Chapter 36
—Kwoooooooooh!
The cyclops let out a savage roar as it charged.
Its target was, of course, Maelyn. Her face paled as she stumbled backward.
‘Come out.’
Simon pulled an imaginary lever. A subspace portal opened on the floor, and two skeletons burst out.
‘Advance!’
The skeletons sprinted forward with terrifying speed. Upon seeing them, the cyclops raised the log in its hand.
Cyclopes are monsters that use tools, usually uprooting trees and swinging them like clubs for their primary method of attack.
BOOOOOM!
With a chilling sonic boom, one of the skeletons was smashed to pieces by the wooden club. Simultaneously, the other skeleton darted in from the side and thrust its short sword.
CLANG!
It was tough, as expected. The blade passed over its skin, leaving only a shallow scratch.
The enraged cyclops twisted its waist again and swung the club.
‘As I thought, in this kind of situation, it’s better to use only one.’
Simon clenched his teeth and stretched out his arm. He concentrated all his mental strength solely on one skeleton’s will.
‘Dodge!’
Simon’s Absolute Order dropped. The skeleton immediately lowered its waist to evade the club and then swiftly dashed to the side.
“Nice, Simon!”
Dick’s voice rang out.
Simon could control two undead at once, but his true strength was revealed when focusing entirely on one skeleton. The furious cyclops began wildly swinging its club.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The skeleton dodged the attacks like it was leaping on a springboard. Not only the three people watching from behind, but even the observing students had their mouths agape.
Simon was originally assigned the role of buying time with undead, but he was doing far better than anyone expected.
“Hurry! He can’t hold out for long!”
“I’m getting it ready!”
Dick and Kamibarez were preparing the fatigue curse, Exhaust, and Maelyn was preparing the Dark Flare, a spell using dark elements.
Three magic circles rapidly approached completion.
Boom!
The skeleton that had been holding on and buying time finally got hit by the club and shattered.
The cyclops, breathing heavily and scanning its surroundings with a fiery gaze, spotted Maelyn and charged.
“Kh!”
Simon summoned two more skeletons from subspace. But the damage from the destruction of his earlier summon hadn’t recovered, and they were pierced through by the cyclops’s charge, which was like that of a war chariot.
“It’s ready!”
Dick shouted. Kamibarez also raised both arms high.
“Exhaust!”
“Exhaust!”
Both magic circles flashed and activated simultaneously.
The curse landed squarely! The cyclops’s movements slowed.
“We got him!”
Dick and Kamibarez’s faces lit up, but Simon’s expression didn’t relax.
‘Still fast!’
The curse hadn’t reduced its speed as much as expected. The cyclops kept charging, and Maelyn completed a black flame in her right hand.
The distance between the monster and Maelyn was three meters. She let out a spirited cry and swung her right hand. The black flame spewed smoke as it flew.
FWOOOOOOSH!
The black flame exploded, engulfing the cyclops. Just as everyone cheered and pumped their fists—
BOOOOOM!
The club, cleaving through the flames, smashed into her head.
Beep!
[Simulation Failed]
Time Elapsed: 2 minutes 11 seconds
Damage Inflicted: 26%
Barrier Gauge: 0%
Overall Rating: F
“......!”
The thick forest faded like a turned page, returning to the indoor training room.
Maelyn, who had been flung several meters by the cyclops’s club, was lying on the floor.
“Maelyn!”
“A-Are you okay?”
Everyone rushed to her in shock. Thankfully, she seemed unharmed.
She grimaced as she pushed herself up off the floor.
“Maelyn! Maelyn! Are you really okay?”
Kamibarez, eyes brimming with tears, grabbed her hand. Maelyn forced a smile and said she was not in pain.
—Well done, Team 7.
Jane’s voice rang from the ceiling speaker. Dick jumped up in surprise, and Simon and Kamibarez helped Maelyn up from both sides.
—Team 7, you mostly carried out your initial plan. In particular, the summoner’s performance in distracting the cyclops with skeletons was impressive.
“Thank you.”
Simon bowed his head.
—However, the rest of the team was overall lacking. The idea of using Exhaust to slow its movements and then finishing it with Dark Flare sounds good in theory, but you’ve learned that reality is a bit different.
Everyone nodded grimly.
—The biggest issue was lack of proficiency. Work to reduce the margin of error when casting Dark Flare or Exhaust. That is all.
“Thank you!”
Team 7 trudged out of the training room under the assistant’s guidance.
But then—
“Woooooaaahhhh!”
As soon as they entered the waiting room, a loud cheer erupted.
“...W-What the?”
Of course, the cheer wasn’t for Team 7.
It came from the training room of Team 3, right next door.
A cyclops lay collapsed, bleeding on the floor, and atop it stood Hector, exhaling deeply.
Black smoke was continuously rising from the ground around him.
[Simulation Success]
Time Elapsed: 4 minutes 02 seconds
Damage Inflicted: 100%
Barrier Gauge: 98%
Overall Rating: A
“...D-Did he get it? That thing?”
“The barrier gauge is at 98%. That basically means he didn’t get hit at all, right?”
Team 3, the only team to take down the cyclops on the first attempt, was brimming with excitement. The teammates approached Hector and gave him high fives.
—Well done, Team 3.
A rare compliment from Vice-Chancellor Keyzen, Jane.
The students let out gasps of envy, and even the normally stoic Hector revealed a smile.
After Jane’s detailed commentary ended, they finally exited the training room.
“Wooooaaahhh!”
“Nice, Hector!”
Hector’s faction cheered his name. Other students clapped and congratulated him.
“......”
At that moment, Simon and Hector’s eyes met. Hector glanced at Team 7’s results and let out a small snicker. As if to say, See what I told you.
“We...”
Simon turned around at the sound of Maelyn’s voice. Her eyes were blazing like sparks had ignited in them.
“Let’s win this, no matter what.”
Everyone nodded.
“She’s right! There’s no time to be discouraged! We still have three matches left!”
“Let’s calmly break down what went wrong.”
Team 7 launched into an emergency strategy meeting.
“First off, like Professor Jane pointed out, our biggest problem is proficiency.”
Dick said.
“While Simon’s buying time with the skeletons, Kami and I have to cast Exhaust quickly and without mistakes.”
“That’s true, but…”
Simon spoke up.
“Exhaust gets stronger the more it stacks, right? Even when the first two curses landed, the cyclops didn’t slow down much.”
As he said that, Simon turned to Maelyn.
“Maelyn. You have to dodge.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t wonder whether the attack will come or not. Assume it’s always coming at you, and keep your eyes on the cyclops’s movements. I’ll do everything I can to protect you.”
Maelyn nodded with a determined expression. Simon stood up.
“You remember what we learned in Magical Combat? That feeling of treading upon darkness.”
“Feeling of… treading upon what?”
“Get up. I’ll show you again.”
Simon gave Maelyn several tips, while Dick and Kamibarez discussed the Exhaust magic circle between themselves.
“Let’s remove the duration modifier.”
“Wouldn’t that make it way too unstable?”
“High risk, high return. Stacking the curse quickly is more important. Besides, if Maelyn gets hit even once, the game’s over anyway.”
Before long, the round came back around to Teams 3 and 7. Simon’s group entered the training room once more.
“Alright, let’s do this!”
“Let’s go!”
Everyone pulled themselves together, brushing off the lingering gloom.
Moments later, the surroundings transformed into a grassy field as the cyclops appeared with a roar. Having gone through this once already, the tension wasn’t quite as sharp this time.
The battle began with the cyclops spotting Maelyn and charging at her.
‘Advance!’
As if on cue, Simon’s skeletons rushed forward. Just like before, one was immediately destroyed, while the other tenaciously clung to the cyclops.
‘Its movements are getting more familiar.’
The cyclops’s attack pattern wasn’t complicated. It had power and speed, but its actions were simple. Just watching the movements of its shoulders and arm muscles was enough to tell whether it would swing or smash.
But no matter how skilled Simon was, dodging every attack with a rigid skeleton body had its limits. Eventually, the skeleton was shattered, and the cyclops charged at Maelyn.
“Exhaust!”
“Exhaust!”
Once again, the two curses struck successfully, and the cyclops’s movements slowed. Maelyn also completed her Dark Flare.
Overall, they were more composed than in the first attempt.
“Hmph!”
She inhaled deeply and launched the black flame. The cyclops hesitated and raised its club defensively, but the flaming orb exploded upon contact, spreading fire in all directions and latching onto its skin.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
With a pained scream, black smoke engulfed the cyclops.
‘Good! It landed perfectly!’
Dark Flare was undoubtedly a powerful offensive spell. On the mana projector, the cyclops’s health bar visibly began dropping quickly.
“Maelyn! It starts now!”
“I know that already!”
Wracked with the searing pain of burning flesh, the cyclops locked eyes on Maelyn. Then it charged at her like a mad beast.
Simon sent in the skeletons again, but the cyclops, blinded by pain, no longer paid attention to the undead.
It barreled through their attacks, focusing solely on killing the one who had inflicted this agony, Maelyn.
And at that moment, Maelyn was preparing her second Dark Flare.
“Kh!”
Maelyn canceled the spell and dropped to her knees. The cyclops’s club, rising high into the sky, cut through the air and came crashing down.
‘The feeling… of treading upon darkness!’
BOOOOOOOM!
The club slammed into the ground. Maelyn, using the technique perfectly, evaded the blow and rolled roughly across the field.
“The next strike is coming! Move!”
Simon shouted, and Maelyn scrambled to her feet. Just then, the burning, rampaging monster swung its club once more.
Maelyn threw herself to the side with all her strength.
Crack!
The club grazed her leg. The mana projector displayed the message: Fractured right leg.
“Ah!”
“Maelyn!”
Maelyn tried to run again, but her leg gave out.
The training suit she wore replicated the symptoms of a broken leg.
“Exhaust!”
“Exhaust!”
The next round of Exhaust was cast. This time, the slowing effect was clearly visible—but Maelyn, with her injured leg, couldn’t escape.
“Ah… Ahhhh…!”
As she crawled desperately away, the cyclops’s club—unrelenting—came down over her head.
[Simulation Failed]
Time Elapsed: 3 minutes 45 seconds
Damage Inflicted: 42%
Barrier Gauge: 0%
Overall Rating: E
“So close!”
As the forest faded and the scene returned to the training room, Dick let out a disappointed sigh.
Simon bit his lip and nodded. If it hadn’t been for the leg fracture, they could’ve easily handled the slowed cyclops.
After listening to Jane’s comments, they exited the training room. And once again, Hector’s Team 3 had smoothly taken down the cyclops. They had even saved nearly 20 seconds this time.
“...Next is the last one.”
Kamibarez muttered. Perhaps their morale had dipped—both Dick and Maelyn nodded bitterly.
“Gather up for a second.”
Simon spoke. Everyone turned to look at him.
“We’re going to clear it next time. No matter what.”
Fire lit up in Simon’s eyes. He had already moved on from the previous defeats.
No—
“I’ve got a surefire strategy.”
He looked like he was thrilled by the challenge.
Superb.