Field Trip (12)
Is having more people always an advantage in battle?
You could pick that question apart forever, but taken as a general rule, the answer is yes. A larger fighting force is almost always a boon. Just look at video games, would you? There's a reason raid size keeps climbing the harder a boss gets.
The same holds true right now. I mean, I'm walking around with specs so absurd they'd embarrass any first-year at the Academy.
So absurd that I'd confidently say I could solo wipe two ordinary parties. In fact, back during the pillaging portion of this Field Trip, I crushed a whole party without breaking a sweat.
But the crowd surrounding me right now? That I could not handle alone.
If the Face-Con Fox is to be believed, their numbers reached a good hundred strong.
Haha. Seeing it with my own eyes actually makes me dizzy. Apparently I've racked up quite a lot of karma, huh. Watching this many people gather just to kill little old me is... humbling.
Well, thanks to the Mesugaki skill, I probably look absolutely fearless on the outside anyway.
Forcing down the tension churning in my gut, I sized up the people who'd come to raid me.
Instead of hiding, I'd thrust my face out boldly, and so confusion was written across every student's face. They seemed convinced I must have some trap prepared.
Understandable. The old Lucy Aln might have been careless, but the current me — foul-tempered as I am — is a capable brat. There was no way I'd come here without a plan.
Although, truthfully, the only preparation I'd made was asking Phoebe to throw up a barrier spell to buy time if they charged straight across that clearing like a mindless mob!
I was watching them dither with idle amusement when Arthur finally showed himself. About time.
Let's be honest: if we fought head-on, me beating that crowd was impossible.
If Benedict were here, he'd flatten every last one of them with a single punch, and even Karl could handle this crowd at his leisure — but I can't. Not yet. Once I'm a second-year, sure, different story. But the first semester of my first year isn't even over.
I could hold out for a while, but eventually I'd be crushed under the sheer weight of numbers. Even with my party at my side, the ending wouldn't change. We'd last longer, that's all — and then lose.
So why am I standing here instead of running? Did I decide to kneel down and accept a Hard Lesson from all these people, to pay off my sins?
As if. I have zero intention of letting anyone else put me in my place.
Do you have any idea how shit it feels, getting schooled? When it happens, my head gets completely swallowed by negative thoughts. Unlike the Face-Con Fox, I'm no masochist — I have exactly zero desire to volunteer for a miserable experience.
Which brings me to the one and only reason I'm standing here: to claim victory against a force a hundred strong. And with that victory, to seize every last scrap of loot they're carrying.
"Aaaaah~"
My casually tossed-out voice rang across the entire clearing. A little louder than I'd expected, but not bad at all.
Joy really is a talented mage. It's just that she botches something important every single time it matters. She went 'aaaah' again today — imagine if the sound hadn't carried. Then I'd have had to rely purely on my own natural lung capacity, and nobody wants that.
"Hello♡ Did all you perverted pedophile♡ freak♡ scrubs♡ gather here just to bully one little girl?♡"
The moment the words left my mouth, every eye in the encircling ring turned toward me.
Their expressions were mostly bewilderment. Naturally. The words I'd just spat had absolutely nothing to do with the situation at hand.
"Aren't you embarrassed?♡ A whole mob of you, too scared to face one small, cute girl?♡ Why didn't you just run home crying 'Mommy! Mommy!'?♡ Hmm?♡ You cowardly perverts?♡"
But it didn't take long for anger to start seeping into that bewilderment, one face at a time.
This is the provocation of the Mesugaki skill — the same taunt even Karl, a knight of House Aln, can barely endure. Academy students who haven't even achieved true independence had no prayer of withstanding it.
The sound of jaws clenching. The creak of grips tightening on weapons. Curses. Furrowed brows. And the euphoria swelling up inside me.
The Mesugaki skill was hard at work today, too.
"Same goes for you, Pitiable Prince♡ Can't even beat your own party, so you have to go drag a crowd together?♡ Did you forget the word 'honor' exists?♡ Well, I suppose a dumb prince who loses to the Airhead Lady wouldn't know anything about that, would he?♡"
"Silence, Lucy Aln! Prince Arthur has gathered us to punish your crimes!"
My words were aimed at stripping Arthur, the commander, of his composure — and some other fool swallowed the bait instead.
No idea what his name was, but with his eyes burning like that, he was probably a noble loyal to the royal family. The honor-obsessed type, hmm? Those kinds are so easy to play with.
"Crimes?♡ And what exactly did I do wrong, you pathetic scrub?♡"
"Everyone knows what you perpetrated during this Field Trip! How dare you deny it!"
"Aaah~♡ That?♡ How is that my fault?♡ Isn't it the fault of you weak little worms?♡"
With every word out of my mouth, I could see the fury spreading through the crowd like wildfire.
Ordinarily, Arthur or the other party leaders should have kept the situation under control — but they were too rattled by my taunts to look anywhere but at me.
The fuse on the bomb was burning, and not a single soul noticed.
Everything was going exactly according to plan.
"I mean, right?♡ If you weren't all such pathetic♡ scrub♡ morons♡ weaklings♡ who can't even scratch a tiny little girl, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place, would there?♡"
"That's—!"
"Awww~♡ You didn't want to admit you're a scrub♡ piece of trash♡? So sorry?♡ Did I interrupt you after you cheated your way to a win just so you could jerk off about it?♡ Well then, you shouldn't have been born a scrub♡"
"LUCYYYY! I'LL KILL YOU!"
The instant I finished and let out an ostentatious sneer, one of them snapped and lunged forward.
I remembered her face. The girl who'd picked fights with me constantly ever since losing to me in the Academy entrance exam.
Her name was... what was it again? The Mesugaki skill had taken to calling her something like 'Pathetic Lady' or 'Scrub Lady,' I think.
Anyway — thank you, Ms. Extra. You being the spark was exactly what my plan needed to come together.
Here's the thing about people: most of them are terrified of being the one to start something. But once somebody steps up first, following them feels easy. Like when the light turns red and someone crosses anyway — the rest just drift along behind.
Look, it's happening right now. The instant Ms. Extra put one foot forward, the rest of the Academy students started charging too.
Arthur belatedly came to his senses and started shouting orders, but it meant nothing.
You should've contained it before the bomb went off, buddy. What's the point of trying to stop an explosion after it's already happened?
"Mad?♡ Are you maaad?♡ Puhaha♡ You all look just like scurrying cockroaches♡ So gross♡ So disgusting♡"
Is having more people good in battle? Like I said, usually yes. Which means — put another way — there are exceptions.
This was one of them.
When soldiers who should be following their commander's orders lose all discipline and act on their own, numbers become a disaster in the worst possible sense.
Vanguards with eyes only for the enemy, stepping over their fallen comrades without a glance. Rear guards prepping their attacks without caring whether the vanguard gets caught in the blast. The coordinators, tangled up in the vanguard and charging alongside them. And even those assigned to restore order were prisoners of their own rage.
Confusion had barely begun, and already several of them had been knocked out of the fight — not by me, but by their own allies.
Do you see it now?
They are not an army.
How could you call something without command, without coordination, without control an army? They were nothing but a hundred individuals united by a single obsession: putting me in my place.
So far, everything was going to plan.
The strategy had begun as a simple idea — if they were going to organize a force to hunt me, I'd turn that organization against them — then taken shape through my proposals and Grandpa's advice.
What mattered now was buying time. Long enough for the chaos ignited this very moment to spiral beyond anyone's control.
And that happens to be the thing I do best.
No matter what anyone says — I'm a tank.
"DIEEEE!"
Ms. Extra, the one who'd lit the fuse on all this, reached me faster than anyone else, sword swinging.
Um, Ms. Extra? We're not exactly close, but you've picked fights with me enough times that we've sparred plenty, haven't we? And I've told you every single time — you let your emotions run you way too easily? Which makes every one of your moves painfully obvious.
Obvious enough that even without the Iron Wall skill, I know exactly how to receive your blade.
I shifted my shield and deflected her sword with ease — and the instant it connected, I felt the impact shrink dramatically.
Parrying had activated.
Blocking her sword was never difficult to begin with. Now that Parry was reducing the shock even further? Please. It was as if the blade had barely brushed my shield.
Thrusting my shield forward, I closed the distance, seized her by the collar, and hauled her clean off the ground.
Ms. Extra twisted and squirmed against my grip, but there was no escaping it. The gulf in raw strength between us was simply too vast.
How would it feel, I wonder, dangling helplessly from the hand of a girl smaller than you?
Ms. Extra was obligingly hurled back the way she'd come.
After watching her sail through the air, I flexed my hand open and shut.
My body was definitely lighter than usual. So pissing off a hundred people with the Mesugaki skill buys me this much of a buff, huh?
In this state, I could probably land a single clean hit on Karl himself. Which is exactly why I can't take out the mace.
One careless swing and I might genuinely send someone six feet under. If it were a normal injury, Phoebe or the professors could patch them up — but if they got one-shot straight to the side of that pathetic Chief God, there'd be no coming back.
I don't actually want to kill anybody. Not yet.
So today, it's shield and bare hands.
I stared at my fist for a moment, then raised my head — and saw the ones closing in around me falter and hesitate.
Watching Ms. Extra fly through the air like a paper plane had apparently knocked some sense back into them.
Oh no, that won't do at all. You all need to make a lot more chaos for me.
"What's wrong?♡ You scrubs♡? Too scared to come at me?♡ Then why aren't you running away?♡ Don't tell me you peed yourselves?♡ Pfft♡ Total cowards♡ Go on home and ask mommy to change your diapers, hmm?♡"
Come on, then.
I'm far, far stronger than any of you, and I'll play with every last one of you.
Consider it an honor.
You pathetic pieces of trash.