Skeleton Dash
"Teaching Assistant, get ready."
At Aaron's jerk of the chin, a male teaching assistant hurriedly ran out onto the track carrying a single sword.
He didn't stop until he'd gone quite a distance from the starting point.
Aaron pulled a skeleton out of his subspace. It was just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill Island Ratman skeleton, the kind you could see anywhere.
Gripping its sword, the skeleton took its place at the starting line of the track.
What is he planning to do?
Simon and all the students watched the skeleton with puzzled eyes.
Then they saw the skeleton bend its knees and lift its heels — a stance that looked exactly like the preparation for a charge.
Whoosh!
The skeleton at the starting line vanished in a whirlwind. Students nearby let out small shrieks, crouching down or clutching their skirts.
"!"
In that instant, Simon saw it with perfect clarity.
In a single dash, the skeleton had covered more than twenty meters and arrived directly in front of the teaching assistant. Carrying the full momentum of its charge, it swung its sword.
KRAAAAANG!!
A deafening roar, almost impossible to believe came from a sword swing.
The teaching assistant who had taken the blow was driven back by the force, sent airborne, and rolled across the track several times before halting himself with a breakfall.
Sshk.
The skeleton, landing on the ground, made a gesture of pointing its sword at the fallen assistant, who sat slumped on the ground shaking his head, half out of his wits.
"Skeleton Dash."
Aaron spoke into the stunned silence of the students.
"A dedicated charging technique used by skeletons."
Waaaaah—!
Gasps of admiration and applause erupted from every direction.
As he clapped, Simon could already feel his body itching to try it.
"Silence."
The surroundings went quiet in an instant.
"If you thought dark magic was the exclusive property of necromancers themselves, you're mistaken. A necromancer can also order the undead under his command to use dark magic. And once you advance further in skill, you'll be able to handle magic-casting undead like the Skeleton Mage as well."
A laugh slipped out between Simon's teeth. Meilin, standing beside him, flinched in surprise and turned to stare at him.
"Hey! What's with that creepy laugh?"
"Nothing, I'm just happy."
Dark magic really was vast and boundless. Just knowing there was still this much left to learn made him feel genuinely happy.
Simon pulled himself together and turned his ears back to Aaron's explanation.
"It won't be easy, of course. But master this technique, and you'll be able to take down a priest or any other opponent with nothing but a skeleton. Understood?"
"Yes!!"
It was true — if a skeleton could pull off a charge like that, you could strike first or apply pressure before the priest's divinity could be brought to bear.
It was as if Monster A Holding A Sword had been transformed into a live-loaded, hypersonic shell. Everyone wanted to learn this technique.
"Then let's move straight into the practical exercise."
The teaching assistants busied themselves setting up straw bundles bound to poles all along the track — the very same equipment knights commonly used for swordsmanship training.
"The principle behind Skeleton Dash isn't difficult. To put it very simply, think of it as giving the skeleton connected to your intent the command to perform 'Jet-Black Stepping.'"
As for the magical mechanics, all it took was adding a single small equation beside the summoning magic circle drawn on the skeleton's skull.
From there, you guided the skeleton's jet-black down to its feet, concentrated it, then detonated it to launch the skeleton forward.
Certainly not a difficult principle in theory — but doing it yourself was another matter entirely.
After walking the students through detailed tips on commanding undead to use dark magic, Aaron lined them up on the track and started the practice.
"We'll begin!"
The first to step up with confidence was Meilin. She had her skeleton grip a sword and gave the command to charge.
Whoosh!
Stomping on jet-black, the skeleton launched properly into the air. Gasps rose from the watching students.
"That's our elite!"
"Success on the first try?"
Detonating the jet-black beneath the skeleton's feet had worked beautifully — but the pressure was so intense that its leg bones shattered and scattered.
In the end, her skeleton — lower body gone entirely — dropped its upper half with a thud right in front of the straw bundle. A spectacular failure.
Ugh.
Meilin's face flushed scarlet, and Dick and the other students burst into raucous laughter.
"BWHAHAHA!"
"Told to practice and she invented a whole new technique!"
"What is that, a new skill that sacrifices the entire lower body in one charge?"
Then Dick cupped his hand to his mouth like a megaphone and shouted.
"Meilin Original! Lower-Body Brake!"
She snatched bones off the ground and hurled them at him, face blazing red.
"Grrr! Let's see how well YOU all do, then!"
Roughly shouted down by her classmates, she stole a glance at Aaron.
She'd fully expected to be scolded, but his expression was, surprisingly, not bad at all.
"Good for a first attempt. That puts you in the upper ranks."
"Y-yes?"
Meilin blinked in bewilderment.
"This happens when you pour all your focus into the dash and neglect the skeleton's condition."
Aaron ran his hand down his own shin and then his ankle as he explained.
"If you launch with that much force, this part takes the strain — that's only natural. For a person it would just mean overworked muscles, but a skeleton simply falls apart. Next time, try concentrating on the bonds between the lower-body bones at the same moment you attempt the charge."
"Th-thank you!"
Meilin bowed her head in thanks, then looked down at Dick and the other students who'd been mocking her with an expression that said, see that? Their mouths snapped shut.
The next turns followed, one after another.
There was a reason Aaron had told Meilin she was upper-rank. Most students couldn't even send their skeletons forward — they collapsed right at the starting line.
Others managed the dash but, instead of going straight, leapt in place.
And some sent every bone in the skeleton flying the instant they charged — inadvertently driving a Bone Spear into the straw bundle.
"Toto Amori, sir!"
Toto, the great hope of the class among aspiring Summoning majors, failed too. The skeleton's body stayed put, but its feet shot off on their own and touched the straw bundle.
Another huge laugh rolled around the track, and a new nickname was born: Toto Original — Skull Kick.
"Well done. Upper ranks."
"Th-thank you, sir."
Aaron had praised him, but Toto, who had wanted to look good, felt a little deflated.
Aaron spoke up.
"No need to be discouraged. Let me tell you — no student succeeds on their very first—"
OOOOOOOOOOH!!
Just then, a storm of cheers erupted from the section of the track where the practice was underway. Aaron's and Toto's heads turned toward the sound as well.
It was Simon's turn.
The skeleton he had sent out shot forward in a perfectly straight line and swung its sword — and the straw bundle split in two and dropped to the ground.
The skeleton halted on the track in a slashing stance, straightened up, and raised its blade, while back at the starting line Simon could be seen clenching his fist in delight.
"..."
"..."
When Toto turned to look at him, Aaron avoided his gaze and coughed into his hand.
"...Just ignore that one. He's a complete lunatic."
* * *
One more time.
Simon was pouring all his concentration into honing the new technique. The skeleton returning from the track took its place at the starting line once more.
The jet-black flowing from the skull traveled down the joints one by one, gathering densely at the feet. From there, the skeleton bent its knees into a leaping stance.
With the feel of pressing down on jet-black.
It reminded him of his first Magic Combat class.
But now, in the second semester, it wasn't him stepping on jet-black — it was making the skeleton do it. That was a problem of an entirely different dimension.
Slowly ramping up his focus, Simon's eyes snapped open and he invoked the Absolute Order.
Fly!
Ta-at!
The skeleton kicked off the ground and soared. Dust swirled up from where it had stood, spreading outward in a black stain.
Having leapt ten meters, the skeleton swung its sword in midair and cleaved the straw bundle clean through.
Waaaaah!
Cries of amazement poured from the watching students. A Summoning teaching assistant holding a clipboard checked off the record.
"Ten-meter leap. Target cleaved too! Very good."
It really was an excellent technique, Simon thought. Even on reflection, being able to close ten meters with an opponent in a single bound using nothing but a bag of bones was an absurd advantage.
But.
Something's still lacking.
The distance itself had improved over his first attempt, yet Simon wasn't satisfied. He walked over to the landing point and examined the freshly cut straw bundle.
It didn't cut all the way through — just grazed the end.
Issuing the dash command through the Absolute Order could push the skeleton's charging speed and stability to their absolute limits. The problem was the details.
Under the Absolute Order, the skeleton focused solely on fulfilling the command 'Fly.' Concentrating on executing that single motion, its precision in the most important part — striking the target — dropped off.
Once he'd identified the flaw, an improvement suggested itself immediately.
Then this time, two Absolute Orders at once!
Simon made two consecutive attempts.
Fly → Cut.
Fly-and-Cut.
Both ended in failure. With the first, the skeleton focused so hard on the initial order to 'Fly' that 'Cut' got buried entirely.
With the second, receiving two Absolute Orders simultaneously, the skeleton just concentrated on the flying.
No satisfying success was emerging and failures piled up one after another, but if anything Simon grew more stubborn.
Before this class is over, I'm breaking through this wall no matter what!
Simon, achieving results faster than anyone and improving by the minute, had for a while now been catching the eye of someone who kept stealing glances at him.
Of course the bastard pulled it off.
Watching Simon use the dash so casually, Hector began to burn with a wildfire of competitive fury.
"Hector Moore? You're up."
At the assistant's words, Hector turned his gaze back to his own skeleton. The aide watching from the side flinched at the fire in his eyes.
If he can do it, there's no reason I can't. Whatever that guy pulls off, I can pull off too. Without question.
Hector extended his right arm and gave his skeleton the dash command.
VWOOOOOOM!
The skeleton used its dash and cleaved the straw bundle five meters away. The members of his faction watching from behind cheered fervently.
"That's our Hector!"
"He really is on another level from everyone el— huh?"
Suddenly, the faction members fell silent. So did Hector.
Irritation came boiling up inside his skull.
"That's a fail."
the teaching assistant said, marking his clipboard.
He'd succeeded at both the dash and the strike — but the skeleton's foot bones had flown off. Having cut the straw bundle, the skeleton, with no feet left, lay sprawled face-down on the ground.
"Briefing."
Hector said, staring hard at the assistant.
"Please."
Rage and humiliation dripped from his voice. The assistant hunched his shoulders and smiled.
This kid is no joke.
"The bonds between the bones seem to have held properly. But you got too worked up — your passion ran ahead of you, your control over the undead wavered for an instant, and the bonds went slack. Maybe try again with a bit more relaxation?"
At those words, Hector immediately pulled out a fresh skeleton and set it on the starting line. He closed his eyes and slowly let his agitation settle.
Empty the mind. Cast off every useless distraction and look only ahead.
Hector's eyes opened slowly. Now, all he could see was the straw bundle ten meters away.
Now—
"WAAAAAH!"
"You son of a—! Simon just hit eleven meters!"
"Amazing, Simon!"
CRASH!
Hector's skeleton, the moment it leapt, broke apart into eight separate pieces. The sword in its hand stuck in the straw bundle, but the skeleton itself lay shattered and scattered across the ground.
"GRAAAAAAH!!"
Hector's rage exploded like a volcano.