Chapter 700
With a solemn voice, Jane abruptly announced the beginning of the lesson, snapping her fingers lightly.
Wooong!
In midair, a magic circle spread out cleanly, like a painting.
“Most attack spells derived from Darkness Dynamics follow this kind of structure.”
She brushed her fingertip lightly against the magic circle.
“Runes, formulas, circuits, lines. And necromancers convert the mana inside their bodies into Darkness, projecting magic circles onto their bodies, the ground, or the air, and then activating them.”
She triggered the circle. The flowing Darkness passed through the runes, condensed, and transformed into the shape of fire.
<Dark Blaze>
It shot forth. The black fireball scattered foul smoke as it flew across the arena and vanished upon striking the barrier.
“Just like this. Launching as a projectile is the basic specification. There is no result without reason. This form is the easiest, fastest, and most efficient, which is why most necromancers adopt it.”
Simon blinked with a slightly baffled expression.
‘Why is she explaining this now?’
The most basic of basics.
Every Keyzen student already knew it.
“But visible projectiles have the disadvantage of being easy to dodge once seen.”
She drew a new circle in the air, and from within it, she raised a butterfly.
The butterfly fluttered its wings and flew toward Simon.
“Dodge it.”
Watching its movements, Simon tilted his body and easily avoided it. The butterfly passed him, then exploded a moment later with a pop!
“Well done. Then how about this one?”
She drew another circle. Simon, tense, waited for whatever would emerge.
“……!”
Suddenly, a butterfly appeared right in front of his throat.
‘What the—?’
Boooom!
It exploded, the blast sending Simon tumbling across the arena floor.
“Kh!”
Thanks to the barrier of his protective suit he wasn’t hurt, but the impact was real.
Jane spoke with a blank face.
“Did you see it?”
Flat on the floor, clutching his forehead against the throbbing shock, Simon replied,
“N, no.”
Had he seen it, of course he would’ve dodged. It was as if the butterfly had just popped out of nowhere, right before his eyes.
“Then the only option is to repeat until you do.”
“Huh?”
No sooner had Jane finished speaking than more butterflies burst forth around Simon. His body hair stood on end, and he hurled himself aside.
Boooom!
Kwahhhng!
A chain of explosions. Swept up in the shock, Simon rolled across the floor again, and before he could get up, another butterfly was descending from overhead.
“Khup!”
He pushed off the ground with both hands, springing himself away like a coiled spring.
Boooom!
Kwahhhng!
‘What the hell kind of lesson is this!’
And watching her student scramble for his life, Jane observed with an impassive face.
“P, please sit here, professor.”
Just then, a teaching assistant brought over a chair.
Jane sat. The assistant stood nervously, then cautiously asked,
“Did something happen at the last faculty meeting?”
“……”
“Why single out Simon for a lesson like this?”
This didn’t look like a supplementary class at all, but something closer to ‘special training’.
Of course, personal instruction from vice-chancellor Jane was worth more than a mountain of gold, but the intensity was extreme.
Booom!
Boom!
At last Jane spoke, still watching.
“This is not a Magical Combat class, Student Council President.”
Simon, still desperately dodging butterflies, widened his eyes.
‘Right! That’s it.’
—Did you see it?
Jane had asked whether he saw it.
The butterflies appeared right at arm’s reach, close enough that dodging by vision alone was impossible.
It wasn’t about reacting to their movements.
‘Before the butterfly even emerges!’
Eyes wide, Simon scanned the air. His senses stretched, straining to detect the surrounding Darkness.
Suddenly!
But a butterfly still popped out of nowhere and slammed into his chest.
Kwahhhhng!
He flew violently and crashed to the floor with a thud.
“Oh no…”
The assistant watching gasped, covering their mouth in pity. Jane remained stone-faced.
“Huff, haah.”
Panting heavily, Simon’s eyes gleamed.
He hastily drew a circle in his palm and swept his arm. Darkness spread out like smoke, filling the air.
‘!’
Sensing something, Simon hurled himself forward. A butterfly popped out behind him, but he had already passed by.
“Ah!”
The assistant clapped their hands together joyfully.
“He saw it and dodged! He did, right, professor?”
At last, a faint smile touched Jane’s lips.
“He’s starting to grasp it.”
Simon thought.
There’s no way black magic can literally appear out of empty air. There must be some precursor when it activates.
It was just too faint, too small to notice.
So Simon had done the extravagant thing of spreading his own Darkness widely in the air.
Only then could he detect it.
A tiny ‘point’ intruding through his Darkness. Locating that point, he dodged aside or leapt over it.
‘Good. I’m getting used to this.’
His whole body grew hyper-sensitive.
Not visible to the eyes, but he caught subtle distortions, backed away, and succeeded seven out of ten times.
With time, his success rate only grew.
“Excellent.”
Finally Jane rose from her seat. The butterflies vanished, and Simon collapsed into a crouch, exhaling the breath he’d been holding.
The assistant rushed over with a towel and a water bottle.
“How was it?”
After five minutes’ rest, Jane asked. Simon replied,
“Just imagining meeting black magic like that in battle… it’s terrifying.”
Jane raised her hand casually.
‘!’
Simon’s head snapped back in shock.
He sensed it, but couldn’t dodge.
This time, butterflies swarmed from every direction at once, clinging to him.
“Black magic of this type we call Fulgor.”
“…Fulgor.”
Simon echoed. With a flick of Jane’s finger, the butterflies crumbled into dust.
“Then if we meet a master of Fulgor like you, professor, isn’t defeat inevitable?”
“Of course not.”
Crackle!
A tiny magic circle appeared at her fingertip, as an alien current of electricity coursed through.
“When a new attack technique is created, countermeasures to it are bound to follow.”
Crackle—crackle—
It didn’t look like an ordinary electricity-type Darkness spell. The round, unfaceted arcs of lightning rose softly and then scattered.
“Watch closely.”
She raised the ‘precursor’ in the air, a tiny dot meant to summon a butterfly.
Bzzzt!
But as the current brushed past the dot, the spell was canceled.
“Right before Fulgor activates, if you lightly stimulate the area with Darkness, you can nullify it.”
Seeing her cancel ten Fulgores at once, Simon’s eyes sparkled.
She turned to him.
“Once you understand the principle, this is also useful against priests who use the same branch of white magic. Want to learn?”
Simon clenched his fist tight. At this point, the reason Jane suddenly decided to teach him countermeasures against Fulgor didn’t matter anymore.
He only wanted to make it his own.
“Yes! Please teach me!”
* * *
The next supplementary class was Magical Combat.
“One!”
The chief teaching assistant shouted loudly.
“Hyap!”
“Haat!”
Students in gym clothes swung staves, following the lead of the chief assistant.
It was weapon training infused with Darkness.
“Now, the staff is the archetype of all polearms! What is it?”
“The archetype!”
“Correct! Pick up any long object lying on the roadside, imbue it with Darkness, and it can be used in any form of battle. And the foundation of staff technique is rotation! What is it?”
“Rotation!”
“Correct! And for smooth rotation, your legs must not be this stiff!”
As the assistant walked past, he tapped a student’s thigh with his staff. The student’s body tilted awkwardly.
“Let’s try a downward strike first! Anchor the back leg, twist with your waist and hips, and bring the staff down! Five times! Begin!”
Among the gym-clad students, even Kamibarez Ursula flapped her wings as she swung her staff, then lifted her head.
‘But where’s Simon?’
* * *
Ssshhhhh—
The western waterfall of Roke Island.
There he was.
Shiver—
Simon sat in seiza within the waterfall, his lips trembling.
‘What kind of supplementary class is this!’
Beside him sat Professor Hongpeng of Magical Combat, calm in her meditation posture.
She smiled brightly.
“Just twenty more minutes, Simon!”
“Pr, professor!”
Simon shuddered as he spoke.
“Wasn’t today’s review supposed to be Darkness Staff techniques? Isn’t that what we should be learning?”
“It’s fine! I’ll teach you later!”
She winked playfully.
After finishing under the waterfall, the two changed into clean clothes and moved to a flat grass field.
‘I wanted to learn Darkness Staff techniques though.’
Sniffling, Simon followed behind.
“Now then! Let’s get started!”
They faced each other.
Perhaps because of the many trees, pretty petals were falling from the sky.
‘Professor Bahil, Professor Jane, why do only my supplementary classes turn out like this…… huh?’
Still smiling, Hongpeng lifted her leg. With a light stomp on the ground—
Thud—!
The falling petals ripped apart with a crackle and showered down in pieces. Simon instinctively tensed and readied himself.
“Here’s a fist.”
She raised her right hand into a fist.
“How do you strike the enemy with this, without moving it?”
“…Huh?”
Simon blinked.
Not a long-range attack like Impalement, but hitting the opponent with an unmoving fist?
“The answer is—!”
Ssshhhhh—
Simon couldn’t even process what had happened.
Magical Combat doesn’t use circles. It’s harmony between body and Darkness. That is Magical Combat.
And right now.
Thunk—
Her fist had gently touched his chin.
He collapsed to the ground, dazed, staring up at her.
“This is how. Pretty neat, right?”
“……”
Simon glanced back.
She hadn’t approached, he had been drawn in.
“Once.”
Hongpeng’s expression turned serious, her stance tightening.
“Want to learn?”
What the hell.
‘Even the world of Magical Combat has no end!’
He didn’t even know what struck him, but his blood was boiling as he rose.
“I’ll learn!”
* * *
The next afternoon.
In front of the second-year campus park.
“……”
There was the cafe meeting he had promised Loraine earlier. Since it was the weekend, she wore neat casual clothes.
“Sorry! Did you wait long?”
Simon came running, panting. She turned, her black hair flowing like the night sky.
Then she let out a deep sigh.
“What happened to you?”
Simon, wrapped head-to-toe in bandages, laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. She asked with concern,
“You didn’t get into a fight, did you?”
“No, no, just… supplementary classes."
Her expression grew strangely uncertain.
“…Supplementary classes?”
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