Academy Entrance Exam (7)
While Hort was joyfully slaughtering monsters, he came face to face with an enemy he had never expected to encounter.
“What the hell… is that…?”
It was a grotesquely formed creature. Or could something like that even be called a living being? Its eyes were rolled back in its head, giving it the look of an undead. It resembled a human in some ways, yet its long, lanky arms made it seem like a monkey. It existed in the hazy space between man and beast.
“What… what is that thing? Why is a fiend here of all places?”
Luine was the one who identified it for him. She had been hunting monsters alongside Hort and had inadvertently stepped into the fiend’s barrier.
“A fiend? That thing is a fiend?”
“Yeah.”
Luine stamped her feet in agitation. She was the daughter of House Agnia, a noble family renowned for its flame magic, yet her skill hadn’t reached a level where she could face a fiend. A single fiend could wipe out an entire village on its own. The stronger ones were even capable of razing cities. It made no sense for such a monster to appear in the middle of the academy entrance exam.
“We should head back and report this to the supervisor first.”
Luine glanced behind her.
“Saintess, let’s go ba— Saintess?”
The Saintess was nowhere in sight. Luine had assumed she was following behind them, but in her excitement over hunting monsters she hadn’t bothered checking their rear.
“Damn it…”
This meant they would have to find the Saintess before returning to the supervisor. Leaving a Saintess alone in a forest like this was unthinkable. If she were attacked by monsters, or worse, captured by the fiend while they ran back, the consequences would be catastrophic.
“Kid, is that thing strong?” Hort asked, his voice suddenly serious.
“You idiot. I can tell exactly what you’re thinking, and you’d better not.”
“So it is strong.”
“If you want to die, do it by yourself. I’m going back.”
“If someone has to deal with it anyway…”
Hort set his sword down and drew the two hand axes tucked at his waist.
“Can’t I be the one to handle it?”
“You can’t. No one can take down a fiend alone in the first place.”
A handful of exceptions existed, but generally it required the full support of the Imperial Knight Order to bring one down.
“Then today that record gets broken.”
Hort jabbed a thumb at his own chest and flashed a wild grin.
“I once wiped out an entire platoon of the Demon King’s army all by myself.”
“Don’t compare the Demon King’s army to fiends.”
“They both start with the same syllable, don’t they?”
“Is this really the time for wordplay?”
“Just watch closely. I’m about to show you how strong a warrior from the Southern Kingdom can be.”
“If you’re so eager to die, just fall on your own sword.”
She had declared she was returning to the supervisor, but the moment Hort actually readied himself for combat, Luine began preparing her spells as well. No matter how she looked at it, this was suicide. How could two students who hadn’t even enrolled yet hope to defeat a fiend?
“Haaaaah!”
With a thunderous roar, Hort charged straight at the fiend.
“That moron! He’s broadcasting his position!”
Hort leaped high, raising both axes above his head.
“I’ll smash you to bits!”
The fiend, which had been aimlessly prowling, reacted instantly. It lifted one of its long arms and swung a rectangular greatsword.
The two weapons collided with a deafening crunch. The shockwave rattled the entire forest.
“Burn!”
While Hort kept the fiend occupied, Luine unleashed her magic. Flames resembling a dragon’s breath coiled around the creature. It looked possible. They might actually be able to win. Maybe they had been too afraid of the name “fiend.”
That optimistic thought was erased in an instant.
“…It disappeared?”
The fiend that had been swallowed by the flames was gone.
“Behind you! Behind!”
At Hort’s shout, Luine spun around.
“Huh…?”
A colossal figure over two meters tall stood right in front of her.
Teleportation magic? No, she hadn’t sensed any mana being used for a spell.
“How…?”
“Get a hold of yourself!”
Hort’s hand axe spun over Luine’s head. It sank deep into the fiend’s wrist. Yet the creature didn’t even flinch. It showed no sign of pain. With an eerily calm motion, it raised the arm impaled by the axe, intending to crush Luine.
“Dodge!!”
“B-burn!”
Luine triggered an explosion beneath her feet and used the force to launch herself backward.
-BOOM!!
Even a fraction of a second slower and the greatsword would have flattened her. They should have run from the beginning. Luine regretted it with all her heart. The Saintess was important, her comrade was important, but nothing mattered more than her own life.
Should she flee now? As the thought crossed her mind, Hort roared and charged the fiend once more.
“Hup!”
He rolled beneath the whip-like swing of the long arm, closed the distance, and brought his second axe down onto the one already lodged in the fiend’s right wrist. The blade sliced through dense muscle and sank halfway in.
It still wasn’t enough. Sword Qi flared to life. Crimson energy blazed like fire, transforming the hand axe into something resembling a massive battle-axe.
“Graaaaah! Haaah!!”
With a heavy whoosh, he swung the weapon. The fiend’s wrist flew off. Hort didn’t stop there. He pushed his mana even further, causing sweat to pour down his body only to evaporate instantly. His bronze skin flushed crimson as the berserker blood within him began to boil.
He hacked at the fiend like a mad butcher.
-Crunch! Thunk! Crunch! Crunch!
He carved through bone again and again.
“Kaaaaaah!”
Hort hurled the battle-axe into the fiend’s face and screamed at the sky. At his feet lay the creature’s miserably dismembered corpse.
“Heh… heh… What do you think? Impressive, right?”
Hort thrust his thumb toward himself in a proud gesture.
She had to admit it. The method was crude, but the destructive power was overwhelming.
“With this, I should be able to claim the top spot in the academy entrance, yeah?”
Hort laughed heartily.
“There really are people who can solo a fiend… Hey! Watch out!!”
Before he could even react to Luine’s warning, a greatsword buried itself in Hort’s shoulder with a sickening crunch.
“Gaaaaah!!”
His mana-reinforced body prevented his arm from being severed, but the blade had sunk halfway in, tearing his trapezius and shattering his shoulder blade.
“Burn!!”
Luine detonated another explosion of flames, blasting Hort’s body clear.
-BOOM!!
Another greatsword flew into the spot where he had just been standing.
“What the hell is going on…”
Hort clutched his ruined shoulder, groaning as he tried to make sense of the situation. The fiend stood there completely unharmed. The mutilated corpse had vanished.
“Did it… regenerate?”
“N-no.”
Luine’s voice shook violently. The fiend hadn’t regenerated.
“It was an illusion.”
“An illusion…? What does that mean?”
“It was a fake! The one you just destroyed wasn’t the real body!”
“There’s a separate main body…?”
Luine nodded, trembling all over.
“Look… look behind you.”
Hort turned.
“?!”
Another fiend stood there.
“So… which one of them is the real one?”
“I-I don’t know.”
Could something like that truly be called an illusion? The magic was so sophisticated it might as well have been another living creature. Its level far surpassed anything Luine could comprehend; she couldn’t even begin to decipher the spell formula.
“It’s not too late. Let’s run.”
With two of them, they might still be able to shake the creatures off. But the moment she thought that, she realized how pointless running would be. It had already teleported behind them once. There was no guarantee they could escape.
“Ugh… I’ll hold them here. You run.”
Hort used the heat of his mana to cauterize his wound.
“And tell the supervisor what’s happening.”
“You idiot, what can you possibly do by yourself?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
Hort cloaked his body in mana like a suit of armor.
“Hurry.”
Her feet refused to move. Still, if even one of them could survive, that was the right choice. Better for one to escape and alert the supervisor than for both to die. If Hort could hold out until then… he might make it too.
Had the fiend overheard their conversation, it would have laughed uproariously. Their exchange was meaningless. They were already trapped inside the fiend’s barrier; escape was impossible. Unaware of this fact, the two were busy acting out a touching drama of self-sacrifice.
“…I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
“Yeah.”
The moment Luine turned to run, a calm voice spoke from the bushes.
“So this is where everyone was.”
The Saintess emerged from the undergrowth.
They were finished. The situation had gone from bad to worse.
On a real battlefield, a Saintess could provide crucial support against fiends. But that only applied to Saintesses who had trained for many years. Elia had only become a Saintess less than a month ago. Rumors spoke of her possessing an enormous amount of Holy Power, yet raw quantity alone didn’t allow one to wield holy magic. Training was essential. Therefore, they could expect no help from Saintess Elia right now. In the worst case, she would only become an additional burden.
“Saintess! Please run! It’s a fiend!!”
The Saintess’s ruby eyes moved with gentle grace as they settled on the fiends.
“Everyone, please lower your heads.”
The Saintess stepped slowly out from the bushes. A single sword rested in her hand. Her eyes narrowed. As though reacting to the sharp killing intent, both fiends charged toward her at once.
The Saintess swung her sword once.
A golden line that seemed to split the very space in two was drawn across the air.
“…Sword Qi?”
The line passed through both fiends. Their heads tilted backward and fell to the ground with two soft thuds.
It was an absurdly anticlimactic ending.