The Bluff and the Curse
Thud!
Jet-Black erupted beneath Simon's feet as he charged straight at Claudia.
Her way of dealing with it was simple. She pulled out two more potion vials and smashed them at her feet, and the brown poison gas that billowed out wreathed the area in thick haze.
Poison to shut down close combat entirely. Makes sense.
When the intent behind an opponent's tactics was this obvious, there was no reason not to answer it in kind.
Simon brought out two types of summons. Overlord's tentacles seized the zombies that had just emerged from subspace and stretched out in a single unbroken line toward the poisonous mist.
BOOOM!
A wall?
Overlord's tentacle had been stopped by something. Not that it mattered much. Simon simply clenched his fist.
Corpse Explosion!
FWAAA BOOOM!
The explosion blasted away the poisonous gas clouding the area in one clean sweep.
Whew.
Simon lowered his right arm and stared straight ahead. What emerged as the poison mist cleared was the wreckage of a collapsed green wall—and behind it, Claudia, sitting slumped with her face twisted in a grimace.
"Ugh!"
She scrambled to her feet and sent the slimes she'd spread around her forward to shield herself.
The slimes, which had been slithering and crawling along the ground, swelled up like balloons and spread out into a lumpy green wall once again covering Claudia's front.
A look of interest flickered in Simon's eyes at the sight.
So she leaves the offense to Poison Fog and fights strictly defense-first.
So far, it was textbook Toxicology student match management. Feeling no particular need to smash through the wall, Simon simply ran around the front of it instead.
The moment he cleared the wall, however, snakes came attacking out of the air without warning. Claudia's hair had transformed into serpents.
Her family's unique black magic!
Simon ducked low, craned his head aside, and ran wildly, dodging the snakes as they struck. They moved so fast that he couldn't close the distance at all.
Left with no choice, Simon stepped on Jet-Black and leapt into the air.
"Got you!"
Those six snakes hadn't been the limit of Claudia's power.
Two more strands of her hair turned into serpents, lashing out toward Simon as he hovered midair. Her calculation was simple: there'd be no dodging in the open air.
"Don't think so."
Simon flashed a grin and swung his arm behind him, then seized empty space and wrenched it open.
CLANG! With the sound of tearing metal, the air split apart and a downpour of arrows began streaming out of it.
"!!"
It was the attack of the Skeleton Archers waiting in reserve within subspace. The two serpents took the arrows head-on and snapped back into ordinary hair.
While Claudia hastily threw up a Jet-Black shield to block the arrow volley, Simon touched down safely on the ground.
Swish-shshshsh!
Swish-shshsh!
Six subspace gates opened at once, and tentacle blades came pouring out of them in a simultaneous barrage.
Claudia hurriedly pushed a slime forward, once again casting Slime Wall.
THUNK!
THUD!
Overlord's blades failed to pierce the wall and ground to a halt.
That's no ordinary Slime Wall. She's modified it.
The irregular tactic of raining arrows from subspace had rattled her, but she'd shut down Overlord with ease. It seemed she'd thoroughly prepared counters for every technique that was already known.
Simon recalled his tentacle blades without hesitation—and this time, potion vials came sailing over the wall from her side.
Tch!
Simon immediately stamped on Jet-Black and darted sideways. The moment each bottle struck the ground and shattered, poison gas burst out of it.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The pattern repeated—Claudia throwing, Simon evading. Hiding her body behind the Slime Wall, she drew a deep breath with a grave expression.
I just have to hold out a little longer. Just a little more...!
The Poison Fog currently blanketing the field carried a nerve paralysis effect.
Simon's movements would soon grow sluggish, and that was when she'd unleash her all-out assault—that was the winning formula she'd envisioned.
But.
Why?
Time passed as she traded blows with him again and again, yet his movements showed not the slightest sign of slowing.
Why isn't the paralysis working?
Anxiety gnawed at Claudia. If things dragged on like this and Simon actually finished his Blood Golem, the situation would become far too dire.
Indeed, Simon—unlike his ferocious early assault—was now keeping a set distance and focusing purely on evading her attacks.
Anyone could see it: a spellcaster funneling power into his magic circle, preparing a Blood Golem.
I can't just sit here waiting for the paralysis forever. I have to push him harder!
The moment she moved to tear down her own Slime Wall and launch her offensive—
"...!"
She saw it.
The Golem Core held aloft at the tip of Simon's outstretched right arm, with a shimmering emerald mist coiling around it.
"Too late, Claudia."
Simon wore the smile of a gambler laying down a winning hand. He opened a colossal subspace gate behind him and called twenty-three skeletons onto the battlefield.
"Counterattack."
As Simon raised the Golem Core above his head, the blue-green smoke scattered in every direction and began wrapping itself around the skeletons' bodies.
No way—!
The color drained from Claudia's face at the sight.
She'd replayed the footage on her Memorial Crystal Sphere over and over, studying how to break that black magic—and when it came to that black magic specifically, she had zero chance of winning.
...I have to stop it!
Even as her legs trembled with fear, she opened a subspace gate. What she pulled out were two large potion cases.
Against that technique, I have to stop it by any means necessary!
Her heart was pounding. She unfurled a large magic circle directly in front of her and popped open the mouths of the cases in both hands. Inside, toxic potions shaped like fireworks were packed to the brim.
Gritting her teeth, she hoisted the cases up and pressed them flush against the magic circle. The potions sloshed and poured themselves into it, and each time they did, fire blazed to life along the circle's rim.
The strongest attack the current Claudia could muster.
FWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Poisonous spheres shot out of the magic circle with a thunderous roar, raining bombardment down on the skeletons.
KABOOM-boomboomboom!
WAWAWAWA!
The arena filled wall to wall with explosions. This technique had originally been designed to finish off a Simon slowed by nerve toxin—but this was no time to be saving it.
"Haa... haa..."
Clatter.
THUD!
She dropped the empty cases from both hands and stared straight ahead. Yellow, black, and blue smoke churned everywhere she could see.
I-I stopped it.
A moment later, she caught a blurry glimpse through the smoke of the collapsed skeletons. Her lips quivered with emotion.
I just stopped Special Admission No. 1's strongest technique...!
That was when she felt a presence. Claudia whipped her head around—and there was Simon, running a wide arc around her flank.
You still won't give up?
They'd both burned through their strongest weapons alike. Now the field was hers, layered with Poison Fog.
All she had to do was block this one last desperate flail.
Her hair lengthened and transformed into six snakes, striking out at him. Simon planted a step and dodged, then evaded a serpent rising from below by stomping Jet-Black and leaping skyward.
In an instant, the distance between them had collapsed.
"Hnng!"
She summoned every last drop of her Jet-Black. Beyond the snakes already in play, another six strands of her hair transformed and launched themselves at Simon as he closed in from the air.
I did it!
The instant she was certain of victory—
Fwoosh.
Drip.
Emerald smoke suddenly began bleeding out of Simon's body.
Huh?
The smoke reshaped itself like human hands, caught the serpents lunging for the nape of his neck and his elbows, and snapped their necks sideways. All six snakes were caught fast in the mist.
"Sorry for the deception, Claudia."
Simon had never intended to use the Blood Golem in the first place. What he'd shown her earlier was a feint—a move designed to make her waste her strength.
In truth, this was the Cloud technique's original purpose. Catching her snakes to buy himself an opening, Simon had torn open the path for his charge and dropped down right in front of her feet.
"!"
She stiffly raised her arms into a guard stance—but instead of attacking, Simon took a single step back. The instant he did, a Slime Wall erupted between the two of them, cutting off the space.
"You were deceiving me from the very start?!"
"I was. That was all just for show."
Only after the Blood Golem was fully complete could he coat skeletons with its power to form the Royal Guard.
What he'd done just now was simply pretend to shroud the skeletons in Cloud smoke, gauge the full force of her bombardment, recall every wisp of Cloud, and slip away to the side.
"And one more thing."
Only now noticing something strange, she lowered her gaze. Her shadow had been dyed red—and it stretched on, connecting over the wall.
A curse?!
Her lips trembled violently. He hadn't merely retreated—he'd cast a curse and then stepped back.
"The analysis never said anything about me using this kind of curse, did it?"
So saying, Simon activated the curse he'd learned from Bahil.
⟨ Indolence ⟩
Every accumulated affliction Simon had endured—all the pain and more stored up in his body—was divided between the two of them. And of course:
I-I can't move!
So did the confusion effect, and along with it the very nerve paralysis she'd been waiting so desperately for.
Her mind wavered, and the Slime Wall standing between them came crashing down.
Face flushed crimson at the realization that she'd been played, she struggled with pained whimpers.
Every nerve-paralysis effect she'd built up until now had hit her all at once, leaving her unable to so much as twitch a finger. On top of that, the confusion effect had her head spinning like a drunkard's—she couldn't even cast her black magic.
Of course, Simon was just as immobile.
"So what now? What's the plan here?"
Claudia forced the corners of her mouth upward as she spoke.
"A standoff? Whoever keeps their nerve and casts black magic first wins?"
"No."
Simon smiled.
This was such an obvious calculation.
"In this situation, which is faster—a toxicologist building up a spell circle out of Jet-Black? Or..."
VMMMM! VMMMMMM!
"...a summoner simply issuing an order to his undead with a thought?"
SWISH!
SWISHSHSHSHSH!
Six tentacle blades shot out in unison, shoved her body back, and slammed her into the arena wall behind her.
WAWAWA-KRAKOOM!
Dust billowed in a pale cloud as she, pinned against the far edge of the arena, let out a pained groan.
A cascade of spent purple barrier fragments showered down around her.
Shhk.
The longest of the blades came to rest, pointed at the nape of her neck. She flinched and lifted her chin.
"Surrender."
Simon said coldly.
"There's no need to hurt any more than you have to."
"Ugh!"
She glared up at him with venomous eyes.
But trapped in Overlord's grip as she was, there was nothing left she could do here.
She bit her lip until it bled from sheer frustration, but soon, as if resigning herself, bowed her head low.
"I... I surrender."
At those words, the referee immediately raised his arm.
"Match over! The winner is Simon Polentia!"
Cheers and applause erupted from every corner of the stands.
With his victory sealed, Simon retrieved Overlord with an expression of pure relief and sent it back to subspace.
"You did it, Simooon!!"
"That's our guy! Clean match!"
Camibarez and Rick, seated in the very front row, were cheering their hearts out. Simon waved back at the two of them.
And at the far end of the stands, there was one person happier than anyone else.
Bahil had risen from his seat, twisting his torso like a zombie, bangs hanging over his eyes, clucking and twitching—his face laid bare like a monster drowning in pleasure.
"Did you see that? Did you see, Chehekl! Simon won with a curse. With the curse I taught him!"
"...Ah. Yes. Congratulations."
Chehekl, acutely aware of every eye around them, hurriedly grabbed Bahil and pulled him along.
"Let's go. And please, for the love of everything, shut your mouth—you're embarrassing us."
"I knew my sincerity would reach you! Winning with a curse! A curse! You truly must major in Cursing, Simon Polentia!!"
Meanwhile, the referee who'd declared Simon's victory beckoned to the groundskeeper henchmen with a gesture.
"After a ten-minute intermission, we will proceed directly to the next match."
Slither.
Claudia, collapsed on the floor, stole a glance at Simon's back.
A crushing defeat.
She had targeted Simon with total precision, and she'd been confident she wouldn't lose.
But Simon had turned even that into fuel for his own victory, and far from cracking him, she'd been the one thoroughly outmaneuvered instead.
To think he'd turned Toxicology's own paralysis against her to win.
...A true genius really is a genius.
Even she had to admit the brilliance of his match management.
Oh.
At that moment, Simon was walking toward her.