Grrrrrr—!
Paaat!
The instant a massive avalanche of sand erupted beneath my feet, I kicked off the ground half a beat faster.
Kwaaaang!
The basilisk’s massive head surged up, snapping at empty air.
Its venom-laden jaws savagely chewed and swallowed the spot where I had been standing only a moment ago, but my body had already spun lightly half a turn in midair and slipped into its blind spot.
Sssssss—
The beast, having missed its prey, twisted its body irritably and burrowed back beneath the sand.
I landed lightly and caught my breath.
“All you do is run around—like a damn rat!”
Lucian’s urgent shout rang across the Battle Field.
The words were mocking, but the end of his voice trembled faintly.
He must have wanted to crush me in one stroke while the Imperial seniors watched, but since he couldn’t keep up with my mobility at all, it seemed he was burning up inside.
“I heard you crawled like an insect in front of the Leviathan. Are you going to do nothing but buzz around like a fly in front of my basilisk?”
A provocation full of empty bravado.
But I wasn’t the one who responded to that pathetic taunt.
“How low-class.”
Justia’s cold, sunken voice cut in from behind me.
“I heard the Chartur family hasn’t produced a single Academy graduate. I suppose they teach you how to console yourself by picking at other people’s weaknesses first?”
“W-what……!”
“What a sight, stamping your feet because you can’t catch someone with barely that much mobility. Your flimsy pride reeks more rotten than the venom your basilisk spews.”
Justia’s cold eyes pierced Lucian.
Her perfect diction, laced with arrogance and ridicule, was more than enough to snap Lucian’s nerves.
“You crazy……!”
Lucian’s face flushed red and blue.
His shoulders began to tremble minutely with rage.
A hunter who had lost his composure.
That fleeting disturbance was exactly the moment I had been waiting for.
“Can’t you do anything unless someone else sets the table for you?”
Not a trace of warmth remained in Justia’s voice.
Her gaze went past Lucian, toward the Imperial seniors standing behind him with their arms crossed.
“You sure are good at scurrying around inside the field your seniors set up for you. Not your basilisk—you.”
“W-what the hell is that supposed to……!”
“You thought I wouldn’t know? Professor Raven’s class already exposed that trick. Even students without summoned beasts know your basilisk’s mobility increases on sandy terrain.”
Justia’s frigid voice split the narrow corridor.
“If your seniors hadn’t turned this corridor into a sand field ahead of time, would you really have lasted this long against Evan? No, you wouldn’t have even had the courage to step forward in the first place.”
Lucian’s face flushed red and blue.
The bewilderment and shame of being hit where it hurt were paralyzing his reason.
“T-that’s skill and strategy! Shut up!”
Lucian shrieked and thrust his hand into the air.
The mana of the boy, who had lost his reason to rage, surged violently as if running wild.
“Basilisk! Tear those arrogant bastards apart!”
Kraaaaang!
The basilisk that had been hiding beneath the sand surged upward, opening its enormous maw.
A murky violet aura, laden with deadly poison, swept in like a tidal wave.
But I had already read its movement.
A beast that had lost its reason and exposed the trajectory of its attack completely.
Paaat!
Kraaaaaang!
The basilisk’s enormous jaws charged toward me defenselessly.
Its massive body shot up from beneath the sand, and its murky violet venom flooded the corridor like a tidal wave.
“If I can see it.”
A low, sunken voice slipped from between my lips.
Paaat!
The trajectory of a beast lunging in after losing its reason to rage.
That simple murderous intent was captured clearly in my eyes, as if frozen on a still frame.
I twisted my upper body, letting the venomous maw flying in to bite through empty air graze past me by a hair’s breadth.
The disgusting poison brushed my cheek.
“I’ll drive it straight in.”
I stomped hard on the collapsing sandy terrain.
The ground was unstable, but the muscles in my legs, brimming with strength, were more than enough to wring out an explosive recoil.
Kwaang!
With the sound of air being torn apart, my body shot up above the basilisk’s crown.
The condensed brute strength that had even crushed the Hell Hound’s flaming charge settled heavily into my right arm.
Shuuuuuk—!
With a sound that split the wind, my fist drove down toward the basilisk’s crown.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
A deafening roar shook the entire Battle Field.
“N-no……!”
At the same time as Lucian’s despairing scream, the enormous beast’s eyes rolled white.
Its massive body, struck directly on the crown, couldn’t even let out a death cry before it was flung helplessly through the air.
Kudangtang!
The basilisk tumbled across the floor, scattering sand dust in every direction, then went limp.
Wooooong—!
Above it, the air distorted grotesquely, and a huge summoning circle unfolded.
The summoned beast that had been spewing sinister venom had been subdued in a single blow, and as if being sucked into a black hole, vanished beyond the summoning circle without a trace.
“Hah… haah……!”
A beastlike panting burst from Lucian’s mouth.
His pupils, staring vacantly at the place where the basilisk had been flung away, shook violently in disbelief.
It was the moment his petty pride—his attempt to wash away the disgrace of the Chartur family and enter Imperial—was shattered to pieces by a single punch from me.
Paseuseuseu—
Just then, as his mana was completely exhausted, the sand field filling the narrow corridor began to scatter like a mirage.
The foul aura of venom and damp sand dust cleared away, revealing the original marble floor in its smooth state.
“Waaaaah!”
“Holy shit, did you see that? He sent a basilisk flying with his bare fist!”
“Insane! For a human, he’s no joke!”
Cheers burst like a flood from the crowd of students who had been holding their breath while watching the battle.
Their gazes, as they pointed at me with excited faces and chattered, were tinged with awe.
On the other hand, the expressions of the Imperial seniors standing behind me with their arms crossed had gone cold and stiff.
They looked at the cheers pouring toward me with displeasure and shook their heads.
“A basilisk with one punch? Are you kidding me?”
“How the hell did Ailex’s Leviathan beat a monster like that?”
“Wasn’t that just because that bastard Lucian is fucking trash?”
The mocking voices cut openly through the corridor.
Their gazes now passed over me and fixed mercilessly on Lucian, who had slumped to the floor.
“You spent the last few days diligently following at our heels and wagging your tail. Serves you right.”
“Can’t be helped. In the end, Imperial prioritizes skill.”
The seniors’ cold words became daggers that stabbed into Lucian’s back.
As if they didn’t have the slightest sympathy for a loser, they clicked their tongues and turned away.
“Kraaaaagh! You goddamn…!”
A beastlike scream burst from Lucian’s mouth.
As the seniors’ cold sneers and contemptuous gazes poured down on him, his face flushed red and blue with rage and shame.
He had gone to such lengths to join Imperial, yet all his plans had been shattered by a single punch from me.
“Just you wait! I’ll make you pay for this humiliation! On the name of the Chartur family, I’ll trample every last one of you!”
Lucian jabbed his finger into the air, his voice choked with spite.
But the threat merely scattered emptily.
Unable to endure the mocking gazes of the surrounding students, he glared once at the empty air where the basilisk that had rolled across the floor and fainted had disappeared, then fled toward the end of the corridor without looking back.
“Haa…….”
Once that unsightly back had completely vanished from sight, a deep sigh of relief came from behind me.
Tadadak!
With light footsteps, someone slipped in behind me.
“Taesan!”
It was Justia.
Her usual cool and haughty appearance was nowhere to be found as she wrapped her arms tightly around my broad back and gasped for breath.
“Th-thank goodness. Thank goodness, really….”
A relieved sigh escaped her.
Her voice was trembling faintly.
I could feel, in full, the desperation with which she trusted and relied on me.
I slowly turned around and lightly patted Justia’s shoulder as she held on to me.
“Those Imperial bastards are starting to cross the line too much.”
At my warning, Justia nodded.
“They are, aren’t they? Then we have no choice but to….”
A cold fury settled in her eyes.
The arrogant faces of those bastards, who had openly looked down on the special admissions from the entrance ceremony and treated me like a toy, came to mind.
“Let’s head back for today. Evan looks like he overdid it, too.”
“Okay. And tomorrow, I’ll….”
Justia trailed off and bit her lip.
Her gaze turned toward Evan, who was resting in his wheelchair in an exhausted state, and the corridor that had been left in shambles.
The shameful defeat of the Chartur family.
With this, the Imperial bastards would be watching us even more closely.
“We’ll have to prepare more thoroughly tomorrow. We can’t let ourselves fall for their dirty tricks twice.”