Chapter 338
On top of the rampart, the werewolf Canis and Dick faced each other.
She glared at Dick and took a combat stance.
'The opponent's a fellow Keyzen like me. Should I just back off and go massacre some regular soldiers instead?'
That thought only lasted for a moment before Canis shook her head.
In the end, the outcome of this war depended on the thirty necromancers who wielded Darkness. Using up Darkness to take down some petty small fry was a waste, capturing the enemy commander, a Keyzen student, would be far more advantageous to the tide of battle.
'More than that, that swaggering brat knows my identity.'
If she let him go, all information about her—including her bluffs—would be passed on to the defending side. She decided to fight.
'...But what's that?'
Still, it was hard to just recklessly charge in, the two metal cases placed on either side of Dick were unsettling.
They were smooth, metallic, and from the cracks in the rampart floor beneath them, they looked heavy.
Canis had no way of knowing what kind of equipment those were. She had never seen a necromancer use weapons like that.
"Well then."
Seeing her hesitation, Dick placed his palms on the two metal cases.
"I'll go first!"
As Dick's Darkness flowed into the metal cases, they lit up as if being powered on. Soon, with the sound of an engine roaring to life, the devices began to operate.
[!]
She jerked her head back, something grazed past her face, and when she looked behind her, a small spark was streaking away like a flash of light.
"Oh, you reacted to that? Is it like some wild animal instinct?"
Dick said that as he poured more Darkness into the cases. With a clank, openings appeared, and countless bursts of light poured out from within.
[Kugh!]
Canis quickly spun and dashed along the rampart, the bursts of light chasing close behind.
'What is that? A curse?'
She didn't know what the technique was, but it was obvious that nothing good would come from taking a hit.
Weaving between them with the werewolf's natural agility, she infused Darkness into her claws and swung.
Clang!
A burst of light struck her claws and ricocheted away.
'Good, I can nullify it with Darkness!'
"Hm."
Dick frowned slightly, as if straining, and then pulled even more bursts of light from the metal cases, firing them at her.
The exchange continued, Dick pouring on the offensive, Canis dodging. The beastman troops around them didn't even dare to intervene in the flashy duel between the two necromancers.
'Alright.'
But as time passed, the situation began to shift. Canis was evading so well that now it was the attacker, Dick, who seemed to be tiring, his breathing turning ragged.
At this rate of fire, the Darkness consumption was bound to be severe.
With more room to maneuver, Canis drew a curse magic circle on her palm.
'I'll use Howling and end this in one blow.'
She quickly completed the curse. Breaking from her purely evasive movements, Canis charged toward Dick, bringing the magic circle on her palm to her lips.
–Awooooooooo!
Then she howled.
Once more, the area was engulfed by the area-wide curse that spread through sound,
"Ugh!"
"Kuh!"
The soldiers who were about to rush in to help Dick turned pale at the sound, stumbling back or collapsing to their knees. Dick too went pale, his pupils trembling.
A perfect chance.
With swift movement, Canis slipped behind Dick and dashed in a straight line.
'I've won!'
Her two claws shot forward to pierce his back—
[!]
—but Dick twisted his waist in an instant to evade.
Even though he should have been caught in the Howling curse, he easily stepped aside, while Canis, her balance thrown far forward, staggered.
Clack!
The claw-shaped blades on both her arms suddenly latched onto the metal cases with a sharp click.
[Wh–what is this!]
She tried to move her arms, but they didn't budge. The weight of the metal cases only made it worse, if she pulled harder, it felt like her claws would rip out of her hands.
"Phew."
Dick grinned as he stood up, looking completely fine.
[H–how did you dodge? You should have been caught in the Howling!]
"Hm? What are you saying?"
Dick spoke as he pulled something like an earplug out of his ear.
"I'm guessing you're asking why I didn't fall for the curse?"
Her jaw dropped.
[When did you put that in...? I didn't see you make any move to insert earplugs!]
"Oh, I had them in from the start."
Dick had information on her. He knew about her use of Metamorphosis, and the Howling technique she could use in that state.
"With that in mind, do you think I'd challenge you without preparing for Howling?"
[...Damn it!]
Dick slipped the earplugs into his pocket.
"Most of the gear I use in battle can be switched on and off with an 'Enchant'. Same with these earplugs. Once they're in my ears, all I have to do is feed them a little Darkness and I get perfect soundproofing."
She growled in frustration and tried to yank her arms free, but her claws remained stubbornly stuck to the metal cases.
Canis' claws were part of her body, and in her transformed werewolf state, they stayed that way. She couldn't retract and re-extend them at will.
And of course, Dick knew that too.
"And,"
He snapped his fingers.
"That thing that came flying at you earlier, looking like a curse? It didn't actually do anything."
[...What?]
"Just a bluff, a bluff."
Dick said with a smirk.
"Everyone's been burned badly by curses in the duel evaluations, so they get twitchy and cautious the moment they see anything curse-like. I just used that psychology. These metal cases are really just magnets that run on Darkness."
Lies and absolute deception.
That was Dick's way of surviving in Keyzen.
[So what.]
Even though she was shaking with rage at having been tricked, she still glared fiercely at him.
[You've done this, now what are you going to do?]
His aim was to force her out of her transformation.
Even without her arms, she still had her legs, her fangs, her tail. If that brat came close with a knife, she was confident she could manage somehow.
The muscles in both her legs bulged.
[Come on, try me!]
"Going in is scary~ I'm a coward, you know."
Dick pulled a potion bottle from subspace and tossed it at her. The viscous liquid soaked her whole body.
It smelled sweet, likely a poison or paralysis potion.
But Canis had taken Professor Belya's class, she was confident in her resistance.
More importantly, her claws rattled slightly. She could feel the magnetic pull weakening.
It probably wouldn't last more than a minute. The one who'd end up caught off guard would be him.
Tap. Tap.
And finally, what Dick dropped at her feet was a wasp nest. Her expression went cold.
[Wasp nest? You think you can catch a necromancer with something like this?]
Dick was turning his back, walking away from her.
"Those wasps are monster hybrids. Even if you wrap yourself in Darkness, their stingers pierce right through."
Dick raised both arms behind his head, then snapped his fingers.
"See you."
Bzzzzzz!
With a skin-crawling sound, swarms of wasps burst out from the three nests. Almost at the same time, the magnetic pull of the metal cases holding her claws weakened and released.
'Got it!'
Freed, she stepped on Darkness to escape, but the wasps were faster, swarming onto her body that was coated with sweet liquid.
–Awooooooooo!
It hurt like hell!
It was like every single cell in her body was being pierced by fine needles. Howling in pain, Canis began to run.
But no matter how fast she ran, the wasps didn't fall off, and even when she wrapped her hide in Darkness, the stingers dug into her skin.
[Kyaaaaaaa—!]
Driven mad by the pain, she fell from the rampart. With a thud, she hit the ground, and her barrier gauge dropped to zero.
[Canis McGrory eliminated.]
[Defending Team (15/15)]
[Attacking Team (14/15)]
Her body scattered from the battlefield.
"Hahahaha! First kill's mine!"
* * *
Dick threw both arms into the air in celebration.
After Dick took down Canis, the situation on the rampart calmed down like a fire being extinguished.
"Alright, let's go!"
With Dick at the lead, the soldiers gathered and began pushing back the soldiers of the Kingdom of Karl who had made it up the rampart. Whenever Dick enchanted the soldiers' armor and weapons, they could play the part of elite troops against anyone.
But then—
Crash, crash, crash, crash!
The soldiers at the front were being knocked down by something.
Curious, Dick stood on tiptoe and craned his neck to see, a siege ladder was floating in the air, beating soldiers down.
"Huh?"
Now even the siege ladders hooked on the rampart were floating up into the air.
"Tch! What the hell is this!"
The ladders abandoned the other soldiers and began chasing after Dick instead. He quickly dropped his sword and fled.
'Te, telekinesis? Was there someone in Keyzen who could use telekinesis at this level?'
He leaped on the spot, dodging a flying ladder, then slapped his palm against its body.
'Enchant!'
Once he enchanted it, the force moving the ladder vanished like a lie, and it fell to the ground with a thud.
That confirmed it for Dick. This wasn't telekinesis.
Step, step.
"So I just have to run a ladder shuttle, huh."
A girl was walking toward him.
She had short, bobbed hair with full aegyo-sal under her eyes, and was wearing the Keyzen uniform.
Even though the top of the rampart was enemy territory, she was strolling casually.
The truth was, the ladders she controlled were acting like bodyguards, going around knocking out all the beastman soldiers nearby.
"Interesting. How did an idiot like you manage to take down Canis?"
"Th–that's a trade secret~"
Dick raised his eyebrows and spoke lightly, but he had spent far too much Darkness in taking down that werewolf.
And he knew exactly who she was at a glance.
"Milena Hartz. So you're stepping in yourself now?"
"You got it in one. Fame does get tiring~"
Milena raised a finger. The siege ladders dropped to the ground, and instead, the stone tiles of the rampart began to rise into the air.
'I'm screwed.'
A type that threw multiple long-range projectiles made of materials other than Darkness or metal was the worst possible matchup for Dick.
He scrambled to his feet and ran, and bricks began flying at him with sharp whooshing sounds.
Thud!
Thwack!
Even a glancing blow hurt like hell.
Dick staggered but kept running at full speed.
"You're fast when you're running away."
A voice spoke right beside him. His heart sank as he turned his head, Milena had somehow caught up to his speed, running right next to him.
Whoosh!
He barely bent his body in time to dodge her kick. The recoil made him lose his balance, and black smoke slammed into him.
An Exhaust that came just one beat too quickly. Dick's body instantly grew heavy.
'I, I'm dead! If I don't break this fast...!'
Second strike, third strike incoming.
Dick hastily drew a magic circle on his palm, preparing the cancellation curse, Cancellation.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
But Milena's second and third Exhausts were already ahead of him, passing right through his body.
A full three stacks of Exhaust.
Dick shuddered as if trying to endure, but in the end his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. The Cancellation he was preparing failed, and his heavy hands hit the floor.
"Clear~"
Confirming that Dick was immobilized, Milena lowered her finger.
"Hh, seriously."
Dick grumbled.
"This is why curse users are the worst. Isn't their anti-personnel ability way too broken?"
"Sorry about that~"
She smiled without a shred of apology and gestured. The rampart bricks around them floated into the air.
"Bye bye."
The bricks flew toward Dick. As he let his arms hang limply in resignation—
Shhhhhh!
An ice wall surged up in front of him, the flying bricks smashing into it and falling away.
"You idiot! You're struggling after just one opponent?"
"!"
Somehow, a sky-blue-haired girl had gotten behind Milena.
Krrrrrrr!
From the girl's palm, an ice flower bloomed, swallowing everything around it.