Fortunately, the Ice Wall that I created blocked the fire flame initiated by them.
"That is so impossible. How can those students dodge our attack?"
The two evil guys said to each other.
"Are they our enemies?"
Liam Brooks asked with a sense of worry.
"Not Sure!" Sofia replied.
I looked at those guys and finally I could say that they were those poachers who were hunting magical creatures though it was illegal to do so.
They were actually from the underground group called Black Talon, who were some kind of bad humans in this universe.
Whenever there was a good thing, they would always interfere and make the situation worse.
These poachers are armed and dangerous, with most of them being around 2-rank, and their leader at 3-rank.
According to the novel, it is stated that they were sent to kill the MC and other best students.
However, the students are not that foolish to be killed by them.
So the MC keeps on fighting back with those poachers.
I was wondering from inside like whether we were the first students to be attacked by them.
"Who the F**k are you and why are you attacking us?"
One of my team members shouted to those poachers.
"Do you have any idea about who we are and if you kill us, what will be the consequences?"
Carter Shouted so as to make those poachers scared.
"Nothing can change their mind as they are poachers from Black Talon"
"Huh!"
"What the F**k are they doing to us"
Finally, all of my teammates could know about the danger zone they were in.
The fact about being poachers was that either they are going to die in the process of killing their opponent or they killed them mercilessly.
"What is the next Plan?"
Sofia inquired with a pale face.
I could say that Sofia was having a pale face that time because it was her first time facing those attackers.
"I will Keep on using my Ice Wall for now so that we can be safe for time being"
I said with full confidence.
"Alright Let's proceed with this plan"
Aria said and agreed with my plan.
As I kept on blocking their fire flame shot attack for so long, it seemed that my Ice Wall also came to the saturation point where it would break after some time.
"Ahhhh Sh*t!, even if we try to give signal to our academy, it seemed like it is not going to work because those attackers have blocked every space"
Carter worriedly said.
Some humans of rank 3 do possess a skill where they can even take the entire space and make it like nothing can be sent out or nothing can come in.
We were basically trapped.
Maybe we should really do something by ourselves to get rid of those attackers.
As per the novel, it has passed 3 hours 30 minutes where professor Layla Costine didn't feel right as the students are not coming back.
"Lets Attack all together. Nothing is impossible in this world. Firstly , Xerox Zee keeps on blocking their attacks with your Ice Wall so that right after they stop attacking us we will attack them to their face!"
Aria said.
"Yup. Let's do in this way"
Carter vigorously said.
In this world, this kind of attack was for sure and some humans could escape while others get killed.
In our case, the chance of winning was quite good because with my Ice Shard activated and if Aria and Carter could reach near those attackers, we could easily kill them.
"Lets Go! ICE SHARD Activated"
Meanwhile one of the attackers immediately activated his Fire Wall
("Yes! Just like I expected. This was because with the activation of his Fire Wall, four of us could easily go near them as this can limit their vision for some time.)
But, unfortunately at that moment, other members of Black Talon stepped in front of the Mage.
"Crushing Blow!"
Before the attack even reached them, its shockwave knocked everyone back.
The force was so powerful that Liam and Sofia were thrown off their feet and hit the ground hard.
Only three of us were still standing: me, Carter—who had avoided the attack's range—and Aria, who managed to stay on his feet despite taking the brunt of the hit.
"Watch out!"
Aria shouted.
"That guy is not Archer. He is definitely a Rank 3 Martial Artist!"
As soon as Aria warned us, the Mage made his move.
"Blaze Sphere!"
A searing ball of fire shot toward us.
"Ice Wall!"
I quickly conjured a shield of ice, blocking his spell just in time.
"Zero, keep the Mage busy. We'll deal with the Martial Artist first,"
Aria ordered.
I nodded and turned my focus to the Mage.
Meanwhile, Liam and Sofia got back on their feet and flanked the Martial Artist, while Aria let out a fierce cry and launched an attack of his own.
The Martial Artist blocked his strike and countered with a crushing kick.
With them engaged, I squared off against the Mage.
"Ice Wall!"
I poured more mana into the spell, sharpening its power and speed as it streaked toward him.
"Flame Shield!"
The Mage raised a wall of fire, easily stopping my attack.
His abilities were on another level, fitting for a Rank 3.
"Scorching Rain!"
Dozens of fiery projectiles rained down toward me.
"Ice Wall!"
I spread my mana wide, creating a protective dome of ice.
The fiery rain sizzled against it but didn't break through.
The Mage smirked. "Let's see how long you can keep that up."
"I don't f**king care what those weaklings has to say on my skill"
I sneered.
"Hey! Young man. You don't have any idea about whom you are messing up with"
So after saying this, he activated his full power Max Flame.
"Max Flame"
In order for me to dodge this attack, it was not a joke.
I used all of my mana left to block this shot made by the mage opponent.
-ZRRRRRRhhhh
Luckily my Ice Wall blocked this Max Flame attack.
However, due to the intensive power used by my opponent, I injured my hand a little when I dropped the Magic Wand and it was slightly broken.
"Haha, I told you not to mess up with me. You weakling A**"
He was yelling at me as if he had won the match but no.
Now it was my turn to make this bada** really know about my skill.
"AAAAAAA….."
I jumped near him and immediately I took out my sword and then…
"Shadow Style: Shadow Slash"
-Boom!
Within no time, I slashed his body into two masterpieces.
Actually this mage was thinking and underestimating that I do only have one weapon that is a magic wand but as I have prepared already with my secondary weapon : Shadow Style Sword.
Haha! He was such a weak asho**.
Just by defeating that weakling A** was not a task but I got another bastard where the rest of my teammates are fighting with.
Sofia, Carter, and Liam jumped in whenever they saw a chance, and Aria was fighting it out with him.
I reached into my bag and pulled out a mana potion and a stamina potion.
Quickly drinking both, I felt my mana recover to about 50%.
"Shadow Style: Shadow Slash,"
I whispered, vanishing into his blind spot.
"Phantom Slash!"
It ended with a single clean blow.
The jungle became silent.
Mid-battle, my friends froze, astonished. They were momentarily unaware of what happened.
In an instant, the Man, who was supposed to have been hard even for all of us together, went down.
"He's dead!" Sofia examined the body and confirmed.
Their eyes turned to me, filled with disbelief.
"You're full of surprises,"
Aria said, stepping back from the Martial Artist.
"I thought magic was your thing, but that swordplay… You might be stronger than me."
"What about the Mage?"
Carter asked cautiously.
"Also dead," I replied simply.
Their jaws dropped.
"Dead?!"
Even Aria, who prided herself on being a skilled fighter, was speechless.
(Is this even the same guy? We struggled just to keep up with the Martial Artist, and he handled a Rank 2+ enemy on his own?)
Sofia thought to herself, still processing what just happened.
They stared at me like I was some kind of monster.
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
"He let his guard down."
Sofia raised an eyebrow but didn't argue. (Even if he was careless, taking him down so fast is insane. That's not something a first-year should be capable of.)
Aria broke the silence.
"Alright, we'll rest for ten minutes. Use your potions and recover as much as you can. After that, we're leaving this forest."
"Alright. Let's go!"
We all nodded. The battle had drained us, and there was no telling what else might be lurking ahead.
After resting and catching our breath, we continued to walk and Aria suddenly spoke in her cold voice.
"Next Plan?"