Chapter 29: The battle
"So, what do we do?" Back to the discussion room before the start of the battle.
"We all need to agree that avoiding a short-distance fight is the most optimal choice."
"Everybody knows that; their numbers are so overwhelming. If we engage directly, we're doomed."
"But how are we supposed to do that?"
"There are only 23 mages, and the rest are ability users in the entire first year."
"If mages use cannons..."
"That won't be enough. We don't even know the exact destructive power of the cannons."
"According to the NPC sergeant, it takes 15 minutes to reload using our mana."
"I think you all forgot something important."
Everyone's gazes landed on Astin.
"The enemy," Astin continued.
"What about the enemy?"
"The enemy's weaknesses?"
"Their core; as long as we destroy the skeleton's core, we win, right?" A student exclaimed.
The core is the place of connection between the skeleton and its master, the necromancy. It's located just below the abdomen, visible through their bones.
Astin shook his head. "The necromancy. What is his weakness?"
"His body," someone said hesitantly.
Necromancers are more often than not physically weaker compared to other mages.
That's why they're always surrounded by their strongest soldiers.
"What else?" he asked.
"Big army, low-level soldiers," Elsa said.
Even if all his soldiers are stronger than us, him having such a big army means he's at least a master-level mage.
In reality, back in the time, this army must have been much stronger than mere D ranks. And indeed, they would have certainly been surrounded from all sides.
Otherwise, how could they defeat a duke's army?
The system of ranking magicians is different from abilities. There are different levels corresponding to their ranks:
Beginner (F)
Apprentice (E)
Initiate (D)
Intermediate (C)
Disciple (B)
Adept (A)
Master (S)
Oracle (SS)
Archimage (SSS - EX rank).
"That's true."
"Besides dealing a lot of huge damage to their army, the necromancy will take a big deal of damage from it too," Elsa added.
"So that's why it was resting and eating dead mana," Ash commented.
Everyone nodded, still not seeing how this was going to help them.
Ash came to a realization and said, "Command, you can't give them complex instructions."
"That's why we're not surrounded by that big of an army."
"Yes," Astin nodded. He didn't mind giving them a clue; it would be too boring if they lost too quickly. "They're nothing but a swarm of individual skeletons that do not have the ability to think and will just mindlessly attack the nearest human."
"I... I have an idea." Jacob raised his head and said hesitantly after attracting attention.
"Why don't we build a wall?"
"..." A few minutes later,
"So, this is our plan?" someone asked, bewildered.
Everybody nodded; Jacob's idea seemed like a plausible plan.
"We can actually win." Students started to get excited.
"That's good, then."
'It's good but impractical,' Ryan thought inwardly.
"Jacob will stay up here and command the magicians," Astin said before leaving for the front line.
"..."
'AHHHHHHH. Don't leave me here with such a huge responsibility.' Jacob screamed in his heart.
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Tracy tapped Jacob's shoulder from behind.
"Do you want to take my place?" Jacob suggested with dead seriousness.
"I was talking about the cannon."
"The only thing that I don't lack is mana," Jacob said, clenching his sweaty hand on the cannon trigger. "I can use this alone; you don't need to worry."
"Who said I'm worried about you? I'll just stay here until it's my turn to exchange."
"Haha." Jacob laughed nervously and thought inwardly, 'I didn't say anything about you worrying for me.'
"What are you nervous about? Half of this plan was suggested by you."
"They were just desperate enough to think my plan was good." Jacob took a dry gulp and did not speak again.
To be fair, he only saw that in a mobile phone game and thought it would be a good idea.
In fact, he suggested that because he felt a little guilty. He could be of great help down there on the battlefield, but this is just an exam, and it wasn't worth exposing his space magic.
'Will we be able to defeat those things with an exhausted hundred soldiers and low-level students?' Jacob took another dry gulp subconsciously.
He has already come to terms with the fact that this world isn't in the novel and that it is the real world; he stopped a long time ago treating people here as fictional characters.
"Are you going to be alright?" Lina came trotting over, her light purple eyes looking at Jacob with determination. "Do you need me to help? You can't provide mana to the cannon alone; everyone is worried."
'Worried I may fail and drag them down.' Jacob shook his head. He thought self-deprecatingly, 'I didn't want to do this either. If not for fear that someone will be able to sense that his mana is different.'
"I also have pretty good accuracy." He added to assure her.
"The enemy is coming." The student at the top of the castle shouted to alert everyone.
"The cannons are loaded."
"Aim the cannon at the desired target."
"FIRE," Jacob said, pulling the trigger.
BOOM--!!!
Boom--
"A CLEAN HIT."
"It precisely landed in the middle of both sides of the formation."
The destructive force of the mana in its purest form is no joke.
Three cannons shot at the same time, taking down hundreds of enemy soldiers. Still, the skeletons kept moving forward.
"They are moving toward the walls!"
"All mages reload."
"Ability users, soldiers, get ready."
Behind two separate clumsy wooden fences, five meters wide, three meters long, made of high-quality material furniture from the duke's mansion, tied together with Tracy's vines, in the shape of a V with a narrow passage between the lines, stood the student in a ready position to defend against the attack.
"When the magicians fire the cannon and guide those skeletons to the fence. Elsa and Anna, your mission would be to go out there and get the enemy's attention."
Anna would use her illusion ability to distract them with fake humans.
Elsa will use her invisibility to assist Anna and make those humans look more real, by provoking and touching the skeletons guiding them toward the walls.
Since skeletons don't have functioning brains, they are less prone to being fooled by illusions.
"Distract them, head to the wall, and repeat."
Anna and Elsa nodded, their faces pale.
"Don't stay away from the group and go back behind the wall every 10 minutes."
"Will you be able to handle that?"
Elsa and Anna nodded. "Yes."
In the meantime,
"HEY--"
"Hey, assholes, I'm over here," Elsa said before disappearing.
They better get a high score after this.
"They're coming over."
Fire, ice, thunder, and rain fell on the skeletons who tried to climb the walls. Those seemingly significant attacks didn't even leave a scratch on the weakest skeleton but it did wonder in throwing them back to the ground.
The ones that entered through the passage were attacked by the soldiers.
Slice--
Stab!
"Arrgh..."
"Stop them, stop them, stop them at all costs."
"Ahhh..."
Along the wooden walls they were trying to pass through, the skeletons had to narrow the width of their advancing unit.
Facilitating the student and the soldier's one-sided battle.
The sound of cannons firing, metal ringing, shouts, and screams filled the battlefield.
"What an annoyance." Ash said, "Go away."
Ash's scream sent a shockwave that extinguished the cores of the skeletons rushing at him, reducing them to a pile of bones. The one who trembled in fear earlier was much stronger than he looked, making his classmate click in admiration. It took three students to take down one skeleton at a time, yet Ash was able to dismiss a few in one shout.
It was impossible to tell that this battle maniac was losing his cool just a while ago.
"Yahoo~" Amanda jumped at a skeleton from above, crashing its core with an axe she borrowed from the weaponry. She moved so fast it looked like she disappeared and reappeared behind another, smashing its skull. "Not fast enough."
Her movement flowed like a stream of running water on a stormy day, but it was like that only to her classmate's untrained eyes, in reality, she looked like a little faster than usual cockroach to the skeletons, a cockroach with an axe bigger than her body.
Crack--
Everyone was doing their part; however, not all were faring well.
"THE CANNONS ARE READY TO FIRE."
"EVERYONE FALLS BACK."
BOOOM!
"We can win."
"Don't raise a flag."
Crack---
Ryan looked at Eddie beside him, he pushed him down, firing a fire explosion at the skeleton at the top of the fence.
"Than--- Buurk"
'A radiation exhaustion already.' Ryan thought as he watched Eddie fall to the ground, gagging.
It wasn't only Eddie; all low-level students were the same. This formation was good, but not for inexperienced youngsters who have never fought a battle in their lives.
'Not like I ever did.' He shifted his gaze back to the battlefield.
Thousands of skeleton soldiers rushed forward with all their might to tear the hard-made wooden fence apart.
They were slower than a warhorse, but the sight itself was enough to send chills down one's spine.
"Run, run, kids! Don't even look back and keep running!"
Leading the battle at the forefront, a huge, bulky male NPC soldier shouted.
Alongside his comrades, they held down the walls, trying to buy them time.
Ryan held Eddie on his back and retreated with the others, holding the injured.
"Ah, I want to go back home..."
The NPC soldiers were not spared, their bodies torn apart by the claws of the skeletons.
Fortunately for Ryan, he wasn't able to see the gross scene of flesh and blood splattering around.
The faces of the fellow mages on the wall turned pale.
The waves of bones rushing behind their fleeing comrades were terrifying.
"The formation got destroyed."
"What should we do now?"
'What should I do?'
"Jacob."
The battlefield turned chaotic, with everyone's shouts and screams overlapping one over the other.
'We lost.'
"JACOB."
"Get yourself together, you idiot!"
"T--Tracy."
"The fuck, say something."
"Have the cannons reload!" Jacob shouted.
"Not yet."
"THEN HURRY THE FUCK UP."
---
Ryan threw Eddie's immobilized body to Steve and turns around.
Boom--
Fire exploded, turning the entire frontline of the enemy soldiers into ashes.
"Go back to the castle."
"That's right," Ash said, appearing beside Ryan inexplicably.
"..."
"You're not taking all the glory." Ash flashed him a big, toothy smile.
'... I'm not trying to.' Ryan declined to oppose Ash's claims out loud.
"I am becoming the greatest hero of all time," Ash said with confidence.
"...? You go ahead."
"If you have the time to chat, why don't you kill the enemy instead?" Damion left those words, passing by the two and plunging himself into the midst of the enemy formation.
"Hi Ryan, don't you dare treat us like we're babysitters."
Ryan dove down as ice shards flew right above his head, killing multiple skeletons at once.
Kevin and Steve shouted, "We're passing this exam with the highest score."
"SCRAM." Ash's shout sent a shockwave, turning once again the rushing skeletons into bones.
"..." Ryan, why does it feel like he's being challenged by a bunch of teenagers?
"Yahoooo~ To whom should I throw these two?" Amanda said, holding an exhausted Anna and Elsa.
"To the castle."
"Ugh, damn it…! Hurry…!"
"I'll appreciate some help over here." A student said, still holding on.
Stab! Splash!
"You go back. And take these two with you~"
"Ah, aaah!"
Crackle---
"Cannons ready; everyone retreats."
BOOOM----!
The entire battlefield was in utter chaos.