Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Simon put on the glasses and looked around.

The color of the water stream had changed to dark blue. A nearby patch of the fields had also turned dark blue, and part of the city walls in the distance were purple.

In other words, it told him what color card was where.

'This is a must-have for collecting all seven colors.'

He had a great lead.

Simon immediately moved on to find the next card.

* * *

[1 person joining team black.]

[Team black (1/3), Team white (2/3).]

Simon opened his eyes.

He had just entered a new game after finding an orange card on the ground.

'…Where in the world am I now?'

After looking around, he realized he was standing at the top of a huge pillar. The edge was a sheer cliff, and judging from how he could see clouds below, he could assume that he was pretty high up.

Looking forward, there were other pillars just like his.

One pillar was on the far left and one on the far right, and in front of him there were three more rows of three identical to his. Each pillar could be jumped between using jet-black.

Overall, the pillars formed a three by four grid, and he was at one end of it.

'What am I supposed to do h—? Aha.'

There was no mistake. The message had said team black and team white.

Simon was standing beside a black flag in the center of the pillar, and a white flag was fluttering at the opposite end.

'This is a 3 v. 3 game of capture the flag.'

Simon tried picking up the flag himself. It was heavier than he thought, needing both hands to lift.

[1 person joining team black.]

[Team black (2/3), Team white (2/3).]

'Another person joined our side! I wonder who it'll be?'

Simon waited in anticipation.

Since he had a great time playing the last game with Jamie, the class president, he hoped for a nice teammate with good personality and skills.

Pshk!

Soon, a magic circle appeared on the same pillar he was standing on, and a boy fell out of it. His hair was all black, tinged with a hint of yellow, and he carried a long rod of unknown purpose over his shoulder.

Simon knew this guy. The player who had just joined the game looked at Simon in surprise.

"B-Bastard, you're!"

"…Wow."

Simon let out a small sigh. It was a guy he didn't really want to get involved with.

It was Special Admission No.10, the leader of the Randolf gang. He was famous for his dark spell known as 'Doppelganger', which allowed him to create countless identical clones of himself.

'Malcolm Randolf' from Class M. Simon had fought once before in a Duel Evaluation during semester 1.

Of course, Simon completely overpowered him back then.

Malcolm understood the situation and frowned.

"Bullshit, why do I have to be teammates with you of all—!"

[1 person joining team black.]

[Team black (3/3), Team white (2/3).]

Just then, one more person joined the team. Both Simon and Malcolm stopped talking and looked at the magic circle that had just appeared.

Soon, a boy with white hair and a cap came through the magic circle.

He had tanned skin and was shirtless, wearing only pants.

It was a guy whom Simon had fought just recently.

'Laheim Northfold'

The Special Admission No.8 and current lord of the Snowfield Castle. He was also the man who got fabulously rejected by Meilyn.

"Y-You are!"

Laheim's jaw dropped as soon as he spotted Simon.

"Jumon Bolendis!!"

"…I told you it's Simon Polentia."

Corrected Simon, not even trying to hide his displeasure.

This was the worst case scenario. To think he'd be teammates with bastards like them…

"Alright, Zemon Bolentona! Let's fight for sure this time, betting once more for Meil—!"

"Man, what kind of fucking team composition is this?"

An irritated voice came from the side. Malcolm was putting a hand on his forehead, shaking his head.

"I don't want to carry idiots like these."

Laheim immediately turned to face the source of the voice.

"Who are you?"

"…!"

Malcolm's eye twitched.

"D-Don't you know who I am? I'm Malcolm Randolf, the S.A.10!"

"Who the hell is that?"

Simon decided to ignore them.

Just in time, team white got its last member, and a new screen appeared. It revealed the names of all the students playing this game.

[Team Black]

Simon Polentia

Malcolm Randolf

Laheim Northfold

[Team White]

Jule Vincere

Elissa Seline

Enki Daft

Putting the personalities aside, the names alone were pretty impressive.

It was like a war between the S.A.s

Among the opponents, Jule Vincere was No.5 and rumored to be incredibly strong, and Elissa Seline was the S.A.7 who rained death from above with her fleet of Phantom Ships.

"Interesting."

Malcolm crossed his arms.

"No.1, 8, 10 on one team; 5 and 7 on the other, huh?"

Hearing that, Laheim sneered.

"What the hell are you talking about? I've never heard of you. Who even counts S.A.10?"

"You've been getting on my fucking nerves since you got here. Do you have a fucking deathwish, huh?!"

The two began to argue forehead to forehead.

Simon, who had taken a few steps away at this point to not get involved, sighed.

They had the advantage in terms of name value, but there was no sign of teamwork.

'Maybe I should just take them down and play this one solo.'

As that thought came to Simon's mind, the explanation of game rules began.

[The team that holds the opposing team's flag first wins. Anything goes.]

[The game starts in 10 minutes.]

The rules were simple enough.

Malcolm, pressing his forehead even harder against Laheim's, barked,

"Normally, in a game like this, one person defends and two go on the offense. I'll go with the No.1, so you stay here and defend the flag. We wouldn't want the noble Lord of Snowfield Castle to stub his toe."

Laheim let out a short laugh.

"Cut the bullshit. Both of you, defend the flag. I'll go by myself."

The two began to fight again. They grabbed each other by the collar, shouting profanities in each other's faces.

Meanwhile, it seemed like the team white had already assigned roles and had started talking about specific strategies. Three of Elissa's Phantom Ships were flying in the air.

"This is getting annoying…"

Simon had to get involved if he wanted anything to happen.

"Shut up! Both of you!"

"…!"

At that, Malcolm and Laheim both looked back at Simon with startled faces, then glared even stronger.

"…D–Don't order me around!!"

"Lemon Bologna! That remark you just made is quite disrespectful to the Lord of Snowfield Cas—!"

Simon stomped his left foot down hard on the ground.

He would've spoken gently if they were people who'd actually listen and understand, but the two blubbering buffoons in front of him weren't worthy of such treatment.

"Just…"

Fwhiiiiiip!

Opening up six subspaces to his right, where Malcolm Simon sent out his Overlord's tentacles, and…

"Just bring it on, both of you."

He opened a subspace at his left to where Laheim was, revealing his deimos's head opening its mouth.

Another thing the two had in common was that they'd both been knocked out by the debut battles of the Overlord and deimos, respectively.

Gulp.

A thick silence fell. Malcolm's and Laheim's eyes were shaking at the memories of their painful pasts.

"W-Wait a minute! Such extreme measures are far too rash!!"

Putting his temper aside, Malcolm tried to talk Simon down with a forced smile.

"Th-That's right! We're rivals who're competing for Meilyn! A temporary alliance would be beneficial here!"

Laheim also broke out in a cold sweat.

As was often the case, there was a subtle pecking order among boys who had fought each other before.

Simon recalled his summons and said,

"Just stick to my plan."

* * *

* * *

Meanwhile, Elissa of team white was looking down to her opponents from where she was on a Phantom Ship.

'They've got more Special Admissions, but it's doable.'

It was obvious they were fighting amongst themselves. Elissa looked back at her trusty allies with satisfaction.

For team white, Elissa and Jules decided to be the attackers and Enki was to be on defense.

Also, although Enki wasn't an S.A. student, he was the top student in his class, Class E. Team white didn't have to worry about whether they'd fall behind in terms of skills.

Elissa held up her communication crystal ball and said,

"Jule, please keep going."

Elissa's Phantom Ships had great firepower, but they were so huge that they couldn't really move quickly. She wanted to let Jule go first to see how their opponents would react.

Just as Jule was jumping pillar to pillar…

'…Snow?'

Suddenly, there was a change in the clouds around them, and snow began to fall. Soon, it had built up into a blinding blizzard.

Half of the field was bitter cold, and they couldn't even see beyond their noses.

Elsisa held up her communication crystal ball and said,

"Jule, there's no need to panic. The snow is probably Laheim's Gold Snow. Please remain where you are."

It was obvious that they were trying to obscure the view. She didn't know what they were up to, but she wasn't going to be defeated so easily.

'Hm?'

Just then, she saw one side of the snow fog turn dark.

A figure broke through the fog at the end of the pillar to her right.

'It's Simon Polentia!'

In his hands, forming as dark-blue jet-black whipped around him, was a bow.

'Wait, that skill is—!'

Elissa obviously knew the main dark spells of Kizen's S.A.1, having analyzed them for fights just like this. Simon had a three-step process that began with creating a blood golem, then using its power to create the royal bodyguards, and finally squeezing the power out of them and shooting it in the form of an arrow.

'But you're saying he skipped all those steps and went straight to the bow?'

Elissa watched as Simon drew his bow, jet-black coursing through his arms. He was too far away for Jule to stop him.

{Simon Remake - Blood Arrow}

A dark arrow shot out, leaving a long trail like a comet.

Elissa's eyes widened as she prepared to jump ship, thinking he would surely attack the Phantom Ship, but…

The blood arrow wasn't flying toward her.

He had aimed at the flag behind her.

'H-He can reach that?'

Ka–tooooooooooosh!

Surprisingly, he could. Simon's blood arrow crashed into team white's flag, creating a massive explosion.

Elissa held back her fluttering hair so it wouldn't whip her in the face and then looked down from the phantom ship.

'But what now? Isn't he misunderstanding the rules?'

It wasn't the one who broke the flag who won, but the one who held it.

The smoke from the explosion soon cleared, revealing a giant pit. The flagpole had been pushed away by the explosion and was now lying on the ground.

However, the flag itself was pretty heavy, so it didn't fly all that far.

Fwip!

Just then, she saw a rod stuck in the pit, standing by itself.

Watching this, Elissa realized she had made a mistake.

'Oh no! He shot Malcolm's weapon on the arrow he shot!'

A magic circle unfolded beneath Malcolm's rod, and a doppelganger that looked exactly like Malcolm popped out of it.

"Enki! Stop him!"

Enki, who was in charge of defense, hurriedly fired spells at the doppelganger, but he was too rash and it was too far. The doppelganger easily dodged and grabbed the flag with both hands.

'But it's no use!'

Elissa smiled.

'It's not the clone that has to grab the flag, you have to be the one to grab it! Doing such foolish things, without knowing the rules—!'

However…

Swish!

The doppelganger threw the flag toward the edge of the pillar.

'What the?!'

Team black's actions just got more and more incomprehensible.

She hadn't imagined Malcolm would throw something they'd worked so hard for off the cliff.

Elissa moved her Phantom Ship to protect the falling flag.

But faster than that…

"Hahahaha!"

The team black also had a necromancer who could fly.

Laheim was running toward it, forming bubbles around his arms and legs. Elissa's face turned pale.

'Agghh! They got us completely!!'

Laheim was already miles ahead of her. While the opposing team was distracted by his snowstorm, Simon's blood arrow, and Malcolm's doppelganger, Laheim had taken the opportunity to sneak right under all of team white's noses.

"I have…!"

Elissa fired a shell with the Phantom Ship, but Laheim easily dodged it in midair, finally catching the falling flag.

"…seized the flag!"

Then, he waved the flag in excitement.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

[The game is over.]

[Winner: team black!]

[Providing a card to each member of the team black.]

"Ughhhh! This is so frustrating!!"

To think they lost so easily!

Elissa slammed the railing of the phantom ship, venting her frustration.

'There's no way those dumbasses could've come up with such a strategy.'

Her eyes moved to Simon, who was holding the jet-black bow.

"…Simon Polentia."

Simon released the dark bow into the air and looked up at Elissa.

Leaving only his smile burned into her eyes, Simon was teleported away.

——