Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 344

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 344: The Summoning Genius of the Necromancer School
On the eve of his decisive confrontation with Simon.
Juul found himself quietly recalling a conversation with Elisa.
—If you pressure Simon into deploying his Elite Guard, the operation’s as good as a success. Just run.
Hearing those words, Juul shook his head.
—I must decline. A duel with Simon is precisely what I desire. I shall fight with confidence and return victorious.
—Ugh! You’re not nearly necromancer enough for your own good.
In the end, Elisa had revealed Simon’s vulnerabilities to him.
—Grand Summoning tactics are pretty much the same everywhere, right? The basic strategy is to avoid the summons and strike at the caster first. But Simon’s dangerous—he’s skilled in combat magic too, so that approach won’t work on him.
—Then what would you suggest?
—Target the skeleton Elite Guard.
A spark of insight flickered in Elisa’s eyes.
—Simon and his Elite Guard are connected somehow. Apparently it’s because they use a Blood Golem as the base, though I don’t fully understand the mechanism. Anyway! If you press Simon while destroying his Elite Guard, he’ll take damage too.
The Elite Guard was both Simon’s greatest strength and his weakness.
That’s what Elisa had said.
“Go.”
At Simon’s command, the twenty-three scattered Elite Guard skeletons rushed at Juul in perfect unison.
“Hmm.”
Juul calmly gripped the Demonic Sword’s hilt, and its power activated instantly.
A crimson blade-arc blossomed outward in a circle around him, halting the skeletons’ charge. Three of them failed to evade and their bodies split open under the assault.
“!”
Far back, Simon couldn’t hide his agony—he clutched his chest with a sharp intake of breath.
Looking closer, Juul could see the same wound on Simon’s body that had struck the Elite Guard.
‘Just as Elisa analyzed. Her assessment was correct.’
But Simon was not one to take punishment passively. A single skeleton materialized from within his swirling cloak, thrusting its blade straight at Juul’s face.
Juul barely twisted his head to evade, but an emerald-hued blade-flash descended from the side, crashing hard against his barrier.
‘Swift indeed!’
The skeleton’s speed defied belief—a quickness that seemed impossible for bone and marrow.
Juul broke free from the encirclement and bolted, twenty Elite Guard skeletons in pursuit behind him.
He had to defeat each one with absolute certainty.
As Juul fled, he suddenly leaped upward, planted both feet against a nearby brick wall, and launched himself forward in a burst of momentum.
His target: the skeleton directly ahead.
‘One at a time.’
Juul swung his sword scabbard, and the skeleton raised its blade into a defensive posture before him.
Clang!
But the moment the blades collided, the enemy’s blade became three. Skeletons from both sides had stepped in, multiplying the defense.
Crash!
Crash!</
Simultaneously, the Elite Guard who had wheeled around struck from behind. His Barrier Gauge drained significantly.
'Their coordination is extraordinarily sophisticated.'
Simon was controlling all twenty skeletons directly, with no blind spots in their formation.
Twenty blades became one, steadily tightening their siege around Juul. Emerald-tinted blade-light poured from all directions, painting the air in brilliant sweeps.
'The moment I'm surrounded is the moment I lose!'
Juul abandoned any thought of meeting the skeletons head-on and shifted to a hit-and-run strategy, maintaining distance.
Each time he grasped the Demonic Sword's hilt while retreating, another skeleton fell—and Simon felt the backlash.
'Your Elite Guard are formidable, there's no doubt. Once they're deployed, even the finest warriors in Kizen would be swept away without a chance. And yet!'
Juul gripped the Demonic Sword's hilt and drove it downward into the earth.
'Now you've simply given me more targets to cut down!'
Golden Wheel
Seven slashing arcs erupted from the ground where the sword scabbard struck, rippling outward across the earth.
Several more Elite Guard collapsed, and this time Simon's knee buckled—thud—meeting the ground.
'To wield this Demonic Sword, I have abandoned much.'
Though hidden beneath his school uniform, Juul's bare body was inscribed with six permanent magic circles.
To use the Demonic Sword, Juul had been forced to renounce countless things.
He had surrendered one eye. He had lost his sense of taste. He had forsaken the comfort of restful sleep. Day after day, he endured agony and suffered nightmares.
Beyond that, as a necromancer he had sealed away or abandoned most other Black Magic disciplines—curses, summoning, blood magic. All that remained for Juul was this single Demonic Sword.
When other students learned something from the professors.
Juul sacrificed something.
And the more he gave up, the stronger the Demonic Sword became.
Sacrifice. That alone was the way Juul grew.
'I need to know!'
Another of the Elite Guard shattered under the Demonic Sword's blade and crumpled. Simon's face went deathly pale.
'With this Demonic Sword I've gained by casting aside everything that made me who I was — how far can I reach?'
As Jule began adapting to the Elite Guard's assault, Simon made a radical shift in his approach.
Crunch. Crunch.
A cyan light drained from several of the Elite Guard's bodies, and they crumbled into bone fragments scattered across the floor.
The once-numerous Elite Guard dwindled to just five in an instant. Simon had deliberately cut their number himself.
'A glaring mistake!'
To willingly abandon the summoner's greatest advantage — sheer numerical superiority!
There was no reason to hesitate further. Jule charged straight at the summoner Simon.
Yet even as Simon's breath came ragged, a faint smile played at his lips.
"It's basic principle, after all."
One of the Elite Guard stepped into Jule's charge, blocking his path.
"When the numbers decrease,"
An Elite Guard dove from above, spinning like a tumbler, and brought its blade down. The clash rang out with a resonant clang, and Jule's feet sank deep into the ground from the impact.
"the quality of control increases."
Jule dashed sideways and drew his scabbard, but the Elite Guard simply twisted its head to evade, then pivoted into a countercharge, driving its blade through his flank as it swept past.
"Hmm!"
Jule's hand immediately snapped to the Demonic Sword's hilt.
Whoooosh!
The Demonic Sword's arc sliced through the air in a straight line, but the Elite Guard lowered their stance and slipped past it cleanly.
'This can't be happening!'
The blade passed through empty space and struck an innocent pile of stones, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Then five emerald-hued slashes burst through the dust, converging on Jule.
"Urgh!"
Five blades and one Demonic Sword clashed violently together. Brilliant flashes of light exploded in rapid succession.
One Elite Guard spun like a top, whirling its blade; another leaped through the air, raining strikes from above; a third met Jule's attacks head-on; a fourth thrust relentlessly, targeting his rear guard.
Cuts bloomed across Jule's body, and his Barrier Gauge flashed crimson.
'At this point, there's only one option left!'
Jule abandoned the Elite Guard and charged directly at Simon, gripping his scabbard with both hands and raising it before his face.
Click.
'!'
Simon's eyes snapped wide open at the sight.
Not fully — but for the first time, Jule's scabbard had opened. The crimson blade within gleamed with reflected light.
Though Jule's body faced forward, his gaze was fixed on the Elite Guard pursuing him.
'Surely not!'
Simon unleashed an Absolute Command to all his Elite Guard.
<Four Wheel>
Whoooooosh!
Four converging slashes tore through the bodies of the pursuing Elite Guard. Their torsos separated in unison, and Simon's eyes lost focus as he collapsed to one knee on the ground.
"You were a worthy opponent."
From his half-drawn stance, Jule completed the motion in one fluid transition, drawing the Demonic Sword fully from the scabbard and raising it.
Thump!
He released the scabbard and planted the Demonic Sword upright, then charged at Simon. The blade's point aimed for Simon's neck.
"!"
Light returned to Simon's eyes in a flash. He tilted his body and slipped the strike, then drove in close and pressed his palm against Jule's abdomen.
<Simon Original — Pulse Strike>
Thwaaaack!
A wave erupted from his palm, sending Jule's body flying backward.
'How is he still standing?'
Jule's eyes darted backward.
Of the five Elite Guard he'd cut down moments before, four were charging forward with their bodies miraculously intact.
"Obviously."
With a brilliant flash of blades, the Elite Guard crossed through Jule's position. They stopped their motion in cutting stances, and from Jule's airborne form,
Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice!
four converging slashes glinted and struck home. The Barrier protecting Jule burned a vivid scarlet at its limit.
"I never cut them at all."
Simon heaved for breath, raising one finger upward.
Thump!
Jule crashed to the ground. Blood trickling from his mouth, he looked up at Simon.
"How is this even…!"
"You weren't actually striking at the Elite Guard."
Simon had noticed, when Juel deployed his final technique, that his gaze was directed backward—and realized then that he was aiming for the skeleton warriors.
So Simon predicted the blade path, then used Absolute Command to scatter the skeleton's body parts. The sword slash passed through the gap between them.
Upon hearing this explanation, Juel was startled.
"You're telling me you predicted the blade path and dispersed the parts?"
"Yeah. You still don't have complete control over the Demonic Sword, do you?"
The Demonic Sword seemed to slip beyond Juel's control the moment it left its scabbard. Juel could only indicate the sword's direction, and he couldn't properly perceive the process of reality manipulation himself—something Simon had already confirmed through several experiments.
Juel let out a dry laugh, as though finally understanding.
"A complete loss, then."
Click. Click-click-click.
Watching Simon's command cause the skeleton warrior's body, decomposed into bone fragments in midair, transform into bone needles, Juel closed his eyes.
"Next time, I'll challenge you under more perfect conditions."
'…I really don't want to accept that.'
From Simon's perspective, Juel was a Necromancer he genuinely dreaded facing.
The strongest of the students he'd fought recently.
"Good work out there."
As Simon lowered his arm, countless bone needles hammered into Juel's last barrier.
[Juel Vincere eliminated.]
[Defensive Team (12/15)]
[Offensive Team (11/15)]
His body vanished completely from the field of battle.

* * *
At the same moment, outside the North Gate.
"Attack! Attack! Keep pressing forward!"
Elisa, the commander of the Offensive Team, was personally directing the assault on the North Gate.
Just then, a message appeared.
[Juel Vincere eliminated.]
"Hmm."
Despite losing Juel, a core asset of the Offensive Team, she showed little sign of being rattled.
"Well done, Juel. I won't let your sacrifice be in vain."
She spoke while raising the nameplate in her hand.
"Rak, you made it in safely, right? Destroy it."

* * *
While Simon and Juel fought fiercely, the siege warfare was unfolding with mounting tension.
All the forces of the Aon Kingdom that had been defending the Outer Castle had retreated into the Inner Castle, and now the Kan Kingdom was beginning its assault on the Inner Castle.
As the battle raged on intensely, good news arrived.
Special Exception number five—Juel—had been eliminated.
"Wow! Juel got taken out here!"
"Excellent, excellent!"
"Everyone stay sharp!"
While everyone else was laughing boisterously, only Merin maintained an expression of intense focus. She was using ice to coat the Castle Wall, sliding soldiers as they climbed up.
"We have to hold this position perfectly until time runs out!"
"Yeah, I know."
"Still, this spot's pretty solid."
Whereas the Outer Castle had required attention to each and every arrow coming from the enemy's ranks, the Inner Castle benefited from walls so tall that defenders felt considerably more secure.
Whether the enemy tried to scale the walls or breach the gates, the assault would be far from easy. With the number of critical defensive positions greatly reduced, the students could also conserve their Dark Element.
"Good, good!"
Dik clapped his hands, encouraging his teammates.
"Just hold the line like this…!"
[Protective Stone has collapsed.]
[Dui Norman eliminated.]
An unexpected message.
Soon after, the transparent magical barrier that had been enveloping the entire Inner Castle began to fade.
"What?"
"What? We're defending the Inner Castle—how did this happen…!"
Then everyone's eyes turned skyward.
A massive black dragon was ascending into the sky, its wings spread wide.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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