Volume 3 - CH 10

In order to clean up the huge amount of cement that I had created, the next match had to be carried over to the next day.

The booing from the audience was quite loud, and I feel a little sorry for them.

The next day.

I was alone in the audience, looking down at the stage.

Amiyu and Eefa were not there. I had left them at the inn since I didn’t have a match.

Today, there was also Kyle’s third match.

I felt sorry to show Eefa any more of that gore, Amiyu felt the same way. The important thing was the tournament.

As for the most important match.

Mabel had won without a hitch against a big spearman.

As for Reynas’s match, it seemed that his opponent had abandoned the match. He must have seen the difference in ability. There was no point in challenging a match that could not be won.

And then.

Standing on the stage now is Kyle.

……”

However, his opponent has not shown up at all.

The MC has stopped talking and has gone quiet, and the crowd around me is starting to get annoyed.

He must have gotten scared and fled. Amidst this atmosphere, Kyle stands alone on the stage, looking as emotionless as ever.

Hmmm, it looks like this match will be lost the same way as Reynas’. ……

“Seika Lamprog.”

Suddenly, a voice calls out to me from the side.

I turn my head and there is Mabel.

She was not holding her two-handed sword, as if she had left it somewhere.

Her cool appearance did not look like she had just finished a match.

I smiled at her.

“Hey congratulations. You won the match as expected, but I won’t lose in the semifinals tomorrow.”

“Abstain,” 

Mabel told me shortly.

After a short silence, I asked.

“Why?”

“This isn’t the tournament you think it is.”

“……I don’t know what the tournament I think it is refers to, but I don’t like it. If you want to get to the final, you have to compete fairly and honestly.”

“I know you’re strong.”

I stopped talking at Mabel’s words.

The girl continued.

“I know you’re much stronger than your opponents so far,” she continued. So I might not be able to take it easy on you.”

“…..”

“I can’t lose. Please. You don’t want to die, do you?”

I was silent for a moment, and then my mouth turned up at the corners.

“I don’t want to die.”

“……”

“If you don’t think I can beat you, just say so. I’m still not going to give it up.”

“Don’t …… be stupid. You …….”

At that moment, the moderator’s voice echoed throughout the arena.

“Well, after deliberation, it appears that it has been decided that Zagan will be disqualified. Therefore, …… Kyle, you are qualified!　We have decided to advance you to the semi-finals!”

Violent booing erupted from the audience.

No wonder. They paid the admission fee, but two matches were canceled.

Kyle turns on his heel and leaves the stage.

I look to the side.

Mabel was looking at him with a relieved expression.

I wonder.

She said something about holding back, and maybe she didn’t want the match to turn into a fight for life, but I felt a little curious.

Mabel noticed my gaze and said, a little panicked.

“Anyway, you should abstain. I don’t know why the school sent you……”

“Seika?”

I turned to look at the familiar voice.

Sure enough, there was Amiyu.

She looked surprised.

“I didn’t think I’d find you in this crowd. …… Oh, the new student is also here.”

The red-haired girl smiled wryly as she turned her gaze to Mabel, saying so.

“I heard you won the third round too. You’re good. But he’s pretty strong too, you know?”

The red-haired girl looks at Amiyu with hatred and then turns away silently.

Wordlessly, he turned away and left.

I think as I watch her disappear into the crowd.

I wonder if the reason she asked me to abstain was because she had been ordered to win the tournament.

From the school and above.

“Um, Seika-sama……”

Yuki asked in a whisper.

“About what you said earlier,…… don’t tell me you’re planning to beat that girl too?”

“No.”

I deny in a whisper.

“I intend to lose to Mabel as planned. I have no intention of interfering with her mission.

I refused to abstain because I just wanted to have a little of her hand.

I’m interested in her fighting style. I would like to see a little more of her moves.

And when I was satisfied, I was going to be out of the ring for good.

“—- Seika?”

“What?”

I replied in a panic, and Amiyu said with half-open eyes.

“Why are you in a daze? Hey, how many matches have they played now?　What’s going on?”

‘Ah …… actually, matches of the second knight and the one with the evil eye were uncontested. The only match that took place today was Mabel’s.”

“Is that so ……. Nandaaaa!???(What did you say!?)”

Amiyu screamed regretfully.

“Rather why are you here?　I thought you were at the inn.”

“I was worried about the match after all. I left Eefa behind and came out. It was also bad to go out with that girl.”

“I see. I’m sorry you had to come all this way.”

“It’s all right. Let’s go home.　Tomorrow you and the freshman have the semifinals …….”

At that moment.

Once again, the voice of the MC echoed through the arena.

“Ladies and gentlemen!　Good news!　Since both Reynas’ and Kyle’s opponenets forfeited in the third round, it has been decided that the semi-finals between these two competitors will be held from this time today!”

The buzz in the hall grows louder. There were cheers in places.

According to the schedule, the semifinals and final were supposed to be held tomorrow. …… probably the management decided that it would be bad for the show to cancel two matches in one day. They just postponed a match yesterday because of me.

“I’m lucky that I came today. If I hadn’t come , I wouldn’t have been able to see this match.”

Amiyu muttered and looked at the stage below.

I feel sorry for the guys who were planning to come tomorrow, but I’m glad that I can take a good look at the semi-finals here first.

‘Then let the fighters enter!　The handsome magic knight of the four attributes, Reynas Kaybeln!”

Amidst the cheers, a handsome man in lightweight metal armor walks onto the stage, waving his hands in the air.

His opponent is Kyle, but he doesn’t abstain?

I wonder if he has some kind of plan to counter the evil eye.

“And—- the slayer of this tournament!　Kyle the Evil-Eyed Swordsman!”

The ghostly boy quietly steps onto the stage.

In his right hand is a drawn sword. It is no different from the previous matches.

The audience naturally quieted down.

“Both competitors are the talk of the town in this tournament, but what kind of battle will unfold!　The first match of the semi-final, which has attracted a lot of attention, begin —-!”

With the MC’s voice, the whistle sounded.

The boy raises his face, which had been turned down, and looks at the young knight with his red left eye.

However.

Before the evil eye could take effect, Reynas had already begun chanting.

“Shine and shine, white!　Spirit of love and protection, give me a bright body light to resist the eye of death. —- Grant add intermediate level evil eye resistance Evil Eye Tolerance!”

As soon as the chanting ends, the knight’s body is momentarily covered in a pale light.

Amiyu shouted in surprise next to me.

“Evil eye resistance support magic buff!　That knight could even use the light attribute!”

While the boy’s evil eye stared at him, Reynas, a five-attribute user, leisurely drew his sword and swung it.

“Ha-ha-ha!　How about it, boy? Your eyes don’t work anymore, do they?　Do you give up?　Or would you like to have a sword fight with me?”

Reynas raised his voice lightly.

Kyle did not answer.

Instead, he took a step forward.

One step, then another.

With his drawn sword slouched down and his ineffective evil eye fixed on the knight, Kyle quietly closed the distance between him and the enemy.

His face is devoid of any emotion.

Like a ghost, he just keeps walking.

Reynas was intimidated by this situation, and pointed the tip of his staff sword at the enemy.

A flaming fireball!

A fireball was produced and attacked the boy.

Kyle did not even resist and took the attack.

“How about ……?”

The boy appears, cracking open the flames.

Not only his skin, but his hair and clothes show no signs of being burned.

‘Tsk, flaming fireball Fireball!　Fireball, fireball, fireball!”

Fireballs are fired in rapid succession.

Kyle makes no sign of resistance, but continues on his way without a single burn.

Amiyu mutters next to me.

“……What’s that? Does that mean the amulet isn’t working?”

“No,…… if that were the case, it would have self-destructed long ago, emitting sound and light.”

“But with all that magic landing?”

“It’s a reaction to the …… damage that befalls the bearer. That’s why …….”

Kyle would have taken very little damage from the fireballs.

“What the hell are you ……!　Wind conical spear Windlance!　Ice cone spear icicle lance!　Rigid rock bullet rock blast!”

Reynas unleashes a gust of wind blade, an ice spear, and a rock cannonball.

Kyle took them all.

A gust of wind slammed into the boy’s body, and ice and rock crashed and shattered.

Kyle did not even react to the numerous magic spells…..

Unscathed, he just kept on walking.

His footprints were carved into the ground in an unnaturally deep —- manner.

Strong durability that prevents not only physical attacks, but even combustion, and extends to clothing and hair.

There is only one way to achieve such a thing that I can think of.

The same as Mabel’s, gravity magic.

“What does this mean?　Kyle is completely impervious to magic!　It looked like he was in big trouble when his evil eye was blocked, but he had a huge secret trick hidden in there!”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!　Why is it like this!”

I explain to Amiyu, who tugs at my sleeve excitedly.

“It’s the same as what happened with Mabel. The dark magic can manipulate how easily an object is drawn to the stars, but this value is also linked to the difficulty of moving or stopping the object by itself. Mabel was increasing the power of her weapons, but from a very small perspective, phenomena such as destruction and combustion are actually just physical movements, so if you make them as heavy as their structure can withstand, you can increase their strength. The human body can support a surprisingly large amount of its own weight for a short period of time, and with the right amount of ingenuity, it can support even greater weights. ……?

“……?”

“Oh, um.”

I looked at Amiyu with her mouth gaping open, and I was forced to change my explanation.

“The house made of just bricks is less likely to be blown away by the wind than a house made of …… straw tied together, right?　Heavy weight makes it harder to break down.”

“It sounds obvious, but I don’t understand it at all. …… Is that something I can do?”

“If you work hard, maybe …..”.

At that moment, the live commentator barked out, “Oh, Reynas, is making a new move. Can he really get out of this situation?”

“Damn ……!”

Reynas suddenly thrust his staff sword into the ground and began chanting a spell.

Then, the soil transforms into a bumpy mess, and rock puppets rise from it.

They were smaller in size than people, but there were many of them. While we watched, rock dolls sprang up one after another from the soil on the stage.

Amiyu said again in amazement.

“To make such a large number of golems at once!　That knight is quite something…….”

Reynas, as expected, looked as if he had been worn out or was in pain.

But there was a smile on his face.

“You seem very sturdy. But I wonder if that’s enough to take on my golems……!”

Reynas’s golems started to move forward at once.

It’s true that if he can hold him off with numbers, he may be able to stop him from moving.

Kyle stopped for the first time.

At that moment, something strange happened.

The boy’s shadow suddenly begins to wriggle.

Then, after forming a circle for a moment, a large number of thin, thorn-like shadows sprang out of it. They stretched out at a furious pace, each rushing toward a golem.

The shadows crawled on the ground, but when they approached the rock puppets, they suddenly reared up like snakes and pierced with their bodies with their sharp tips. The golems, sewn up in mid-air, are unable to move, and are incapacitated one by one.

“The dark-attribute shadow magic,……, that Kyle, with his evil eye, could also use ordinary magic.”

Amiyu muttered, as she had heard it in class and knew about it.

Kyle’s shadow magic was then approaching Reynas himself.

A sharp shadow that pops out of the ground and attacks.

The young knight, however, managed to avoid it with his brilliant body movement.

Was the golem a decoy from the beginning? With such a smooth movement, Reynas closes the distance with Kyle in the blink of an eye.

Then, he raised his sword at the boy who was in between them.

I knew he was good.

Kyle’s body, which is probably super-heavy with magic, would probably bounce off even the sword. But if he stopped just short, he could win by the judges’ decision.

The only remaining slim chance to win.

But —- there, Reynas’s movement stopped.

The young knight was frozen with a look of astonishment on his face as he held up his sword.

The audience was also shocked.

He could have won by thrusting his sword at him, but he showed no sign of moving.

No —- can he move?

Carefully looking at the stage, I saw that one of Kyle’s shadows had entered Reynas’s shadow.

That’s …… a curse.

Perhaps he is redefining the opponent’s shadow as an associated object of the main body and stabbing his own shadow to block his movement. It’s similar to driving a nail into a straw man.

The boy looks up and gazes at the knight, who is taller than he is.

There was no emotion in his eyes. Not even a desire to kill.

Kyle lifts his drawn sword.

The crowd showed signs of excitement at the prospect of death.

At that moment, —-

The whistle blew, signaling the end of the match.

“Ootto!　The referee has now declared the match settled!　The winner —- is Kyle, the Evil-Eyed Swordsman!　He has advanced to the finals with flying colors!”

The boy who had almost lifted his sword.

Surprisingly, he put down the blade honestly.

He turns on his heel in silence and leaves the stage.

When the boy’s shadow returned to its owner, Reynas collapsed as if he had been knocked out of his seat.

The crowd was quiet, although it was probably a match not often seen.

It must have been overwhelming.

Whether the content of the fight or the unfathomable spirit that Kyle possessed.

The MC’s voice echoed through the arena.

“That was a tremendous match!　All that remains is the second semifinal match tomorrow, and then the final!　You definitely cannot miss out on seeing how this memorable first Teito Comprehensive Martial Arts Tournament will end!”