I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 86

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Schlus stood still, saying nothing, just standing in place.

At first, Trie thought he might be formulating some kind of magic formula, but-

Bang!

“Huh?!”

Trie’s eyes widened as a yellow flash engulfed him.

He was hit.

Head-on by firepower that could melt even rocks.

Or more precisely, by the hologram recreating that flame magic.

‘D-did he die?!’

It was impossible to withstand such flames.

Unless there was some kind of barrier in place, but after investigating with her weak detection abilities, Trie couldn’t sense any barriers.

To block that level of firepower, a barrier would need to be high-powered enough for her to detect.

“Schlus Hainkel! Injured!”

“What…?”

However, Trie was astonished by the mechanical voice from the artifact.

Injured?

Not a death ruling?

For a moment, she suspected it might be malfunctioning.

“What is this…”

But seeing Sergei, who was equally surprised with his mouth open, that suspicion disappeared.

Sergei calmly examined all of the calculations of the artifact.

The mana Ainz had poured out.

The shape of the formula, and even the effect of the magic cast considering the surrounding environment.

Everything had been accurately projected onto reality.

Rumble…

“Heh. Heheh. Hehe. Hahaha!”

A black silhouette finally emerged from the smoke.

Schlus Hainkel stood there in the same position as when he was hit by the flash, without changing his posture at all.

There wasn’t even a change in his expression.

As if nothing had happened, he looked calm.

Sergei doubted his eyes and checked the artifact again.

This time, he focused on Schlus’s physical condition rather than Ainz’s magic.

And according to the artifact…

“How is this possible?”

For just 1 second.

Schlus’s physical strength had soared to an immeasurable level.

It wasn’t a barrier or magic.

He had simply withstood the magic with his body alone.

Sergei had heard of something similar before.

‘Vajra…!’

Vajra.

A legendary technique said to make the body infinitely hard.

There was a hypothesis that it was just a false rumor created by mistaking a Majin pretending to be human, but now he had no choice but to believe.

That the legendary technique actually existed.

[T/N: Vajra comes from sanskrit its a tool that symbolizes the hardness and strength of diamonds and a thunderbolt.]

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I had let my guard down.

No, actually I hadn’t let my guard down.

Ainz was simply smarter than me.

If it had been the old Ainz, he would have just tried to blast me with maximum output fire magic recklessly.

Then I would have instantly dismantled the formula and approached to take him down, but I couldn’t do that.

Because I couldn’t even detect the existence of the formula.

‘Damn it…’

It was virtually impossible to completely conceal a formula from me.

Ainz was aware of that too.

That was why he used an ingenious trick.

He created a formula that emitted a wavelength similar to the one emitted by the simulation artifact.

He chose to hide a tree by placing it in a forest.

Thanks to that, I was trapped in a barrier as soon as it started.

A barrier in a mana vacuum state.

It was probably created to restrict my magic casting, but because of it, I became blind and deaf.

Feeling something was off, I used ‘Selection and Concentration’ on strength for exactly 1 second.

Sure enough, flame magic, or rather the effect projecting flame magic, soon engulfed my body.

‘It’s bearable.’

The injury effect made my whole body start to sting as if I had been burned.

To think that even with strength surpassing 100 stats, I would still be injured by Ainz’s flame magic…

I was newly impressed by what a monstrous talent he possessed.

It meant he could inflict damage even on a Majin if he could just land a hit.

‘Found it.’

When I wasn’t paying attention at all, I couldn’t even notice it.

But when I concentrated, I could tell which was the artifact’s wavelength and which was Ainz’s formula.

I dispelled the barrier in an instant.

Then the thick smoke around me cleared and Ainz with a blank expression came into view.

“Hey, this… the gap is too big…”

Dumbfounded, Ainz fell back on his behind.

One step.

Another step.

With each step I took, formulas were created and forcibly dismantled repeatedly.

After about ten repetitions of this, no more formulas were engraved in the mana.

It seemed Ainz had run out of magical power.

“How about it? Want to try hand-to-hand combat?”

“Damn it. I know you spar with that muscle woman every day. How could I be a match for you? I surrender.”

Peeeep!

A whistle sounded.

It meant all of the matches had ended.

Apparently, this had been the longest-lasting match.

I grabbed Ainz’s hand and pulled him up.

“Good work.”

“Oh, yeah. You were amazing. Really. There’s no way I can win…”

Passing by me, Ainz couldn’t meet my eyes.

Something felt off.

It was fine for Ainz to feel respect for me, but fear was problematic.

Or rather than fear, was it a sense of inferiority?

Well, if it was that, it was a problem Ainz had to overcome himself.

The awakened Ainz had growth potential that could surpass even Hertlocker, to put it bluntly.

“Trie…”

She won, as expected.

It would have been really good if a miracle happened and she lost.

It seemed I would end up facing Trie at the end after all.

Of course, that was if I managed to survive the next two matches.

I succeeded in getting through the match with Ainz using only 1 second of ‘Selection and Concentration’, but-

“Injuries sustained in the first match will persist until the end. That means the pain you’re feeling now will continue.”

“Ha…”

As a penalty, I received an injury effect.

My whole body felt more than just stinging, it felt like it was burning.

And I had to keep feeling this the whole time…

I felt like smashing the artifact that was causing this pain.

“We’ll start the second match right away!”

“Huff… Haa… Haaa…”

If I took any more injury penalties here, I felt like I really wouldn’t be able to move.

I exhaled roughly and climbed back onto the arena.

My opponent was…

Well, an extra whose name I didn’t even know.

I shouldn’t let my guard down, but at least they wouldn’t be faster than Trie or have stronger magical power than Ainz.

“I look forward to our match.”

“Eek!”

For some reason, I shook hands with my opponent who seemed very startled, then returned to the starting position.

I’ll end this quickly.

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The second and third matches had all ended.

There were no upsets.

In the end, Schlus and Trie made it to the finals.

Trie finished all her matches in less than a second, approaching before formulas could even be activated.

Schlus’s case was a bit different.

In the second match, he dismantled all of his opponent’s formulas while rushing in and made them surrender through hand-to-hand combat.

In the third match, he suddenly rapid-fired mana emission formulas to silence his opponent.

They say repeating the same tactics too often leads to being countered, but…

No matter how many times Schlus repeated his formula dismantling ability, the students would have no way to cope with it, right?

Sergei couldn’t understand why he had deliberately wasted magical power.

“We’ll proceed with the final match soon. The difference in points between first and second place isn’t that big, so don’t get too hung up on it.”

It was meant to relieve tension, but Schlus’s condition was still not good.

His breathing was irregular and uneven, and cold sweat was flowing from his forehead.

It was due to the injury penalty the artifact was inflicting on him.

However, he stood firm without showing any sign of pain, in a posture as upright as Trie’s.

“Professor. Couldn’t you give us time to bring weapons even now?”

“No. Once the exam has started, weapons can’t be brought in from outside.”

Sergei flatly rejected Trie’s request.

Possessing a weapon was the easiest way to maintain high combat power at all times.

This exam was about evaluating that preparedness as well.

Because you couldn’t turn your back to go get a weapon suddenly on the battlefield.

“Both of you face each other.”

Amidst the other students sitting around watching.

The final match was about to begin.

Even Sergei couldn’t tell what kind of development this would show.

Trie preferred strengthening her body by activating internal circuits rather than magic, so formula dismantling would be useless.

It was likely to become a contest of whether Schlus’s magic deployment was faster or Trie’s charge was faster.

No matter how strong Schlus was in close combat, it would be difficult for him to defeat Gawayn’s daughter wielding a sword.

‘I wonder if he’ll show something bizarre again this time.’

Sergei swallowed hard.

Schlus had just openly demonstrated what appeared to be the Vajra technique in front of the students.

It was quite different from his former self who only showed restrained power.

Could it be that after using that magic in Whist Forest, he had given up on hiding his power?

If so, might he have more to show?

Sergei thought he might be about to show it now.

“I’ll signal the start.”

“…”

“…”

Trie lowered her stance to spring forward, while Schlus stood upright in place.

It was the expected formation.

Trie approaching, and Schlus trying to end it with magic before that.

A breathtaking silence fell over the exam venue for a moment.

At that moment when everyone was concentrating, forgetting even to breathe-

“Start!”

The match began.

At the same time, all of Trie’s physical abilities displayed on the artifact rose sharply.

She had activated her internal circuits.

Trie had already crossed half the arena, but still no formula was being deployed.

Had Schlus given up?

Just as it seemed the match was decided-

“Oh?!”

Trie stopped abruptly with her eyes wide open.

Stopping against Schlus? Was she in her right mind?

Tilting his head in confusion, Sergei looked at Schlus.

And he too opened his eyes wide.

Ziiing…

His right hand.

A blue pillar of light was being drawn from his palm.

It wasn’t magic.

There were no formulas deployed in the surrounding mana.

It was something that wasn’t magic, and thus couldn’t be dismantled.

Sergei gave up trying to predict the outcome of the match any further.

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