Necromancer Academy and the Genius Summoner

Kamibarez’s counterattack had been impressive, but it hadn’t changed the fundamental dynamic of the match. Alizarin, with his overwhelming supply of water, still held the advantage. Kamibarez was forced to dart back and forth, focused solely on dodging his relentless assault.

"HAH!"

She leaped into the air to evade another wave and fired a second ’Blood Chaser’. This time, Alizarin was prepared. He threw up a shield of several layers of water and ducked, the blood bullet only grazing his arm.

"Ah!"

The crimson wave below didn’t falter. As Kamibarez descended, it surged up to meet her, swallowing her whole and slamming her into the ground. Her barrier flickered, its value dropping even further.

She gasped for breath, her hair plastered to her face. The ’Blood Storm’ she was preparing was a constant drain on both her blood and her concentration. Anxious, she touched the magic circle drawn on her wrist.

’If I cancel this spell and focus on long-range attacks with my remaining jet-black...’

"Kami!"

A voice cut through the roar of the crowd, sharp and clear. It was Simon.

"Don’t get swept up in his pace! Think about what you need to prioritize!"

’Ah.’

He was right. Her priority. On a battlefield that favored her opponent, it was only natural that he would dictate the flow of the fight. For now, all she could do was endure, no matter how many times she was battered by his waves.

She started running again, and Alizarin’s crimson tides crashed down one after another.

"How do you like this, Ursula!" he taunted, flinging his arms wide. The sight of the great necromancer of Ursula fleeing from his black magic was intoxicating.

"Yeah, I wanted to get into Kizen, just like you!"

A year ago, Alizarin had taken the Kizen entrance exam. But the memory was a bitter one.

"You have no talent," the interviewer had told him, his voice cold and dismissive. "It’s unfortunate for someone whose specialty is hemomancy, but you were born with exceptionally weak blood."

He had failed. After preparing for five years, his dream had crumbled, and he had tasted the soul-crushing despair of a broken life.

"But here in Moiran, which accepted me, I was able to rise again!"

At his gesture, crimson waves surged from the canals, cutting off Kamibarez’s escape. Trapped, she had no choice but to thrust her hands forward and cast a ’Blood Wave’. Alizarin met it with one of his own.

With a deafening boom, the spells collided.

"It doesn’t matter that my blood is weak!" he roared. "Like the waves of this great lake, I will rise again and again!"

Kamibarez’s wave destroyed his first, but it was immediately met by a second, then a third and fourth, until her hemomancy was completely neutralized.

"You, who just happened to inherit the blood of Ursula at birth! You could never understand my desperation!"

The fifth wave slammed into Kamibarez, throwing her against a wall. She cried out as she collided hard, her barrier flashing red as a hit was registered. Alizarin clenched his fists in triumph. He could win. He could defeat a necromancer from Kizen—an Ursula, no less.

’I’ll crush you! I’ll prove that my blood can surpass yours!’

Her wet bangs hung limply over her eyes.

"...Yes, I can’t understand your life or your desperation."

She staggered to her feet.

"So please, don’t make assumptions about the life I’ve lived, either."

The magic circle on her skin pulsed with light; it was finally complete. She peeled it from her arm.

"Don’t give me that nonsense! You, with that incredible Ursula blood...!"

"A half-breed!" she screamed, her voice raw with fury. "That’s what I am! I’ve never once considered this blood a blessing! For a power like this to flow in an ordinary human body isn’t a blessing—it’s a poison!"

Her magic circle flared to life. Petal-like drops of blood scattered in all directions as a crimson gale erupted around her.

’Ursula Original – Blood Storm’

A tornado of blood began to rage in the center of the arena.

"But I’m still going to move forward!" Kamibarez brought her arms together and thrust them out. "Because the people who acknowledge me, the people I want to be with until the very end, are here!"

The ’Blood Storm’ roared as it advanced. Alizarin poured every last drop of his jet-black into his own magic, twisting the crimson sea into a vortex. Five smaller tornados of blood rose from the canals and converged on her spell.

They crashed into her ’Blood Storm’ with a deafening roar.

Kamibarez’s storm only grew in intensity. The five crimson tornados collapsed, and her spell surged onward, straight for Alizarin.

’This can’t be happening!’

The tables had turned. Now it was Alizarin who fled, the red tornado chasing him, sweeping away everything in its path.

’I’ll be caught if I just run!’

As he ran, he desperately dripped more blood into the waterways. Another crimson wave billowed up.

’Blood Storm!’

His sixth tornado crashed into hers, only to be instantly shattered and reduced to water.

’Blood Storm! Blood Storm! Blood Storm!’

He kept creating them as he fled, sending them one after another, and each time they were destroyed by Kamibarez’s overwhelmingly powerful spell.

"Blood Sto—’Gah!"

His jet-black was completely gone. He sprinkled a drop of blood, but the resulting wave only rose halfway before collapsing. The tenth ’Blood Storm’ he had just launched was his last. His lips trembled as he looked up, a desperate prayer in his eyes.

’Please!’

His vision of defeating the pinnacle of blood magic had begun to blur after his own technique had been shattered nine consecutive times.

Finally, her first ’Blood Storm’ collided with his tenth.

They exploded on impact, neutralizing each other as the aftershock ripped through the arena.

"Watch out!"

"Aaaaah!"

The spectator stands were thrown into chaos as if caught in a typhoon, with clothes and belongings sent flying. Alizarin twisted his lips into a triumphant grin.

’I... I blocked it! It took ten tries, but I did it!’

But his joy was short-lived. He whipped his head around to see Kamibarez, her eyes gleaming, rushing in behind him.

’She’s coming in for a direct attack!’

She extended her arm, and Alizarin, still reeling from the shock, raised his guard. He managed to block her sharp palm strike with his elbow.

’Now to counter—!’

But it wasn’t a block. His entire body was sent flying sideways, still locked in its defensive stance. It was Kamibarez’s original martial art, a technique that sent any opponent she touched flying with immense force—a move even Hong Feng had praised.

’Kamibarez Original – Bakta’

Alizarin slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening crack, gagging as the air was forced from his lungs. His barrier flickered a deep red. Kamibarez drew her arm back.

’Huh?’

Her gaze dropped to a puddle on the floor. In it, she saw her own reflection, splattered with Alizarin’s blood.

’Why is there blood?’

That last hit shouldn’t have drawn blood. ’Bakta’ sent an opponent flying; it didn’t cause internal injuries. That meant only one thing.

’He coughed it up on purpose... huh?’

Her vision swam. Covered in Alizarin’s blood, her pupils began to shake uncontrollably. Alizarin, watching her, staggered to his feet with a triumphant, pained smile.

’Haah... It worked!’

Like the SM-1 blood Simon used for his Cloud, every necromancer’s blood had unique properties. Alizarin’s PU-4 blood, the very thing that had gotten him rejected from Kizen, specialized in ‘bestowal’ and ‘parasitism’. He had used it to control the water, but in theory, it could also control monsters—or even people. He wasn’t strong enough to fully control a person yet, but by now, Kamibarez would be...

’Experiencing effects similar to being hit with a barrage of mental curses.’

Her brain would be thrown into confusion, showing her hallucinations. And indeed, Kamibarez stood frozen, her arms hanging limp at her sides. Dragging his trembling legs, Alizarin ran toward her.

’I have to finish her with martial arts before she recovers!’

He ran with all his might, pouring the last dregs of his newly recovered jet-black into his fist, and threw a punch with all his strength.

Alizarin’s eyes widened in disbelief. It was blocked. A single, small finger had effortlessly stopped his jet-black-infused fist.

A low hum vibrated from the point of contact as he was pushed back. A cold, frozen expression and the empty, emotionless eyes of a monster stared back at him.

’Her entire aura has changed...!’

The thought had barely formed when his world flipped upside down. His body was sent flying again.

He crashed into the same wall as before. In an instant, Kamibarez was in front of him.

Before he could even register what was happening, his head was snapped to the side with a sickening crack.

Pain exploded in his abdomen. As his body slumped, she grabbed his hair with an indifferent expression and slammed his face into her rising knee.

His head was thrown back with a sharp crack. The shock tore through his barrier, and blood gushed from his nose, splattering across Kamibarez’s face. Her expression grew even more terrifying.

A one-sided assault unfolded. The crowd watched in stunned silence. The sight of her grabbing his hair and repeatedly smashing his face into the stone floor was a world away from the shy Kizen girl they had first seen. It was as if she were a different person entirely.

’Kamibarez Original – Bakta’

She executed the repelling technique while he was already on the ground. With a sickening thud, his head bounced off the stone like a ball. She caught it, only to smash it down again.

And again.

And again.

Even after his barrier shattered, her assault didn’t stop. Spectators squeezed their eyes shut or turned away. In the stands, Benz’s lips quivered.

"K-Kami...!"

The gentle girl he admired, the one who had shyly offered him a towel, was gone without a trace.

"S-Stop...!"

At that very moment, a black coat fluttered, momentarily blocking Benz’s view. Just as Kamibarez raised Alizarin’s head to slam it into the wall one last time...

Her body froze, her attack halted by a firm embrace. The black coat settled around her, and her movements finally ceased.

"You did well, Kami."

A gentle voice whispered in her ear.

"The match is over now."

Simon had appeared, holding her tightly. Benz’s jaw dropped. Meirin’s face flushed bright red as she covered her mouth with her hands. The referee, who had been rushing to intervene, saw Simon’s look and hurriedly raised his arm.

"M-Match over! The winner is Kizen’s Kamibarez Ursula!"

Simon closed his eyes, tightening his arms around her.

"It’s okay now."

Her empty pupils moved with a chilling coldness, fixing on the pale nape of his neck.

Her mouth slowly opened. Sharp fangs glinted in the light as they moved inexorably toward his throat.

"Don’t lose to the nature of your blood, Kami," Simon said, his voice firm. "Show that will that tries to control you who is truly in charge."

He gently cupped the back of her head.

"The only one who can control you is you."

At his words, life returned to her desolate eyes as if by magic. Dewdrops formed in her large, lavender irises.

"Simon...!"

"Yeah."

Simon held her close.

"You worked hard."

He felt the tension gradually leave her body, which had been rampaging like a cornered animal. A moment later, she wrapped her arms around his back.

"...Thank you."

Jane, who had been preparing a binding curse, smiled in relief and shot a warning glance at the other adults.

’Don’t touch my student.’

The other necromancers hesitantly lowered their arms as the medical team carried Alizarin away on a stretcher. After a quick examination, they signaled to the guards that he was stable.

"Ah, right."

Simon offered a faint smile to the referee.

"This isn’t considered interference or anything, is it?"

"Huh? Oh, no! You entered after the opponent’s barrier was shattered, so..."

"That’s a relief."

Kamibarez inhaled Simon’s scent and slowly tilted her head, resting her face against his chest. She could hear the steady beat of his heart.

And... it was warm.