Never Die Villain

"...."

Ilya had spent so long trying not to behave like the kind of noble everyone expected a Belozersky to be that he had gone too far in the opposite direction, allowing insults and provocations to pass because responding to every idiot who disliked him seemed exhausting.

But apparently, people had mistaken that for weakness.

"They think I won’t do anything back."

"...."

"That’s why they think they can talk about me however they want. That’s why more than ten people can decide to surround me in the middle of an examination, throw spells at me, and expect everything to be fine afterward."

Ilya paused, his eyes settling on Tristan.

"And apparently, that’s why you think you can organize the whole thing, fail, and then turn around and leave whenever you feel like it."

"That wasn’t my intention."

"I don’t really care what your intention was."

The answer came quickly enough that Tristan didn’t get the chance to continue.

For once, Ilya wasn’t particularly interested in understanding the other person’s reasoning.

Tristan had made his decision when he gathered the other students, and whether he had done it for points, competition, pride, or some other reason Ilya didn’t know about made little difference now.

He had tried to eliminate Ilya.

Now Ilya was going to respond.

"If I let you walk away right now, nothing changes."

The blizzard began moving around them.

Tristan couldn’t see it, but he noticed Ilya’s expression and immediately turned to face him properly.

The students who had begun leaving slowed as well, apparently realizing that whatever had been happening between the two Grand Ducal sons wasn’t finished yet.

"I’ve spent enough time letting people think they can do whatever they want to me because I won’t retaliate."

Ilya raised his hand, although the gesture had nothing to do with controlling the blizzard surrounding them.

"So I’m going to make this very simple."

"...."

"You attacked me."

The blizzard gathered.

"I attack you back."

Tristan narrowed his eyes. "And what exactly will that accomplish?"

Ilya looked at him without smiling.

"Next time you think about messing with me, you’ll remember what happened the first time."

———!

The next moment, Ilya moved, allowing the blizzard to catch him from behind and launch him across the clearing so quickly that the nearest student barely managed to turn before Ilya was already within a few meters of him.

An ice javelin formed beside Ilya and shot toward the student’s chest, only for the identification seal to react before it could connect, surrounding him with a protective barrier and removing him from the hunting field immediately.

The others reacted at once, sending several spells toward Ilya before the first student had even completely disappeared, but the blizzard had already carried him away.

He shot sideways between the trees before quickly rising above the ground, allowing a Fireball to pass beneath him while two bolts of lightning crossed through the space he had occupied only a moment earlier.

"Don’t let him move!"

That was easier said than done.

Unlike an ordinary mage, Ilya didn’t need the ground whenever he wanted to accelerate or change direction, since the blizzard could push him regardless of which way his body was facing.

Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh——!

Every time the students adjusted their aim to follow him, he changed direction again, darting between the trees and through their lines of fire with movements that were difficult to predict even when they knew where he was.

Another ice javelin formed while he was moving.

The student below noticed it and immediately raised a barrier, but the javelin struck hard enough to crack the defensive spell before a second followed afterward.

His identification seal activated before the attack could reach him, and by the time the others realized another student had been eliminated, Ilya had already crossed to the opposite side of the clearing.

"Stop firing separately! Wait until he comes closer!"

Several students stopped casting and began watching him instead, hoping to catch him once he committed himself to another attack.

Ilya noticed the change almost immediately, but rather than slowing down, he dropped between two trees and accelerated directly toward one of them, forcing the others to hesitate when their own ally entered their line of fire.

The student raised a barrier as Ilya approached, expecting an attack from the front.

Ilya flew straight past him.

"You goddamned monst—"

An ice javelin formed behind the student’s back and shot forward before he could turn, forcing his identification seal to activate and remove him from the field.

By then, the others had finally realized that trying to predict the direction of his attacks was almost as difficult as following Ilya himself, since the ice didn’t necessarily have to form anywhere near his body.

"Just cover the entire area!"

That proved far more troublesome.

Fire, lightning, wind, and earth magic erupted throughout the forest as the remaining students abandoned precision and began saturating the surrounding area with spells.

Trees shattered under the barrage, and explosions tore apart the ground, forcing Ilya to retreat farther than before as the blizzard repeatedly changed his direction to keep him away from the overlapping attacks.

For several seconds, the sheer volume of magic prevented him from approaching any of them.

But that was fine.

He didn’t need to.

Ilya allowed the blizzard to carry him upward until he emerged above the canopy, putting enough distance between himself and the barrage to finally stop reacting to every spell individually.

From there, Cold Sense continued feeding him the positions of the students scattered throughout the forest below, even when the trees prevented him from seeing them directly.

He raised his hand and began forming ice throughout the blizzard.

Several javelins took shape at different points above the forest, each positioned according to one of the presences Ilya could feel through Cold Sense.

The students below couldn’t see the blizzard surrounding them, so from their perspective, there was nothing to warn them that weapons were already forming overhead until Tristan noticed Ilya’s change in behavior.

"Move!"

The warning came just before the javelins descended.

The remaining students scattered as ice suddenly descended from several directions, forcing them to abandon their offensive spells and throw up barriers instead.

Some of the javelins shattered against defensive magic while others struck the ground as their targets escaped, but enough reached their mark that identification seals began activating throughout the forest.

By the time the barrage ended, the group that had surrounded Ilya was gone.

The identification seals had pulled the students from the hunting field one after another as Ilya’s attacks overwhelmed their defenses and came close enough to seriously injure them.

In only a few minutes, the ambush that had begun with more than ten students surrounding him had completely fallen apart, leaving broken ice, scorched earth, and damaged trees throughout the area.

Ilya descended through the canopy and landed several meters away from the only person he had left untouched on purpose.

Tristan.

Ilya turned toward him as another ice javelin formed beside his shoulder, leaving the two Grand Ducal sons alone in the forest now that everyone Tristan had gathered was gone.

"Now it’s just you."

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