Reality.
Shen Sirong’s eyes widened, fixated on the demonic spear mere inches away. The infernal flames coiling around it made his face sting with a searing heat, yet he dared not move.
‘We… we won.’
****
‘No! Something’s wrong!’
‘The sensation isn’t right!’
‘There was no solid impact, no feeling of penetrating flesh; it was as if… I’d struck only air.’
‘And several seconds had passed. Why was there no response from behind me?’
Huo Ren jolted awake, his gaze snapping behind him.
‘My three teammates are gone! When did that happen!?’
‘Was it Shen Sirong?’
His eyes immediately fell upon Shen Sirong, who remained impaled and motionless on the tip of his spear.
‘Since the teacher hasn’t called a halt, that means…’
‘This person in my hand is also fake!’
‘I’ve fallen into an illusion!’
Huo Ren instantly grasped his predicament. The initial strike’s sensation had been accurate, meaning he had been ensnared precisely when he was giving his all, believing victory was within his grasp.
‘Careless…’
With a nonchalant flick of his wrist, he discarded the illusionary figure in his grasp as if it were mere trash.
His fierce gaze then sharpened on the girl he had just seen.
‘My eyes might be deceived, but the magic emanating from her is real!’
‘A clever tactic indeed, to pinpoint our weakness against illusions at a glance.’
‘But is merely delaying me for this brief moment truly enough?’
‘Once I break free from this illusion, victory will still be mine!’
Having realized he was trapped within an illusion, Huo Ren ceased to trust anything he saw. Instead, he relied solely on his other physical senses to guide his actions.
His demonic spear lightly scraped the ground, sparking faintly as he slowly advanced towards the girl.
“Hm?”
Suddenly!
Huo Ren clutched his chest, letting out a muffled groan.
Immediately after,
A powerful wave of dizziness surged through his mind. His body trembled slightly, and only by stomping his foot heavily did he manage to halt his forward sway.
Then, an overwhelming sensation of weakness abruptly enveloped him.
The demonic spear clattered to the ground, slipping from his grasp. With his balance irrevocably broken, his entire body tumbled uncontrollably towards the earth.
His body struck the ground, kicking up a fine layer of dust.
‘Poison!?’
Before his consciousness succumbed to darkness, he couldn’t even fathom when he had been afflicted.
‘I had already cast magic resistance on myself…’
‘Why?’
****
Watching the four burly figures silently collapse to the ground, and the other four on the opposing side gasping for breath, the onlookers’ eyes were filled with solemn gravity.
Huo Ren and his team never understood where they had faltered, but the spectators had witnessed everything with crystal clarity.
From the moment Huo Ren’s team launched their assault, Shen Sirong’s teammates behind him had begun to move.
Two of them had positioned themselves in front, buying precious time for their teammates’ spells.
After Shen Sirong’s arm was pierced, the other three opponents seemed to have collectively disconnected, standing there with vacant, unfocused eyes.
Only Huo Ren, still clutching his demonic spear, had bypassed the nearby Shen Sirong, advancing instead towards the two students who had kept their eyes closed from the very beginning.
Ultimately, he collapsed…
‘What a bewildering battle.’
“Drip…”
Shen Sirong clutched his injured right arm, his smile a somewhat strained affair.
‘That hit genuinely hurt; I almost thought my entire arm would be ripped off. Good thing I didn’t foolishly try to tank it.’
Blood splattered onto the ground, trailing down his arm.
“How are you? Are you alright?”
Still clutching his right arm, he approached another male student who had similarly served as bait.
Compared to this other boy, Shen Sirong’s condition was far from ideal. His hands, chest, and face were marred with bloodstains, and his clothes had been torn into strips. Beside him lay three more burly figures…
‘Hmm… there’s a certain tragic beauty to it, like they’ve been… violated.’
“Ptui!” He spat out a mouthful of saliva, tinged with blood.
“Damn it, these three bastards, do they have a grudge against me or something? Who says I can’t fight close-quarters? I’ve taken martial arts classes, you know!”
“…”
Seeing him so spirited, Shen Sirong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Had he not held off three opponents alone, the outcome of this match would have been truly uncertain.
Huo Ren’s judgment had, in fact, been only half correct. The girl was indeed the one casting the illusion magic.
However, another student had simultaneously been working alongside her, using magic to weaken their opponents’ resistance.
It wasn’t that their magic resistance buffs had failed; rather, from the very beginning, their resistance had been continuously chipped away.
From a gaming perspective, one would have seen the words ‘Magic Resistance -2’ constantly appearing above their heads.
Furthermore, Shen Sirong, despite having a spear inches from his face, remained utterly motionless (out of sheer terror), prolonging the illusion’s effect until it fully took hold.
The other male student was an even tougher individual, enduring the attacks of three opponents with his own wounds.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, not bad at all.”
Aya Tone, savoring the moment, placed the potato chips he had been enjoying back into his bag.
“You rascal, you look so honest and simple, yet you played such a devious trick.”
Huo Ren and his team collapsing in the end wasn’t solely due to the illusion; they had fallen into Shen Sirong’s trap from the very beginning.
‘This kid actually poisoned them!’
‘Good heavens, he’s not even bothering to hide it, is he? How can one even play with such underhanded tactics?’
“Ahaha, Teacher, what are you talking about?”
Shen Sirong chuckled awkwardly, his hand stealthily slipping into his pocket to switch off a certain magic item.
‘Using something like this in a match isn’t exactly honorable. If it were discovered, while it might not be a direct violation, it certainly wouldn’t look good and would damage my image.’
‘I haven’t even found a girlfriend yet; I really need to be mindful of my image.’
“Oh-ho, in that case, you’ll be responsible for their treatment.”
Aya Tone gestured towards the four unconscious figures on the ground, a playful smirk curving his lips.
‘Someone who can afford magic items certainly won’t be short on a bit of money.’
“Uh…”
Shen Sirong’s expression stiffened. He hurried over to Aya Tone and whispered, “Teacher, isn’t that even worse? If they’re sent to the infirmary for treatment, the whole school will know I used poison. Who will want to be my friend then?”
‘None of us four know how to use poison magic, yet our opponents are unconscious from poison. Isn’t that practically screaming the answer?’
“I don’t care.”
“…” ‘Is this old man angry?’
Shen Sirong tried to recall if he had offended this guy, other than at the very beginning…
‘It couldn’t be, could it…’
Holding onto the mindset that it was better to try and fail than to miss even a sliver of hope,
“Teacher, I know I was wrong. Next time you speak, whatever you say, I’ll be the first to agree! If you say it’s a horse, even if it’s a deer! Ah, no! It’s definitely a horse!”
An ear hidden beneath his white fur twitched slightly, and a small canine tooth couldn’t help but peek out.
“Oh, come now, am I really such an unreasonable person? You’re all my adorable students; I would never stand by and watch you suffer.”
‘Shen Sirong wanted to retort, ‘So you *were* angry about that after all…”
‘What a child.’
“Yes, yes, yes, Teacher is the best.” (Said with utterly flat, emotionless reverence.)
As the last trace of poison was expelled, the unconscious individuals slowly began to stir awake.
The moment Huo Ren opened his eyes, he sought out Shen Sirong. He uttered no words, only giving him a deeply meaningful glance.
The look made Shen Sirong’s entire being tense up, a wave of anxiety washing over him.
‘My sexual orientation is perfectly fine. Why am I being stared at by another man like this?’
“You were excellent! Next time, be careful of your rear, or what ‘tops’ you might not be human.”
“Hiss!” Shen Sirong instinctively clutched his backside.
‘It’s over… I’ve been targeted…’
“Stop clutching yourself. You’ll be fighting girls soon; hurry up and get ready.”
‘Girls fighting, now that’s something I absolutely adore.’
“Um, Teacher Aya, we actually plan to concede.”
“Hm, as expected. Let’s proceed directly to the boss battle then.”