Copy Skills with Affinity!

Chapter 111

Tournament (4)

The tournament was now nearing its end.

It was never meant to be a long event to begin with. The appropriate duration was just a day or two.

Given the system where rankings and point distribution were determined based on how much land each contestant held when all areas were occupied, it should have lasted a bit longer.

But thanks to the Pontiff practically setting the stage for a bloodbath, eliminations had skyrocketed in no time.

"...So I'm saying!"

Aiden shouted toward Milene while taking cover.

With explosions erupting all around them, it was clear that she wouldn’t hear him unless he raised his voice like that.

“If we just take out those shameless bastards over there, it’s pretty much done!”

He pointed his finger at the humans entrenched just beyond the ridge.

While forming alliances wasn’t all that uncommon, it was still unexpected for a group so specialized in long-range bombardment to come together and fortify a near fortress-like position there.

A typical person would have considered it too troublesome and just passed by, but Aiden had his own reason for stirring up such a hornet’s nest.

'Alester is in first place, and Milene is barely holding on to second...'

Considering the high likelihood that Julius would rise straight to the top in the events following the tournament, it was in Aiden’s best interest to help Milene barely maintain her second-place spot here and now.

Anyway, for the succession ceremony to unfold as closely to the "original story" as possible, it was best if no one stood out too much. In other words, it was advantageous for him to eliminate variables.

"...That's impressive."

"...Excuse me?"

"You have time to think that much in a situation like this?"

And indeed, he did.

Responding to another round of bombardment-like archery, Milene raised a black divine barrier.

The flaming arrow flew with a sound like the air itself was screaming, only to be stopped and explode upon impact with the barrier.

The explosion nearly engulfed Milene in flames, but Aiden swiftly grabbed her and rolled them to the side.

Thanks to that, Milene avoided being caught in the blast and gave a small nod.

“Uh, thanks... Another one’s coming.”

Before she could finish her sentence, another arrow exploded nearby. Aiden, about to respond, ended up biting his tongue slightly.

“Mmblphhh,” he let out a weird noise, tearing up a little. Watching from the side, Milene couldn’t help but let out a small, involuntary laugh.

Of course, her following reaction showed she was furious enough to startle even herself.

“...Those guys need a serious wake-up call.”

Aiden growled.

His eyes, usually dull or weary, now gleamed menacingly—clear proof that he was genuinely furious.

And it made sense. Though he normally liked ranged weapons himself, actually being on the receiving end of this kind of relentless bombardment from afar, with people yelling at you to stay away, stirred up a visceral kind of disgust…

“Your Highness, let’s split up. I’ll go as a separate unit. You stay here and draw their attention.”

“Will you be okay? It looks like we’re barely holding out thanks to the barrier I’m creating.”

And it was true. The only reason they were able to defend against the kind of firepower coming from the fortified position beyond the ridge was because of Milene’s divine power, which bordered on monstrous.

Aiden knew that, of course.

“But staying huddled together like this only means we’ll get swept up by the next area attack. It’s better to split up, distract, and intercept them.”

“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”

“I’ll go in there by myself and take down the ones heating things up.”

“……”

“Simple, right?”

“So how do you—”

“Somehow!”

Milene fell silent, while Aiden, looking completely unfazed, immediately launched into an explanation of the plan he had just come up with.

…And as he laid it out, the suspicion in Milene’s eyes—how she’d initially looked at him like he was a madman—began to shift into curiosity. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

‘…This man.’

He was more interesting than she expected.

The plan, made up on the spot, was simple, efficient, and—most importantly—hit the core of the problem with striking accuracy.

‘Was there anything special in his background?’

The profile of this man, brought to her by her personal maid, didn’t indicate anything particularly noteworthy. She had heard before that he was the consort of the Lionhearted, but aside from that, there wasn’t anything that stood out.

Yet the way he carried himself now—like standing on a battlefield like this was something he’d done dozens of times—was incredibly calm and composed.

Saying you’ll “just figure it out” is easy, but willingly stepping forward in the face of this deadly bombardment wasn’t something an ordinary person could do.

Volunteering to take that kind of risk wasn’t something any sane mind would imagine. It was proof he didn’t just have nerves of steel—he had an iron will.

“…Alright.”

She nodded in agreement with his plan, likely because that impression had such a strong impact.

▣

“…What the hell?”

It probably came from one of the people who had been gleefully preparing their ranged bombardment spells.

They’d been firing away at anyone foolish enough to approach, only for that presence to suddenly vanish—hence the confused muttering.

Everyone who participated in the ceremony knew that the one in the heavy armor was Milene. That was common knowledge.

So the entire group had been buzzing with excitement over the idea of taking down such a high-profile target with their own hands.

But then—she suddenly vanished. Total letdown.

“There she is!”

Fortunately, it turned out she hadn’t disappeared entirely. Someone shouted as they spotted the moving heavy armor.

It was coming from a completely different direction than before, but no one seemed to find that strange.

Which meant—

It was the perfect moment for someone who’d been waiting for an opening to make their move.

Aiden drew a deep breath and kicked off the ground.

Under his feet, a foothold created from aether took form.

As he planted one foot on the platform, he used his supernatural ability to propel himself in the opposite direction.

His body flew like a launched rocket, the speed overwhelming.

‘There it is—right there.’

While airborne, he scanned for his target location.

There was clearly someone there giving off the aura of a leader. From Aiden’s past experience, taking out the ringleader in this tournament was a massive blow.

Most of the participants were organized by factions, so when the head was taken down, the rest tended to lose resistance much faster than expected.

As he flew, he squeezed out aether to form a barrier around his body. It was to absorb the shock upon landing.

-!

-!!

He crashed into the ridge he’d marked earlier, his body flashing through the air like a bolt of light.

He landed with a head-first slide right on target. The ground splintered apart like crushed ice cream, creating a wide spray of debris on both sides.

“—What the?!”

Aiden scanned the panicked royal figure who turned to face him, then twisted his body mid-slide to leap at them.

Of course, the opponent wasn’t a total amateur either—they reacted right away.

An arrow shot straight for his neck. It wasn’t a grand spell conjured from projection, just a basic formula. It must’ve been intended as a deterrent, since anything stronger would’ve endangered the caster as well.

Still, aiming directly for a vital spot instead of trying to subdue him was pretty irritating.

Aiden wrapped his hand in aether and smacked the arrow down, driving it into the ground.

“That’s a bit rude.”

Before he could even finish his sentence, he closed in on the opponent, who had tried to escape by kicking off the ground.

They held the title of royalty, so they were likely no slouch in close-quarters combat either.

However, the fact that they used ranged spells as a primary weapon made it clear—they weren’t someone you’d call top-tier in hand-to-hand fighting.

He grabbed their ankle mid-air and swung them hard in the opposite direction.

Crack.

Judging by the feel of the impact, the leg bone was shattered the moment it struck, and the spine that hit the ground had probably taken quite a bit of damage too.

“If you move, you’ll probably die.”

The target didn’t respond properly, coughing up blood instead.

Well, still. Rotten or not, he’d once been the leader of a sizable group. He probably wouldn’t die that easily.

Although, just as Aiden warned, moving could genuinely kill him.

Unfortunately, it was also clear that the man wasn’t taking that warning to heart.

Though reduced to a near-death state in a single blow, he attempted to circulate divine power through his body, trying to substitute some “parts” for his shattered leg bone. He seemed to be calculating the impact damage, identifying which parts of his body could still move, and preparing for a second attack.

“Hup.”

Aiden grabbed the healthy leg this time and swung him in the opposite direction.

It was the same motion as before, but judging by the damage, it probably hurt twice as much. The man vomited blood and passed out cold.

“……”

Hmm.

Well.

Aiden had clearly warned him. The man simply chose not to listen…

With that thought, he looked around and saw that the rest of the royals had gone pale and were raising both hands. A sign of surrender, no doubt.

And really, who could blame them?

Seeing someone suddenly come flying in and swing a person around like a toy—anyone would panic at the sight.

‘…Subjugation complete.’

As he thought that and looked toward Milene, he saw her clapping while watching him.

“That was impressive.”

…And he could hear her say that too.

Chances were, her eyes were practically sparkling inside that heavy armor...

-System Message-

▶ Affection level with target ‘Milene’ has increased.

▶ You may copy 1 skill!

…It seemed the sparkling eyes and clapping weren’t just for show.

Aiden gave a crooked smile and waved away the status window in front of him.

‘…One from Julius, one from Milene…’

From the start, his goal in the tournament had been to collect skills from key targets—and now that he’d gotten his hands on them, he couldn’t say he was displeased.

Even if some major unexpected variable cropped up, it felt like this alone would be enough to deal with it.

[-Mr. Aiden. Aiden, can you hear me?]

And, as if on cue—

The old saying about spoken words becoming reality wasn’t a lie.

Frowning, Aiden raised one hand to cover his ear as Noel’s voice rang out.

It was a secretly smuggled communication device. A gift from Ganesha, brought in openly and without concealment.

“What’s going on, Dame?”

[The sky. Look up at the sky!]

Of course.

That black, viscous aura staining the sky was unmistakable.

‘…Fragment of the Demon God?’

The dreadful thing he’d once seen in the Imperial Capital immediately came to mind.