CRACK—! FWUMP—!
“Wh... whoaaa...”
The Three-Horn Stag's face, turned crisply to the left, goes POP! and bursts.
CRAAACK! Fwu-fwump—!
“Haaaaa...”
This time the other side of its face goes pop-pop-pow.
Whip, whip, and every time the staff comes around, parts of the Three-Horn Stag burst. As though there were firecrackers on the staff's tip.
The children were dumbfounded at the sight!
“What... is that? Why is it bursting?”
“Is it even possible to burst a monstrosity with a staff?”
Thanks to that, the tension that had frozen the children at the Three-Horn Stag's appearance eased. Replaced by being frozen in shock instead.
“He's the same age as us, right...?”
“He's actually a year younger than me!”
The other children merely watched my solo hunt.
There was in fact no need to help. That is how tremendous the power was!
Why, you ask?
'Because this is the power of Demonbane.'
Because the Demonbane letters written on the steel pipe were doing their job thoroughly!
Back when I had no holy power crystal, I would write letters and fill them with holy power like a battery.
With a crystal formed and proper attribute conversion learned, activating each set of letters individually became possible too.
When catching One-Horn Rabbits I didn't bother using the power of Demonbane.
Because the other children have to fight too.
'Load the power of Demonbane on top of the power of Condemnation and the force triples.'
A synergy not of two but of three!
Demonbane's power was strong to begin with, and adding Condemnation sent its efficiency out of its mind.
“Damn, that's just the power of Condemnation?”
“Is he using the same force as me? Why on earth is it bursting?”
Which is why the watching children could not understand it at all.
Corin's healing attack, watched closely, showed roughly what its mechanism was.
Healing force flows into a small wound, tangles with Condemnation, and bursts.
They couldn't copy it, but they could understand it in their heads.
But things bursting every time a staff swung was beyond understanding!
'The blessing of an angel?'
'It must be an angel's blessing! He received a blessing, which is why he puts out absurd brute strength!'
Abruptly Lian had become a man of monstrous strength who bursts monstrosities with a staff!
Vwooom— whip!
I burst the last Three-Horn Stag too and lowered the staff.
“Floor six, done.”
***
The screen on the aerial panel.
Lian lowers his staff with a grin.
[“Floor six, done.”]
BANG—!
“Whoaaaaa!”
Daniel struck the desk with his fist and let out a shriek.
“Nooo! Student Lian Ludersk! Is he really a first-year?!!”
Today's commentator.
MC Bishop Daniel, who had also hosted at the Baptism Rite.
His reactions had come back even more spectacular.
“That performance! That smile!! I'm going to fall for him! For a seven-year-old!”
Lian had assumed there was no broadcast.
In fact a broadcast was under way. From the moment the children entered the labyrinth.
“He is the child I am watching most closely among this year's entrants.”
Only today Daniel was not alone.
Beside him sat a distinguished-looking, handsome middle-aged man.
“Ohh, from Baptism Rite rookie to catching Dean Marel's eye! Young Lian is remarkable.”
He was Marel Eustas, dean of Osten Academy, joining today's broadcast.
Marel's eyes shone with interest.
“What was it about young Lian that caught your fancy and made you pick him?”
“Ahem. To begin with, unlike the other children, there is completeness to his martial technique.”
His stance swinging the staff, the way he applies force, where he strikes a monstrosity.
Accurate, as though he had used that weapon for years.
“He handles his weapon better than the son of House Rondoa, that famous swordsman house known for the Paladin Order.”
“I thought he was good, but young Lian is at that level?!”
“Yes. He is.”
As Marel saw it, Lian was at the level of having been born gripping a staff!
However much he was that Lady Ludersk's child, it was genuinely astonishing.
“I was uncertain when he struck the training dummy in the individual test. But watching him face monstrosities made it clear.”
“Made what clear?!!”
“That young Lian is a martial genius.”
“A m-martial genius???”
Daniel was genuinely astonished.
Marel Eustas was a man famous for being fair and impartial!
Daniel knew he was not a man to say such a thing over a little talent.
And the professors of Osten Academy who heard him stirred.
“Khh...!”
Belladen's professor in particular looked to have taken severe internal injuries.
“And he is playing the leader role rather well.”
“Is he? I hadn't thought young Lian was leading yet.”
In a subjugation match like this a leader emerges naturally.
As Daniel saw it, Zerotil still appeared to have no clear leader.
“No. When they first entered floor one and began fighting. Lian gave Adrian a signal.”
“Whaaat? Did he?”
“Yes. Those three children — Adrian, Lumiel, Corin — were in Lian's group at the Baptism Rite, and their teamwork is currently very good. The four of them presumably trained together before enrollment.”
“Ah, that's right! The four of them were Group 13!”
“While the children were frozen, he gave a signal to the child he trusts most and seized the timing to open the fight.”
Daniel's eyes widened with astonishment.
And when the Three-Horn Stag appeared as well.
“Lian struck the Three-Horn Stag first and removed the children's fear.”
Marel saw all of it as deliberate.
“If young Lian leads this year's Zerotil first-years as he is doing, it will become quite entertaining.”
“Dean Marel. Are you saying this year's Zerotil is definitely different?”
“Yes. Definitely.”
'Zerotil swept up all three of the Baptism Rite's top children.'
For now Lian only coordinates with the children of the old Group 13.
But if he coordinates with all of Zerotil and even leads the top-ranked children.
'This Zerotil will not merely be different from previous years — it will be an outright monster cohort.'
His heart was pounding.
How many times had his heart raced watching a first-year enter Osten Academy.
Lian Ludersk, who had dragged every outlandish incident along with him so far!
There was no way not to expect something.
“Personally I am very curious about young Lian's martial force.”
“Meaning?”
“Even to my eye it is difficult to grasp exactly what technique young Lian is using.”
“Are you saying young Lian has already completed his own signature technique?!”
Daniel's mouth fell open.
“Dean Marel! That makes no sense! Young Lian is seven and has only just enrolled?!”
He could hardly help being astonished.
A signature technique was not a simple technique.
A technique holding a person's individuality, one only that person can use!
You had to reach the upper years before honing a technique into something like its shape.
And a student of seven who has only just enrolled is executing one?
“As of now it is difficult to judge it fully a signature technique. But I do not think I could use that technique myself.”
Daniel swallowed hard.
Marel Eustas was a man capable enough to hold the deanship of Osten Academy.
Before taking the deanship he had been an Archbishop at a cathedral in a great city!
And such a man says he could not copy it?
'Then it simply is a signature technique.'
Merely not yet fully refined.
Is that not to say that no one can copy the technique Lian uses.
“Isn't it truly something to look forward to?”
Marel wore an interested smile.
'Something was drawn on the steel staff.'
Those things glowing red with the power of Condemnation each time the staff swung.
That alone did not explain why the monstrosities burst, but Marel was already speculating.
'What is drawn on the steel staff must be granting monstrous strength, or making it extremely hard.'
He had not uncovered its true nature precisely.
But of everyone who had speculated so far, Marel had reasoned closest!
Daniel nodded and gradually turned the subject to the other groups.
“Dean Marel has told us the student to watch most closely at present is young Lian! Let us also take a look at the other dormitories' situations!”
With a tap— the screen switched and the children of the other halls appeared.
Unlike Zerotil, who had met a Three-Horn Stag, all of them were facing only One-Horn Rabbits!
“The other dormitories, you see? They are on basement floor three or four right now. They haven't even reached floor five!”
Quite unlike Zerotil, they were struggling with One-Horn Rabbits alone.
The entrance ceremony subjugation match was unfolding in a pattern very different from previous years.
“Zerotil is plainly out in front.”
“Still, we can't know yet, can we?”
“Correct.”
The charm of the Infinite Descent Match.
That was precisely the existence of the exits.
“The contest starts from here. Not one child from any dormitory has escaped yet, has there?”
“A subjugation match only begins once someone drops out.”
Indeed.
This Infinite Descent Match's real contest began from the moment party members started escaping, one by one.
***
“You devil. I was wondering when you'd use that.”
The tail end of floor six.
Lumiel shook his head and glared over at me.
“What, what is it.”
“Use it sooner. Flinging ice from the back is hard work.”
“Trying to freeload?”
“The one with the best combat strength doing the most work is how it works.”
What is he talking about.
Getting close to Lumiel has increased his shamelessness.
“When I first saw that I thought you were on your second run at life, Lian.”
'That's actually correct.'
My chest twinged at Adrian's words.
“Anyway. Nobody wants to escape right now, do they?”
At some point I had started speaking like the leader.
The children only nodded.
“Good. Then let's go. We go with nobody left behind!”
In a party I lead, nobody gets left behind!
***
The subjugation match continued smoothly.
Because my mixing the power of Demonbane with the power of Condemnation cut the time down enormously.
“Whoo! What floor are we on now?”
“Ten!”
'They're very excited.'
The children of Zerotil were catching Three-Horn Stags with thoroughly flushed faces.
At floor ten there were no One-Horn Rabbits, and the corridor was full of nothing but Three-Horn Stags.
Even so the children's faces were bright.
Because they were all thinking something similar inwardly.
'We're first, surely?'
'This is first place without even looking at the other dormitories!'
'Since Lian used that technique on floor six, the felt difficulty dropped sharply!'
Even the minor injuries that had been occurring before had all but stopped.
It didn't occur to them that the children of other halls might be carrying out the subjugation match like this.
Because this team was packed with irregulars!
'It's just that Lian is in a league of his own. The others are tremendous too.'
Adrian swallowed hard and glanced around.
Lionel, loading holy aura into his sword and severing the horns that are the source of the paralysis.
Viera, wearing gauntlets and loading destructive force to shatter a stag's face.
And even the well-judged support from Corin, who was in Group 13 with them!
'Lumiel... let's work hard.'
Watching Lumiel fling a hopelessly warped lump of ice, Adrian resolved himself.
“Gurk!”
“Adrian! Oh no!”
Adrian, having suddenly been gazing wistfully at Lumiel, took a horn to the body.
'What is that fellow doing.'
He recovered quickly thanks to Corin's super save.
We had nearly reached the end of the corridor.
“Something a bit stronger will show up, won't it?”
“Probably.”
On floor five a slightly stronger individual of the same monstrosity appeared, and from floor six a different monstrosity came out.
So this time as well.
On floor ten an individual stronger than an ordinary Three-Horn Stag would appear, and from floor eleven a different monstrosity.
“Yuuuuu—!”
Making a distinctive cry, a monstrosity about twice the size of an ordinary Three-Horn Stag appeared.
The horns, two on the head and three on the back, had increased to four on the head and ten on the back.
'So this makes it a Ten-Horn Stag?'
-It sounds like a swear word.
Fair point.
I gave up on naming it and raised the staff.
“An Elite Stag.”
“Elite?”
“An individual markedly stronger than the ordinary type is called an Elite.”
Lionel, who had come up beside me at some point, added the explanation.
At some point this fellow has been sticking to my side every time we fight.
-Good, Lian! Get friendly at this rate!
Elly is still demanding I befriend Lionel.
“Do you know much about that monstrosity?”
“I know it in theory.”
“What's different from an ordinary stag?”
“The paralysis ability is far stronger.”
Ooh.
Lionel began explaining.
“Naturally, since the horns that produce the paralysis increased. But beyond that its brute strength is about three times greater.”
“The shield Adrian uses will struggle to hold. If you're going to use a tank, several people blocking at once is better.”
“I don't know your strength, Lian, so pass on that. As for me, I can't cut those horns. The hardness has increased too much and the demonic energy layer is one layer thicker, so they won't sever.”
Now that I look, this fellow is no different from a wiki.
“Then how about explosions?”
“What?”
“If I make it explode, does damage go in?”
“...It does. Can you use holy magic too?”
No. Not that, but.
“I have a trump card.”
To think the time has come to use this at last. I'm thrilled.