C36
'I'm sorry. We have to make a living too.'
The male student closed his eyes tightly and teleported to Shirone.
Fatal injuries were inevitable in the event of a collision.
“Eek!…… Huh?”
He cried out in fear, but he did not feel the impact he was preparing for.
When he opened his eyes, Shirone was exactly 10 meters away from where he was.
'He dodged?'
In the process of traveling forwards, Shirone abruptly curved right to avoid a collision. It was better than dropping out due to a collision, but he still took a speed loss nonetheless.
The female and male students plunged down with satisfied looks. They had successfully slowed down Shirone.
“No…!”
Shirone, whose repetitive compulsion was cut off by the dodging he did just now, gritted his teeth and focused his mind to try and raise back his teleportation tempo.
“Hey. Just now, the movement of those two kids. Wasn't it kind of weird?”
A kid from the Intermediate class said with a frown.
“I thought so too. Maybe they just got tangled in a rush? No way they tried to crash on purpose.”
“By no means was that an accident. They did it on purpose.”
The person who made that comment was a student from Class 5, Yiruki Mercodine.
She was the same person who had given the advice to Shirone back then when he was in the Image Zone. She was thin as a rail, had heterochromia, jagged teeth, and a pointed nose.
“How are you so sure? Sure, it was suspicious, but you can't be positive unless you're part of the accused party.”
With one palm spread open, she collided it with her other hand which was clenched in a fist.
“One person blocks the road. The other hits from another side. It's a great strategy to block both the instantaneousness of teleportation and the space leap aspect of it. If Shirone didn't dodge by modifying his usual cycle, he would have fallen down. Well, I would have found some other way using equations of motion.”
Her classmates turned their heads towards the training ground again.
'Gosh, what a poser.'
Meanwhile, Shirone began to get a little nervous after looking at the growing distance between him and Mark.
350 meters remaining.
By the halfway point, the only competitors left were Shirone and Mark.
'I won! I'm first!'
Convinced that he was going to win, Mark's body vibrated with excitement.
Although he had leaped about 40 times, seeing as how there was no one standing in his way, he did not feel fatigued.
'I'm the one who will pass!'
High-speed promotion to Class 5. The faces of envious classmates and the sour faces of Class 6 upperclassmen crossed his mind.
“HAHAHA! I'm first!”
As Mark sped up the tempo of his teleportation, the distance between him and Shirone began to widen even more.
'Mark is in good condition. He will complete the exam by the looks of it. At the rate I'm going, I won't be able to retake first place.'
There was only one possible method left for Shirone.
'Acceleration.'
While he might be able to get closer to Mark, the risk of breaking his routine was high.
However, the only solution was to increase his teleportation link rhyme by a beat faster.
“HEUP!”
With clenched teeth, Shirone's rhythm suddenly accelerated. The sound of the teleportation wave resounded like the beat of a drum.
The excitement of the students reached its peak.
“Shirone is starting to catch up! The winner is going to be decided soon!”
“Mark! Faster! Faster!”
Like the last spurt of track and field, everyone's adrenaline shot up as the distance shortened.
Then, something strange was detected by Mark.
The iron bar of the Bridge That Cannot Be Crossed started fluctuating like waves.
Mark frowned.
At first, he thought he was mistaken, but now he was sure that the bar was squirming around like a living creature.
“What the…?”
The material of the Bridge That Cannot Be Crossed had alchemical components to it. It was a special material that could change its shape in response to electromagnetic force.
'There should be no obstacles though… It should be set to level 1.'
Shattering Mark's belief, the bar bent like rubber and turned into a lasso.
“AAK! What the hell!”
At the same time he freaked out, Mark's body passed through the huge circle and came out the other way.
Tags:
Infinite Mage (Novel)
