I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 120: Unsatisfying K.O.

"Y-You’re moving?"

Corvus froze the moment he saw me take a step.

That shouldn’t have been possible at all; the sheer thickness and weight of the air surrounding the two of us should have made it nearly impossible for anyone to move.

"Surprised?"

I laughed, slowly stepping towards him as the earth shattered with every movement I made.

[Endless Fang]

[Endless Fang]

[Endless Fang]

While the Profaned Prince modifier was powerful, a fusion of dark, light, chaos, and divine elements, it still had its flaws.

Against a high-level dark mage like Corvus, it wasn’t really that effective, especially if he used his overwhelming power to his advantage.

Dark and Light naturally counter each other, so you’d expect his attacks to barely even register. But sheer, brutal force can make natural counters almost useless if it’s used well enough.

But for a demon prince—even one that’s significantly weakened?

It would turn every dark mage in existence into a joke, though it would also make me much more vulnerable to light mages. After all, what is a demon prince if not just an overconcentration of corrupted darkness?

"Impossible!"

Corvus crazily laughed. Was he seriously seeing what he was seeing?

A student was walking unbothered through a darkness so heavy it felt like the crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

Genuinely unbelievable...

The observers outside also thought the same thing.

"Impossible, he’s moving through it!"

"I’m not hallucinating, am I?"

The observers outside had begun arguing with one another, but a louder voice cut through their bickering.

"This has turned into a mess."

The main observer let out a laugh. This was supposed to be a hunt, for god’s sake, not a stage for a single mage to hog all the spotlight.

At this point, it shouldn’t even be called a hunt. Ever since the bounty was announced, the professors and students had stopped fighting each other.

All of them focused on me instead—the one who was somehow still conscious, despite all logic saying I shouldn’t be.

"I really should have thought things out more, huh?"

He laughed, regretting placing the huge bounty on my head that effectively ruined the entire examination.

Far too many had been eliminated in the crossfire, and the sheer destruction both sides had witnessed was enough to exhaust them all.

Across the entire city-wide Academy campus, the only battle still raging was between Corvus and me.

***

"I didn’t even get to use these properly, thanks to you slapping me around..."

I lifted my hand.

The blades orbiting me snapped into formation, sliding into a tight line behind my back. Steel hissed through the air as every single tip locked onto Corvus, a storm of fangs aimed straight at his heart.

Both literal and metaphorical fangs.

Corvus couldn’t move.

He couldn’t do anything.

He’d thought the fight was already over.

Shadow Domain was too complex to cancel, and as long as it stayed active, the strain grinding at his mind made casting anything else almost impossible.

This was just meant as a fun show to teach me; he didn’t actually expect that I would be standing.

In short, he underestimated me.

Badly.

"It’s been nice fighting you."

I let my arm fall in a tired arc.

The swords surged forward as one, tearing through the air in a howling volley, a swarm of killing blows racing toward Corvus, ready to punch through his body and turn him into a ragged, bleeding ruin.

ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING!

The swords sliced the air as they moved, missiles, each and every one of them.

As expected from a merged weapon that came from a Demon Prince and a long-lost civilization, they were far more terrifying than any spell I could cast.

"Ah... damn it!"

Corvus let out a bitter laugh, but he wasn’t prideful enough to keep fighting in a situation that guaranteed his death.

Instead—

THUD!

He slammed his head straight into the concrete, knocking himself out in one brutal motion.

"W-What!?"

My eyes widened...

The hell was that for!?

The shadows around us, once a solid sphere, shattered outward. From the darkness, the observers burst through, racing the storm of blades to reach Corvus first.

But obviously, they were faster, teleportation was near unbeatable...

They snatched him away at the last possible second.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

A hundred blades crashed down, spearing into the ground where Corvus had stood moments ago—

—and hit nothing but concrete.

[Team Arden, Illinalta, and D’Arclight: Eliminated Corvus Raven: 500 Points]

Did it count us three as a team this time?

*** Academy Warehouse - Northwest Wing

Vivianne’s entire team decided to sit out the rest of day three after they heard about the devastation caused by Evelina’s intervention.

Points were important, but staying alive and avoiding elimination at the hands of a terrifying member of the D’Arclight family mattered a whole lot more.

"Did you hear that!?"

"Lord Corvus was eliminated!?"

[Ding!]

The notification rang out across the entire academy. Now everyone was saying the same thing. Was such a thing even possible?

"I-Is that announcement real?"

Bright approached Vivianne, who was sitting on top of the highest shelf in the warehouse as her improvised watchtower. Both to deliver orders and keep watch.

But even she almost fell after hearing an announcement like that.

"H-Heck if I know!"

Nobody had any idea what the hell was going on.

The warehouse fell into a strange, brittle silence after the initial loudness.

Not the comfortable kind.

The kind that settled in when everyone collectively realized that they really weren’t all that special, even with all their noble ranks and titles backing them.

"...Lord Corvus," someone muttered again, like saying it twice might make it more believable. "Eliminated..."

"That has to be a joke, right?"

"It has to be. There’s no way a student could—"

"Five hundred points," another whispered. "There’s no way they would announce something like that if it wasn’t real..."

Bright swallowed.

His eyes slowly drifted toward Vivianne.

"...You’ve seen Professor Corvus fight before, didn’t you?"

Vivianne didn’t answer immediately.

She just stared down at the cracked surface of the warehouse.

She had seen Corvus fight before when her parents brought her to a tournament sponsored by the royal family. Back when Corvus was still an ordinary mage and not a tired professor.

Clear.

Undeniable.

Absolute.

But she also saw how I fought; she knew if there was anyone who could have a chance of beating him, it was me.

"...Yeah," she finally said.

Her voice came out quieter than usual.

"...I did."

"And?"

A pause.

"...Actually, why in the world are you even asking me this!? I just saw him fight once, I’m not an expert!"