Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Dash!

Simon sprinted toward Claudia, gathering jet-black on both his feet.

Claudia's response to this was simple.

Once again, she took out two potion bottles and smashed them at her feet. The brown poisonous fog from the bottles filled the air around her.

'Poison to prevent melee combat. I get it.'

If you're sure of the intent of your opponent's strategy, there's no reason not to respond.

Simon pulled out two summons. The first was a zombie, which was quickly hoisted into the air by the Overlord's tentacles before shooting toward Claudia.

Thud!

'A wall?'

The Overlord's tentacles were blocked by something, but it didn't matter. Simon clenched his fist, shielding his eyes with his other arm.

'Corpse Explosion!'

Kaboooooooooom!

The sheer force scattered the fog with ease.

'Phew.'

Simon lowered his arm and looked straight ahead.

As the fog cleared, he saw the remains of a green wall with Claudia crouching behind it. A scowl was on her face.

"Kugh!"

She scrambled to her feet, and the scattered remains of the wall began to shift.

{Slime Wall}

The green blobs—slime—across the ground wriggled closer, inflating like balloons to reform the lumpy, green wall that once again blocked attacks from the front.

Simon's eyes shone at the sight.

'So she's leaving the offense to poison fog and focusing strictly on defense… Got it.'

So far, she was fighting like a typical Poisonous Alchemy aspirant.

He didn't feel the need to break the wall, so he just ran past the wall in front of him.

{Gorgon}

But as soon as he crossed the wall, snakes attacked from nowhere. Claudia's hair had come alive!

'A spell unique to her family!'

Simon ducked underneath one of the hungry heads as it lunged at him before his eyes flicked to the next one. It came within millimeters of biting his nose as he staggered to the side.

The snakes moved too fast for him to close the distance.

With no other choices, Simon stomped on jet-black and soared into the air as all six snakes on Claudia’s head snapped forward.

"Got you!"

Six wasn't the maximum number of Claudia's snakes.

Her hair transformed into two more snakes, both stretching toward Simon where he was defenseless in midair. She knew that there was no way he could dodge in time from such a poor position.

"I don't think so."

Simon smirked and pulled his arm behind him. Then, he grabbed the air and ripped it open.

With a loud crack, the air opened up, and a rain of arrows soon followed.

"!!"

It was an attack from skeleton archers waiting in his subspace. Claudia's two snakes were slaughtered instantly, unraveling into hair.

As Claudia hastily conjured a jet-black shield to block the hailstorm of arrows, Simon landed safely on the floor.

'Open!''

Zwip!

Fwip!

Six subspaces opened up, each equally spaced to encircle her, and tentacle blades came out of each of them in unison.

On the backfoot, Claudia barely had time to command the slimes to reposition themselves and cast {Slime Wall} again.

Pshk!

Chinck!

The Overlord's blades were blocked, unable to pierce the wall.

'This isn't just an ordinary slime wall. Claudia modified it.'

She had been put off by the unconventional strategy of spraying arrows from a subspace, but could easily block the Overlord.

It seemed like she was well-prepared to defend skills that were already known. While Simon was just retrieving his tentacle blades with sheer habit, Claudia ripped off half the potions on her belt and threw them one after another at Simon.

'Huzzah.'

Simon, already bringing jet-black to his feet, sprinted to the side. The bottles hit the floor and shattered, and yet another poisonous gas seeped out of each pile of broken glass.

Smash! Smash! Smash! Smash!

The cycle of throwing and evading repeated until Claudia was absolutely breathless.

Ducking behind the slime wall, she gasped for air as she forced herself to think.

'I just need to hold on a little longer. Just a little longer and…!'

Of the poison fogs that were in effect right now, one of them had a 'nerve paralyzing' effect.

Soon, Simon's movements would become sluggish, and unleashing an all-out attack when they did was her winning formula.

However…

'Why?'

Time passed and she exchanged attacks, but his movements didn't seem to slow in the slightest.

'Why isn't the paralysis working?'

Claudia became impatient. Things would become too difficult if Simon managed to complete the blood golem.

Unlike the early phase of the match, Simon was also now focusing on keeping some distance and dodging Claudia's attacks rather than charging in relentlessly.

Clearly, he was giving more attention to the magic circle for the golem, meaning he’d be finished even faster.

'I can't wait forever for the paralysis to work… I have to push harder!'

As she was about to double her efforts, tearing down the Slime Wall herself in preparation for her final push…

Gasp!

She witnessed it.

Emerald smoke was enveloping the golem core in Simon’s outstretched hand.

"It's too late, Claudia."

Simon made a contented smile. He opened the massive subspace behind his back, summoning 23 skeletons to the battlefield.

"My turn now."

As Simon raised the golem core above his head, emerald smoke scattered through his troops, engulfing the skeletons.

'Don't tell me!'

Claudia's face turned pale at the sight.

She had replayed the footage on the memory crystal ball over and over again, trying to find any weakness she could exploit in that dark spell. But no matter how hard she thought about it, she found nothing.

'...I have to stop him!'

Even while her legs trembled with fear, she opened her subspace. What she pulled out from it was two large potion cases.

'I must stop that skill at any cost!'

* * *

* * *

Her mind ran at a mile a minute. She conjured a large magic circle in front of her and pulled out two cases from her subspace. Inside were several potions that sparked like firecrackers.

She lifted the cases and attached them to the magic circle, gritting her teeth. The potion bottles were absorbed into the circle, and for each potion a fire lit on the magic circle's rim.

The greatest offensive skill Claudia could perform right now.

{Bouquet of a Thousand Deaths}

Colorful spheres bloomed from each of the flames, rising slightly into the air before crashing down toward the skeletons.

Kabooooom!

Pooooooooooow!

Explosions filled the arena.

It was originally a skill intended to finish off Simon when he was mostly paralyzed, but it was now or never.

"Pant, pant."

Thud!

She dropped both cases to the floor and stared at the aftermath. Yellow, black, and blue fog blanketed the entire area.

'I-I stopped it.'

A moment later, although faint, broken remains of skeletons could be seen through the fog, and her lips trembled with excitement.

'I just stopped the S.A. No.1's best ski—!'

It was then. As Claudia felt the presence of a person nearby, she turned her head and saw Simon running toward her, using the momentary confusion to come from a blindspot on the side.

'He hasn't given up yet?'

They’d both spent their best weapons. Thus, she had the advantage, still having the poison fog eating away at Simon.

All she had to do was to stop his last hurrah.

Her hair twirled together and significantly lengthened to form six snakes. Simon evaded each one with precise yet fast footwork, then leaped up with the assistance of jet-black to dodge the snakes rising from below.

In the blink of an eye, the distance between them had been closed.

"Hmmmph!"

She brought out all of her jet-black. In addition to the snakes she was already using, her remaining hair transformed again into six more snakes which lunged toward Simon, who was stuck in the air once more.

'I did it!'

The moment she was convinced of her victory.

Pssssshhhhhhh.

Suddenly, emerald smoke flowed out from Simon's body.

'Huh?'

It transformed into like a human's hand, grabbing the necks of the snakes that tried to bite at Simon. All six snakes had been caught by the smoke.

"I'm sorry I tricked you, Claudia."

Simon never intended to use the Blood Golem in the first place. It was just a trick to make Claudia waste her power.

In fact, this was the original form of the Cloud. Grabbing her snakes and forcing an opening, Simon landed right in front of her.

"!"

She stiffly raised her arms in a half-practiced guard, but Simon took a step back without throwing a single punch. She immediately raised a Slime Wall between them, guaranteeing that he couldn’t hit her with something weird.

"You tricked me from the beginning?!"

"That's right. It was just for show."

The blood golem had to be fully completed before it could be applied to a skeleton and create the 'royal guards'.

What he did was just pretend to envelop the skeletons with the basic Cloud, and when he saw the firepower she was unleashing, he collected the Cloud and moved out of the way.

"And one more thing…"

She looked down, belatedly realizing that something was wrong. Her shadow was colored red, and it extended beyond the wall.

'A curse?!'

Her eyes shook. He didn't just back away. He backed away after casting a curse.

"You didn't have any analysis about me using a curse like this, did you?"

Said Simon as he activated the curse he had learned from Bahil.

{Indolence}

The pain built up in Simon's body, as well as everything else plaguing his system, was shared between them. And, of course…

'I-I can't move!'

Along came the nausea effect and the nerve paralyzing effect that she'd been counting on beating Simon with.

As her thoughts became muddied and her body seized up, the Slime Wall separating them crumbled.

Realizing that she'd been deceived, she grunted and struggled until her face went red with effort.

She couldn't move a finger.

The nerve paralysis that had been accumulated so far rushed into her system at once. To top it off, she couldn't even use dark magic because of the nausea, having to push through blurry vision and the constant threat of vomiting.

Of course, the same applied to Simon.

"So… what are you… going to do?"

Asked Claudia, trying her best to smile.

"A chicken… race? Whoever… can keep their thoughts—pant, pant—straight and use dark magic wins… Huh?"

"No…"

Simon also forced a smile.

It was an obvious calculation.

"Who wins… The alchemist that… needs to make a magic circle? Or…"

Whirr! Whirrrr!

"The summoner that… just commands the undead with their thoughts?"

Fwip!

Six tentacle blades shot out in unison and stabbed into the barrier that shimmered purple around her, slamming her into the arena wall in the process.

Bwoooooosh!

A cloud of dust rose, and she let out a pained groan as she was pressed deeper further and further into the wall.

The purple barrier could be seen fading in real time as it gushed from her shoulders like blood.

Shiiiing.

Soon, as Simon aimed the longest blade on her neck, she flinched and raised her chin.

"Surrender."

Demanded Simon.

"You don't need to… hurt yourself anymore."

"Kugh!"

The glare she gave to Simon carried more venom that even the deadliest of snakes.

But now that she was captured by the Overlord, there was nothing she could do.

Out of frustration, she bit her lip until it bled, then dropped her head in defeat.

"…I surrender."

Hearing that, the referee immediately raised his arm.

"The match is over. Mr. Simon Polentia wins!"

Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd.

With the victory confirmed, Simon retrieved the Overload and sent it back to the subspace with a satisfied look on his face.

"Well done, Simooooooon!"

"As expected, that was well-worth the watch!"

He saw Camibarez and Rick shouting enthusiastically in the front seats. Simon waved to them as well.

And at the edge of the spectators' seats, there was one person who seemed to be celebrating more than anyone else.

Standing up, doubled over in ways which no living creature should be able to as laughter shook him to his core, Bahil's face was monstrous with the ecstasy that filled his very soul.

"Did you see that? Did you see that, Chehekle?! Simon won with a curse! A curse that I taught him!!"

"…Ah, yes, congratulations."

Chehekle looked around and quickly pulled Bahil away.

"Let's go. And please, shut up. You're embarrassing me."

"It’s only to be expected! I knew my sincerity would work! To think you won with a curse! With a curse! You should major in curses, after all, Simon Polentia!!!"

Meanwhile, having declared Simon's victory, the referee gestured to the servants assigned to clean up between fights.

"After a 10 minute break, we will proceed directly to the next match."

Flop.

Claudia sat slumped on the floor and stared at Simon's back as he talked to his friends.

'It's my total defeat.'

She had completely analyzed him, and she was confident she wouldn't lose.

But Simon used that to his advantage. Far from analyzing Simon, she was analyzed by him.

To think that he'd use her own poisons to his advantage…

'…A genius is a genius after all, huh?'

Even she had to admit Simon's strategy was brilliant.

'Ah.'

Simon was walking toward her.

——