Kichijouji was looping around the fringe of the arena as he advanced
towards First High's monolith. When he came within 100 meters of
First High's territory, Leo barred his path.
Finding it odd that the defender was so far forward, Kichijouji fired
off an "Invisible Bullet" as he ruminated on this.
No, more like he was about to fire.
"Wha?"
In front of him, a black wall obscured his gaze. Leo had removed his
mantle and held it unfurled before him.
A metallic plate flashed towards Kichijouji's flank like a storm of
blades.
Facing the flying blade from the Weaponized Integrated CAD,
Kichijouji immediately activated Move-Type Magic and sprang
backwards to avoid the blow.
On its heels, a powerful gust chased after him.
Kichijouji used Weight-Type Magic to reduce inertia his body was
suffering and used the force of the wind to reduce the gust attack.
(How meddlesome!)
Kichijouji muttered in his mind and aimed the "Invisible Bullet" at
Mikihiko.
He chose to first remove this irksome fire support.
However, the moment his gaze fell across the gray robes, he was
suddenly unable to detect the target's proximity.
Like a heat wave disrupting the focal point of a camera, the gray
figure became fuzzy and hard to grasp.
(Illusions!?)
They had taken advantage of the fact that "Invisible Bullet" required
visual confirmation. The moment Kichijouji realized this, he also
detected the blade of the "Mini Communicator" slashing downwards
at his head. Unable to dodge, he could only close his eyes and await
the impact.
"Gah!"
Yet, Leo was the one who cried out in pain as if all the air had been
forcibly expelled from his lungs.
The blade Leo swung was sent off target and buried itself into the
earth. Leo was flung aside by the blast and crumpled to the floor.
"Masaki!"
He was saved! Sparing the words of thanks, Kichijouji called out the
name of his protector.
Kichijouji, who had completely fallen into the enemy's trap, was
plucked out of danger by Masaki, who was still bombarding Tatsuya's
position.
His fingers quickly danced across the screen of his CAD as Kichijouji
brought up Weight-Type Magic.
The force of gravity abruptly intensified, sending Mikihiko
"plummeting" downwards helplessly.
Kichijouji abandoned fixating on his favorite magic and poured on the
magic to crush Mikihiko into the earth.
Completely suppressed, Mikihiko could only expel the crushed air out
of his mouth.
Tatsuya did not idly watch this scene pass by.
The split second that Masaki diverted his attention to Kichijouji,
Tatsuya immediately closed the gap to within 5 meters.
For someone with Tatsuya's physical skills, this was but a paltry
display of his prowess.
Yet, his target still remained one step away.
Masaki's face clearly betrayed his agitation.
Rather than being a panic brought on by terror, the instincts of a
soldier who had survived the battlefield told him he was in danger.
A continuous chain of sixteen compressed air bullets, far surpassing
the limits laid down by the rules, came swarming towards Tatsuya.
The Counter Magic Gram Demolition was a technique that used
compressed psions as bullets to forcibly eradicate Magic Sequences.
Due to its forceful nature, this was a highly inefficient technique.
Unknown to the common man, Magic Sequences also differed in
strength.
The Magic Sequences forged by someone of Masaki's caliber could
not be so easily disassembled, so overwhelming force was used to
forcibly annihilate it, which required an outrageous amount of
compressed psions. Even for Tatsuya, this was not an inconsiderable
sum, though it was far beyond what an average Magician could
produce even if they spent the entire day working at it.
Yet in this instant, he had to dispel 16 shots.
Even though Tatsuya instantly made the call that Gram Demolition
wasn't going to make it in time, he resolutely refused to use
"Decomposition". He stubbornly stuck to his orders to keep classified
magic under wraps.
He hid the fact that he was capable of "decomposing" information
structures through "Gram Dispersal" and met the attack with "Gram
Demolition".
The ensuing result was a given.
After bringing down 14 of the shots, the last two hits struck home on
Tatsuya's body.
Seeing Tatsuya begin to crumple towards his feet, Masaki spat out
"Shit!" in deep regret.
While in a complete flight or fight mode, he had released magic that
surpassed the rules for destructive power. He realized this point the
moment he released his magic.
This was only a few seconds after the fact, so the panel of judges
might not have noticed yet.
The red flag hadn't been raised yet, but he was profoundly aware that
he was about to be disqualified for violating the rules.
That realization caused precious seconds to slip from Masaki's hands.
His mind was completely blank as he concluded that there was
nothing he could do to avert that.
[Multiple rib fracture. Liver ruptured. Massive internal bleeding.]
[Combat level dropping below optimal conditions]
[Auto Restoration Ability Auto Activate]
[Magic Sequence Uploading]
[Core · Eidos · Data Retrieving from storage]
[Restoration Commence — Complete]
—This sequence was completed even before Tatsuya could even
consciously realize this.