Ch.66Control (4)

Crackle-!

A fierce spark surges through the air.

Light flashes.

The high-voltage current turns everything white, then tangles with itself and explodes.

An intense flash of light rushes toward me.

It was like watching lightning strike.

“Oh my.”

I barely dodge by ducking my head.

The missed strike embeds itself into the innocent floor.

A deafening boom follows.

BOOM-!

The terrifying power shakes the arena.

I nearly got caught in the electrocution.

Though it might look like a light graze, the voltage was enough to instantly knock out most students.

Judas calmly steadies his posture.

“Indeed, you’re not an easy opponent.”

He mutters as if annoyed.

Ten minutes have already passed since the battle began.

The duel had become intense.

As I brush off the soot from my fingertips, suddenly someone emerges from the thick smoke.

It was a boy with a relaxed expression.

“You’ve been running away this whole time. Quite impressive how you slither like a snake.”

A leisurely taunt reaches my ears.

Ian was smiling.

Electricity flashes in both his hands.

Loading another spell, he points his finger at me and says:

A clear mockery.

“Didn’t expect to be pushed back this much, did you?”

“Hmm… I wonder.”

Judas shrugs his shoulders.

“I don’t recall being pushed back at all.”

“Isn’t it obvious from how you avoid direct confrontation? If you’re so confident, stop dodging and face me head-on.”

“Please consider it my strategy.”

“Strategy? You’ve only been desperately avoiding attacks.”

Perhaps it was the accumulated bad blood between them.

He pressures his opponent more than necessary.

He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this moment of having the upper hand.

The boy puts on an unnecessary air of composure.

“You might be called a genius among the freshmen, but you’re nothing more than a greenhorn.”

When he first received the duel request, he couldn’t believe the audacity.

A mere first-year student looking down on him.

He wanted to crush him right then and there.

But.

“I’m a person with excellent patience, you see.”

He endured for the sake of perfect revenge.

When you want to truly crush someone, the basic principle is to break them so thoroughly they can never rise again.

Ian had thoroughly analyzed Judas over the past few days.

“Judas Snakus.”

He was certainly a boy with outstanding talent.

Magic, swordsmanship, written exams… he maintained top scores in all areas, but his most exceptional skill was elsewhere.

Illusion magic.

“However.”

Ian had identified the weakness.

“No matter how excellent your illusions might be, what use are they if I don’t fall for them?”

Magic is useless if you simply avoid it.

Of course, avoiding mental magic isn’t as easy as it sounds.

It was only possible because it was Ian.

He was among the fastest in the academy.

Especially when he coursed electricity through his entire body, he could briefly reach a speed comparable to the professors.

In short, it was the worst possible matchup.

“Can you really keep up with my speed?”

Not just speed, but devastating explosive power as well.

For Judas, this was practically the worst-case scenario.

“……”

The golden snake remains silent.

Like someone deep in thought, the boy stands motionless.

Ian took this as a sign of fear.

His lips, stained with arrogance, effortlessly sneer.

“Finally realizing the situation, are you?”

Crackle-!

Ian releases a spark and leaps forward.

A bolt of lightning shoots out.

“…!”

The snake, who had been standing dazed, belatedly moves his sword.

A blade forged from shadows.

It collides with the flashing light, barely managing to twist the trajectory of the attack.

Even with just that, the blade’s teeth are severely damaged.

Clang-!

As the obsidian blade finally shatters, Judas draws a new sword.

Ian rushes in, giving no room to breathe.

The two clash with full force.

For a while, sharp explosive sounds echo throughout the arena.

Clang! Crackle! Crack…!

It was a fierce battle.

Light and darkness, refusing to yield an inch, savagely tear at each other.

Attacks and defenses too fast for the eye to follow continue.

“Kuh…!”

The snake was visibly tiring.

Although he was holding his own against Ian’s speed, he couldn’t shake the feeling of being gradually overwhelmed.

Just defending against the relentless electrical currents seemed overwhelming.

“Haa, haa…!”

And so.

The tide of battle seemed completely turned.

It was time to deliver the final blow.

Ian, who had briefly created some distance, begins to chant an incantation for his final attack.

Dark clouds gather above the arena.

“Sky of rainfall.”

He was finally unleashing his ultimate technique.

“Strike without restraint.”

-Ian Ryu Lightning Magic Secret Technique-

‘Thunderbolt’

Right after his lips move.

Thousands of lightning bolts fall from between the dark clouds.

CRACK-BOOM-!

Streams of light pour down like rain.

Through the cracks that form one after another, brilliant flashes burst forth, obscuring vision.

Everyone in the audience had to shield their eyes.

BEEEEP-!

After the ringing in their ears subsided.

When they opened their eyes again, the children could see the back of the snake kneeling on the ground.

The fierce duel had concluded.

“……”

The boy couldn’t utter a single word, as if he’d been thoroughly defeated.

Ian circles around his opponent.

Elated at finally crushing him, he speaks with a sneer.

“See, you shouldn’t have been so cocky.”

“……”

“It’s too late for regrets. I intend to demand your expulsion from school as the price for this duel. If you don’t like that, get on your knees and beg all day.”

“Pfft.”

“…?”

Suddenly, laughter.

The snake was smiling.

“What’s so funny?”

Had he gone mad from the pain?

Standing with furrowed brows, Ian hears a clearly articulated sentence.

A steady, unshaken voice.

“It’s quite amusing. You didn’t notice anything until the very end.”

How could he speak so calmly when he had just been scorched by lightning?

Caught off guard by this unexpected reaction, Ian froze.

“B-but it was a direct hit! How could you…!”

“Honestly, I’m disappointed.”

“What are you talking about?!”

“I thought you’d show at least some suspicion.”

Judas leisurely brushes off his knees and stands up.

Their gazes meet.

Ian unconsciously held his breath.

“You said that no matter how excellent my illusion magic might be, it’s useless if you don’t fall for it, right?”

“……”

“Then here’s my question.”

His usually closed eyelids were now open.

Eyes bleached white.

The boy asks with a gleaming light in his eyes:

“When exactly did you start thinking I wasn’t using illusion magic?”

Crack, crack-!

Simultaneously, cracks appear in the seemingly intact space.

Like a mirror shattering.

The background surrounding the two crumbles into pieces. An unbelievable scene.

Facing the boy who couldn’t hide his shock, the snake murmurs.

“Break.”

Snap-!

The inverted world returns to normal.

***

Snap-!

When Ian regained consciousness, he was standing in the circular arena.

In the exact same spot where they had first faced off.

He hadn’t moved a single step.

“…?”

The scene before his eyes seemed natural.

It felt like waking from a dream.

Confused, he tried to make sense of the situation, but it was impossible to understand.

His consciousness kept growing hazy.

“What is this…?”

It had all been illusion magic.

The fierce battle after the duel began, overwhelming the opponent with lightning, and ultimately claiming victory.

In reality, it had all happened within an illusion.

In other words.

He had been played.

“Impossible.”

Nothing had actually happened in reality.

It was incomprehensible.

He tried to look around, but his body had frozen and wouldn’t move as he wished.

It was as if he had lost control.

“Why… can’t I move my body.”

As he barely managed to move his lips, someone suddenly addressed him from the side.

Of course, it was the golden snake.

“My~ You’ve finally come to your senses?”

With a beaming smile.

He put his arm around Ian, who was frozen like a statue, and spoke with an ominous smile, providing answers to the questions that must be racing through Ian’s mind.

“Senior, you’re already under hypnosis.”

“Hypnosis…?”

“Another application of illusion magic. You won’t be able to do anything until I release you.”

“Damn it, you were toying with me from the beginning!”

“I was merely giving you appropriate treatment.”

“Stop talking nonsense!”

Ian explodes with rage, as if unable to accept what happened.

Perhaps it was the shock of being so easily defeated.

He looked like he had lost his mind.

Of course, it was still too early to completely lose his sanity.

“Please, lower your voice. Ian Ternado.”

While the boy had been wandering through the illusion, the snake had also been deep in thought.

How to thoroughly crush his opponent.

How to most cruelly break that heart full of arrogance.

Judas had just come up with a method.

“A stage awaits you.”

“Wait. What are you trying to do…!”

The snake lightly flicks his finger.

Following that gesture, Ian’s frozen body begins to move, gradually approaching the center of the training ground.

He soon takes a position facing the audience.

“Let’s show everyone.”

The students’ gazes converge on Ian.

Judas wore a meaningful smile, as if greatly pleased by something.

“Your passion.”

It didn’t take long to understand the meaning of those words.

***

“”……”

The students in the audience maintained silence.

Or rather than maintaining silence, it would be more accurate to say they were at a loss for words.

They all wore stiff expressions.

<AAAAAAAH!!!>

They were staring at something with cold gazes.

None other than the center of the training ground.

<Stop it!! Please!!!>

There, a boy was screaming.

A cry filled with despair.

It was Ian Ternado, who had participated in this duel.

Originally, this should have been a space filled with fierce combat, but currently, the boy was…

<I, I was wrong!!>

Enthusiastically enjoying a dance party.

Vulgar dance moves unfold.

The boy was obscenely wiggling his buttocks, making rude gestures toward the watching students.

He had been swaying like this for a full hour.

<I’ll surrender if you just— mmph!!>

Whenever he tried to express his surrender, his lips would automatically seal shut.

The students could only stare.

<DAMN IIIIIIT!!!>

Ian Ternado.

An elite exemplar with numerous followers, acclaimed as an undeniable genius.

Truly a crane reigning over the second-year students.

“”……”

Honor can be shattered in an instant.

Even as Ian suffered social death, he couldn’t stop his passionate twerking.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

“Hehe.”

Only the troublemaker who had designed this entire scenario was smiling amidst the chaos.

As if experiencing an explosion of dopamine.