"What is going on?! Why can't we get the students back?!"
"I-I don't know sir!! The spell wouldn't work!"
Right now, the main base was in a state of chaos. They had detected a huge magical energy closing in on the area of the examination earlier and wanted to investigate it. After determining it to be an anomaly that was unplanned for, the mages activated the spell that would forcefully return students to the main grounds, but it didn't work even after several attempts.
"Damn it! This isn't the time or place for the spell to malfunction. A lot of people are going to die if this continues! Find out the cause and fix it!!"
"Yes sir! You two, come with me."
The principal took action right away, ordering the head of the mage team to find out why the spell failed and why the barrier prevented the anomaly source from entering. By right, it was able to function by warding off stronger monsters from entering so that the students wouldn't be put in a place of danger. It also helped by blocking monsters in the case that they ignored the warding effect, but this obviously failed. Judging from the magical signal, it was almost certainly a monster that was unexpected and even they didn't know what to make of it.
"Sir! The barrier has been replaced without our knowledge!!" One of the mages came running in to address the issue. "It functions the exact same as the previous barrier, except it blocks all teleportation spells too!"
"What?! Does that mean the students are going to sit there and die?!" The principal slammed his hand on the table, splitting it in half. "Gather the adventurers and cancel the exam! Until we determine what is the cause, we will focus on breaking the barrier! Also, find out who is responsible for this!"
"T-The thing is, sir… just as it prevents magic input from within, it prevents magic input from outside too. S-So… we have no way of contacting the students…"
"This has gone out of hand. Just… focus on the barrier first, we will talk about the others. I'm going to lead the adventurers and the assault team."
"S-Sir!! What about the students?!"
"… They will have to survive on their own until we figure something out on our side."
With a low mutter that signified how low his mood had gotten, he stepped out of the tent while clutching his sheath.
As a principal, he had never allowed something like this to happen before. Ever since he became the head of the school, he ensured no one died from being too severely injured. Right now, the first outbreak case was going to occur and he had to take action quick.
Not as the mere principal of a school, but as the ex-Black rank adventurer Aldwolf Cres Oruc.
- - - - -
Time: 50 minutes before the individual examination was over.
"Damn it! We can't get out of here?!"
"T-The barrier is designed to keep us in after all, so it makes sense. What I don't understand is why there isn't an emergency system in place if this sort of thing happens."
Currently, Kaze and Mitsui were at the edge of the barrier that had shrunk once again. With Kaze repeatedly slashing at the barrier to no avail, Mitsui began contemplating their situation seriously.
The friendly fire had begun, with screams and explosions coming from time to time. It had only been 10 minutes but people were already racking up the points. Backstabbing, ambushes, group attacks, all sorts of ways that were available to people were used at their disposal. It was a good thing that both Kaze and Mitsui did not form any groups because internal dispute was common when the students no longer had anything restraining them.
For groups like Yuuji's, while Kaze wasn't aware about this at the time, they were more organized and had a strong leader. This meant that no dispute wouldn't break out between the members and they would work together to fight against the other students. It was times like these that truly tested whether coalitions formed were for mutual benefits or hidden achievements. There was no right or wrong answer to this question, especially when this was an examination and everyone was being tested. They should have known the risks the moment they chose to team up so they only had themselves to blame.
"Tch, it's no use staying here. We have to try to warn those who would listen," Kaze grunted, sheathing his sword.
"I don't know but that sounds crazy. Unless you have someone super convincing, everyone here is going to take it as a lie," Mitsui made a frown at his words. "Think about it logically. Why would anyone believe that a giant centipede monster is rampaging below us when it could be a trap used to get their guard down so we can steal their points?"
"We have to find Lunaria and Yuuji," Kaze ran off with Mitsui following him. "They will be able to convince everyone."
"Yuuji? You mean the prince?" Mitsui asked him while they zoomed through the woods as fast as possible. "You know him?"
"No time to explain, we have to move," Kaze bit his lower lip in frustration. "We can only try to look for them in the midst of this mess."
Without time to consider what they were charging into when running past fighting students and such, Kaze only had the centipede on his mind. It didn't matter anymore whether he was interrupting a battle or pushing past people, because everyone's survival depended on it. To make matters worse, people were beginning to find out that they would no longer teleport out if they got their points stolen 3 times. This could cause an even worse situation where students fought for the sake of fighting instead of treating this respectfully like an exam.
"Kaze? What are you doing?"
"H-Huh? Oh, Rena…"
Kaze stopped when he heard someone calling out to him. Turning around, he caught Rena swooping down skilfully from the top of a tree. With a slight look of concern, Rena questioned him about his panic state. He then wasted no time in explaining the situation to her, hoping that she would understand him. With Mitsui by his side to help act as proof, Rena quickly realized he wasn't lying and this was urgent.
"Then we really need to find Lunaria. I felt something strange about the barrier earlier and I think this was what you meant," Rena spoke while running along with the two. "If that giant centipede monster really is under us right now and it was able to pass through the barrier, then there is something else at play."
"The school must have known about this, which is why they were not able to forcefully teleport us out due to the barrier," Mitsui analysed. "I'm Mitsui by the way."
"Rena. Let's save the introductions for later, I need Sera's help to locate Lunaria," Rena answered without looking back. "Kaze, can I ask you to split up from me? I need all of us to cover more grounds in finding them."
"You got it. Mitsui, if you see Yuuji then inform him of the situation," Kaze turned to Mitsui. "Let him know of my name and he should believe you."
"I don't need to rely on you to get him to believe me," Mitsui made a grin before disappearing. "Ciao!"
While Kaze had many questions regarding her last statement, he decided to make haste with his actions instead of wasting more time. Right now, there didn't seem to be any reports or signs of the centipede monster around yet when he ran through the forest so that meant it still hadn't surfaced on land. As such, locating Lunaria about the issue would be better. With her abilities, she must had known that something weird was going on.
"Oho, hold up," one student called out to Kaze when he zoomed past them, causing Kaze to stop.
Turning around, Kaze widened his eyes when he saw a very familiar group of students. Groaning when he realized he unintentionally allowed himself to get caught up in something unnecessary, the group had already surrounded him.
"What do you want Bryle? I'm in a hurry."
Bryle approached Kaze with his sword drawn out, showing a slightly smug look on his face. Kaze tried to look calm but had his hand placed on the hilt of his sword just in case.
"It doesn't matter. We are going to have a little talk," Bryle smiled at him.
"Talk? Do you mean ganging up on someone and then taking away his points?" Kaze challenged Bryle.
"Why would I do that when I already have 800 points? Having a group to help you do the work is always great," Bryle hummed. "Especially during an examination like this."
"And what's in it for them? Fame? Money?" Kaze carefully glanced at each of the students who had him surrounded. "Does it really make you feel good to fight against a single person all because of jealousy?"
"It does not matter," a student holding a spear behind Kaze spoke. "All that we care about is following Bryle-sama's wishes."
"Even if you are about to die if you don't let me go?" Kaze asked. "Please, we can't spend our time doing something as pointless as this. There is a giant centipede monster under the ground, and I have to find Lunaria-"
"Don't you dare speak of her name so casually," Bryle grimaced, the smile on his face faltering at Lunaria's name. "You don't deserve to even talk to her."
"I don't care what you think of it. Lunaria herself gave me permission to speak as I please," Kaze stood his ground against the animosity directed at him. "It is not for you to decide what I can or cannot do."
"A commoner like you standing as an equal to a princess… I won't say anything about Yuuji-sama, but it is unbefitting to allow you to continue remaining by Lunaria-sama's side," Bryle pointed his sword at Kaze.
"For someone who speaks a lot about nobles and commoners, you sure are petty," Kaze made a sympathetic smile at the reaction he got. "I'm sorry for your loss. Loss of your rational sense to understand that status doesn't determine who we can make friends with, that is."
"How dare you speak that way to Bryle-sama?!"
Two students lunged at Kaze when he mocked Bryle.
"We will show you why nobles are superior!"
Swinging their swords at him, Kaze quickly drew his sword from his sheath and blocked both of their attacks. Since it was a diagonal slash from two directions, he was able to quickly determine the intersection point and made use of the trajectory to block it together.
Pushing their attack back while backstepping, Kaze threw them off their balance and released a powerful swing at one of them. This caused the person to be targeted to quickly cast wind magic on himself so he could quickly retreat, even if it meant rolling around on the dirt.
"You better think of what you said again," Bryle growled at Kaze. "Commoners are on the same level as nobles? Don't make me laugh! There is a reason a hierarchy exist in this nation and it should be used rightfully so."
"Have you ever thought about how construed your ideals are?" Kaze sighed. "Instead of making use of it properly by helping the common people, you are abusing the system."
"Say all you like, you are just jealous that we have access to privilege that you long for," Bryle took stance. "Last chance: stay away from Lunaria-sama."
"I don't think so," Kaze's grip on his sword tightened. "The last I checked, I have privilege to eat together with Lunaria and you don't."
At his words, the other students immediately charged at him.
It was stated beforehand that non-lethal attacks were encouraged and any form of attack being deemed too dangerous would cause the students to get in trouble. However, right now with the authorities occupied with tearing down the barrier, no one was there to monitor them. Even the surveillance team had lost control of their familiars and eyes inside the forest due to the barrier cutting out any magic connection they had, providing the perfect alibi for anyone who was going to abuse their power.
Kaze knew it was suicidal to take on students of their calibre on his own. Despite their rotten-to-the-core values, they were still nobles who had above average sword skills and could cast magic better than he did. It would prove difficult to fight them all on his own just as it was to try to escape. He wasn't going anywhere with so many of them following that it would be impossible for them to lose sight of him. The only option was to stand his ground and wait for the right opportunity.
Parrying sword to sword, Kaze was forced to constantly move around to avoid being hit. The only advantage he had now was that they were not as coordinated as they should be due to lack of practice in working together as a group, so he figured to use that to his advantage.
After blocking the first two slashes, Kaze took a step backwards to reset his position and caused one to miss in front of him. With another coming behind him, Kaze dodged the spear attack by sidestepping and grabbing the middle of the spear at the accurate moment. This way, his opponent was stuck from being unable to move his weapons freely and gave Kaze the chance to attack.
"Tch!" The student let go of his spear to prevent being attacked by Kaze and jumped back to cast magic. "Come to life and bind my foe, Twisting Vines!"
From the earth, vines sprouted out and shot right at Kaze. The magic itself was a binding spell, meant to lock one in place so they couldn't move while the others attack. While it was only a Beginner's Spell, it was among the most effective since it had a short casting time and could easily restrain people.
Kaze changed his target to the vines and cut through them with his sword before he could get attack. Even so, he was still a little late from how many people that were constantly attacking him and got hit from behind by fire magic. This might have deterred him a little but it wasn't enough to cause Kaze to collapse. As soon as he fell forward, Kaze made use of his stumble to create an opportunity for him by suddenly charging forward.
"C-Curse you!" The student gritted his teeth when Kaze suddenly bounced right at him from his point of view, forcing him to switch from offense to defence all of a sudden.
This change in attack pattern gave Kaze the chance he needed. Even though he might have his sword up and protecting him, his stance wasn't correct from him suddenly switching to the defensive. Instead of using his sword to attack, Kaze feinted forward and brought his body even lower. When he was right in front of him, Kaze brought his right leg forward and swung it to the right, his right foot hooking the opponent's ankle from behind. This forward momentum brought the student crashing to the floor, where Kaze spun in the air and finished him off with a downward elbow thrust right into the gut.
"G-Guoh!!"
With a loud grunt, one of them was finally knocked out by Kaze.
This exchange gave a few of them some time to cast spells. Not caring that their friend was in the way of the spell attack range due to the fact they still believed lethal attacks would cause them to be forcefully teleported away, Kaze received a barrage of Intermediate Magic from two of the students.
Rolling away on the floor, Kaze picked up his speed immediately in order to outrun the hail of falling ice spikes along with light javelins. Even then, the barrages were too concentrated for him to come out unscathed. When the spells ended, Kaze had already received considerable amount of minor damages all over his body from the spells. Bryle charged right during this time, thrusting his rapier forward to skewer Kaze.
Even with Kaze's lack of experience in dealing with a rapier, he was still made to fight for his life by defending and parrying.
"Sword skill: Volley of Death!" Bryle shouted, activating his sword skill.
His entire body glowed a yellow light before his thrusting speed suddenly increased. While continuously stepping forward, the rapier in his hand began multiplying its strikes at an even faster speed than before that it caused Kaze to have to move backwards while defending.
"K-Kuh!" Kaze grunted, his muscles burning from how long the attack interval was. "I-Isn't this a little too unfair?!"
While this exchange continued, Chris and Irene were both teaming up to hunt for points from the other students.
Unlike most groups, the two were careful to abide by the rules and used stunning or non-lethal techniques to bring down their opponents as a team. In Chris' case, he brought his giant sword down to the ground to let out a tremor so he could advance on the opponents and strike them down. Most people weren't prepared to face off against a giant sword because of how hard it was to defend against such powerful and heavy attacks, so it helped that seeing someone being able to use it so well made them panic.
Even if they were able to dodge the first few attacks, Irene perfectly followed up by accelerating herself with magic to appear behind the opponents and brought them down with a single hit. Making use of her throwing techniques, she slammed the opponents to the ground and immobilized them. Most of the time, people were shocked and unable to breathe properly when they came crashing to the ground due to their diaphragm not functioning properly after slamming against the floor. This was normal human reaction who hadn't learnt to take a proper throw, making them vulnerable for Irene to collect the points.
"What is going on? I'm pretty sure we have already fought this same guy for four times already," Irene questioned Chris while still moving around. "Unless this guy has a doppelganger, I think the teleportation spell is not active."
"Now that you mention it, I'm starting to see a lot of knocked out students lying on the floor," Chris looked around while fending against a warrior class student. "Can you help me before we talk?"
"I'm multitasking!" Irene leapt into the air upon sensing a sneak attack from behind her. "Bring down your cries and stun them before my eyes, Split Lightning!"
Using a spell mid-air, lightning was produced and came crashing down onto the remaining few students. This gave Chris the initiative to charge forward and made one final swing at a student's waist, causing him to crash onto the ground and faint from the impact. At the same time, Irene landed with a perfect drop kick onto the final mage who tried to escape in the midst of the chaos.
"Wow, you really don't hold back even against a girl," Chris chuckled when he saw Irene delivering the final blow. "Well, maybe that's because you are a girl."
"Maybe. But that aside, we probably should stop this and find out what's wrong," Irene looked around. "We have to move though, or we will just attract another fight."
"Chris! Irene!"
Rena managed to somehow encounter the two first before she found Shoko or Sera. Calling out to them once the coast was clear, she came out of the clearing.
"Oh Rena, what's wrong?" Irene smiled when she saw the elf approaching them.
After a quick breakdown of what was going to happen from Rena, Chris and Irene felt dismay for the first time in a while.
"As if the situation could not get any better," Irene mumbled.
"Do we really have to find Lunaria-sama?" Chris asked, clenching his fists.
"Yes. She is the only one I know who is somewhat capable of breaking the barrier from the inside," Rena nodded firmly. "Even I can't say for sure what will happen if we wait for the school to realize this matter and break down the barrier."
"Barriers are usually weaker from the inside, so our best bet is Lunaria-sama to be able to create a magical blast stronger than what it can protect huh?" Irene nodded at Rena. "Let's go then, we will accompany you."
----------------------------------------
Time: 30 minutes before the individual examination was over.
By now, the barrier had stopped shrinking. Most of the students who were fighting each other started to come across more and more injured students. At the same time, the forced teleportation for both heavily injured students as well as those who had their points stone thrice started to work again. The school seemed to be able to somewhat settle the teleportation issue but it was unstable. Students were going out one by one but at an extremely slow rate.
As of now, the school still had no way to break the barrier. Even by sheer force, not even the combination of 10 Platinum class mages were able to cause a crack on the barrier from the outside. This much was to be expected, especially when the barrier was designed to prevent something from going in. It was now being used against them in the time of an emergency. This caused the rescue effort to be delayed.
"Do you think they are in trouble?"
"I don't know, we still haven't figured out the root cause of the problem. This barrier had been further reinforced from the ones that were put up by the mages earlier."
With more problems arising, the distress of the situation was starting to increase at an alarming rate. Even the students who were watching started to become concerned when they were informed of the exam being cancelled and more professionals began showing up. They could do nothing but watch helplessly as the first-year students were about to discover the thing that remained hidden underneath them the entire time.
"Hehe, not so tough now, are you?" Bryle addressed an injured Kaze with a smug look.
With blood dripping onto the ground, Kaze realized that his vision was starting to get covered in blood. He wiped his forehead to find that he had been injured somewhere with blood pooling out over his left eye.
"This is nothing," Kaze grumbled, pulling out a potion to heal himself.
Of course, Bryle wasn't going to allow this and pressured his attacks. Even with all of his goons defeated by Kaze and lying motionless on the ground, he alone was more than enough to fight against Kaze who was not in tip top shape.
The two had been in a stalemate position in the last 20 minutes ago. Even though their fighting strength looked equal, Kaze was slowly starting to be pushed back by Bryle due to his weakness of being unable to defend well against magic attacks. All Bryle had to do was fight Kaze with magic on his sword style and he would slowly push Kaze back.
Right now, Kaze was starting to make mistakes in his attacks. Due to constantly being targeted with magic, he wasted a lot of stamina running around and defending. There were nearly not enough opportunities to attack, so he had to play the waiting game. Either Kaze gave up first or Bryle ran out of mana first, but the latter wasn't likely due to how many mana potions he had left with him. On the other hand, Kaze started to feel his leg muscles contracting.
"Hmph, so persistent," Bryle grumbled when he missed another one of his magic shots. "Why don't you give up now? We both know how this is going to end."
"Really?" Kaze forced himself to smirk at Bryle. "Are you scared that you will lose?"
"… Like I said, you should give up!!"
Bryle began conjuring more magic spells and rained them at Kaze's location yet again. Jumping forward to avoid the attacks, Kaze decided to switch his strategy to a more desperate one and ran right at Bryle.
"Huh?! This is suicide you know!" Bryle cried out as he switched one hand over to his sword and focused the other on Kaze.
With more icicles and water bullets coming right at him, Kaze gathered magic silently into his sword while holding it behind him. Even though he might not be good with magic, that did not mean he couldn't use magic in his attack. He simply chose not to because of the nature of it.
This caused a forcefield to generate in front of him while he charged right at Bryle due to magic gathering while he ran. It was normally not possible for this to happen, but due to the nature of the technique itself this was one of the side effects that simply happened to be beneficial for Kaze. The only risk was the drawback of being unable to change directions once used.
"Haa?! Fine, if a close-range battle is what you want, come at me!!" Bryle held his sword with both hands now and began conjuring up his own magic attack. "I will hit you with my strongest attack thus far! Sword Skill: Reign of the Fire Dragon!!"
Instantly, Bryle's sword flared to life. Fire magic of the Advanced level was put into his sword style, causing his sword to starting releasing flames aggressively. From the tip, the shape of a dragon started to take form and wrapped itself around the sword. Bryle's body charged with energy too, giving him enough power to swing the technique down on his opponent.
Bryle thought that this would be enough, he didn't need to reveal his ultimate card just yet. If it was defeating the commoner before him, he was willing to use one of his stronger attacks just to take him out. This wasn't business anymore, it was personal. Bryle simply couldn't stand the thought that there was someone who could stand on the same grounds as him even though he did not grow up as fortunate as he did.
He had teachers who guided him through properly, a family who cared for him, all the things that was necessary to ensure that he would be successful one day.
Bryle didn't know it then, but it was precisely because of this mindset that he was unable to overcome the person he was. He was unable to defeat the commoner who was less fortunate.
This was no longer a battle about pride or value, about who was right or not.
It was a battle about whether or not being fortunate and talented was enough to beat hard work.
As Kaze charged right into the flames, his shirt got burnt out from how intense it was. Kaze didn't care, focused solely on the sword that was swinging down at him. He knew that this was his only chance of ending the fight without seriously damaging Bryle.
The reason Kaze wasn't willing to use any of his honed sword techniques was because he knew that they were unsuitable for battling against people. They were simply too powerful to be put up against. However, the situation had changed the moment he saw Bryle's stubbornness. While his front cover was flawed, that didn't mean there was no logic as to why he believed that he should be the one with Lunaria.
Kaze knew that the reason was the system that separated them. Whether he liked it or not, he knew that this wouldn't solve the issue but only temporarily contain it. One day it would break out again, and when that day came Kaze would face it once again.
But right now, he didn't have time to contemplate such issues. He only wanted to ensure that his friends were safe from the incoming threat.
"…. Phantom Rush," Kaze muttered, releasing his sword technique.
Just as their blades were about to collide, the sound of thunder crackling split through the sky and a brilliant flash followed. The immediate impact afterwards was an explosion that forcefully broke both of their techniques and threw them away. Its impact was so large that every student within the barrier was able to hear it coming from.
The next thing that followed was a hideous wail that sent shivers down everyone's spine as a long dark figure emerged from where the explosion occurred.