Chapter 174: The 99 Hits With 100 Shots (1)
A vast training ground.
The sound of arrows hitting the bull's-eye in the distance is loud.
...Puck! ...Puck! ...Puck!
Students from the Collosseo Academy who use bows gather here to practice.
It was mainly used by the archery students of the Cold Class, and on rare occasions, the ranged magic students of the Hot Class, who had unusually long ranges.
For the rest of the students, it was a place they didn't need to come to as much, because they only used bows in general education classes.
Among the few students who came here, Bianca was one of the most accomplished archers.
She was also the head of the Cold Class and was very good at shooting a bow as she came from the Usher family, also known as the Divine Archer Family.
...Puck!
Bianca's arrow hit the bull's-eye a hundred meters away without using a single handful of mana.
A white circle, a black circle, a blue circle, a red circle, a yellow circle.
All of Bianca's arrows were densely packed into that yellow circle.
"Wow, did you see that? Another 10."
"This is awesome. She's in a different league."
"That's enough to get a perfect score on her midterm."
" ... She's like a hunting goddess."
The other students around her are in awe of this almost godlike archery skill.
But.
'There are two 9 points mixed up. The wind is not good today and my conditions are not good... ... .'
In fact, Bianca herself was not satisfied, even though she had managed to put all her arrows in the smallest circle.
A perfectionist, she was unhappy that she couldn't get all her arrows into the center, the smallest yellow circle.
Normally, she might have been satisfied with the fact that out of the ten arrows she had just shot, she had scored 8 out of 10 and 2 out of 9, giving her a score of 98 out of 100.
But.
"...I don't like it."
Her almost paranoid score obsession was getting worse by the day.
Poof!
It was a dull noise coming from the firing line next to her.
...Puff, puff, puff!
One after another, without a pause.
One arrow would fly and hit the bull's-eye, and before the sound could die down, the next arrow would fly right next to it and hit the bull's-eye.
This happened ten times in a row.
10 out of 10 arrows, 10 arrows worth 100 points.
"...Oh, ten arrows."
Bianca hung up her bow in protest and frowned.
She glanced over and saw the man standing in the next lane.
He had shaggy bangs that covered nearly half his face, fair skin, and plain clothes.
Slightly shorter and skinnier than the average 18 year old boy.
Vikir. Classmate of Usher Bianca's in the same Cold Class B section.
Always expressionless, today he stood in the lodge with a practice bow and arrow.
Kiririk.
Vikir feeds an arrow into the bow.
The target is a hundred meters away.
A yellow circle with a diameter of 12.2 centimeters. It sits 1.3 meters off the ground and looks like a needle's eye.
Ting-.
Vikir released the arrow.
Pow!
He scores 10 points, the highest score a single arrow can achieve.
The students practicing arrows around him stopped what they were doing and gathered around to watch Vikir's archery skills.
"Wow, he's a really good archer."
"Do you see that over there?"
"I just see a yellow dot...."
"Isn't he Vikir? he's got the best handwriting."
"Oh, is that the handsome kid? I can't see him through his bangs."
"Oh, that's the archer. He's got a low mana reserve for some reason."
"Well, archers don't mind having a little less mana."
Meanwhile, Bianca, who was shooting a bow in the next lane, was in a strange situation.
Usher Bianca of the Divine Archers is an honor student with a reputation for archery prowess within the Academy.
This means that when she stands on the stage, the eyes of the crowd must be directed in her direction.
But she doesn't like the idea of people watching her shoot.
She says it makes her feel like a clown.
...But what about now?
All eyes are not on her, but on Vikir next to her.
It's not that she's disappointed in the lack of attention, but it's that the public seems to be implicitly judging Vikir's skills as better than her own.
"...."
Bianca turned her head to steal a glance at Vikir's archery stance.
...The conclusion was a mess.
Vikir's stance could not be called good, even if it were an empty word.
Nocking, Grip, Hooking, Set up, Drawing, Anchor, Full Draw, Release, Fallow through ... Nothing was quite right.
But.
Ting-.
As soon as Vikir released the cue.
Pow!
The arrow flies and hits the mark.
'How the hell does he shoot, I can't even tell from watching.'
Vikir's posture is so relaxed, it's as if he has no structure or form.
It looked like a bow wielded by a barbarian in the forest.
'Shooting like that usually results in blind arrows, so how on earth did that one hit the bullseye?'
Bianca wrinkled her brow and glared at Vikir.
She too fiercely parried the shot.
...Puck!
An arrow that hit the 10-point mark.
Bianca was doing just as well, placing each shot in the center of the bull's-eye.
Except for one thing: Vikir's arrow was a little different.
...puck! ...puck! ...puck!
Puff-puff-puff-puff-puck!
The speed of the shot was different.
While Bianca fired one focused shot, Vikir was firing five or six in quick succession.
While their scores were trending in the same direction, the speed at which they were using up their arrows was making a huge difference.
"iig! you think you're fast!?'
Bianca bit her lip.
Contrary to her claims, Vikir was not only fast.
His arrows were both fast and accurate, and he went on a 10-shot streak.
On the other hand, Bianca, who shot two 9-point shots due to poor concentration in the early part, was definitely 2 points behind Vikir.
'Don't miss a single shot from now on!'
A small difference in the first half of the match turns into a huge gap in the second half.
This is a common occurrence in the shooting trajectory.
So Bianca was even more focused than she had been in practice, more so than ever.
Finally, her last arrow from the demonstration hit the bull's-eye.
...Puck!
But it was an unfortunate result.
Bianca's thumb had slipped from her sweaty grip, and her arrow had lodged in the 9-point space.
'Damn it!'
Bianca wanted to throw down her bow and run for the hills.
But there are a lot of eyes watching, and you can't lose your cool here.
As calmly as possible.
'You can't lower the honor of a Divine Archer!
If the eldest daughter of the Usher family, known for their divine archery skills, were to be outclassed by the base archery skills of a commoner with no genealogy, it would certainly be a laughing stock throughout the world.
Kirik.
Bianca tugged on her quiver, aware that Vikir in the next lane had stopped shooting at some point.
All eyes are on the end of the dot, on a single shot.
And then.
Pfft.
The arrow flies through several layers of overlapping walls of atmosphere.
It goes.
...Pow!
It hits the center of the bull's-eye, ten spaces away.
Ouch.
It snapped the first arrow in half.
"That's it!
Bianca called out in triumph.
141 10-point shots, 3 9-point shots.
In addition, she had two shots at the fingernail-sized X10 target, splitting the first in half and hitting the second.
In total, Bianca shot 144 arrows and scored 1437 out of 1440.
This was an unusually good performance for Bianca, considering her scores usually hover between 1433 and 1435.
The presence of her pacesetter and competitor, Vikir, next to her, helped her maintain a high level of concentration in the second half.
Meanwhile, onlookers were in awe.
"This is amazing. She's a goddess."
"That's right. The shot hits the center of the foot."
" ...! By the way, Vikir is also amazing!"
Everyone's eyes are once again drawn to the side lane where Vikir is.
When Bianca finished shooting her arrows, she too turned to look at Vikir.
'What is he doing?'
Bianca tilted her head slightly.
Vikir had shot all 143 arrows and was holding the last one for a long time.
The pinch.
The tension that sustains a shot cannot be ignored, no matter how large and muscular the man is.
Especially when you're not spending mana.
Yet despite this, Vikir stands motionless with his bow taut.
This is completely different from shooting arrows at a tremendous speed until now.
"...Why, why don't you shoot?"
"I don't know, man. Maybe he's trying to concentrate."
"What do you think he's trying to do at the end?"
"Isn't 10 points the end anyway? There's no higher score than that."
"Yeah, I'll just do what I've been doing and get a 10."
"Wow, so if you get a 10 this time, you'll get a 1440 out of 1440, which is awesome, I've never seen that before!"
"Isn't the Academy's official highest score up to now 1,439 points? When you didn't spend any mana on the 100 meter distance?"
"That's right. The current Lord of the Usher family set the official record when he was a student at the Academy, about 30 years ago."
"Gosh, it's a shame it's an unofficial record. This could have been a historic record-breaking moment."
The students who were watching also swallowed dryly.
"...."
Bianca from the next row did the same.
The tension in my gut.
And then.
Poof!
Vikir's bow spat out an arrow from the tip of his quiver.
The arrow flew to the bull's-eye and hit the target with a thud.
"...!"
Everyone, including Bianca, had to open their eyes wide.
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