Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Hell is Just Beginning. (8)
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# 52
6. Hell is Just Beginning. (8)
#11 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of Some Academy Professors (1)
“Uwoooo!”
“Push them back just like this!”
“Even if someone falls, just trample over and keep advancing!”
He had fought in countless battles.
To become an officer, he had engaged in numerous battles, and he had even participated in the great war that would go down in continental history.
Even after the great war, in this era without wars, monsters and magical beasts still lingered, and as a soldier whose duty was to protect the people from them, he had no choice but to keep fighting.
When negotiations between the military and Yuglasia Academy made him a professor at Yuglasia, he thought it was just a brief vacation.
He figured it would be something relaxed, like teaching students comfortably and passing on his know-how to those who hadn’t experienced real combat!
“Why, why are you all going this far!”
“To get rid of Night Self-Study, obviously!”
“To win the Imperial Tournament!”
Officially, the number of high-grade spirits he could use was four.
But in truth, he had contracts with one top-grade spirit and six high-grade spirits, and he had only ever unleashed them all during the great war.
Yet here, right now. To deal with mere students, he had to bring out his full power!
“Break through!”
“Take out the water spirits first! They get tricky if they heal!”
“Just grab the earth spirits and hold them! Take out the water, fire, and wind spirits first, then the earth ones! Damage to earth spirits heals!”
“The top-grade earth spirit takes a team of six! Focus on summons related to water, which has the advantage!”
“Magic unit, reverse-summon the summons and switch to magic! There’s not enough space anyway, so only a limited number can even get close!”
Before, the students had already tried to escape Night Self-Study—shortened to 야자—with various efforts.
But those had been crushed by Professor Niserwin, called the Silver Devil, with his summons and the upgraded Plan B tactic.
But now, it was different.
Once a way emerged to eliminate Night Self-Study itself, the students had changed.
They weren’t fighting to escape Night Self-Study anymore—they were fighting to train and end it for good.
And to do that, they were using the professors!
“…Fine. Then I’ll stake everything too!”
Summoners, even more than mages, had to manage their mana distribution carefully.
Unless they were armament-type summoners who didn’t consume mana after the initial summon, those like him who mainly used living summons.
Especially spirit handlers—when spirits cast magic, they used the spirit’s mana along with their own.
That’s why even with contracts to many spirits, people naturally favored just a few main ones.
But these enemies were incredibly strong.
How could they be weak when they had resolved to fight for their own futures!
Holding back against such foes? Impossible!
“Come forth! I am Marun Harsen!”
He poured out all his mana to summon all six high-grade spirits.
Three earth spirits formed a sturdy barrier, with wind spirits guarding the rear.
Then, in the crisis of individual defeats, he reverse-summoned the spirits and resummoned them right up front!
“At the very least, if I can’t take at least a hundred down with me, I’d be too embarrassed to even show my face!”
Among the resummoned spirits, he gathered the power of the famous four major elements into one.
Opposing forces, but a skilled summoner could harmonize them.
“Take this—my ultimate strike!”
Two earth spirits were completely shattered and reverse-summoned.
The remaining one wouldn’t hold out much longer either. The wind spirits supporting it would fall the moment the earth spirits did.
But if he’d bought enough time to prepare his magic, that was enough.
As long as he could drag every student on this floor down with him!
As long as he could suppress the 7th floor, their maximum combat power hub!
-Elemental Roar!
The four major spirits howled in unison.
A strike merging fire and water, wind and earth ignored affinities and could wipe out all enemies!
“Just as expected!”
“Scatter! Scatter!”
“Full defense!”
But the students’ reactions surpassed his expectations.
As if they knew it was coming, they gathered at both ends of the corridor, forming a straight defensive line.
“You think that’ll block it… What?!”
He thought there was no way they could block it.
Until he saw the one lone figure in the center among the crowd.
“Nerkiaaaa!”
-Elemental Roar!
The fire, water, wind, and earth spirits howled. But it was different from his.
“Spirit Legion, huh?”
Fire, water, wind, and earth. But eight in number.
An attack using twice as many high-grade spirits as his own.
Seeing Nerkia’s Elemental Roar shatter his own and fly straight at him, he could only give a wry smile.
“Is this my defeat?”
He had no mana left to block it.
These enemies hadn’t left him any room to hold back either.
How long had it been since he’d lost so cleanly?
After the great war, no one had managed it—not until these mere students.
“But as a Yuglasia professor, I’ve got to at least thrash around to the end!”
It was over. But he was a professor who had to set an example for the students!
He scraped together every last drop of mana he’d already pushed to the limit and resummoned the top-grade earth spirit.
“Come on—let’s see who wins!”
The long, long night of Night Self-Study wasn’t over yet.
#12 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of Some Academy Professors (2)
“Heh heh, hahaha!”
“L-Lady?”
“Great, so great! More, more!”
Seeing Lady Aris laugh while wiping the blood trickling from her mouth, he couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.
Her red hair, the symbol of the Retia family, was soaked as if drenched in blood, and her red eyes, also symbolic of the Retia family, were filled with madness beyond their natural hue.
They were naturally that color, so why did the blood-soaked hair and berserker-magic vibe feel even stronger?
“Become sacrifices to end Night Self-Study!”
Night Self-Study? It was all for Night Self-Study?
He deflected the incoming spear while thinking that. He’d long since abandoned using a spear against her.
His specialty was the sword.
Coming from the military with proficiency in spearmanship, he’d used a spear against Lady Retia before, but starting yesterday, he’d scrapped that idea.
“Second Claw, Breaking Wolf.”
“Braid Attack!”
“Urk?!”
He parried the expertly swung spear with his sword.
But as if anticipating that, she used the rotation for a follow-up strike.
He blocked that, only for the third strike to come flying!
Her stance broke because of it, but before he could exploit it, a flaming bird slammed into his side.
A reckless charge ignoring her summons.
Normally, that would sever her bond with them, but with the summoner’s fierce determination, the summons were throwing everything they had into the assault too.
After the flaming bird, he knocked away the clinging phantom-type summon.
That was why he wasn’t using a spear.
A spear’s greatest appeal was its long reach.
But defending became tricky when the enemy closed inside that reach.
Especially against opponents charging with total disregard for their lives!
“Retia Style, Hungry Wolf Fang.”
“Spear Aura?!”
In an instant, spear energy gathered at the tip and exploded in a deep crimson-black.
“Urgh?”
But as a seasoned soldier, he couldn’t panic! He instantly drew a sword optimized for defense and countered with sword energy!
He took a heavy blow, but thankfully blocked it.
“Damn, quasi-master level…”
It wasn’t master-level aura.
But she had advanced one step into that realm.
Sword energy involved gathering the mana used for sword energy, compressing it, then sharpening it like a blade again.
Right now, Lady Aris had succeeded in the first step: gathering the sword energy.
“Terrifying…”
Just seventeen.
Sure, some stagnated at that level, but considering her Retia bloodline, she might break the empire’s record held by that “Sword Princess.”
“This is…”
It’s often said you can’t walk the master’s path without blessings from the mana god and the war god.
Even with the skill, lacking mana—or vice versa—bars you from mastery.
And he was one of those.
Despite countless battles, he’d never reached master level.
Yet this young girl, not even half his age, had caught up to his own realm!
“This… I really have to go all out now.”
He sheathed the enchanted defensive sword. What he drew were the flame sword and ice sword.
Weapons for pure offense only. Used when abandoning defense to focus on attack! One goal!
“Alright then. Not as a professor, but as a single warrior—I’ll stake everything!”
As a warrior, staking it all for victory.
***
“Hing, this looks fun.”
I grabbed the iron bat’s head tight as she sat cross-legged, gnawing her thumb while watching the projection magic tools.
“You can’t go.”
“Arang… That’s why it’s even more regrettable…”
In the massive 7th-floor battle, the student council had crushed most of the professors, including Professor Marun. The student council president had exhausted all her mana and collapsed, but the other executives’ leadership exceeded expectations, safely descending to the 5th floor.
And the 3rd floor was a fierce slugfest too.
They were pushing their summons to the brink, nearly risking contract breaches, yet the summons charged at the professors without a care, as if driven mad.
Summoner and summon were soul-bound.
With their minds linked to some degree, the summon’s state shifted with the summoner’s psyche—and the students’ emotions were so intense that even the summons were going all-in to end Night Self-Study.
“Hwiiiing… Master… Can’t I really go? Just one floor. Just one floor, pleeease.”
“You’ll kill the momentum we just ignited in those kids. How do you plan to revive it?”
“Euuung… It’s so perfect I can’t even go… This is my sin… A sin too perfect!”
The bat made fake sobbing noises, but when I ignored her, she started grumbling and staring at the projection tools again.
“Ing, I thought if that uncle used that whatever-what again, I could go. But he’s not using it anymore…”
“Because I forbade it.”
Just in case, I’d asked if she could use Gate of Babylon-style tech, but she hadn’t even thought of it.
And as a side note, the iron bat kicked Professor Arhan in the side when he tried to use it anyway, thanking me profusely.
“Hmm… I placed Professor Myuam and Professor Harian on the 1st floor for balance, but at this rate, maybe I could’ve left them alone.”
“Ing? Then let’s just start Plan S with me right awayyy!”
“Not yet.”
I press down hard on the iron bat’s head, gripped tight in my right hand.
Born to be hit? She’s way too eager to smack people. We made her with love and peace in mind—me, the Black Anvil clan, and the elves.
“Love? Peace? For a master chased by scary big sisters? A master who rampaged in the middle of the great war?”
“Shut it.”
“Eeeek!”
Who’s making that cheeky noise?
The mouth attached to this head? Yeah, take the squeeze-squeeze and quiet down!
The iron bat quiets with a whimper. Good—my head’s already complicated thinking.
At this rate, by vacation’s end, the professors might get breached.
With Professor Marun and Professor Harian—once blockers of all student assaults—now down.
Especially this time, the student council president and Aris personally landed the finishing blows.
We’re borrowing student power now, but at this pace, before vacation starts, regular professors could be taken 1-on-1 easily.
Plus, the student council’s male vice president, the Trickster, was getting sharper at hit-and-run timing, even if still iffy.
If Aris and the president handled main forces, the Trickster and student council cleared the path up to mid-level.
And the other four who’d become god-tier summoners with Aris were growing, despite still lacking.
But deploying Plan S—the iron bat—was premature without confirming if students could hold.
That left just one option.
“Already time for Plan A?”
The ultimate human last resort: Plan A.