The Tournament's Third Match Arrives
Just a moment—don’t tell me you’re planning to take on both of us alone?
……
Elania Ripre, the archery department’s valedictorian, watched me step forward with my sword in hand once more. Her clear eyes trembled with quiet disbelief.
No matter how monstrous the rumors, she hadn’t expected the top student of her own department—and the top of the physical combat department—to be dragged into single combat together.
“You’ve got guts, Berry. But that kind of arrogance is a sickness. Let’s teach you a lesson this time and remind you who you’re dealing with.”
Bianca Lopez, the physical combat department’s valedictorian, shoved her spiked gauntlet forward, the sharp metal knuckles glinting under the lights. Her husky voice dripped with contempt.
One elegant elf and one feral beast of a human—
At first glance they looked as mismatched as oil and water, yet somehow they’d ended up paired together. The web novel had never mentioned how the duo formed, so the quirk felt oddly intriguing. But after today’s matches, that curiosity would stay buried.
I didn’t bother answering. As soon as I took a single silent step forward, the sound of their pride cracking reached my ears.
No, perhaps it was just the ground Bianca had crushed with a furious kick when she refused to let the insult stand.
“Are you seriously ignoring me even after I warned you?!”
Bianca closed the distance in a single blink—two steps at most—her body honed to the extreme by years of combat training. Her speed alone was enough to reach Ian’s level in an instant.
But that was all. Barely enough.
Two steps. A gap that let her punch slip through the air like a knife through silk.
Boom!
I twisted right, evading her fist. A faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
A second later came the unmistakable whistle of an arrow slicing the air. I didn’t even need to turn my head to know it was aimed for my leg.
Her attack failed. That means Ripre will cover with support fire.
I could feel it in my bones. Even though she carried no bow, the elf’s natural grace made her an arrow master by reputation.
Instead of a straight flight, the arrow curved in a strange arc straight toward my leg.
Don’t move my legs. If I shift my weight, my torso goes completely defenseless.
So I planted my feet firmly on the ground, slicing the arrow mid-air with my sword while keeping my eyes locked on Bianca.
Arrows were loud. I could predict her movement by sound alone.
If she’d been using a silent elf bow, or even if her arrows had split into dozens of shafts, I could have adapted. But right now she was using a plain wooden recurve bow—nothing exotic.
Bianca’s fist struck again. At the same moment, arrows whistled from both my right and left flanks.
Three attacks from three impossible directions. No way to dodge or block all at once.
“Pathetic.”
Bianca flashed white teeth in a vicious smile. One of the three attacks would definitely hit.
She expected me to give up on my own reckless plan to face two top students alone.
To spite her, I took one step closer, then swept my blade across her gauntlet in a clean arc. At the same time I poured mana into my feet and spun around behind her in a blur.
The arrows meant for me were now locked on her back.
“What the—?!”
Bianca tried to shield herself, but I drew a deep line across her shoulder blade.
Slash!
“Kyah!”
Her body was made of steel. Ordinary steel couldn’t cut that deep.
Maybe she was aiming at muscle. Still, I couldn’t use my specialty to go for a human’s vital point in such a frantic moment.
Even if Grace or any other divinity student were waiting, I didn’t have the perfect control needed in the heat of battle.
If I killed her before they could heal her, I’d have no way to fix it.
But it didn’t matter. My goal wasn’t to finish Bianca first.
In a fight, the most important thing wasn’t knocking out the opponent in front of you. If an opening appeared, eliminate the support mages, healers, or archers first.
So I left Bianca’s shallow shoulder wound behind and charged straight for Ripre, every ounce of power behind me.
Exactly like a shadow assassin—straight for the back of her neck.
I never breathed out. Not even a whisper of my presence. Not for 0.1 second. I wanted her to notice my killing intent just before I ended it.
Without a single blink, I stared only at the target in front of me—her neck.
My killing intent was gone, replaced by a calm gaze like morning mist settling on still water.
Cruel.
The tip of my sword rested right beside Ripre’s collarbone, as if it belonged there.
She felt the icy edge before she felt my presence. When the blade touched her skin, her hands holding the bow shook, but she didn’t move an inch.
She should have already given up. I’d poured half my remaining mana into this single movement.
If she’d managed to sense my approach and defend, the final match would have been ruined.
“Where the hell are you, you bastard?!”
“Surrender.”
Bianca’s eyes darted around, searching. When they landed on Ripre and the sword pressed to her neck, they trembled violently. Then her gaze swung toward the direction of Lily.
She was clearly sending a silent message: If you’re a hostage, then make Lily your hostage.
Puuk!
“Kyahaaaah!!!”
I didn’t give her time to think. No chance to threaten Lily. I drove the sword straight between Ripre’s shoulder blades and straight into her lungs.
Her beautiful voice shattered into a scream that echoed through the arena.
Bianca’s face drained of color. She hesitated, lips parting in shock, but I spoke first.
“No more than three. Surrender.”
Puuuuk!
I twisted the blade inside her chest, scraping bone like a saw.
“……!!!”
Ripre’s entire body began to shake like a live wire—too much pain to even scream.
“H-h-hurry surrender!! I’ll surrender!!”
The moment Bianca gave the signal, the referee frantically called for the divinity department.
“Winner! Berry Team! Divinity Department!! Call the Divinity Department!! Hurry!!”
Ripre tried to curl up in agony, but I held her down.
“Haaaa…! Ngh…!”
“W-what are you doing?! The match is already over!!”
“If I pull the sword out now, you’ll lose too much blood and pass out. Just breathe through it. Don’t move and the pain will pass.”
……
She wanted to yell something back at me, but since the match was finished, she had no reason to call me a liar. Bianca just glared.
Soon students from the divinity department rushed in, healing Ripre and carrying her toward the infirmary.
* * *
“Berry, your fighting style is way too aggressive. The team we face third might come at us with a death wish from the start.”
After being backstabbed once, the fear that I’d do something worse to her was probably on Lily’s mind.
This was the advice she gave me right after the second match ended.
Come at me with a death wish… Well, it wouldn’t change much. If she was more worried about ending up like Ripre, showing hesitation would actually help me.
If Ripre and Bianca had come out swinging like they meant to die, it would have been disastrous. But the third team I was facing wasn’t as sturdy as them. A suicidal charge would only trip them up.
And of course it did.
“Huff… haa… haa…”
“Winner! Berry Team!!”
After back-to-back battles, mana was dangerously low. I was exhausted, but Lily and I had still won.
The divinity students who’d been waiting cast holy magic the instant Bianca surrendered.
As planned, I had almost run out of mana and burned through most of my stamina. No visible wounds, but I was spent.
Only the final match against Ian and Selina remained.
After the fight, I’d give Ian a chance, take the two-second-place prize—the Secret Garden Pass—and then sleep in my room for the rest of the day. That was the rest of my schedule today.
“Berry! I know you’re tired, but there’s only the final match left. Just hold on a little longer.”
Lily’s voice came through the intercom, trying to comfort me with forced cheer.
“…Yeah. I’ll hang in there a little longer.”
“Good. This time, trust only me. Just like before, I’ll crush them in an instant.”
I stepped toward the arena with Lily at my side. Through the window I saw a burst of fireworks painting the night sky.
Since this was the last highlight match, the academy must have prepared something special.
I gripped my head, which felt like it was about to fall apart from lack of mana, and headed for the arena.
* * *
“You’re late, Bifrons.”
“I’m sorry, Master Phorath.”
At night, under the dark sky, Bifrons folded his wings and appeared before Phorath.
“I was filling the mana crystals I prepared for winter, so I’m a little late.”
Bifrons had spent all his time rushing to fill the crystals meant for the upcoming winter, quietly revealing how much he had been preparing for the raid.
“That can’t be helped. Are all the crystals full?”
“Of course. I was supposed to infiltrate alone, so I gathered more than I needed.”
“Good. Then we’re ready.”
“But the target I was supposed to take was Ian Cedric, wasn’t it? Can we just change the target to the imperial princess out of the blue…?”
“The whole plan might collapse because of the princess and some stray swordsman. We’re only doing our best for the Demon God.”
Bifrons and Phorath’s dark eyes met as the fireworks bloomed across the night sky. Phorath gripped his pitch-black sword Heuk-ya, Bifrons his dark-red mana crystal, and they began the operation against the other demons.
“Operation start. Target: Liliana Yekaterina and Berry. Perfectly, perfectly.”