[238] 4. Battle Simulation (8)
Even after the battle began, Dante didn't move. To be honest, no one expected a tier-six summon to show up.
"How about it? Surrender now before you get humiliated. Then I'll cancel the kneeling."
"Impressive. How did you get Gaos?"
When Dante put on a look of disgust, Boil shrugged.
"If it were me, I'd be too repulsed to even go near it. You've lived with that monster for years, haven't you? Surely you didn't cross any forbidden lines, did you? Kekekek."
Boil's eyes widened.
Because of a summoning mage's work, living with beasts for long stretches was normal. Some eccentric mages even crossed forbidden lines to complete their empathy stages.
All mages knew that, but saying it out loud was blatant mockery.
"I'll make you kneel before me, no matter what."
Gaos charged with a speed that was hard to follow with the eye. Even Shirone, who had fought Ulk in the frontier farming village, didn't want to face Gaos.
What, then, would Dante do?
Contrary to expectations, Dante used the textbook teleport to get out of the way.
But that alone couldn't stop Gaos.
The monster twisted sharply and swung a claw right in front of Dante's face.
Everyone thought it was over.
Then Gaos's movement suddenly slowed.
"What the—?"
Boil, mentally linked to Gaos, scanned the ground. A small magic circle was glinting there.
Shirone could tell the circle's type just from its effect.
"A slow circle?"
Dante snorted and rested his gloved hand on his head, mocking.
"Still not enough? You said it was tier six, but it's awfully slow."
Gaos tensed, but raw strength couldn't bend the flow of time.
Kraaang!
When Gaos finally burst out of the circle and roared as it lunged at Dante, it was caught by another pre-laid slow circle and reduced to a pathetic state.
Dante, looking contemptuous, yawned and pointed at the ground.
"Look at the floor. Are you an idiot?"
"You bastard! How dare you mock me!"
Boil shouted, and lightning sparked from the hose connected to Gaos's spine. The bolt, unleashed beyond the circle's area, scorched the spot where Dante had stood.
A spell cast by a tier-six summon like that would normally have ended the fight.
But Dante's spot was already empty.
Boil belatedly understood why.
"An illusion circle?"
Only a small magic circle remained in the blackened ground. It had been part of a trick Dante set up from the moment he cast the first slow circle.
Where had he gone?
From behind Boil, who was scanning the area, Dante casually slung an arm over his shoulder. Boil was so stunned his heart felt like it dropped; he couldn't even twitch a finger.
Dante's face popped up over Boil's shoulder.
"You kidding me? Since you dared to challenge me, do it properly."
"Kuk! G-Gaos!"
As Gaos thundered back, Dante teleported away again.
From the course of the fight so far, Shirone had figured out Dante's specialty.
"So that's it. Light magic—information magic, specifically—used for circle combat."
Shirone remembered the photon output he'd studied before the speed-gun test. This was information-type magic applied from that concept.
Photons transmit information fastest, so they paired well with magic circles.
Halo, the angelic ability, wasn't its essence light as well?
On top of that, Dante's circles were instant, single-use circles.
They only lasted about a minute, but they took less than a second to form.
Dozens of circles floated around Dante now.
Gaos, which had been running everywhere, finally hesitated at the changed scenery.
Closer, watching the fight, curled the corner of his mouth.
"Reflection circles. He's been trapped. Boil can't escape."
Boil surveyed the area, serious. Wherever he looked, magic circles glittered.
There were forty-eight in total, and with the summoning mage's superhuman senses, they all matched exactly in size and shape: a diameter of 57.62 centimeters.
Dante raised both hands like a conductor and stepped forward.
"Welcome to Dante's playground."
"Shut up!"
Dante fired an Air Strike at the reflection circles. As Gaos closed to arm's reach, seven Air Strikes bounced off the circles like cushions and slammed into Gaos's flank.
That Dante didn't even try to dodge meant he had perfect control over time and space.
He rained spells down like a conductor directing an orchestra.
The Air Strike traced three-dimensional paths around the circles and duplicated into two by copy circles, continuing its assault on Gaos.
Kraaaah!
No matter how strong Gaos was, being hammered by circle-amplified Air Strikes in rapid succession was too much.
Boil stood dumbfounded. No matter where he moved Gaos, the Air Strikes found direct hits. At one point a three-hit combo nearly canceled the summon.
"What's happening? The mighty Gaos shouldn't fall to this!"
Dante forced himself to hold back his mockery because the circles' durations were counting down.
If he could hold on a little longer, an opportunity would come. If he didn't miss that one chance, he could still win.
"Now!"
When the circles disappeared, Gaos charged at full speed.
There were slow circles laid in sections, but Boil wasn't the type to be tricked twice by the same ploy.
As if amused by Boil's confidence, Dante brushed two slow circles against Gaos's shoulder and knee.
Different times applied to each limb; Gaos's balance collapsed and it belly-flopped.
"You're really an idiot. Magic circles are still magic. If you try to dodge them, just put one on the body itself."
Boil gritted his teeth. What kind of guy was Dante to treat a tier-six summon like a child?
Gaos looked barely able to get up.
Even a simulated summon behaved like the real thing: if its stamina dropped regardless of the summoner's mind, it couldn't fight.
"You okay? Your darling seems to be hurting."
"You bastard!"
Humiliated in front of everyone, Boil tried everything to get Gaos back up.
Blue lightning surged through its body and it shifted into an electrical form.
It was the self-destruct attack even a real Gaos wouldn't use unless desperate.
Kraaaang!
"Already giving up? How lame."
Dante pointed at Gaos. Ten circles lit up in a line on the ground and then rose all at once.
It was the information-magic technique called Rising Target.
'Those are amplification circles...'
Boil did the math. If an Air Strike passed through all those aligned circles, its power would be amplified nearly tenfold.
But with Gaos's speed, it could at least enter after passing four circles. That would reduce Dante's amplification to about six times—still a gamble worth taking.
'I have the advantage in raw power. Go all-out.'
As Gaos reached the first circle, Dante cast Air Strike.
But the Air Strike didn't go at Gaos.
It flew ahead, bounced off a triangular cushion, and then traveled back through the Rising Target circles starting from the farthest one.
'He reversed the distance calculation?'
Because Gaos and the spell were rushing in the same direction, the Air Strike could pass through all ten circles before hitting.
Boil refused to give up hope. Even so, Gaos was fast. The plan was to hit Dante before the Air Strike connected.
"I win!"
When Gaos reached the last circle, Boil couldn't help shouting.
But as if to crush that hope, Gaos's movement abruptly slowed.
By the time he realized the last circle was a slow one, it was already too late.
The Air Strike, having passed through nine circles, struck Gaos in the back, sent it flipping diagonally—and it vanished.
Boil could only stand there, hollow.
He might have forced another summon out if he pushed himself, maybe—but he didn't want to.
Dante had a genius understanding of time and space. Using information magic to skew situations in his favor and squeeze opponents into dead ends until they lost the will to fight.
Dante shrugged.
"Is that it? After all I let slide, you're disappointing me."
"Don't get cocky. It was a hair's breadth. If Gaos had a little more stamina, you'd be the one who lost!"
"Sure, comfort yourself with that. But you know what? If I'd wanted to, I could've finished it whenever I chose."
"Don't talk nonsense! You also had to give it your all—"
A circle flared beneath Boil's feet and his body sank.
He slipped through the underside of a floating circle and dropped right in front of Dante.
"Aaah!"
Boil hit the ground and couldn't bear the pain; his back arched like a bow.
Dante tutted and shook his head.
"Don't you know passive magic is treated as a proximity trigger? Magic circles are passive skills, too."
"Ugh! You... when did you put a circle under me—"
"Well, when do you think? Take a guess."
Boil replayed the fight. Dante had been busy avoiding Gaos and hadn't approached him.
No—there had been exactly one time.
"Could it be... the reason you put your arm around me—"
"Bingo. You can trigger circles with a time offset. We call it Time Walk. Summoning mages usually keep two selves in play, so they tend to stay still, right? Also, the technique to invert a circle is called Spin and it's pretty tough. Anyway, even while you were all focused on your darling, I was ready to take you out at any moment. Got it, mama's boy?"
"You—you bastard—!"
"But I'm bored now. Let's finish this."
As soon as Dante finished speaking, more circles formed and Boil dropped through.
"Aaaah!"
Boil was shoved through seven teleport circles in a complex pattern and couldn't regain his senses.
He couldn't even resist because the actual distance was zero.
It was no different from standing still.
Dante timed it and fired an Air Strike. The spell, having bounced exactly six times, slammed into Boil's back as he fell.
The 'consumed' flag registered, and both of his bracelets flared.
Two thousand images flashed through Boil's vision as the floor—laid with physical blocks—unfolded.
The students were stunned into silence.
Boil didn't understand what shocked them. He'd been flung about wildly and taken a surprise blow from an angle.
But what the students had seen was a kind of trick.
Boil and the Air Strike had crisscrossed in the air and collided at a single point—and that ended it.
It wasn't a technique you could copy just because you could calculate it.
Dante scanned the deathly quiet students and asked Shiina.
"Teacher, could you turn on the percentage gauge?"
Revealing power levels is usually something to avoid, but Dante asked boldly.
Shiina used the master bracelet to display the percentage gauge.
His mental energy hadn't dropped by even one-fiftieth.
Shirone realized Dante was sending a message. The reason his mental drain was so small despite making so many circles was that they were basic magic.
Photon output is a simple spell anyone can cast, and building basic information structures with it isn't difficult.
It was more efficient to place five circles that each doubled output than one circle that amplified tenfold.
Yet the combined effect of the interlocking circles let him treat a tier-six Gaos like a pet.
A tactic of never yielding the initiative, pressing the opponent little by little until they drown.
That was Shining Boy Dante's fighting style.