The Final Match
The final match had begun.
Class A's undefeated squad versus Class C's weakest team.
Class C, apparently having judged that a conventional approach held no chance of victory, brought out a rather unusual strategy.
An all-in strategy. The plan was to funnel every other student's jet-black into a single student named 'Lexio' — Class C's reigning midterm champion.
Lexio was a boy with a wild tangle of unruly curls and tired, weary eyes.
Centered on him, a girl capable of link-type dark magic connected the other students to Lexio, channeling their jet-black into him.
Around six students clung to Lexio in this way, while the rest stepped forward and played the game normally.
'They're definitely hiding something.'
'...What happens if that guy gets strong?'
Class A had no choice but to stay on high alert for Class C's strategy. They called a brief strategy huddle, and the approach they settled on was simple.
"You all hang back for now."
"We'll handle the early game somehow."
Preparing for any eventuality, they'd arranged to pace the stamina of their own aces, Simon and Hector. Since the two of them could step in whenever they pleased, they decided to fall back and wait.
Of course, even without Simon and Hector, Class A's offense showed no slack whatsoever.
Everyone here had survived more than half of the first semester at Kizen, and their skill was undeniable. With a dazzling variety of attack patterns, they recorded a one hundred percent attack success rate.
"Whew!"
They had results on defense, too. A chubby Class A student named Miller caught the ball using the adhesion magic circle drawn on his body.
"Nice defense, Miller!"
"Counterattack!"
The boy glanced around, then tossed the ball to a girl raising her hand to signal.
She wove a round tennis racket out of the blood of her Blood Flow magic and smashed the ball with it. A Class C student collapsed with the ball striking him in the face.
"Great finish!"
"You two were amazing!"
Class A's mood was excellent. Simon clapped along, enthusiastically cheering on his classmates. Hector just watched with a sour expression, hands shoved in his pockets.
Meanwhile, Class C remained ruthlessly committed to the Lexio all-in. The students who'd spent all their jet-black moved to the very front of the court to burn through the enemy's attacks until they were called out.
And so time passed.
Class A: 8 survivors.
Class C: 3 survivors.
Both teams had dwindled to single digits. Simon had joined a few attacks, but Hector did nothing but watch to the very end.
Thwack!
Then the girl who'd been linking to Lexio was caught by a Class A attack. Only two Class C students remained.
"Nothing for it."
Lexio finally stepped forward.
"Let's give it a try."
In the meantime, a Class C student with an attack token threw the ball and took down one of Class A, making it 7–2 once more.
Now it was Class A's turn to attack. The girl with the tennis racket, who'd been their main offensive force, stepped up.
She lofted the ball and, with all her strength in her Blood Flow racket, hurled it straight at Lexio.
'There's no way he can dodge that!'
She had full confidence in her own attack.
Then Lexio activated the dark magic he'd been holding in reserve. A transparent glass wall spread out to cover him on all sides.
CLANG!
The ball slammed head-on into the glass wall, spun wildly against it, and stopped dead. Lexio stretched out his arm and pointed at the boy standing beside her.
WHOOSH!
The ball flew off with the exact force it had arrived with, striking the boy square in the torso and knocking him down.
"Wh-what was that?"
"Did it just get reflected?"
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
This was no ordinary dark magic. A house-exclusive dark magic, like Haren Coke's.
Class A regrouped and launched another attack. But once again, a ball someone threw bounced off the glass wall and came back to knock out another student.
Hushed voices burst out from all around.
"How are we supposed to break that?"
"It's basically broken — but only in this game."
On the next attack turn, they caught one of the students roaming outside Lexio's barrier, but then Lexio's attack took down another Class A student.
In the blink of an eye, it was 5–1. Lexio had to face five people alone, yet he looked completely at ease.
"How long are you all going to keep striking poses back there?"
Lexio smirked crookedly.
"Come at me."
Haaahhhm.
At that brazen yawn, everyone blinked and turned their gazes. Hector was yawning hugely.
"Ball."
At Hector's word, Class A's tennis racket girl flinched hard.
"Give me the ball."
"Ah — okay!"
She quickly handed the ball over. Hector drew in a long breath through his teeth and threw the ball at Lexio's glass wall.
BOOOM!
"Oooohhh!"
Even the sound was on a different level from ordinary students.
But in the end, even Hector failed to pierce the glass wall. The ball bounced back and struck the arm of the very girl who'd handed it to him. Groans of 'Aww!' escaped from all around.
"No way even Hector can't break through?"
"We've lost this one."
Watching the ball that had hit his own teammate roll across the ground, Hector twisted his mouth into a meaningful smirk. He grabbed the ball again and threw it.
CRACK!
This time, the girl hiding at the back went down.
CRACK!
Miller, who'd been racking up a fine highlight reel with several successful defenses, couldn't hold out either and collapsed.
Only two Class A students remained. In a flash, it was 2–1.
"H-Hector! Stop it!"
"Just throwing blindly isn't going to work! Find a way!"
Hector casually ignored all the voices and threw again. The ball hit the glass wall and bounced straight back — its target this time was Simon.
Hector's lips curled up.
'Take a nice trip.'
THWAP!
In that instant, the surroundings went deathly quiet.
Simon had extended one hand and caught the ball with ridiculous ease.
Creeeeak.
Under the grip of Simon's powerful hand, the ball's spin slowed, then stopped entirely.
'...You little punk!'
Just as Hector gritted his teeth, this time it was Simon who threw the ball.
BAAANG!
The ball, instantly reflected off the glass wall, slammed into Hector's face.
Hector, wearing a look of pure arrogance, took the ball with his face and held on with both hands. His body slid backward inch by inch.
"......"
When Hector peeled the ball away, a round mark was left on his face.
In the silence that followed, the occasional suppressed snort of laughter could be heard.
'How?'
Hector whipped his head around, face twisted in fury.
More than anger, it was bewilderment. He'd known Simon's dark strength was advanced level, but there was no way he could catch a ball that easily.
Sure enough, droplets of jet-black were dripping down from Simon's body one after another.
Jet-Black Internal Eruption. He was already putting what they'd learned today to use in a real match.
'What even IS this guy...?!'
Whatever he built through effort that nearly killed him, Simon buried it under a single word: talent.
'Who the hell does he think he is!'
Studying ahead had been Hector's pride. Proof that he'd started earlier and worked harder than anyone else. Wasn't it only natural that the student who worked harder beat the one who didn't?
But Simon was different. He'd shown a maddening growth rate from what he'd learned at Kizen alone, and even the professors and scouts watching him had taken to saying things like 'he's this good without any head start.'
The frustration boiled up, and he couldn't contain it.
Why was the one who'd studied ahead treated like a fool? Why did he have to be measured against Simon?
To Hector, Simon Polentia felt like an existence that negated everything he had ever built.
"WHY?!!"
Hector hurled a wild shout and threw the ball. It hit the glass wall and flew back toward Simon.
BOOM!
Simon crouched into a stable stance and absorbed the impact.
"He held it!"
"Nice defense!"
The Class A students murmured in awe. Simon, too, broke into a smile.
'All that observation was worth it.'
No matter how a person dodged, the ball homed in on them like a guided missile. In this case, the direction it sought was the body — more precisely, wherever the core was.
The instant the ball came flying, Simon stood in a position slightly twisted off its trajectory. That way, the ball would bend at its current angle and come sailing toward Simon's chest.
If you could pinpoint the ball's point of impact in advance and prepare for it — and if Jet-Black Internal Eruption was layered on top — 'defense' really wasn't all that hard.
"Hoo!"
Simon threw the ball with all his might.
BOOM!
Hector was knocked backward as he caught the reflected ball. He gritted his teeth and threw it right back.
CLANG!
BOOM!
CLANG!
BOOOM!
"Hey, you maniacs!"
Meilin, unable to watch any longer, exploded.
"Who are you two even fighting right now?!"
Simon and Hector had long since stopped paying Lexio any mind. Simon was focused on his own growth; Hector was focused on Simon.
To the two of them, Lexio was nothing more than a wall that bounced the ball back nicely.
'No, seriously, hell—'
Lexio himself was visibly rattled too.
'What the hell kind of people are these?!'
CLANG!
BOOM!
BOOOOOM!
Under the relentless impacts, the glass wall began to crack and splinter. It was a mindlessly brutish attack, but now the shock was reaching Lexio himself as he channeled his dark magic.
"SIMON POLENTIAAAA!"
Hector spat out his rage and opened his subspace. Foul-smelling scales of the corpse dragon came pouring out, slapping themselves onto his right arm one after another.
"I'll kill you!!"
Hector threw the ball while baring his teeth at the figure across the court. Bouncing off the glass wall, the ball flew at Simon with all of that force intact.
BOOOOOM!
Simon slid backward, heels digging in, and held. A long shoe mark carved into the floor.
"Heh!"
Hector's mouth curved up. But Simon rose without a hint of expression and opened his subspace.
"Bone Armour."
The disassembled skeletons' bodies swarmed over Simon's right arm, transforming into 'Gauntlet Mode.'
With the gauntlet equipped, Simon concentrated Jet-Black Internal Eruption into his right arm and threw the ball.
BOOOOOM!
Hector, who caught the rebounded ball, was driven back an enormous distance.
This time, his heel stopped just short of touching the court's boundary line. A little further and he'd have been out.
"GRAAAAHHH!"
Hector flung his subspace open wider. Soon scales coated his entire upper and lower body. His skin writhed as if it were craving the scales.
FLAP!
Moments later, enormous wings fastened onto Hector's back. His shoulder blades clamped down on them as if gripping the wings in a fist.
WHOOOOSH!
Ball in hand, Hector soared high into the sky.
'Watch closely, Simon Polentia.'
He looked down at Simon from high above.
Simon, for his part, gazed calmly up at Hector.
Just seeing that face made his blood boil. He was clearly the one looking down from above — so why did he feel like the anxious one?
"RAAAAGGHHH!"
From midair, Hector hurled the ball downward like a hammer blow. The sky flashed, and the ball came down like a comet, striking the glass wall.
KUUUGUGUGUGU!
"Whoa!"
"Kyaaaah!"
The violent shockwave rolled outward, and the students outside the court crouched low and fell back. The glass wall split apart with an enormous rending CRACK.
Seeing it, a flicker of something new appeared in Simon's eyes.
'Not yet! It hasn't broken!'
Simon sprinted to the front of the court and opened his subspace.
"Simon! Get out of there!"
"I'm going to hurt you! Don't block it — just get hit and be out, please!"
Camibarez and Meilin shouted. Simon curled his lips and took his stance at the front of the court.
'Sorry, but there's no backing down from this match!'
BOOOOM!
The ball came flying at Simon with the full force of Hector's overhead smash. Simon opened his subspace and poured out his entire summoning skeleton squad.
KA-BOOM!
CRASH!
KA-RA-BOOM!
The skeletons collided with the ball and shattered like dominoes. At the same moment, the bones clamped onto the ball one after another.
'Full body — Jet-Black Internal Eruption.'
Jet-black poured out from every inch of Simon's body. He took a deep breath and slowly raised both hands in front of his chest.
BOOOOOM!
The ball slammed into him instantly. Simon's body slid backward, his outstretched arms pushed back until they smacked flat against his chest.
The sheer force made it feel as if both his feet would lift off the ground, but he gritted his teeth and held, activating Absolute Order.
'STOP!'
The bones clinging to the ball all at once exerted attraction in the opposite direction.
'Open Gate!'
From the second subspace, Overlord's blades shot out and wound around Simon's arms, legs, and waist like ropes. The force began transferring into Overlord as well.
The instant Simon's body was about to be pushed out of the court—
Screech.
It stopped — by a hair's breadth.
Internal Eruption, the skeletons' attraction, and Overlord. Three forces meshed in exquisite triple rhythm to receive the ball.
The bones clattered to the ground, and the blades were retracted into subspace.
"......"
A dead stillness fell over the surroundings. Class A and Class C alike stood with their mouths hanging wide open.
'They told us to play a game and we ended up filming an entire movie.'
'Yeah, they're on a whole different level.'
Simon walked over, unhurried. Beyond the glass wall — so fragile-looking that one tap might shatter it — Lexio's face had gone ghost white.
'These absolute lunatics! I'm running the jet-black of half a dozen Kizen students and they just break it with raw power?!'
TAK.
Simon caught the ball with both hands and settled into his stance.
Thirty seconds before Internal Eruption ran out.
This was his final chance to attack.