The Azure Dragon Raised the Lake
Even while we detoured around the swarm of demonic beasts blocking the path and circled all the way to the lake, the sound of footsteps never stopped behind us.
Still, once we broke free of the dense forest, we finally got a moment to catch our breath.
Lydia immediately scanned the sky and began preparing a rescue signal.
What caught my eye first, though, was the stone pillar standing at the lakeshore.
The second checkpoint.
An accident had already broken out and the Return Crystals were dead, but an evaluation was still an evaluation.
"Here it is."
I sprinted straight for the stone pillar.
Lydia called after me from behind.
"Miss Cheongha, don't run!"
"Just let me tag this first!"
I pressed my hand to the crystal set in the center of the pillar. Blue light flashed, and letters bloomed in the air.
Second Checkpoint Cleared
Perfect.
One left.
"You're seriously planning to keep going with the evaluation in this situation?" Erika asked, looking incredulous.
"We should tag it while we still can."
"Even with the Return Crystals down?"
"That's a huge problem in its own right, and this is important in its own right."
It was my first practical evaluation. Just because something had gone wrong was no reason to walk past a checkpoint sitting right in front of me. That would have been as wasteful as missing a kill on a demonic beast.
Erika studied me for a moment, then laughed.
"You're tougher than I thought."
"Please just call it hardworking."
Lydia wrapped an arm around my shoulders and surveyed the area around the lake.
"We need to send a signal to the Academy first."
She stretched a hand toward the sky. Golden mana gathered at her fingertips. A long, bright beam of light shot up over the lake. With the sky open, it was far more visible than anything we could have managed inside the forest. The Academy would have to notice this.
The moment I thought that—
The golden signal warped above the lake. Black ripples spread around the beam. As if it had slammed into an invisible ceiling, the gold scattered in every direction. In less than a few seconds even the traces were gone.
Lydia's expression hardened.
"This is blocked too."
It wasn't just the Return Crystals that were broken. Someone was jamming every outbound mana signal from this entire area.
I looked at the lake. The sunlit surface glittered peacefully. On the outside, nothing seemed wrong at all.
"The Academy wouldn't have set this up on purpose, right?"
"There's no reason to block rescue signals during a practical."
Lydia's answer was short. The usual ease had left her voice.
Erika dropped her smile and turned toward the forest.
"They're coming again."
In the distance, the sound of snapping branches. Not just one. It came from left and right at the same time.
Thud.
Thud-thud.
Red eyes rose one by one above the undergrowth. The same demonic beasts that had swarmed us in the forest earlier—and mixed in with them were ones I had never seen before. Horned wolves. Boars with black spines bristling down their backs. Bears the size of trees. Every kind imaginable. Creatures that should have been tearing into each other had formed a single pack and were encircling the lake.
"There's no way those are all practice specimens, right?"
"The beasts themselves are managed specimens from the training grounds, yes."
Lydia's golden wings unfurled.
"But them moving like that is not normal."
The demonic beasts slowly tightened the ring. Erika stepped in front of us. Red mana bloomed from her entire body.
"How many can you hold?"
"If it's while I'm protecting Miss Cheongha, I'll hold every last one."
"Good answer."
Both of them were cool as hell. I had no intention of just letting the two of them fight.
I looked down at my Yeouiju. The blue light inside was flickering unstably. There were clouds. There was wind. And more than anything, right in front of me was water enough to overflow. In the forest the wind had split around every tree, so I couldn't put the power into it the way I wanted. Here was different. The sky was open and there were no trees in the way.
I remembered the moment I had blocked Erika's Breath. The flow I had felt from the Yeouiju. Water from the ground surging into the sky and falling as rain. Back then I hadn't known how I'd done it. But now I could move the clouds and wind, at least a little. If I pulled up the lake water and dropped it in front of the beasts, that would be enough. I didn't need a giant water pillar. Just enough to shove them back.
"I'll give it a try."
Lydia spun around at once.
"No."
"I haven't even said what I'm going to do yet."
"You must not force yourself to use power. You just used a great deal of strength earlier."
She was firm. Ordinarily I would have shut my mouth here. But at the forest's edge the demonic beasts kicked off the ground. Dozens charged at once.
Erika shot forward. She punched the first beast away, spun, and kicked the second. Lydia's barrier spread along the lakeshore. The beasts slammed into the golden wall.
KRA-KOOM!
The barrier shuddered violently.
"Miss Lydia."
I cupped the Yeouiju in both hands.
"Please trust me this time."
Lydia looked back at me. Her worried golden eyes met mine.
"I'm not just something that needs protecting."
Another impact hit the barrier. Fine cracks spiderwebbed across the golden surface.
"If you overdo it, you stop immediately."
That was permission.
I turned to face the lake.
"Alright."
I can do this. A water pillar like last time. A little smaller. Aimed where I want it this time.
I seized the flow inside the Yeouiju. The lake's surface trembled. At first it was only a small ripple. The ripple spread in circles, and the water at the center of the lake slowly rose.
Yes. A water pillar. I made this.
"A little more from there."
I lifted my hand. The surface climbed another handspan. This time I didn't just pour more power into it. I slowly tilted my fingertips toward the direction the beasts were swarming from. The pillar that had been rising straight up bent to follow my hand. A thick stream of water vaulted over the golden barrier and smashed into the front of the pack.
KRAAASH!
The lead beasts all lost their footing at once. Several flipped outright, and the ones behind tangled and tumbled across the ground.
Erika punched another flying beast aside and laughed.
"Yes! That's it!"
Lydia looked at me with a startled face too.
I did it. This time it wasn't a sneeze amping the power, and it wasn't unexpected lightning flying out. I had pulled the water up, and I had moved it the way I wanted. Something heated up inside my chest.
"Just a little more..."
In that instant an unfamiliar power stirred deep inside the Yeouiju. It wasn't the wind I'd drawn or the water I'd just moved. Something far larger and deeper shifted, as if it had opened its eyes beneath the lake. The blue light inside the Yeouiju flared like an explosion. The entire lake shuddered.
"Huh?"
The pillar rising from the center suddenly widened sideways. Ten meters. Dozens of meters. The entire surface in my field of view swelled into a round bulge.
"Wait."
My voice shook. This wasn't it. I had meant to make one water pillar. But the whole lake was coming up. The surface peeled away from the ground. An unbelievably massive mass of water surged into the air. Sunlight passed through the water and painted the entire lakeshore blue.
Erika stopped fighting and looked up. The beasts battering Lydia's barrier froze too. Everyone stared at the lake rising into the sky. I stared too.
"Miss Cheongha."
Lydia's voice had gone very quiet.
"Didn't you say you would only do a little?"
"I was trying to."
I meant it.
"How do we put this down?" Erika asked.
Good question. I wanted to know too.
The lake floating in midair heaved hard. One side collapsed and tilted toward our heads. If I dropped it like this, it wouldn't just wash the beasts away. Lydia, Erika, and I would all get planted into the lakebed together.
"Just a second."
I crushed the urge to run and gripped the Yeouiju harder. The power that had lifted the lake was clearly connected to the Yeouiju, but it wasn't a force I had consciously drawn out. The risen water, though, was different. Hundreds, thousands of streams of flow could be felt across the surface. They were still linked to the pillar I had moved earlier. If it was already up, I could at least decide the direction it came down.
I slowly spread both hands. I caught the flow of water collapsing toward us and shoved it outward. Heavy. It felt like pushing a mountain with my whole body, not just my arms.
"Miss Erika! Behind Miss Lydia!"
"You're going to hit them with it?"
Erika asked, looking more excited than anything.
"If you don't want to get hit, hurry!"
Erika fell back right to the front of the golden barrier. Lydia layered more barriers in front of me even as she watched me.
"Miss Cheongha, can you do it?"
"I have to!"
Split the water that would fall on our heads to either side, and turn the rest of the flow toward the forest. The direction where the beasts were packed. The direction where no one was. I lowered my trembling fingertips.
"Pour!"
KRAAAAAAAAAASH!
The water filling the sky collapsed outward in a giant ring. The water above our heads parted along the golden barrier to either side, and the wave aimed at the forest's edge slammed the beasts head-on. The beasts were swept away with screams. Trees shook down to their roots and undergrowth flattened.
KRA-KOOM-KOOM-KOOM!
I couldn't see ahead. Only the roar of water. Even so I didn't close my eyes. I kept hold of the Yeouiju so that even the last stream of water would flow around the barrier.
How long had it been? The sound that had been stuffing my ears gradually died down. I carefully opened my eyes.
The lakeshore was completely transformed. No demonic beasts in sight. Aquatic plants and branches hung from the surrounding trees, and water stood knee-deep on the ground. Erika was clinging to a tree outside Lydia's barrier. She was soaked from head to toe, but her eyes shone even brighter.
"Haha!"
Erika laughed loudly.
"Now this I really like!"
Red Dragon through and through. She was enjoying herself even after a flood.
Lydia did not look like she was enjoying herself. She turned to me very slowly.
"Miss Cheongha."
"Yes."
"You definitely said you would only do a little, didn't you?"
"Well..."
I was searching for an excuse when a low cracking sound came from the lake.
Crrrack.
We all looked that way at once. The water level of the lake had dropped dramatically. It wasn't completely empty, but enough that the bottom near the center was exposed. And on that bottom—
A gigantic black magic circle was carved. It was large enough to cover half the lake. Purple light flowed between complex patterns, and dozens of black mana stones were set at regular intervals. Most of them, though, had been ripped from their places. Apparently when I lifted the lake water I had scraped the bottom. The patterns had also collapsed here and there under the pouring current.
Crrk.
A crack ran through the largest mana stone set in the center. Black light flickered irregularly.
Lydia's eyes went wide.
"Everyone down!"
BOOM!
The mana stone exploded. Purple flames shot up over the lake. The remaining lines of the magic circle snapped in a chain reaction. Black ripples shattered into pieces and scattered into the sky.
That was the moment. A red signal flare rose from the Academy in the distance. The mana signals that had been jammed until a moment ago were connected again. Lydia immediately fired a golden signal into the sky. This time it didn't vanish. It climbed higher than the clouds and burst bright.
"That magic circle was blocking the signals."
Lydia's voice lowered. Erika stopped laughing too and glared at the lake bottom.
"Who the hell plants something like this right in the middle of a training ground?"
I couldn't answer. Had there been an event like this in the original? I didn't know. I couldn't remember. It might have been story from after the parts I'd only skimmed.
A short while later, several shadows approached rapidly from the sky. Dragons from the student council and professors. Selene, the first to descend, created frozen footholds and landed on the lake. Her gaze swept over the ruined magic circle. The Mana Manipulation Professor who arrived right after looked down at the lakebed with a grim face.
"Sorry we're late."
Selene said shortly.
Lydia asked at once.
"What about the other students?"
"Everyone's been rescued. The beasts went berserk in multiple zones at once."
The Mana Manipulation Professor spoke.
"We suspended the practical the moment we received the abnormal reports. But rescue requests flooded in all at once, and in this zone even the signals cut out."
His gaze moved from Erika to Lydia in turn.
"Erika Rubellion ranks among the top students in pure combat ability. Lydia Aurelia is outstanding in defense and recovery. We judged your group could hold out the longest and pushed your rescue priority back."
A reasonable judgment. A powerful vanguard and the best support. I waited a moment. My name never came up.
"And me?"
The professor looked at me.
"We judged that Student Lydia would be protecting you."
I hadn't even made the combat power list. Apparently in the rescue priority calculation I had been classified as a protectee. It stung a little. This time I hadn't just been hiding behind Lydia's barrier either. I had helped stop the beasts' advance with Erika, and I had personally redirected the lake that had been about to crash down on our heads.
"Is everyone unharmed?"
"Yes. The Return Crystals didn't work, and Miss Cheongha used a great deal of power, but no one is injured."
Lydia quickly explained the situation. Selene's gaze locked straight onto me. More precisely, she took in my wet hair, the Yeouiju cradled in my arms, and the half-vanished lake in order. A notebook flipped open.
"Cheongha."
"Yes."
"What did you do to the lake?"
Here it came. I swallowed.
I was trying to make a water pillar and suddenly the whole lake floated up. Still, I did change the direction it fell.
If I told the truth, questions would definitely pour out again. It was right after I had told Lydia I would only move enough to push the beasts back. I had basically emptied the lake, so there was no way to excuse the failure of scale control. I needed a decent cover story here.
"W-well, you see..."
Everyone's eyes gathered on me. I spun my brain. Magic circle. Lake. Explosion. Something that sounded plausible.
"Ah!"
I clapped my hands.
"Actually I felt some strange energy coming from the lake."
Selene's pen stopped. The professor's eyes narrowed. I continued with the most serious face I could manage.
"So I went boom and blew it up."
Silence.
It was a lie. I hadn't felt any strange energy at all. I had just been trying to make a water pillar and poked some huge power I didn't even understand. I had poured the risen lake in the direction I wanted, but the magic circle on the bottom was pure luck. But I couldn't take it back now.
The professor looked at the ruined magic circle. Then back at me.
"You're saying you sensed a magic circle concealed underwater?"
"W-well, yeah."
The lie was getting bigger. Selene's pen started moving again.
"Detection of unknown mana. Capable of underwater sensing. Forced dismantling of large-scale magic circles."
"Wait a second."
"Continue."
"It wasn't anything that amazing."
"You found the magic circle beneath the lake and lifted the lake."
Selene pointed at the lake expressionlessly.
"That's more than amazing enough."
I had nothing to say.
I was screwed. The lie I'd told to avoid getting scolded was ballooning out of control.