RATH 86
TL: Eevee
#20 Their story: Ria el Nermia’s story.
A chaotic battlefield.
Rallying allies that were gripped in fear and horror was an incredibly difficult ordeal.
“H, how are they moving? They shouldn’t be able to move with that?”
I saw a female student backpedal with a scream.
Damn it, as I thought, she was wearing a Marcis uniform.
“Go, go away…”
The moment I saw that student was wearing a Marcis uniform, I could no longer hold back the scowl from appearing on my face.
She was a student whose skills were highly rated even among the students of the Magic Tower faction, yet she still lost her will to fight.
“Kahahahaha! Did you think, this was all it would take to stop us!”
The girl in the Marcis uniform was perfectly fine.
But the boy in the Yugrasia uniform that was approaching her could not be said to be the same.
He looked bad enough that I wondered whether if this scene could actually be shown to the young children watching this over the broadcast right now.
The uniforms that were designed to be extremely resistant to magic was torn to shreds to an extent that his upper half was essentially bare.
And he was also bleeding through the gaps of his torn uniform.
Very, very profusely at that!
“Do you call this pain? Did you think you could stop us with just this level of an attack!”
Perhaps his injury to his lower body was quite critical, yet his appearance as he dragged one leg across the ground in his approach, to be honest even made me scared.
“Senior, fall back! His leg’s wounded so he can’t even approach properly! If you fall back and attack him again, you can beat him!”
“N, no… that’s what I’ve been doing, but he just doesn’t fall down.”
Although the distance between us was a bit far, I used magic to communicate my words to her, yet all my senior did was shake her head and cry.
“Kahahaha!”
“N, nooooooo!”
In the end, entrapped in fear, my senior couldn’t even flee and was done in just like that.
“Damn it all…”
The problem was these occurrences were happening everywhere on the battlefield.
“Damn it, we need to at least recover a bit until the final day, but it just feels like there’s less and less hope.”
This event was one where you had to protect a ‘king’ centered around a base of operations.
As it was a similar event to the final day’s event, which used castles as bases in a siege battle, I selected a hundred of Marcis’s key personnel to get some practice in advance, but this was the result.
-I’m back owner.
“Coming from someone who just returned from a creaming, what are you all shameless for?”
-Honestly, they are warriors. Before my status as an archdevil, as the leader of warriors, it is of no shame to be defeated by them.
“Damn it, that’s not at all reassuring to me.”
I felt a migraine coming on as I watched my forces dwindle in front of my eyes.
Although it went without saying, Marcis’s king was me.
As a king, I wanted to command others instead of leading the charge myself, but not a single person could follow orders properly.
“I should have just left the main base to the president, and fought on the front lines myself.”
-That’s probably for the better. I cannot see anyone in owner’s academy that is capable of stopping them.
As I looked over the battlefield from afar, my evaluation of Yugrasia was completely overturned.
When you looked at them one by one, they each seemed like a zealot under the influence of a berserker spell, but when you looked at them as a group over a wide area, rather than zealots, they were closer to undead.
The legendary evil existence born of the infusion of dark magic into corpses, that undead!
-That’s… very true. Their appearance as they approach their opponents despite their injuries is the very picture of the undead!
As I looked at the monsters that even an archdevil acknowledged, I could only come to a single conclusion.
“They can’t be beaten with Marcis’s current education methods. We need to go back to the old style.”
The current paradigm of magic was a combat-style which could also deal with close-quarters combat.
The magic swordsmen of the olden times, or the development of combat mages which would later come to be called battlemages was actually older than the history of the empire.
And following their footsteps, even magicians who used to focus entirely on their firepower, were trained to raise their individual capabilities in order to be able to fight against enemies in close range, and that educational dogma was what was taught at Marcis today.
But the majority of today’s Marcis students had their hearts shattered by the Yugrasia students.
No, they were actually becoming a trauma for them.
And so, we need to return to the old methods, focusing purely on firepower from range.
The old form of human artillery that rained down in the enemy from a range where they weren’t even visible.
“But we need a vanguard in order for us to be able to do that.”
Even if we could build around an actual castle as a defensive fortress for the last day’s event, we couldn’t completely stop the enemy from approaching us.
No, it wasn’t an undoable prospect if we were slightly ahead in points, but right now, we were overwhelmingly behind.
That gap was probably going to increase over the course of today, and the current situation was that we had to topple Yugrasia’s castle for us to even stand a chance.
“Can we win this…”
But this was the only thing I couldn’t guarantee.
Each and every one of the enemy force were formidable opponents, yet my allies were nothing more than disposables who could do nothing aside from long-ranged support.
-Do you have to win this year owner? Can’t you make your move next year?
“If I don’t win this year, I think it’ll be impossible.”
I came to one of the Four Great Academies in order to become the strongest, but even my own heart was as broken as it ever could be.
The school deemed the weakest of the four, Yugrasia, changed completely over the course of just a single year.
If it were just the student council or a few other students, or an improvement surrounding the fourth years as the core, I could aim for next year as well, but each and every one of Yugrasia’s students have gotten stronger.
Moreover, the swordsmaster and five god-class summoners were all first years.
I couldn’t even imagine how much stronger they would get next year.
“Lady Nermia!”
“Haa, already…”
And said strongest among the first years, no, the one evaluated as the strongest in Yugrasia as the festival went on, Aris of the Letia family was pointing her spear towards me.
“People that can stop her… there’s no one.”
I barely defeated her last time using Laevateinn and Surtr’s suicide attack, but that was a one-time thing.
If I went up against her in close combat again, I would probably lose.
“Why the hell is she even using a spear despite being a swordsmaster…”
And the most difficult thing for me was that he was using a spear instead of a sword.
The range of a spear that was twice as long as a sword’s was even more unfavourable for me, who was already at a disadvantage in close quarters.
By the way, the reason she’s called a swordsmaster despite using a spear was that anyone who could use the skill named ‘aura’ were all called swordsmasters with the exception of archers.
Other martial artists raised a complaint that this discriminated against users of other weapons, but since the majority of martial artists used swords, they were ignored.
-Uh, owner. Who’re you talking to?
-Dunno, it’s the will of the world.
Surtr asked me why I made such an explanation, but I don’t know why either.
“And besides, the enemy in front of us is a higher priority.”
I chanted a spell, summoned Laevateinn and prepared myself for close combat.
In a pure 1v1, the magician is at an advantage at range.
Indeed. In a pure 1v1.
“Uht?”
I reflexively blocked the fire arrow aimed at my back with my own magic, but it was such a sudden attack that the magic power in my body shuddered.
“You didn’t expect me to let you use magic so easily, did you?”
“What the heck, you’re a warrior. And yet you’re refusing a 1v1 with me? A swordsmaster is?”
I said to Aris in a voice designed to rake at her pride.
Warriors and martial artists were practically made of their pride and egos.
If a magician, who they thought were weak, challenged them to a 1v1, they were the types that would never refuse.
And especially if it was an opponent that had beaten them once, their pride would have their allies fall back and engage in a 1v1 duel.
I made an expression that belittled my opponent, another one of the instructor’s teachings back in the organization.
It was perfect. Any person who doesn’t fall for this definitely wasn’t a warrior.
“Mm? What? This is the imperial festival’s event? A team event, no?”
And apparently my opponent wasn’t a warrior.
“Wh, what about your pride as a warrior?”
“Mm? I’m a weak summoner. Summoners are great at fighting in groups, aren’t they?”
At my opponent’s shamelessness at calling herself a summoner despite her spear emanating with a crimson aura, I found myself lost for words.
“S, summoner?”
Despite the fact that all she ever summoned was a spear and sometimes a defensive shield!
I wanted to shout, but I couldn’t as I suddenly found myself surrounded by Yugrasia students.
Normally when someone talked, waiting was the polite thing to do, yet Yugrasia students saw that as an opportunity and attacked.
In the time I had to talk, I had to get off at least one more chant.
“Cut, wind. Destroy, tempest. Burn, flames!”
I used short words and completed the spell I wanted in my mind.
“Hup!”
I fended off Aris with wind blades, and interfered with the other students with walls of wind and fire, and charged at Aris with Laevateinn in hand.
“Feeling fearless are you, wanting to get into another brawl with me?”
“Not like I have a choice!”
Maybe not as a 1v1, but fighting a long-ranged war against numerous enemies capable of ranged attacks was futile.
“Really, you’re way more suited for here than Marcis. If you did, the night study might’ve been a bit easier!”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?!”
I glared at my opponent, who smiled as if she found something amusing, and unlike before, was showing no signs of the formality typically reserved between nobles.
As she spouted such nonsensical words such as ‘night study,’ her spear lunged towards me.
“Strike, lightning. Shatter, axe of thunder!”
As I blocked the spear which had its entire shaft embued with spear aura instead of just the head with Laevateinn, I allowed the force of the impact to push me back as I flung the lightning gathered in my fingertips.
“Not bad!”
Aris swung her spear and destroyed the lightning axe that was about the size of a human torso, but I took the opening that gave me to freeze the ground.
“Ice field.”
“Everyone, burn it all.”
“What the?!”
But as expected, the enemy did not allow me to use the same tactic twice.
By commanding her allies to use fire magic on everything within a certain area, including herself!
“Kugh? Surtr!”
At the rain of fire, I barely used magic to block the first wave, and summoned Surtr who had just become resummonable to barely block the rest.
“You’re using your summon quite handily.”
“Our contract is different from yours.”
The method of using a devil as a shield, one that only I, one that had contracted an archdevil with a slave contract could use!
“Really? Our contracts are quite different from normal ones too, I’m quite curious what your methods over there are?”
“Don’t even think about trying to buy time!”
“Really, you’re quick to catch on.”
Thanks to the instructor’s trials, I could already detect the flow of mana.
There was no way I would miss the surrounding spirits preparing for another barrage.
I quickly charged in and swung Laevateinn.
Using Surtr like I did last time was impossible.
Blocking the other Yugrasia students’ attacks was hard enough as it was for Surtr.
‘Should I just forfeit?’
It was extremely difficult for me to claim victory in this situation.
I did have a few hidden cards.
But I had to save them for the grand final.
But if Yugrasia took ten points here as well, it would be difficult for me to guarantee victory even if we did win on the final day.
Moreover, even if I put everything on the line to defeat the enemy in front of me, if she wasn’t the king of this event, then that would result in the absolute worst-case scenario where I revealed my entire hand and lost for nothing.
“By any chance, are you worried that I might not be the king?”
What she pulled out from a breast pocket was the proof of the king for this event. It was a clear-cut provocation towards me.
“Alright then, let’s play.”
If I can defeat the enemy in front of me, the king, then that would be an instant reversal.
Using a shortened chant, I would go in for an exchange and look for an opportunity.
My ace in the hole was my swordmanship.
Back in the organization, before I became a magician, I didn’t slack off from my swordsmanship training in order to fight against No.1 and No.1000.
“Letia style.”
“Sky Slash!”
No.1’s signature move he learned by fighting against the instructor, Sky Slash!
Sky Slash was originally a move wherein you had to at least know how to use sword ki before you got any decent firepower out of it.
Let alone sword aura, I couldn’t even use sword ki, but if you looked at my mana capacity alone, my magic power was on another level compared to No.1’s.
And the sword I was using right now was not an ordinary sword, but a magic sword brought out by summoning.
With this magic sword Laevateinn, a sword purely made of flames, even if I couldn’t use sword ki, as long as I put in enough magic power, I could manage at least enough firepower at that level.
“Kuugh!”
Blood flowed from the waist accompanied by a grunt of pain.
But unexpectedly, the grunt came not from my enemy’s lips, but my own.
“You coward, an ambush…”
“I said it, this is a team event.”
For the first time in a long time, I reflexively bit my lips.
As the distinct taste of blood spread through my mouth, I pulled myself together.
“Hello, Lady Nermia. I am the oldest daughter of the Reiara family, Siir ril Reiara. I am also the contractor of the messenger of the gods, Hermes.”
As the girl in front of me said her greetings with a smile while hiding her dagger behind her back, old habits kicked in again as I bit down on my lip yet again.
“Damn it…”
Yet another god-class summoner had appeared as an enemy.
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