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"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 on the team, Mikihiko."

While Yuuji was in the meeting, Aika had invited Tatsuya, 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 tournament right after he returned.

Well... That and Aika also wanted to invite everyone over to hangout. After all, although it's a competition, they're still staying together for days. When else could they hang out until late 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 finished telling 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 and hesitation in his voice, but Yuuji also noticed the slight excitement.

"Great. Then, let's start planning for our strategy for tomorrow."

Yuuji looked at the two and began.

"Let's start with the formation. I will be on defense. Tatsuya, I'll leave the vanguard role to you. You are free to do as you see fit. Depending on the layout of the arena, you'll either have to open up our enemy's monolith code and stall while Mikihiko enters the code with his spying spell, or just eliminate the enemies."

"Alright."

He then turned towards Mikihiko.

"Mikihiko. I want you to be in charge of guerilla warfare. Stalling, ambushing, anything you need to do to support both offense and defense."

"..."

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

"Yuuji... I've been enlightened recently that my spells... that the Yoshida family's magic spells are too convoluted, and that is why I can't wield my magic the way I want."

"I see."

Yuuji nodded. Tatsuya 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 in reality...

Yuuji smiled inwardly at his friend's thoughtfulness.

"I admit that my spell was camouflaged 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 when lengthy 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 ancient magic, which is more powerful in terms of potency, has no chance against modern day magic."

"That's where you're wrong, Mikihiko."

"Eh?"

Yuuji smiled confidently.

"Going head-to-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 Ancient Magic would be far more superior. That is why I recommended you to be in my team. Your exemplary proficiency with Ancient Magic, which is superior when used for guerilla tactics, will become an irreplaceable asset for our team."

Mikihiko's eyes widened widely at his words.

They were not said to simply boost his confidence. No... He truly meant what he said. Yuuji truly believed in the worth of his Ancient Magic and skills.

"Alright. I'll put my faith in you, Yuuji."

"Thank you, Mikihiko."

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

Eight day of the Ninth School Competition.

Rookie event Monolith Code Qualifying Match.

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 center, Yuuji stood with a calm smile, a sight that mesmerized many of the female audience currently watching him from the live feed of the arena displayed on large screens 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 competitive use.

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

Watching through the massive screen at the center of the arena, Masaki and Kichijouji "George" Shinkurou stood on the side of a wall. Their eyes gleaming in anticipation.

"There he is."

"Yeah. Though, I didn't expect our "second problem" to also appear as a player."

"Indeed. But if he's there, then that means their CADs will be extremely advanced..."

"Mm... But, CADs are nothing if you can'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 sequence to his spell.

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

"What?!"

"Don't tell me... Was that Gram Demolition?"

George and Masaki looked at the screen with wide eyes and slacken jaws, unable to believe what they had just seen.

Gram Demolition, a spell dismantling spell. Bullets made of compressed Psion particles fired directly at the target, bypassing the Idea dimension, and detonating. Any psion information bodies with magic information recorded onto them, such as Activation Sequence or Magic Sequence, are blasted away with this counter magic spell.

Aside from its short range, it has no real flaws. It is the most powerful counter 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 Sequence at the monolith, causing it to crack open and revealing the string of characters needed to be inputted to win the match.

"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."

Switching from displaying Tatsuya, the live feed now displayed Yuuji, simply standing in front of his monolith with a relaxed smile.

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

"Yuuji-san! Do your best!!!"

Honoka similarly cheered for him while Shizuku looked at him in shock.

"Why is he so relaxed...?"

"Fufufu~ Don't worry, Shizuku~"

Shizuku turned towards Aika, who was excitedly watching him with a wide smile on her face.

"Yuuji doesn't even have to lift a finger up to beat them. Look~!"

She turned back and 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 canopies, there was one member of the Eight High School flailing 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 in defeat, no longer struggling.

"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 ancient 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 continued to walk forward, going 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 branch and concealed 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 resonance in 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."

George commented, his eyes still locked on Tatsuya and Yuuji's figures on the screen.

"So he took down his opponent by causing resonance between 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.

"George, how would you take them on?"

Masaki asked. His eyes focused on the screen displaying Yuuji, Tatsuya, and Mikihiko who had gathered after the match in the field.

"For Shiba Tatsuya, I can'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 combat 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 opponent unconscious. I'm guessing that he's unable to wield magic that powerful. I don't think you need to be wary of anything but that Gram Demolition. What you do need to watch out for is falling into his traps."

"I see... Then what about... him?"

Masaki gestured towards the screen with his chin. On it was the figure of Yuuji, fist-bumping his teammates with a dazzling smile on his face.

"... I don't know."

"..."

The frown on his face deepened after hearing the helplessness in George's voice.

"Aside from his performance in Battle Board, I haven't seen him do anything in combat situations. Even in that fight, he was... simply standing there. And in the next moment, his enemy floated up in the air, unable to 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 according 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 focusing 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 George's face as he looked up at the screen.

"Let's see... If the match is set on the Open Plains stage, where Shiba Tatsuya would be forced to face you head-on and where we can fire spells from a great distance towards Tsubakihara Yuuji, then our victory is almost dead certain."

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

Yuuji, Tatsuya, and Mikihiko won their second Monolith Code match of the day as well using another type of strategy, which involved Tatsuya opening up their enemy's monolith and stalling while Mikihiko spied through his scrying spell and entered the 52 characters to win. And just like before, the enemy's vanguard couldn't even come near to their monolith because of Yuuji.

It was a simple and clean victory.

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

Yuuji sat in between 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 played with her phone.

She wasn't that interested in the match since she had watched it happen in the anime. She also knew that 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 confidence on his face, Ichijou Masaki, heir of the Ichijou Clan of the Ten Master clan and ace of the Third High School team, walked through the rocky open field arena alone while George and his third teammate standing idly in front of the monolith.

Seeing him approaching, a member of the Eight High School team launched a magic activation sequence at four massive boulders that rested around Masaki, lifting them up a meter into the air.

And with another command, the four massive boulders launched straight towards Masaki.

But without even stopping his stride, Masaki cast a spell and created four magic 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 continued to walk past them.

"What?!"

"Damn monster!"

In a desperate attempt to stop him, the Eight High school team began launching rocks at him. But everything was deflected by an invisible barrier that moved alongside him as he continued to 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 come close, Masaki turned and cast a spell towards him.

Immediately, a large magic circle appeared above him and detonated, creating a massive explosion that instantly knocked him out.

"You bastard!!"

Using this chance 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 launched towards him, buying him inside a mount of rocks.

But a few moments later, the rock tomb 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, and detonated them, knocking the last two members of the Eight High School Monolith Code team.

And as the horn signaling the end of the match resounded along with the sound of cheers and applause, Yuuji turned towards Tatsuya.

"Tatsuya, seems like he's challenging you to trade gun fire with him head on."

"Ah..."

"A challenge?"

Erika asked, and Yuuji turned to her to explain.

"Mm. He's luring Tatsuya into a head-to-head confrontation by deliberately opening himself up."

This much was the same as in the anime. But Yuuji doubted that Cardinal George would come up with the same strategy since he's also here. After all, he must know that Ichijou Masaki'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 can simply fling spells at me from a distance."

"Eh? Why do you think so?"

Erika asked.

"That's because they've only seen me standing silently near the monolith. At most, they've only seen someone suddenly lifting up in the air when they come near to me. They must think I have a limited range in which I can lift people up, and they can simply attack me from outside my range."

"Ahahaha~ They're underestimating you too much, Yuuji~"

Yuuji shrugged helplessly to Aika's laughter.

"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 manipulate the fabric of space itself even once in this Competition. 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 entirety 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 magic on them.

George had only seen him lifting up his enemies that 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 conclusion he ended up with.

"Ahahaha~ He's really huffing some hopium, huh~?"

"But what about the other two? We could only see what Ichijou Masaki can do..."

Mikihiko muttered, his face morphing into a frown.

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

"Cardinal Code?"

Leo looked at Tatsuya confusedly, unfamiliar with the name.

"Ah, I thought I'd heard the name Kichijouji Shinkurou somewhere before. So he's Cardinal George, huh?"

"Right, but I don't think there is a need to worry about him. Right, Yuuji?"

Tatsuya turned to 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 confusedly.

"It's a surprise. Oh, and since they've graciously invited us for a head-on confrontation, why don't we accept it?"

"Oh? Do you have a plan?"

Mikihiko looked at him with interest.

"Yes. We'll just do the same thing they do. But faster."

Everyone aside from Tatsuya and Aika looked at him with a confused frown. But without clarifying his cryptic words, he stood up and turned to his teammates.

"Well, I'll talk about it later. For now, let's focus our attention on our match against Ninth High school."