Academy Entrance Exam (7)

1.

Hoth, who had been happily hunting Magical Beasts, encountered an unexpected enemy.

“What… the hell is that…?”

It was a grotesquely shaped creature.

No, could it even be called a creature?

With its eyes rolled back, it was closer to an Undead.

It looked like a person, and also like a long-armed monkey.

A form between human and beast.

“What, what is it… why is a Demon in a place like this?”

It was Reine who revealed the identity of the creature.

She, too, had been hunting Magical Beasts with Hoth and ended up entering the Demon’s Barrier.

“A Demon? That’s a Demon?”

“Yeah.”

Reine tapped her foot anxiously.

Although she was the daughter of Count Agnia, a prestigious family of Flame magic.

Her Magical rank was not yet high enough to deal with a Demon.

A Demon could wipe out an entire village on its own.

Strong ones could even wipe out cities.

She couldn’t understand why such a monster had appeared at the academy entrance exam site.

“Let’s go back and report to the supervisor first.”

Reine looked back.

“Saintess, let’s go… Saintess?”

The Saintess was nowhere to be seen.

She thought she was following behind.

She had been too excited about hunting Magical Beasts and hadn’t paid attention to what was behind her.

“Ah… damn it….”

In this case, she had to find the Saintess first before returning to the supervisor.

Leaving the Saintess alone in this forest.

It would be a disaster if she was attacked by a Magical Beast or caught by a Demon while returning to the supervisor.

“Hey, kid, is that thing strong?”

Hoth asked in a somewhat serious voice.

“Idiot, I know what you’re thinking, but you shouldn’t do it.”

“So it’s strong.”

“If you want to die, die alone. I’m going back.”

“If it’s something that someone has to deal with anyway.”

Hoth put down his sword and took out the two hand axes he was wearing on his waist.

“Can’t I just take care of it?”

“You can’t. In the first place, there’s no one who can defeat a Demon alone.”

A few exist, but generally, they need support from the Imperial Knights to defeat one.

“Then one will be born here.”

Hoth pointed to himself with his thumb and grinned.

“I’m the guy who single-handedly defeated a platoon of the Demon Lord Army.”

“Don’t equate the Demon Lord Army with Demons.”

“They both have the same ‘Ma’ character, though.”

“Is this the time for jokes?”

“Watch closely. I’ll show you how strong a warrior from the Southern Kingdom is.”

“If you want to die, you might as well commit suicide.”

She said she was going back to the supervisor, but when Hoth really started preparing for battle, Reine also prepared her magic.

No matter how she thought about it, it was suicide.

How could kids who haven’t even entered the academy defeat a Demon?

“Haaah!!”

Hoth roared and charged at the Demon.

“That idiot! He’s giving away his position…!”

Hoth raised his two axes high and jumped.

“I’ll smash you to pieces!”

The Demon, who had been aimlessly wandering around, reacted immediately.

It raised its long arms and swung a rectangular greatsword.

Clang! The two weapons collided.

The shockwave shook the forest.

“Burn!”

While Hoth was holding the Demon, Reine poured magic onto the Demon.

Flames like a dragon’s breath engulfed the Demon.

It seemed possible.

It seemed like they could catch it.

Had she been too intimidated by the name Demon?

That thought was immediately erased.

“…It disappeared?”

The Demon engulfed in flames had disappeared.

“Behind you! It’s behind you!”

At Hoth’s shout, Reine turned around.

“Huh…?”

A huge figure over 2m tall was right in front of her.

Teleportation magic?

No, she didn’t feel the Magical power using magic.

“How…?”

“Snap out of it!”

Hoth’s hand axe rotated and passed over Reine’s head.

The hand axe was embedded in the Demon’s wrist.

But the Demon didn’t budge.

As if it couldn’t feel pain.

It indifferently raised the arm with the hand axe embedded in it and tried to smash Reine.

“Dodge!!”

“Bu, burn!”

Reine used magic under her feet to create an explosion.

She launched her body with that explosion.

-Bang!!

If she had been even a little late, she would have been crushed by the greatsword.

She should have run away after all.

Reine sincerely regretted it.

The Saintess was important, and her companions were important, but the most important thing was her own life.

Should she run away now?

While she was thinking, Hoth roared and charged at the Demon again.

“Hup!”

Hoth rolled to avoid the attack of the long arm swinging like a whip, and approached the Demon. He slammed the other hand axe down on the hand axe embedded in the Demon’s right wrist.

It cut through the tough muscles and dug in halfway.

It wasn’t enough.

Sword Aura bloomed.

Red Sword Aura became flames, making the hand axe look like a giant Battleaxe.

“Guaaaa! Haa!!”

Whoosh, he swung the Battleaxe.

The Demon’s wrist was severed.

Hoth didn’t stop.

He further unleashed his Magical power.

Sweat flowed.

And the sweat evaporated.

His tanned skin turned red, causing the Berserker’s blood to boil.

He wildly slashed the Demon with the Battleaxe as if he was butchering it.

-Clang! Clack! Clang! Clang!

He cut and cut and cut the bones.

“Kuaaaaa!”

Hoth threw the Battleaxe at the Demon’s face and shouted to the sky.

At his feet was the Demon’s corpse, brutally cut to pieces.

“Huh… huh… how was that? Did you see?”

Hoth raised his thumb and pointed to himself as if to show off.

She had to admit what she had to admit.

He was ignorant, but he had tremendous destructive power.

“With this much, would I be the top student at the academy?”

Hoth laughed heartily.

“There are people who catch Demons alone… Hey! Dodge!!”

“What?”

Before Hoth could react to Reine’s words.

Clang, the greatsword was embedded in Hoth’s shoulder.

“Kuaaaaaack!!”

Because he was using Body Enhancement with Magical power, he was able to avoid having his arm severed, but because the greatsword was embedded halfway, his trapezius muscle was torn and his shoulder bone was crushed.

“Burn!!”

She created an explosion with flames and blew Hoth’s body away.

-Bang!!

Another greatsword flew into the spot where Hoth was standing.

“What is this……”

Hoth clutched his shoulder and groaned as he assessed the situation.

The Demon was standing there unharmed.

The dismembered corpse had disappeared.

“Did it… regenerate?”

“No, it’s not.”

Reine said in a trembling voice.

The Demon hadn’t regenerated.

“It was a Phantom body.”

“A Phantom body…? What’s that?”

“It was fake! What you defeated wasn’t the real one.”

“The real one is somewhere else…?”

Reine nodded, trembling.

“Lo, look behind you.”

Hoth turned around.

“?!”

There was another Demon there.

“So… so which of those two is the real one?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Could that be called a Phantom body?

It was created with such elaborate magic that it was right to see it as another living being.

That Magical rank far surpassed Reine’s, and she couldn’t dare to interpret the magic formula.

“It’s not too late now. Let’s run away.”

They could somehow shake off two of them.

Ah, now that she thought about it, she realized that running away was meaningless.

Just now, it teleported behind her as if it had used teleportation magic, so could they really shake it off by running away?

No.

“Kuh… I, I’ll hold them off, so you run away.”

Hoth cauterized the wound with the heat of his Magical power.

“And, go and tell the supervisor.”

“Idiot, how are you going to do it alone?”

“I have to do something.”

Hoth covered himself with Magical power like armor.

“Hurry.”

His feet wouldn’t move.

But if they could live, it was right for even one more person to live.

Instead of both of them dying, even one person should run away and tell the supervisor.

If Hoth could hold out until then… he could also live.

If the Demon had heard this conversation, it would have burst into laughter.

Their conversation was meaningless.

They were already inside the Demon’s Barrier, so it was impossible to get out.

The two people who didn’t know that were filming a touching drama.

“……I’ll be back as quickly as possible.”

“Okay.”

It was the moment when Reine turned around and tried to run away.

“Everyone’s here?”

The Saintess appeared through the bushes.

It was a disaster.

The situation had become even worse.

On the battlefield, the Saintess was helpful in defeating Demons.

But that was the story of a Saintess who had trained for years.

Elia had only been a Saintess for less than a month.

She had heard rumors that the amount of Divinity she possessed was enormous.

But just because the amount of Divinity was large didn’t mean she could use Divine magic.

Training was needed.

So, they couldn’t expect anything from Saintess Elia right now.

To put it bluntly, she would only be a burden.

“Saintess! Run away! It’s a Demon!!”

The Saintess’s blood-red eyes moved gently and looked at the Demon.

“Everyone, bow your heads.”

The Saintess slowly walked out of the bushes.

A sword was in her hand.

The Saintess’s eyes narrowed.

As if reacting to the sharp murderous intent, the Demons began to rush at the Saintess.

The Saintess swung her sword once.

A golden line that cut the space in half was drawn.

“……Sword Aura?”

The line cut through the two Demons and passed by.

Two heads tilted back and fell to the floor with a thud, thud.

It was such an anticlimactic ending.