Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 83

After safely climbing up the canyon, Simon had now entered the true central area.

A jungle, dense with vegetation, unfolded like a painting. The atmosphere was definitely different from here on.

Explosions and the sound of weapons clashing could be heard coming from everywhere. Monsters at the top of the island's food chain, those considered level 3 or higher, also appeared here.

After retrieving the golem core, Simon began to take care with his steps and started to be on closer watch than before. He knew that he'd be the target of students and monsters if he made even the slightest mistake.

"Phew."

Simon wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked around.

He hadn't faced any Kizen students, managing to rack up 127 points through hunting alone. However, starting from here, he had to be prepared to fight at least two or three Kizen students.

Whirrr!

Just as expected. Simon raised his head up after feeling a sudden heat. Out of nowhere, dark flames were falling over his head.

'The same type of jet-black flames as Meilyns!'

Baaaaam!

As Simon was looking at the black flame spreading across the grass after stepping and dodging it, another flame was shot at his flank before he realized it.

'It's fast......!'

Smaash!

Rumble!

They could fire continuously with that level of firepower. Simon ran frantically and dodged the attack.

As he was about to step up a tree to widen the distance at once, a large flame burst forth and swept the tree away.

Watching a tree burn down in mere seconds was terrifying.

'This is quite dangerous.'

After swerving in his path, Simon landed on the ground. Then, the opponent who randomly attacked also came down from the tree and showed themselves.

Simon's eyes widened in surprise.

"Meilyn!"

It was really Meilyn. With her arms crossed, she smiled and waved her hand gently.

"So it was you after all, Simon."

"I was worried about you! How were you doing until now? Did you ea"

Thud.

Then, Meilyn spread her palms out.

A warning sign to not get any closer.

"......M-Meilyn?"

"We've been in the same group ever since we were in Kizen. We worked together and relied on each other."

Simon quickly finished grasping the situation.

Her atmosphere was different to usual. Her eyes looked quite dull.

"Honestly, aren't you curious?"

Dark flames sizzled and whirred up on her palms.

"On which one of us is stronger."

Simon pulled forth jet-black, face stiff.

"Are you planning to fight me?"

"Yeah."

Meilyn answered immediately.

"We don't always get this kind of opportunity where we can fight with all our might."

"Calm down. It's inefficient to spend each other's energy in a situation like this."

Her eyes hardened.

"Brace yourself!"

Whaaaaaaaap!

The fire grew even stronger in her hand. Simon cooled his head and started to think objectively.

'Something's strange after all.'

Simon knew that Meilyn was running toward the top, surpassing 1st place in Class A. He was well aware of her competitive spirit. He vaguely knew that he might someday clash with her.

But wasn't this too urgent? Simon thought that something was wrong and took out skeletons from his subspace.

"Haaaah!"

She stepped on jet-black and jumped into the air, continuously firing black flames.

Whaaaap!

Whirrrrr!

Terrifying strikes were poured out offensively.

The angle and direction in which the projectiles flew was also diverse. Moreover, when the black flames fell to the ground, they burned grass and trees alike, creating a danger zone. The space to dodge was shrinking in real-time.

"Haaaaaah!"

Meilyn was serious.

In addition, she used the technique she showed in the last Duel Evaluation, multi-casting. While pouring out flames with her right hand, she was preparing a Dark Flare, what could be called her special move, in her left.

It was absolutely perfect as it was.

Meilyn was cornering Simon with her overwhelming abilities.

'I guess I can't help it.'

Simon also thought he should fight seriously.

'I know you as well as you know me.'

What Simon took out of the subspace was the gold bow. He held the bow with his left hand and an arrow in his right, enchanting it with jet-black.

'Huzzah!'

After jumping over the dark flames, Simon notched an arrow, aimed his bow at Meilyn, and

Psh!

released.

The arrow pierced through the black flame, and Meilyn couldn't follow the path of the arrow because of the attack she fired.

As a result, it cleanly hit her side. There were no wounds thanks to the protective suit, but the barrier gauge decreased a lot.

You could see her stepping back in surprise.

'In terms of attack power, Meilyn is at the top of all the Kizen students. But a case like her where she pours all her firepower into an attack and suppresses the opponent's attack'

Simon notched an arrow and shot it again.

'is vulnerable to well-aimed physical attacks. Nothing else is needed.'

Thud!

The next arrow lodged itself into a tree next to Meilyn's face. Beads of sweat ran down her forehead.

"Don't take me lightly!"

She now attacked while running more actively. As Simon fired arrows one after another, maintaining the distance, she began to operate jet-black within her body.

She started to run faster and faster, and the arrows hit nothing but the ground.

'Woah, it's gonna be tough for me if she's even good at Combat Magic here.'

Simon notched an arrow while in astonishment.

It was hard to hit someone who was running with all their might.

The best timing was

"Haaah!"

The moment she shot her dark flames, Simon also released an arrow.

The two of them dodged at the same time they attacked. Meilyn tilted her head, and Simon almost fell out of the way.

Whaaaap!

Thud!

After exchanging blows, the two backed off, scratching into the dirt.

Meilyn smiled.

'I don't have to rush at all. I can just stall time like this, and when the Dark Flare is ready'

Shk!

She looked back at the sudden shock she felt on her thigh, startled.

'What? Who just'

As if Simon didn't want to give her time to think, he fired an arrow right in front of her.

When she jumped to her side to dodge it and checked behind her

Shhhhk!

Shhak!

This time, three arrows from different points around her, damaging her barrier gauge. The gauge had already been cut by more than half with arrows alone.

'What's going on?!'

After getting down on the ground, Meilyn quickly started putting her brain to work.

An attack from three directions. She remembered that the number of skeleton archers that Simon uses was also three.

'I see. So he used skeleton archers......!'

However, the places the arrows flew from were dark due to the dense forest, so the exact location couldn't be determined. It was also far enough away to be out of the black flames range.

'Reload.'

Simon notched an arrow on the string, and the three skeleton archers connected to his thoughts also notched arrows at the same time and finished aiming at Meilyn.

'It's your weakness, ranged physical attacks. In addition to that, it's a four-way attack.'

The core of Summoning was definitely numbers.

Simon, who made complete use of that advantage, pushed Meilyn back into a corner.

'Don't underestimate me. You're not the only one who can think here!'

She bit her lip and unfolded a new magic circle.

Pshshshk!

Two of the four arrows grazed by, and the gauge decreased by a huge chunk again.

Simon and the skeleton archers started reloading again. She withdrew until her back was covered by a tree, went down to a knee, and placed her hand on the ground.

Rumble!

A barrier of ice covering all three undefended directions at once stretched out. All of the arrows bounced off after hitting the barrier.

Seeing that, Simon lowered his bow with a light-hearted expression.

'I guess that's it.'

* * *

* * *

In fact, Simon had no intention of making her retire.

Since she went on the defensive first, all he had to do was bring forth jet-black and run.

The moment Simon was about to cleanly turn away,

"Simon!!"

He heard Meilyn's cry from inside the ice.

"Are you really going to end it like this? Are you really going to end our first match in such a boring way?!!"

"......"

Simon looked back again.

"Fight me properly!"

Crackle!

Finally, the Dark Flare was completed. You could see the ice wall quickly melting away because of the heat.

'I don't really know why you're doing this.'

Simon grabbed the bow again.

'But you going this far is also getting me worked up.'

The ice completely melted, and she started running. She held Dark Flare with both hands, bringing her internal operation of jet-black to its maximum.

A combination of speed and attack with no regards for defense.

Simon aimed the bow again and focused jet-black into both legs. The skeleton archers also prepared to fire.

'It's still impossible for me to accurately predict where to shoot with my skills. I'll finish it with a close-range shot.'

The distance between the two was getting narrower and narrower.

It was an explosive situation.

At that very moment when Simon was about to release the string

'......Hm?'

He saw cracks on the ground next to Meilyn.

[Boy! It's him!]

Pier's urgent voice resounded in his head.

[It's Big Krum!]

That was Big Krum? Simon's eyes widened sharply.

Cracks rising from the ground were approaching her with a tremendous speed.

At this point, she'd end up hitting them head-on.

'Kugh!'

Simon threw away the bow he was aiming at her, then lowered his stance, gathering all the jet-black into his two legs.

He then rushed toward her, pushing jet-black stepping to its limits.

'What? What's wrong with him?'

Meilyn's eyes shook.

A charge like that in front of a Dark Flare was nothing but suicide. Now, if she stretched out her arm and activated the spell, it'd be over, but she hesitated.

No matter how much she looked at his desperate expression, it seemed that it was far from an attacker who wanted to harm her.

Her arms paused for a moment. And finally, a question arose.

'Why am I...... fighting against Simon?'

Thud!

Simon hit her nape and knocked her out after breaking through in that moment of hesitation. Then, he grabbed her and leapt back as hard as he could without delay.

Rrrrrrrrrrumble!

Simon felt like the entire earth was being turned upside down. The ground exploded with a vibration, and something huge came out from the crack.

'What in the world......?!'

It was a giant monster's arm wrapped in something like a green, bio-bandage.

The hand grasped at empty air. Simon and Meilyn were able to dodge it by a whisker.

'Kugh!'

He wasn't prepared for the landing, not thinking about that when jumping. Simon hugged Meilyn tight and hit the ground with his own back.

With a slam, Simon's body bounced like a spring, and Meilyn also rolled on the floor.

"Meilyn!"

Meilyn, who had lost consciousness, was rolling toward a cliff.

The gigantic arm swept around as though searching for something before it pressed its palm to the ground.

"......!"

Simon froze. From the canyon where the other side of the cliff could be seen, the face of a huge monster appeared.

'So that's......!'

Big Krum, the former captain of the giant troops.

Big Krum looked around him with an almost possessed gaze, but soon turned his back as if he couldn't find what he was looking for.

[Boy! He's running away!]

"But!"

Meilyn, who had lost consciousness, was rolling toward the sloped ground. Toward a cliff.

Simons gaze jumped between Big Krum and Meilyn before he clenched his teeth and ran toward Meilyn.

'Ill use jet-black stepping again!'

Simon ran with all his might. The moment when Meilyn was finally about to fall off the cliff after being swept down by the slope

Tup.

He narrowly managed to grab Meilyns wrist.

Simon, covered in dirt, gasped roughly for air and raised his head.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The jaw-dropping giant was walking toward the other side of the cliff. His body, which had been looking around as though trying to find something, began to shrink slowly.

Then, eventually, it became smaller than a tree, leaving Simons sight.

'Phewww.'

Simon pulled up the still-unconscious Meilyn.

Thanks to her protective suit, there seemed to be no injuries. However, her barrier gauge was also close to single digits.

'What is this?'

Also, there was a foreign white feather stuck to her neck.

As Simon reached out his hand to take a closer look, the feather just scattered in the air and disappeared.

Rustle. Rustle.

'Ah.'

Simon raised his head.

Raindrops fell from the cloudy sky one by one, and then a sudden rain poured down

'I'll have to find a place to rest first. I can listen to the whole story later.'

Simon stood up, holding Meilyn in his arms.