Is It Wrong for an Extra to Steal the Protagonist's Harem?-Chapter 45: Mock Battle [2]

The battles continued.

Some were boring. Some were impressive.

But the atmosphere shifted when the announcer called the next set of names.

"Next Match! Group 11 vs Group 4!"

The crowd went silent, then erupted into a roar louder than any previous match.

"Alex Edelhart vs Ariana Flamehart!"

The Heir to the Edelhart Duchy vs The Daughter of the Flamehart Duchy.

A battle of high nobility.

"Finally," Ariana’s voice drifted from the other side of the prep area.

She walked out. She wasn’t looking at the crowd. She was looking at me.

Her eyes were burning. Not with the petty annoyance from yesterday, but with a deep, humiliated rage.

"Don’t run away, Edelhart," she hissed as we passed each other on the stairs. "I prepared something special for trash like you."

I smiled, adjusting my cuffs.

"I wouldn’t dream of it, Ariana."

I stepped into the arena.

[System Notification: Main Event Triggered.] [Opponent: Ariana Flamehart (Heroine/Rival)] [Objective: Dominate.]

The real show was about to begin.

I stood on the hard-packed dirt, the sun glaring down on us. The noise of the crowd faded into a dull roar as my focus narrowed.

Thirty meters away, Ariana stood like a queen of ashes. Her red twin tails swayed in the mana-charged wind. She wasn’t just angry; she was humiliated. The incident with the telekinesis yesterday had shattered her pride, and she was here to glue it back together with my blood.

Professor Leonard raised his hand.

"Both sides, ready!"

A wooden box floated down to each of us.

"Open!"

I flipped the lid.

[Scroll 1: Grease (E-Rank)] [Scroll 2: Gust of Wind (E-Rank)] [Scroll 3: Spark (F-Rank)]

I almost laughed. It was a utility set. Grease, Wind, and a glorified lighter. Against a Fire Mage prodigy.

I looked up. Ariana held her scrolls. She didn’t even look at them. She crushed them in her hand, channeling her own mana into them to overload their output.

"Begin!"

BOOM.

Ariana didn’t wait. She didn’t chant. She didn’t hesitate.

"Burn!"

She ripped her first scroll.

[Scroll: Flame Wave]

A wall of fire, three meters high, erupted from the ground and rolled toward me like a tsunami. It was wide. Too wide to side-step easily.

"Die, you trash!"

The crowd screamed.

I didn’t panic. My Calculation Power broke the spell down instantly.

’Heat rises. The base is the anchor.’

I didn’t run away. I ran forward.

"What?!"

I slid. Like a baseball player stealing a base, I dropped low, turning my body sideways. I tore open [Scroll 1: Grease].

SPLAT.

I didn’t cast it on the floor to make her slip. I cast it on myself.

The viscous, slippery oil coated my uniform, my hair, and my skin.

WHOOSH.

I slid right under the Flame Wave. The heat was intense, singing my eyebrows, but because I was coated in slick, non-flammable magical grease (designed for machinery), the momentary contact didn’t burn me. I shot out the other side of the fire wall like a greased bullet.

"He... he went through it?!"

Ariana’s eyes widened. She was expecting a charred corpse, not a slippery demon closing the distance at high speed.

I was ten meters away.

"Get back!"

She panicked, ripping her second scroll.

[Scroll: Fireball Volley]

Five balls of fire spun around her. She launched them.

I couldn’t dodge all five.

So I used physics.

I ripped [Scroll 2: Gust of Wind].

But I didn’t aim it at the fireballs. I aimed it at the ground, kicking up a massive cloud of dry dust and dirt.

FWOOM.

A smokescreen instantly covered the arena. The fireballs slammed into the dust cloud, exploding blindly.

"Where is he?! Coward! Show yourself!"

Ariana was screaming, backing up. She couldn’t lock onto me.

Inside the dust cloud, I smiled.

’Fire needs three things: Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen.’

I still had [Scroll 3: Spark]. And the air was filled with fine, particulate dust.

I tossed the Spark scroll into the center of the cloud, right as the wind began to disperse it towards Ariana.

"Ignite."

SNAP.

[Dust Explosion.]

KA-BOOM!

The dust particles ignited in a chain reaction. It wasn’t a magical fireball; it was a thermobaric explosion. The shockwave was massive.

"KYAAA!"

Ariana was blown off her feet. The blast slammed her backward, tumbling her across the dirt.

I surged forward through the smoke.

My Agility: 8 and Stamina: 31 kicked in. I closed the distance in a heartbeat.

Ariana was scrambling to get up, coughing, her uniform singed. She looked up, terror dawning on her face as she saw me emerging from the smoke like a nightmare.

She tried to raise her hand. "Shield—!"

I didn’t let her cast.

I reached down and grabbed a handful of loose dirt from the ground.

THWIP.

I threw it right in her face.

"Ack! My eyes!"

Ariana screamed, clawing at her face. It was the oldest, dirtiest trick in the book. No mana required. Just grit.

"A mage who can’t see is just a target," I whispered, stepping into her guard.

She flailed blindly, trying to summon fire.

I slapped her hand away.

SMACK.

I stepped in close. Too close. I invaded her personal space entirely.

I swept her legs.

THUD.

Ariana hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of her. Before she could recover, I was on top of her.

I straddled her waist, pinning her hips to the dirt with my knees.

"Get off! Get off me, you brute!"

She writhed, bucking her hips wildly. Her struggle caused her skirt to ride up, exposing her pale, smooth thighs and the white panties beneath.

I didn’t look away. I leaned down, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand. My Strength: 7 wasn’t monstrous, but combined with leverage and her disorientation, it was enough.

"Is this the power of a Duke’s daughter?" I mocked, my face inches from hers. "Beaten by grease and dirt?"

"I’ll kill you! Let me go!"

She tried to bite me.

I shifted my weight. I pressed my crotch firmly against her stomach.

"Mmph!"

Ariana froze. Through the thin fabric of our combat uniforms, she could feel it. The hard ridge of my excitement. Fighting excited me. Dominating a haughty noble excited me even more.

"You..." Her face turned a violent shade of red, visible even through the soot and dirt. "You pervert! In front of everyone?!"

"Who’s looking?" I whispered, glancing up. The dust cloud still obscured most of the view from the stands. To them, we were just vague shapes on the ground.

"Ariana," I said, grinding my hips down slightly. "You have one last scroll. Use it."

She glared at me, tears of frustration and dust welling in her eyes. She tried to reach for her pocket with her free hand.

I let her.

She pulled out a scroll.

[Scroll: Explosion (C-Rank)]

It was a suicide move. At this range, it would blow us both up.

"I’ll take you with me!" she screamed, mana flaring.

I sighed.

"Wrong choice."

I didn’t stop her hand. Instead, I leaned down and kissed her.

Not a romantic kiss. A violent, silencing clash of lips.

"Mmph?!!"

Ariana’s eyes went wide. Her brain short-circuited. The shock of being kissed by the "trash" she despised, right in the middle of a death match, froze her mana flow instantly.

I used that split second.

I grabbed the scroll from her limp hand.

I broke the kiss, leaving a string of saliva between us.

"Thanks," I grinned, holding the scroll up.

I activated it.

But I didn’t aim it at us. I aimed it at the ground behind me, angling it to propel me away.

BOOM.

The explosion went off.

The force launched me into the air, doing a backflip.

Ariana, however, took the brunt of the shockwave while pinned to the ground.

"Gah!"

The wind was knocked out of her completely. She lay there, spread-eagled, defeated, panting heavily, her chest heaving against her torn uniform.

I landed on my feet, sliding to a stop.

I looked down at her.

She was a mess. Dirt on her face. Uniform disheveled. Panties exposed. And looking at me with a mix of hatred, fear, and... confusion.

Professor Leonard’s voice cut through the silence as the dust finally settled.

"Winner! Alex Edelhart!"

The barrier dropped.

I walked over to Ariana. She flinched, expecting another attack.

I extended a hand.

"Good fight," I said, my voice loud enough for the crowd to hear.

Ariana stared at my hand. Then at my face. She touched her lips where I had kissed her.

She slapped my hand away.

"Don’t touch me," she hissed, scrambling to her feet, her face burning. "This isn’t over, Alex. I’ll kill you."

She turned and ran toward the infirmary, trying to cover her exposed thighs.

I watched her go.

[Main Event Complete: Dominate.] [Reward: +150 Lust Points.] [Relationship Updated: Ariana Flamehart -> Hateful Obsession.]

I smirked, wiping the dirt from my cheek.

"I’m counting on it."