[386] One-Man Team (2)
Before he knew it, the graduation schedule had already entered its sixth week.
Competition had sharpened to the tiniest margins, and rank changes within each bracket occurred fairly often.
Still, no student had changed class.
The teachers clicked their tongues—this hadn't happened in five years. The normally fluid rankings in Class Two had frozen.
Class One was crushing Class Two, and Class Three was desperately chasing Class Two.
In other words, this graduating cohort was stronger overall than any other year.
An unprecedented fifteen students had scored a perfect 20 on the survival evaluation, but most of them were from Class Three, so that didn't bring much change either.
Today was the day that intense rank competition would really show itself.
The strategy-and-tactics evaluation—where teams were formed by rank—awaited the seniors.
"Hmm, then I'll be in Team Five."
Shirone knew without looking at the board. He already had the ranks of all thirty students memorized.
Team Five was ranks 21 through 25. Naturally, the team leader would be the 21st-ranked student; Shirone, ranked 23rd, was in Team Five.
Because Dante (21st) and Iruki (22nd) had always scored the same as Shirone, their order hadn't changed since week one.
Ranks 24 and 25 were Canis and Closer; judging by the members alone, it was a squad capable of scoring highly.
On the other hand, some teams wore worried expressions over rank troubles.
The prime example was Team Four.
A lower-tier group from Class Two, its members in order were Screamer, Amy, Suabi, Maya, and Aider.
They'd mostly held steady, but Screamer had plunged from 11th to 16th in just six weeks.
'This is maddening. When will I get out of this swamp?'
For Screamer, a magi-combatant, the easiest way to earn points was clearly in one-on-one combat.
But this year his matchups were unlucky—Class One's heavy hitters were clustered early, which was the root cause.
A few students' draw-focused strategies had turned three-point wins into one-point ties twice already.
Of course, the fundamental reason for his fall was the twenty points the red team stole in the survival evaluation.
"Hey, everyone, gather up. Let's assign positions first."
Screamer gestured, and Team Four assembled. A sigh slipped out of him as he watched them.
'Balance is a total mess.'
Scouts used a metric called "party contribution."
It measured each member's contribution: a five-person party had a total of five points, distributed by contribution.
It didn't perfectly measure individual ability—since it judged party cohesion—but it was the best way to assign responsibility.
One contribution point meant you'd done your share. Two meant you'd done the work of two people.
That might draw a scout's attention, but it also meant someone else hadn't pulled their weight—poor balance.
The ideal split was 1, 1, 1, 1, 1—everyone fulfilling their role—but Screamer's group was miles from that golden balance.
The problem was Maya.
Screamer estimated Maya's party contribution at, generously, 0.5.
That meant the other four had to pull an extra 0.5 across the board to stay competitive.
'If Maya is 0.5, then Aider 0.8, Suabi 1.1, Amy 1.2—so I'd have to be… 1.4? Insane.'
A 0.4 difference in party contribution was massive.
It meant one person had to raise a five-person party's combat power by eight percent alone.
'Huh, is that even possible? We do have two utility types.'
Suabi and Maya were both utility specialists, though different kinds.
It wasn't normal to include two utilities in a five-person party, but with Screamer it could work.
If a magi-combatant who combined magic and physical might received concentrated buffs, his output would dwarf other mages.
'Lucky Amy's here. I'll stir things up and Amy will pour it on. In the end I'll have to seize the reins and drag it through.'
Having fixed his plan, Screamer—uncharacteristically—clapped to rally the team. As leader, he had to unite them.
"All right, listen up. We'll assign positions now. If we plan right, we can still get a high score."
Screamer pointed to himself first.
"I'm the primary damage dealer. And that's it. Understand?"
"The battle-mage killer strategy?"
Amy asked; Screamer nodded.
"Exactly. Suabi, you buff me no matter what. Haste, Concentrate, Healing—don't hold back. No one this strong shows up in week six. We finish it early and clean. Got it?"
"Ah, got it. I'll do my best."
Suabi answered in a voice that sounded on its last legs. There was no enthusiasm in it, but Screamer didn't care.
Indecisive and socially awkward though he was, Suabi was a utility ace who could chain more than twenty buff spells—he could be trusted to do his part.
"Amy, you're the secondary damage dealer. I won't need to give you orders. And Maya… what spells can you use? I think you should go area buff."
Sound magic's advantage was its broad radius.
"Uh? My best is Aria of the Battlefield. It amplifies magic through resonance."
"Hmm…"
Aria of the Battlefield was effective in combat. But if the caster was Maya, the buff efficiency was far below average.
Screamer tweaked his battle-mage killer plan.
"Then go debuffs. Anything you can put on enemies?"
"Rhapsody of Turmoil. It amplifies anxiety."
"Good. Use that no matter what. It's more effective to hit hundreds than to buff five."
"Okay. I'll do my best."
Maya nodded with resolve.
"Hyung, what should I do?"
Aider propped his head with his hand and asked.
Being younger, he didn't share Maya's tension.
"You're a multi-role. I'll cut the big targets; you confirm the kills. Make sure they're dead. Matches get overturned over one failed kill."
"Understood. That's doable."
"All right! Let's do this properly! Let's show them what we're made of."
Amy, knowing Screamer's character, got goosebumps at his out-of-place pep talk.
'He must really want out of here.'
Still, whether the battle-mage killer strategy would work was questionable.
Screamer might genuinely believe he could finish things alone—the punch that once made thugs tremble could make him overconfident.
'Well, my current rank's low. Let's try it.'
Team members could voice opinions, but it had to be done with regard to the leader's temperament.
Meanwhile, Shirone's Team Five also waited for the evaluation, but unlike Team Four, no special tactics were exchanged.
Dante stuck close to Closer, Shirone to Iruki, and only Canis sat apart, enjoying solitude.
Of course, he wasn't alone in the mental channel.
-This is pretty boring. This place called school.
Harvest, who'd shut off outside contact for six months to finish decoding the Book of Light and Darkness, spoke up.
But because the graduation class's rank jockeying was so fierce, Harvest still hadn't shown his face.
-Hang on. If we can last one more year we can do what we want.
-Is that so? Well, we're a lot stronger now. Graduation should be simple.
The Book of Light and Darkness, taken from Heaven's Akashic Records, was a theory that used the avatar's power to amplify darkness.
In short: light strengthens darkness.
Canis hadn't yet drawn a specific spell from it, but merely having the idea had made his magic stronger than before.
-Graduation won't be a problem. This time I'll surpass Shirone and carry out my master's will.
-Kukukuku, that should be entertaining.
The teacher, having completed two thousand checks, announced, "Five minutes until the match begins. The sixth-week mission is 'Annihilation.'"
All thirty students entered the simulation arena.
Ranking would be decided by which team cleared their monsters first, so the evaluation took place simultaneously.
The huge arena had been divided into six sectors; Shirone entered Team Five's area.
When the members gathered, Dante spoke briefly, true to form.
"Well, since we're together, let's do our best."
Shirone asked, "Any strategy or tactics? You're the leader and an information-processing major, so if you decide it should be fine."
"Tactics? Hm…"
Dante propped his chin and sized up the members: Iruki the Explosion, Shirone the Flash, Closer of Shadow Strikes, Canis of Darkness.
"Just kill them as fast as possible."
"Okay."
The five turned and stepped into the sector's center.
After about three minutes of warm-up, the evaluation teacher announced, "We will now begin the strategy-and-tactics evaluation."
At week six, no further explanation was needed.
The scoreboard's green, yellow, and red lights cycled, and identical monsters surged into each of the six zones.
'It's started.'
Shirone entered his Spirit Zone.
The first task was to identify species and numbers.
Bat-like Jargols flew overhead. Each was roughly the size of an eagle.
On the ground were bipedal monsters, Warwolves.
And starting this week, a new species had been added: giant underground Earthworms that tunneled through the soil.
'Nine-tier again this week.'
By species alone these were worth fighting; the problem was their number—over three hundred.
Kraaang!
A Warwolf howled and charged.
Jargols shrieked ultrasonic waves as they dived, and dozens of holes opened in the ground as Earthworms spat acidic bile.
Team Five instinctively took positions.
Shirone and Iruki rained magic on the Jargols. Photon Cannons and Atomic Bombs vaporized the bats in rapid succession.
On the ground, Dante and Closer worked in tandem.
Dante set a teleportation magic circle ten meters ahead and scattered instant magic circles around it.
Warwolves that hit the instant circles were automatically transported to the central main circle.
When about twenty had gathered, Closer cast his spell.
"Eruption!"
The ground heated and the Warwolves looked down—then a small volcanic blast obliterated the main magic circle.
"Khahaha! Send more, Dante!"
"Oh, sure?"
Dante spread more circles across the field, and enemies began pouring into the main circle at a rate of three per second.
Closer, in his element, unleashed every spell he had.
If you ignored targeting, earth magic was judged the strongest in raw physical force—monsters couldn't withstand it.
A Rock-and-Roll surge crashed through Warwolves like a snowball gaining size.
Massive heavy stones rained from the air and crushed the enemies.
Then Eruption, Eruption, Eruption—three in succession—laid waste to all ground monsters.
Canis stood with his hands in his pockets.
Earthworm acid spat from all sides, but his Dark Skin held.
He wasn't doing nothing. His Spirit Zone had locked onto every underground monster's position.
At last his right hand slid from his pocket.
'If the sky is the world of light…'
His index and middle fingers rose.
'Then the world underground is the world of darkness.'
Canis's specialty—the saw-blade form of his power over darkness—raced through the earth and sliced the Earthworms apart.
Kyaaek! Kkik!
The vertically standing Earthworms all went slack, vomiting green bile.
-Monsters eliminated: 328. Completion time: 3 minutes 28 seconds.