Silvia. Thanks to him, their side had lost everyone, but the enemy side was now in danger of suffering fatal damage from Ilon’s attack as well. Sacrificing several 2-star mages to retire one 3-star mage was clearly advantageous in terms of exchange ratio, yet Ennya’s face turned deathly pale at the sight.
Taang!
Before she could even warn Ilon, a bullet of condensed storm fired between the spikes of the cage. The attack flew without the slightest delay, as if it had been prepared in advance.
“Kuhk!”
The storm bullet stripped away Silver Fang’s wind blades completely. It pierced Ilon Doyan’s heart with perfect accuracy, retiring him. Ennya collapsed to the ground, struck by the extraordinary tactic of switching opponents mid-battle.
“Nothing left to do now, right?”
Silvia Cristel stood before Ennya, looking down with a murderous glare. Ennya let out a hollow laugh as she stared at the fierce heat wind gathered above Silvia’s right hand.
“If I ask you to let me off even now, will you forgive me?”
“Yeah, right. As if.”
“Haha, figured as much.”
I knew it.
The moment Ennya lowered her head in despair, her body was launched high into the sky by a sharp impact.
“That was tougher than I expected.”
Silvia shook her head as she watched Ennya fall. Then she turned to Baraki, who was walking toward her.
“We just wasted time for nothing. Let’s hurry.”
“Yeah.”
Baraki nodded at Silvia’s words. The two of them chased after Jeon’s long-vanished trail and rushed into the inferno Aaron had created.
“……Where is this?”
Meanwhile, at that same moment, Ennya—who had been eliminated by Silvia—broke into a cold sweat as she looked around. Normally, being eliminated should have expelled her from the virtual world and returned her to reality. Yet all she could see was pitch-black darkness. Staring at the dreamlike, hazy void, Ennya instinctively sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.
There’s something here.
Beyond the darkness where she couldn’t see even an inch ahead, her body floated weightlessly in the air despite feeling nothing beneath her feet. It was as if she had become a ghost. From beneath her, something was shooting a blood-red glow upward. That thing was a predator. An invisible monster that saw her as prey and drooled hungrily. It was bound by something and couldn’t approach, but it stared at her clearly, waiting only for the moment it would be freed.
Save me.
Feeling a terror that welled up from the depths of her soul, Ennya desperately begged for her life. She didn’t understand where this place was or why she was here. In this incomprehensible situation, she pleaded for anyone—anyone at all—to save her.