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Immediately as the event started, two people instantly made their move. Team A’s Jassie and team D’s Urania.

It seems like Jassie no longer has any intention to hide her capabilities, as she created several orbs emitting repulsive force and shot them at the can by Shoggo’s feet.
On the other side, it looks like Urania has decided to challenge this with her own two feet. Accelerating with magic, she moves in an irregular zig-zag path as she closes in on the can for a solid kick.

Both of their moves are nothing short of amazing. However, these simple attacks won’t be enough to pass through Shoggo. Jassie’s magic was, of all things, kicked away by Shoggo. It appears Shoggo has taken considerable recoil from that, but the sphere kicked off bumped into other spheres, hitting them like a billiard ball before vanishing in thin air.

While Jassie attacked with magic, Urania on the other hand, who placed complete trust on her own two feet, was only one step away from reaching the can-kicking distance but suddenly halted and jumped backwards. The next instant, a sharp tentacle appeared with dreadful speed right at the ground in front of the can. If Urania hadn’t dodged it, she would have been captured by the tentacle. It was so close! Wait, no. Great reflexes, Urania!

While they lagged behind the two, team B’s Kiara and team C’s Kerry also made their move. The two of them used long-ranged magic to test the waters, but the Shoggos calmly turned their hands into a tentacle and used it as a shield.

「Haaaaa…… For that very same Shoggo to have such a wonderful……!!」
「Suzy!」
「I-I get it! Jassie. Ahh, so adorable yet I need to battle against her…… Still, it is part of the contract. Let’s go! “Flame Arrow”!」

It appears that at team A, Jassie has managed to rein in Suzy. It looks like they’re trying to find Shoggo’s weakness with the use of Suzy’s “Flame Arrow” and Jassie’s “Water Lance”.

Incidentally, Shoggo is a bit sensitive to fire but it’s not enough to be called a weakness while extreme cold makes her movements stiff. Other than that, being an aggregation of tentacles, she should be weak to being thrown into disorder, but I can’t really say for sure what will happen then.

「Mmn, troublesome.」
「I’d be happy if this would actually-… -work! “Poison Needle”!!」
「She’s a magic lifeform, but would poison, work?」

Ethel’s poison attribute magic is considered to be relatively rare as an attribute. To begin with, it’s pretty rare for people to have attributes other than earth, fire, water, wind, and life. With that in consideration, team A has Jassie with darkness attribute and Suzy with alchemic attribute; team C has Joaquin with lightning attribute while team D has Ethel and his poison attribute. All of those rare attributes.

Ethel’s “Poison Needle” pierced through Shoggo’s stomach. However, being an aggregation of tentacles, Shoggo simply unwound her body and let the poison needle through, so it’s not as if it hit her. However, it seems that Ethel doesn’t intend to end it here.

「Since you can move, this should work! Bloom!!」
『……-!?』

Despite not having any vocal organs, Shoggo seemingly let out a shriek of surprise. The poison needle that pierced through the cavity of Shoggo’s stomach increased its needles on Ethel’s signal, and the bloomed flower of needles pierced through Shoggo.
By nature, poison doesn’t work on magic lifeforms. After all, their bodies are either made up of clay, rock, or metal. However, Shoggo is different. The body of Shoggo, being a collaboration between Selena and me, has the same structure as that of a normal living organism. Naturally, poison normally doesn’t work, but because of her physiology, she’s not completely immune to poison.

Receiving a hit from the poison flower, Shoggo momentarily unwinds her whole body and regathered back into human form at a different place. Ethel likely used a relaxant like poison. Half of the gathering tentacles were affected by this poison and can barely move where it is. Shoggo tearfully discarded the tentacles that had problems moving and reaggregated the remaining tentacles. It’s loli Shoggo now.

『Ohhh!? While we were entranced by Ethel’s poison flower! Team A has made their move as well! Shoggo! She has stopped moving!! 』
「I knew it, it seems to be weak against shifts in temperatures! When it was hit by fire attribute magic earlier, I observed Shoggo’s tentacle curling in slightly so I had a hunch, but it was right! It seems to have taken measures against fire attribute, but it likely doesn’t have countermeasures against the cold. Right now, Shoggo’s muscle fibers should be curling inwards, making her unable to move properly!!」

Hearing Sharl’s commentary, I frantically shifted my eyes to team A and, as she said, Shoggo is completely unable to move. The one that did this must be Jassie, but it looks like the one that discovered this was Suzy. She’s not a magical tool freak for nothing. She closely observed the tentacle’s movements when she casted fire attribute magic earlier and brilliantly figured out its weakness.

By hitting Shoggo with a large volume of water and freezing all of it, Jassie was able to take away Shoggo’s body heat. Being weak to changes in temperature, Shoggo is rendered practically immobile just by this.

「「This! Will settle it!」」

Jassie and Urania moved at the same time. Right before them is a Shoggo that can’t move properly and a loli Shoggo that has lost a large portion of her tentacles. Aiming for the can, Jassie creates a blade emitting repulsive force while Urania creates gauntlets and boots of wind.

Shoggo moves her weakened body and attempts to somehow stop the two of them. However, this is a team battle. Suzy releases fire lances to back up Jassie, while Ethel creates earth walls to push Urania forward to her goal. Shoggo attempted to produce new tentacles but it was already too late, Jassie and Urania were already close to her.

One more step, just one more step away from them both reaching the can, Jassie is about to swing the sword in her hand convinced of her team’s victory. Jassie and Urania have a difference in reach. Urania is using wind gauntlets, while Jassie is using a sword. You can’t blame Jassie for being convinced of her team’s victory. However, she was a bit too hasty.

Jassie glances at Urania, grinding her teeth from her own foolishness. While running, Urania held her gauntleted right hand with her free left hand, and aimed her gauntlet straight at the can. The gauntlet of wind Urania created was not just for self-protection. It’s a weapon that gathers air and shoots it.

A sudden projectile attack from Urania who barely used any projectile weapons here up until now. It completely caught Jassie off guard, and before Jassie could swing her sword, Uraina sent the can Shoggo was protecting to the air.

『Barely, just barely, Urania was faster!! First place! Urania! Second place! Jassie!』

The first and second place has been decided. In the end, team B and C couldn’t break through Shoggo’s defenses, so it ended in a battle between them. The end result was that Joaquin’s lightning knocked away team B’s can, so team C got third place while team B got fourth place.

Shoggo still has some room for improvement but, in the meantime, now I know that even as she is now, she’s still stronger than apprentice magicians. So if we mass-produce Shoggos¹, I should be able to move my plans forward.

1. Lyly: Uhhhh, excuse me?