Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 04 - Nine Schools Competition (II) Read online

  As a "sword", the typical options include cutting power and armor penetration, so whichever power it was it still directly correlated with the weapon's physical attack. Anyone familiar with CADs was justified in their reasoning that this was against the rules for Monolith Code.

  Yet, Leo was not the sole focus of attention.

  "...There he is."

  "Yeah. Never thought he would appear as a player on the field."

  "Twin pistols, with a bracelet-model on the right wrist... Simultaneously operating three CADs?"

  "He's not your average Joe. I don't think he's bluffing here. Doesn't it look like both are long-barrel model Specialized CADs?"

  "They don't look like stealth weapons, so he's probably dual-wielding two Specialized CADs. But most people choose to use Generalized CADs when operating magic from different systems..."

  "So you can operate multiple CADs at the same time. Show me what you're capable of!"

  Masaki and Kichijouji's conversation embodied the perception from the majority of the viewers. Each school's players and auxiliaries were all watching Tatsuya.

  This was the infernal super technician that won First Place for every event he was responsible for.

  In contrast to the fervent cheers of support from the Year 1 female players, the Year 1 male players looked on mockingly.

  They were silently rooting for the opposing team.

  Curiosity reigned over all other thoughts now.

  In the midst of this, the match against Eighth High commenced.

  ◇◇◇

  "So we're up against Eighth High in a wooded area, eh..."

  "Generally... That's to our disadvantage."

  Mari murmured with eyes glued to the screen while Mayumi replied as she watched the progression.

  Monolith Code was an event that placed the players against each other under variable outdoor conditions. The Nine Schools Competition used five scenarios: Woodlands, Boulders, Open Plains, Valley, and Urban Setting.

  Among the magic high schools, Eighth High placed the most emphasis on outdoor training, so the Woodlands were like their home court. The settings were randomly generated. However, even under these exceptional conditions, the fact that an unfavorable setting was picked for one of the schools that originally possessed an unearned victory definitely raised concerns that someone was manipulating the odds.

  —Yet, neither Mayumi nor Mari or any of the other members of the brass gathered in the pavilion were particularly worried.

  It was public knowledge within First High's command level that Tatsuya trained under the "Ninjutsu Specialist" Kokonoe Yakumo. A woodland setting with lots of visual obstructions was an ideal location to bring out the merits of "ninjutsu" to the fullest. This was also common knowledge.

  However, for the opposing school that was wholly unaware of this "fact", this was a titanic miscalculation.

  Between the starting locations — where the monoliths were erected — there was a distance of approximately 800 meters.

  In full protective gear and carrying a CAD, players needed at least five minutes to thread through the gaps within the woodlands.

  When taking into account that they needed to be constantly on guard against enemy movements and assault, the time was easily several times greater.

  Regardless — less than five minutes into the match, combat broke out near Eighth High's monolith.

  The players' activities were closely monitored by anti-cheating cameras. The recorded images would be displayed on a large screen for the audience. In arenas with large numbers of visual obstructions, the audience was reliant on these images to follow the unfolding match.

  Currently, the large screen hanging from the sky displayed Tatsuya's image appearing before the defender from Eighth High.

  "He's fast...!"

  "Personal Acceleration?"

  At Kichijouji's murmur, Masaki also asked aloud, his eyes still locked onto the screen.

  The image appeared briefly before the cameras, and then leaped out of the frame in the next instant.

  The defender on the other side fell to one knee.

  The camera switched over to find Tatsuya flanking the defender to the right side and sprinting for the monolith.

  "No, it doesn't look like he used Move-Type Magic... Ah!"

  The defender raised the muzzle of his CAD towards Tatsuya. Tatsuya's earlier attack appeared to only have temporarily upset the defender's balance.

  The Specialized CAD shaped like a short-barrel pistol started its Activation Sequence.

  Immediately, in the frame specifically designed to show psion motion, a rapidly expanding, non-physical shock wave — a psion explosion — shredded the defender's Activation Sequence into nothing.

  Just then, Tatsuya's left hand was holding a CAD.

  From the rear, his right hand was empty.

  But in the image now, Tatsuya was running with the CAD in his right hand pointing towards the defender.

  "When?"

  Did he draw? Masaki omitted the last few words.

  But Kichijouji's answer wasn't directly on the money.

  "Wait, don't tell me... Gram Demolition!"

  "Did you say Gram Demolition?"

  The defender was shocked into immobility by his disintegrated Activation Sequence. Tatsuya kept an eye on his opponent and clicked the trigger in his right hand before the monolith.

  "Nice! The monolith is opening!"

  Seeing Tatsuya plug in the special code that served as a key and split the enemy monolith in two, Honoka was fairly dancing with joy.

  "...Odd."

  By her side, Shizuku wrinkled her brows in confusion.

  "Shizuku, what's odd?"

  In the crowd of Year 1 female students, Eimi asked Shizuku.

  "The monolith has been opened, so why is he retreating?"

  Just as Shizuku said, Tatsuya didn't approach to copy the code in the monolith but altered his path and ducked back into the cover of darkness within the forest.

  "Now that you mention it... Hey, Miyuki, what do you think?"

  "Even Onii-sama would be hard pressed to input all 512 characters under constant enemy harassment."

  The shell-shaped keyboard worn on the left wrist was also the terminal used to input the code. Even if Tatsuya typed at lightning speed, he would still need some time to input all 512 characters on the tiny keyboard.

  "You're right... This is the first time I've seen someone use the key while the defenders are paralyzed."

  Just as Shizuku muttered with dawning comprehension, the frozen defender came around and hustled into the trees after Tatsuya.

  "Just now... That was..."

  When Tatsuya used Counter Magic, no one was more astounded than Mari herself.

  Mari was panting and unable to speak coherently. The surprising thing was that next to her, Mayumi was able to reply blandly.

  "Gram Demolition... I had an inkling you were capable, Tatsuya-kun... And you didn't disappoint."

  "Mayumi, you know what that was?"

  Mayumi glanced at Mari, who was itching to approach, and swiftly looked back towards the viewing screen.

  "Gram Demolition uses compressed psion particles to directly detonate the target by charging forward without using the Information Dimension. This Counter Magic is accomplished by forcibly blowing away all the accompanying Activation and Magic Sequences — anything that has traces of magic psions recorded on it.

  This is a magic that demolishes the record of magic (Gram), hence the name Gram Demolition.

  While it is called magic, this is strictly a psion cannon ball that makes no attempt to use Magic Sequences to alter reality. This way, Gram Demolition is not restricted by Data Fortification or wide area interference, and the cannon ball's own pressure would reject any effects of Cast Jamming.

  Since there's no actual physical effect, physical obstructions can do nothing.

  This way, the magic that your opponent is casting is forcibly blown away by the psions.

&n
bsp; In order to halt that kind of furious charge, a multi-layered defensive wall of psions might barely hold up.

  Besides its rather short effective range, there are almost no weaknesses. Along with Gram Dispersion, Gram Demolition is known as one of the strongest Counter Magics within Nonsystematic Magic... But there are very few people capable of performing this feat.

  I cannot do it either.

  Since this isn't an interference ability but a true dispersion, I am unable to create that kind of force with my psion count.

  In summation, it's a super heavyweight!"

  "...In other words, it's like a huge brute swinging around a giant mace with all his strength, right?"

  Hearing Mari's roundabout description, Mayumi burst into laughter.

  "To be able to say it like that, you're quite calm about it, Mari! However, you're largely correct. During the match with Hanzou-kun, I thought Tatsuya-kun was a more delicate, finesse type... I never imagined that he was actually a front line bruiser."

  "Then, during the incident on the way here, it was really..."

  "I believe that's what happened. I didn't see it at the time, but didn't Mari witness it? There were at least ten overlapping Magic Sequences during the incident, but they were all dispelled instantly... Exactly how high is his psion count..."

  Eighth High's formation consisted of one defender and two attackers.

  The two attackers split into two paths. One of them reached First High's territory.

  "Ah, Tatsuya-kun, hurry!"

  "Go, Leo-kun!"

  First High's territory, which contained First High's monolith, was in a setting that allowed the audience to easily pick out all the details.

  Under Erika and Mizuki's gaze, Leo dropped into a combat stance before his monolith and drew the "sword" from his waist.

  The attacker's figure could be seen in the shade of the trees.

  He held a Specialized CAD similar to the ones his teammates were carrying.

  The attacker's intent was clearly to overwhelm Leo, the defender, then open the monolith in one go.

  The attacker aimed his CAD at Leo.

  While Leo swung the Weaponized Integrated CAD "Mini Communicator" horizontally.

  Both occurred at the same time.

  "Excellent!"

  "Damn, that guy's pretty good!"

  Both Erika and Mizuki erupted into cheers.

  A flying metal board traced an arc as it flew through the trees and sent the attacker rolling with a direct blow from the front.

  Based on the coordinates of the trees, Leo had already calculated his effective range and used the separated blade to strike away at the attacking player.

  After restoring the "blade" as one, Leo pointed the "sword" towards the sky.

  The "blade" in his hand shot forward and came to a halt high in the sky.

  "Oh — Ah —!"

  With a roar, Leo swung the "blade" downwards with a speed that matched the radial motion and bestowed the final blow to the attacker lying on the ground.

  "What, was that?"

  While her question may seem stern, Suzune's question clearly portrayed that she lost a little of her usual coolness.

  "That would be the "Mini Communicator" — a Weaponized Integrated CAD and original magic that Shiba-kun pioneered."

  Azusa, who was on hand last night during calibration, answered in response.

  "Both a Weaponized Integrated CAD and an original... I wonder what's the design?"

  Hearing Azusa's concise explanation, Suzune nodded repeatedly.

  "I see, that is a novel concept. Yet, for Shiba-kun at least, this seems like a coarse system."

  "Coarse, is it?"

  Suzune patiently explained to Azusa, who was tilting her head to one side.

  "Yes, this magic has obvious limitations regarding the user's physical specifications and usable environmental situations..."

  The third player from Eighth High was repeatedly backtracking through the forest.

  While the setting was the woodlands, this wasn't the Fuji forests themselves. Parts of the hills in the arena were artificial, with trees and plants transplanted here, and it was only intended for training purposes.

  Half a century had passed since the transplanting phase, and the forest had naturally grown on its own. Still, this wasn't a dense jungle where people could easily get lost 800 meters in.

  But the reality was that the player from Eighth High was hopelessly lost.

  "Where the hell are you, you SOB! Stop skulking around and get your butt out here!"

  The player from Eighth High made no attempt to disguise the agitation in his voice as he attempted to use magic to remove the ultrasound waves.

  The strength of the ultrasound waves was not even worth mentioning.

  The only noticeable effect was a slight ringing in the ears.

  That being said, this ringing was irritating to the extreme.

  While the players were wearing military-grade protective helmets, they were only standard infantry gear intended to protect the head from shock and pressure, so there was no function to block vapors or sound waves. The helmet protected the face, but there were small holes to allow sounds to reach the ears.

  Under attack from ultrasound waves, the only counter was to use your own magic to defend yourself.

  The player from Eighth High returned his team CAD to the holster and pulled out a cellphone-shaped Generalized CAD he prepared from his pocket. He planned to use this to defend himself from the ultrasound waves and advance on First High's position,

  However, regardless of how long he walked, he never found the enemy field.

  He never even noticed.

  Under a constant barrage of high and low frequency sounds, his attention had been entirely drawn to the high frequencies, enabling the low frequencies to wreak havoc in his inner ear.

  His vision was restricted as he endlessly turned left and right — complicated by the fact that he had no opportunity to reestablish his bearings and his senses were out of whack. This would naturally result in the situation where he was utterly unable to grasp his current location.

  If someone noticed they were lost, they would immediately consult a compass, but if they were gradually misled by their senses, it was infinitely more difficult to correct the problem without being aware that one was misled in the first place.

  The player from Eighth High had fallen into the time-honored trap known as "hubris".

  Mikihiko was the one responsible for laying this snare.

  Spirit Magic "Echo Maze".

  Even if he wanted to retaliate, thanks to his scrambled senses, he couldn't even tell where the caster was. Scratch that, even if he was functioning normally, he had no chance of sniffing out Mikihiko's location.

  That was because Mikihiko initiated this sound wave attack through the spirits.

  If he caught the source of the magic, the only thing he would find would be the position of the floating spirits.

  The power of absolute stealth.

  This was one of the greatest weapons within "Divine Earth Magic", the branch of Spirit Magic Mikihiko belonged to.

  Behind the aimlessly wandering player from Eighth High, Mikihiko calculated that it was about time to execute the next phase of the mission.

  After luring the defender away from the monolith and deep into the forest, Tatsuya was mulling his options and trying to decide whether he should attack directly or assist in other theaters.

  If he chose to attack, he must win the necessary time to input the code after swiftly incapacitating his opponent.

  If he chose to assist, he must continue to draw the defender's attention, hereby buying time for Mikihiko to input the code.

  He paused for an instant to consider.

  Tatsuya elected to attack.

  He drew the CAD on his left and clicked the trigger after pointing it towards the ground.

  After activating magic to lighten his weight, he lightly tapped off the ground and sprang along the treeto
ps with the ease of a squirrel.

  Once he used magic, his opponent should be able to easily pinpoint his location.

  The use of magic would create unavoidable side effects through the change in Eidos.

  A skilled Magician could not only identify the caster's location based on the ripples of magic, but even the magic used as well. However, for such a weakly applied magic like this, could the player from Eighth High even detect that he used Weight-Type Magic? And if so, could he ascertain that Tatsuya was bounding along the treetops?

  For Tatsuya, that would be the most convenient outcome.

  As he moved between trees, he didn't cast magic while leaping.

  As if his legs had springs attached to them, he didn't even cause the trees to shake.

  As expected, the defender had already arrived at the point where he had leaped off the ground.

  His gaze was scrolling upwards.

  Behind him, Tatsuya squeezed the trigger in his right hand.

  On the widescreen that showed psion movements, the image depicted the defender from Eighth High as he was inundated with psions from Nonsystematic magic.

  The defender staggered briefly, then collapsed.

  "...'Resonate', eh, Nonsystematic Magic."

  "So he used biological waves and the psion wave to create resonance in order to incapacitate his opponent?"

  Hearing Kichijouji's words, Masaki nodded.

  "It appears that he's calibrated the right hand to use Nonsystematic Magic and the left hand to use Weight-Type Magic and is using them interchangeably."

  "George... Don't you think this guy's Nonsystematic Magic contains traces of Ancient Magic?"

  "You think so too, Masaki? Is it Shugendo... Or even Ninjutsu? Biological waves — historically known as 'chi', is actually quite similar to the magic he's using."

  "I think that even those Ancient Magic users wouldn't con people with the term 'chi' these days."

  "Ho? Nitpicking isn't very becoming of you, Masaki."

  The defender hadn't completely lost his mobility. He was still somewhat conscious. Still, in his current condition, he was no longer able to keep up with Tatsuya.