Chapter 57
The last part of the course that appeared after you got past the ruins,
Altein’s Coastal Cliff.
This gargantuan cliff that was stationed at the meeting point of the river and the sea was so tall that normal people wouldn’t dare even look down it.
The last part of the course was to swim through the rapids that flew beneath the cliff and reach the land on the other side.
There were quite a few methods you could take to cross these rapids.
Naturally, magicians wouldn’t select the option to just ‘swim’ through it.
Some would take the option to glide down from the clifftop.
Others would try to control the flow of the water to make an easier path through.
Well, except for me.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Can’t you see? I can’t let you cross the water easily.”
For me, I didn’t have that many options for crossing the river.
If Doom glided down while I was swimming, it would be too disadvantageous for me.
That was why I had grabbed Doom by his throat and jumped down with him.
It was a pure freefall with no attempt at contesting gravity.
The cliff was so tall that, while we were falling, we had a full conversation, and…
Well, it was quite the cliff.
“Let go!”
“But I don’t want to.”
Doom tried his best to struggle out of my grasp, but I didn’t let him go.
Splash!
The two of us plummeted straight into the bottom of the waterfall.
“Hoo……! That was something else.”
The point where the river and sea met.
Maybe because it was the point under the waterfall where the current picked up speed, it was hard for me to keep myself afloat.
This also meant that I had accidentally let go of Doom as soon as we hit the water.
Where was he?
I couldn’t see him.
There’s no way he was carried off by the river, right?
As I was worrying about such things,
“Puah……!”
Doom lifted his head above the water behind me.
Thankfully, he wasn’t washed away by the current.
However, he seemed quite shocked and clueless as to what to do after being thrown into the water.
I asked the confused Doom,
“You… Can you really not swim?”
“Puah…… Mind your own business.”
“Really?”
I started to just swim towards the land on the other side.
“Then, I’ll be going first.”
After I crossed this river, it was a straight path to the end.
When I got on land, if I used Bend Time and just ran forward, victory would be mine.
However, like the saying of ‘anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’,
Something was off.
“……What’s this?”
The fierce rapids that threatened to carry me off into the ocean just a moment ago started to slow down.
No. It wasn’t a simple thing like just slowing down.
‘It’s getting colder?’
Not just getting colder, the river started to rapidly freeze over.
As I looked behind me, I could see white, cold energy emanating from the tip of Doom’s fingers.
Doom Prime was thinking of freezing the entire river solid.
“Hey! Hey, you bastard! Are you thinking of freezing me too?!”
“Yeah. Because, as you said, I can’t swim.”
“Even so, this is too much! Are you going to freeze the river when someone is swimming in it?”
“Says the one who dragged someone who couldn’t swim off a cliff into the water.”
“……”
Hm. I couldn’t really argue with that.
In any case, he was serious.
He was thinking of freezing both me and the river in one move and winning.
As freezing magic poured out from Doom’s hand, it started to rapidly freeze the water in his surroundings.
Chisch! Chirisch!
And it quickly approached the water near me.
“Uaaack!”
I swam as fast as I could to escape the ice, but Doom’s pursuit had only just begun.
Neigh—!
He had summoned his Spirit Horse and started riding it across the surface of the ice.
And then, as he was leaving,
He said one thing to me.
“Then, I’ll be going first.”
“Uaaack! You bastard!”
I had to make a choice.
Should I continue swimming?
Or should I think of another method?
The contemplating didn’t take long.
“Huu… Alright. Let’s see who really wins in the end.”
I clenched my fists.
At that, a ball of fire that didn’t get extinguished underwater appeared on my hand.
Then, I struck the ice that had started to freeze up to my nose.
Bang!
As fire and water made direct contact, the steam that formed exploded out created a huge current.
Thanks to this immense current…
‘Finally……’
The water stopped freezing in front of me and the surrounding currents returned to normal.
As the saying went, ‘no risk, no reward’.
I climbed out onto the frozen river.
Then, I shouted at Doom, who had already passed over half of the river,
“Hey! Doom Prime!”
Neigh—!
Doom Prime stopped his horse and looked back. I smiled brightly toward him.
“You said you can’t swim, right?”
“……”
“Take this, you bastard.”
I mercilessly struck the frozen lake with my fist.
Bang!
The fire made contact with the freezing cold ice again, and…
Chschick! Crack!
The river that was frozen solid started to crack open.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A huge explosive sound echoed out and the frozen river broke apart in an instant.
Total demolition.
Not even Doom could evade it.
“Neigh—!”
“……!”
Relentless hail pummeled around Doom Prime, and thanks to this, he was dragged into the water again with the Spirit Horse he was riding.
However, he soon reappeared above the water and I tried to cross the river with all my strength.
“Puah…… Puah……”
Yeah.
The battle had returned to how it originally was.
Doom continued to try and cross using the Spirit Horse bound to him, as he couldn’t swim.
Both of us landed at almost the exact same time.
Now, the only thing left…
Was the straight.
* * *
* * *
“……”
“……”
Doom and my eyes met in the air and both of us started running.
However, the one who pulled ahead was Doom.
He still had his horse.
Running after a horse?
No matter how fast my running currently was, it was still an impossible task.
The distance between us continued to widen.
At the end of the road, we could already start to see the Altein Stadium’s outer walls.
‘Alright.’
I gave up on catching up to Doom.
Rather, I aimed at the Spirit Horse that acted as Doom’s ‘legs’.
Dirt.
A puddle.
Trees and rocks.
I purposely aimed at Doom Prime’s surroundings and started to break them. I also created quakes to form dust clouds.
A huge dust cloud blocked the Spirit Horse’s path.
“Neigh—!”
The Spirit Horse lifted its front legs and stopped in its tracks.
While the horse was confused, I kicked it directly on its rear.
“Neighhh—!”
“……!”
Splat—!
And the horse threw off its rider before flying forward.
“Then, should we start? Our round 2.”
“……”
Now, only the duel with Doom was left.
However, Doom was already injured by arrows,
He also seemed to have lost quite a lot of blood when he fell in the river, as his face was pale.
“Hey, are you ok?”
“……”
“How about giving up and getting 2nd place now? There’s always next time…”
“I don’t need your pity. Come at me.”
“……”
Shwing—.
However, Doom pulled out his sword and chose to fight.
I had to make a choice.
“Your stubbornness… Then, you leave me with no choice.”
* * *
The tens of thousands of spectators gathered in Altein Stadium watched the final event of the grand festival while holding their breaths.
In reality, while Ruin Ardell was fighting over 1st and 2nd place in the Triathlon, since his total points already put him at 1st, either 1st or 2nd place would mean his victory in the individual matches.
However, no one dared to talk about ‘victory’.
They were merely watching the two candidates fight for ‘pride’.
However, as these two people arrived at the straight, the spectators had a hard time watching the scene.
“Hey, can you see?”
“No…… I can’t see anything.”
“Just what’s happening right now?”
As they had their battles while running, they were so fast that their surroundings had been covered by dust clouds.
And then,
“Over there! Look!”
At one spectator’s shout, everyone’s attention was drawn to a point.
Inside the dust cloud, a slight figure could be seen.
“Who……? Who’s coming out first?”
The first to appear from the dust cloud was nearly guaranteed to become the winner of this event.
Everyone watched the dust cloud with bated breath.
And the person of their attention finally showed themself.
“Doom! It’s Doom Prime!”
The figure that emerged from the dust cloud first was Doom Prime’s Spirit Horse.
“He won! Doom Prime won!”
“YEAAAAAH!”
Having seen this, from the direction of Raynac Magic Soldier Training School’s bench, a huge shout was heard.
Bang!
There were also some people who opened champagne bottles and started celebrating.
However,
“W-wait! It’s not over yet!”
“What?”
“Look! Look at that!”
“……Huh?”
The celebration was too early.
Something had gone very wrong.
“Wh-what? Where’s Doom? Why is it just the horse?”
It was only the Spirit Horse neighing pitifully that escaped the dust cloud,
And Doom, who should’ve been on the horse, was nowhere to be seen.
At this unexpected scene, the Raynac students who were celebrating all froze up.
Mutterings grew from the audience and they stood up one by one.
“What’s going on right now?”
It was hard to predict the result of this event, but it was possible to guess what was happening inside the dirt cloud.
“They’re fighting… fiercely.”
With the end in sight, they had started to fight it out with everything they had.
A huge windstorm appeared and disappeared.
Lightning that split the sky fell down on them too.
The sounds of the earth-shaking explosions were so loud that everyone had to block their ears.
Who was using which spell?
Who was winning?
In that moment, no one knew the answer.
But then, the dust clouds that surrounded the two started to settle down.
In that place, only one figure was seen standing.
“Wh-who is it? Who won?”
That person was,
“R-Ruin! It’s Ruin!”
“YEAAAAH!”
Ruin Ardell.
As the students of Ignit Magic Academy confirmed him standing there unphased, they exploded out into cheers and celebration.
“……D-Doom… lost?”
And the students of Raynac Magic Soldier Training School couldn’t hide their shock as they stood frozen.
A mixed mood of joy and sorrow.
This tragic feeling of being robbed of 1st place.
Dribble—
It was echoed by their champagne opened too early.
Then, Ruin opened his mouth.
“Doom Prime.”
“……”
His expression showed that he was thinking about what to say,
He thought of Doom’s taunt that he received just a moment ago.
And then, he smiled.
“Then, I’ll be going first.”
