I rose to my feet, brushing off the shattered coral rubble.
There was a bruised ache in the muscles of my back, but my bones seemed to be fine.
‘This makes no sense.’
In terms of sheer power, I had definitely been a step above him.
It had been a force more powerful than a Hell Hound’s charge, but not to the point that I couldn’t handle it.
And yet the result had been a one-sided defeat.
“I’m going again!”
I kicked off the ground and charged in once more.
This time, not from the front, but from the side.
I drove in, aiming for the flank of its massive body.
Thud!
Once again, my fist made contact.
But it was the same this time as well.
The instant my fist touched its skin, all my force dispersed, as though I were slipping across an ice rink drenched in oil.
The condensed destructive power failed to transfer, merely skimming across the surface of its body.
Kwaaaang!
Unable to withstand the aftershock of my own charge, I was flung away helplessly again and rolled across the floor.
“How is he doing that?”
Ailex’s puzzled voice came from far away.
He was watching me with his chin propped on his hand.
“Is that human summoned beast sane? If he were an ordinary human, his organs would have burst and killed him by now. Don’t tell me Rosenhart has been continuously casting healing magic on him?”
His gaze swiftly swept over Yurika.
“It doesn’t look that way… Or did she raise his defense beforehand?”
“What are you talking about…… Ptoo.”
I spat out the metallic-tasting saliva pooled in my mouth.
My whole body throbbed, but I could still endure it.
For now.
The problem was that strange slipping.
If I couldn’t figure out the principle behind why my strength wasn’t getting through, this fight would end as nothing more than a one-sided beating.
If the person standing behind me right now had been Yustia instead of Yurika...
She would have seen through the nature of that strange slipping in an instant and told me the countermeasure in a clear voice.
She would have read the flow of magic I couldn’t perceive and precisely pointed out that giant whale’s weakness.
At the very least, I could have asked her to cast the necessary buffs.
If I’d had even a simple enhancement spell that maximized my attack power or granted friction to my fists, the situation might have been different.
I was definitely several times stronger than I had been on Earth.
But at the moment I needed one the most, I had no corner man to entrust my back to.
Before the bizarre ability of an opponent I was seeing for the first time, I could do nothing but crash into it with my bare body.
“Let’s end this now.”
Ailex spoke quietly, as if declaring the finish.
Boredom seeped into his voice.
“Water Pressure Cannon.”
At his command, the giant whale opened its abyssal maw.
Within it, condensed blue mana swirled, then became a pillar of water packed with tremendous pressure and shot toward me.
Kwaaaaaaaaa—!
Along with a roar that seemed to tear space apart, a pressure like dozens of tons of water pouring down slammed into my entire body.
My vision was dyed entirely blue, and pain like my bones were being crushed pierced through me.
But I planted both feet into the floor and endured it.
Crossing my arms to shield my face, I tensed every muscle in my body like steel and took the surging pressure head-on.
I put so much strength into my legs that the muddy floor caved in, barely managing to stop myself from being pushed back.
“……What?”
When the water column cleared, Ailex’s flustered voice rang out.
“He withstood that?”
He narrowed his eyes in disbelief.
It seemed that the sight of me still standing after taking an attack he had been certain was a finishing blow had completely defied his common sense.
Ailex stared at me for a moment, then snapped his fingers as though he had lost interest.
“Ahem… Well, you’re not even worth defeating.”
In that instant, the deep-sea scenery surrounding us shattered like glass and scattered.
As my vision brightened, the quiet library shelves and soft lighting came back into view.
“I’ve seen enough of your ability. I came here with pointless expectations.”
“No, wait. You’re just leaving like this?”
When I hurriedly tried to stop him, Ailex halted and turned only his head slightly.
In his eyes was contempt, along with a trace of annoyance.
“Is there any reason to continue?”
He shrugged and looked me up and down as if he were looking at an insect.
“In any case, you can never defeat my Leviathan. Rosenhart, was it…? You just keep disappointing me. Assigned not to the top class, but to some special class, and I suppose those grand rumors were nothing but an illusion in the end.”
After spitting out one last insult, he turned away without hesitation.
Once again, the sound of his footsteps echoed through the silent library and receded into the distance.
His back was the very picture of arrogance, leaving after saying only what he wanted to say to the very end.
“No, that rude bastard!”
Behind me, Yurika stamped her feet, unable to contain her anger.
“I’m telling you, I’m not the young lady! And our Taesan is amazing, so who does he think he is, judging him like that?!”
The book in her hands shook violently.
At that sight, a laugh escaped me.
It had been an absurdly one-sided defeat, but strangely, I didn’t feel all that bad.
Rather, something hot seemed to be boiling up from deep within my chest.
“That, that bastard really……!”
Yurika fumed for a long while in the direction Ailex had disappeared, then turned as though she had made up her mind.
“This won’t do. I have to tell the young lady everything!”
She vanished between the shelves with urgent steps.
Her voice shouting, “Young lady!” grew distant and faintly dissolved into the library’s stillness.
A short while later, Yustia appeared, practically dragged over by Yurika’s hand.
She looked back and forth between my thoroughly disheveled state and the surrounding mess, then furrowed her brow.
“What on earth happened, Mr. Taesan?”
Worry was mixed into her calm voice.
“Yurika came and said someone from Imperial had come looking for us.”
“I’m not sure either. Someone named Ailex, the top entrant, came looking for us and suddenly challenged me to a battle.”
At my answer, Yustia’s brows twitched faintly.
Her gaze lingered for a moment on the scratch marks left on the floor and the fragments of the broken desks.
“Suddenly? I didn’t hear any battle noise at all.”
Yurika, who had been stamping her feet beside us until then, jumped in.
“Young lady, it just suddenly! Really suddenly! The library turned into something like the bottom of the sea! And over theeeeeere on the ceiling, there was a huge whale swimming around!”
Yustia’s gaze flashed sharply.
“Field magic…? If he set up a barrier strong enough that not a single sound leaked out in a place like this, it must have been the domain of a top-grade summoned beast.”
I brushed off the dust and added,
“And that thing called Leviathan. I couldn’t hit it at all. Every time my fist touched it, it slipped off.”
Yustia took a small notebook and pen from the inner pocket of her jacket.
She began flipping through the pages with quick movements, searching for something.
Her lips moved slightly as she repeated the name.
“Ailex…… Ailex…… Top student of Eternoa, first-year student of Imperial. And… found it.”
The tip of her pen pointed precisely to one spot.
“It’s recorded that he commands the domain summoned beast Leviathan’s Table, and that summoned beast possesses Deep-Sea Scale Skin.”
“Deep-Sea Scale Skin?”
When I asked about the unfamiliar term, Yustia continued explaining without taking her eyes off the notebook.
“Yes. It’s a trait that forms a thin film of mana over the surface of the summoned beast’s skin, causing all physical blows to slip away and raising its evasion rate to an extreme degree. It’s almost impossible to overcome with simple force.”
Her voice, laced with cold anger, sank low.
Yustia closed the notebook and cast an icy gaze in the direction Ailex had disappeared.
“Despicable and underhanded. He must have deliberately targeted you, Mr. Taesan, while I wasn’t here. To use such a cowardly trick…”
“Mm… I don’t think that’s it, though.”
I rubbed my chin as I recalled Ailex’s bizarre attitude.
“That guy mistook Yurika for you. He didn’t even give us time to explain and just pushed ahead with the battle.”
“What? What do you mean……?”
Yustia’s eyes widened.
Her gaze turned to Yurika standing beside her.
Yurika tilted her head, looking as if she had no idea what was going on.
“He was kind of a strange guy.”
An arrogance and self-righteousness that couldn’t be understood by common sense.
He was the type of person who saw only what he wanted to see and believed only what he wanted to believe.
After mistaking Yurika for Yustia, he got disappointed on his own, drew his own conclusions, and left on his own.
***
The Imperial Lounge, where a dazzling chandelier poured down brilliant light.
Around a table made of the finest acacia wood, the academy’s apex predators had gathered.
They were enjoying the composure of victors as they shared idle conversation on a languid afternoon.
Creeeak—
The heavy lounge door opened, and Ailex entered with a triumphant expression.
“Oh. You’re back? Did you meet that human summoned beast we’d only heard rumors about?”
Ailex strode confidently to the table and sat in an empty seat.
As if he were some victorious general, he lifted his chin and began recounting what had just happened like a tale of valor.
“Of course, seniors. I found Rosenhart studying in the city library, unfolded Leviathan’s Table, and fought a battle. I dealt with him more easily than expected.”
His voice was clearly mixed with arrogance and the desire to show off his achievement before his seniors.
“To give you the conclusion first, he was a complete illusion. He was merely a little tough. Before my Leviathan, he couldn’t even throw a proper punch and was sent flying. I had expected something, since he was Rosenhart’s summoned beast, but he only disappointed me.”
When Ailex’s report ended, the lounge filled, as if on cue, with laughter dripping with contempt.
“Kekeke, I knew it. As if someone from some special admission track could dare exist under the same sky as us.”
“Rosenhart, huh… That family is on its last legs too. Going around with such rootless things and calling them summoned beasts.”