Practical Exam (4)
A single zombie was something any Academy student could put down with ease.
Two would be a struggle, but still manageable if they pushed hard enough.
Three or more, however, was another matter entirely.
Guooooooo…
Black smoke began to pour from the creatures’ bodies.
“…Ugh.”
Rian covered his nose, his face twisting.
A power wholly opposed to the holy power priests wielded.
Black mana.
Any living thing it touched had its life force drained, growing weaker by the moment. For the dead, though, black mana offered regenerative power that rivaled holy power itself.
“This is bad. With so many zombies packed together, the black mana they emit alone will keep them regenerating.”
Swinging a sword at endlessly regenerating zombies would never put them down. Running wasn’t an option either—they were already surrounded.
Not good.
“We’ll have to punch through at one point.”
Even infinite regeneration took time. Exploit that, and escaping shouldn’t be impossible.
Guooooooo…
The zombies charged as one.
In that instant—
“Rotten roots, tenacious vines. Bind my enemies.”
Medeia cast her magic.
Charrrk!
The moment the spell completed, rotten roots and vines burst from the earth and coiled around the zombies’ bodies.
Guooooooo…
They thrashed to free themselves from Medeia’s magic, but the rotten roots and vines would not break easily.
“I-I tied them up for now.”
“Nice one, My Lady!”
I never expected Medeia’s magic to be this effective. I immediately severed the head of the zombie at the front.
Seogeok!
Thanks to the holy magic coating my blade, the zombie’s neck parted with ease.
But then—
Guooooooo…
Black smoke wrapped around the zombie’s head and, in an instant, reattached it to the torso.
Seeing that, Rian cried out urgently.
“It’s useless! We should run while they’re still bound…!”
Rian wanted to flee, but I thought differently. With Medeia’s magic holding them still, this was our chance.
“There’s ten points right here! Who’s running where?!”
Besides, my and Medeia’s expulsion hung on this exam. Sorry, Rian, but I couldn’t abandon this pack of zombies.
“Then what do you propose?! You just saw that ordinary attacks can’t kill them!”
Rian was right. Even cutting their heads off, the black mana they poured out regenerated them in moments.
But they weren’t invincible either.
Wung!
I drew mana up from my core, then wrapped aura around my sword.
Holy magic and aura combined. Power incomparable to before filled the blade.
I swung at the bound zombies.
Seogeok!
Aura severed their necks, and holy magic seared the cut surfaces.
Guooooooo!!!!
For the first time, the zombies screamed. They flailed through the air, groping for their severed heads, but they never regenerated.
And just like that, every last zombie was finished.
“Th-That’s impossible.”
Rian couldn’t hide his shock at what I’d done.
“To handle this many zombies you’d need at least a knight-class fighter… How…?”
Knight-class, huh… Looking at it that way, after beating Hate, wasn’t I already knight-class myself?
Anyway, I left the stunned Rian behind and approached Medeia.
“Are you all right, My Lady?”
Derek always said that after a battle, you check your master’s safety first.
Medeia looked at me as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“What did I even do? Check yourself first! You’re not hurt, right?”
“Me? I’m fine. Thanks to you binding the zombies, I was able to finish them off easily.”
There was no question who the MVP of this fight was—Medeia. I may have been the one who cut them down, but without her binding magic, I never would have taken them out so cleanly.
“Where did you learn magic like that?”
At my question, Medeia’s expression darkened slightly.
“…It’s one of the spells I studied trying to break the curse.”
“Ah.”
Damn. I shouldn’t have asked. I needed to change the subject, and fast.
Right.
I held out my arm to Medeia.
“My Lady, could you check whether the ten points registered properly?”
“Huh? Oh, sure.”
Medeia took my hand and checked the bracelet.
Her grip felt a little strong… was I imagining it?
Anyway, I was just relieved we’d steered clear of a gloomy moment, and waited for her answer.
“It’s ten points. Recorded correctly.”
“Great. If we keep racking up points like this, taking first place shouldn’t be out of reach.”
Ten points right at the start of the exam. Not a bad start, I was thinking—
“Something’s off.”
Rian was stroking his chin, lost in thought.
“What’s off?”
“The zombies. Ten of them appearing all at once… I’ve never seen a case like this. Not even in the records.”
It was definitely strange. If it had been some other students who’d run into ten zombies instead of us, there might have been casualties. The professors couldn’t possibly have prepared ten zombies unless they’d lost their minds.
There was some variable even the professors hadn’t anticipated.
“Any idea what it is?”
“I have one suspicion, but…”
Rian glanced toward Medeia.
Don’t tell me.
He spoke in a voice only I could hear.
“I believe it’s because of the curse on the young lady.”
I’d expected it, but confirming the expectation didn’t make me happy.
“You’re saying the zombies swarmed us because of My Lady’s curse?”
“Yes. The power that sustains a curse is ultimately black mana. And the black mana radiating from the young lady’s curse is…”
Rian paused.
“Terrifying.”
Black mana fearsome enough to unsettle even a devout priest like Rian. Drawn by that black mana, the undead of the cemetery were hunting Medeia.
This exam…
Finishing it safely was going to be harder than I’d thought.
After dealing with the ten zombies, we took a short rest.
We could have moved right away, but Rian’s words about the undead being drawn by Medeia’s curse weighed on me. If we moved carelessly and got surrounded by undead again, Medeia would be in danger.
Safety first.
The bet with the Crown Prince mattered, but Medeia’s safety mattered more than anything. Besides, with ten points already banked at the start, we still had some breathing room.
“Let’s move.”
That didn’t mean I planned to sit around resting forever. If we stayed still too long, that Crown Prince bastard would catch up in points.
I had to prioritize Medeia’s safety while still scoring points.
Feels like the exam difficulty just got cranked up to hard mode.
I was entertaining that idle thought when—
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
A scream rang out.
“…?!”
“Did you hear that?”
The other two had heard it as well.
“Let’s go check it out.”
They both nodded, and we sprinted toward the direction of the scream.
And when we arrived, a familiar face was waiting.
“Wh-What are you doing?! Kill it already—don’t let it lay a finger on me!”
The Crown Prince.
Beside him, a woman lay collapsed, covered in blood. One of the priestess sisters I’d seen before the exam started.
Where’s the other one?
I quickly scanned the area.
“Hah… hah… Shut up. Can’t you see I’m protecting you right now? Argh.”
She was still on her feet, barely, but her injuries were so severe she looked ready to drop at any moment—and she was shielding the Crown Prince.
Then her gaze found us.
“Ri-Rian? What are you doing here…?”
She couldn’t finish.
Whoosh!
Thud!
“Gahk!”
A massive hand erupted from the darkness, smashed into her waist, and sent her body half-folded flying through the air.
“Rene!”
Rian started to rush forward in shock, but I managed to grab him by the scruff of the neck and stop him from charging in.
“Calm down. If you run in now, you’ll just die for nothing.”
“What do you mean—huh!”
Rian was about to snap at me when he saw the figure emerging from the dark and clamped a hand over his mouth.
Kuooooooo…
An undead roughly twice the size of a zombie stepped into view.
None of us failed to recognize what it was.
“A-A ghoul?!”
“How is there a ghoul here…?”
A mid-to-high-ranking undead far beyond any zombie.
A ghoul.
It had attacked the Crown Prince’s team.
“Aaaahhh! St-Stay away!”
The Crown Prince let out an ugly scream and started running. But the ghoul didn’t even glance at the fleeing Crown Prince.
It was headed for the fallen Rene sisters.
“Kael!”
Rian shouted.
Well, damn.
If it had gone after the Crown Prince, I might have looked the other way.
This ghoul picked the wrong target.
I drew my sword and shouted.
“Get those filthy hands off them, you bastard!”