Evan gripped the handles of his wheelchair tightly.
His shallow breath cut through the dry air and scattered.
“Now then, shall we begin? It should be rather entertaining to watch some nameless special class brat struggle.”
Lucian raised his hand with an arrogant smile.
At his fingertips, violet mana sparked and began drawing a geometric summoning circle in midair.
“Come forth, swarm of poisonous moths!”
No sooner had the summoning circle been completed than a swarm of poisonous moths, each as large as an adult’s head, came pouring out, scattering nauseating scales.
Dozens of poisonous moths covered the field in black, beating their wings with an unpleasant sound.
“Go! Tear out that insolent bastard’s windpipe!”
At Lucian’s command, the swarm of poisonous moths surged toward the field all at once.
The lethal poison filling the air rose like a heat haze, tightening around Evan’s throat.
But Evan did not waver.
His blue eyes gleamed coldly.
A dazzling white light erupted from Evan’s body as if exploding outward.
Lucian’s eyes flew wide in shock.
Instead of bone and flesh, a radiant flow of aether formed his shape.
Sssssss—
The deadly powder emitted by the poisonous moths touched Evan’s body, but it vanished like melting snow, unable to inflict even the slightest damage.
A spiritized body was a barrier that completely nullified material poison.
“Wh-what is this…!”
Lucian’s brow twisted.
He hurriedly waved his hand, controlling the swarm of poisonous moths circling in the air.
“Scatter your powder! Melt him down completely!”
Dozens of poisonous moths began circling over the field all at once with an unpleasant beating of wings.
Ash-gray scales poured down like snowflakes, covering the dry earth of the desert field.
Sssssss—
As the poisonous powder seeped between the grains of sand, a faint crackling sound rose from the tips of Evan’s white-glowing feet where they touched the ground.
His spiritized body possessed perfect resistance to direct physical attacks, but against toxic mana that encroached upon the field over a wide area, his mana was gradually being gnawed away.
“If I drag this out, it’ll become dangerous.”
Evan’s calm voice flowed out from within the wavering light.
His blue eyes flashed sharply, as though he had finished making his calculations.
“Cough, cough!”
“Hey, isn’t that poison? Don’t get too close!”
The students watching from outside the battle field were startled by the poison spreading in all directions and hurriedly covered their mouths and noses with their sleeves.
Yet, as if unwilling to miss the rare spectacle of spiritization magic clashing with an Imperial, they did not scatter. Instead, their eyes shone as they gathered even more densely.
A suffocating tension filled the corridor.
“Poison moth swarm! Scatter into the air!”
Lucian’s urgent shout burst out.
Lucian poured mobility spells into the poisonous moth swarm, trying to toy with Evan through speed.
Dozens of poisonous moths shot into the air like a black whirlwind, scattering deadly powder across the entire field.
“How laughable.”
But a relaxed smile spread across Evan’s lips.
Flash!
Evan’s spiritized body drew a trail of light as it crossed the field in an instant.
A speed that tore through the air before the poisonous powder could even touch him.
“Th-that insane speed!”
Lucian’s eyes filled with shock.
Before he could even react, Evan slipped in behind him.
The dazzling light mana completely seized Lucian’s blind spot, tightening around him from every direction.
“Kh…!”
A groan burst from Lucian’s mouth.
Evan’s form flashed from all sides, creating trails of light that cut through the air.
Dazzling white mana lashed the dry earth like a whip, and sand dust surged up with a roar, blurring his vision.
Lucian gritted his teeth and twisted his body.
It was all he could do to narrowly avoid the downpour of light, and deep fear began to settle in his eyes.
“Is that all? The skill of an Imperial.”
Evan’s voice sank coldly as it circled the field.
That single mocking remark scraped sharply against Lucian’s nerves, but he could not even find an opening to counterattack and only retreated.
Boom! Boom!
Every place Evan’s strikes grazed erupted in shattered rock, fragments scattering through the air.
Before the overwhelming firepower pressing in like a beast, Lucian’s defensive line was collapsing helplessly.
However, Evan’s brow, which had seemed to have seized control of the field, narrowed ever so slightly.
‘…I’ve slowed down.’
The moment he kicked off the ground with his spiritized body, a strange sense of wrongness climbed up from his toes.
The ash-gray scales Lucian had scattered.
The poisonous powder that had seeped between the grains of sand had, before he knew it, encroached upon the entire field.
Where the poison touched his body of light, it slowly dulled, and his footwork grew heavy as if he had sunk into a swamp.
Like clothes getting soaked in a drizzle, the deadly poison that had seeped in began to slowly gnaw away at Evan’s overwhelming mobility.
“Hah, hahahahaha!”
Laughter burst from between Lucian’s lips.
The unsightly figure that had been retreating as if chased by Evan’s fierce assault was nowhere to be found.
“A mere nameless special admission dares speak of speed before me?”
Lucian ostentatiously cracked his neck.
His gaze, shoulders thrown back in arrogance, turned behind him.
There, the Imperial seniors still stood with their arms crossed, watching as though this were an interesting spectacle.
After confirming the seniors’ gazes, arrogant confidence filled Lucian’s eyes.
Drunk on the relief that he had not disgraced the honor of the Chartour family and the superiority of being able to trample a worthless commoner, he raised his voice.
“My deadly poison is not an attack skill! It’s a debuff skill that gnaws through even your pitiful spiritization down to the bone!”
Lucian stretched both arms into the air with exaggerated movements.
“Now, I’ll make you feel in your bones who the prey really is!”
Murky violet mana exploded from his fingertips.
“Poison moth swarm! Melt that insect-like bastard until nothing remains!”
No sooner had the order been given than the dozens of poisonous moths circling the field changed direction all at once.
The black cloud, scattering ash-gray scales and making an unpleasant sound, began raining down like a carpet bombing toward Evan, whose feet were trapped as though sunk in a swamp.
“Kh…!”
Evan’s jaw hardened.
The white cluster of light covering the surface of his spiritized body rapidly corroded with a crackling sound.
The pain of having his mana gnawed away was a chilling sensation, qualitatively different from a physical wound—his very existence was becoming indistinct.
Bang! Boom!
Murky violet mana bullets fired from the tips of the moths’ wings struck around Evan in succession.
He barely twisted his upper body to avoid a direct hit, but Evan’s feet, pushed back by the shockwave, dug deep into the dry earth.
“It’s not over yet!”
Lucian’s madness-laced shout struck his ears.
Sssssss—
“Damn it…”
Evan’s brow contorted in pain.
The more strength he used to pull his feet free, the more the sand swamp tightened around him, dragging him deeper into the abyss.
“Hah… Fine, if that’s how it is.”
Crackle—
The dazzling white cluster of light enveloping him suddenly crumbled.
The white spiritization that had sparkled with aether was dispelled, revealing his original fragile body in a fleeting opening.
Swaaaaaash!
The space around Evan rippled as if being crushed, and the refreshing sound of waves burst from the air.
Deep blue water energy violently swallowed the place where the white light had vanished.
The deep, cool color of the abyssal sea swiftly overlaid Evan’s skin.
A water spirit.
“This is…?”
No sooner had clear droplets formed at Evan’s fingertips, now clad in a new spirit, than they became buckshot containing sharp water pressure and scattered in every direction.
Tatadak! Tadak!
A shower wetting the dry sand.
The streams of water that tore through the air poured down precisely toward the poisonous moth swarm.
The wings of the poisonous moths, which had boasted mobility while scattering light, dry scales, became hopelessly soaked as they took on heavy moisture.
“Wh-what the hell!”
The flight altitude of the poisonous moth swarm plummeted.
With waterlogged wings, they could not make use of the advantage of aerial combat.
“Your shallow trap ends here.”
Evan’s form emerged through the curtain of water, gliding across the ground.
The compressed water pressure shot from Evan’s fingertips tore through the air and burst forth.
Booooom!
Spray scattered in every direction, mercilessly sweeping away the drenched poisonous moths.
Moths with broken, torn wings dropped one by one onto the dry earth.
At the instant clear droplets, washed clean of poison, scattered through the air, Evan’s form blurred and melted into the fragments.
As if he had never been there in the first place, leaving only a blue afterimage behind, he vanished as though being sucked into a summoning circle floating in midair.
“You… damn bastard!”
Lucian’s mouth twisted hideously.
All that remained in the air were the remains of poisonous moths with torn wings and damp, soaked sand.
His gaze hurriedly turned behind him.
The cold eyes of the Imperial seniors watching with their arms crossed pricked his skin.
‘I can’t end it like this.’
A disgrace to the Chartour family.
The humiliation of being toyed with by a lowly commoner made Lucian’s jaw muscles spasm.
He gritted his teeth and stretched his hand into the air.
“Fine. It seems that odd way of fighting of yours had some effect. I’ll praise you for that.”
He forced his voice to sound composed, but thick killing intent gleamed in his eyes.
“But your petty tricks end here.”
Grrrrrr—!
A low, hoarse beastly growl that shook the ground vibrated throughout the entire battle field.
The poison pouring from behind Lucian condensed, forming the shape of a gigantic reptile.
The superior summoned beast, Basilisk.
The savage beast, containing the worst deadly poison Lucian never tired of boasting about, coiled its body and revealed its dreadful majesty upon the field.