episode_0047

‘What a crazy situation. Helena only hoped that Clare wouldn’t provoke her when she sensed the presence of the two nearby.’

The demon who caught sight of me showed off his hand piercing Helena as if he wanted to break the balance and play with her.

“Hehehe. Are you angry? If you receive such a serious injury, a lowly human like you might just die quickly. If you don’t want to see this woman die, put down your sword quietly and kneel.”

As the demon said, Helena couldn’t even claim to be in good condition with empty words.

With her abdomen pierced, she could die soon if she didn’t seek treatment immediately.

Even going to the infirmary on time could be risky.

‘But I can’t just obediently follow that demon’s words.’

If I do, all three of us here, including myself, will end up dead.

There is little time to withstand that opponent without a sword.

After I discard the sword, there is a high chance that the guy won’t easily let me pick it up again to wield it.

Clare, who has no direct combat ability, goes without saying.

The only chance is probably to pretend to comply with him, then rescue Helena when he lets his guard down, deal with the intermediate demon, and quickly get Helena treated.

Raising both hands as if to indicate compliance with his words, the guy sneered, showing no resistance.

“Hahaha! Quickly throw your sword away from its sheath at your waist. Then I’ll release this human woman as you wish.”

If I draw my sword, I will likely harm Helena immediately.

With the posture as if I were about to raise the sword from its sheath and throw it, now –

Activating body reinforcement and heightened senses to the maximum, I rushed towards him like a flash.

Although the guy probably intended to use his hand piercing Helena towards me as a human shield even in the sudden situation,

‘Predicting such trashy behavior is within the expected range.’

There might be a slight strain on the left elbow holding the sword sheath, but by slightly twisting it and changing its trajectory, I can cut off only his hand and retrieve Helena.

-Swish!

I caught Helena falling down and retreated to Clare.

Considering that magic power, putting Helena inside a barrier should be possible.

“Clare! Take care of Helena for a moment. Don’t pull out the hand stuck in her abdomen. If you do, she may not last long due to excessive bleeding.”

Clare cautiously took Helena as I instructed.

‘At this point, Clare should be able to use simple healing magic, but for such a severe wound, inadequate treatment could be harmful.’

As I thought, she seemed to apply only a stamina buff without using healing magic.

If her stamina stat increases even slightly, her chances of enduring will rise.

“Now let’s do it properly. I’ll finish your vulture-like life here, so be grateful.”

Laughing more loudly than before at my provocation, he instantly regenerated his left hand that had been cut off.

“Kehaha. Watching the final struggle of a human is always enjoyable. You will also end up like that.”

Pulling out the sword, shining brightly with the Ora Blade, we both rushed towards each other simultaneously.

-Clang!

Blocking the Ora Blade with the sword barehanded, I only received a slight wound, with no other changes.

Such wounds can regenerate in an instant, and being a magic user who consumes a lot of magic power, I am at a disadvantage.

Moreover, the impact felt in my hand was as if hitting a solid steel plate.

Additionally, let’s mix the sword a few more times. I had no choice but to notice what this guy was up to.

“All the magic I have is focused on defense and healing, buying time.”

I noticed that he was paying attention to Helena’s safety, deliberately slowing down to prevent me from concentrating.

It is clear that confirming my prioritization of Helena’s safety by stepping back without giving him an additional blow and handing Helena over to Claire, acting in this way.

In that thought, I couldn’t help but inadvertently turn my gaze towards Helena.

“Even if I take her to the infirmary, can she be saved?”

No matter how much it’s called the Ardente Academy infirmary, the hole in Helena’s abdomen far exceeds half of her belly.

Even if I could defeat this guy with time, a lot of time would have passed, and in the current sudden situation overflowing with casualties, there is a possibility that I cannot afford to focus too much on Helena for treatment.

“Where are you looking! Are you afraid the human female will die? Hahaha!”

As soon as I briefly turned my gaze towards Helena, the demon attacked me.

“I can’t even ask Claire to take care of Helena and move her to the infirmary.”

If we encounter monsters on the way, it will be a disaster.

It would be nice to meet the professors excluding the monsters, but I can’t risk their lives in such a gamble.

The barrier seems to be fixed to the location rather than the target, so I can’t move while protected by the barrier.

“There’s no other way. I really didn’t want to do this.”

With a decent aura, I made the guy step back with a swift sword strike and closed the distance.

My intuition fiercely warned me about what to do next, but if I don’t act now, Helena will die.

After training in diligence for a week, I confirmed that accelerating the aura internally quickly produced effects similar to physical reinforcement and tried to activate them simultaneously, but my intuition prevented me from doing anything else.

Accelerating the aura at a rapid speed and activating physical reinforcement internally made me feel like my body was bursting out momentarily.

“Cough.”

I barely endured the urge to bleed through my throat due to a huge shock as if a bomb had exploded inside my body, but I couldn’t stop a trickle of blood flowing from my mouth.

“I can’t even endure this for 30 seconds. I need to finish this in the shortest time possible to save not only Helena but also deal with those demons.”

The decision was quick, deliberately revealing a vulnerability on my left side and approaching the demon at close range.

Although slightly surprised by my greatly increased speed, the demon did not miss the vulnerability and tried to insert magic into my side.

He seemed to be smirking at me, sensing that his hand had reached me, but I could smile instead.

“Aura Armor deployment.”

-Clang!

Although significantly damaged by a single attack, given a moment, in a situation like this desperate one, only I could reach the enemy.

By unleashing all remaining magic, the Aura Blade successfully split the left hand that created a shield with magic, cutting through the sword to the back.

“Finally done. If I want to save Helena, I need to act quickly now-”

At that moment, I noticed the figure of the guy struggling to attach the severed torso and stand up.

“Is this still not powerful enough?”

Despite recovering from such damage, he also looked unstable, but being unable to deploy the Aura Blade further put me at a disadvantage.

In an unexpected situation, I was flustered when a clear magical chant rang in my ears.

“Enchant – Fire”

I tried to casually look back, but someone quickly stopped me and spoke.

“Yukal!! I’ve enchanted your sword now. Considering that your sword hasn’t been properly sharpened in previous battles, it seems like you’ve focused more on defense against physical attacks as mentioned in the book I read before. Please take care of this!”

This was the new skill Claire had recently learned during my absence.

Thanks to her, within the remaining time, I could swing the sword a few times at the demons, and soon the intermediate demon spat out its last breath, turning into black ashes and disappearing.

To handle things quickly, I struggled to hold onto my slipping mind and told Claire.

“Claire, I have a means to heal Helena. I will come back here with it, so never go outside this barrier. You should be able to hold on until I return.”

“Just a moment, Yukal, you’re also badly injured. Going like this in a situation where we don’t know how many enemies there are is dangerous-”

I appreciated Claire’s concern, but delaying further would be risky, so I quickly headed towards the boys’ dormitory.

Fortunately, on the way, I only encountered the corpses of monsters, wondering if the Black Moon 4th Division had done their job properly.

Breaking the window in one go, I entered my room, retrieved the shining purple elixir hidden under the bed, held it close, and prayed while running back to where Claire and Helena were.

“Please don’t be late…”