The Crimson Tides of the Canal Stadium
Of the Three Great Necromancer Schools, it was Moiran's Canal Stadium that had drawn the largest crowd for this year's transfer tour.
Real water flowed through the canals woven across the arena, crossed by countless arched bridges. At its very center, Camibarez and Moiran's representative, Alizarin, were going through their warm-ups.
Kamirani's first up. She's going to be a bundle of nerves.
Simon stood in the waiting area, kneading a stiff shoulder as he watched the field. Camibarez was stretching with the rigid, wooden movements of someone visibly terrified — her arm was supposed to swing sideways, but her whole body accidentally whirled around with it, and he watched her flop flat onto the spot.
Little ripples of laughter rose from the stands.
"Aww, she's so cuuuute!"
Mayrin's mumbling carried over from beside him.
"You've got this! Kizen!"
"Give it your all!"
One mercy, at least: unlike Aland and Sierra before them, Moiran's crowd offered no one-sided cheering or savage booing of the opposing student. The mood was less our team must win and more may the best of you both fight hard — probably because civilians were mixed into the stands, and the school's atmosphere itself was a gentle one.
"Simon, have you seen Kami fight recently?"
Mayrin asked abruptly. Simon made a thoughtful noise and scratched the side of his head.
"Not lately, I don't think."
"You really don't pay attention, do you."
Furrowing her brow, Mayrin turned her eyes back to the arena.
"Kami's battle style basically has two pillars. First, she lands a wound on the enemy, then casts hemorrhage magic."
"Hemorrhage magic. I remember."
The uniquely vicious dark magic of the Ursula line, forcing the enemy's wounds to pour blood without end. It had burned itself vividly into his memory.
"But! In this transfer evaluation match, landing a clean wound is going to be hard. The barrier suits are the same outdated models we used in first year — you know, the ones that just wrap the entire body in a barrier."
"I suppose so. She'd have to burn the barrier gauge down to zero before she could even scratch him."
"Which is why the second pillar is the key."
Mayrin raised one slender index finger, the corner of her mouth curling up.
"You remember the dark magic Kami used? The one where blood rises up like a whirlwind."
"I remember. Blood Storm, wasn't it?"
"Mm-hm, that one. If Kami can just hold out long enough to prepare that single devastating blow, her odds jump to ninety percent. She's a classic slow starter."
Having finished her analysis, Mayrin turned her gaze to Camibarez's opponent — Alizarin. A male student with a jaw and nose sharp as if carved by a blade, and long, fused sunglasses perched above them.
"Still, I can't picture how he'll fight. He's definitely going to exploit the home advantage of all this water, but a bloodstream specialist like Kami? I can't get an image of it."
Just as she said, both combatants in this match were Bloodstream majors. And since her opponent was a Moiran transfer student, there was no doubt he'd prepared techniques tailored to this arena's advantage.
"Competitors, shake hands."
When the warm-up period ended, the two students met at the referee's call and clasped hands.
Click.
Alizarin flipped his sunglasses up. As it turned out, the lenses were designed to slide upward — revealing, beneath them, bulging sanpaku eyes that were almost entirely white.
"...Ursula."
They were the kind of eyes that would haunt your dreams after a single look.
Camibarez flinched mid-handshake, shoulders hunching involuntarily, but she quickly bowed her head and managed a smile.
"L-let's have a good match!"
Without even acknowledging her greeting, Alizarin coldly turned his back and walked away.
Camibarez stood there awkwardly, hand still raised, then clasped it in her other hand and pressed it to her chest. Head drooping in deflation, she scurried back to her corner.
"The nerve of that—!"
Mayrin flared up, rattling the safety fence violently as she hurled curses across the arena.
"How dare you be so rude to our Kami! Just wait till you get to Kizen!"
...Are you her mom?
Simon snorted.
Before long, Camibarez and Alizarin took their places at a distance from one another. Professor Jane and the Moiran professor each approached their student for a final word.
The Moiran professor gave technical coaching. Jane gave coaching of a different kind entirely.
"I know you'll fight well once it begins, but right now your nerves are plain to see."
Jane gently smoothed Camibarez's hair.
"Set the burden down, Scribe Camibarez."
"I-I can't seem to... I'm sorry, Professor."
"You may empty this match's outcome from your mind entirely."
she said.
"The matches after this will be won by the President and the Vice President."
Camibarez's eyes went round, and she looked toward Simon and Mayrin. There they were, waving their hands at her with all their might.
"Even so, you should show everything you have without regret — that way you can face your friends later with a light heart, don't you think?"
At those words, the trembling in Camibarez's pupils finally settled.
"Yes! Thank you!"
Jane nodded and turned back toward the stands.
"Now then — the Moiran transfer evaluation match! Beginning the match between Moiran's Alizarin Jacques and Kizen's Camibarez Ursula!"
The referee thrust an arm up to the side.
"Begin!"
Under the roar of the crowd, Camibarez and Alizarin simultaneously readied their dark magic. With canals and other obstacles scattered across the field, neither moved to close with battle arts from the start.
Kiiiing!
Camibarez wrung blood from her own body, drawing a crimson magic circle around herself.
Mayrin's eyes lit up at the sight.
"There it is! Kami's going for Blood Storm."
"Looks like it."
Simon's head turned.
"Then her opponent..."
Alizarin was preparing his magic circles with a blur of elaborate motion.
Preactivating circles before a match was forbidden — but persistent magic circles, ones that lingered on the body without drawing on Jet-Black, were permitted.
He lit the persistent circles on his body one after another, then drew a central circle, funneling the power of every spell into a single point. At last, his preparations complete, he turned and walked with unhurried steps toward the nearest canal.
Babble, babble—
Clear lake water rushed along the channel.
Alizarin stretched out a finger over it. Whether he'd nicked it with his nail, a single drop of blood fell — plip — into the water.
FWAAAAAASH!
Then, like paint bleeding out from an inkwell, every drop of water in the canal flushed crimson. He waved his arm like a conductor, and the scarlet water began slowly rising into the air.
"...!"
Camibarez, mid-preparation for Blood Storm, backed away in alarm.
"My blood commands the water around it."
The crimson waves rippled, moving at Alizarin's bidding like an orchestra under his baton.
"Watch with both eyes wide open — the power I built here in Moiran. Ursula!"
<Blood Wave>
SHAAAAAAA!
A torrent of crimson water blasted straight forward. Its sheer volume made Mayrin's jaw drop.
"What the—! THAT is Blood Wave?"
The signature dark magic of every bloodstream specialist alive. But by conscripting the surrounding water, his quantity was on another scale entirely.
Camibarez drew circles on both palms, crossed them, and thrust them forward.
<Blood Wave>
The same bloodstream spell fired from her hands.
Her Blood Wave, forged from the blood of the Ursula family, smashed cleanly through Alizarin's and pressed onward — but wave after endless wave of his came crashing in behind it, and in the end her technique was torn apart.
Simon shouted urgently.
"Dodge, Kami!"
Camibarez whirled and ran, planting her steps on Jet-Black. Crimson waves surged in like a flood tide, the surrounding area churning into a sea of blood that roiled and heaved on every side.
Sweat beaded on her forehead.
SHAAAAAA!
SHAAA!
From a side canal too, crimsoned water rose and came at her. She cut hard to the opposite direction, fleeing, and curled her index finger upward into a pistol grip.
<Blood Bullet>
The bullet of blood she fired smashed the front face of the wave with tremendous force — but the second and third waves immediately crashed in behind it, restoring the wall.
Camibarez had no choice but to turn and run again.
"Ughhh! I knew it!"
Mayrin hopped up and down, hands clasped, her face tight with anxiety.
"Even granting we're Kizen — they're both second-years, and the home advantage is just too big! An infinite supply of water is plain unfair!"
Simon silently nodded, watching Alizarin's next move.
Alizarin kept dripping his own blood into the canals, drawing more and more of the water under his blood's control.
"Ah — Kami!"
At Mayrin's cry, Simon's eyes snapped back to Camibarez. She was leading the crimson waves — his waves — in a headlong charge back toward Alizarin himself.
Don't tell me she's closing with battle arts? No—!
Jet-Black was swirling at her hand. As Alizarin swept his arm, a crimson wave crashed in from the front as well.
"Haaah!"
She threw herself into it fearlessly. Small as she was, she slipped out before the wave could fully swallow her — dropping to one knee, arm raised.
<Bleeding>
Her signature bloodstream curse shot from her hand — but Alizarin, as though he'd been waiting for exactly that, coolly answered with <Cancellation>.
Aaagh!
Mayrin shook with frustration.
"That little—! His counter-cursing is perfect too!"
A formidable opponent. There was hardly a gap to be found anywhere.
Simon thought that even if he'd been the one facing him, it would have given him real trouble.
<Blood Silk>
Camibarez wove a carpet from the blood on her fingers and leapt atop it. The carpet of blood hovered just off the ground and shot forward at high speed.
Now that they were second-years, even this kind of applied fundamentals had transformed completely.
The crimson sea chased after her, swallowing every obstacle in its path.
Camibarez was slipping out from the wave's edge by a hair's breadth, again and again. The spectators rose to their feet, hands clenched in sweat, shouting themselves hoarse.
Kami is doing the very best she can right now. I know she is.
Simon rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought.
But.
From the canal dead ahead of the retreating Camibarez, a crimson wave suddenly rose like a wall.
"Ah!"
"It was waiting for her!"
This was the enemy's home ground. Moiran's students didn't merely command water freely — they knew every feature of this arena's terrain by heart.
The wave swallowed her whole, then slammed her down hard against the ground before dispersing in a hiss of spray.
He could see her drenched head to toe, coughing violently, water spilling from her lips.
Camibarez Ursula:78%
Alizarin Jacques:100%
"Kamiii!"
Mayrin cried out, on the verge of tears.
She'd been lucky — the spot where the wave swept her was flat ground, and she had no time to stay down regardless.
Crimson waves closed in from every direction without end.
Camibarez ran on Jet-Black, reduced to a drowned rat, her hair and uniform soaked through so heavily that even her body looked sluggish.
Tah!
"Hup—!"
Then she planted a foot on a railing and launched herself high into the air. The waves chased after her.
From high above, Camibarez curled her fingers into a pistol grip and aimed at Alizarin, far below and away.
A Blood Bullet!
Alizarin, seeing the pose, raised a wave before himself to throw up a wall.
That was when her left hand — which had been curled together with her right — broke away from it.
Like an archer drawing back an arrowstring, each movement of her left hand dragged the magic circle's form backward with it, enlarging it, its formulae transmuting as it grew.
Simon's eyes went wide.
A three-dimensional magic circle!
<Camibarez Original — Blood Chaser>
There was no muzzle report at all. Only a crimson line of light, fired dead straight at her command — and in an instant it struck Alizarin's wall of water.
The bolt punched straight through the wave-wall and buried itself in his abdomen.
"Kghahk!"
With the savage impact of crimson energy driving home, Alizarin doubled over, gagging, and staggered backward.
Camibarez Ursula:78%
Alizarin Jacques:66%
WHOOOOAAAAA!
The crowd, utterly invested in Camibarez, erupted. The waves that had been hounding her dulled and slackened as Alizarin's concentration shattered.
She landed safely on the ground and started running again, while Alizarin, clutching his stomach, kept driving his waves forward.
YEAHHH!
A point scored on sheer instant brilliance. Mayrin bounded around the stands, cheering wildly.
"A sniper shot! She landed the sniper shot! Go, Kami, go!"
Simon too cheered under his breath, fist clenched tight.
It was the first time since they'd become second-years that he'd watched his student council comrades fight — and their caliber had climbed to an entirely different dimension.
They really are all still growing!