Chapter 170: Tenma's Victory
It wasn't only the top students of the Onmyo Academy—the ones qualified to participate in the Myriad Dharma Supernatural Department selection—who felt frustrated by Dafudai Makoto's three consecutive victories.
Even the ordinary students watching from below couldn't help questioning themselves.
Was the gap between modern Onmyodo and the Onmyodo of a thousand years ago really that enormous?
They could dismiss the first match by arguing that Makoto's victory over Okawa Yuto had relied on deception and surprise rather than a direct confrontation.
But the next two battles left little room for excuses.
Those had been victories won through genuine skill.
Especially the final exchange.
The Ancient Style Fire Boundary Spell Makoto had unleashed possessed power approaching that of a National-level Onmyo Art. For most students present, that was already a realm far beyond anything they could currently hope to touch.
Before long, several students began looking toward the same two people.
Tsuchimikado Natsume.
Kurahashi Kyoko.
One was the heir to the Tsuchimikado family.
The other was the daughter of Kurahashi Genji, director of the Onmyo Bureau.
Both were widely recognized as geniuses even within the Onmyo Academy.
If anyone among the students had a reasonable chance of defeating Dafudai Makoto, most believed it would be one of them.
"Natsume," Kyoko asked quietly, "if you were matched against him, could you win?"
Natsume kept her eyes on the arena.
"I have a chance."
She paused.
"But it wouldn't be easy. His combat experience is far beyond ours. Even the smallest opening is enough for him to turn the entire fight around."
Kyoko nodded.
"So that's the biggest difference."
"Combat experience."
"Exactly."
Natsume agreed without hesitation.
The students of the Onmyoryo from a thousand years ago were indeed stronger overall, but the most frightening difference wasn't necessarily raw spiritual power or the quality of their techniques.
It was experience.
They knew how to fight.
Not in controlled exercises.
Not in carefully supervised duels.
In battles where one mistake meant death.
And Natsume wasn't the only one who had noticed it. By now, many of the more perceptive students had reached the same conclusion.
At that moment, Kasugano Sora made the next random selection.
A silver light appeared around one of the students.
Someone blinked.
"Tenma?"
Another student stared in disbelief.
"Tenma got picked?"
The fourth challenger stepped forward.
Momoe Tenma.
A thin boy with glasses, a young-looking face, and an appearance so harmless that most people would never associate him with combat.
Even among his own classmates, including Natsume and Kyoko, Tenma had never been particularly conspicuous.
His academic grades were good.
His theoretical knowledge was solid.
But he possessed no famous talent, no prestigious reputation, and his practical performance had never seemed especially outstanding.
He was the kind of student people tended to overlook.
Which made one fact rather astonishing.
At some point, without attracting anyone's attention, Momoe Tenma had quietly cultivated himself to the Quasi-Professional level.
"Hello."
Tenma stepped onto the arena and adjusted his glasses.
"I'm Momoe Tenma."
His greeting sounded almost timid.
Then he lowered his eyes slightly.
His lips began to move.
A chant.
So quiet that most of the spectators couldn't make out the words.
Dafudai Makoto's expression changed.
Only slightly.
"Acala's mantra?"
He narrowed his eyes.
"No..."
Some of the Sanskrit was correct, but something had been altered.
Added.
Modified.
Makoto immediately became more cautious.
A lion used its full strength even when hunting a rabbit.
That was not a proverb to someone like him.
It was survival instinct.
Makoto had lived as an Onmyoji during the Heian Period, an age when demons and monsters could appear without warning and a moment's carelessness could cost someone their life.
Weak appearance meant nothing.
And more importantly—
The sense of danger he felt from Momoe Tenma was greater than what he had felt from the previous three opponents combined.
Makoto acted first.
"This art severs evil and eliminates calamity. Swiftly, in accordance with the laws and decrees!"
Spiritual energy surged.
"Demon-Subduing Thunder Curse!"
Thunder cracked across the arena.
A brilliant bolt of exorcistic lightning tore through the air and slammed directly into Momoe Tenma.
Several students flinched.
But then—
The lightning passed straight through Tenma's body.
There was no impact.
No resistance.
No injury.
It simply continued beyond him and disappeared.
For a moment, even Dafudai Makoto seemed taken aback.
Tenma hadn't dodged.
He hadn't blocked.
The attack had unquestionably struck him.
Yet it had passed through his body as though he were nothing more than a phantom.
Makoto reacted immediately.
"Namah samanta-vajrānām..."
His hands shifted into the proper seal.
"Swiftly, in accordance with the laws and decrees!"
"Fire Boundary Spell!"
Crimson flames erupted.
The fire gathered into the shape of a massive serpent, its blazing body twisting across the arena as it lunged toward Tenma.
The heat alone distorted the air.
The students near the arena could feel it even from a distance.
Yet Tenma did not move.
He didn't even look concerned.
The blazing serpent swallowed him whole.
Then emerged from the other side.
Again—
Nothing happened.
The flames passed through him exactly as the lightning had.
Tenma's clothes remained untouched.
His skin showed no burns.
He hadn't even been pushed back a single step.
A murmur spread through the spectators.
"What is that?"
"Is his body an illusion?"
"How are the spells passing through him?"
Makoto's brows tightened.
Once could be a trick.
Twice was a pattern.
Still unwilling to accept what he was seeing, he began preparing a third Onmyo Art.
But by then, the flow of battle had already changed.
Without anyone quite realizing when it happened, Momoe Tenma had taken control of the rhythm.
Makoto was the one attacking.
Makoto was the one forcing spell after spell.
Yet he was also the one being pushed steadily toward disadvantage.
And Tenma had never intended to simply stand there and endure attacks.
His hand slipped into his robe.
He drew out more than a dozen talismans.
Then tossed them into the air.
The talismans scattered above the arena.
Spiritual energy flowed through them.
One after another, they transformed into small swallow-shaped shikigami formed from condensed spiritual power.
Their bodies shone as they spread their wings.
They were artificial shikigami created by Momoe Tenma's mother.
Capture-type models—
WA1 Swallow Whip.
More commonly called simply—
Swallow Whips.
Tenma raised one hand and formed a seal.
"Swiftly!"
The flock moved.
Dafudai Makoto's expression finally changed.
In terms of pure attainment in Onmyodo, he was still above most of the academy students.
But the difference was not an entire realm.
He had already cast the Demon-Subduing Thunder Curse.
Then he had followed it with the Ancient Style Fire Boundary Spell, a technique powerful enough to approach National-level Onmyo Arts.
His spiritual energy had not been completely exhausted.
But there was no longer much left.
Certainly not enough to unleash another powerful spell capable of destroying more than a dozen Swallow Whips at once.
The shikigami descended.
Trails of spiritual light streaked across the arena.
Before Makoto could reposition himself, the Swallow Whips wrapped around his arms.
Then his legs.
Then his torso.
More followed.
In seconds, his entire body was restrained.
Makoto tried to move.
The bindings tightened.
He attempted to gather spiritual energy.
The Swallow Whips pulled him down.
His knee struck the arena floor.
Then the rest of his body followed.
He struggled once more.
Nothing.
He could no longer move.
Silence lasted for only a moment.
Kasugano Sora raised her hand.
"This round is over."
Her voice carried across the arena.
"Momoe Tenma wins."
She looked toward the academy side.
"The Onmyo Academy successfully claims the arena."
For half a heartbeat, nobody reacted.
Then the crowd erupted.
"Tenma won?!"
"He actually beat him!"
"Seriously?!"
"That's incredible!"
"Momoe Tenma had that kind of strength?"
"I completely underestimated him..."
"So did I!"
The atmosphere that had been suppressed by three consecutive defeats burst apart at once.
Excited voices filled the area.
The academy had finally won.
And the person who had done it was someone almost nobody had expected.
Before the match began, few of his classmates had believed Momoe Tenma stood much of a chance.
Even people who knew him personally had thought of him as a quiet, academically capable student whose practical skills were merely average.
Yet Tenma had defeated the same Dafudai Makoto who had swept through three excellent Onmyo Academy students in succession.
Not through brute force.
Not through superior spiritual power.
But by forcing Makoto to waste his strength against attacks that could not touch him, then restraining him at precisely the right moment.
The unassuming boy with glasses stood quietly in the arena while the students below stared at him with completely different eyes.
Momoe Tenma had won.
....
https://discord.gg/KvMN2CFsMR
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03].