Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 120

Chapter 119

“Dammit!!”

Malcolm became enraged and continued to squeeze out jet-black into Doppelgänger.

Simon had removed the rod from the floor, but the magic circle remained intact, so there were no problems with creating more doppelgangers.

‘So the rod wasn’t the medium for jet-black, huh?’

Simon let out a bitter smile, but was Malcolm growing even more determined.

‘He just blocked my attack once. There’s nothing more than that! Nothing has changed!’

Malcolm’s doppelgangers charged Simon once more. This time, he didn’t surround Simon, but sent in a staggered attack.

Simon calmly looked at his surroundings and moved his arm. The subspace opened again, and the four tentacle blades slid out.

The blades moved in different directions and at different speeds, yet still complemented each other.

All objects moving in lines are bound to have openings, but other blades wrapped around and covered those openings, creating a systematic flow.

It was control that went beyond practicality and reached the realm of beauty.

The four blades crossed over each other in different directions to thoroughly protect the owner, and in that state, Simon moved in.

Draaaag.

Shambling forward without letting his left foot leave the floor, the magic circle formed with it remained, and Simon could freely move the Overlord’s blades.

On the other hand, Malcolm, who unfolded the magic circle on the floor, couldn’t escape. He had to step on the magic circle with his feet no matter what so that he could send jet-black into the spell.

In other words, Malcolm was stuck within the borders of the magic circle.

Whiiiiiiish!

Whiiiiiiiiiish!

The situation repeated, blades being swung and doppelgangers turning to tiny bits of dust.

Now the doppelgangers were being destroyed as soon as they were being created. Malcolm bit his lip watching the summons that looked exactly like him being slaughtered.

“Woooooaaaaah!”

“Way to go, No.1!!”

The crowd went mad with excitement.

Of course, Malcolm’s Doppelgänger was also great, but Simon showed off a unique method of fighting that couldn’t be seen in any other necromancer. It was natural to be more interested in him.

High-ranking officials who were watching from the VIP seats in the audience also burst into exclamations.

“Wonderful. He deserves to be titled the top of Kizen.”

“What kind of dark magic is that?”

“That’s not dark magic. He is taking out and retrieving something from subspace. The one inside the subspace must be a summon!”

Answered the Princess of the Dresden Kingdom, not the nobles who were trained necromancers. The nobles around her nodded as though it was understandable coming from her.

Everyone knew that she was a necromancer expert who came to spectate every important Duel Evaluation in Kizen.

‘How amazing!’

After turning her gaze back to the arena, the princess bit her thumb with excitement.

‘A necromancer’s summon would be nothing but an undead, but to see such sophisticated control!’

Jane telling her to look forward to him wasn’t an exaggeration. She didn’t want to miss Simon’s Duel for even a second. She leaned forward and even slightly rose off her seat.

‘Your name is worth remembering, Simon Polentia!’

In the audience seats a little away from the VIP seats, there was an elongated silence.

“Professor Bahil. Control your expression. Control. Your. Expression.”

Chehekle, the chief assistant teacher of Curses, snapped her fingers to get Bahil’s attention.

Bahil wasn’t in a good mood for the entire month. Nothing had been going his way.

Simon didn’t join the Curse Research Society, and even during this Duel Evaluation, he was fighting with Summoning in front of many people.

However…

‘…?’

Chehekle was surprised to see Bahil’s face. It wasn’t his usual demonic face. Rather, he was smiling as if watching his grandson trying to be cute.

“There are limits to talent and potential.”

Bahil licked his lips and continued.

“But this goes way beyond the limit! Isn’t it wonderful?”

“…”

Cheheckle looked surprised.

“Aren’t you annoyed that Simon didn’t fight with curses?”

“Of course I’m annoyed. I’m furious! However!”

Bahil couldn’t hide his excitement and changed his posture.

“Just thinking that such a genius will come under me… Yes. I can endure it!”

“…The one who’s at the forefront of the battle for Simon is obviously Professor Aaron in Summoning, though.”

“There’s no need to rush. In the end, his talent shall belong to me.”

Bahil lifted his foot onto his seat and rested his chin on the knee, smiling.

“At least for this moment, while I watch him duel, I want to be a pure necromancer.”

* * *

* * *

As the Duel progressed, Simon was overwhelmingly controlling the flow of the match. The dozens of doppelgangers that Malcolm had painstakingly collected flew away at once from the blades of the Overlord.

‘Dammit!’

Even if Malcolm personally controlled two or three doppelgangers and placed a fake, Simon didn’t falter.

After all, Simon didn’t anticipate the doppelgangers’ movements. He physically watched them till the end and used the blades himself.

It was a margin that could be achieved because its speed was superior, and this was the stability that derived from it.

‘My jet-black is slowly running out. Besides, he’s closing the distance.’

Malcolm took a step back.

Before he knew it, he was toeing the edge of the Doppelganger magic circle. If he got pushed back further, he wouldn’t be able to use Doppelganger.

‘Now is the time for me to choose!’

It wasn’t the time to think about the how or why, just the what.

Malcolm put his arm behind him. He opened his subspace and let a blue potion bottle the size of a fist fall into his palm.

A special product of the huge gangster Randolph family.

It was a liquid bomb that caused a massive explosion upon being infused with jet-black. The design was based on the by-product of the explosive monster ‘Longger’.

The Randolph gang made an astronomical amount of money by distributing this product, helping bring down numerous organizations.

It was intended to only be used when necessary, as there was a high probability that even the user would be caught up in it. Still, it was a different story for Malcolm, who used Doppelganger.

He squeezed out his jet-black and created ten doppelgangers at once.

Shk shk shk shk!

The doppelgangers moved busily as if shuffling a deck, changing positions with each other. It seemed like a simple move to confuse Simon of their positions, but Malcolm had already given three doppelgangers bombs.

‘I’ll end it with this attack! Go!’

Ten doppelgangers jumped at Simon from different directions. Simon left only one blade to defend himself and sent the remaining three blades to attack the doppelgangers.

Whiiiiish!

Fwwiip!

Blades lashed past, destroying doppelgangers like strikes of a whip.

As a doppelganger fell, a potion bottle fell to the floor. The doppelganger that followed quickly picked it up, but Simon didn’t miss it.

‘Explosive potion…!’

‘Even if you noticed it, it’s already too late!’

Malcolm grinned with satisfaction.

The doppelgangers ignited their potions with jet-black and rushed Simon all at once.

A black light flashed from the potion bottle.

‘It’s my victory!’

Malcolm’s mouth distorted with his grin born from his confidence in victory.

Kabooooooooooooom!

An ashen explosion exploded in the middle of the arena. The crowd screamed and ducked. A large-scale barrier had been spread over the audience, but everyone could still feel the impact and power.

Malcolm laughed like a madman as he faced the headwind from the explosion.

It was worth sneaking it out without Father’s permission. If Malcolm’s father heard this later, he would be scolded, but the merit of defeating the Special Admission No.1 and entering Noble would be far greater.

Rrrrrumble…

The clouds of ash and dust settled all over the arena. There was a deep silence in the spectators, too.

While everyone was holding their breath and watching for what would happen next…

“…Over there!”

Somebody shouted.

“I can see him!”

“As expected, he’s fine!”

“Wooooooooaaaaaaaah!”

Malcolm furrowed his brows in bewilderment at the cacophony of cheers.

‘No way… He withstood that much firepower?’

But now Malcolm could see it too.

Fwip.

Fwwiip.

The six blades of the Overlord were tightly covering Simon’s body like a coiled snake.

The blades slid open, revealing only Simon’s eyes glistening in the darkness.

Malcolm felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and goosebumps run down his arms.

‘I… am scared?’

‘Impossible. I’ve always been the object of horror! I am the one who instills fear!!’

As Malcolm was biting his lip to the point where it bled, one of the Overlord’s blades flew in.

Thud!

It pierced right through the doppelganger in front of Malcolm. A chill ran down his spine, but luckily the blade didn’t extend any further and returned, taking only the doppelganger down.

“Hah!”

Malcolm opened his mouth.

“Hahahahah! It’s no use! It’s no use at all! I’ve already calculated the distance of your attack!”

Fwwwiiip!

Another blade extended toward Malcolm.

“I said, it’s no us—!”

At that moment, the body that formed the blade of the tentacle slowly unfolded, revealing the mythril skeleton, and it grew 50% longer.

Simon smiled.

‘This is so fun!’

The pleasure of breaking an opponent after locking them in patterns and building false habits was exceptional.

Malcolm’s smile quickly left his face.

Slaaaaaaaaaaam!

And just like that, the tentacle struck Malcolm’s chest. His body flew back several meters and crashed into a wall.

Hearing the excited cheers from the crowd, Simon took a deep breath.

‘It’s reaching the limit now.’

The finger that was wearing the ring was very hot. Simon retrieved all the blades and walked toward Malcolm.

So far, everything had gone according to plan.

The explosion earlier was unexpected, but Simon responded safely, and he successfully pushed Malcolm out of the magic circle before the ring heated up further due to overload.

Malcolm over-consumed jet-black due to his Doppelganger, but Simon managed the Duel mainly with Overlord.

He had more spare jet-black than Malcolm.

If both Overlord and Doppelganger were sealed, Simon would have an overwhelming advantage from now on.

“Hehehe…!”

Malcolm stumbled off the wall and glared directly at Simon.

“You think you won with this?”

He was holding onto the artifact hanging around his neck.

“The real fight begins now.”

Whirrrr!

His artifact emitted a fierce ray of light. Soon, a refined jet-black flowed out of it and began to cover Malcolm’s body.

It was like a form of armor. Princess Mollie, who was watching from the audience, jumped up from her seat.

‘H-How come? Why is such a relic in the hands of that son of a gangster?’

It had a completely different structure from ‘Black Robe’ from Combat Dark Magic. The jet-black form hardened and was completely fitted as armor. Malcolm’s head was even covered by a helmet, hiding his face.

Commonly known as the ‘Armor of the Black Knights’, it was an armor artifact possessed by the Black Knights of the Dresden Kingdom.

“Bwahaha!”

Malcolm let out a mad laugh as he made an R sign with his hand.

Seeing this, Princess Mollie’s expression stiffened coldly.

‘This stupid big-brother…!’

“Simon Polentia.”

Malcolm, dressed in the Black Knight’s armor, approached with a smirk.

“This is a gift from someone who has a grudge against you.”

“…”

Simon scratched the side of his head.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t think of a single reason for someone to incur a grudge against him.

“They call it karma, right? Think of it as your past actions coming back like a boomerang.”

“Interesting.”

Simon grinned and pulled his imaginary lever. Two skeletons appeared from his subspace.

“Then I’ll wear one, too.”

“What?”

Rattle rattle!

The two skeletons scattered and began to stick to Simon’s body. The necromancer nobles who saw it felt dizzy just watching this.

“It’s Bone Armor!”

“A first-year is using Bone Armor already?”

Click.

Clack.

Click clack.

As his entire body became covered with bones, Simon spoke.

“Do you wanna bet?”

“What?”

Simon touched the armor he was wearing and smiled with satisfaction.

“On which suit is better.”

——