The Ghost Fleet Over Survival Island
Survival Island.
The final fourth day.
The evaluation would end at exactly noon. One hour remained on the clock.
Having made it inside the Indestructible Mansion, Camibarez was pacing anxiously, her eyes glued to the front gate.
“Worried that much?”
Camibarez turned her head. Meilin, a towel still draped over her face as if she'd just showered, set down her glass of fruit juice and winked at her.
“Oh, thank you.”
“Don't worry so much.”
She settled into the seat beside Camibarez and took a sip of her own juice.
“Those two aren't the type to just roll over and lose. They'll make it in time, no question.”
“I guess you're right.”
Two hundred points for entering the Indestructible Mansion. If you were aiming for anything above the middle tier, it was no exaggeration to say this was the one place you absolutely had to reach.
The mansion's interior was a non-combat zone, and everyone inside could use its facilities freely. In the jungle, they'd been gnawing on foul-smelling monster meat and chewing plant roots; here, a lavish spread of food and desserts awaited, along with showers and all manner of entertainment.
Of course, not everyone was simply resting. Some students had stationed themselves around the mansion, picking off anyone who tried to come in.
Students who entered late were the ones most likely to have racked up a massive pile of points from monster hunting. If such students made it inside, they became formidable rivals in their own right — but conversely, if you could hunt them instead, your own score could double or triple in one stroke.
And so the students already inside had formed an ‘alliance’ and built a defensive perimeter around the mansion. In fact, the latecomers found the security so forbidding that they didn't even dare attempt entry.
“Now, now. May I have everyone's attention?”
The mastermind behind the mansion faction's grand ‘alliance’ — Elisa, Special Admission No. 7 from Class E — strode into the building. As always, an oversized admiral's coat was draped over her shoulders above her uniform.
“There's only one hour left in the survival evaluation. I'd like everyone to head outside and help defend the mansion. If all the students who've earned points so far get inside, we're guaranteed to fall behind on score.”
Elisa was the daughter of the Prime Minister of the Dresden Kingdom.
She'd inherited her father's temperament in full — a born politician through and through. This session alone, she'd made a name for herself by seizing the western bridge to Kera Island and extorting points from any student who wanted to cross.
“This is for the good of all our grades. I trust we can count on your cooperation.”
Her voice carried weight and conviction, and her argument had legitimate grounds to it. Playing gently on their sense of belonging and crisis, she persuaded no small number of students to join the mansion alliance.
Elisa turned her head toward Meilin.
“If you joined the defense team too, that'd be a huge help, you know? Top of Class A.”
Meilin gave a dismissive snort.
“Not interested.”
“Surprising. I thought we were the same kind of person. Don't you like this sort of approach? Last time, you practically begged the Vice Chancellor to show you her exam papers — and I did all this for the good of the class, blah blah, and you shot me down to the very end.”
Meilin smirked in reply.
“Still holding a grudge over that? You're pettier than you look.”
The muscles around Elisa's face twitched ever so slightly, but her poker face held. She spoke as if flicking the words away.
“Figures. All-in for yourself, never lifting a finger — the selfish heart of someone who only looks out for number one.”
At her words, the students around Elisa turned cold. Some openly shot her hostile glares, pressing in with menace.
Camibarez panicked, whipping her gaze back and forth between them, but Meilin just smiled and answered.
“Your problem is that you're way too self-centered. People aren't your chess pieces. Don't assume everyone's going to fall in line just because you say so.”
“…….”
Elisa bit her lip and turned her back. The sleeves of her fluttering admiral's coat swayed in the breeze.
“I'll remember this.”
Other students trailed after her like a bodyguard as she left the mansion.
“A-are you okay, Meilin? You didn't need to provoke a named ranker like that……!”
“Forget it. She's the type who only listens when you lay it out flat like that.”
Meilin rested her chin on her hand, calmly gazing out the door. Camibarez turned her eyes toward the entrance as well.
“Ah!”
Camibarez shot to her feet.
“What is it, Cami?”
“Simon! Simon's coming!”
“Really? Wh-where? Where?”
While the two fussed over each other, activity outside the mansion grew hectic too.
Shouts rang out — take your positions, get ready! Elisa had even produced a magic megaphone and taken full command of the students.
“Ah……!”
At last Meilin saw them too. From a hill in the distance, Simon was walking toward the mansion.
But the combination was strange. On Simon's right, strolling toward the mansion with an easy gait, was Lorraine — and on his left was someone she'd hoped never to see.
Why is Serne with Simon?!’
Meilin bolted upright.
It had to be it. Simon must have fallen victim to her ability.
Eyes wide with alarm, Meilin hurriedly started pulling on her uniform jacket.
“Get ready, Cami! Simon's fallen prey to Serne's——”
“Ah, I don't think that's it.”
Camibarez pointed at the three of them as she said it.
Simon was saying something; Lorraine was smiling, and Serne was visibly bristling in protest.
Whatever was going on, it looked far too normal to be mind control.
But why is he acting all friendly with her?!’
Meilin was simmering with rage when——
“Hold on just a moment! I have a proposal for the three of you!”
Elisa's voice rang out, amplified by her magic megaphone. The ‘three of you,’ naturally, meant Simon and his companions.
“We have no intention of fighting you. Instead of just letting you through——”
Elisa, perched in a tree, was looking beyond the trio.
“—would you be willing to help us stop them?”
The three turned to look behind them.
With the arrival of powerhouses on the scene, all the students who'd been hovering warily around the mansion were now surging forward. Their number had already passed fifty.
‘Uh-oh.’
‘Busted.’
Simon and the others froze for an instant. Lorraine didn't react at all, as if it made no difference to her; Serne simply stared straight ahead.
“How utterly absurd.”
Fwoooong.
Elisa, megaphone in hand, jolted and ducked her head.
Thwack! A feather buried itself in the tree above her.
“Who gave you permission to give orders?”
Serne smiled, cold as ice.
Elisa's brow furrowed. So much for slipping past quietly.
“Fine.”
Helped up by her teammates, she snapped her fingers with a vicious look on her face.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Five subspace rifts tore open in midair at once, and out of each one burst a massive sailing ship.
They looked like storm-wrecked vessels hauled up from the seabed that very moment — hulls aged and rust-eaten, sails riddled with holes or torn to shreds.
And above all, every single one of the five ships was floating in the sky.
“Whooooaaa!”
“It's Elisa's Ghost Ships!”
Elisa was an aspiring Spirit Magic student of a rather special kind. She could launch ‘Ghost Ships’ — vessels powered by spirits and Jet-Black — into the air.
The cannons dropped their gunports in unison and trained on Simon's group and the students behind them.
“I hereby declare—”
Elisa said with a chilly smile.
“—anyone trying to enter this mansion gets swept away. The Tongue Pad points from every drop will be distributed equally among all who help defend it. I, Elisa, guarantee it.”
Roaring cheers erupted from every corner of the mansion.
“Levitating sailing ships like that…….”
“Seriously, this is a whole different level!”
While the students hoping to enter the mansion wavered, Serne spread her palm and yawned elegantly, and Lorraine still looked down with bored disinterest.
Simon rolled out his shoulders as he watched, then spoke.
“We break through.”
The two girls nodded.
Simon took the lead at a run, and the girls followed. Lorraine whipped out her Skeleton Horse mid-stride and mounted it, while Serne's feet left the ground entirely.
“The Special Admissions are going!”
“Everyone, keep up!”
The rest of the students gritted their teeth and ran. The Ghost Ships in the sky were a terrifying threat — but time had truly run out.
“Like moths flying into a flame.”
Elisa stretched out her arm.
“Sweep them away.”
The gunports blazed all at once with a roar that felt like it would tear their ears off.
Dozens of Jet-Black shells came pouring down, laying waste to the ground. The forest in front of the mansion was swallowed whole by flame and smoke in an instant.
‘This is no joke.’
The smoke from the barrage left Simon unable to see two steps ahead. Even Lorraine and Serne, who'd come with him, drifted out of sight.
He scrambled to dodge the falling shells, then, out of options, gestured behind him with a sigh.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
From the thick smoke, the Mud Golem he'd assembled in advance burst out. With Simon riding on it, the golem charged straight through the barrage.
“Th-the golem!”
“If it's Summoning, that's Simon Polentia! Stop him!”
The defense team, who'd even fenced off the mansion grounds, shouted. Amid a mad rain of long-range projectiles, the golem committed to a frontal breakthrough.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-BOOM!
Absorbing the full weight of enemy fire with its body, the golem barreled forward like a siege engine and smashed the fence to pieces. The students holding the line nearby were flung away by the shockwave.
“Gah!”
The defense line broke in a single blow. The guards spun around in alarm.
Clinging to the golem's back, Simon waved his hand with an easy smile.
“Stop that bas——! Huh?”
At some point, scattered skeleton bones lay strewn all across the ground. Simon clenched his fist.
⟨ Bone Nail — Application: Nanjang (Chaotic Storm) ⟩
The shattered bones shot into the sky and began spinning like a whirlwind. They slapped students across the face and swept their legs, throwing off every movement they made. Helpless, the students tumbled to the ground or smacked their heads into the fence.
[Boy! Watch what's in front of you!]
“What? That's the golem's jo——”
KRA-KOOOOOOM!
The sudden impact sent Simon bouncing off the golem's back and tumbling across the dirt.
He tasted soil, spat a few times, and stared straight ahead.
“Hector……!”
He hadn't expected it. Hector, his upper body sheathed in something like black scales, was locked in a test of raw strength with the golem.
“SIMON POLENTIA!!”
Hector, holding the golem down by sheer force, roared.
“THIS time, we settle it!”
I'm busier than ever right now — why is this guy getting in my way here of all places?
Simon scowled and drew his arm down. Power flooded into the Mud Golem, bearing down hard on Hector. Hector's legs buckled, and the ground beneath his feet caved in.
“Rrrrrrrgh!”
Hector's face flushed crimson, veins bulging across it. Then he threw his jaws wide open and vomited up something jet-black from deep in his throat.
Breath — the signature technique of dragons.
The black shockwave pouring from Hector's mouth slammed into the Mud Golem's chest, and the golem staggered backward.
“Whew! Hahh!”
Hector gasped for air and steadied his stance. His entire upper half was covered in scales.
It was the innate power of the Moore family — the transformation into the Carrion Dragon. Out in the world, the Moore family's nickname was ‘the House of the Dragon.’
Hector lunged with a battle cry. The Mud Golem didn't retreat either, swinging its fist.
WHOOOM!
Dodging the golem's blow with nimble footwork, Hector leapt into the air and hammered his fist into the Mud Golem's face.
CRACK!
A fist-shaped fracture split across the golem's face. Landing back on the ground, Hector unleashed a savage flurry of blows.
CRACK! THUD! WHAM! CRUNCH!
His scale-covered arms moved faster than the eye could follow, pummeling the Mud Golem into the earth. Then he raked both arms up in a ferocious uppercut, and the golem's head tore off with a thunderous crash.
‘Got him!’
“What the hell are you doing, you idiot!”
A male student shouted as he sprinted past him. Only then did Hector realize the golem had gone completely still.
Behind him, Simon — who'd quietly plucked out the golem's core — was already running toward the mansion. Hector's face cycled through red and blue.
“SIMON POLENTIAAAAAA!”
Furious, Hector slapped his palms against the ground, spread his legs as if tearing them apart, and opened his mouth. A colossal swell of Jet-Black began rippling in his throat.
‘Breath again?!’
Simon thought, stuffing the golem's core away. Seeing Hector's stance, the other students screamed and scattered in a panic.
“You maniac! Not that technique toward the mansion!”
“Hey! HEY! I'm still over here!”
Just as the students parted like the Red Sea before Moses, a scarlet flash streaked in a straight line and struck Hector.
The impact knocked him backward with a strangled “Khagh!”
“Simon!!”
Simon looked up to see Camibarez in a kneeling firing stance, waving and shouting.
“You made it through safely!”
“Cami! You saved my life!”
“I'll cover you! Get to the mansion, quickly!”
Simon nodded and kept running. But this time, someone was training her sights on him from the treetops.
‘I can't let Special Admission No. 1's points slip away.’
Elisa spread her palm. One of her Ghost Ships opened its gunport and aimed its Jet-Black cannon straight at Simon.
“Ready, fire——!”
FWOOOOROOROOROOM!
A house-sized mass of black flame dropped from the sky and crashed down over the Ghost Ship. The vessel lurched violently from the blast, its shot tearing into the innocent ground below, and fire spread across its deck, consuming it at terrifying speed.
“Wh-who—!”
Elisa shrieked in alarm. Above her, higher up in a tree she hadn't noticed, stood Meilin with her arms crossed.
“You! Instead of helping, you're getting in my——”
“Ugh, you pigheaded brat.”
Meilin grinned wickedly and raised black flame in her palm.
“I told you, people aren't your chess pieces. You're walling off the mansion so my friend can't get in — and you honestly thought I'd cooperate with that?”
“You little—!”
Both of them swung their arms at the same instant.
Cannon shell and black flame collided, detonating thunderous shockwaves in every direction.