Chapter 21
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Saving Private Lionheart
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Uw!!
The students' shouts and the clanging of weapons filled the air in a chaotic symphony. The training hall instantly turned into a battlefield.
I quickly scanned the field.
Veronica Lionheart, her nails extended like a lion's claws, tore out the throats of three demon cultists blocking her path and charged forward. At the end of her rush, she slammed one into the wall and successfully pulled her sword free from his body.
An English girl extracting a sword stuck somewhere... A fleeting, intriguing thought sparkled in my mind before vanishing. No time to dwell on it.
Right in front of me, a giant with two swords buried in his body was swinging his massive arms to shake off a Demonic Cult assassin clinging to his back.
The unfolding chaos wouldn't let me stand by and watch. I flicked my wrist to shake the blood off my blade and advanced.
"Gah...!"
I thrust deep into the side of the assassin desperately clinging to Baek Chan, shattering his dantian, then yanked the dagger from his waist and hurled it.
Kang Seo-yeon, struggling against a demon cultist with an unfamiliar sword, landed a direct hit to his temple. As his focus shattered, she sliced through his protective aura and severed his neck.
At a glance, it might seem the battle was tilting in our favor, but the overall situation was far from good.
"Min-soo's down!"
"Can the injured fall back? The severely wounded first... Ack!"
We'd taken down a few, but plenty of demon cultists remained. Students were dropping one by one, injured and out of the fight.
Our average skill was higher, but we were outnumbered.
And even if we somehow dealt with these grunts, a bigger problem loomed.
'The Demonic Cult calls it Extreme Demon. At least A-rank. One of the stronger ones.'
They say ten years changes mountains and rivers.
Time enough for a seventeen-year-old prodigy to grow into a candidate for the world's greatest swordsman, or for a once-powerful warrior to decline from the backlash of demonic arts, losing his peak prowess.
Compared to my final moments in my past life, Son Ha-rin was weaker, and the Third Apostle was stronger. Makes sense—if the Third Apostle had been at this level back then, I couldn't have taken him down with me.
Thus, Son Ha-rin was clearly at a disadvantage, but she dodged nimbly with the Wind Moon Sect's movement techniques.
She controlled her sword with Sword Telekinesis to launch it, then used the blade as a foothold to traverse the air.
It was on another level from our side, where demon cultists and students were tangled in a messy brawl. We were stuck fighting on a flat plane like 2D figures, while Son Ha-rin freely utilized 3D space.
"Sending the Sword Demon toward the Phoenix of Fist was a good call. He'd have gone berserk and ignored orders to capture the Wind Duke's heir."
Son Ha-rin, one step from Sword Flight mastery, weaved through the air, occasionally firing her sword. The Third Apostle countered with Remote Palm Strikes infused with demonic energy, trying to knock her down. Their clash shook the entire indoor training facility.
This facility wasn't built to withstand an A-rank master's full power. Son Ha-rin's slowing sword was a problem, but the building itself was reaching its limits.
Unchecked emanations accumulating in a reinforced concrete structure could cause a total collapse at any moment. Dragging the fight out wouldn't help.
To fix that, we needed to sort out the melee first.
Unlike Son Ha-rin, Baek Chan had been launched into the air by force. As he tore apart a demon cultist by ripping his limbs, I shouted.
"Baek Chan! Say it exactly as I tell you! With Six Harmonies Voice Projection!"
"What?"
Instead of answering his confusion, I transmitted the words directly into his ear via inner energy.
"This damn..."
Baek Chan furrowed his brow and hesitated, but eventually unleashed a resonant voice thick with inner power.
[...Get your heads in the game. Have you forgotten why we gathered here today?]
It was a bit clumsy for Six Harmonies Voice Projection, but it rang through the entire indoor training hall, drilling into everyone's ears. Passable.
[I came here to defeat a Fusion Realm master. For that, I devised the Joint Attack Formation and trained to fight experts.]
[And now, the target has changed from veteran A-rank elites to rabble from a cult that learned martial arts. But what we must do is the same.]
[Group up and fight.]
Joint Attack Formation.
Dawning realization flashed in the eyes of the students locked in melee.
Snapping to attention, they shook off the demon cultists tangled with them and converged in one spot.
I took command, assigning them to key positions in the formation.
"Surround and protect the injured! Team 1 takes the four cardinal axes... Why is Veronica over there? Yong-won! As a Buluksa Temple alum, you know Iron Wire Palm, right? Take the south axis! Team 2, fill the gaps between axes!"
"Leave it to me!"
Talented students caught on quick. In seconds, a rough approximation of the ancient Roman Testudo formation took shape.
Students versed in Iron Fist techniques manned the front as shields. At the center of the north axis stood Baek Chan.
His foot stomped with over 400mm of force, shattering the training hall floor and upending charging demon cultists, ruining their balance.
Staggering foes were met with a barrage of kicks and punches that crushed sternums and snapped necks.
Baek Chan was a magnificent shield, covering the space of ten with the bulk of three. The north axis needed no extra support.
From the gaps in the human shield wall, slender blades thrust out to exploit enemy openings. Evidence that the rear guard with longswords, spears, and glaives fought fiercely from within.
"Rotate! Rotate!"
When frontline students were slashed or stabbed beyond fighting, they swapped instantly with rear guards to plug losses.
Rare students skilled in sorcery or dark arts held the center with wide visibility, directing as control towers.
Demon cultists bled from steel balls, darts, flying knives, and talismans.
The wolves that had rampaged freely among sheep now strained to break the formation.
Han Moo-young's prodigies, drilled together for a not-insignificant time, versus demon cultists stripped of cooperation by mind-rotting demonic arts.
A moment revealing their fundamental gap in group combat. Overwhelming force disparity barely balanced by joint assault.
But only briefly. The scales tipped again.
"Jegal Maria took a sword to the shoulder! Pull her back!"
"Injured space is full! No room...!"
To maintain the formation, we constantly pulled from the rear. Pushing injured inward filled the core with more casualties than able fighters.
The front's burden grew without rear support from polearms and projectiles.
Our forces eroded over time. We needed a turning point.
I stabbed a dagger into the neck of a demon cultist I'd grabbed with Golden Claw and shouted.
"Anyone to take my spot?"
"I'll do it."
A callused hand gripped my shoulder.
"Class rep?"
It was Namgoong Min-soo, who'd been surrounded by three demon cultists pre-formation, overwhelmed, and briefly knocked out. He'd recovered inside.
"Min-soo, no! You're injured!"
Kang Seo-yeon yelled, switching from a broken sword to a whip around a cultist's neck, but Namgoong Min-soo's eyes gleamed with the Namgoong family's signature resolve.
"...We can't be picky now, right?"
He asked, face pale from blood loss.
He was right.
In normal times, no injured to a key axis spot. But we needed every paw.
Excluding the golden trio, he was the class's top fighter with class rep leadership. Even unconscious, worth waking for the fight.
"Thanks."
Having offloaded to the injured, my job was easing pressure on the formation.
"Baek Chan! Break out and circle right! Everyone else, hold with Three Talents principles briefly!"
Baek Chan moved without question.
As he exited, students filled the gap; he circled half the formation as ordered.
Shoulder-checking anything in his path.
Demon cultists encircling the formation recoiled from his body slam; I handed off to Namgoong Min-soo and broke out too.
"We're out, now what?"
"Think you can reach Veronica?"
"At this stage? If I leave, this shaky formation collapses."
"You're demoralizing us!?"
Baek Chan snorted at my retort, dismissive.
His usual arrogance and selfishness.
But easy to see it as bravado.
His ragged breaths craved ambient ki. Proof his A-rank-surpassing inner power was nearly depleted from the fight.
No aura left; body covered in cuts and blood. His daily crisp uniform reduced to rags.
"Truth is, you're right. You retire, formation and us done."
I said, grabbing a demon cultist's ankle mid-kick toward my head with Golden Claw and twisting it backward.
Baek Chan nodded silently. Go on.
"That's why we need Veronica more."
Veronica hadn't joined the formation. Wouldn't hear calls to enter.
She rampaged in the demon cultists' midst with her greatsword, Lion Heart Method's fury and madness unchecked, her blade's heat undimmed.
But her—and our—limits loomed.
Best scenario: slot her into the Joint Attack Formation as an axis before exhaustion left her swarmed and dead.
"Operation name."
I wiped blood from my blade on my forearm and spoke.
"Saving Private Lionheart."
"You should stay single for the world's sake. Your kids couldn't face society with names like that."
"That's harsh..."
With that brief exchange, Baek Chan and I plunged into the forest of blades before us.