I Feel Like a Dog
My vision blurred.
A dull numbness filled my ears, pierced by a constant high-pitched ringing that wouldn't stop.
The right arm that had taken a direct blow from the hammer felt almost disconnected. Every breath I drew sent fresh waves of pain slamming through my chest.
Whether from the body hits or the massive impact to my head, keeping my balance was nearly impossible.
The world kept spinning in front of me.
Even so, the situation wasn't bad at all.
There was a reason I—a guy with zero abilities—had deliberately stepped forward to take Carlison's strike with my whole body.
If it had hit anyone else, they'd be out of the fight completely.
Since I didn't know the first thing about swordsmanship anyway, losing an arm or even the use of my body was something I could live with. But if Elia had taken that blow like she was supposed to, our combat strength would have taken a massive hit.
For all her delicate appearance, she had skills that earned real respect in the swordsmanship department.
From the start.
Even if these intruders had trained assuming a no-mana scenario, the combination of Selena and the male leads should have been more than enough to handle them.
It was possible precisely because they hadn't come here intending to eliminate Selena in the first place.
So.
I lifted my sword with arms that wouldn't stop shaking.
Even as pain twisted my face, I exhaled it away and calmly scanned the battlefield.
Of course my mind was already half-gone, but I was doing my best not to show it.
"……."
I couldn't even speak. Raising my sword wouldn't change anything. Still, the simple act of doing it carried real weight.
I pointed the tip of my blade toward the intruders and tried to stare at them with calm, emotionless eyes.
I knew I looked like hell, but that was exactly why the effect would be stronger.
It hurts like hell!!
I screamed inside while keeping my expression perfectly composed, glaring at the enemy.
Silence fell.
The moment I stepped forward, the battlefield that had been raging just seconds earlier grew deathly quiet.
They must have sensed some kind of resolve in the way I stood there, silently raising my sword despite my broken body.
My right arm was already useless. Small trickles of blood kept forcing their way up my throat from battered insides.
Anyone could see I wasn't normal. The tip of my sword trembled badly.
But my eyes never wavered.
I stared straight at the enemy with perfectly steady eyes and held my stance without saying a word.
No one here—not even Selena, the academy's shining star—could say with certainty that they could win without mana.
Yet I stood alone, completely calm.
I was a lone star shining proudly in a dark night sky.
A gatekeeper who pointed his sword at the enemy and refused to yield. A vanguard standing at the very front of the battlefield.
I can do this.
Without realizing it, without meaning to, the students thought those words as they watched my back.
They gripped their swords tighter.
Would they really give up just because mana was gone? When you thought about it, many things that made them strong needed mana to work, but that didn't mean they were worthless without it.
All the sweat they'd shed and all the effort they'd poured in until now still lived inside their bodies.
Light slowly returned to the students' eyes, which had been clouded with despair. Seeing that, I let out a dry laugh inside and kept staring at the enemy with a calm face.
The wall of despair.
This dark wall that completely cut off the inside from the outside didn't just block mana.
Its real power was to amplify negative emotions—fear, terror, all of it.
Figures that guys like them would use something like this.
It was the perfect ability for demon-worshipping bastards who hid in the shadows practicing black magic.
The students, who had been drowning in those negative emotions without even realizing it, managed to shake them off after seeing what I did.
This should be enough.
Shaking off fear and believing in everything they'd built up until now. Just that would drastically lower the chance of casualties. That was also why I—a guy with no real combat experience—had stepped forward in the first place.
"Tch."
Carlison clicked his tongue as he realized the students had recovered. He raised his hammer.
The plan had already gone off the rails in multiple ways. No, it had fallen apart the moment the students turned out to be far more skilled than expected.
They should have struck fast and taken several of them down before the students could regain their senses.
Carlison and the intruders hadn't come to kill everyone. Their role was simply to plant a few things for future events.
But since even that had gone wrong, taking out at least one person was now critical.
With that thought, Carlison lifted his signature hammer and began swinging it at the boy in front of him without hesitation.
This boy would definitely become an obstacle.
The way he'd read Carlison's movements in a single instant and thrown himself forward without regret, the way he'd captured the students' anxiety in one move—it was obvious.
So...
You need to disappear right here!!
Carlison swung the hammer with every ounce of strength he had.
He was certain that one strike would finish off a guy who was already half-dead.
Of course.
Clang...!!
That was nothing but him ignoring Selena and the students, whose minds had already snapped back to full alertness.
"Urgh!!"
Carlison bit down hard on his lower lip as he stared at Selena's sword, which had boldly knocked his hammer aside.
What kind of ridiculous strength is this...!
He couldn't believe a mere student could so easily find the perfect impact point and deflect the blow.
What was more, even without mana she could generate enough power to make the hand holding his hammer tremble. It proved she had never stopped training for even a day.
The moment a startled Carlison pulled his hammer back, the next attacks came flying in.
Clang!! Clang!!
Elia had already slipped into his side and started swinging her sword.
Even without mana, her strikes were fast and precise. Carlison was forced to focus entirely on raising his hammer to block them.
And he wasn't the only one.
The moment the students regained their composure, the situation began to reverse. Their basic skills were completely overpowering the intruders.
I can leave that side alone now.
I let out a small sigh as I watched the students, led by Selena, handling the intruders properly. My eyes had grown hazy.
My body was a wreck and I'd lost too much blood to stay fully conscious. I could have collapsed at any second, but my gaze stayed locked on one spot.
Something feels off.
A vague unease gnawed at me.
Having read the original story, I already knew who had planned this attack and why.
That meant I also knew roughly how many intruders were supposed to be involved.
The number in front of me matched what I'd expected. Yet the reason I still felt uneasy was...
Is there something more?
The feeling that something behind them still hadn't shown itself.
Of course I didn't have any special ability to sense magic power. How should I describe it?
It was just a hunch.
That uncomfortable feeling kept poking at the corner of my mind. I frowned for a moment, then shook my head and slowly started stepping backward.
Whatever was there, according to the original story Selena and the students could handle it.
Since I'd woken them up early, there probably wouldn't be any casualties.
If that was the case...
I'll just do what I can.
I still hated getting tangled up with Selena and the main cast. That feeling hadn't changed one bit.
But my thoughts on the other matter had shifted a little.
I knew the future.
I already knew this academy—with its supposedly iron-tight security—would start getting breached like it had automatic doors.
In that case.
I guess I should start from that side first.
Intervening in the original story just a little shouldn't be a problem.
Nipping incidents in the bud without anyone noticing might be okay.
Reducing the number of casualties. Saving people who were supposed to die unfairly.
I could do that much.
With those thoughts in mind, I started moving while slowly searching through my memories.