Amid the dust, Evan trembled as he drew in ragged breaths.
His eyes were stained with fear and astonishment.
I slowly lowered my fist and cooled the heat boiling up inside me.
A thrilling shiver ran down my spine.
“Hah, hah…….”
He planted a trembling hand on the ground and tried to push his upper body up, but his powerless lower half did not move an inch.
Evan stared blankly down at his empty palm in disbelief, then slowly raised his head and fixed his gaze on me.
In his eyes, the composure from moments ago had been replaced by a deep tremor.
“To think you tore space apart and created a shock wave with pure muscle strength… without a single trace of magic power. What truly absurd strength.”
He let out a hollow laugh.
“For me to maintain spiritification, the density of magic power has to remain above a certain level, but that strike of yours shattered the flow of mana in the surrounding area itself.”
Evan struggled to steady his breathing and reached a hand toward me.
It was unclear whether he was asking for a handshake, or whether he simply wanted to confirm this unbelievable being before him.
“I have no choice but to acknowledge it. Mr. Taesan, this is your victory.”
Even as his gaze admitted defeat, it burned with a strange heat.
At his words, Justia approached with a shrug.
“See? What did I tell you? Mr. Taesan is different.”
She looked down at Evan with a triumphant expression.
“At this rate, the day we have our first battle with the professor should be quite the spectacle, no?”
“Come on, let’s get you up.”
Brushing off the dust, I held out my hand to the fallen Evan.
I carefully wrapped my hand around his bony arm, lifted him lightly, and seated him in his wheelchair.
“Thank you.”
Evan nodded weakly.
On his hand, the exhausted spirit flickered and shimmered.
It looked precarious, like a candle flame on the verge of going out.
“Thanks. I think I got a big hint because of you.”
Justia approached and spoke.
“I thought Mr. Taesan would have no resistance whatsoever to special summons because he has no magic power, but after actually clashing with him, I learned that it’s possible to twist space with physical force. If anything, the key to breaking through an unfavorable matchup was right here.”
“No, I’m the one who should be grateful.”
Evan gave a bitter smile as he stared at the flickering spirit on his hand.
“To be honest, I was being careless. If I’d been hit by that for the first time during the Grand Battle… it would have been dreadful. I think I underestimated physical-type summons too much, relying only on my spiritification ability.”
He raised his head and met Justia’s gaze.
“You gave me the chance to research a way to respond to that kind of shock wave.”
“Then it’s a win-win for both of us.”
Justia smiled and lightly patted Evan’s shoulder.
***
Perched on the lectern, Raven tapped the blackboard with a bored expression.
A grotesque hand, nothing but a severed wrist, was crawling across the blackboard, scattering chalk dust.
“The defining trait of the most common summons based on physical force is that they have no particular weakness. At the same time, they also fail to gain any particular advantage in terms of compatibility. That’s why they’re usually summoned as the vanguard in battles. No matter what the opponent brings out, they can respond on an average level.”
The students rubbed their sleepy eyes as they took notes or stared blankly at the blackboard.
Only Justia’s eyes shone as she busily moved her quill, as though determined not to miss a single word Raven said.
Just then, the silence was broken by the sound of wheelchair wheels rolling.
“Professor, I have a question.”
Evan raised his hand.
Raven twitched an eyebrow as if he found it troublesome.
“What is it, Evan?”
“Is there a way for an ordinary physical-force-based summon to defeat a special summon without using magic power at all?”
Raven burst into a snort of laughter.
“As if such a thing exists. Special summons are fundamentally creatures whose physical bodies are faint, or nonexistent altogether. If you want to damage them, your attack has to at least be imbued with magic power. It’s no different from saying you’ll beat a ghost to death with your bare fists.”
It was merely an extremely common-sense answer, the sort one might find in a textbook.
But Evan did not back down.
“Hypothetically speaking.”
He paused for a moment, then glanced toward Justia before continuing.
“What about causing damage by sending a shock wave through space?”
Raven’s eyes narrowed.
He stared intently at Evan, seemingly intrigued.
“You’re more academically curious than I thought.”
Raven called back the wrist summon crawling across the blackboard and placed it on his shoulder.
“Of course, theoretically, such a method exists. Using terrain or causing an impact powerful enough to alter the flow of the atmosphere to deal indirect damage. However….”
He shook his head.
“In practice, it’s impossible. Ending a battle by landing an effective hit with shock waves alone? Unless there’s an enormous gap in level, that’s nonsense. Do you think your eardrums would burst if I clapped beside your ear all day?”
Justia lowered her head, desperately holding back the smile spreading across her lips.
“To do something like that, the summon itself would have to be a walking disaster. Maybe if it had the monstrous strength to split a mountain barehanded.”
“In that case, Professor.”
Undeterred by Raven’s firm denial, Evan spoke again.
“If one were to truly encounter such a monster, what would be the best way to deal with it?”
Raven set down the chalk with a sharp tap.
As if he rather liked Evan’s persistent questioning, the corners of his mouth curled upward.
“Simple. You’d have to change the battle environment to somewhere that monster can’t exert its strength. Somewhere shock waves don’t resonate as well.”
He flicked a finger at the summon on his shoulder.
“For instance, underwater. Water pressure interferes with the transmission of shock waves and slows movement. No matter how monstrously strong someone is, they wouldn’t be able to exert even half their strength in underwater combat.”
At those words, Justia’s quill stopped dead.
Without lifting her head, she rolled only her eyes and glared at the back of Evan’s head.
‘That bastard… he’s already thinking of his next move.’
As if he sensed her gaze, Evan nodded with an invisible smile.
“Underwater… I see. Thank you, Professor.”
“Now then, that’s enough useless chatter for today.”
Raven let out a wide, bored yawn and tossed the wrist summon into the air.
“Remember this. If you want to survive until Friday, focus less on useless questions and more on coordinating with your ‘half-baked’ summons. Dismissed.”
With his indifferent exit, sighs of relief spread through the classroom.
The students gathered their bags one by one and scattered in small groups.
Justia put away her writing tools, moved naturally behind Evan, and gripped the handles of his wheelchair.
“Let’s go.”
“Thanks.”
The two of them headed out into the corridor side by side.
The afternoon sunlight pouring in through the windows cast long streaks across the hallway.
“Are you sure it’s all right to reveal it that openly?”
Justia spoke first.
Her voice carried both playful reproach and curiosity.
“If it isn’t a countermeasure strong enough that the opponent still can’t respond even after knowing about it, then it’s useless to begin with.”
Evan answered calmly, tapping the wheels of his wheelchair.
“And that human summon of yours. After facing him myself, I realized he’s already far beyond the academy level. I also realized there’s no chance of winning with half-baked tricks or surprise tactics.”
“Hmm… underwater, huh. Think you can pull it off?”
She asked as though worried, but her eyes were already sparkling as if she had finished her calculations.
“I’ll have to do my best with the summoning ritual. It won’t be easy to target and summon a specific individual among the spirits that can control water, though.”
“Then I’ll have to draw a new individual that fits that strategy, won’t I?”
A peculiar smile spread across Justia’s lips.
The end of the corridor grew noisy.
“What’s going on?”
Justia tilted her head and turned Evan’s wheelchair in that direction.
Beyond the wall of students, a familiar back of a head came into view.
“I wish to receive the Void Badge.”
A boy stood in Raven’s way and shouted boldly.
It was Elvis, the fourth prince of the Kingdom of Gordin.
His voice overflowed with the arrogance and spirit unique to royalty.
Raven yawned widely as if annoyed and waved a hand.
“I told you. You can challenge a professor on Friday.”
“And you also said that anyone could challenge you at any time.”
Elvis shot back without retreating.
Raven let out a dumbfounded laugh.
“Hah. Fine. If that’s what you want.”
Raven took something palm-sized from his pocket.
It was a summon in the shape of a severed wrist, with pitch-black smoke rising from it.
“You know this, don’t you? Normally, no professor gives out a badge in the first battle.”
“I don’t care.”
Elvis smiled confidently, took a small lump of stone from his robes, and threw it to the floor.
Thud—
The moment the object, which had looked like a simple pebble, touched the ground.
It began swelling with a harsh noise.
Crunch, crack!
Rock and earth clumped together, and in an instant, it transformed into a massive golem that easily towered over a person.
Its tremendous weight pressed down on the corridor floor.
“Can Void beat rock in terms of compatibility?”
Standing behind the giant golem, Elvis glared at Raven as though provoking him.
“And since the summon you have with you right now appears to be only that one, this really seems like an opportunity.”