Chapter 59
Kaitlyn was a terrible matchup for Victor.
The stock of [Evil God's Mask], which hadn't been depleted even while fighting vampires.
There was a reason that stock had been reduced twice during his duel with Kaitlyn.
‘Fast.’
Kaitlyn's speed.
She was one of the academy's foremost sprinters.
If her top speed were given a stat rating, it would be a whopping A+.
Mid-ranked students couldn't even follow her with their eyes.
Of course, her other stats were lacking, so she couldn't cross the wall into Class A and had to settle for being Class B's top student···.
‘She's the worst possible matchup for me.’
Kaitlyn was fast.
Even with the Slowdown Bug, the barrage of attacks was difficult to react to.
He could follow her movements with his eyes, but reacting accordingly was another matter.
Her magic was Lightning (電擊), too, making it troublesome thanks to its wide range and strength at both close and long distances.
‘Of course··· it wouldn't work against even the lower ranks of Class A.’
The damage, the firepower, Kaitlyn could inflict was at best around the lower ranks of Class C.
In terms of raw firepower alone, she was even below Shariel, who had been Class C's top student.
‘Having poured everything into speed, she lacks the ability to land a decisive blow.’
Thus, students at the very top with high raw stats simply endured her attacks.
They took up a defensive stance and held out until Kaitlyn ran out of power.
Since she had poor stamina as well, that approach worked extraordinarily well.
Even if she launched a large attack that was difficult to defend against, Kaitlyn's speed slowed considerably when doing so, so all one had to do was notice it and dodge or counterattack.
‘From Class A onward, after all, only true monsters gathered in each class.’
Kaitlyn was that kind of person.
She was unbeatable through the upper-middle ranks, but the moment she faced the very top, she became an ordinary person.
No wonder users had nicknamed her the A-Rank Detector.
If you could counter her tricks, you were A-rank; if not, you were B-rank.
‘I don't have that kind of raw power.’
Victor merely used bugs to draw out performance at or above the A rank.
Judging only by his basic stats, he was no more than E+ rank.
Compared to the cultists and vampires he had casually dealt with until now, she was an opponent on a far higher level of difficulty.
‘And··· my body is still weak.’
He had found a way to strengthen it, but his body was still no better than that of a weakling.
Even if Kaitlyn lacked the ability to land a decisive blow, she could electrocute and kill someone like Victor in one hit.
At least from the boy's perspective, that meant every one of her attacks was an instant-death move, and her speed ranked among the world's top ten.
She was a trickier opponent than most faculty members.
‘Even in the original··· there were only a few characters faster than Kaitlyn.’
The worst possible matchup.
However, that applied to the other side as well.
The boy was practically poison to Kaitlyn, too.
‘Imaginary Parry.’
A bug that stripped options from an opponent.
It could erase buffs and debuffs without discrimination.
‘Kaitlyn is a battle mage who uses martial arts based on self-buffs.’
Her speed came from that buff.
In other words, if he successfully landed a proper parry, he could tie her feet down.
‘I just need to get the timing right.’
Two people holding the keys to their own worst matchups.
If so, the deciding factor was who could use the situation more intelligently.
While Kaitlyn swung her fists without much thought, Victor had been waiting for the right moment from beginning to end.
He watched the situation unfold.
“Heh heh.”
That was all.
The gap between them had opened up over such a small difference.
“······?”
Kaitlyn stared blankly down at her own hand.
Sparks were jumping from her tightly clenched fist.
However, after crackling a few times, they soon scattered instead of condensing at a single point.
Even the rays of light that had wrapped around her entire body had been stripped away, leaving the girl standing blankly in the center of the training arena.
“What is this···?”
Zap, zzt-.
Kaitlyn was unmistakably flustered.
The magic that had worked perfectly until just moments ago had gone out in an instant, as though someone had flipped a switch.
To compare it to the human body, it was as if a leg that had been moving freely until a moment ago had suddenly stiffened.
“Why··· why is this happening?”
The girl muttered repeatedly as she clenched her fist.
Victor stood calmly before her.
“Has something happened?”
“You, you···!”
Kaitlyn's eyes widened ferociously.
The murderous pupils looked somewhat like those of a bird of prey.
The girl still couldn't raise the voltage, merely clenching the lingering sparks at her fingertips.
“You fucking··· What did you do to me!”
“What do you mean, what did I do?”
“Don't play dumb! It felt like you tore my magic away just now···.”
“I'm afraid I don't know what you mean. I merely used a standard defensive spell.”
“You fucking bastard···!”
Kaitlyn charged at him with her fist clenched.
However, unlike moments ago, her speed was painfully slow.
The current that had enhanced her movements was gone.
“Too slow.”
He didn't even need to press the watch.
Simply stepping and leaping through space was enough.
The girl couldn't react to Victor's movements, leaving her wide open and giving him her back.
Thwack-!
“Ghk···?!”
“Whoops, my foot slipped.”
He drove in a low kick without hesitation.
Struck squarely in the thigh, the girl staggered.
As she turned around, his tightly clenched fist slammed into her abdomen.
Thwack-!
“This time, the hand.”
“Gk, urk···!”
Her body had a healthy, muscular shape.
His fist collided with the muscles arranged in an eleven-shaped six-pack.
It was only an E+ rank blow in terms of strength, but it was more than enough to collapse her unsteady stance.
A short breath burst through her lips. Kaitlyn toppled forward as she staggered.
Crash-!
“Haa, haa···.”
She had fallen in a remarkably awkward manner.
Had her drained stamina finally caught up with her?
An attack that normally wouldn't have budged her had landed as a critical hit.
The recoil from repeatedly forcing her voltage and speed higher had come back to haunt her.
“Keurgh, kk···.”
The girl gagged dryly as she braced herself against the floor.
Kaitlyn staggered for a while, unable to stand.
Victor had no particular intention of approaching; he merely stood and watched her.
No.
More precisely, he was making them watch her.
The wide spectator stands and the students packed tightly into them.
““······.””
“Cough···.”
Her wretched appearance. The look of someone on the verge of defeat. The dramatic turning point.
He made sure every bit of it was captured in their eyes.
The kneeling girl and the boy looking down at her from before her.
The briefly staged tableau swallowed up the atmosphere in the training arena.
-What the hell··· what happened?
-No way, she got pushed back? And it looks like she even took a clean hit?
-Good heavens. How did Class B's top student end up kneeling before Class E's top student···?
-This is impossible. Is he really winning? Is Class E's top student actually beating Kaitlyn?
Murmurs rippled through the spectator stands.
-I thought he was just holding out··· I never expected him to put Kaitlyn flat on her back.
-Class B's top student's body suddenly stopped, and then she just got beaten one-sidedly···.
-Could he have used some kind of ‘Dispel’ spell?
-But I didn't sense anything like a spell.
-Was he waiting for the timing? The moment the opening appeared, he devoured her in an instant.
Admiration, questions, suspicion.
All kinds of reactions burst forth in a jumble.
The sound reached the girl's ears as well.
“······.”
Kaitlyn didn't draw a single breath.
She merely clenched her copper-colored fist, her slender shoulder trembling.
-That's why she can't make it into Class A.
-She runs out of power too quickly. Her naturally small mana pool can't sustain her.
-She acts so cocky despite that··· I can't believe she couldn't even beat one Class E student.
-Wow··· but Class E's top student is something else, too. He countered that speed head-on and won?
The Class A students among them added their own comments as well.
Indifferent gazes. Or gazes that seemed to mock her.
Words condemning her lack of talent.
“······.”
Her head hung toward the floor.
Blood seeped from the corner of Kaitlyn's mouth.
Her lips had split from biting them too hard.
Regardless, the boy across from her stood at ease.
“Miss Kaitlyn.”
“······.”
“Are you all right?”
“······.”
The masked boy.
He knew the words that would wound Kaitlyn's pride the most.
Pity from others, or urging her to give up by telling her it was enough.
“Why don't you forfeit now?”
“······.”
“I believe I've shown you the gap between us quite sufficiently.”
“······.”
Those kinds of words.
“I don't have a hobby of bullying weak people.”
“······Ha.”
Ptooey-.
The girl spat out bloody phlegm.
After a quiet, hollow laugh, her copper-colored, healthy legs carried her back to her feet.
She staggered several times, but barely regained her center of gravity and lifted her head.
“······.”
Her bright yellow eyes were filled with murderous intent.
Her fingernails dug into her tightly clenched fists, and blood dripped steadily.
“Hey.”
How had she managed to hide that poisonous nature all this time?
Beneath the delinquent girl's flippant exterior, something hideous writhed.
Inferiority, envy, contempt, hatred, resentment··· every kind of negative emotion.
Perhaps the boy's few words of provocation had cut her leash loose, because black, murky energy spread around her.
“Fuck, why···.”
Zap-!
The current that had been extinguished for a while flared up again.
Blackness spread like paint across the yellow flashes of light and mixed into them.
Soon, something indistinguishable as light or darkness dyed the girl's entire body.
“Miss Kaitlyn.”
“Don't look at me like that···.”
Kzzzaaa-!
She squeezed the nonexistent mana in her body to its limit.
A form of spellcasting that consumed her body.
Power far beyond anything before came rushing forth.
“Don't look down at me with those eyes!!”
A scream filled with desperation.
Victor instinctively realized this was her final struggle.
She was exploding the electricity she held with the resolve to drain herself completely.
Boom-!
The girl kicked off the ground.
Her body rose into the sky.
Black-and-yellow flashes flickered between her copper-colored skin.
‘She’s relentless. Absolutely relentless.’
Her condition was bad enough that it wouldn't have been strange for her to pass out immediately.
Even so, she kept her eyes wide open and stubbornly clenched her fists.
He couldn't help marveling anew at how twisted a person's insides could become.
Victor calmly raised a hand.
“Bring it.”
Yes.
I'll take it head-on.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
One of the few techniques Kaitlyn possessed with destructive power of B rank or higher.
An attack that sacrificed speed to raise its power to the limit.
It had slowed enough that he could simply dodge it, but Victor intended to collide with her head-on.
‘Letus-style Lightning Magic Secret Art’
-Thunder Spear-
A copper-colored fist.
It became a bright yellow spear and fell from above.
Flying hair, and black paint left behind like a trajectory.
-Wait··· Is he seriously planning to take that head-on?
-He's insane! The slower Kaitlyn's attack is, the more powerful it becomes···!
-Why isn't he dodging? At that speed, he could dodge it twice over!
-Even Class A students would be in danger from that! Why is he trying something so reckless?!
-Damn it! The professors need to stop them······.
A commotion stirred through the spectator stands.
However, Victor merely continued standing until the very end.
“Dieeeeeee!!!”
A scream filled with desperation.
Kaitlyn's fist slammed into me.
The next moment, a dazzling flash brightly filled the training arena.
-Holy shit···!
-W-what happened···!
That radiance lasted for nearly thirty seconds.
Just as the spectators began murmuring, unable to see anything.
The light faded, and the two people standing in the center of the training arena were revealed once again.
“Hmm.”
Large holes had been gouged around them by the aftershock.
Amid the debris that had been swept away.
Kaitlyn stood frozen with her fist extended toward Victor.
She looked as though her consciousness might slip away at any moment, as if she had truly exhausted all her stamina.
“This ends here.”
And Victor stood before Kaitlyn like that.
His hand was gripping the girl's fist.
He had blocked the monstrous attack moments ago by casually raising just one hand.
The spectators examined the boy with disbelieving eyes, but naturally, there wasn't a single scratch on his body.
Chime-!
[The item ‘Evil God's Mask’ has been activated.]
-Uses remaining: 0/3
-Time until charges replenish: 47 hours 46 minutes 41 seconds
A blue window appeared before my eyes.
Before the window could disappear again, Kaitlyn lost consciousness and collapsed.
Clatter-.
Her copper-colored body sprawled across the training arena floor.
““······””
Everyone in the spectator stands gaped open-mouthed.
Silence lingered briefly throughout the training arena.
It was none other than the referee's voice that shattered that flimsy quiet.
《T-the test is over···!》
《Kaitlyn Letus is incapacitated!》
《The winner is Victor!》
The gazes of everyone converged.
Regardless, Victor tilted his head toward the fallen Kaitlyn.
Toward the Class B top student who had now become his lackey.
“From today on, your name is Chunsik.”
It was the moment he acquired a Tier 1 slave, perfect for putting to work.