Irene's shirt had been sliced open, revealing snow-white skin, and even a hint of the top curve of her right breast. She was embarrassed and panicked, and was squealing in fright. The white expanse drew the rapturous glances of all the surrounding male, light major students.
Irene was a finely featured girl to begin with. Her beauty was further enhanced by a subtle, regal bearing that projected an awe inspiring and inviolable feeling. The male, light major students standing closest to her happened to be going through the stage of life in which they were insatiably curious about girls, and thus forgot to put themselves forward to help her.
When everyone realized that the little skeleton was making a move again, it was too late to prevent it. The little skeleton had already raised the glowing, black, bone dagger towards Irene. No one dared to make a move for fear of hurting Irene with their light magic.
A feeling of despair and helplessness arose in Irene's heart when she looked into the skeleton's grey, hollow eye sockets. She seemed to be frozen in place with fright as she sat there, unmoving.
Irene watched the little skeleton close the distance with an upraised glowing dagger with a sad expression on her face. Who would have thought that her end would come at the hands of a despised, dark creature, and one of the weakest ones to boot! It was really quite pathetic.
Slash…
Irene felt a cool draft on her right waist and thought she had been stabbed, but as she looked down, she realized that she hadn't been hurt. Rather, the magic robe had been slashed open from right waist to calf, revealing even more skin.
A firm and smooth waist, supple and glistening strong legs, were all revealed this time. Even the teensiest bit of light green, silk undergarments could be glimpsed through the cut. Irene could hear some of the surrounding male students swallow loudly, as well as chatter from the female students.
"Ah…"
Although it would be a terrible thing if the skeleton killed her with one strike, it was worse than death to be stripped of her clothes under the hungry eyes of her peers. A piercing scream rang out from Irene's mouth as she scrambled away directionless, desperately trying to cover herself up.
"What's… what's wrong with this skeleton? Why is it focused on destroying Irene's clothes?"
"Stop staring! Hurry up and destroy it!"
The light major students finally regained their senses in the midst of the crowd's conversations and began to raise their arms, ready to chant spells to attack the little skeleton.
The skeleton stood there dumbly again after that attack, as if it required continuous commands from Han Shuo to know what to do. Han Shuo started to inwardly stress out as he saw the skeleton just standing there. He didn't know what to do.
Lisa, standing to the side, had been about to say something, but said nothing after she hesitated upon seeing such a large portion of Irene's robe destroyed.
"Damned dark creature, how dare you attack the beautiful miss Irene! Receive your punishment from me, the sergeant knight Claude!" It was at this moment that a figure ran in from afar. Because his speed was so fast, Claude had already appeared next to the little skeleton immediately after he finished speaking.
Claude shot agilely towards the little skeleton as soon as he had arrived. A beam of pale-green light shot out with his right fist and landed solidly on the unsuspecting skeleton. The skeleton flew up and out, landing with a clatter on the ground after taking this blow.
"Beautiful Miss Irene, you have suffered because I arrived late!" Claude spoke humbly and executed an urbane bow to Irene after he sent the skeleton flying.
Claude was 18 and had tied his silver hair into a ponytail, allowing it to drape carelessly on his back. He wore an all white training robe and was extraordinarily handsome. Many of the light major girls blushed upon seeing his appearance and started whispering amongst themselves.
"Wow! It's Claude! He's only 18, yet he's a sergeant level knight already, and the youngest son of the Empire's Gryphon Legion chief. He's so amazing!"
"You're so boycrazy, Claude likes Irene. You come from a small family and you're not as beautiful as Irene, he'd never be interested in you."
The light major girls started holding hushed conversations and sneaking sly glances at Claude, as if he was the man of their dreams, their prince on a white horse. On the other hand, the male students regarded him with looks that alternated between hate and fear.
As the surrounding crowd engaged in murmured conversations, the little skeleton that been sent flying stood up shakily, his rib cage trembling along with the rest of his body.
Irene was completely bedraggled and frantically protecting her upper and lower body, her face flushed bright with embarrassment. However, she heaved a sigh of relief when Claude appeared. She was about to reply to his greeting when she glanced beyond Claude's shoulder and saw the skeleton slowly clambering back up. Her haughty face instantly changed into an expression filled with panic and disgust. Irene pointed behind Claude and hurriedly said, "Claude, I'll consent to having a meal with you if you destroy that ugly, dark creature."
Claude turned his head upon hearing Irene's words, and gave a quiet, "eh?" of surprise. It would seem that he hadn't thought the skeleton would still survive. He turned back, flashed a small, sunny smile and bowed, "I am honored to serve you."
Claude's demeanor changed abruptly when he turned away. The urbane grace he'd just displayed faded, replaced with a sharp look shooting out from his eyes. He punched out with his right fist again, and the pale-green light once again rapidly shot towards the little skeleton.
Who knew that a thin, frail body would suddenly rush in from the left just at this moment. It happened to stop right in front of the little skeleton. The pale-green light from Claude's fist landed solidly on the frail body.
Bam! sounded out and the thin body stumbled a few steps backwards, throwing his head back and fell to the ground.
"Eh? Who's this errand boy? Why did he suddenly rush out?" Surprised cries came from all directions.
"Damn it, Bryan are you crazy?" Jack was just was mystified and howled with a face full of tragic pain.
Lisa was also extremely taken aback as she looked at Han Shuo, who had suddenly dashed out and taken the blow for the skeleton.
What followed was an even more surprising turn of events. The pale-green light connected squarely with Han Shuo, but he didn't cough up blood and immediately die on the spot. Rather, he too stood up shakily, like the skeleton, and wore a silly, naive expression.
As for the little skeleton, it suddenly about faced. It had been swaying back and forth, but then abruptly turned, bent its legs and and sprang off towards the necromancy major's quarters before anyone could react.
As for Claude, the attacker, he tripped over his feet all of a sudden and sat on the ground for no apparent reason. He panted heavily a few times before standing up, as if he had overexerted himself just now, but after he stood up, his chiseled features wore an expression of disbelief and shock. He cast an odd glance towards Han Shuo, who was still out of his mind.
The person in question, Han Shuo, wasn't completely putting on an act with the confusion flitting across his face. When Claude's pale-green light had passed directly through his body into his chest, Han Shuo had felt a heart piercing pain. He almost thought he'd died.
Han Shuo's mental strength had been possibly affected by the circumstances in that moment, and he successfully gave another command of 'retreat with all haste' to the little skeleton. To avoid detection, he told the skeleton to take cover in the academy's garbage dump.
But what was most incredible to Han Shuo was that he'd felt his magical yuan surround and enclose the pale-green light when the latter had travelled into his body. The magical yuan completely immobilized the light, and prevented the light from wreaking havoc internally.
"Bryan, what are you doing here?" Lisa finally found her voice and yelled towards Han Shuo.
Han Shuo had no idea what was going on in his body at the moment. He only felt a bit of heaviness weighing down his chest as magical yuan had enclosed the pale-green light. After the initial pain he had felt earlier, his body hadn't actually suffered much damage.
But in other people's eyes, Han Shuo was completely crazy. He couldn't even hear other people's questions. The blank expression and naive smile on his face further cemented his identity as a crazy person.
"Oh, it's the crazy errand slave from the necromancy major. No wonder he was such an idiot!"
"Yes indeed, only an idiot would have rushed out in front of Claude's attack at that moment!"
Little fatty Jack's legs were shaking like mad, but he eventually made his way towards Han Shuo and started dragging him away by the arm. He said, "Bryan, what are you doing here? It's not fun here. Come on, let's go back."
"Just a second!" Claude suddenly spoke up at this moment, his eyes fixed on Han Shuo. Setting aside the fact that the little skeleton had run away for a second, he was wondering why he suddenly felt his fighting aura (TL note: mental strength equivalent for knights) disappear. What was going on? Was he mistaken?
He'd only used his fighting aura in one hit, by all means he shouldn't have been tired. He'd even fallen, this really was too weird. Did this errand slave have some evil magic? No way, he was just an errand slave. That would be way too crazy beyond belief. He must be wrong.
"Noble and mighty knight Claude, you wouldn't pick a fight with an errand slave, would you? Not to mention that this errand slave is crazy, this doesn't seem to reconcile with your distinguished self?" Curiously enough, it was Lisa who was speaking up for Han Shuo.
Claude bowed to Lisa from a distance upon hearing her words, then gave Han Shuo a deep look. He nodded, "You may leave!"
"The two errand boys can leave, but Lisa, you summoned this dirty skeletal warrior and ruined my clothes. You owe me an explanation." Irene had found a billowy white robe at some point and had flung it over herself. She'd recovered from her panic and shock by now and leveled a cold glance at Lisa.
"What does that have to do with me? I didn't summon that weird black skeleton, otherwise why would I be unable able to control it? It snuck into my room at night and kicked me two times. I'm also the victim here." Lisa gave a slight snort and also responded coldly.
"How is that possible? If not you, then who? It must be someone from your necromancy major. Whoever he is, I'll find him and make him pay!" Irene flew into a rage.
"Hoo… ah… Bach, when…. when throw away trash, saw it run… run out from Bach's room." Han Shuo smiled vacantly and seemed to have trouble communicating as he stammered out a few words, but it was enough for the others to understand his meaning.
"Huh. So it was him. He must be trying to get revenge for when I beat him up!" Lisa's face darkened and she bit off her words.
On the other side, Irene's face also wore a livid expression as she audibly ground her teeth. Bells signaling the start of class rang, just as the two were about to track down Bach and make him pay. All of the assembled gave a start when they heard the bells, with light and necromancy majors running off to their respective areas.
Only Han Shuo and Jack remained, standing there dumbly. Han Shuo smiled "dumbly" and said to Jack, "Bach's screwed."
Jack nodded his head emphatically in complete agreement, "Yeah, he's really screwed this time!"