Chapter 53: If you pull off something impressive, I might just give up on my own
Eiros didn’t hesitate for a second when he revealed that he could come back from death. Well, why would he?
Fundamentally, a barrier only shattered once someone was genuinely in danger. That was exactly why the supervisors and professors hadn’t moved a muscle even when Eiros was in danger—because they knew a power belonging to a Tower Keeper couldn’t possibly be sloppy.
Of course, they might’ve been shocked. But in the end, as far as anyone could tell, Eiros hadn’t actually been in danger at all.
He’d already told Estiel that his power worked exactly like that, so, essentially, to break Eiros’s barrier while he was prey, someone would need to kill him three times over first.
That was practically an absurdly broken, and incredibly useful, ace up his sleeve. Especially since nobody actually knew the full details of Eiros’s real stigmata.
His stigmata hadn’t even been registered yet!
So, wouldn’t it make sense for Eiros to just play dead until time ran out? Well, that would’ve been a brilliant idea. But, thinking it over again, it seemed like a pretty bad one.
He couldn’t risk anyone learning that after death, he could decide exactly when to come back—and that there apparently wasn’t any time limit on it either.
So Eiros set himself an additional rule: he could only stay dead for up to five minutes.
"Phew... however I look at it, this is clearly the best revenge plan I could’ve pulled on Valkas."
He let out a soft sigh, smiling as he wiped away the remaining blood on his lips.
Eiros was curious how Valkas would react after this—one thing was for sure, it was going to be a pretty entertaining surprise to witness.
There was no way Valkas could win this one.
’Alright. I really never imagined I’d end up climbing this high.’
He might even land first place, honestly. That could be a real possibility, as long as he managed to beat out the others—some of the main characters like Erness and Alen, assuming they also managed to survive the full one hundred eighty minutes.
Eiros had no idea whether he’d actually land first place or not.
Besides, all of this had only happened thanks to Valkas working so hard for it too.
Eiros raised his sword, surveying the chaotic cave tunnel. Then his gaze landed on a student with messy blond hair, hiding nearby.
His lips twitched the moment their eyes met from behind a rock.
"....Hi there?"
Wasn’t this the same student who’d mocked him earlier, saying this and that?
Eiros genuinely felt drained and irritated in that moment. But, being the good hero that he was, he smiled pleasantly and greeted him instead.
"Mind telling me your name?"
The student with the messy blond hair flinched, his whole body trembling. Then he took a breath and glared sharply at Eiros.
"You damn monster...!"
"Hm...?"
"I-I said, my name’s Maxim!"
"I see."
Eiros nodded.
"I’ll remember that."
Then Eiros shot forward. His sword crackled with red lightning, sparking wildly across his entire body.
The student, Maxim, flinched hard, his face going pale, a manly scream tearing out of his throat.
"Uwaa...!"
In a panic, Maxim touched the rock behind him, and in front of him, that same rock softened into something mushy before quickly hardening again into a massive shield, blocking the space between him and Eiros.
The rock behind him, meanwhile, shaped itself into a long rectangular slab, launching forward like a hurled log, slamming straight into Eiros’s body. Of course, Eiros held it off with his sword, tilting the blade slightly to deflect the long stone slab off to the side.
Boom—!!
Ignoring the rumbling behind him, he raised his sword again and lunged forward. His Soul Essence had already run dangerously thin from all the chasing and fighting he’d done over such a long stretch, so Eiros tried to conserve whatever he had left as much as possible.
Still, it was more than enough. Because Maxim himself was just as exhausted, his own soul essence running even thinner after unleashing that barrage of attacks earlier as a hunter.
Boom—!!
Crack—!
The stone cracked the instant Eiros’s sword struck it, revealing Maxim’s face, completely pale and looking like he might burst into tears any second.
"S-stop...."
And this time, he really was crying. But Eiros, wearing a thin, weary smile, simply slashed through it, and the barrier shattered right then and there.
"....160 bonus points."
After all that exhausting effort, he’d finally taken down about sixteen students—roughly equivalent to surviving the full one hundred eighty minutes on its own.
Letting out a sigh, Eiros was about to keep up the chase, but right then, he felt a cold energy at his back—a familiar sensation that made his lips twitch for a moment.
After feeling it enough times by now, Eiros had come to understand it belonged to exactly one person. Unfortunately, since they weren’t on the same side this time, Eiros chose to leap back and put some distance between them.
"Waahhh... So cruuueeel."
And just like that, out of thin air, Erness appeared, her face scrunched up as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
Worth remembering—even if they were currently positioned as hunter and prey, that didn’t mean the prey were entirely powerless. On the contrary, they could just as easily knock a hunter out of the game by shattering their barrier too.
That was exactly why Eiros stayed cautious.
"...Why are you here?" Eiros asked, doing his best to keep his focus locked on Erness without letting it slip.
As always, Erness’s appearance never once looked anything less than perfect. Even in the middle of all this chaos, her academy uniform looked spotless, as though she’d never been involved in a single fight at all.
But it was worth remembering that in this exam, Erness was actually the most dangerous of everyone, precisely because her abilities were so hard to predict. Another fact worth remembering was that being in the support class didn’t make someone any less dangerous.
If anything, the "class" system here was just a label used to sort out different Stigmata. And Stigmata themselves weren’t really something that could be neatly classified—they were simply too unique.
"I feel like you should be hiding somewhere?" Eiros asked again.
Meanwhile, Erness just laughed with obvious amusement, as if whatever was happening around her didn’t matter in the slightest.
And, honestly...
"Why? No one can catch me anyway."
As arrogant as that sounded, it was simply the truth. Eiros couldn’t come up with a single argument to counter what Erness had just said.
Eiros’s lips twitched, cold sweat beading on his face. That gave him a sudden idea.
"So, why’d you come here?"
"Aww, darling, do you really have to be so stiff about it? I really missed you, you know."
It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other for ages, right?
It had barely been a few hours...
Of course, whatever was actually going through Erness’s head wasn’t something Eiros could ever hope to know. So he just stood there, stiff and silent, scratching the back of his head, and said:
"...So, can I go now?"
Erness blinked.
"Hey darling, have you never once thought about trying to catch me? I’m prey too, you know."
"Do you really think I could?"
"Eyy~ why’re you selling yourself so short? You won’t know until you try, right?"
Realistically, that would just be a waste of time. He needed to collect as much prey as possible while steering clear of anyone too troublesome. With that in mind, Eiros had genuinely been trying to avoid getting tangled up with Erness.
But...
Just how strong was Erness, really?
He’d never once seen Erness fight with her full strength. If anything, Erness always seemed to lean toward avoiding fights altogether, sticking to her role as more of a support piece.
He was curious too. Even though Eiros wasn’t exactly in great shape with his Soul Essence running low, this was a rare chance, and he wanted to see it for himself.
Could he actually pull something off against Erness, here of all places...?
His lips felt dry. He licked them, tasting the iron-like tang of blood that had already dried, and with that, a forced smile crossed his face.
"In that case, mind if I chase after you?"
"Hehe, why not? Come on~ give it your best shot. If you pull off something impressive, I might just give up on my own."
Erness took a few steps back right then. As for Eiros, he didn’t bother asking anything more—he drew his sword, then closed the distance between them.
***