Lucy Walker.
The abnormality born within the prestigious Walker family. Known to be very strict with their children, even a small disability or abnormality could lead to you getting kicked out of the family.
She was never taught the family technique when she was young. She learned how to manipulate her mana just by seeing her siblings do it. In turn, she received an invitation to the academy.
She's a prodigy among prodigies. A once-in-a-millennium witch.
Given enough time, she could learn someone's techniques just by observing them.
A monster with brimming potential.
-
Lucy pressed her back against a fallen log, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
Her right arm hung at a wrong angle, the elbow shattered, the forearm barely attached by threads of tendon and desperate mana reinforcement. Her crimson eyes were fixed on the two figures circling each other in the clearing's center.
"You..." Dominic's cold blue eyes fixed on Hoshimi, studying him like a puzzle he couldn't quite solve. "You're like a ghost. I can't sense any trace of mana coming off you. How are you doing that?"
"Practice."
Hoshimi didn't wait for a response.
He dashed forward, not in a straight line, but in a zigzag, his feet crackling with an unknown energy that made the grass beneath him hiss and steam. Dominic's eyes tracked him, but there was a lag now, a fraction of a second where his gaze couldn't quite keep up.
[I can't keep up with my eyes]
Hoshimi twisted his ankle at the last possible moment, changing direction mid-stride. His foot connected with Dominic's jaw in a kick that came from nowhere.
The impact snapped Dominic's head sideways. Blood flew from his split lip, scattering across the grass like crimson rain.
Dominic stumbled backward, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His teeth were red. His crimson eyes, usually so calm, now held something sharper.
[He isn't very physically strong, but he's using bursts of mana the moment his attacks hit.]
[That's why it hurts more than it should.]
Before Dominic could recover, he was moving again, low and fast, a blur of motion that seemed to slide between the spaces of perception. His palm struck Dominic's solar plexus, not hard enough to wound, but hard enough to disrupt. Dominic's breath caught. His guard dropped an inch.
Hoshimi's elbow was already there, driving upward toward his chin.
Dominic twisted. The elbow grazed his jaw instead of connecting fully, but the force still snapped his head sideways. Blood sprayed from his split lip. He stumbled, caught himself, and laughed.
The crimson rings around Dominic accelerated, spinning so fast they became a blur, their edges sharp enough to slice through the air itself. They expanded outward, a deadly halo searching for its target.
Hoshimi's eyes widened. "Lucy! Down!"
She didn't hesitate. She threw herself flat behind the log as the rings expanded outward in a deadly spiral, slicing through everything in their path.
Trees toppled. Branches exploded into splinters. A boulder that had stood in the clearing for centuries was cut clean in half, its surfaces polished to a mirror shine.
Hoshimi vanished.
. One moment he was there, the next there was nothing but a cloud of dust where his body had been.
Dominic's eyes widened.
A hand grabbed his collar from behind.
Before he could turn, before he could react, before he could even process what was happening, he was slammed into the ground. The impact cracked the earth beneath him, sending a shockwave rippling outward that toppled nearby trees. Dirt and grass exploded into the air.
Dominic gasped, the air driven from his lungs.
He pushed himself up instantly, dashing backward, putting distance between himself and the invisible threat. A pool of blood rippled at his feet, responding to his agitation, ready to defend him.
"Where the hell did you go?"
The crimson rings around him collapsed inward, shrinking from wide halos into thin razor-wire tendrils. They whipped outward in every direction, a deadly spiral that sliced through everything in their path.
Trees fell. Branches scattered. Leaves rained down like green snow.
Hoshimi's arms, reinforced with a layer of compressed mana, took the brunt of the attack. But the tendrils still drew blood, thin lines of crimson that appeared across his forearms, his shoulders, his chest.
He didn't flinch.
"Lucy!" Hoshimi's voice cut through the chaos. "Mix your blood with his!"
Lucy was already moving, her good hand raised, her mana flaring despite the agony of her shattered arm. "I see it, the pool beneath him-"
Lucy's eyes lit up.
She understood immediately. Her hand shot forward, and a burst of blood, just raw, unshaped essence, shot from her fingers straight into the pool rippling beneath Dominic's feet.
Dominic's fingers twitched.
He tried to reach for his blood, tried to reclaim control, but he couldn't. The connection was severed. Lucy's mana had contaminated his pool, she couldn't use her ability but he couldn't either.
Dominic pushed himself up from the wreckage of the trees. His shirt was torn, his back bleeding from a dozen splinters.
"I can do it!" Lucy's fingers tightened, her focus absolute. Sweat dripped down her forehead, but she held on. "I can hold him down!"
Hoshimi moved.
He came at Dominic from the left, a rapid flurry of strikes that forced the older boy to block rather than counter. His punches weren't heavy but they were fast, each blow landing before the last one's impact had fully registered.
"Witches always need a basic knowledge of hand-to-hand combat," Hoshimi said between strikes.
His voice was calm, almost conversational, even as his fists moved in patterns too quick to follow. "No matter the situation. Don't you think?"
Dominic blocked a jab aimed at his throat, deflected a hook toward his ribs, caught a straight punch on his forearm.
Each strike was faster than the last, each one forcing Dominic to retreat, to give ground, to focus everything on defense because he couldn't afford to take another hit.
Hoshimi's punches shot out like heavy bullets, each one carrying a burst of compressed mana that exploded on contact. Dominic's arms, raised to block, began to chip and crack, not the bones, but the mana reinforcement itself, the protective layer that kept him from being torn apart.
[He's wearing me down.]
Dominic straightened. His breathing was heavier now, his movements slower. The wounds Lucy had opened in his back were still bleeding, the blood pooling at his feet but refusing to obey his commands.
Hoshimi turned to look at Lucy. Her arm was barely clinging together. Tendons and thin strands of muscle held it functional, exposed nerves glistening in the fading light.
"Your arm is still in bad condition. How long can you keep this up for?"
Lucy's jaw tightened. "I'll be alright."
Dominic clenched his fists and raised them once more.
Hoshimi's eyes narrowed. He exhaled heavily, shook his head, and spread his arms wide in an almost theatrical gesture of invitation.
"What are you trying to do now?"
"I don't know what family you're from." Dominic's voice was low, almost admiring. "I don't know where the hell you're even from."
He calmed himself, a visible effort, his shoulders relaxing, his breathing steadying. A grin spread across his face, and his blue eyes became even more vibrant, glowing like ice under a winter sun.
[He's not afraid.]
Hoshimi smiled back. His voice, when he spoke, was loud and enthusiastic, almost cheerful.
"Speaking of family, did you know my mother was a famous Japanese idol? She abandoned me for killing everyone in the family." He raised his arms, palms glowing with white energy. "Isn't that funny?"
[He's trying to change the subject!]
Hoshimi surged forward.
His hands were brimming with mana, compressed so densely that the air around them seemed to warp and bend. He aimed for Dominic's chest, a killing blow, if it landed..
Dominic flinched.
He rolled away, barely dodging, the white energy passing close enough to scorch his sleeve.
A flaming ball of dirt flew toward him from the side.
David slid across the muddy field, his hands wreathed in flames that spiraled upward like a miniature sun collapsing on itself. He landed on his feet, panting, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"I need to get a high rank on the leaderboard." His voice was raw, desperate. "Anything for her. Anything for her!!"
Hoshimi didn't waste a second.
He launched himself into the smoke cloud, the scent of burning wood and blood mixing in the air. His body became a blur, invisible and visible at the same time.
Dominic emerged from the fire.
His shirt was ablaze, the fabric curling and blackening. The left side of his face was blistered, raw and red. But his blue eyes were still calm, still calculating.
"You're all so noisy." He rolled his shoulder, cracking it back into place. "Do you really think a bunch of kids can beat me?"
"You're the same age as us!" David's fingers ignited with bright flames as he bent lower to the ground, his fists close to his face, embers crackling around his knuckles. "What's up with that superiority complex!!"
-
A witch could be described as a handheld gun.
Their mana capacity is their ammo.
Their casting speed is the firing rate.
And their mana output is the size of the bullet.
Comparing a normal witch to Dominic is like comparing a pistol to a tank.
-
"Crying Lightning."
Dominic's eyes turned completely red, not the warm crimson of his usual self, but something deeper, something that seemed to bulge out of his head with the pressure of contained power.
Veins popped on his forehead. His hands began to change, the skin turning a deep, bloody crimson, as if his blood was rising to the surface, ready to be used as a weapon rather than a tool.
Blood trickled down his lips.
His fingers started to shake.
He lunged.
"What the hell?!"
Hoshimi's eyes widened. He threw himself sideways, barely managing to dodge Dominic's fingers. The tips grazed his cheek, drawing blood.
He stared at Dominic.
The witch was on all fours now, like a monster, his pure scarlet eyes staring at Hoshimi with a blank, unreadable expression. The rings of blood around him had vanished, replaced by a corona of raw, unstable mana that flickered and spat like a dying star.
"He's sacrificing his technique," Lucy breathed. "He's giving up his blood manipulation for pure mana output."
She could see it now, the way his mana signature flickered, the way it pulsed and surged like a heartbeat on the verge of tearing itself apart.
Hoshimi crouched.
He sighed.
"There's no way we can beat him." His voice was calm. "Run as fast as you can."
[If I play the hero, if I make her believe I sacrificed myself for her-]
[She'll owe me]
"I'll hold him off."
Dominic's body twitched again. His mana spiraled uncontrollably, and the ground beneath him cracked, the fissures spreading outward like a spiderweb. His veins glowed like lava beneath his skin, and from his back, something began to form.
Wings.
Crimson and terrible, made of condensed blood and raw mana. They grew larger and larger, spreading wide enough to block out the sky, to cast the entire clearing in shadow.
Lucy looked over her shoulder, her eyes peering into his.
[His determination. His courage.]
[It's almost inspiring.]
The fact that he could face Dominic with a straight face, that he could stand there with his hands raised and his eyes clear and his voice steady made every bone in her body shake.
He dashed forward.
His palms glowed with compressed white mana, and he pressed them against Dominic's chest, not to push, but to burn. The energy seared through Dominic's shirt, through his skin, through the muscle beneath.
Dominic didn't budge.
His backhand caught Hoshimi across the face. The world spun. Hoshimi felt his feet leave the ground, felt his body tumble through the air, felt the trunk of a tree meet his spine with a crack that might have been wood or might have been bone.
He slid down the bark and landed in a heap at the base of the tree.
He slowly turned his head, his scarlet eyes fixing on Hoshimi with something like curiosity.
David burst forth.
Flames engulfed his fists as he gripped Dominic's uniform, the fire burning even brighter, hotter, desperate. He pulled, tried to yank Dominic off balance, tried to create an opening, tried to do something.
Hoshimi's eyes swept the battlefield.
His sights focused on the nearby trees.
He grabbed a handful of fallen branches, and threw them into the air between himself and Dominic.
"Burn them!"
David's flames answered.
The branches crackled, igniting instantly. A wall of fire and smoke erupted in front of Dominic, thick and blinding, obscuring his vision completely.
Dominic's eyes widened.
He couldn't see. Couldn't track them. Couldn't do anything except stand there as the smoke swirled around him, as the flames licked at his clothes, as the three of them disappeared into the chaos.
"Come on." Hoshimi grabbed Lucy's good arm and pulled. "Move!"
They ran.
Dominic stood in the center of the clearing, the smoke slowly clearing, his scarlet eyes shifting back to their usual soft crimson. His face softened. The veins on his forehead faded.
"Come on."
He looked down at his pockets.
Empty.
"I got robbed?" He patted himself down, searching for the pouch of golden points that should have been there. "What the hell?"
He sighed.
"Little rats. They ran in separate directions. It's be a pain in the ass to go find them, I'm better off looking for someone else."
---
The forest was quiet now.
David wiped the sweat off his forehead as he trotted through the trees, the last light of the orange sunset peering through the thick canopy above. His legs ached. His lungs burned. But he was grinning.
"I can't believe I managed to steal Dominic's points before I escaped."
He looked down at his pockets, and nearly laughed.
A sea of golden coins almost erupted from his pants, spilling over the edges, clinking together with every step. He'd grabbed everything he could carry before running, and it looked like he'd grabbed more than he'd realized.
"How many is it now? 95 and 150..." He did the math in his head. "That should be 245 points. That should put me in first place."
He started to chuckle.
"I'll save her somehow."
He looked up.
A woman stood in front of him.
She was tall, with long black hair tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes were smiling, not her mouth, just her eyes, crinkled at the corners in a way that might have been kind or might have been cruel.
"Sis..." David reached out for her. "Don't worry, I'll save you—"
His hand passed straight through.
The world tilted.
His ears started to ring, a high, piercing whine that seemed to come from inside his skull. A burning sensation rushed through his head like boiling water being poured over his flesh, searing, scalding.
"Why..." His vision blurred. "Why is it getting so hot?"
Bang.
A warm crimson liquid rushed down his forehead, over his eyes, down his cheeks. His knees collapsed. He hit the forest floor face-first, the golden coins scattering around him in a glittering halo.
[My sister...]
[She was suffering from mana overdose.]
[They said they would help her if I scored high in the entrance exam.]
[I just wanted to help her.]
[All I wanted was one more chance.]
Hoshimi stood atop a tree branch, a pistol in his hand, smoke rushing from the barrel. His violet eyes stared down at David's body with calm detachment.
"I don't know what Reina meant by me not being able to kill, I killed this nameless guy, that's enough isn't it?"
He holstered the gun.
He jumped down from the tree, landing silently on the forest floor. The sun had fully set now, and the moon rose above him, casting silver light across the clearing. He bent over David's body and began gathering the overflowing gold coins from his pockets.
One day left until the Entrance Exam is over.
Current Ranks
1st - Hoshimi Shirogane - 245 points
2nd - Kira Aamon - 140 points
3rd - Lucy Walker - 134 points
4th - Sarah Williams - 130 points
5th - Edward Nio - 129 points