A Story of Evil

"T-they won?" The announcer's voice trailed of in a tone that questioned the reality which they witnessed.

Two powerful offensive type summons which could level the arena with their ultimates and, another powerful summon which could withstand this attack. These are the monsters which were defeated by a slime, a weird dwarf golem and, a plant which nobody even knew the purpose of.

They couldn't comprehend what was happening. But while they were silent and dumbfounded, Sol's team finally came out to the middle of the arena. Cheering for their fighters who won without breaking a sweat. A scene which was so foreign to everyone else that, they felt as if they were watching it from an image core.

Sol didn't let this go on however. He went near the announcers' table. Slamming it as he demanded"

"Come on don't be shy. Tell everyone who won the first fight."

"B-But..."

"Don't tell me you suddenly lost the ability to speak?" Sol taunted with a wide grin on his face. Forcing one of the announcers to stand.

"L-Ladies and g-gentlemen...the winner f-for the f-first fight is..."

"NO!"

The announcement was halted by a voice that tore the silence. One which the whole student body was familiar with. This was the voice of Lady Eleanor Valin – the headmistress of the Academy.

Everyone turned their heads to where she was – seeing that a mic has already been provided for her. There was none of the normal composure she held, all because of the recent fight which made her snap and lose her cool.

"That was definitely cheating! It's cheating I tell you!" Eleanor declared, in a voice that was filled with rage as much as it was filled with doubts.

"Cheating? How can she say something like that when the fight was won fair and square?" Nathan said.

"Yeah what happened to fair play?" Hendrickson added.

"Stop making comments you two. We'd be put in a bad spot if you keep on talking like that." Lumina told them. With the other members agreeing to this as they left everything to Sol.

"Think about it my dear students. How can the summons not respond all of a sudden if not for some strange skill?" Eleanor added, making the crowd murmur among themselves.

"Remember, there are two members of Shadow which has a unique set of skills. And they may have used that in order to freeze up the summons of our first years!" This kind of explanation matched the logic of the crowd. And because it did, they accepted it without question. Helping out the headmistress as they began booing and commenting on the fight.

"Yeah that's right!"

"You definitely cheated!"

"Fight fairly!"

Sol also figured that something like this would happen. He knew that simple minded individuals who doesn't want to think beyond the information they got used to would reject something that went against it. A crowd mentality which exists even within the Void. But Sol didn't feel defeated. Nor did he feel the tide turn against him.

In fact, he wanted something like this to happen. Because, through it, he could expose how much of a fraud the current system is. That's why he took one of the mic and headed back to his team first, telling them all to go back to their pit except for the three students that fought for him. He then tapped the top of the mic thrice and, smiled at the crowd. Waiting for the comments to die out as, he finally began explaining.

"I do not want to ridicule the wisdom of the Headmistress but, surely she knows of the rare blue petaled jammer right?" Sol said, making a summoner from his team take out the said plant. The same one used in the first fight.

"R-Rare?" The headmistress repeated; suddenly unsure of what to say next.

There was nobody who could give him an answer and, this much is understandable. The last blue petaled jammer recorded in history existed five hundred years ago. And even then, nobody knew what to make of it.

Only the summoner knows of all the skills which its summon has. Shis is something imprinted in the head of a summoner. Making them understand the full depth of their own summons like these were extensions of their own bodies. However, it is only the summoner alone who knows of the skills of its summon unless this is made into public knowledge.

As for the jammer plant, it is a summon capable of severing the one thing which stands at the core of a summoner's fighting capacity. That is, the link between summoner and the summons. It can jam the telepathic link, preventing any orders to be given by a summoner.

Although extremely potent, this was not a valued skill when it first appeared. After all, the standard for strength within all the domains have always been those which are useful in the Culling. Thus, a plant which can only affect fellow summoners had no merit. Furthermore, the first owner of this plant only had other plants as its summons. These aren't useful even for helping out in chores or work because, they only stand still and are all support type summons.

Due to all these factors, the first owner of this summon type was never valued. A person forgotten in history, more irrelevant than a regular Void citizen.

Going to the present, Sol learned of this plant through the Archives – impressed by the possible uses of this skill in the battlefield. Hence when the full list of students was given to him, it was actually a person with this type of summon which he looked for first and luckily, he found one. Just one. A girl who is not even placed in the rankings of the school. This is the person who gained the rare summon which showed up again after five-hundred years.

But nobody could give him this exact explanation. There was just silence because, just like Eleanor, the whole student body didn't want to look stupid.

"What's wrong? You were all so loud a moment ago weren't you? Can you only speak in that ear deafening volume when things are in your favor?" Sol said.

The student wielding this rare summon also has a set of support type summons. The exact same ones owned by the first. That's why the Academy has deemed her weak. Without a single summon capable of fighting, she had no way to rise in the rankings. She couldn't win any fights because all the methods being taught in the Academy only benefited those with a mixture of offense and defense summons.

She was labeled weak not because she was truly so. She was labeled weak because nobody taught her how she could maximize the potential of her plants.

"Are you saying that the headmistress of the Academy doesn't know her own students?"

"No. I'm saying the system you are using doesn't allow all the students to shine."

Sol began explaining the combination he used. He explained how the jammer plant worked and how, it became the cornerstone of the whole combination. With all the enemies paralyzed, the slime was finally used. A creature which was undoubtedly weak and slow. In fact, slimes are sluggish in movement. But because there was the dwarf golem with four arms. The slime was transported quickly to where it needed to be.

"A slime isn't weak. If you look at the mana cost for summoning one, you'd see that's it's really an efficient summon. Multiplying only costs one more mana from the summoner and, with all that was created, the student who summoned them all didn't even go below seventy five percent mana."

"Big deal that's still weak on it's own!"

"You don't get it do you?"

"W-What?"

"If a slime could be multiplied almost infinitesimally, then in a war zone, these could be scattered as land mines. Limiting the movement of enemy forces. These could also be used as surveillance at the same time. And with the other slime types owned by the student, you already have a way to dominate the battlefield."

"Then what about the plant user? How can a jammer be useful against other domains?"

"Did you forget that she still has other summons?" Sol said in reply, making the headmistress regret her taunting. However, she was given a stroke of luck as the adviser of the said student was near her. She told the headmistress about the other summons which the boy was referring to – placing a wide smile on Eleanor's face as she replied:

"Ha! You can't faze me boy! Those are all support type plants!"

"Sure all of her other plants are for support. But their functions are healing and an increase in stats. If you look at it that way, she could go toe to toe with any Enhancer. In fact, she could even go beyond them as she would also gain some plant skills when feeding on their fruits." Sol said in reply, already expecting the reply that was given by the headmistress.

With all that Sol said, the student body was silenced. There was nothing more they could say as, even the headmistress couldn't win against Sol's arguments and explanations.

"We didn't cheat. This fight was won fair and square. So why don't you just shut up and let the other fights proceed?" The young paladin added.

"Fine! But the other fights won't go as you expected!" She said, ashamed but nevertheless not losing hope. She thought that it was just a fluke and, hoped that it was so.