Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 203

Rrruumble!

There was a cloud of dust where Wichasha had flown and hit the wall, collapsing it. Meilyn exclaimed,

"That's amazing, Cami! You must've trained so hard for that!"

Camibarez smiled broadly and nodded.

"Yeah! I can't keep falling behind the three of you."

"Cami."

That's when Rick, who had been staring straight ahead, spoke up.

"No one here thinks you're falling behind."

His voice was uncharacteristically serious, and everyone turned in surprise to look at him.

"You're the kind of person who gets a little too wrapped up with yourself. Have a little more confidence."

"Yeah. Exactly that, Rick!"

Simon gave Rick a friendly slap on the back for a job well done. Meilyn on the other hand snorted at the irony, saying,

"But why don't you, Rick, have even a smidgen of urgency? You're so half-hearted all the time~"

"Ahem, how would a race dog understand whether a cheetah is just walking leisurely?"

"Hey! Did you just call me a dog?!"

Crumble.

The entire group suddenly went silent.

The pile of rubble covering Wichasha had shifted. Then, an arm shot out, followed quickly by a head, a chest, and then the rest of Wichasha's body.

He looked remarkably unharmed, cracking his neck and rolling back his shoulders.

The four of them slightly stiffened at the realization that he had barely been hurt. Even the shattered nose didn't look that bad.

Rick tried to keep his cool, saying,

"Hmph, okay. I'll admit that he's around half of Professor Hong Feng's level."

"If you don't shut up and focus, I'll fold you in half!"

Wichasha closed his eyes and reached forward with both arms, his wrists pressed together. Thick, inky jet-black flowed out like a spider web and spread out.

All four of them were nervous seeing the man seemingly casting for the first time this fight. However, the webs didn't shoot out. Instead, they covered his body.

'Here it is.'

The symbol of people who major in Combat Dark Magic: {Black Robe}.

Unlike the usual transformation, creating a full-body suit of metallic armor, Wichasha's Black Robe looked more like the fur of a beast. A lion's mane formed around his head.

He pawed at the ground with both hands, then sprinted forward on all fours, a small crater forming beneath his hands and feet each time they touched the ground.

Stomp!

Simon, who was the first to react, shoved his right foot into the ground.

The bones scattered from earlier battling rose into the air, their sharp ends aimed directly at the charging mass.

{Bone Nail}

Whoooooooooooosh!

The bones flew at tremendous speeds, sparkling with Simon's dark-blue jet-black.

However, Wichasha was not so easily hit. He ran up a wall, outrunning the bones, and in one swift motion he pounced off of the wall, aiming where the four had congregated.

The sheer power of the jumping beast forced the four to focus only on dodging.

Upon landing, Wichasha immediately sprinted toward his obvious target, Simon. It was as if a giant brown bear was charging toward him.

Pull!

But again, some strange force had forced him to stop.

Before he realized it, some transparent shade had appeared in front of him. Rick, Meilyn, and Camibarez were each holding different ends of a net, their Jet-Black Operation at its max.

"…You little bastards!"

"We already know that you're after Simon, you see."

Rick was chuckling, tossing an activated mana lighter. Sniffing the air, Wichasha realized that the floor was covered in oil.

"If we don't use that to our advantage, we can't call ourselves necromancers, don't you think?"

But Wichasha was no slouch, either.

He switched from Jet-Black Operation to Jet-Black Eruption, and after pawing the ground with one foot in preparation, he began charging at a far greater speed, dragging the three along behind him.

"Whooaa!"

Rick barely managed to throw himself off in the right direction to grab the mana lighter before it landed, and the girls fell on the floor. As Wichasha pierced through the defense, he reached for Simon.

'Open!'

Six Overlord blades rained down, but Wichasha deflected them with the Black Robe he wore and drove his fist into Simon, who was guarding with his arms.

Slaaaaaaaaaam!

Simon was pushed back several meters, crashing into the wall.

'Kugh! I'm sure I blocked it, but what is this power…?!'

It seemed that Wichasha was telling the truth when he claimed to have fought on even ground with Hong Feng.

"Hey, commoner, move faster!"

Gnashed Meilyn, forming a series of ice spears in the air.

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Rick walked past, touching the spears one by one, and the already-dark spears turned black as coal.

At Meilyn's command, the ice spears crackled forward.

But Wichasha didn't dodge.

He just marched forward, his gaze set on the fallen Simon.

The black spears bounced off the Black Robe as soon as they hit.

{Exhaust}

This time, Camibarez hastily prepared a curse and shot it out.

Wichasha absentmindedly moved his arm behind his back, holding pure jet-black in his hand and swinging it.

Shatter!

The curse was destroyed on impact.

Breaking a spell using jet-black vibrating at the precise formula's resonant frequency… It was definitely the skill of a pro. He was too powerful.

{Heal}

Simon moved his stiff right arm behind his back then secretly conjured divinity to heal it. After quickly finishing his first aid, he brought his right arm forward again.

In the moment he resumed Jet-Black Operation, which had been interrupted by the use of divinity, Wichasha had started charging toward him.

'Focus.'

Simon's eyes shone with determination.

'The only skill of mine that can reliably damage a Black Robe is Corpse Explosion.'

He pulled a zombie out of his subspace.

His opponent had no intention of killing him. If Simon managed to withstand even one attack, whether it was a punch, a kick, or a tackle, he could surround Wichasha with zombies and use Corpse Explosion.

The other three would finish him off once he stripped Wichasha of that Black Robe.

The zombies retreated to the left and right, leaving Simon standing tall in the center.

Wichasha kept charging toward him like an unstoppable tank.

'Just withstand this one hit! Please…!'

Simon strained his eyes to follow the impossibly fast fist coming straight at him.

Grab!

A moment before Simon raised his guard, the oncoming fist stopped right in front of his face.

"You're overdoing yourself, Special Admission No.1!"

Both Simon and Wichasha were taken aback by the sight of this woman and her tongue-in-cheek grin.

She had long, spiky, grayish-brown hair like a hedgehog's, her clothing was ragged and covered in stains, and the piercing stench of dangerous chemicals radiated from her.

"Professor Belya!"

* * *

* * *

Hearing what Simon shouted, the other three—who had come to cover for Simon yet again—also stopped.

"B-Belya?"

"That's her?"

Wichasha's arm was shaking. He had only been grabbed by the wrist, but his right arm was utterly paralyzed.

He immediately swung his free arm at Belya.

Grab.

Belya did the exact same with her other arm, snatching up Wichasha's other wrist.

Her arms now intertwined with Wichasha's, Belya spat on the man's face.

The moment the green spit landed, a terrible sizzle was heard, and the smoke was so intense that even a steam engine would struggle to produce so much.

"K-Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Wichasha blindly stumbled back, clutching his face. Screams that would put a howling wolf to shame tore from his bloodied lips.

"How is it?"

Belya stuck out her tongue and swiped her finger across it.

When she lifted her finger up a bit, a thick, sticky liquid formed an arched line between the finger and the green tongue.

"Did you like my saliva?"

Drops dripped from the viscous arch, melting the floor and creating even more smoke.

After screaming his lungs out, Wichasha gasped for breath, covering the half of his face that was brutally savaged by spit. He still winced with every breath.

"…You filthy bitch!"

"Oh, that hurts me a little."

Before anyone realized it, the Hoopa warriors who survived Group 7's onslaught had been overrun by swarms of rats and crows.

Simon gasped for breath and smiled weakly.

"You've come, Professor!"

"Take your friends and stay far back."

Simon joined his three friends.

Watching the fight, Meilyn gave a disgusted laugh.

"Spitting? Seriously? A Kizen professor pulled such a nasty attack?"

Meanwhile, Camibarez was blushing slightly, and she covered her red face with her hands.

"Th-That's embarrassing."

The 'embarrassing' thing Cami was referring to was how provocative Belya's outfit was.

As if she didn't feel the need to cover herself with clothing, she wore rags roughly and tightly pulled around her body. While it wasn't bad enough to reveal anything inappropriate, she was flashing a decent bit of skin and showing her curves.

"Spitting and a perverted outfit?!!"

That was the general review from Meilyn.

As the four were busy talking about Belya, Wichasha's cracked lips trembled open.

"Yeah, I guess it better this way."

Then, his jet-black began to surge with a terrifying force.

"Everything messed up, but here we are. Kidnapping students, traps, whatever, it don't matter. I just take you down."

"Yeah~ you're right. But only if you can pull it off."

As Belya provoked him, Wichasha's Black Robe began a secondary transformation.

"I won't go easy and try to capture alive anymore!"

His demeanor was completely different from when dealing with the students. The Black Robe covering him like animal fur turned jagged and pressed deeper around his entire body.

At the same time, he clenched both fists and threw them up.

{Combat Dark Magic - Bayonet}

As the fists came back down, Belya bent forward. A line was drawn across the wall behind her, perfectly level with where her head just was. Then, the part above the line began to slide down as if cut by a perfectly sharp sword.

She looked back at the crumbling wall and laughed.

"Isn't that Hong Feng's skill?"

"The art of fighting don't belong to anyone!"

Wichasha stomped on the ground, and like a heavy splash in water, jet-black rose up in all directions. Then, he began to run across even the smallest droplets, changing direction so often it was impossible to follow him.

This was an upgraded version of Jet-Black Stepping. Simon and his group mates stepped even further back before they got caught up in the battle between two unstoppable forces.

Turning to look at Belya, Simon saw her eyes darting all over the place, as if following an erratic insect.

"You're doing something really useless."

Whaam!

An afterimage of Wichasha formed in front of Belya, becoming a distraction for him appearing from behind, fist already swinging.

The art of absolute annihilation leaves no room for error.josei

"…?!"

However, a heavy mass of smoke suddenly appeared from thin air and pushed him away. It was like being flung into an inflating balloon. He was bounced back without being able to even lift a finger against it.

'What was that? There was no sign of her forming a magic circle or anything!'

Just before Wichasha managed to retreat further backward, an object that looked like a massively bloated germ flew in front of him and exploded.

Kaboooooooom!

"Kuhugh!"

A bluish pus had covered his entire body from the explosion. His nose, mouth, and skin were all covered by the Black Robe, but it was useless.

Soon, the Black Robe turned back on him, seeking out every drop of pus in his own skin and expunging it, causing him terrible pain. A yellowish ooze seeped from the newly formed gaps in the Black Robe.

"Dammit!!"

The dark magic of Poisonous Alchemy.

Once you're hit, dragging out the fight only puts you at even more of a disadvantage.

Knowing that, Wichasha charged in again and swung his fist, but Belya dodged it with ease, leaning back underneath the enraged Wichasha as if she were dancing.

"Cough!"

Purple phlegm flowed out from between Wichasha's groaning lips.

His eyes struggled to stay open, and his vision was heavily spinning. Every time he threw a fist or charged forward, it felt as though all sorts of diseases that Belya intentionally carried pierced him instead.

Unable to stand it any longer, Wichasha gave up on offense and fell back.

"...You coward! You bring great shame to the grasslands!"

"Coward?"

Belya brought a hand to her head, then doubled over in laughter, her shoulders heaving.

Her witchy cackle sent chills down everyone's spine.

Also, with each heave of her shoulders, colorful flecks of bright something tumbled from her body like sand and rolled across the floor.

Simon's eyes widened.

'…Sweat?'

"Ahh, that's fucking funny."

She flicked back her bangs, and beads of that shimmering sweat fell away, blown away by the breeze. Wichasha dared not approach, and Simon and the others took another step back.

Her body was trying to reject everything inside of it. They could tell instinctually that the beads of sweat were filled with incredibly dangerous substances.

"You're not sure, are you?"

Chided Belya, looking at the hesitant Wichasha.

"About how to deal with me."

"…!"

"Standardization is a sin. It's not fun. You just bump fists and wait for the other guy to make a mistake or a miscalculation. So the person with the most information about what their opponent can do—the one who's most prepared—wins. Where's the fun in that?"

Belya looked to the students.

"This is my first lesson to you. A necromancer must be different! You can only ever hit your opponent with attacks that they can't even imagine. It'll make you a freak, but what's wrong with that? Better to be a winning freak than a losing corpse, right?"

"Kugh!"

Wichasha pounced, bringing his Black Robe even tighter around his skin.

"On the other hand, look at him."

Belya, who dodged the wildly rushing fists by casually stepping to the side, smirked.

"Punching, kicking, grabbing… Skills that any human born with good limbs can do and are therefore predictable. You should at least add different variations like Hong Feng, but this bastard is too honest."

Ducking beneath a punch, she placed her finger on Wichasha's side.

"Bastards like this talk about 'cowards' and such to…"

Scrrrrrrratch!

With a simple motion like striking a match, Wichasha's Black Robe was ripped open where her finger passed by, and a purple liquid burrowed into Wichasha's flesh.

"…justify their lack of uniqueness."

Wichasha threw another fist out despite the pain, but the ground beneath his left foot suddenly melted and curved down, bringing his fist completely off target.

Then, he lunged forward and tried to grab her, but Belya's body turned into a noxious mist and vanished, appearing behind Wichasha.

"Kugh!"

Seeing Belya pulling back her right arm, Wichasha immediately crossed his arms in a defensive stance, but instead of being hit in the face, the sweat on the ground exploded upward.

Pooow!

Finally, Wichasha dropped to one knee, blue liquid dripping from every orifice.

She flashed a seductive smile to the students and placed her hands on her hips.

"This is how real necromancers fight!"

——