Chapter 85

Chapter 85. Party Battle

Two monsters that looked like black panthers.

The two monsters, one large and one small, appeared while keeping their distance from each other.

‘They are too far apart to face at the same time.’

I quietly looked back.

“Ah, there happen to be two of them. Student Alex! Make sure you hold back at least one!”

Professor Niel shouted at me with an angry expression.

She had not even wanted to speak to me, yet now she even called my name.

It seemed the appearance of two monsters was different from what she had expected.

“I will hold back one of them.”

At that moment, Manuel quietly stepped forward.

He looked at me, then stretched his hand forward.

Crackle.

Sparks shot out from his hand.

Kyaaaak!

The monster struck directly by the electricity curled up and screamed.

Just as he had said, he had stopped the monster from approaching.

He continued releasing electricity while striking an impressive pose.

Judging by his appearance, he seemed likely to exhaust himself soon.

Still, thanks to him, the other monster also lowered itself into the undergrowth, so as a response to facing monsters for the first time, it was not bad.

It was a hundred times better than Piar, who had hidden behind the professor in terror.

The princess’s face had also gone pale, but she did not let go of her sword, and Valea nodded toward me.

To be honest, Princess Aisha still felt unreliable, but with Valea there, it seemed things would be all right.

Then how skilled was the professor?

Thinking that, I turned my gaze back toward the monster.

As the professor had said, it seemed I only needed to face one.

Graaaar!

At the sight of the other monster being roasted by electricity, the monster that had stopped began moving again.

It leaped out of the undergrowth and charged toward me, kicking off trees as it moved.

‘Is a mere monster doing parkour?’

It was not moving only left and right, but in three dimensions. Even so, there was no reason for me to lose track of it.

I gripped the sword with both hands.

It had been a while since I held this greatsword. It had no special ability, and it was not a famed blade.

However, it was an extremely sturdy sword.

Martin, the son of the Marquess of Hierro, who had said it would never break, came to mind. The dead illegitimate son appeared in my thoughts.

I circulated mana with the circulation art I had learned and infused mana into the sword.

My body grew lighter, and the sword became sharper.

There was no need to use any other ability.

I swung the greatsword toward the black monster jumping down above my head.

Whoooosh.

Ten elongated, sharp claws dropped toward my head, but before my head could be split open, they collided with my sword first.

Just like my sword, mana was flowing through the monster’s claws.

In the past, it had not been easy to deal with monsters because of these sturdy claws flowing with mana, but now things were different from before.

Slice.

The greatsword cut through the monster’s claws. Then it separated the legs, and even split the head in half.

Thud.

The monster crashed down where I had been standing.

Since I had already swung my sword, I rolled away to avoid being crushed beneath the monster.

I shook off the black blood on my sword and checked the dead monster.

It had definitely become a corpse.

As I had thought, the dead monster was a monster formed when an animal was contaminated and transformed by mana.

It had moved according to the habits it had possessed before becoming a monster, but its mistake was jumping through the air when it could not freely fly.

“Ugh!”

Graaaar!

The moment I cut down the monster, Manuel’s mana also ran out.

His ability was not bad, and its power was decent, but if he poured it out so recklessly, there was no way his mana would last.

The remaining monster, which had been puffing out smoke, let out a roar and shot forward.

I tried to throw my sword toward the running monster, but immediately stopped.

The ground beneath the charging monster was undulating.

Valea’s domain had already been deployed.

However, Valea only prepared and did not attack the monster.

‘Is she trying to hide her ability?’

Or perhaps, like me, she wanted to see the other students’ ability.

The black monster charged right in front of the party.

At that moment—

Snap!

Professor Niel snapped her fingers.

Boom!

The instant she snapped her fingers, the monster that had been charging was knocked backward with an explosive sound.

‘Did she explode the air?’

The undergrowth in the place where the monster was knocked away had been flattened in a circle, and wind pushed all the way to where I was.

Graa!

It seemed the attack power was not very strong.

The monster that had been pushed quite far back charged again.

However, when the professor snapped her fingers again, this time, each time it was knocked away, the monster’s body split and sprayed blood.

It looked as though invisible spears were grazing across the monster’s skin.

‘It seems to be an ability that moves air, or wind.’

It seemed like a good ability. It was useful for defense, capable of ranged attacks, and since the weapon was invisible, it was difficult for the opponent to defend against.

Graar! Bark!

The monster that had been charging could no longer approach and instead dodged the invisible attacks here and there.

At that sight, the princess took a deep breath.

It seemed she intended to fight.

Just as the princess was about to dash forward, the professor shouted at Piar.

“What are you doing? Can you not see the other students fighting?”

At the professor’s words, Piar, who had been trembling, came to his senses.

“Ah, y-yes!”

He hurriedly looked around, then stretched his arm toward the princess.

Then, shall I see what ability the future bomb actually has?

“A-Amplification!”

Piar stretched out his arm and shouted something like an incantation.

It seemed to be a keyword used to activate his ability, but even I felt a little embarrassed hearing it.

I saw the mana gathering around Piar’s arm stretch toward the princess.

The princess’s body and sword, which had been glowing faintly, began to shine a little more, and the princess, who had just been about to run forward, also looked at Piar in surprise.

“Wow, I feel full of strength.”

“Now go and try fighting.”

Professor Niel, who had continued keeping the monster in check, lightly pushed the princess on the back.

“Yes!”

The princess ran forward energetically.

Seeing that, I had no choice but to laugh hollowly.

If one looked only at how she treated the princess, Professor Niel was truly a splendid educator.

‘Is she secretly someone connected to the princess?’

That thought even crossed my mind.

The princess arrived in front of the blood-covered monster.

Since it had originally been black, it did not look particularly different, but smoke was pouring from the monster’s body, and its skin had split in several places, spilling blood.

‘She really set the table beautifully.’

Perhaps thanks to Piar, the princess looked full of strength.

Because of her small body, the sword looked almost like a greatsword as she swung it toward the monster.

The sword fell toward its head.

The monster was a mess, but it could still move.

The monster hurriedly moved its foreleg to block the sword.

Slice!

However, there was no way a monster that was already on the verge of death could infuse mana into its body.

The severed foreleg of the monster flew into the air.

“I did it!”

The princess rejoiced when she saw the leg she had cut off.

However, a monster would not die just because one of its legs had been cut off.

“Danger!”

Along with the professor’s words, the monster lunged at the princess while spilling blood.

The startled princess widened her eyes, and the professor hurriedly moved her hand.

Clunk.

The monster, which had opened its mouth and reached right in front of the princess’s face, stopped completely in place.

The monster’s body was wrapped in countless vines that had somehow grown from the ground.

Slice.

At the same time, I cut off the monster’s head.

“Are you all right?”

The startled Professor Niel rushed over, and the frightened princess hiccuped.

But I shook the blood from my sword and glared at Valea.

‘She is not even playing the hidden weakling pretending to be powerless. I nearly got into real trouble because I trusted Valea.’

No, was it my fault? To think I trusted Valea.

Valea clasped her hands together and looked sorry as she watched me, but no matter how I looked at it, it seemed intentional.

“What a relief. It was thanks to Valea.”

However, Professor Niel and the other students, who did not know her true nature, praised Valea.

From the outside, it looked as though Valea had stepped forward at the moment of crisis and saved the princess.

Fortunately, the princess quickly recovered her composure. This, too, was unlike her age.

Once the princess recovered, the professor looked over the students and let out a sigh.

“The monsters were stronger than I expected. Aside from Piar, everyone did well.”

When the professor looked over the students, she skipped over me entirely. Was it because I had done better than expected? Thanks to that, the atmosphere became one where Piar was scolded twice as much.

He had trembled at the sight of the monsters, but he had still come to his senses and provided support. For an Administration Department student, was that not enough?

Manuel had not thought about pacing himself and had poured everything out, so he had been knocked out at the beginning, and the princess was not yet at a level where she could fight.

On top of that, Valea was playing around without even showing her ability properly.

No, if I put it that way, I had not fought properly either.

When I thought about it, all the other students had problems too.

Professor Niel had also put the princess in danger, claiming she was giving her experience for no reason.

However, I had no intention of stopping the professor from scolding Piar.

It was not Piar’s fault, but thinking of the hardship I had endured because of him, he deserved to be scolded more.

“……From next time onward, keep your wits about you!”

After scolding Piar thoroughly, Professor Niel made us continue moving.

“Originally, monsters have almost nothing useless about them, from their hide to their blood. In particular, monster by-products are perfect materials for equipment used by nobles who use mana and by knights.”

The professor’s lecture began again. Like before, it was a lecture given while looking at the princess.

“We are leaving these behind because we have no time and no way to transport them, but whenever possible, it is best to come with people and collect the corpses. Either that, or obtain something like a relic bag.”

She seemed to be talking about the ‘relic bag’ said to be in the kingdom’s treasury.

A bag that could hold an enormous quantity and did not become heavier.

It was like an inventory or subspace item I had seen in games, but since I had never seen it myself, I could not know what it was like.

As we listened to the professor’s lecture, the party began moving again.

We encountered monsters again along the way, but this time, we handled them safely.

I went forward and blocked them, while Valea deployed her domain and protected everyone.

Piar also came to his senses and cast amplification on everyone, and the princess supported me from behind.

‘Manuel has run out of mana, so he has become a burden…….’

Manuel seemed extremely displeased, but since it was his own fault, the noble honor he had been taught prevented him from complaining to anyone else.

‘He might pick a fight through the back door later…….’

That was something to think about then.

“Now, let the group leader command.”

Once the battles against the monsters stabilized, the professor entrusted the combat to us.

“Ah, yes, yes. Everyone, please form up!”

Under the princess’s command, we fought the monsters that attacked us.

The princess commanded the party without issue.

Professor Niel praised her excessively, saying she was amazing, but to be honest, with these members, it did not matter who the group leader was.

After fighting several times like that and walking for several hours, we were able to arrive at the gathering point.

The headmaster and the students were gathered in a wide clearing.

And in front of where the headmaster stood, there was an open wooden box with light surging out of it.

The light we had followed had come from that wooden box.

“The fifth group has arrived.”

We were not first, but it was not a bad result.