The Clash He Waited For
Simon's strategy was nothing short of revolutionary.
Not only had he brought down the Gwaegong, a monster worth 100,000 points, but he had used Deimos's Alpha ability to drive hordes of sea monsters before him and swept the outer waters completely clean. The monsters in his path were, quite literally, erased from the sea.
Of course, under the summoning regulations uniformly applied to the necromancy exam, any monster Simon's Alpha-commands successfully hunted translated into points for him.
By now, not so much as a seed of a monster remained anywhere Simon had passed.
And so he breezed past a six-figure point total — a feat everyone had considered flatly impossible. Given that second place was only sitting at around 10,000 points, the gap was nothing short of overwhelming.
But his mental stamina was finally starting to run on fumes.
Convinced he had earned all the points he needed, Simon released Deimos's Alpha ability and began making his way back.
Before long, he spotted a small, isolated island.
Let's hide over there and get some rest until the exam ends.
Simon cut through the current and arrived safely at the island.
"Good work out there, Deimos."
He ran a hand over the whale's weary head before sending it back into subspace. Then, utterly alone, he trudged across the sand, leaving a trail of footprints as he stepped onto the deserted island.
It was a tiny island, and there was no sign of any human presence.
Every now and then he spotted a plump, two-legged bird that appeared to be native to the island, but none of them seemed the least bit aggressive toward humans. If anything, they crowded around him with such curious, inquisitive chirping that a small laugh escaped him.
"I'm dying here."
Simon leaned his back against a nearby rock and let out a long, slow breath.
He'd entered the Compello state for the first time in a while, and the sheer mental exertion left him feeling like he could black out at any moment. And of course, losing consciousness meant instant disqualification.
I can't even sleep, for fear of my mind wandering off.
The battle against the Gwaegong at the head of tens of thousands of marine creatures felt like nothing more than a dream now.
Simon checked the Tongue Pad fastened around his arm.
RANK 1 — SIMON : 223,500 Pts
The numbers told no lies. He was 210,000 points ahead of Elisa, the current runner-up sitting in the low ten-thousands.
Simon let out a low, scheming chuckle and gazed up at the blue sky with a thoroughly satisfied expression.
Father — your son took first place again!
Less than an hour remained. All he had to do was hold out and defend his points, and victory was his.
Simon stared at the sky and let his thoughts drift.
Splash. Splash.
Hector, clad in the scales of a Water Drake, was wading out of the sea with an irritated scowl. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion.
"Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!"
Everything he had planned had fallen apart.
He'd pushed his pace hard and overtaken Elisa, the frontrunner for first place — that much had gone exactly according to plan.
And then Simon Polentia, who had suddenly burst out of nowhere from outside the top ten, had swallowed up first place with an absurd, unthinkable score of 100,000 points.
Heat crawling all the way up to the roots of his hair, Hector had plunged back into the sea despite having already pushed his pace past its limits.
But with his stamina gone and only his impatience to show for it, there was no way his hunt was going to go well.
Worse still, for reasons he couldn't fathom, the sea monsters that had once teemed in these waters had all vanished without a trace.
Those stacked misfortunes sent Hector wandering far off course, and in the meantime he'd surrendered second place back to Elisa — then slid all the way down to fourth.
"Freaking damn it all…!"
Irritation boiled up inside him.
It was all Simon Polentia's fault. Everything was twisting out of shape because of that bastard.
He couldn't ignore him even if he tried. When it happened every single time, how was anyone supposed to stop thinking about him?
"Someday I'm going to wipe that shameless mug of his right off the—"
The words died in Hector's throat as his eyes went wide.
?!
For a moment he wondered if it was a mirage conjured by his own desperate hopes. He rubbed his eyes slowly, then looked again.
It was no mirage.
A boy leaning against a rock overgrown with brush — none other than Simon Polentia, checking his Tongue Pad in plain view.
"…Ah!"
Simon, apparently noticing him a beat too late, was blinking in round-eyed surprise.
"Ha."
Hector simply burst out laughing.
"Khek. Khekhekhek. Keh!"
The world had not abandoned me after all.
"Keh. HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
To think we'd run straight into each other, right here!
"SIMON POLENTIAAA!"
"Ugh, for crying out loud."
Simon scratched at his temple with a look of profound disgust.
How does he find me HERE, of all places?
This was the worst possible crisis.
Both his stamina and his mental strength were tapped out. If Hector took him out here, he wouldn't just lose every coin and point he'd accumulated — the exam would end before he could even return to the testing grounds.
In other words: expulsion.
The whole reason he'd paced himself slowly was to avoid exactly this kind of situation.
But Raheim and the Gwaegong — two unforeseen enemies — had thrown all of that into disarray.
"At last."
The corners of Hector's mouth curled up to his ears as he burned with volcanic fighting spirit.
"The time for the showdown I've been waiting for has come."
"Hold on, hold it right there, Hector!"
Simon forced a friendly smile and raised both palms.
It was too early to give up. There was a saying, wasn't there — even if you fell into a dragon's lair, you could survive so long as you kept your wits about you.
"Just calm down for a second and hear me ou—!"
KRAAK!
A Water Drake scale, hurled by Hector, slammed into the rock behind Simon like a throwing knife.
"There's nothing to hear."
Hector peeled another scale from his body and gripped it in his hand.
Yet Hector's own condition looked far from fine. His legs, drained of strength, were trembling visibly.
Thankfully Hector's worn out too. His condition isn't much better than mine.
Simon's heart pounded wildly, but he tried persuasion one more time.
"Listen! The situation's terrible for settling things between us here!"
Hector answered with action instead of words, and Simon ducked swiftly to dodge the thrown scale.
The recoil from throwing it so hard left Hector staggering, nearly toppling over. Both of them were exhausted to the absolute bone.
"There's barely thirty minutes left!"
Simon shouted, refusing to give up.
"Whoever goes down here won't even get the chance to pick up coins! They fail the exam and leave Kizen for good!"
"Sounds great to me."
Hector now held a scale in each hand. While Simon was racking his brain in desperation, Dick's words suddenly floated up from memory.
"You don't get why Hector wants to fight you? My bet is he thinks beating you is proof of his own strength."
The moment Simon recalled those words, he blurted out:
"Let's set up a proper match sometime! It'd leave a bad taste if we decided this while we're both running on empty!"
"Don't waste your clever little tricks on me, Simon Polentia."
The jet-black they'd assumed completely drained from Hector's body began to surge upward.
"I never, EVER turn away from a fight that's right in front of me!"
Hector charged like an enraged rhinoceros.
Oh, come ON!
Simon barely hauled himself upright and, timing Hector's charge, threw himself into a sliding tackle.
"Khek!"
Hector vaulted high into the air to evade it.
Before Hector even touched the ground, Simon reversed direction and lunged, throwing a straight punch.
WHUMM!
Hector bent backward at the waist, and Simon's fist tore through empty air.
A smile crept across Hector's lips.
"You've gotten weaker."
This time it was Hector who balled his fist.
"You're a dead man walking, Simon Polentia!"
WHAAAM!
His massive fist swung down, but Simon dodged it with a slight tilt of his head.
"!"
"Looks like you're out of steam too."
CRACK!
Simon's rising fist crashed into Hector's jaw. Hector's Barrier Gauge dropped, but a smile was playing on the jaw that had just been knocked upward.
The reaction said it hadn't hurt much at all.
"Weak."
THUD!
This time Hector landed a vicious hook counter straight into Simon's face.
"Guh!"
He took the hit, but Simon immediately answered with an opposite-hand strike to Hector's face.
CRACK! THUD! WHUMP! SMACK!
The two men traded blow after blow with bare fists.
They were so drained that not a wisp of jet-black remained in either of their punches. There was no defense to speak of.
A hit for a hit — when Simon's head snapped to the side, so did Hector's.
"Enough of this!"
BAM!
Simon's flying knee slammed into Hector's face. Hector crashed down in a cloud of dust, then bounced right back up like a roly-poly toy.
"KHUUUP!"
Hector pounced like a wild beast, seized both of Simon's shoulders, and slammed him to the ground with a bone-jarring crash.
Pressing Simon into the dirt, Hector let a triumphant smile slip as he raised his fist.
"Die."
WHUMP! THUD! THUD!
His two fists hammered Simon's face in alternation. The barrier flickered as it drained away at frightening speed.
"!"
Hector, mid-pummeling, wobbled and lost his balance for an instant.
The fallen Simon drove strength into his legs and thrust his whole body upward, sending Hector's upper half tipping forward until his elbows touched the ground.
SNAP!
SNAP!
Instantly, Simon's hands clamped onto Hector's waist, his legs coiling around Hector's body like a serpent — and flipped him clean over onto his side.
What the hell is this technique?!
When Hector came to his senses, the positions were reversed — he was pinned beneath Simon, who had climbed on top of him.
WHUMP! THUD!
The tables had turned in an instant. Now Simon was raining down punches while Hector took them.
"GRAAAAGH!"
After eating several hits, Hector shoved Simon off with nothing but raw strength and sheer bulk.
A brief lull fell over the two as they gasped for air.
"Haa… haa…!"
"Heuk! Heuk!"
Both bent over their knees, wheezing — and at the same instant, they straightened. Then they kicked off the ground and charged each other once more.
WHAM! BAM!
A ferocious slugfest erupted, fists flying back and forth. Their accuracy was abysmal, and swinging was more exhausting than getting hit.
Then their eyes locked onto each other's heads, and without either yielding first, legs came up on both sides.
KWAAAA-KRAK!
Their kicks crossed in an X and collided mid-air.
Staggering backward, the two boys dropped to one knee where they stood, heaving ragged breaths.
Ugh!
The moment they lunged at each other yet again—
"!"
Hector's eyes went wide.
"Damn it — DODGE!!"
Simon knew at once that the desperate shout was meant for him.
The instant Simon flung his body sideways, a colossal pillar of rock slammed down onto the spot where he'd been standing with a bone-rattling boom, kicking up a haze of dust.
KRRRUMBLE—
Simon sat frozen where he'd landed, his soul visibly leaving his body. Hector had slammed on the brakes just in time to stop himself.
The rock face was taller than both of them standing on each other's shoulders.
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
Footsteps like the earth itself heaving beneath them echoed out. The two righted their stances and slowly rose.
The instant Simon registered that presence, the hair on the back of his neck stood up in a cold rush.
This is the worst.
For a moment he mistook it for a monster — but the diving suit and protective combat gear it wore marked it unmistakably as a student.
This is my first time seeing him properly from the front.
A colossal frame among colossal frames, standing over three meters tall.
A bulging, rounded body. Gray hair and matching gray eyebrows. Lazy, half-lidded slits for eyes, and beast-like tusks jutting from the corners of his mouth.
He carried the air of an apex predator — one that regarded humans as prey.
Special Admission No. 3 — Chatel Maer…!
The giant's drowsy eyes slowly narrowed, and a gloomy gleam of white slid into view beneath the lids.