Chapter 790
Simon stood at the starting line.
The assistant who had just fought two students in a row walked forward with tired eyes.
"Then......."
"I’ll take this one."
A black-haired assistant placed his hand on his shoulder,
"Senior?"
"You look tired, take a rest, from this exam on, I’ll take charge."
"I’d appreciate that, but… will you be alright?"
"Look at your fingertips trembling right now, that’s a symptom of lacking holiness."
He patted the younger assistant on the shoulder and stepped forward, glancing at the chief assistant as if to ask, ‘It’s fine, right?’, and the chief assistant nodded with a look of ‘doesn’t matter’.
The chief assistant turned to Simon.
"Then, Simon Follentia, please summon your creature."
Simon nodded, raised both hands, and unfurled the black magic he had prepared.
Since he was doing this, he decided to do it properly.
"Dragon’s Magic."
Wooooooong!
Instead of ordinary runes, a magic circle appeared with letters of a completely new form engraved upon it.
The students murmured, wondering what magic that was, Simon smiled faintly and opened the subspace.
Bones streamed out of the subspace, and as though drawn by magnets, they adhered in neat order to the various points of the magic circle, then Simon pressed the prepared sigil in his left hand onto the center of the circle.
"Chaos."
Crackle!
The ordinary Darkness-composed magic circle shifted to a violet hue, sparks dancing.
<Simon’s Original – Dragonian>
The bones aligned as they passed through the dragon’s magic, forming the shape of armor.
Thud!
Without a wearer, the Dragonian suit moved on its own, stepping forward with nimble motions.
But that wasn’t the end. Simon gave a new variation to the functioning of the dragon’s magic.
Click!
Click!
The bones shifted into place, moving downward, the waist bent, the joints of arms and legs changed, adapted for quadrupedal movement.
It formed the body of a crawling dinosaur.
Not the armor form, but the pure skeletal form of a Drake.
<Dragonian Linkage Technique – Drake Form>
Ooooh—!
Fascinated gazes poured from everywhere, then Simon added a Golem Core and placed it within the Drake.
"These two, I submit, please take care of me."
The chief assistant checked Simon’s intent.
"Drake-type Skeleton, Tier 6, Golem, Tier 3, total Tier 9 confirmed."
He gestured toward the assistant who had volunteered as Simon’s opponent, the assistant nodded and stepped forward.
For an ordinary training exam, not even an important one, the assistant’s expression seemed oddly resolute.
Amidst the fiery enthusiasm of the crowd, Simon and the assistant lowered their stances, and after confirming once more that both were ready, the chief assistant raised his arm.
"Then, from this moment, we begin Simon Follentia’s practical training!"
His arm fell.
"Start!"
The instant the signal fell, the Dragonian, under Simon’s command, kicked off the ground and charged.
The opposing assistant clutched his cross necklace, traced the holy sign, and his eyes flared.
<Cross>
Wooooong!
In front of him, a cross the size of an adult man’s torso appeared.
The chief assistant frowned with a startled look.
Kwakakakakakaka!
From within the cross, the basic holiness spell, Holy Bolt, spewed forth like machine-gun fire. Simon panicked and activated his black magic.
<Dragonian – Defense Mode>
Dragonian’s signature move.
Scales layered tightly in midair, forming a honeycomb-patterned barrier, Holy Bolts rained against it.
Half of the Holy Bolts dispersed and vanished before reaching the barrier, but the rest struck it directly.
Boom-boom-boom!
‘Damn!’
Cold sweat formed on Simon’s brow.
‘Could it be, he knows the countermeasure?’
Dragonian’s barrier earned the nickname ‘Anti-Mage’ because it absorbed surrounding mana and Darkness, collapsing black magic or spell formations.
Simon had even succeeded in reproducing this Dragonian with ‘Chaos’, so the effect extended partially to holiness as well.
‘But.’
With this speed and volume of spellfire, the barrier would take damage before it could even absorb them, the barrier would collapse faster than it could respond.
‘Focus!’
With quick wit, Simon canceled the barrier and had the Dragonian dash sideways.
Now quadrupedal, the Dragonian leapt to the side, dodging the Holy Bolts. Its increased speed and jumping power made this possible.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The Holy Bolts from the cross pursued the Dragonian.
But accuracy plummeted against a moving target. The classic weakness of ‘fixed turret’ type magic.
Simon seized the chance again.
‘Now, attack!’
The Dragonian veered wide and charged toward the assistant.
<Exorcism>
Ruuuumble!
Divine Judgment.
From a clear sky, a bolt of pure white lightning struck, the Dragonian braked sharply, leaping backward to evade.
Though it avoided the strike, the cost of stopping was steep. Instantly, two crosses appeared encircling the Dragonian, both firing Holy Bolts.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The Dragonian had no choice but to deploy its barrier again. With crosses on both sides, it had to form a rounded, encasing barrier.
Naturally, this weakened both defense and duration, the Dragonian’s shield was battered by holy magic, peeling away.
Waaaaah!
The students cheered at the thrilling spectacle, explosions echoing across the campus drew in even more curious onlookers.
Meanwhile, the chief assistant of Farahan, overseeing this test, was growing pale. He looked at the junior assistant facing Simon.
‘Hey, isn’t this going too far?’
Dragonian Tier 6.
Golem Tier 3.
Meaning the assistant should have matched Simon with mid-level holiness spells of about Tier 9.
But that fixed-turret Holy Bolt barrage was the assistant’s original, and the high-powered Exorcism he just used was lethal. One hit, and the student’s summon could be obliterated.
‘Hey! Hey!’
The chief assistant flailed, making X signs with his arms and gesturing wildly. But the assistant didn’t even glance at him, instead, with terrifying seriousness, he pressed down mercilessly on the student before him.
Something was definitely wrong. The chief assistant turned his head toward Farahan.
‘Professor......!’
He wanted to stop the exam immediately, but without Farahan’s permission, he could not. Farahan, who had been guiding the students, simply stood at a distance, watching this scene unfold.
"What are you doing? Fool!"
Meanwhile, in the stands, Maelyn was stamping her feet nervously, Another cross battery was added to the assistant’s spell, making three in total, and Simon’s Dragonian crouched low, focusing only on defense.
He had to do something, anything to create a variable. But all he did was defend, at this rate, the barrier would shatter.
She shot to her feet and raised her voice.
"Simon! Somehow...... huh?"
Her voice cracked sharply.
Simon’s condition seemed strange.
One hand was directed at the Dragonian, the other pressed to his forehead as he panted for breath. Now and then he shook his head side to side. His concentration clearly slipping.
Anyone could panic when pressed into a corner, but Maelyn, who knew how extraordinary Simon’s focus usually was, could tell this wasn’t normal.
She immediately ran higher up into the stands, spreading her palms.
<Curse Detect> <Specula>
Casting two black magic spells at once, she then curled her right thumb and index finger into a circle, bringing it close to her eye.
Her sapphire-like blue eyes turned gray.
‘A curse, and a very high-level one at that, made so the target wouldn’t even realize he was cursed.’
This time she made another circle with her left hand and placed it in front of her right.
Like peering through a telescope, she swept the area with her finger-lenses. Then spotted faint cracks shimmering at the edge of the stands.
‘Knew it!’
Found it.
Dropping her arms, she started running.
"Coming through!"
She shoved past seated students as she ran.
The crowd was thick, but there was no choice, midway, she crashed into a bowl, food spilling everywhere, a student shouted angrily, and Maelyn yelled, "Sorry! I’ll come back and pay for it later!" as she kept sprinting.
Huff! Huff!
She summoned Darkness into her legs and sprinted at full speed. Students she collided with groaned in annoyance, but she didn’t have time to look back.
‘Whoever you are, you’re dead!’
While running, she charged up a curse, pointing her finger toward the source.
But,
‘A doll?’
It wasn’t a person.
Sitting right there in the stands was a curse doll, Simon’s blue hair tied to it, nails driven into its body.
She muttered in disbelief.
"Such a classic method."
Crunch!
The moment Maelyn stomped the curse doll under her shoe.
‘!’
Simon was immediately freed.
Having been on the back foot all along, he suddenly snapped back to his senses.
‘What the hell was I doing?’
No time for regret, his mind whirred into action, first focusing his will.
What had to be done first in this situation.
Simon unleashed all the energy his barrier had absorbed to its very limit.
Fwoooooooosh!
Chaos and holiness erupted outward, nullifying the Holy Bolts in a fleeting instant, in that gap, Simon had the Dragonian slip aside.
"Gh!"
The startled assistant summoned a cross in front of himself, preparing the fixed battery.
He thought there was nothing to worry about. That troublesome defensive spell wouldn’t be usable again for a while, and the Dragonian’s speed wouldn’t be enough to dodge all the Holy Bolts.
Or so he thought.
<Summon Golem>
Whoooooosh!
From within the Dragonian’s body, dust poured out like a sandstorm, the Golem Core roared, sucking in the soil of the training field, swelling instantly into a massive form that appeared at the front.
The Holy Bolts spewed from the assistant’s cross, but the Golem took them head-on, enduring with its whole body.
‘A natural object!’
Unlike a defensive spell, a summoned creature using natural terrain could resist holiness effectively.
While the assistant and Golem clashed fiercely, the Dragonian circled around safely. From behind, its arm-bones snaked forward and bound the assistant’s arms.
‘Damn!’
The assistant’s arms were pinned behind him, and the Golem, having swiftly recovered its form with soil, raised a massive sand arm overhead.
A dark shadow loomed over his body.
‘Shit!’
His expression hardened just as the Golem’s arm came crashing down.
Kwoooooooong!
With a thunderous boom, dust exploded across the outdoor training ground. Simon lowered his clenched fist.
"End of exam!"
The chief assistant rushed in, waving both arms to signal the match was over, then extended his hand.
"Simon Follentia is the victor!"
A deafening roar of cheers erupted.
And as everyone celebrated, one lone figure sat quietly in the back row of the stands.
[ⴠØⳖⳖⴃ.]
Lips painted with red lipstick moved, and then, one person’s body melted away without a trace, disappearing completely.
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