Mightiest Melee Magician

If you were to pick one person who saw the biggest change in this Grand Festival,

“Ruin! You got this! Go show them your power! Wait,  no…”

It would definitely be Seta Malkiri, who saw a complete change in personality overnight.

This guy who, until even yesterday, was always plotting to bully the students of the academy,

“ Go Academy!”

“……”

Was cheering for us with such spirit.

Seta’s strange behaviour garnered frowns from many of the students.

“Why is he suddenly like that?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Seems like he lost his mind after getting destroyed by Ruin Ardell yesterday.”

This was understandably a difficult change to comprehend,

And even the other Oyota students who came with Seta found it difficult.

Seta Malkiri knew about other’s opinions on this.

But whenever he heard this,

“You. What did you just say? I dare you to talk again. What about my mind?”

“…Uh, that’s…”

“After men exchange punches with each other, they are friends. Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend. Don’t you know?”

“There was no exchange. It was a one-sided—”

“What?”

“Ah, n-no. Nothing…”

“You punks… Tsk. Whatever. How could you guys even comprehend my great will.”

He tried to cooly pass it over.

Of course, the reason that this fierce Seta ceded to Ruin was another thing entirely.

Seta Malkiri.

This man who had never tasted defeat against another in a fight was helplessly suppressed for the first time in his life.

Rather than suffering the bitter taste of defeat, this experience instead enlightened him.

The Oyota’s cultural sense of respect for a powerful individual and for magicians who respected the martial arts aided in his realization.

The realization was also confirmed when he had his bout against Ruin.

‘The greatest magician of the next generation is this guy.’

The next generation’s magicians.

Doom Prime of Raynac Magic Soldier Training School.

Irene Prius of Seiki Women’s Residential College.

Dylan Marken of Frelia Holy Magic School.

And other monstrous magical geniuses of the 11 children that were still growing in power.

Everyone was focusing on them to be the next generation magicians that would leave their marks on history since these 11 were the most promising,

But as Seta had faced them on the same stage before, he could feel it.

‘Ruin is stronger.’

Even against Seta, who was also a school representative, Ruin was able to easily overpower and crush his magic. He could feel that Ruin’s talent was on another level.

Of course, it wasn’t because he was simply ‘stronger’,

‘On top of that, he’s a pretty good kid.’

A boldness that was hard to find among his peers.

Strong leadership that could form the disorderly rabble into a team.

A capacity for tolerance where he could give a hug to Seta, his enemy.

Ruin was definitely a man destined for greatness.

And if possible, Seta wanted to be friends with him.

‘Maybe… I could help in martial arts.’

Wasn’t Seta a magician that was the hope of his country, Oyota, a country of martial arts?

He could definitely be a help to Ruin one way or another.

As Seta looked at Ruin like he was in love, the other Oyota students that were standing next to him could do nothing but shake their heads.

“Captain, we’re up next. Aren’t we going to have a strategy meeting?”

“……”

Seta Malkiri scratched his head and turned around.

“Hmhm… Strategy meeting? Of course we should.”

“Then let’s do it. Stop cheering for other schools.”

“Fine.”

Even though he said this, Seta’s eyes kept glancing at Ruin.

<Arrow Ball>

In this event that demanded a variety of different tactics and strategies, he was too curious about what type of performance Ruin would show.

However, he couldn’t just stand there and cheer on forever.

“…Captain!”

“Ok! I’m coming!”

Because, at the end of the day, he was also a participant.

* * *

The number of people that participated in <Arrow Ball> was 9 per team.

Hankus was assigned to goalkeeper,

4 people were assigned to the defense position to block incoming attacks,

And including Jason, 3 people were to attack.

This left 1 person,

“Then, what about you, Ruin?”

Me.

My role was a little different.

I pointed at our opponent, a magic school from the Collum Kingdom.

“Who from our team do you think they will try to keep in check the most?”

“Naturally, it would be you, Ruin.”

That was right.

They would try and keep me in check.

The students from the magic school of Collum Kingdom were eyeing me with quite nervous expressions on their faces.

I looked at Jason and smiled brightly.

“So, I’ll be kept in check by them.”

“What’s that mean? On purpose?”

“Yeah.”

Operation name,

Defend if you can.

“They will try to focus me down with all their might. I’ll match their rhythm and while I am distracting all their attackers…”

“…We’ll grab the ball and throw it in?”

“Correct.”

When I distracted them enough to create an opening, my team’s attackers would rush into the opening.

And another opening would be created to close this one.

At that time, I’d utilize the new ‘opening’.

We would use the danger of being restrained as an advantage.

Seeing me talk about this, Straang had a knowing smile on her face.

“Master. So that’s why you tried to stand out so much.”

Instead of an answer, I lightly nodded my head.

That was right.

The reason I tried to be the ‘delicious prey’ in their eyes.

As I would be focused down more, our team strategy would play out smoother.

And this prediction of mine,

“Match start!”

“……”

Came true.

* * *

* * *

BZZZZTTTTT—

With the sound of the start signal, an arrow with a blueish light on it was shot into the air.

This was the arrow ball.

The arrow ball started to fly around randomly in the stadium.

And attacker Jason started to cast ice magic to contain the arrow ball.

However,

“Why aren’t they moving?”

Contrary to our team’s busy movements, the attackers of Collum didn’t show any intention to move.

The reason was simple.

Their intention was to observe my movement before acting too hastily.

Seeing this, Jason sighed, muttering,

“Aren’t they ignoring us too much? So you don’t care about anyone except Ruin? This is getting on my nerves.”

I cracked my neck as I tapped Jason on his shoulder.

“Then, should I get going?”

After I took a running stance by putting my hands to the ground, I kicked off and flung my body forward.

And simultaneously, the 3 attackers of Collum rushed into me.

The funny thing was, even though I didn’t move towards where the arrow ball was, they moved towards me instead of Jason.

An obvious intent to contain me.

“……This is too obvious.”

The edges of my lips curled up as I rushed in towards the Collum attackers.

Then the 4 defenders that were standing at the back cast protection magic to stop me.

And the 3 attackers scattered to the sides and started casting restraining magic.

Frozen Tree to wrap around my legs,

Ice Spear that was created from the rapidly cooled air.

And even a Fire Wall to stop my retreat.

“……!”

Multiple spells flew straight at me in an instant and I just narrowly dodged them all.

There was no time to rest.

“……!”

Since magic kept being flung at me, it was like their tactic was to first take me out with their teamwork then win afterwards.

However, since I had suspected they would try and focus me down…

I used Bend Time to break through their net of control and charged into the centre of their formation.

Then…

Crash! Clang!

I struck the ground with a punch.

From the ice magic emanating from my fist, giant walls of ice shot up from the ground.

“My turn.”

“……”

I started to indiscriminately punch these walls and shattered them.

Clang! Ching! Shatter!

The broken walls of ice became sharp daggers that flew at the Collum defenders.

Strength that surpassed 2400.

This transformed those small ice shards into dangerous arrows,

“Everyone, dodge!”

“Ack!”

And these fragments started to injure the defenders.

In that moment where the defenders were too busy casting protection magic to shield themselves,

“G-got it!”

The ‘opening’ we were waiting for had appeared.

As Jason succeeded in capturing the arrow ball, he took the chance to attack.

The defenders shouted out in response too late.

“Over there! The arrow ball was captured!”

“B-block it! Everyone, block!”

However, since they were fighting me, their defence formation was already in shambles.

And even though they tried their best to reform, it was far too late.

Only 2 people were between Jason and the goal post.

There…

“Where are you going? I’m not done yet.”

I was firmly standing in the path that Jason was running down.

“A-ack!”

I grabbed the back of the defender’s neck and threw him, making him fly back as if he were a paper doll.

The next defender was the same.

One of them was grabbed by the neck and thrown to roll on the ground, and the other was grabbed by the leg and fell backwards.

A wall.

An impenetrable fortress.

At this overwhelming display of power, some of the Collum students lost their will to resist and muttered in despair,

“M-monster…”

“How can we beat him…?”

As I was interfering with them,

“A point! We got a point! It’s in!”

Jason had succeeded in getting the point in the one-on-one battle against their goalkeeper.

The first point was gained just 5 minutes into the game.

“……Ah.”

This was enough to break the mental of the Collum students who had dedicated their time to practice.

And this was soon shown in the match’s scores.

“Let’s go with Plan B.”

The befuddled Collums hurriedly went to change their strategy.

Rather than contain me, they would fight in the standard manner.

They contended against our attackers for the arrow ball and the defenders only focused on defending.

However, even this had an ‘opening’.

“Ruin! Catch!”

After becoming relatively unrestrained, I could move more freely,

And after receiving the arrow ball from Jason, I recklessly charged towards their goalkeeper.

“B-block him!”

“It’s over if they score another one! Block him, even if you have to throw your body at him!”

Even though the defenders summoned their battle guardians and went on full defense, I didn’t hesitate and charged straight on.

Schwing—!

The sound of cutting air rushed past my ears.

An insane speed.

I threw my body at their defence like I was going to gore them with a horn.

Simultaneously,

Bang! Pang!

My shoulder pads were engulfed in flame.

The achievement I obtained some time ago.

‘Whole Body a Weapon’

Head, shoulders, legs.

All the points in my body exploded with magic.

In that short 5 second window, 3 explosions rang out.

And when black fumes were carried off by the wind…

The arrow ball in my hand had already passed by the golem and gone into the goal.

“WOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“2 goals! There’s 2 goals!”

“……”

The spectators’ cheering flooded out towards us.

I could only jokingly smile as I looked at the remaining time.

“But that was only the second goal…”

——