Boom!
The Drake Skeleton’s every step was heavy and thunderous.
Even though it was nothing but bones, its sheer mass was still terrifying.
‘Its power must be immense too!’
If you took a direct hit from the Drake Skeleton’s foreleg, your entire body would be shattered.
This was a tournament meant for students, so it should have been set up safely to prevent any deaths… but still, better to be cautious.
“Charlotte! Aim for its leg joints with your freezing magic!”
“I don’t know how effective it’ll be, but I’ll try!”
Pop!
Charlotte conjured an ice spear using elemental freezing magic.
It was far larger than the ones she had used earlier to neutralize the goblin and kobold skeletons.
“……!”
Whish!
The ice spear shot forward at high speed, striking the Drake Skeleton’s left knee.
“It’s not even flinching?!”
“No, it’s definitely having an effect—keep focusing your attacks on the same spot!”
“Got it!”
Charlotte no longer protested and followed my instructions.
She kept creating ice spears, concentrating all her attacks on the left knee.
Meanwhile, I used wind magic to draw the Drake Skeleton’s attention.
‘All that practice with Senia is paying off!’
Senia was skilled at using wind magic to move quickly.
After training with her, I had gotten used to her style of using wind magic as well.
“……!”
Boom!
The Drake Skeleton’s foreleg smashed into a wall.
If I hadn’t flown up swiftly with wind magic, I would have been pulverized.
‘Isn’t this a little too dangerous?’
Was this really set up safely?
Doubt crept into my mind as I flew even higher.
“Haap!”
Meanwhile, Charlotte’s ice spear struck the Drake Skeleton’s knee again.
The creature tried to fight back against Charlotte, but each time, I would shoot small bursts of fire magic at its head to distract it.
‘But ordinary fire magic won’t do any real damage to this thing.’
Skeletons were just bones.
No matter how much you covered them in flames, they wouldn’t burn or feel pain.
Smaller skeletons could be damaged by the shockwaves of explosions, but this giant wouldn’t be so easily harmed.
‘Even my Fireball… wouldn’t be enough to take this one down.’
I still wasn’t that skilled with magic.
With my current abilities, I couldn’t produce the firepower needed to defeat the Drake Skeleton.
‘But…’
There was a way.
Teaming up with Charlotte had been part of the plan precisely for situations like this.
“Haaah!”
Charlotte unleashed another freezing spell with all her might, striking the Drake Skeleton’s knee once more.
At that moment, the Drake Skeleton staggered.
“Now!”
Clatter!
Its knee joint gave out, causing one of its legs to buckle.
The off-balance Drake Skeleton threw its head back as if screaming.
‘This is it!’
As soon as the Drake Skeleton exposed a weakness, I heightened all my senses. At the same time, I could visually perceive the surrounding tetrahedrons.
The space was filled with ‘fire elements’—and they were brimming with hotter energy than usual.
Meanwhile
Charlotte had already grasped what Eriol was planning.
‘Yeah, after using so much freezing magic…!’
It might seem like fire and ice magic were opposites, but they were actually interconnected.
After all, freezing magic also utilized the fire element.
‘There’s no such thing as an ice element.’
The fire element had the property of releasing heat—but it could also absorb it.
Freezing magic worked by compressing the water element in the air and then extracting the heat with fire magic to create ice.
‘Which means, after repeatedly using freezing magic… the surrounding fire elements become even more powerful.’
So what would happen if fire magic was used in that state?
The answer was obvious.
“……!”
BOOOOM!
A massive fireball, unlike anything seen before.
It drew in all the fire elements burning in the vicinity—an overwhelming Fireball created by Eriol Valencia.
And it crashed straight into the Drake Skeleton.
Meanwhile
Top-tier elemental magicians could seamlessly switch between fire and ice magic during battle.
But I had mainly focused on practicing fire magic. I was still a novice with freezing spells, and it was hard to switch between the two mid-fight on my own.
However, with Charlotte, who specialized in freezing magic, it became possible to unleash firepower I couldn’t achieve alone.
“…….”
The Drake’s bones burned brightly.
The explosion’s impact had shattered much of its skeleton, and the intense heat had even burned away the necromantic runes engraved on its bones.
Its bones themselves were starting to melt.
The Drake Skeleton had completely fallen silent.
“Ah, Charlotte. Are you okay?”
“I gathered the scattered ice shards and made a barrier. I’m fine.”
Charlotte was getting up in a corner.
I had worried she might get caught in the flames, but she had handled it perfectly.
“So… we really defeated it, right?”
“I’d say so.”
The Drake Skeleton wasn’t moving at all.
It was just a pile of burning bones now.
“Then… we really…”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
“We took down the boss.”
“Ahaha…”
Charlotte laughed softly.
It was the first time I had seen her smile like that.
Usually, she had a annoyed face most of the time.
“Do you think we can get first place with this?”
“Hard to say—other participants have probably racked up points elsewhere—but our chances are good.”
We had already taken down quite a few skeletons on the way here.
And there was still time left—if we searched for more item boxes, we could secure even more points.
“Honestly, it still feels unreal. Even though Senior Joshua passed down the know-how of previous seniors… to think we beat the boss ahead of all the others…”
“We just got lucky.”
I couldn’t tell Charlotte that I had tracked the faint pulses coming from the Drake Skeleton.
Because I didn’t even fully understand what it was myself.
“Eriol Valencia, it’s all thanks to you.”
Charlotte’s voice quivered slightly.
“The final results aren’t out yet, but without you, we never could have done this well.”
Come to think of it, Charlotte had mentioned she would be dragged back home if she didn’t get good results.
We had already secured third place in the rookie tournament, and if we won here too… she’d probably be safe.
“Really…”
Charlotte hesitated, as if she was about to say something—
“What a heart warming scene.”
A sharp voice cut in from behind us.
“Enjoying your youth, are you? How delightful to see.”
“……!”
At that moment, I felt a sinister wave of energy.
It was similar to the skeletons placed around the dungeon—but deeper, thicker, and darker.
This was…
‘Sabat Bastia!’
Step, step.
Sabat revealed himself, descending the staircase we had used earlier.
Dragging Helios along by one arm.
“Helios?!”
Seeing our unconscious classmate, Charlotte raised her voice in shock.
“What did you do to Helios?!”
“Oh, him?”
Sabat casually tossed Helios down the stairs.
Charlotte hurried to catch him as he tumbled down.
“He started giving me suspicious looks halfway through. And he was already drained after fighting skeletons, so… I just drained a bit of his life force.”
“Y-You drained his life force?!”
Something felt very wrong.
The sinister aura was even stronger than when I had sensed it before.
Stronger than even the enormous Drake Skeleton.
‘Sabat still looks human, though.’
I racked my brain for knowledge about the undead.
He wasn’t just a pile of bones like a skeleton.
Nor was he a rotting corpse like a zombie or a ghoul.
Then what was he?
‘A being that hides among humans… and steals the life force of others…’
At that moment.
I remembered something I had once read about in an ancient book.
A legendary being.
It had been over an hour since the raid competition had started.
The operations committee was compiling the participants’ scores in real-time, based on data transmitted from the dungeon.
“Eriol Valencia and Charlotte Strasbourg… it seems they’ve neutralized the boss!”
“Oooh…!”
Exclamations erupted from all around.
Everyone already knew those two were ahead of the pack, but no one had expected they would actually defeat the boss.
“They’re putting on a performance beyond imagination.”
Even Klein, who was well aware of their skills, was amazed.
Other senior students were also participating in this raid competition, including seasoned members of Deep Maze who were veterans in dungeon exploration.
“Beating out the top sophomores and taking down the boss? These kids are really something…”
Klein couldn’t help but admire them.
This wasn’t something that could be achieved with magic skills alone.
“Wait, what does that mean for the rankings? Just because they took down the boss doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll secure first place, right?”
“Well, at the moment… huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“That’s strange. The data transmission… huh?”
Suddenly, internal data stopped being transmitted properly.
“Is the signal not coming through correctly?”
“I’ll try to restore it immediately.”
“Hurry. If anything happens in the meantime…”
Right then—
The door burst open, and someone suddenly appeared.
“What’s all this commotion?”
“Huh…?”
Everyone was startled to see an unexpected figure.
It was Professor Kaisel Valencia, who hadn’t been involved in the raid competition at all.
“Professor Kaisel, what brings you here… Oh, is it because of Eriol?”
“Eriol?”
When Klein addressed him, Kaisel furrowed his brows.
“That kid participated in the competition?”
“You didn’t know?”
“I wasn’t interested enough to check.”
Even though it was the same competition he himself had once won, he didn’t even care whether his nephew was participating.
“Eriol isn’t important. Where’s Sabat Bastia?”
“Sabat Bastia? You mean the sophomore from Deep Maze?”
“Professor Kaisel.”
Professor Piotr from the Necromancy Department stood up with a grim expression.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s going on?”
“Seems no one’s realized it yet.”
“What did you say?”
“Several students from Deep Maze were found in a near-death state, their life force drained.”
“…!”
They had mentioned earlier that many Deep Maze students were absent.
But to hear that they were discovered in critical condition?
“No one has regained consciousness yet, but it seems they were attacked during a gathering last night to prepare for the competition.”
“W-wait a minute. What are you talking about…?”
“He needed to replenish his energy before carrying out his plan.”
Plan.
What exactly was the plan?
“Professor Piotr, this is the first time you’ve deployed a large number of undead for a raid competition, correct?”
“Y-yes. Until now, we usually placed golems made by the Artificing Department, but this time we collaborated with the Necromancy Department…”
“He’s been waiting for today.”
“For today?”
“For the day when the academy would be filled with undead… and he could seize control over them.”
“…!”
Everyone around gasped.
The idea of stealing control over a large number of undead seemed completely absurd.
“W-wait!”
Klein shouted urgently.
“The skeletons deployed in the dungeon were all inscribed with spells by Professor Piotr! Even if Sabat Bastia excels at necromancy, he’s still just an ordinary student! There’s no way he could steal control from Professor Piotr!”
“That would be true if he were an ordinary student.”
“Huh?”
“Do you remember the incident last year where many students died in the Labyrinthos?”
“…!”
Piotr had mentioned it earlier too.
Students from Rangers and Deep Maze had ventured deep into the dungeon and suffered heavy casualties.
“Sabbat Bastia was the only survivor.”
“W-wait. Don’t tell me…”
“At that time, Sabat Bastia had already ceased being human.”
Before Klein, who swallowed hard, Kaisel spoke in a cold voice.
“He had become a higher undead that commands lesser undead… a ‘vampiric kind.’”
* * *
“You’re a vampiric kind, aren’t you?”
“Hm?”
Sabat showed a surprised expression.
“You caught on quickly. First-years shouldn’t have learned necromancy yet, right?”
“I read about it before. Not in a necromancy book— it was a history book.”
“A history book, huh. Well, vampiric kinds are mostly figures from ancient tales.”
“Why has a character from ancient tales appeared now?”
“Who knows? Why indeed?”
At that moment—
A powerful “wave” radiated from Sabbat.
It was completely different from anything felt before— a wave with a clear purpose.
And then… the ground trembled.
“Eriol! Look at that!”
Charlotte shouted urgently.
The bones of the Drake Skeleton, which had been burning and neutralized, were moving again.
“No need to be surprised. Vampiric kinds have the ability to control lesser undead. Recombining destroyed bones to create new skeletal soldiers is easy for them.”
At that moment, I understood why Sabat had chosen to act here.
This dungeon was littered with skeletons placed by the Necromancy Department.
His plan was to turn all of them into his own army.
We were deep inside the boss area and couldn’t see it, but… the other participants had probably already been subdued by the skeletons under Sabat’s control.
“My original plan was to take students like you hostage… but I guess that won’t work with you.”
As Sabat raised his hand, the recombined Drake bones rose up.
They snapped their grotesque jaws open toward me.
“Considering the aftermath, it’s better to kill you here.”
“Eriol!”
Charlotte urgently launched an ice spell, but it had no effect on the recombined skeletal monster.
“Die.”
Kukukung!
With a thunderous roar, the massive jaws lunged toward me.
But— just before they could strike me.
“…?!”
Kwaaang!
The recombined jaws shattered into pieces and scattered across the floor.
They crumbled without leaving a scratch on me.
“What?!”
Sabat’s eyes widened.
He hurriedly tried to resurrect the bones, but they disintegrated again immediately.
“How…?”
Muttering to himself, Sabat flinched and looked at me.
“What did you do?!”
“I just interfered.”
“I-interfered?”
“With your spell.”
That’s right.
I had disrupted Sabat’s spell.
I prevented him from recombining the bones into new undead.
“I can read your spells completely.”
Reading.
My inherent spiritual ability.
After facing countless skeletons today, I had encountered innumerable spells for controlling undead.
And now… I had witnessed Sabat controlling the Drake’s skeleton.
“What… that’s absurd…”
As Sabat muttered in disbelief, I slowly raised my hand.
“So… if I do this?”
Clatter! Rattle!
The bones began to move on their own.
Even though many parts were burned and damaged, it didn’t matter.
With clumsy, beginner-level skill, I haphazardly assembled them.
The result was a horrifying skeletal monster that looked nothing like the original Drake.
“Well then, let’s get started, Sabat-senpai.”
“…!”
In front of the horrified Sabat, I moved my hand, and the skeletal monster staggered forward.
At the same time, I constructed a flame spell, pulling energy from the fire element to create a fireball.
“If I defeat even a hidden boss like you, first place should be guaranteed.”
“You insolent brat…!”
Spewing evil energy, Sabat soared into the air.
The battle had begun.