The Bone Whale Rides the Sea
WHOOOAAAAA!
The big match had arrived.
The moment the confrontation between Simon and Raheim—two Special Admission students—appeared on the main screen, the crowd's excitement boiled over. The announcer, swept up in the fervor himself, propped a foot up on his table and roared into his mic.
"What a matchup, right out of the gate! Special Admission No. 8, Raheim, who rose to Castellan of Snowfield Castle while still a teenager! And the very man who caused a massive sensation at the second BMAT—Special Admission No. 1, Simon Polentia!"
The announcer turned his head. "Professor Jane! What's your read on this bout? By a curious twist of fate, the two students you named as ones to watch this exam are facing each other!"
Jane stared with evident displeasure at the foot the announcer had planted on the table, then let out a short sigh and answered. "On paper, the advantage goes to Raheim."
"Oh, really? And I'd love to hear your reasoning!"
"Simon has shown recent activity in Curse Magic and Hemomancy, but his foundation is, first and foremost, Summoning. And a battlefield of open sea is the greatest obstacle imaginable for a Summoning student."
"Absolutely right! The statistics bear it out—Summoning students are struggling badly out there!"
Indeed, most of the Summoning-track students had already abandoned their summons and were taking the exam with dark magic from other disciplines instead. And of course, fighting outside one's specialty meant a steep drop in competitiveness. The spectators were already whispering that perhaps thirty of the first fifty eliminations were Summoning students.
"It remains to be seen how Simon will overcome the limits of Summoning! Let's keep watching!"
* * *
Splash! Splash!
Simon was cutting through the water in a frantic crawl, while Raheim hovered in the air behind him, hurling snow-bomb projectiles one after another.
WHOOM! WHOOM!
Spray erupted again and again around Simon.
'Ugh, I really didn't want to break out Deimos against a guy like this already.'
He decided to hold out as long as he could. Taking a deep breath, Simon dove beneath the sea.
Glub-glub-glub!
Even as he fled underwater, Raheim relentlessly poured attacks down from above. The projectiles punched through the surface and, apparently unbothered by the water, shot onward at speed.
'So he's already prepared for underwater combat.'
Simon swam quickly toward the cluster of other students and hid among them. It was a calculated gamble—turning that many people against his pursuer would give even Raheim pause.
But Raheim bombarded them all—Simon and the inconvenient bystanders alike.
The students struck by the snow bombs began sinking toward the seafloor, as though iron weights had been shackled to their legs.
"Gahk! What the—?"
"Attack from the sky!"
At that moment Simon broke the surface with a loud 'pwa-hah!' and bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"That guy is Raheim!"
"Raheim?"
"The Raheim? He's ranked first with all ten coins already!"
"Get him first!"
The counterattack at sea began. As Jet-Black magic and curses rained upward, Raheim grimaced and pulled away to put distance between them.
"Filthy little rats…!"
In the meantime, Simon had slipped off somewhere else entirely.
And so, while Raheim was tied up battling the other students—
"Pwa-haaaah!"
Simon, who had quietly dove away and circled back, clambered up onto another raft of floating debris. Sweeping back his soaked hair, he let out a light sigh.
'A necromancer who can fight both in the air and at sea. What a nuisance.'
He'd barely caught his breath and pushed himself upright when—
BOOOM!
Raheim came streaking down from the sky like a comet and landed on the very platform Simon stood on.
"Why do you keep running?"
The instant he settled onto one corner of the platform, the whole floating slab tilted sharply toward him.
'Whoa—!'
Simon bent his knees and barely kept his balance.
"You swore you'd fight me for Mayrin's sake! Jumon Pollendis!"
Simon blinked. "What? I'm Simon Polentia."
"Just take it and go with it."
The boy pulled his white swim cap down tight over his head and grinned smugly. "I'll knock you out of this exam, and from now on Mayrin will have eyes for no one but me. It doesn't matter where you run, Jemon Pollentona!"
"…Your version of my name keeps getting worse."
"The only name I need to remember is Mayrin Villenne!!"
Raheim pounded his own chest with both fists, thud thud. "Anyway! I intend to drag you into those fifty eliminated students no matter what it takes. Come back in thirty minutes if you like—I'll kill you the moment you return!"
"…Uh, right. Sure."
"But there is exactly ONE way you can stay at Kizen!"
His lips curled into a long, smug smile. "Swear it. Swear that you'll never pine for Mayrin again, and that you'll never appear before the two of us as long as you live! Say it in front of the thousands of spectators watching through the Observers!"
By this point, Simon was beginning to genuinely worry about this boy called Raheim.
"…I'm sorry, but. Do you have, you know… some kind of… issue? Mentally, I mean?"
"How dare a mere student mock the Castellan of Snowfield Castle!"
Raheim clenched both fists and hauled them back toward his sides, and the floating platform under his feet began to tilt again with an agonized groan of bending material.
He had laid Gold Snow across its surface.
With the weight lurching to one side, Simon focused hard, mind fixed on his left foot.
'Open Gate!'
Shhhrrrrrrr!
Shhhrrk!
Six blades shot out at once—but Raheim had already leapt clear of the platform.
"You will NOT be forgiven! Jubon Pollentodina!"
'…Just stop worrying about the name, Simon.'
The platform flipped over entirely. Simon plunged into the sea and hurriedly began to swim clear, but Raheim rained projectiles down onto the wreckage one after another. The platform, blanketed in Gold Snow, became impossibly heavy and dragged Simon down with it, sinking toward the depths.
'Khh—!'
The downward pull was far too strong; there was no escaping it.
Simon clenched his fist and drew up his Jet-Black. His arm gleamed a murky teal, whorls of dark light coiling around it in a dazzling spiral.
CRACK-BOOM!
The instant Simon drove his fist forward, a huge hole tore open in the platform, and Simon slipped neatly through it.
Watching the platform plunge straight down toward the seafloor, Simon let out a breath of relief.
Splash!
Then, in the distance, he spotted Raheim entering the water too, head swiveling busily as he searched for Simon—and there, the students whose eyes had turned to the coins he carried opened up a coordinated barrage on him.
'Why does that guy never think anything through? Not that I'm complaining.'
While Raheim traded blows with the other students, Simon leisurely made for the surface. He found yet another floating platform and swam toward it.
'If he chases me again this time, then I suppose I have no choice—'
[Youth! He comes from behind!]
Raheim had abandoned his fight with the other students entirely and was tailing Simon. Beneath the magic circles spread at his soles, bubbles churned and fizzed in a steady stream.
'I suppose there's no helping it. Pier.'
Things hadn't unfolded the way he'd planned, but there was nothing to be done.
Simon steeled himself and climbed onto the platform.
'I'll bring you out.'
[Kheheheheh!]
Simon kicked off with a surge of Jet-Black and leapt skyward. At almost the same moment, the platform beneath his feet sank into the sea—one of Raheim's snow bombs had struck it dead-on.
While Simon hung in the air, Raheim burst up out of the water as well. The moment he spotted Simon, he shouted.
"Now it ends!"
Eight magic circles spread out above Raheim's body.
The students floating in the sea around them, the spectators glued to the main screen—every single eye was fixed on Simon's next move.
And Simon, suspended in midair, swept his arm grandly behind his back—and flung a space wide open.
—Wuuuuuuuuuuuum!
A colossal vibration, like the rending of the world's first dawn, widened the eyes of everyone watching. Raheim froze mid-motion.
What emerged from that subspace was—
"A m-monster?"
The enormous skeleton of a whale, more than five meters from end to end.
A long skull made of upper and lower jaws, the neck vertebrae trailing behind it. At the tip of the long spine running through back, loins, and tail spread a fantastic fluke, and the two pectoral fins jutting out from its chest brought to mind a mammal of the land.
Simon landed lightly on its back and gave a friendly little wave to Raheim, whose face had gone slack with disbelief.
WHOOOOOSH!
The moment Simon and Deimos hit the sea, a mountain of spray erupted skyward. Raheim took the brunt of it and staggered.
"WHAAAT!"
"What IS that thing?"
The students gaped at Simon riding the Deimos, looking ready to fall over from sheer shock.
Riding a skeleton whale as it sliced across the ocean at the speed of light—it was, quite simply, every necromancer's fondest dream.
[KHAHAHAHAHA!! Good! Very good indeed!]
Pier bellowed, savoring every ounce of the speed.
A smile crept across Simon's lips too. They were moving at a pace no amount of kicking and paddling could ever hope to match.
Of course, the attention they drew was tremendous. The watching students hurled dark magic after them, but none of it could come close to Deimos's speed.
"You little—!"
Raheim plunged into the sea in pursuit. The magic circles at his feet accelerated, spewing out bubbles in wild streams.
Vmmm! Vmmm! Vmmm! Vmmm!
Eight magic circles spread around Raheim once more and began firing Gold Snow projectiles in quick succession. Underwater, they gained a homing property, chasing after Deimos.
'Let's try it, shall we?'
Simon linked his mind to Deimos's will and pushed for speed. The whale skeleton began to accelerate.
Shaaaaaaa!
Shuuuuuuuum!
Deimos, wheeling freely through the ocean in sweeping strides, and Raheim's projectiles clinging to its wake. The two of them tore through the sea in blazing high-speed maneuvers, trailing wildly different trajectories—and every jaw in the audience hung open.
'Insane.'
'Are those two the only ones taking a different exam?'
The watching students could hardly process it.
'Faster—faster still!'
Simon's focus surged into overdrive.
Six of the eight projectiles crumbled apart midway, unable to withstand the water pressure; the remaining two clung on stubbornly. Deimos was running close to the surface, and directly overhead a floating platform happened to be visible.
'Now!'
Deimos swerved into a sharp turn directly beneath the platform, and the pursuing projectiles slammed into it and shattered.
'Got it!'
Exhilarated, Deimos rose toward the surface and leapt.
—Wuuuuuuuuuuuum!
The components of its active magic circles clashed and shrieked against one another, giving voice to a sound like the roar of a great beast.
The eyes of every student floating on the surface turned skyward—to the colossal skeleton whale leaping into the air, and the boy riding on its back.
Sparkling in the reflected sunlight, it was nothing short of a masterpiece captured by a master painter.
"WHOOOAAAAAA!"
The stands on Roc Island, naturally, erupted into pandemonium.
"Incredible! Absolutely incredible! He doesn't disappoint, not this time either! Simon Polentia, riding a skeleton through the open sea!!"
The announcer screamed himself hoarse, spittle flying. Jane quietly produced a handkerchief and wiped the droplets from her sleeve.
"What on earth IS that, Professor? How can a skeleton possibly move that fast in the ocean?"
"That is the offspring of a Danger Rank 8 monster, Deimos—the beast known as the Ruler of the Sea."
Jane, of course, already knew. "It's the only undead capable of producing the special undead known as the Underworld Whale. A skeleton version, though… even I've never seen one."
"AHHH, so that's it! Magnificent! To think he prepared something like that for underwater combat!"
As the two of them talked, Simon and Deimos dove once more toward the seafloor. The attacks from the other students gunning for Simon never even grazed them.
Only Raheim clung doggedly to their wake.
Before long, Raheim spread his arms wide to either side. Eight magic circles unfolded around his body once again.
Simon glanced back at him, then turned Deimos about to face Raheim and the students clustered nearby.
'Let's show them. Deimos!'
The moment Simon issued his Absolute Order, Deimos's jaws gaped open. Inside, Jet-Black rippled with terrifying force, sucking in the seawater around it.
Wuuuuuuuuuuuum!
'What the—!'
Raheim faltered. The scene laid out beneath his feet looked like nothing so much as a blazing sun rising from the mouth of an enormous whale of bone.
SHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
With a thunderclap, the Ocean Current Cannon tore from Deimos's jaws like a bolt of lightning.
Against that colossal wave of churning water, Raheim's eight projectiles looked almost pitifully small. Every last one was swept up by the blast and flung back the way it had come—and the cannon's core reached all the way to Raheim himself.
"…!"
KWAAAAAAAAAA!
The sea itself heaved as a colossal explosion erupted. Simon glanced at the Tongue Pad on his arm—more than a dozen students had just been eliminated.
'Hooooh!'
Simon clenched his fist, shivering with the electric thrill of it. Deimos, linked to his mind, answered a heartbeat later with a roar of its own—a sound like the earth itself bellowing.