[393] Taking the High Ground (2)
Shirone's team had already set their positions the night before.
Mobile Shirone would take forward; Nade and Iruki would cover the left and right wings.
All-rounder Amy was the linker, and Maya, weak on offense, was naturally best as guard.
On Screamer's team, Screamer—the wielder of the magus finisher—was forward.
Crowd-control Luman and hydraulic Pony were the left and right wingers, utility Suabi was the linker, and Eider was the guard.
The two teams didn't even meet each other's eyes. Whatever their usual relationships, right now they were just competitors.
Screamer lifted his chin and sauntered over to Shirone. He knew how important the opening mind game was.
"Hey, you ready? Ready to get wrecked?"
Since the survival test, Shirone's stock had risen even more, and that only made Screamer happier.
"A team with Maya in it? Terrible balance. Beat Shirone here and we'll cement our spot in the grads."
"You must be nervous—your team has a hole," he sneered.
"Isn't it embarrassing for your biggest hole to be talking?" Shirone snapped. Maya was no longer just a fellow grad student to him. He couldn't forgive Screamer for insulting her.
"Heh. I'll finish you five to zero. Just wait and see."
At the evaluating teacher's call, the six teams moved to their designated arenas.
Arin, following Canis, suddenly remembered something and glanced back at Screamer's team.
"...."
A huge snake lay coiled there, arrogantly twisted upon itself.
It was always grotesque to see, but today it looked worse than usual.
"Canis, shouldn't we tell Shirone?" Arin began.
"No. Shirone's still a rival for graduation. That doesn't make him our ally."
Arin didn't press it. If she herself was staking everything on capturing the heights, she couldn't afford to worry about others.
Crossing the arena threshold, Canis added casually, "He's not someone to be taken lightly."
* * *
Shirone's team and Screamer's entered the second arena and briefly checked strategy from their formations. What worried Screamer's team most was, unsurprisingly, Ataraxia.
"Listen up. If Shirone casts the magic circle that beat Dante, we rush no matter what. Cut Shirone off. The cast looks like it'll take over a minute, so we'll get a shot."
Pony asked, "And if it fails? If they use Guardian Force, it could backfire, right?"
Guardian Force is an extreme defensive formation where the whole team protects the flag—Shirone's obvious first choice if he tried Ataraxia.
"In that case, fall back. Bunker into the hill and hide. With Luman's crowd control it'll be over fast," Eider said.
"So basically we're giving them one point to start with?"
"One point is fine. He passed out after using it before. You can't cast a giant spell every round. If we wear Shirone's mental stamina down, that works in our favor."
Even a powerful spell with a minute-long cast had counters. Ideally they'd interrupt it, but if not, hiding would do.
"All right! We're taking twenty points easy. That's why we formed this team. Like I said—crush them early."
Screamer's team put their hands together and cheered.
Meanwhile Shirone's team was finishing their checks. Iruki gathered everyone and spoke in a low voice.
"Use Ataraxia depending on the situation. They'll probably dump utility onto Screamer. We should take early control with a sidewinder."
The sidewinder is a formation where the wingers run wide along both lines, pressuring a team that tries to cluster in the center.
When the announcement signaled the start of Round 1, the ten members teleported to their positions. Of course, if System 2000 detected teleportation, it would be a disqualification.
Shirone waited at the ten-meter mark on the center line.
The arena map was symmetrical and fitted with various cover, so he couldn't see his teammates' faces. The only one he could see was Screamer, twenty meters opposite.
Dressed in a snug training suit and warming up, Screamer shifted his feet quickly and relaxed slowly. There was no visible tension in the calm way he stretched.
'Iruki will clash with Luman, Nade with Pony. Then I go into Iruki's line?'
Numbers were five versus five, but depending on tactics local one-versus-two or one-versus-three situations would form repeatedly. The key was focusing forces to win those local fights.
-10 seconds until the start of Round 1.
Lights came on in the arena and an engine hum rose.
The 2000 bracelet lit up; Screamer took a light step, pivoted diagonally, and began rapidly shuttling his feet in place, as if hovering.
"All right! Let's have some real fun!"
Four. Three. As the count fell, Screamer's legs moved faster.
From a distance he looked like a showman, but Shirone, watching from twenty meters, felt gooseflesh at the speed of the Skima.
Could human legs move that fast? Like tightly compressed steel springs ready to snap.
"Uoooooh! Uoooooo!"
Screamer's body blurred as he shook his limbs. At the same moment System 2000 activated and everyone entered the Spirit Zone.
-Starting Round 1 of Capturing the Heights.
Bang! Puffer-puff! Bang! Bang!
Colorful explosions erupted above Screamer's head. Suabi's twenty-piece utility buff package slammed into him—strength, agility, nervous-system enhancement, focus, muscular endurance, and more.
With the utility mage's rapid-force application, Screamer's movements accelerated even further. When his limbs reached the point of being indistinguishable, a tearing, bestial cry burst from him.
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
Screamer's martial art—Biryonggak.
He spread his arms wide as if they'd pop from their sockets and launched himself, right leg extended like a cannon.
'Spear-to-Spear?'
A tactic where the opposing forward attacks to pressure the whole line.
Seeing Screamer fly like a massive projectile, Shirone reflexively cast magic.
"Rampage!"
As the light curtain pulsed, Screamer's physical projectile punched through the mass barrier and smashed into Shirone.
"Ugh!"
Shirone clapped his hands to his chest and was hurled more than five meters before collapsing.
Even with Rampage sapping some force, the impact drove through his gut and stole his breath.
'This is the magus finisher strategy.'
A being's strength couldn't be analyzed simply as the sum of numbers. Buffs synergize—boost strength and speed together—and the twenty buffs combined into an effect that transcended raw stats.
Puffer-puff! Bang-bang! Puffer-puff!
Suabi rotated buffs in rapid succession. Her active buffs lasted about two seconds each; the key was cycling all twenty at precise timing.
Amy stepped in front of Shirone. In a Spear-to-Spear, the linker backing up the center line is standard.
"Wadadadadada!"
Screamer teleported in; each flash of light changed his stance like a spinning top.
"Wada! Wada!"
His rapid punches skipped frames of movement. A side kick with full weight sent Amy flying despite her guard.
"Kyaaaa!"
Screamer clenched both fists and trembled. Rampage had torn his top, revealing taut muscles that flexed.
With the center line broken, Screamer ran straight for the height. Maya tried to counter, but before she could cast, her arm was twisted behind her and she ended up in Screamer's grasp.
"Le- let go!"
"Heh, why? First time seeing muscles like this? Don't be shy."
Screamer grabbed the flag. Even though the Spirit Zone had ended, his Skima kept him steady enough to subdue Maya.
When the pole was pulled, System 2000 shut down.
-Round 1 ended. Round 2 begins in 5 minutes.
Screamer planted the flag at the bottom of the hill and shouted back at Shirone's team.
"Hey, wasn't that too easy? With a guard that weak, can you even protect your flag?"
The magus finisher had been far stronger than Shirone expected. Screamer's skill was impressive, but Suabi was the real problem.
A pro at rapidly swapping twenty Omniscience modes. If they couldn't cut her off, gaining the initiative would be hard.
Shirone glanced at Maya. She was the key counter to the magus finisher strategy.
Maya gave a spirited nod. Being the center of attention made her uneasy, but for Shirone she'd do anything.
'I'll do my best, Shirone!'
Round 2 began, and Screamer charged again with Spear-to-Spear.
When Shirone fell back into his zone, Screamer's confidence swelled. Even Shirone seemed intimidated, didn't he?
"Hahaha! No guts—!"
Aaaahhhhhh!
Screamer's step faltered. Maya's sound magic detonated and it felt like an earthquake inside his head.
"Ugh!"
Suabi frowned.
Maya's Rhapsody of Death is a spell that breaks enemy concentration. But with her specialty stuck at just level two, it shouldn't have had such power.
'Her voice is different.'
Unlike the vocal techniques she'd used before, Maya sang the Rhapsody of Death as if she were singing normally. The radius was short, but its amplification was enormous.
Without buffs, Screamer's power dropped sharply. Shirone's team, having pulled the line early, held firm.
As the clash turned chaotic, Screamer retreated back into his own formation.
Maya's amplification was huge but the range wasn't wide, so they intended to cut Shirone off from their zone.
"Suabi! Buff!"
Crossing the center line, Suabi's buffs kicked back in.
With strength enhanced, Screamer launched forward with incredible acceleration.
Shirone, breaking through the enemy line at the sixty-meter mark, felt Screamer closing in fast on his back.
"Kyaaa!"
Screamer struck with Biryonggak.
Amy rotated her hip to deflect Screamer and shouted, "Shirone! Back!"
"Too late!"
At that moment Shirone's body glowed pale and split outward in eight directions.
Scatter Movement!
"Ugh!"
As a streak of light slammed into his abdomen, a brutal anti-magic hit landed. Even Skima's strength-enhancement build couldn't take the blow.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every time Scatter Movement pushed out, photon cannons sprayed across the arena.
It wasn't a simple movement skill. It was a powerful crowd-control assault that tore through Screamer team's formation.
"Ugh!"
Eider barely dodged the torrent of photon cannons. Amy backed him up and blocked the path to the flag, letting Shirone calmly grab the pole and pull it free.
-Round 2 ended. Round 3 begins in 5 minutes.
Normally the flag is supposed to be returned to its original spot after a round, but Shirone carried it down the hill. He planted it deliberately at Screamer's feet, scoffed, and teleported back to his team's zone.
"That bastard…!"
Scatter Movement—combining mobility, attack, and crowd control—was something only Shirone could pull off.
'What? God's particles?'
Are there only gods and no demons in the world of magic? Why hasn't someone taken that guy away?
Pony approached, looking toward Shirone's height.
"Don't get worked up. But how did that happen? Maya's sound magic was insanely strong."
That had been the reason for Round 2's outcome. But there was no way Screamer could have amplified his magic that much in such a short time.
Seeing Maya smiling among her teammates brought the earlier tactical discussion to mind and made Pony even angrier.
"Damn it! How did that happen? That talentless girl…"
Shirone's team was in high spirits. The counter to the magus finisher had worked.
"Maya! That was awesome! You won this round for us."
"I just did what you told me…"
Iruki's advice—to drop operatic technique—had hit the mark. Maya, with natural singing talent, had given up Omniscience and drastically boosted her Omnipotence.
Of course, that approach had limits.
Sound mages study vocal technique because it's the best way to technically control their voice. In the end, relying on Omnipotence alone only works at a student level.
But Maya had gladly accepted Iruki's suggestion.
She wanted to bring victory to those who had fought Screamer for her sake.
Shirone's team was not a one-man team.