Only a brief moment passed between the start of the match and the first exchange.
Dike kicked off from twelve meters away, charged straight at me in a single burst, and swung the greatsword in his hands at my waist.
His movement was so fast that an ordinary person who was not an Academy student would not even have been able to perceive it.
“Huh?”
There was a single metallic scrape.
Metal struck metal, and a few sparks flew from the impact.
It happened when the Broadsword that sprang from beneath my cloak collided with Dike’s greatsword.
“What’s that?”
“Isn’t that a sword?”
“I thought he was from the Department of Magic. Did he transfer departments or something?”
The instant I drew the sword from beneath my cloak, I could feel the atmosphere growing restless even from inside the arena.
I did not consider myself particularly skilled with a sword either, but necessity had dictated my choice.
A Third-Circle Magic Barrier could not fully withstand that heavy blow.
An eye for an eye.
And there was no method more effective than answering a sword with a sword.
“What?!”
Dike finally grasped the situation and widened the distance between us in a single backward leap.
He was clearly flustered by the response he had not expected.
I had blocked a greatsword attack carrying both speed and weight with a Broadsword whose blade was only slightly longer than my forearm.
Even that idiot should have been able to understand what it meant.
“Weren’t you a mage?”
“If you think it’s unfair, you can use magic too.”
Naturally, there was no rule prohibiting a mage from using a sword during an evaluation match.
There were even several Academy students outside the Department of Magic who had unlocked Magic Circles.
Most of those students used magic to enhance their bodies.
Since half-baked offensive magic was less effective than their own physical abilities, they focused instead on strengthening those abilities.
The technique I had just used to block Dike’s sword strike was similar.
Arcane Magic. Strength Enhancement.
Wind Magic. Tailwind.
Their power was somewhat reduced because I had cast them at high speed, but they were still two spells cast by a Third-Circle mage.
It would have made no sense if I could not repel a single blow from that brute, whose only virtue was his strength.
Moreover, during our brief clash, I had confirmed that the edge of Dike’s greatsword had been blunted.
That single exchange had given me a glimpse of what he had intended to do during our match.
“........”
Dike’s gaze darkened.
I was an opponent his first strike should naturally have hit.
I had never displayed exceptional talent even among the students of the Department of Magic, while he was an honors student in the Department of Swordsmanship who was nearing graduation.
Although the dulled edge might not have cut me down in one blow, the attack itself should have landed without being blocked.
Instead, Dike’s opening strike had been stopped by a Broadsword less than half the length of his weapon, leaving me completely unharmed.
It was only natural that uncertainty crept into his response after he became flustered.
Hesitating against a mage was no different from giving the mage time to act.
Silently condemning the Mad Dog’s idiotic judgment, I immediately completed my next spell.
“Ghk!”
Light Magic. Flash.
Naturally, it was not a lethal spell.
It was merely a supporting measure for an attack.
Dike frowned as the white light suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Protecting one’s vision was instinctive, so he could not help slowing for an instant and exposing an opening.
That tiny opening was exactly what I had been waiting for.
“Gaaaaaah!”
The tip of my Broadsword forced its way into flesh.
Immediately afterward, a scream so loud that it could have been mistaken for a monster’s battered my eardrums.
His vision had not yet recovered, making it impossible for him to respond the instant he was stabbed, but I widened the distance once more in case he unleashed a blind strike.
“You son of a—”
The instant I saw him finally manage to open both eyes, I blinded him with Flash again.
This time, he immediately swung his sword toward the place where I had last been standing.
“Fuck—Gaaaaaah!”
I had expected as much, so I deliberately slipped into his blind spot and drove my sword into him.
“You cowardly bastaaaaard!”
After falling for the same attack twice, Dike was boiling with rage.
Blood streamed from both his forearms as he screamed at me.
I had not expected him to fall for it so easily, so I was almost the one left bewildered.
But that only meant Dike’s level was exactly this low.
After reaching that conclusion, I cast Flash into Dike’s face the moment he opened his eyes again.
“Ghk.... C-Come on! Come at me, you little bastard!”
Watching him completely lose his mind and swing his greatsword around in a frenzy showed that he was not entirely incapable of learning.
He had probably decided not to give me even the slightest opening to attack.
I understood the logic behind it, but it was an extremely shortsighted response.
After all, I was a mage, not a swordsman.
“Come at me, you bastard! Come stab me again! Come oooon!”
Leaving Dike to throw his tantrum, I immediately completed two spells.
They were spells capable of displaying sufficient power thanks to all the time he had dragged out.
First came Flame Fortress.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
It was a spell that could be used from the First Circle onward, but a Third-Circle Flame Fortress was overwhelmingly more powerful than its First-Circle version.
The flames of Flame Fortress surged from beneath Dike’s feet and instantly engulfed his entire body, wrapping him in scorching fire.
“Ghk, gaaaaaah!”
As Dike continued screaming in pain, I prepared to deliver the final blow.
I cast a Second-Circle wind spell near his burning body.
A spell that condensed the oxygen in the air and fired it—Oxygen Bullet.
It was unique magic I had created in my previous life.
“You rotten son of a bitch! Stop this right—”
Dike’s curse was swallowed whole by the explosion that followed.
The blast was too thunderous to express with only one or two syllables.
The powerful wind raised by the explosion sent my cloak whipping through the air.
A direct hit of that magnitude should unquestionably have triggered Death-Prevention Magic.
“Huff, I-I thought I was going to die....”
Contrary to my expectations, Dike was still standing on both feet in the arena.
He held a small bottle in one hand, apparently having just drunk its contents.
Judging by the shape of the bottle, it appeared to have contained an Elixir.
It was an obscenely expensive potion, with a single bottle costing as much as a four-person household’s living expenses for an entire year.
During my days in the Kardia Subjugation Party, I had drunk them almost every day, so there was no chance I would fail to recognize one.
“You drank that...?”
In keeping with its staggering price, an Elixir restored every injury the user had suffered the instant it was consumed.
Thanks to that, Dike remained on the stage without any notable injuries despite being caught in that tremendous explosion.
To be honest, I could only regard it as an idiotic act.
It was true that the evaluation match allowed every means that could be used in actual combat.
Even so, it would have been better to accept defeat than to drink something like an Elixir during an evaluation match.
The Elixir itself was already outrageously expensive, but evaluation matches were not scored solely according to victory or defeat.
It was only natural that forcing a victory with such an absurd item would not earn him a good score.
And if he lost despite using it, the result went without saying.
“You prepared an Elixir just to win an evaluation match?”
“Bullshit. I wasn’t supposed to be the one fucking drinking it.”
“For someone who wasn’t, you finished every last drop rather neatly.”
“I was going to beat you like a dog until you were nearly dead, force it down your throat right before you died, and then beat the shit out of you all over again, fuck....”
It was a notion an ordinary person’s mind could never follow.
He had intended to burn ten gold coins simply because he wanted to beat someone a little longer.
Worse, he had ended up using it to preserve his own life instead of for its original purpose.
I could practically feel the magnitude of his sense of loss from where I stood.
“I won’t let my guard down anymore.”
Dike closed the distance between us just as he had at the beginning.
He swung his greatsword rapidly at every part of my body.
The movements made it clear that he did not care where he struck as long as he cut me.
Only now did he seem to regard me as a genuine opponent rather than an ordinary third-rate mage.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
Two silver lines crossed again and again in the air.
As we exchanged blows, I confirmed that his attacks had changed from before.
Dike’s strikes, delivered in earnest while he was thoroughly enraged, were extremely heavy.
Even my body, doubly reinforced with wind magic and arcane magic, was gradually finding them difficult to withstand.
“Where’d all that spirit from before go? Try pulling that shit again! Huh?!”
Despite the distance favoring a short sword over a longsword, Dike was not being pushed back at all.
His greatsword, driven by the exhilaration of the Elixir, cut through the air far faster than my light Broadsword.
If I, wearing no proper armor, allowed even one of those attacks to land, it would likely result in a tremendous impact.
“You’re getting slower! Huh?!”
“........”
“Don’t think you’re going to die peacefully, you son of a bitch!”
My Broadsword began moving half a beat too slowly more and more often, and the openings that resulted grew wider each time.
I had already used all the light magic available to me for the day, so Flash was no longer an option.
Using Flame Fortress followed by Oxygen Bullet at this range carried a high risk of catching me in the blast as well.
If I lost, it obviously would not end there.
The instant he stole the rhythm of the exchange, Dike would crush my entire body with that blunted blade.
He truly was a man with nothing but madness left inside him.
“Son of a bitch! Little bastard! Damn you!!”
His sword strikes came faster and faster, accompanied by tireless curses, and gradually drove me backward.
Before long, one of the arena walls blocked my retreat and left me cornered.
It was only natural that the Mad Dog’s competitive spirit boiled over now that he was certain of victory.
“Die, you son of a biiitch!”
Believing the opening had finally grown wide enough, Dike took his stance for the finishing blow.
Even my reinforced body would not be able to block an attack carrying that much strength and weight.
With a heavy rush of air, Dike’s greatsword slammed down upon the place where I stood.
“Huh?”
His greatsword split the arena floor.
More precisely, it split the place where I had been standing until the instant before.
“Cool your head.”
I had deliberately waited for him to use an attack with a large, powerful motion.
I wanted to end it decisively in a single blow.
I had no intention of giving him another chance to recover after another half-hearted attack, so I had deliberately pretended to be driven back and created an opening.
The two-meter giant failed to see through my performance and swung exactly the attack I had expected.
At the same time, he had entered the range of my offensive spell.
The Third-Circle Mana Bullet I had gathered over a long period struck Dike squarely in the nape.
“Kahaaaaaagh!!!”
If I had used a projectile attack, he might have dodged it with the quick movements characteristic of swordsmen.
So I first drew his vital point within my range.
Then I swung the Mana Bullet formed in my hand down into the nape of his neck.
“Ghk, khk, gaaaaaah...!”
Taking the Mana Bullet directly in a vital point, Dike let out an animalistic roar and absorbed the spell’s entire force into a single spot.
Not long afterward, he vanished completely from the arena.
It meant the arena had judged the force sufficient to kill him and activated ‘Death-Prevention Magic.’
“Whew.”
Only one mage remained in the arena.
And one greatsword, buried in the floor after losing its owner.
Including my previous life, this was the first time I had fought him in a formal match, but his skill was every bit as pathetic as I had expected.
He was the type who was ignorant and simple, relying solely on strength and stamina in every fight.
Personally, he was the easiest kind of opponent to face.
“........?”
For some reason, the arena remained astonishingly quiet even though the match was over.
Even when a student with no particular presence won, one would normally expect at least a few polite claps.
Yet silence swept through the arena for several seconds even after Dike disappeared.
The first person to break it was my blond junior.
“Senior Conrad!”
The instant Stella called my name, the atmosphere in the spectator stands suddenly erupted.
“Hey, Conrad, you bastard! I knew you’d win, you bastard!”
“Senior Conrad! Congratulations on your victory!!”
Beginning with the two of them and their boisterous congratulations, my name gradually spread throughout the stands.
“Is that guy really from the Department of Magic?! Did you see how he fought just now?!”
“What a truly heart-stirring battle....”
“Conrad! Conrad! Conrad!”
By the time I came to my senses, the entire audience was already chanting my name.
Even I had not wanted this much attention.
Then again, it would serve as publicity for my house, so perhaps it was not a bad thing.
“Winner, Conrad Ferdalos!”
After hearing the announcement, which came far too late, I quickly escaped the now-noisy evaluation arena.
Even long after I left, I could still hear the crowd chanting my name in unison from afar.
For now, all I could do was hope this incident would not create even more troublesome problems.