Mightiest Melee Magician

“Tell me everything that happened in detail.”

“……So what happened was……”

An ambitious morning.

The Collum student representative, Callus, had found us while he was injured.

Callus opened his mouth to talk about the events that happened only a few hours ago.

“Our team started with a total of seven people.”

Seven people.

Callus’ group couldn’t compare to Dylan’s 15-person one, but it was a substantial fighting force made up of seven mid-rank magicians.

They themselves recognised that their fighting force wasn’t weak.

That was why, in the initial stages of the game, they moved around quite confidently.

“We moved towards the East side and landed on the island. After that, we moved to the northeastern vicinity of the Central Village and stationed ourselves there. After we checked if our lodging was safe from traps, we planned to ambush a part of the 15-person group at an opportune time to obtain some kill points.”

“……”

A plan to spring a trap right under the enemy’s nose.

It was a generally good option as they had plenty of strength and were powerful enough.

This wasn’t a bad choice at all.

Just that,

“Then, that guy appeared. Doom Prime. He targeted us as we were separated from each other while gathering food and water.”

“……”

They matched up with a bad opponent.

Doom Prime.

He, as I predicted, moved during the initial stages of the game when everyone was disorderly and not many had settled down.

He kept himself busy grabbing as many kill points as possible.

He was strong……

And alone.

That was why he could move about without attracting the attention of others.

This was how he became specialized in guerilla tactics.

However, for one person to take out six?

At that, Irene asked him, coming to the same question as me,

“Just now, you said that Doom Prime had eliminated six people by himself?”

Callus shook his head.

“N-not really. One was done in by Doom Prime… but we prepared our defense magic after hearing the explosion. The real problem came after, since… we weren’t the only ones who came to see after hearing the explosion.”

“So the 15-person group came from nearby and attacked you.”

“……That’s right.”

The 15-person group.

They garnered the fear of the other participants, but were also a ‘delicious prey’ that you could net the most points from.

The two hunting dogs that were preying on this target coincidentally crossed paths.

Callus and Doom.

Naturally, they growled at each other, and this commotion rang the ‘danger alarm’ of the 15-person group, who was nearby.

“Then what happened?”

“After hearing the explosion, Dylan Marken rounded up his teammates to come and attack us. We desperately defended, but since they had more than double our manpower, we couldn’t hold on forever. Four people were eliminated in an instant and me and another guy barely survived and escaped.”

Seven teammates were reduced by five in an instant.

And the only remaining two survivors were injured.

This could no longer be called a functional team.

That was how the candidate team for 2nd place was completely annihilated by the 1st place team.

However, this wasn’t the end.

“And then, Doom Prime appeared again.”

After talking calmly for so long, Callus exploded with rage at the end.

“Doom, that dishonourable bastard! He started the fight himself, and while the big battle was taking place, he went and hid in a safe space and only spectated until the end! And then afterwards, he chased us who were injured! That son of a bitch!”

“……”

Doom Prime, if we described him in a bad way,

Was craven.

He purposely spectated the fight and only moved when it was advantageous for him to do so.

But what could you do?

Since this was a battle royale with no rules but to survive, it was instead quite ridiculous to try to argue about a fair and honourable battle.

From what I could see, Doom definitely only cared about ‘gains’.

He started a large-scale battle, removed himself from the dangerous situation, and only fought afterwards when he was sure he would win.

Thanks to this, Callus’ injured teammate was the one who was eliminated, and Doom gained another kill point.

Callus, having survived alone like this, happened to wander to the western lodging.

“So actually…… Ruin, I know I’m being shameless, but can you accept me into your team?”

Callus asked with his tired spirit to have me accept him into my team.

But I couldn’t just make a quick decision.

It wasn’t just a matter of trusting him or not.

“……”

Wasn’t something off?

From a team of 7, the 6 others were eliminated and only he survived?

I sensed a weird discomfort and directly asked Callus again,

“Ok, so, Callus.”

“……Yeah?”

“How did you escape by yourself?”

While his fellow team member who was escaping with him was being attacked by Doom, how did Callus manage to escape by himself?

On top of that,

“And look at how injured you are…… If I were Doom Prime, I would have never let you go.”

“Uh? That’s true.”

Seta slammed his hands in agreement with my question.

“Hey, you! How the hell did you escape from that monstrous Doom Prime?”

“T-that’s……”

Callus’ response became odd.

He started to stutter, having become extremely flustered and confused.

“You’re definitely suspicious. Why aren’t you answering?”

“I-I don’t know. I-I just…… After running like a madman, I couldn’t see him after a bit, so……”

“……”

Why was it?

Why couldn’t he answer?

Three possibilities swept through my head in an instant.

I clenched down and grabbed Callus’ collar as he was sitting on the ground.

“Should I take a guess?”

First hypothesis.

“You’re lying right now.”

The most obvious answer.

Lying.

Next, the second hypothesis.

“To find his next targets, Doom Prime kept you alive on purpose and is watching us from somewhere right now. If not……”

Doom Prime’s elaborate scheme.

If it wasn’t that either,

It was the last one, the third.

????????????

Unable to be Identified.

I stared at Callus with a very cold gaze.

“……then you’re not Callus.”

* * *

* * *

Right.

The possibility that the guy sitting in front of me was a ‘fake’.

“……What? W-what are you on about……”

“……”

Callus’ face instantly went pale with fear as I punched straight down at him without hesitation.

This happened too fast for even Irene to react.

“You can’t!”

Crack!

My fist planted straight into Callus’ face without a moment’s notice.

Since I put in all my strength, it would’ve been enough to turn his skull into dust.

That was, of course, if he was a human.

“……”

As soon as my fist made contact, Callus……

No.

The ‘Dummy Doll’ that was in the form of Callus became pulverized, unable to scream, and the only thing left was the broken wooden floorboard.

Irene opened her eyes that she’d clenched shut.

“A dummy……?”

Yeah.

It was a dummy.

Even though we had seen it and touched it directly, it was an exquisitely crafted dummy that we couldn’t discern at all.

I lightly brushed off my hands and stood up.

“I don’t know who did it, but they played us like a fiddle.”

“T-this… How…?”

“I don’t know who made this, but one thing’s for certain. The person who made this dummy eliminated Callus. Meaning, there’s a high chance they also eliminated the other 6 members. Maybe…… what this dummy just said might not be all lies.”

A leaf and tree trunk, something which was commonly found on the island.

Coarsely combining things such as strands of Callus’ hair, they created this perfect ‘dummy’.

This couldn’t have been done by any ordinary magician.

They had to be an alchemist and also someone knowledgeable and proficient in Magical Item production.

Who could it be?

Then, Irene calmed down her surprised face and talked in a calm tone.

“I’m not certain… but I know of someone who could’ve done this.”

“Who is it?”

“Sherki. He’s the top student of Delphaniac Magic College and he has a good grasp on potion and dummy production.”

“If it’s Sherki……”

“Yes. Part of the 11 children, he’s currently in Dylan’s 15-person group.”

“……This is a problem.”

Yeah.

This was quite the problem.

It wasn’t just because he was in the most dangerous 15-person group and that I didn’t know who this perverted Sherki kid was.

“Seems we won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“…Yes. That’s true.”

The fact that the ‘dummy’ that Sherki made had found us meant that someone had already figured out where we were.

This also meant that my plan to survive on the outskirts as long as possible was in pieces, and I had to completely change our plans.

“What should we do now?”

“……”

I looked into the darkness beyond the window.

Right.

We had to leave this place immediately.

The 15-person group, Doom Prime, and all the other students who were fiercely fighting in that eye of the storm.

We had to go in there.

There was a possibility that the other side had already mobilized and was coming to attack us.

We couldn’t hesitate.

“We need to leave. Let’s move immediately.”

“Yes.”

“These bastards……! They dared to make fun of us with a doll? No matter how lawless this battle is, this is too unpleasant.”

Complained Seta as he quickly packed the bags, and I also moved to gather our things.

However,

“Wait.”

Irene Prius grabbed my wrist.

“Before we leave, I want to ask you something.”

“……”

“How did you confirm it? That Callus wasn’t real?”

It was simple.

First, I harboured some suspicion at Callus’ weird excuses,

Next, I used <Player’s Eye> to see if he was speaking the ‘truth’.

However, I didn’t know how to explain this to Irene.

I chose to answer it in a roundabout way while trying to pass it off with a smile.

“My intuition is pretty good.”

This phrase hid the meaning of, ‘don’t ask any more questions’,

“……You’re truly a suspicious person.”

Irene could only nod quietly, unable to do anything else.

* * *

An ambitious morning.

We left the western zone and headed East.

It was in the direction of the Central Village, where the most dangerous enemies were gathered.

The choice was unavoidable since the barrier would form when the sun rose and it would block the western path.

“Seems that there really is nowhere to hide anymore.”

“Yeah. Seems so.”

The area became smaller.

The barrier had restricted the areas we could move to and the places to hide in also slowly disappeared.

In this situation, there wasn’t even enough space to hide.

There were enemies in every direction and anyone could appear at any time.

What should we do in this situation?

Seta asked me,

“Ruin, do you have any good ideas?”

“No.”

“Hm…… I didn’t think such a thing would happen, but guess we can’t do much.”

“However, I have the best plan for right now.”

“Hm? What does that mean? It’s not a good idea, but it’s the best plan?”

“……”

The best plan that I could make in this situation.

And simultaneously, a bad idea.

“We’ll call out the hidden enemies.”

——