Midterm
"Huh... you threw him away?"
"Leaf, don't say things like that."
That was a resurrection spell.
"Hah! So that's it!?"
Leaf cupped both hands over her mouth like she was trying to swallow the words I said.
I leaned on her as a support, holding on tight and waiting for the dizziness to fade. Only then did I gently let her go.
"It was a joke. But seriously, the teamwork was amazing. The power was incredible."
"Undine did all the hard work."
Yet Leaf smiled brightly. "Ehehe~"
Leaf Yusglimt, eighteen years old and still in that sweet age where praise makes her cheeks puff up...
I approached the psychopath kid sprawled on the ground with care.
Concentrating on being ready to Blink at any moment.
I poked him with the staff I'd borrowed from Leaf.
"He definitely didn't make it."
No movement at all.
I set the staff aside and grabbed the body with my own hands, flipping it over.
A hole had been blasted straight through his belly, and blood was still gushing out nonstop.
I searched his pockets out of habit, but the only things that came out were a single book and a ring.
I should probably take his clothes off too.
He actually looked decent...
'That's probably impossible.'
Dragging around blood-soaked clothes would just be extra baggage with no benefit.
I collected the book and ring, then handed the staff back to Leaf.
"You okay?"
"Ah, I did feel dizzy for a second, but now I'm fine!"
"Not that. Listen to me."
I had killed someone.
No matter how much of a madman chain-killer the opponent had been, once the battle adrenaline wore off, the sane part of me would still feel the weight of murder.
But the Leaf who had seemed so gentle was strangely calm.
Or not so strange, after all.
She had always been the type who acted decisively when it mattered.
It was Leaf who had suggested we form a team first, and Leaf who had stepped in to mediate when Ray wanted to keep her distance.
"I'm... I'm fine. What about you, Roman-ssi?"
"Same here."
I hadn't been the one who swung the killing blow, and this guy was just a collaborator anyway...
Killing someone wasn't my first time either.
'When we were leveling up, bandits would appear and we'd fight the mercenaries together.'
Surviving that somehow felt like a miracle.
I had killed without knowing how the hell I'd gotten here, and I was still alive.
"Should we head back?"
"Just a minute."
After resting a bit, I told her we should start moving again.
Leaf dashed off toward the corpses of the people the psychopath had killed.
She called Undine and had her clean the bodies thoroughly, then gently closed their eyes with careful hands.
After a short prayer, she bounded back over to me.
"Now we can go."
"...Yeah."
§
Fortunately, after that incident, no more skeletons appeared.
Maybe the skeletons weren't here just to attack us, but to lure the psychopath kid into the chamber.
'They're weak, though.'
Skeletons were beaters.
The ones waiting in the dark were the hunters.
So the hunters probably weren't working alone.
Since the guy I ran into with Leaf didn't seem like a necromancer, he was probably the hunter.
'One handling the hunter role, another the beater role?'
I left the rear to Undine and pushed forward, scanning the front.
Leaf called out to me.
"Roman-ssi."
"Hmm?"
"Aren't you going to ask?"
"Ask what?"
"Th-that."
Is it bothering you?
Yeah, I probably would feel the same if someone noticed something personal about me and just ignored it.
"It's not a big deal being an elf. I've actually talked to elves before. Ah, are you still doing that?"
"I... I'm not an elf."
Leaf said quietly.
"Half-elf."
Her confession was about to start, slow and steady.
But the words didn't come out long.
A thick wave of mana was pulling us forward from the side.
"We'll talk about it after we get out of here."
"...Yes!"
We hurried our steps.
And it wasn't just us.
A short while later, at a fork in the path, we ran into another pair of man and woman coming from the opposite direction.
"Demonologist?"
"Ah! So it's the guy Alehandra's been eyeing."
Brown-haired man and raven-haired woman.
Both had average hair color, but the contrast in height made the pair stand out at once.
"Alehandra's team."
"You two got split up too. Perfect timing. We were just about to head that way."
"...Amaya, that's a lot of words. Could be enemies."
"What?"
"That wasn't what I meant...! Ugh, fine. Shut up."
The brown-haired guy muttered something like "You beastly woman, just listening to you is driving me insane."
Shaking so easily?
Once I met our team's real beast girl, she'd teach you a lesson.
Amaya laughed under her breath, then turned serious.
"We ran into them too. Smells like blood."
"You guys too?"
"You can see for yourself."
Amaya pointed out the bloodstains on her clothes.
"You two got separated too. Let's team up."
"These guys are just dead weight."
"Juan, shut up."
Juan immediately closed his mouth and turned his head away.
"So? What do you think?"
"Fine. Let's team up."
The enemy of my enemy is my ally, after all.
Right now, finding Ray and getting the hell out of this underground was priority number one.
"In exchange, the command rights stay separate."
"That works for me."
§
The finish line of the exam and the heart of the lower floor.
It had turned into a battlefield.
Wall and floor covered in destruction.
Blood splattered everywhere, as if someone had been painting murals with it.
Noise rang out nonstop.
Mana swirled violently.
Explosions cracked through the air.
And the sound of clattering bones.
All of it together had turned the chamber into a warzone.
"Hah...!"
The pained groan that slipped out was Ray's.
She had spotted an opening and rushed in, but the counterattack was absurdly solid.
Not some auto-mana shield.
She'd bounced off before Arjentus could even touch her.
If the ambush failed, the counterattack was next.
But her pursuit toward Ray was blocked by a mana shield that had come flying in from the side.
"Move carefully!"
Aswar shouted.
Following his gesture, the mana swords lined up and began their deadly dance.
Aswar's magic, Thousand Blade.
Forming and freely controlling mana swords, that magic showed off its all-around versatility.
Among the trainees here, Aswar was clearly the strongest.
And the one with the most real combat experience too.
So no one else understood the current situation as objectively as he did.
'This is dangerous.'
The opponent was a necromancer, and a strong one at that.
Just looking at Combat Instructor Davenport standing at the front showed that even he was barely holding on.
If the freshmen hadn't lent support, Davenport would have been a corpse long ago.
As proof, blood was dripping from wounds on his belly.
He'd definitely set the trap, but Davenport wouldn't have been hit by some half-assed ambush.
It proved how formidable that necromancer's skill was.
"Hmph!"
Whooosh—!
Flames wrapped in a violent storm swallowed the area.
The wind summoned by the necromancer swept away his minions in a single blow.
The air in the chamber grew thick with heat.
"Annoying."
A voice came from under the hood of deep darkness.
"Witness my death."
Just before the existential manifestation spell—known for its lethal threat in one-on-one fights—could paint Alehandra's senses in the color of death.
A mirror appeared in front of Alehandra.
Ching—! Crack!
The mirror's symbol was reflection.
The necromancer's curse had bounced right off Alehandra.
But it couldn't fully reflect the power, so a huge crack appeared in the mirror.
"Don't do that."
"...Disrupt."
The necromancer's gaze shifted to Aswar's back.
Blonde Fiona floated several mirrors around her, shielding her body.
'Now!'
As soon as the necromancer's focus shifted to Fiona, Aswar dove in.
Chrr—Shatter.
The mana swords broke apart and merged into one massive blade.
Then it fell toward the necromancer with terrifying speed.
Kuuwoong—!!
A thick cloud of dust rose.
The strongest strike Aswar could currently deliver.
A blade made from fifteen of the sixteen swords he could handle.
'If this works....'
"Not bad. The observers were wrong. More than I expected."
A voice rumbled from the bone barrier the necromancer had raised.
'Impossible. Retreat.'
Right now, no one had a stronger attack than Aswar.
Instructor Davenport specialized in defense over offense.
Even if he had a trump card, his current condition made it impossible.
Ray's magic had the chance to land a critical hit, but she couldn't even get close.
'But retreating isn't easy either.'
Something.
Something needed to change.
Where?
The outside was cut off, and the instructor was dead.
The four of us here were, in Aswar's judgment, the top-tier freshmen.
Anyone else was just dead weight.
A couple more strong ones popped into my mind, but they weren't here.
I had sent the other freshmen to look for them, but they hadn't shown up yet.
'If even a Giant Blade-style attack is too much, then after disrupting their line of sight with a Split Blade-style....'
"What are you doing, you idiot!"
Ray's rough shout snapped Aswar out of his daze.
'Ah, damn....'
One of the worst traits my teacher had warned about again and again.
He had outstanding combat intelligence but got lost in his own thoughts because of it.
This time, Aswar snapped out of it late and quickly assessed the situation.
Fiona had used up all her mirrors to protect the others, so the only one left was the one that had cracked while shielding Alehandra.
Defense? Not something to count on.
Yet a crimson lightning bolt was falling toward her.
Lightning that had been gathering since the beginning, as if waiting only for this exact moment.
'Was she the target from the start?'
Aswar should have blocked that.
Only Davenport, with his defense magic, and three others in total had the ability to block it.
Since Davenport was at the front, Aswar should have been the one to shield Fiona.
'Even now I could use a Shield Blade-style....'
No, it was too late.
Aswar's combat prediction told him defense was impossible.
p>It was impossible for anyone.
Right now, it was already impossible for Fiona and Aswar, so it was impossible for anyone else.
'The collapse of defense... over?'
One thought echoed in everyone's minds.
One thought that had appeared suddenly.
Aswar's long-awaited variable.
The last chance to turn the situation around.
Crack—Crack—Crack—!
The lightning that hadn't hit its mark slammed into the ground and spread outward in all directions.
And the light of the brain-storm that lit up the chamber revealed a new arrival's face.
Black hair even denser than the necromancer's.
Roman.
§
"Are you okay?"
"Eh? Ah... yeah. I'm fine."
I had worried about whether Blink would work the moment I touched her, but it went smoothly.
I faced the front without even checking on Fiona.
While pulling mana to be ready to Blink again at any moment.
"Mana defense, turn it off for a moment. It could interfere with movement."
Like I had felt with Leaf, using Blink with someone else had complications.
If the other person resisted by refusing the mana, it was likely to fail.
Fiona lowered the mana wrapped around her body as I instructed.
"That...? Did you make it this time?"
"Thanks to you."
"........."
Fiona suddenly fell silent.
Maybe she was thinking, or maybe the shock from Leaf had been bigger.
"What about that guy?"
At my question, Fiona opened her mouth again.
"He must be a worshipper of the Abyss. A person who plots the city's destruction and the extinction of the clan while praising the Abyss...."
Indeed.
I understood.
Why those fools had done something so reckless.
And why there was no room for compromise.