Chapter 141: Practical Combat 10
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 141: Practical Combat 10
I hadn't actually intended to call Joden.
So, why did I do it?
The truth is, I didn't.
In the first place, if I had absolutely needed help to take down Katsudo, I wouldn't have turned the Emperor down when he offered to send Duke Freya. No matter how strong Joden was, he was a mere mini-fridge compared to the Duke.
Meeting Joden had been a complete accident.
I had already scouted this location yesterday. I needed to find a suitable spot for Betzdo and Sepia to fight, and I had to memorize the surrounding geography in case I ended up facing Katsudo myself.
As a bonus, I also buried a few bombs in the ground where I planned to lure Betzdo. Sepia might get sulky if I interfered during her duel, but since I set them up before the battle even started, I figured I was technically in the clear.
It was just as I was finishing up with the explosives and preparing to head back to the Academy.
"…!"
Suddenly, goosebumps erupted all over my body. I tried to leap away, but my legs were already frozen solid, refusing to budge.
Sensing instinctively that staying still meant death, I swung my cane to shatter the ice. Then, I lunged toward the presence I felt and swung again.
The opponent was wearing a robe, their face hidden in the shadows of a hood.
The cane I swung was abruptly blocked by an ice wall that materialized out of thin air. I hadn't even felt a trace of mana—how was he this fast?
Ice began to crawl from the wall onto my cane, so I wrenched it back with a violent tug.
Who the hell is this?
The only person I knew who could construct ice magic this quickly was Joden, but there was no way he’d be here...
"Mr. Joden?"
Oh. He is here.
Hyung, why are you popping out from there? Wait, if I count my past life, am I the older one?
The shockwave from my cane hitting the ice wall had blown back the stranger's hood, revealing a very familiar face.
"Benefactor?"
Once I confirmed it was indeed Joden, I lowered my cane. Seeing my lack of hostility, Joden dispelled his ice.
"..."
"..."
An awkward silence settled between us. Expecting Joden to break a silence was a luxury I couldn't afford, so I eventually spoke first.
"What brings you here, Mr. Joden? And in the middle of the night, no less."
"I heard rumors that people have been disappearing from this village lately, so I came to investigate."
"I know the Student Council handles many things, but isn't it unusual for the President to move personally?"
"I’ve been feeling a bit restless lately... Regardless, what brings you here, Benefactor?"
"Oh, you know. I couldn't sleep, so I came out for a midnight stroll."
"It looked like you were installing something in the ground. May I ask what it was?"
"Would you believe me if I said I was doing a bit of farming?"
"If you tell me to believe it, I shall."
That meant he didn't believe a word of it.
Ever since I treated Duchess Adelian, Joden had been treating me with excessive courtesy and favor, but fundamentally, this man possessed a fierce sense of responsibility and was as stubborn as a mule.
Even if I tell him I’ll handle it and he should leave, he won't, right?
He didn't seem like the type to give up easily, and if I left him alone, he might accidentally stumble into Sepia and Betzdo’s fight...
"In that case, could you give me a hand?"
In the end, I told Joden a version of the truth—not everything, but enough—and asked for his assistance.
* * *
And that brought us to the present. Joden, having frozen Katsudo’s summoned skeletons and lackeys in an instant, looked over at me.
"Are you unhurt?"
"Of course. By the way, you got here faster than I expected."
The first thing I had asked Joden to do was ensure the safety of the villagers. The main battle was taking place in the forest anyway, but even if it wasn't Betzdo or Katsudo, a single lackey or skeleton wandering into the village would result in a massacre.
It was a delicate situation. If the villagers were evacuated too early, Katsudo might notice something was wrong, putting them in even greater danger. But if the evacuation was too late, it would be a catastrophe.
The perfect timing was the moment Betzdo and Katsudo left the village and headed into the forest.
I had asked Joden to evacuate the villagers at that exact moment. Of course, a couple of lackeys might still be lurking in the village, but Joden could handle them just by breathing.
"All villagers have been successfully evacuated to a safe location."
"Good work. Did you find anyone suspicious among them?"
"It was difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye, so I knocked everyone unconscious and bound them."
"..."
Uh... well, that is the most certain method.
Man, it seems like everyone in this world who’s even remotely strong is a bit unhinged.
Cr-crack—! Shatter!!
It seemed I had been talking to Joden for too long. The ice Joden had used to trap the lackeys and skeletons began to break.
Joden’s ice wasn't something that could be shattered easily; looking closely, it seemed Katsudo had used his power to force the ice apart from the inside.
Despite his magic being broken, Joden didn't seem flustered at all as he asked me, "How shall we proceed?"
"I’ll take on the Necromancer! Mr. Joden, please handle the skeletons and the lackeys!"
To be honest, Joden and I were a terrible match. Joden tended to fight using massive wide-area attacks, meaning my illusions would likely be swept away and destroyed by his collateral damage. That was why every time Joden and I sparred, it always ended in my defeat.
Rumble— Clang!
Without me even having to say it, Joden created a massive series of ice barriers to partition the battlefield.
He really is quick on the uptake.
Thanks to that, I could focus on Katsudo while Joden dealt with the underlings.
* * *
In the area where Joden faced the lackeys and skeletons, the sounds of freezing and shattering echoed repeatedly.
"Don't stop! Keep moving! The moment you stop, you freeze!"
Having already been caught once by Joden, Katsudo’s subordinates were frantically swinging their Black Mana. Abusing Black Mana like this would drastically shorten their lifespans, but if they stayed still, they’d just freeze to death anyway.
Whenever one person froze, about five others would use their Black Mana to shatter the ice as quickly as possible. This wasn't out of camaraderie; it was because they knew their chances of survival were slightly higher the more people they had.
A skeleton with drill-like appendages secretly burrowed into the ground, aiming for Joden’s head from beneath his feet.
Or rather, it tried to pop out.
Thump! Thump!
No matter how hard the drill-skeleton tried to pierce the surface, the ground Joden had frozen only suffered minor scratches. It showed no signs of breaking.
Is this all?
Joden had moved cautiously at first, having heard that a Necromancer once nearly destroyed the world, but now he decided he should just end this quickly.
"Look, that guy’s frozen! Break it, quick!"
Katsudo’s lackeys had no intention of defeating Joden from the start. Their goal was simply to hold out until Katsudo killed Loki and returned. Thus, they avoided direct engagement, running away and rescuing anyone who got frozen.
Good, if we keep this up—!
Then, they saw it. Something emerging from Joden’s hand.
Is that... a wave?
But were waves supposed to be solid?
The moment they realized it was a wave of ice, it had already crashed over them. They froze instantly, unable to even react.
Joden clenched his fist.
Crunch!
The frozen lackeys and skeletons were pulverized, falling to the ground in pathetic shards. Just as Joden was about to go join Loki...
The shattered skeleton pieces began to pull toward each other like magnets, merging into the form of a giant monster.
"So this is a Necromancer. This might be more tedious than I thought."
* * *
Even though Joden was handling the lackeys and most of the skeletons, facing Katsudo was no easy task.
"Hey! Isn't it a universal rule that Necromancers get weak when they run out of skeletons?!"
If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn't have tried to look cool and just taken the lackeys instead, Loki grumbled to himself as he parried an incoming attack with his cane.
"Who said I ran out of skeletons?"
Just as Katsudo said, there were at least five skeletons surrounding Loki that were clearly far from ordinary. Since Loki knew all their patterns, dodging their attacks and closing the distance to Katsudo wasn't difficult, but...
Clang—!
The problem was that his current power wasn't enough to pierce Katsudo’s bone shield. Katsudo wasn't able to land a hit on Loki either, but it was obvious who would tire out first if this continued.
"Necromancers are so cowardly. Always relying on numerical superiority."
Loki pulled out some blue beads he had been keeping in his Pocket Dimension.
If any first-year Academy student who knew the identity of those beads were here, they would have turned and bolted without looking back. But Katsudo had no idea what they were.
The beads were actually the cores of the golems created by Professor Idra—the same ones Loki, Lucas, and Clara had barely managed to defeat together on the day of the entrance ceremony.
In preparation for this fight, Loki had asked Professor Idra for some golem cores.
He had about fifteen of them.