Ch.49049. Competitive Match

The waiting room of the third training ground was filled with cadets preparing for the preliminary round.

A total of 30 students from first to third year, all required to participate in the preliminaries, waited with various expressions on their faces.

Some cadets looked tense, worried about the upcoming battle royal. Others saw it as a perfect opportunity to showcase their skills. Some were smiling, enjoying the whole situation, while others wore dejected expressions.

Though their faces differed, what they all wanted was the same.

To pass this preliminary round and advance to the finals.

Whether for family honor or to prove their own worth, they first needed to make it to the finals.

[Attention to all cadets waiting in the preparation room. The preliminary round will begin in approximately five minutes. All cadets should board their assigned giant combat suits.]

Finally, the announcement that the cadets had been waiting for echoed through the room. The cadets who had been waiting for this moment began moving toward their giant combat suits.

Upon reaching the area where the giant combat suits were stationed, the cadets began boarding them one by one. Even those who had been laughing and chatting in the waiting room now felt tension in the air as the competition was about to begin.

They observed the other cadets boarding their suits, rapidly formulating and discarding strategies in their minds.

When it came to one particular cadet’s turn, all eyes turned to him.

Golden hair and a fair complexion. It was Gilbert.

– That’s Gilbert.

– Didn’t he just receive a knighthood?

– Why am I in the same group as Gilbert…

– Shouldn’t we take him out first?

– Is that even possible? Didn’t you see how he handled the Resistance?

The previously quiet cadets whispered among themselves.

The second and third-year students who weren’t competing in the same preliminary round looked at Gilbert with curiosity—a cadet who had earned a knighthood while still a student.

Meanwhile, the first-year cadets who would be competing against him wore stiff expressions. The story of how he had single-handedly defeated seven giant combat suits was already well-known.

The preliminary round was a battle royal format with ten cadets. If Gilbert had already defeated seven giant combat suits, he might easily take down nine more.

After all, hadn’t he received a 6th-grade knighthood, recognized for his skills by the Empire itself?

The faces of the cadets who had to compete against Gilbert darkened. They couldn’t decide if they should team up against him. In the end, they all boarded their assigned giant combat suits with grim expressions, unable to come to any agreement.

Meanwhile, Gilbert, the object of everyone’s wariness, calmly activated his giant combat suit. He had no goal of winning at all costs and was planning to settle for a moderate ranking. Some might find this strange, but he had a prepared excuse.

As a knight, he couldn’t fight the cadets with his full strength. He would say he couldn’t step on growing sprouts. Even if people found it unsatisfactory, they would have to accept it. After all, he was a knight now, regardless of being a new cadet.

‘Or perhaps I should train Ian a bit. See his current skill level.’

As he headed toward the training ground for the battle royal, following the announcements, this thought suddenly occurred to him. He had assessed Ian’s abilities during the entrance mock battle, but quite some time had passed since then.

He needed to check how much Ian had improved. It also seemed necessary since the next main quest would be the academy raid arc.

Eventually, he decided his goal would be to encounter Ian and quietly waited for the preliminary round to begin.

At last, the announcement he had been waiting for came.

[The preliminary round for Competition Group 3 will now begin. As explained earlier, only the last three standing will advance to the finals. We wish all cadets good fortune.]

After the brief announcement, the cadets began eyeing each other cautiously. They tacitly avoided confronting Gilbert. They instinctively understood that whoever made the first move against him would be immobilized.

Since three cadets would advance to the finals, it seemed best to let Gilbert through and compete for the remaining two spots.

The moment all nine cadets excluding Gilbert had this thought, they began charging at each other.

I don’t even know what to say.

Gilbert, who had been preparing for the possibility of all nine cadets attacking him at once, felt deflated as he watched them fight among themselves.

Their intention was clear. They had tacitly agreed not to disturb the hornet’s nest by avoiding him.

It was certainly a correct judgment, as he had planned to immobilize the first one who charged at him. In any case, three cadets would advance from the preliminaries.

For Gilbert, it would be convenient to advance without doing anything. He wouldn’t need to exert himself and could just watch.

But the academy raid incident would simultaneously erupt throughout the entire Demeia Academy. Even in Tactical Combat, this main quest was a random event where named characters could die, except for Professor Briana who would inevitably perish. Ordinary cadets had even less chance of survival.

Although Gilbert had resolved to save Professor Briana, that didn’t mean he only intended to save her. He also wanted to save the innocent regular cadets studying here.

So perhaps it would be good to make everyone in this competition feel the wall they were up against. People become tougher when they climb over crushing emotions.

Wouldn’t that help more people survive during the academy raid?

The moment this thought occurred to him, Gilbert’s original plan to settle for a moderate ranking was discarded.

In its place was just one goal.

Overwhelming victory. That was it.

He uncrossed his arms and gripped the control levers. The cadets were too busy fighting each other to notice Gilbert’s movement.

Judging it to be the perfect opportunity, Gilbert drew the iron sword from its scabbard. He engaged in high-speed movement and slashed diagonally at the first giant combat suit he saw.

Winter Sword – North Wind

Magical energy coursed through the blade, creating a sharp wind. Golden magical energy fluttered like a descending chill.

[It’s Gilbert!]

[Gilbert’s making his move! We need to stop Gilbert first!]

Noble cadets from the same first-rank class as Gilbert opened the common magic communication channel and shouted. But Gilbert, who had perfectly exploited the opening, began weaving through the cadets with remarkable agility.

This was the moment his specialty in melee combat shone. Particularly, the Winter Sword style he was mastering was a full-body swordsmanship that gave wings to Gilbert’s giant combat suit.

Moreover, Gilbert’s sword wrestling technique—using the sword’s guard and handle to hook and break the giant combat suit’s wrist—had become even sharper after training with Briana.

He partially immobilized the arm of the giant combat suit in front of him and then threw it forward. Two giant combat suits charging toward Gilbert couldn’t dodge in time and were hit, falling backward.

The moment a gap opened in the encirclement, he escaped with high-speed movement. All this happened in just under a minute. With three giant combat suits suddenly taken down, the remaining cadets hesitated to rush at Gilbert.

What they felt at that moment was a wall. A wall that seemed impossible to overcome.

[Come at me.]

Gilbert opened the common magic channel and issued a provocative challenge. But as he intended, no cadet dared to charge first. They merely maintained a semicircle formation around Gilbert’s giant combat suit.

It’s good they’re not letting emotions get the better of them, but…

He felt a bit disappointed. While being ruled by emotions was the worst, simply maintaining a standoff wasn’t the best option either. When facing an overwhelmingly skilled opponent, giving them the initiative meant being constantly on the defensive.

Just like now.

Gilbert approached the nearest giant combat suit with high-speed movement. The targeted cadet, seeing the sudden charge, panicked and tried to retreat, but his heavy-armor type giant combat suit moved sluggishly.

In the brief moment, several attack routes flashed through Gilbert’s mind. He excluded his usual shoulder tackle; the opponent’s heavy-armor type giant combat suit might not be effectively damaged by it.

The best option was a thrust using his sword.

Winter Sword – Icicle

The heavy iron sword extended with a spiral technique, targeting the cockpit. Golden magical energy swirled around the sword’s tip, and with a single strike, the giant combat suit was immobilized.

This was the first elimination since the preliminary round began.

As the first elimination occurred, unease spread among the cadets. The sight of a magical barrier being depleted with a single strike felt uncomfortably close to home.

[Everyone attack at once! If we stay like this, we’ll be eliminated without doing anything!]

Someone shouted and charged. The cadets, who had staked everything on this competition, finally realized they couldn’t remain passive.

Gilbert smirked as he saw all the cadets charging at him, just as he had intended. He shoulder-tackled the first giant combat suit that reached him, knocking it down, and then kicked near its cockpit. Normally, executing a kick with a giant combat suit would often disrupt one’s balance, but such concerns didn’t apply to a veteran like him.

He immediately regained his balance and deflected the iron swords thrusting at him from all directions. For a moment, a tiny opening appeared, and some cadets skillfully aimed for it. As expected of the continent’s top talents, their timing was impeccable.

Gilbert inwardly nodded in approval while narrowing his eyes sharply. No matter how good the timing, there was always a way out.

He showcased an acrobatic evasive maneuver using a back tumble, a sub-skill of three-dimensional movement. The brief delay created by deflecting attacks could be overcome by forcibly activating the three-dimensional movement skill.

Clang!

The iron swords converged where Gilbert had been, making a sound. The cadets gasped at his dynamic evasion, something they hadn’t seen since the entrance mock battle.

Defeat such a monster? The cadets’ minds became increasingly complex. It felt like facing a sheer cliff. Yet they couldn’t just meekly be eliminated from the preliminaries.

They already knew they were no match for him. If that was the case, they had to do their best with what they could and struggle to the end out of sheer determination.

A fierce determination began to gleam in the cadets’ eyes, and this determination was soon reflected in their giant combat suits’ movements.

None of the cadets held back. They had read Gilbert’s pattern of striking precisely when someone showed weakness.

What followed was truly an intense melee. Iron swords and giant combat suits became entangled. Blocking, deflecting, falling—a continuous cycle.

Even the external observers watching the preliminary round admired their desperate struggle. Those who had thought the preliminaries were just about filtering out raw talent now highly regarded these cadets who refused to back down even against an overwhelming opponent.

Bang!

Finally, with a thunderous sound, the final three were determined. Two cadets bearing the marks of fierce battle and Gilbert’s giant combat suit standing proudly without a single scratch—these were the victors.