“Yuuji… Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be calibrating your CAD. Just accept it. There’s no use gripping over something that’s been decided. And I would love to have you oeam, Mikihiko.”

  While Yuuji was in the meeting, Aika had iatsuya, Miyuki, Mikihiko, Leo, Mizuki, and Erika to Yuuji’s room, knowing he’ll want to inform Tatsuya and Mikihiko about their participation in the Monolith Code tour right after he returned.

  Well… That and Aika also wao invite everyone over to hangout. After all, although it’s a petition, they’re still staying together for days. When else could they hang out until te at night.

  So, while Tatsuya, Mikihiko, and Leo were sitting on the chairs, the girls made themselves at home on Yuuji’s bed.

  After Yuuji fielling the two about the decision Katsuto, Mayumi, Saegusa, and he made regarding their school’s Monolith Code team, Mikihiko let out a sigh.

  “...Alright. Thank you, Yuuji. I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations.”

  There was still some anxiousness aation in his voice, but Yuuji also noticed the slight excitement.

  “Great. The’s start pnning for our strategy for tomorrow.”

  Yuuji looked at the two and began.

  “Let’s start with the formation. I will be on defeatsuya, I’ll leave the vanguard role to you. You are free to do as you see fit. Depending on the yout of the arena, you’ll either have to open up our enemy’s monolith code and stall while Mikihiko ehe code with his spying spell, or just elimihe enemies.”

  “Alright.”

  He then turowards Mikihiko.

  “Mikihiko. I want you to be in charge of gueril warfare. Stalling, ambushing, anything you o do to support both offense and defense.”

  “...”

  Mikihiko fell into silence for a moment before letting out a sigh. His eyes gnced briefly at Tatsuya before looking at Yuuji with .

  “Yuuji… I’ve been enlightened retly that my spells… that the Yoshida family’s magic spells are too voluted, and that is why I ’t wield my magic the way I want.”

  “I see.”

  Yuuji atsuya must’ve said the same thing to Mikihiko after the two took care of the intruders a few nights ago.

  He must’ve said it knowing it would help him as well iy…

  Yuuji smiled inwardly at his friend’s thoughtfulness.

  “I admit that my spell was camoufged to obscure the true nature of the spell. But I think that’s probably what led to the redundancies in my spells.”

  “It is indeed a very effective tactic. But that was only true back whehy invocations were necessary. With modern-day magic, which has been accelerated by the use of CADs, it would certainly lose its effectiveness now.”

  “Right. So a magic, which is more powerful in terms of potency, has no ce against modern day magic.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Mikihiko.”

  “Eh?”

  Yuuji smiled fidently.

  “Goio-head, modern-day magic, with its vastly superior activation speed, would have the advantage. But that’s it. In terms of extrasensory surprise attacks, the powerful and stealthy A Magic would be far more superior. That is why I reended you to be in my team. Your exempry proficy with A Magic, which is superior when used fueril tactics, will bee an irrepceable asset for our team.”

  Mikihiko’s eyes widened widely at his words.

  They were not said to simply boost his fideno… He truly meant what he said. Yuuji truly believed in the worth of his A Magid skills.

  “Alright. I’ll put my faith in you, Yuuji.”

  “Thank you, Mikihiko.”

  --------------------------------X--------------------------------

  Eight day of the Ninth School petition.

  Rookie event Monolith Code Qualifying Matbsp;

  First High School vs Eight High School

  Yuuji, Tatsuya, and Mikihiko stood in the middle of a forest with their team’s monolith behind them.

  They were all equipped with armor, helmet, greaves, bracers, and CADs.

  Standing at the ter, Yuuji stood with a calm smile, a sight that mesmerized many of the female audience currently watg him from the live feed of the arena dispyed e ss in the venue.

  Unlike his previous match, Yuuji didn’t have any gun-shaped CAD with him. This time, he only had two bracelet-shaped CADs. One on each wrists.

  Standing to his right was Tatsuya, who had two gun-shaped CADs holstered on the side of his thighs. They were not his Silver Horn, but rather just a pair of generic type gun-shaped CADs for petitive use.

  And stly, to his left was Mikihiko, who wore a bracer-shaped CAD on his left arm.

  Watg through the massive s at the ter of the arena, Masaki and Kichijouji “Gee” Shinkurou stood on the side of a wall. Their eyes gleaming in anticipation.

  “There he is.”

  “Yeah. Though, I didn’t expect our “sed problem” to also appear as a pyer.”

  “Indeed. But if he’s there, then that means their CADs will be extremely advanced…”

  “Mm… But, CADs are nothing if you ’t use them. So let’s see what he’s capable of.”

  Right after the match started, Tatsuya dashed towards their enemy’s territory and searched for their monolith.

  He dashed from cover to cover, using the trees, bushes, and nature around him as cover, and before long, he saw the enemy’s monolith guarded by one person.

  With swift movements, utilizing the trees and bushes as cover, he charged ahead straight towards the sole defender of the Eight High School team’s monolith.

  Tatsuya pulled the trigger to his gun-shaped CAD, creating a magic circle below their feet.

  “Arrgghh!!!”

  The defender let out a pain groan as he felt a tremendous force pushing him down to his knees. And as he did, Tatsuya had dashed past them towards the Monolith he’s guarding.

  “You bastard!”

  As soon as the effect of the spell ended, he raised back up and aimed his gun-shaped CAD at Tatsuya, beginning to build the activation sequeo his spell.

  But without looking back, Tatsuya aimed his gun right at him and pulled the trigger as he ran. And in the moment, the activation sequehat was f around their CAD shattered, the impact causing him to let go of his CAD.

  “What?!”

  “Don’t tell me… Was that Gram Demolition?”

  Gee and Masaki looked at the s with wide eyes and s jaws, uo believe what they had just seen.

  Gram Demolition, a spell dismantling spell. Bullets made of pressed Psion particles fired directly at the target, bypassing the Idea dimension, aonating. Any psion information bodies with magiformation recorded onto them, such as Activation Sequenagic Sequence, are bsted away with this ter magic spell.

  Aside from its she, it has no real fws. It is the most powerful ter magic spell in actual use. However, hardly anyone could use it.

  At least, they’ve never seen anyone use it... until now.

  Having disarmed the sole defender of the Eight High School team’s monolith, Tatsuya shot the special Magic Activation Seque the monolith, causing it to crack open and revealing the string of characters o be inputted to wich.

  “Ah! Tatsuya-san did it!”

  Sitting in the spectators’ seat, Honoka cheered as she watched the live feed along with Shizuku, Miyuki, Mizuki, and Aika.

  “Hm? But why is he running away when the monolith just opened up?”

  “Even for my brother, entering 512 characters while under enemy fire would not be an easy feat.”

  “I see… Ah, it’s Yuuji-san.”

  Switg from dispying Tatsuya, the live feed now dispyed Yuuji, simply standing in front of his monolith with a rexed smile.

  And as soon as his figure appeared on s, there was a deafening cheer from the spectators as the female audience cheered his name.

  “Yuuji-san! Do your best!!!”

  Honoka simirly cheered for him while Shizuku looked at him in shobsp;

  “Why is he so rexed…?”

  “Fufufu~ Don’t worry, Shizuku~”

  Shizuku turowards Aika, who was excitedly watg him with a wide smile on her fabsp;

  “Yuuji doesn’t even have to lift a finger up to beat them. Look~!”

  She turned bad saw Yuuji still standing there, unmoving. But then she realized something that shocked her to the core.

  A few distance away, up high in the air above the tree opies, there was one member of the Eight High School filing its feet helplessly with his arms pressed against his body, as if someone had tight a rope around him.

  She could see him struggling as hard as he could, but to no avail.

  “See~?”

  “...”

  Aika had a proud smile while Miyuki smiled helplessly as both Honoka and Shizuku stared at him dumbfoundedly.

  He… He didn’t even move. They didn’t even see him activating his CAD. But his enemy was now hanging in the air.

  And after a while, he simply hung there i, no loruggling.

  “Amazing… Yuuji-san is amazing…”

  “Uhn…”

  Meanwhile, the final member of the Eight High School team was lost within the fog Mikihiko created using his a magic spell.

  With a gun-shaped CAD in his hand, the guy walked and stumbled around. His senses dulled as a raging headache made it hard for him to even walk straight.

  “Where are you…? Stop hiding! Show yourselves! Uggghhh…”

  He yelled into the fog, looking around to try and find the caster of the spell and take him out. But there was no one, so he tio walk foing further and further away from Mikihiko, who was hiding behind a tree behind him and emanating psion waves after waves to maintain his spell.

  I’ll leave the rest to you two, Yuuji, Tatsuya.”

  Shooting a magic spell onto the ground, Tatsuya stepped on it and boosted himself up to a tall branch of a tree before leaping to another brand cealed his presence.

  And soon, his pursuer arrived and came to a halt when they saw the magic circle, and began looking around for him.

  Right after, he cast a spell that created a resonan the psion waves around him, causing the final, remaining member of the Eight High School team to fall to the ground from a terrible bout of dizziness.

  “That must have been Resonance, just now. The Non-Systematic type.”

  Gee ented, his eyes still locked on Tatsuya and Yuuji’s figures on the s.

  “So he took down his oppo by causing resoween biological waves and psions, huh? Looks like it’s game over.”

  The horn signaling the end of the match resounded and cheers filled the stadium venue.

  “Gee, how would you take them on?”

  Masaki asked. His eyes focused on the s dispying Yuuji, Tatsuya, and Mikihiko who had gathered after the mat the field.

  “For Shiba Tatsuya, I ’t shake the feeling that he’s totally battle-tested. The way he carries himself, his anticipation, his positioning… If you ask me, we should be more wary of his bat skill than his magic skills.”

  “I see… And how are his magic skills?”

  “Let’s see… I was stunned by the Gram Demolition, but as of that final Resonance… Despite setting up an impeccable ambush from behind, it wasn’t enough to knock his oppo unscious. I’m guessing that he’s uo wield magic that powerful. I don’t think you o be wary of anything but that Gram Demolition. What you do o watch out for is falling into his traps.”

  “I see… Then what about… him?”

  Masaki gestured towards the s with his . On it was the figure of Yuuji, fist-bumping his teammates with a dazzling smile on his fabsp;

  “... I don’t know.”

  “...”

  The frown on his face deepened after hearing the helplessness in Gee’s voibsp;

  “Aside from his performan Battle Board, I haven’t seen him do anything in bat situations. Even in that fight, he was… simply standing there. And in the moment, his enemy floated up in the air, uo do anything.”

  “... Do you think we could use cover to avoid that?”

  “I don’t think so… His enemy approached him from behind and used the trees as cover. But even then, he could still target him and fling him up into the sky. And acc to the rumors, it seems like he could do it to multiple targets at once.”

  “...That will be a problem.”

  “Yes. But fortunately, it seems like he’ll be fog on defense. If we could take out the other two and attack him with spells beyond the distance of his spell, we’ll win.”

  A smile finally appeared on Gee’s face as he looked up at the s.

  “Let’s see… If the match is set on the Open Pins stage, where Shiba Tatsuya would be forced to face you head-on and where we fire spells from a great distaowards Tsubakihara Yuuji, then our victory is almost dead certain.”

  --------------------------------X--------------------------------

  Yuuji, Tatsuya, and Mikihiko won their seonolith atch of the day as well using aype of strategy, whivolved Tatsuya opening up their enemy’s monolith and stalling while Mikihiko spied through his sg spell aered the 52 characters to win. And just like before, the enemy’s vanguard couldn’t even e o their monolith because of Yuuji.

  It was a simple and victory.

  So, after their match, Yuuji, Tatsuya, and Mikihiko went to watch the Monolith Code Semifinals between Third High School a High School with their friends.

  Yuuji sat iween Aika and Erika, while Tatsuya and Miyuki sat to their side. Honoka, Shizuku, Mizuki, Mikihiko, and Leo sat on the seats behind and above them.

  And while they’re waiting for the start of the match, Aika pyed with her phone.

  She wasn’t that ied ich since she had watched it happen in the anime. She also khat Yuuji and Tatsuya would win in the end, so rather than that, she’s getting herself ready for tomorrow.

  Soon, the horn signaling the start of the match resounded.

  And with a slight smile and an absolute fiden his face, Iasaki, heir of the Ichijou of the Ten Master d ace of the Third High School team, walked through the rocky open field arena alone while Gee and his third teammate standing idly in front of the monolith.

  Seeing him approag, a member of the Eight High School team unched a magic activation seque four massive boulders that rested around Masaki, lifting them up a meter into the air.

  And with another and, the four massive boulders uraight towards Masaki.

  But without even stopping his stride, Masaki cast a spell and created fic circles around him. And the moment the boulders past through the magic circles, they all stopped in mid air and shattered into pieces as he tio ast them.

  “What?!”

  “Damn monster!”

  In a desperate attempt to stop him, the Eight High school team began ung rocks at him. But everything was deflected by an invisible barrier that moved alongside him as he tio walk, unobstructed.”

  “Dammit!”

  With no way of stopping Masaki’s advance, a member of the Eight High School team redirected his attention towards the Monolith.

  He dashed past Masaki, rushing towards Third High’s monolith. But before he could even e close, Masaki turned and cast a spell towards him.

  Immediately, a rge magic circle appeared above him aonated, creating a massive explosion that instantly knocked him out.

  “You bastard!!”

  Using this ce when Masaki averted his attention, another member of the Eight High school began casting a spell.

  Smaller boulders all around Masaki began lifting up into the air, shattering, and surrounding him.

  But as the shattered, jagged pieces of rocks and stone surrounded him, lightning began appearing around Masaki as all the rocks that surrounded him uowards him, buying him inside a mount of rocks.

  But a few moments ter, the rob that had buried Masaki exploded, revealing his unscathe figure.

  And with two quick gestures of a hand, Masaki cast a spell on both of them, creating the same magic circles on top of their heads, aohem, knog the st two members of the Eight High Sonolith Code team.

  And as the horn signaling the end of the match resounded along with the sound of cheers and appuse, Yuuji turowards Tatsuya.

  “Tatsuya, seems like he’s challenging you to trade gun fire with him head on.”

  “Ah…”

  “A challenge?”

  Erika asked, and Yuuji turo her to expin.

  “Mm. He’s luring Tatsuya into a head-to-head frontation by deliberately opening himself up.”

  This much was the same as in the anime. But Yuuji doubted that Cardinal Gee would e up with the same strategy since he’s also here. After all, he must know that Iasaki’s Interference Armor wouldn’t be affected by his air telekinesis.

  Wait… Oh, is that what he’s thinking?

  Suddenly, an idea came to his mind.

  “Hm… He must think that as long as they could take out Tatsuya, they simply fling spells at me from a distance.”

  “Eh? Why do you think so?”

  Erika asked.

  “That’s because they’ve only seeanding silently he monolith. At most, they’ve only seen someone suddenly lifting up in the air when they e o me. They must think I have a limited range in which I lift people up, and they simply attack me from outside my range.”

  “Ahahaha~ They’re uimating you too much, Yuuji~”

  Yuuji shrugged helplessly to Aika’s ughter.

  “They’ve only seen me fight in those few rounds, after all. It’s not their fault.”

  Yuuji had never used his innate magic that would allow him to manipute the fabric of space itself even on this petition. He was instead using the air to “bind” and perform various spells that would appear like “telekinesis”.

  However, even if he was using the “downgraded” version of his innate magic, the range of his spell could still cover the ey of the Monolith’s Code arena and beyond.

  With his elemental sight, Yuuji could still target anything within the arena, even if they were to be behind total cover and far away from him. As long as he could “see” them, he’ll be able to cast his magi them.

  Gee had only seen him lifting up his ehat were getting close to the monolith he’s guarding. That’s why he thought that Yuuji was only limited by his range and not by sight.

  It was the only logical and hopeful clusion he ended up with.

  “Ahahaha~ He’s really huffing some hopium, huh~?”

  “But what about the other two? We could only see what Iasaki do…”

  Mikihiko muttered, his face morphing into a frown.

  “I more or less predict what Kichijouji will do. The cardinal code that Kichijouji Shinkurou discovered is a weight-type plus code. The event he peted in eed Shooting. In that case, his speciality spell must be Invisible Bullet.”

  “Cardinal Code?”

  Leo looked at Tatsuya fusedly, unfamiliar with the name.

  “Ah, I thought I’d heard the name Kichijouji Shinkurou somewhere before. So he’s Cardinal Gee, huh?”

  “Right, but I don’t think there is a o worry about him. Right, Yuuji?”

  Tatsuya turo Yuuji with a slight smirk.

  “Ah. Don’t worry. His Invisible Bullet won’t work on me.”

  “Eh? What do you mean?”

  Yuuji let out a grin as Mikihiko, Leo, and the others all looked at him fusedly.

  “It’s a surprise. Oh, and sihey’ve graciously invited us for a head-on frontation, why don’t t it?”

  “Oh? Do you have a pn?”

  Mikihiko looked at him with i.

  “Yes. We’ll just do the same thing they do. But faster.”

  Everyone aside from Tatsuya and Aika looked at him with a fused frown. But without crifying his cryptic words, he stood up and turo his teammates.

  “Well, I’ll talk about it ter. For now, let’s focus our attention on our match against Ninth High school.”

  VergsX