A Guaranteed Way to Win
-Krwaaaarrrgh!
The Cyclops charged with a ferocious roar.
Its target, of course, was Meilin. She stumbled backward, her face going pale.
Come out.
Simon pulled an invisible lever. A subspace yawned open in the ground, and two skeletons sprang out.
Advance!
The skeletons tore off at a terrifying speed. Seeing them coming, the Cyclops hefted the log in its hand.
The Cyclops was a monster that used tools—uprooting trees whole and swinging them like clubs was its primary means of attack.
WHUMP!
With a bone-chilling whoosh of displaced air, one of the skeletons slammed into the wooden club and shattered to pieces. In the same instant, the skeleton that had come in from the side slashed out with its short sword.
SHKAK!
Tough as ever. The blade bit through, but all it left was a shallow scrape on its hide.
Furious, the Cyclops twisted its hips and swung the club again.
Yeah, in a situation like this, one skeleton beats two.
Simon gritted his teeth and stretched out his arm, funneling every ounce of his concentration into a single skeleton's will.
Duck!
Simon's Absolute Order snapped down. The skeleton reacted instantly, dropping low to slip under the club, then darted sideways with nimble, fluid movements.
"Nice one, Simon!"
Dick's shout rang out.
Simon could control two undead at once, but he was the type whose true worth showed when he focused completely on a single skeleton. The enraged Cyclops began swinging its club like a madman.
WHISH! WHISH! WHISH! WHISH!
The skeleton weaved through the assault like a leaping acrobat. Not only the three teammates watching from behind, but even the spectating students had their mouths hanging open.
Buying time with undead was supposed to be Simon's job, but he was performing far beyond what anyone had expected.
"Hurry! We can't hold out much longer!"
"We're getting there!"
Dick and Camibarez readied the exhaustion curse, Exhaust, while Meilin prepared the jet-black elemental spell, Dark Flare.
Three magic circles raced toward completion.
CRASH!
The skeleton that had stubbornly endured and bought them time finally collided with the club and burst apart.
Panting, its eyes blazing as it swept its gaze around, the Cyclops spotted Meilin and lunged.
"Kuh!"
Simon pulled two more skeletons from his subspace and sent them out. But he hadn't recovered from the shock of his summons being destroyed, and the Cyclops's freight-train charge plowed straight through them.
"It's ready!"
Dick cried out. Camibarez threw both her arms up high.
"Exhaust!"
"Exhaust!"
The two magic circles flared to life at the same moment.
The curses struck true! The Cyclops's movements slowed.
"That's it!"
Dick and Camibarez's faces lit up—but Simon's expression remained grim.
It's still too fast!
The speed lost to the curse was less than he'd hoped. The Cyclops kept charging, and Meilin finished molding the searing black flames in her right hand.
Three meters separated monster from girl. She let out a fierce battle cry and swung her arm. The jet-black fire streaked through the air, trailing smoke.
FWOOOOSH!
The black flames exploded, engulfing the Cyclops's body. Everyone pumped their fists and cheered—and in that very moment—
BOOOM!
The club punched through the fire and slammed into her head.
Elapsed Time:2 min 11 sec
Damage Inflicted:26%
Barrier Gauge:0%
"……!"
The misty forest vanished, and in the blink of an eye—as if someone had turned the page of a book—they were back inside the indoor training hall.
Meilin, flung several meters by the Cyclops's club, lay crumpled on the floor.
"Meilin!"
"A-are you okay?!"
Everyone rushed to her in a panic. Thankfully, she seemed fine—frowning, propping herself up on the floor, pushing her upper body upright.
"Meilin! Meilin! Are you really all right?"
Camibarez clutched her hand, tears welling in her eyes. Meilin forced a smile and said she wasn't in any pain.
-Good work, Group 7.
Jane's voice crackled from the loudspeaker overhead. Dick jolted upright in fright while Simon and Camibarez helped Meilin to her feet from either side.
-Group 7 realized a fair portion of its initial plan. The summoner's performance in particular—splitting the Cyclops's attention with skeletons—was impressive.
"Thank you."
Simon bowed his head.
-However, the rest of the group's execution fell short overall. Lock down its movements with Exhaust, then bring it down with Dark Flare in the gap. It sounds sound on paper, but as you've now learned, reality is a little different.
Everyone nodded with stiff faces.
-Your biggest problem is lack of proficiency. When casting Dark Flare or Exhaust, minimize your mistakes above all else. That is all.
"Thank you!"
Group 7 shuffled wearily out of the training hall behind the teaching assistant.
And then—
"WAAAAAAAH!"
The moment they stepped into the waiting room, a roar of celebration erupted around them.
"…Gyah! You scared me."
Of course, the cheers weren't for Group 7.
They came from the training hall right next door—Group 3's.
A Cyclops lay bleeding out on the floor, and Hector stood proudly astride it, exhaling a long, slow breath. Around them, black smoke kept seeping up from the floor.
Elapsed Time:4 min 02 sec
Damage Inflicted:100%
Barrier Gauge:98%
"…Th-they actually got it? That thing?"
"Barrier gauge at 98%. That basically means they didn't take a single hit."
The atmosphere around Group 3, the only team to hunt down the Cyclops on their very first attempt, was electric. The group members swarmed Hector for high-fives.
-Well done, Group 3.
It was practically the first true compliment Jane, Vice Principal of Kizen, had ever given.
The surrounding students burst into envious gasps, and even Hector—who normally wore a stone face—flashed his teeth in a grin.
After Jane's detailed commentary wrapped up, they finally emerged from the training hall.
"WAAAAH!"
"Nice one, Hector!"
Hector's faction chanted his name over and over. Other students clapped and offered their congratulations too.
"……"
Just then, Hector's eyes met Simon's. Hector glanced up at Group 7's results, smirked, and let out a little snort. The look on his face said, See? Told you.
"Hey, everyone."
At Meilin's voice, Simon turned around. Her eyes were blazing as if sparks were flying off them.
"We're beating them. No matter what."
Everyone nodded.
"That's right! There's no time to mope! We've still got three rounds left!"
"Let's take our time and figure out exactly what went wrong."
Group 7 dove into an emergency strategy meeting.
"First off, like Professor Jane pointed out, proficiency is the biggest issue."
Dick began.
"While Simon holds the Cyclops off with his skeletons, me and Cami need to land Exhaust fast and clean, without a single mistake."
"That's part of it, sure."
Simon spoke up.
"But Exhaust is a curse that gets stronger the more it stacks. Even when your first curses landed, the Cyclops didn't actually slow down all that much."
With that, Simon turned to look at Meilin.
"Meilin. You need to be the one dodging."
"Huh?"
"Don't waste time wondering whether an attack is coming. Assume it is coming, every single second, and watch the Cyclops's every move. I'll do everything I can to cover you."
Meilin nodded, her face set with determination. Simon stood up from his seat.
"You remember the thing from Magic Combat class, right? The Jet-Black Stomp."
"The… stomp what?"
"Stand up. I'll walk you through it again."
Simon ran Meilin through a barrage of tips and tricks, while Dick and Camibarez huddled over the Exhaust magic circle together.
"Let's drop the duration formula."
"Won't that make the casting way too unstable?"
"High risk, high return. What matters is stacking the curse fast. Either way, if Meilin takes even one clean hit, the game's over."
A round of practice flew by, and soon it was Group 3 and Group 7's turn again. Simon's team filed into the training hall.
"Alright, let's do this!"
"Fighting!"
Everyone pumped themselves up, shaking off the sour mood.
Moments later, the floor shifted into grassland, and the Cyclops appeared with a deafening roar. Having been through it once already, Simon found his nerves considerably steadier this time.
The battle began the moment the Cyclops spotted Meilin and charged.
Advance!
As if he'd been waiting for exactly this, Simon sent his skeletons running. Once again, one went down first while the other stubbornly clung to the Cyclops, harrying it.
Yeah—their movements are getting easier to read.
The Cyclops's attack patterns weren't complicated. It had power and speed, but its motions were simple. Just by watching the shift of its shoulder and arm muscles, you could tell whether it was about to swing or bring the club down overhead.
But no matter how skilled Simon was, there were limits to dodging every attack with a skeleton's stiff body. Eventually the skeleton shattered, and the Cyclops charged at Meilin.
"Exhaust!"
"Exhaust!"
This time, too, the twin curses landed cleanly, and the Cyclops's movements dulled. Meilin completed her Dark Flare as well.
Overall, they were far more composed than their first attempt.
"Hoooh!"
She drew a deep breath and hurled the black flames. The Cyclops flinched and raised its club as a shield—but the fireball exploded against the wood and spread in every direction, latching onto its hide.
-KYAAAAAAARGH!
With a shriek of agony, black smoke swallowed the Cyclops whole.
Yes! That one connected for real!
Dark Flare was without a doubt an effective weapon. On the mana projector, the Cyclops's health gauge was visibly draining fast.
"Meilin! Now it really begins!"
"I know!"
The searing agony of its own burning flesh locked the Cyclops's gaze onto Meilin. And then it started charging like something possessed.
Simon sent in the skeletons, but the Cyclops—its eyes rolled back in pain—was done playing with the undead.
It absorbed the skeletons' attacks head-on with its body, running solely to kill the girl who had inflicted this excruciating torment on it.
And at that moment, Meilin was still preparing her second Dark Flare.
Kuh!
She canceled the spell and bent her knees. The Cyclops's club, launched skyward, came crashing down through the air.
The Stomp… Sensation!
K-BOOOM!
The club smashed into the bare ground. Meilin, having kicked up her jet-black just in time to evade, tumbled roughly across the grass.
"Another swing is coming! Move!"
At Simon's shout, Meilin scrambled to her feet—and in that moment, the demon draped in fire came swinging its club in a frenzy.
Meilin threw herself forward with everything she had.
CRACK!
The club grazed past Meilin's leg. On the mana projector, a label flashed: Right Leg Fracture.
"Ah!"
"Meilin!"
She tried to run again, but the leg wouldn't bear her weight.
The training uniform she wore was recreating the symptoms of a broken leg in real time.
"Exhaust!"
"Exhaust!"
The next round of Exhaust landed. This time the Cyclops's slowdown was plain to the eye—but with her leg ruined, Meilin couldn't dodge anything.
"A-ahh…!"
Above her head, as she crawled away on hands and knees, the club of the relentlessly pursuing Cyclops came down.
Elapsed Time:3 min 45 sec
Damage Inflicted:42%
Barrier Gauge:0%
"So close!"
As the forest folded back into the indoor hall, Dick let out a groan of frustration.
Simon bit his lip and nodded too. If not for that fractured leg, they could have cooked the curse-slowed Cyclops with ease.
After listening to Jane's commentary and stepping out of the training hall, they found that Hector's Group 3 had once again dispatched the Cyclops without a hitch—nearly twenty seconds faster, too.
"…The next one's our last."
Camibarez murmured. Morale had sagged; Dick and Meilin nodded glumly.
"Gather round for a second."
Simon said. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Next round, we're clearing it. Guaranteed."
Fire kindled in Simon's eyes. The previous defeats were already nothing to him.
No—not just that.
"I've got a surefire way to win."
He looked like a man who found this entire ordeal absolutely delicious.