Anika strode in confidently and smirked the entire way to the stadium.

"What's got you smiling so early?" I asked. She knew what I was capable of and wasn’t stupid enough to think this would be an easy fight.

“Nothin, I’m just reminiscing about how I can use my ability,” her smirk widened, and her brows rose. “What about you? Are you going to use your special ability?”

Ah, I see. So that’s why she was so happy.

With two Special Rank Exorcists observing us, I couldn’t use my human control ability. It was too much of a risk.

If it was only the headmaster, the old man would have turned a blind eye to this. But Emer, the Sun Exorcist, was a stick in the mud. He was the higher-ups' dog and would use me as leverage against my clan.

They might not notice. But that was wishful thinking. Special Rank Exorcists earned that title for a reason, they were knowledgeable and powerful.

Paris wasn’t someone I considered experienced compared to the others of her rank. Yet, she deduced it after only seeing it once.

Anika was smart enough to have seen through my intentions not to use Perfect Me. But did she have to be such a bitch about it?

"Begin!"

As soon as the announcer’s words came out of his mouth, Anika shot out an Ord blast toward the sky. The blast expanded into a net atop the stadium, making a spiderweb-like ceiling.

Many other smaller strings extended from the spider net. Anika narrowed her eyes at me. “Kon, I owe you a debt. So I will be merciful and tell you that you stand no chance against me. I have the home advantage!”

She was a natural at acting like a spiteful bitch, a truly talented trash-talker. Though I had to admire her creativity in creating this roof net. Had she developed this technique after fighting Pixie?

Growing stronger after a fight was so very shounen of her.

I was a bit jealous. Even Carpy had his shounen moment when he evolved. When would my turn come to have a shounen power up?

I crouched, and strings fell from the webs above.

There was another reason I wasn’t planning on using Perfect Me. Because I only had about 2 minutes and 30 seconds of use. With how my special ability worked, I doubted my ability and started recharging. Perfect Me had to be fully used, and then one week later, it would be usable again.

The strings tried to grab onto me. I used my normal sword to cut the strings and started running around like a rat.

She had the advantage. But how long could she keep this up?

“Let’s see which one of us gets tired first,” I smiled and tried to unnerve Anika.

She had an expressionless look on her face that was hard to read.

***

‘He is smiling at me! Damn it, that’s cheating! What do I do? What do I do?’ Anika’s heart started beating wildly.

It felt like blood was rushing to her head, and she was about to pass out.

‘No! I have to wake up!’

Anika came to her senses and frowned. “I never thought you would use an attack like that. But it won’t be so effective against someone like me.”

She never thought Kon would use a honey trap attack on her! It was super effective, and her thoughts were jumbled and scrambled! Anika didn’t have the mental clarity to develop new strategies and just kept extending her strings and trying to grab onto Kon.

Hundreds of strings closed in on him, but he tilted his body down, his face almost touching the ground. He cut through threads with a sword so fast she barely saw a dark flash.

As Anika’s head cleared up, Anika noticed Kon hadn’t drawn his cursed sword.

Was he not going to use his cursed sword?

That was too arrogant! Did he think she was an easy opponent?!

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

‘I will show him!’

He would have no cards to play with as long as she could take his cursed sword. It would just become a game of tag, and she just had to flood the entire field with strings, and then it wouldn’t matter how fast he was.

Anika wasn’t like other girls who would lose their minds when their crush smiled at them. So even though she liked him a bit, she would not go easy on him.

She crouched down, and her hands touched the ground. Anika poured most of her Ord into the ground, filling every small opening between dirt and rock.

“{Dirty Shower!}”

The ground under their feet rumbled, and rocks were uprooted.

This was a technique she had gotten inspiration from Kon. His technique was like something was puppeteering his body. Her strings grabbed the rocks and used them like sledgehammers against Kon.

He dodged most of the rubble like a snake going through grass. But even he had a limit, and she had an advantage since he would not use his special ability.

Anika controlled a string, grabbed a rock, and threw it, which hit Kon to the side. The attack was enough to distract him as another string slithered from underground and grabbed onto his cursed sword.

Kon’s eyes widened, and Anika brought the sword to her hands. Now his only choice was to aim for her; with his target known, he would be easy to hit.

“You think you could beat me while half-assing the fight?” Anika regretted it when she said that, wondering if it came out as a bit too mean. Old habits die hard. “So how about you give-”

She stopped whatever she was about to say next and looked down at the sword in her hands. It was beautiful, red, and had a sweet coppery smell. The sword reeked of blood, but in a good way.

Her finger felt cold as she touched the handle. Anika’s throat was dry, and she swallowed her saliva. She shook with excitement.

‘If I draw this, then I will become the strongest! Combining it with my strings, and the boost the sword gave Kon, it would make me stronger than anyone in my generation! Something I had been looking for!’

Anika gently brushed her fingers along the handle as an inexplicable temptation to unsheathe the sword came over her.

But just as she was about to pull out the sword, another hand grabbed her wrist. Looking up, she saw Kon’s face only an inch away from hers. “It seems like the sword has grown better at tempting users that aren’t me.”

Because of the proximity of his face, Anika’s mind went blank for a split second. Even the influence of the sword took a backseat to the sudden increase in blood pressure she felt. Then the next thing she felt was Kon taking the sword from her hands.

“Do you give up?” Kon pointed his other blade at her throat.

“... I give up,” Anika sighed and stepped back. She was a bit disheartened; Kon hadn’t even used his familiar. “Was your plan to let me grab your sword and get ensnared by it?”

"No," Kon shook his head. It was hard to get a read on him. “I’m trying to hide some of my power. You were a good opponent, but I already knew your special ability.”

‘Yeah, and I knew yours too. But it still feels like there is an insurmountable mountain between us power-wise.’

Ultimately, Anika accepted his excuse and put it up to Kon as being humble.

He was superior in every facet she could think of: strength, Ord, speed, or strategy. He had stronger willpower too.

How could he carry a cursed sword that strong and was never tempted? Though he gave the excuse that the sword had grown to 'like' him, that wasn't how cursed weapons worked. Anika read between the lines, knowing Kon was just being humble when he said that.

“The winner is Kon!” The announcer congratulated the winner. “The next fight will be between Bets and Bob!”

Bob? Was there someone in the semi-finals with a name like that? It sounded like some generic and uninspired name that someone would come up with on the spot.

Kon’s bigger teammate jumped down to the stadium. His opponent was the well-built silver-haired guy. He was from the team that weirdly addressed Agon as their older brother.

Her team had a brief clash against the silver-haired team on the train. That was where Sei got his shoulder injury. Anika knew nothing other than the little silver-haired girl was dangerous; her attack had injured Sei, and the attack was crazy fast.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Bets took out a nail gun. "I know your name isn't Bob. It should be a number, right? Just like the little girl."

Number? Anika was confused. But it seemed like Bets knew what he was talking about, as Ben's eyes widened.

"My real name is Thirty-Seven," Ben clenched his fist. "It seems like you're quite sharp. Contrary to your appearance."

Anika realized that they must be named by numbers, and it was some kind of ranking. Meaning that the silver-haired guy was ranked 37th in his organization.

What that number stood for, Anika didn't know. It could be a ranking of speed, maybe compatibility, or Ord. But if she were to guess, she would say that the numbers were rankings on strength.

"Begin!"

Ben, or Thirty-Seven, whatever his name was. He charged first, and he was fast.

But Bets didn't falter and shot out nails imbued with Ord. There were many projectiles, and it didn't seem like there was any ammo refill, which led Anika to believe that only a Creator could operate the Magic Weapon that Bets used.

Bets' Magic Weapon could absorb his Ord and create the ammo from his energy.

Thirty Seven had impressive instincts as he dodged all the projectiles, monitored the weapon’s trajectory, and moved out of the way as soon as a shot rang out.

But Bets wasn’t finished; he stopped shooting and threw the gun at the opponent.

“Huh?” Thirty-Seven’s eyes widened, and he moved his head to the side. The weapon flew past him.

Then Bets clicked his fingers, and a surge of Ord burst out of the weapon, shooting a barrage of nails toward Thirty-Seven. The latter noticed the incoming projectile and dodged, but the nails chased him.

“Shit, I didn’t want to do this so soon.” Thirty-Seven frowned.