Ch.2929. Beginning of Term Assessment (2)

‘A scream was heard…!’

Damn, things are moving faster than expected.

Originally, the incident was supposed to happen only after I arrived where those two guys were.

I don’t want to persuade the fussy Charlotte to come along either.

Honestly, I feel like abandoning her and saving myself. Every man for himself, right?

But then what? When the monsters from the underground waterway counterattack, one-on-one combat would be impossible.

The moment there’s even one victim, the purpose of sprinkling the Mysteris powder in advance becomes meaningless.

Moreover, if Charlotte dies here, Tembris loses a member. That’s not a good outcome when considering the future.

I must endure. If even one Tembris party member dies, the empire’s fighting strength will drastically decrease.

“What was that scream…?”

“This isn’t the time to look dumbfounded. Just follow me.”

“Follow you? What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden…!”

-Screech!!

At that moment, what stood before us was a Cud Rat, but a monster boasting a size incomparably larger than the original.

Giant Cud Rat.

A rat the size of an elephant already sees us as prey and raises its front paw to strike.

“Get back!”

Fortunately, despite its size, its body is soft.

After pushing Charlotte away, I barely managed to deflect the first attack with my magic shield.

But compared to a human body, its massive form meant my body had to absorb tremendous recoil.

Just one attack, and my ankle is already throbbing.

‘The purifier needs at least 5 minutes to take effect. To hold out until then…!’

I desperately needed Charlotte’s help.

“See that white powder covering its body?”

“White powder…? What significance does that have…?”

“It’s a purifier made from ground Mysteris herbs. The effect will appear in 5 minutes, so just support me until then.”

“…”

Charlotte was silent for a while. But if we split up now, our fate would be no different from those monsters.

Fortunately, the beast didn’t attack Charlotte, and I drew its attention by changing directions several times.

Charlotte isn’t foolish enough to ignore the screams coming from everywhere.

As expected, she didn’t disappoint me.

-Squeal!!

Ice spikes lodged precisely into the rat’s jaw. This is Charlotte’s specialty magic.

“…But explain everything properly later. So I can fully understand.”

Charlotte’s magic sealed the mouth, the second attack method besides its limbs. Even with something that size, this makes hunting much easier.

“Yes, yes. I’ll explain later, but let’s deal with that thing first!”

Of course, there’s no time for explanations.

The Giant Cud Rat covered in white powder would gradually weaken over time, but even with just the two of us, it was manageable.

With me as the vanguard deflecting attacks, and Charlotte casting magic to neutralize it, we could hold out for 5 minutes.

-Squeal…! Squeal…

The giant rat’s movements noticeably slowed. Not even 5 minutes—it hadn’t even been 1 minute.

Charlotte’s magic had the greatest impact on slowing it down to the point where it couldn’t attack me directly.

Tremendous amounts of blood poured from the ice spikes embedded all over the rat monster’s body.

Its frozen muscles made movement difficult.

The rat, no longer able to make a sound, collapsed with a thud, its life extinguished.

“Phew.”

It was just one, but this was the best I could do now, and it was my first real battle.

I didn’t hunt it alone but had help, so it wasn’t exactly a great result.

However… this wasn’t the end.

“Now please tell me. You promised to explain…”

-Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Screech! Screech!!

─Arghhhh!!!

─W-what is that… how do we fight something like this!!

“This is…!”

“Just count the number of sounds you hear.”

“…You don’t need to say it out loud for me to understand.”

“Remember what I said earlier? That the effect of that white powder would appear after 5 minutes.”

Seeing Charlotte at a loss for words, she must have finally grasped the situation.

She seemed to want an explanation to resolve her questions, but there’s no time for leisurely conversation.

The human screams piercing our eardrums and the cries of these numerous rats were undoubtedly too many for just two people to handle.

‘Eighteen of them, was it?’

Fortunately, those eighteen weren’t all concentrated in one place.

─Don’t break formation! We’ll handle them before the vanguards fall!

─Stop causing a commotion with this! Cast your magic instead!

Judging by the sounds of things crashing and colliding everywhere.

If they’re working in teams, they can probably handle two or three rats each.

But the most urgent matter is where the first casualties of this test are occurring.

“What do you plan to do?”

“Even with two of us, dealing with one wasn’t exactly smooth. What about those who, like us, left their teams but are facing two or more?”

“That’s obviously…”

They’ll certainly die.

Charlotte can’t deny that, which is why she’s speechless.

“No time, I’m going ahead.”

The moment those creatures tear into even one human corpse, it’s over.

That’s why I must help them. If isolated vanguards like me are attacked and it affects teams that have gone deeper inside, casualties will follow the same pattern as before, leading to horrific results.

“W-wait. Where are you going? Don’t tell me you…!”

“If you don’t want to follow, go your own way.”

If my calculations are correct, the first to be attacked would be the two people who were driven out as vanguards like me.

Charlotte is no longer my concern; I need to save them first to prevent more casualties.

***

-Screech!!

-Squeak!! Squeak!!

“Ugh… so heavy…”

“Still, you have to hold on, Noel! If even one of us falls, we’re dead!!”

As Junon predicted, the first to be attacked were Noel and John, who had been left behind by their team for being vanguards.

The numbers were overwhelming. It was already difficult for one person to handle one rat, and they were being attacked by two.

Without support, the future of these two didn’t look bright.

As if to confirm this, John’s arms began to bend, and his legs weakened, causing him to sink down.

“Argh!!”

“Noel!!”

Noel’s spear, which had been deflecting attacks with difficulty, failed to properly redirect an attack, and he dropped his weapon.

“John… I can’t anymore…”

Noel whispered an apology to John, then stopped moving, sensing he would soon have his breath crushed under those massive paws.

“No, Noel!! Get up!!”

Thud-!

At that moment, someone who had foreseen this arrived.

Someone not much different from them. Perhaps even more harshly treated—a young man.

“Huh…?”

“Junon…? How did you…?”

“Is this the time to ask why I’m here? Pick up your spear and stand up properly!!”

“But… I…”

“If you die, your friend holding out beside you will die too. Is that what you want?”

Is that what you want?

To Noel, John was a dear friend of two years.

Among all the friends he made at the academy, John was the precious one who did everything together, always sharing the same tastes.

They helped each other through hard times and shared joys, making the tough academy life bearable because John was there.

“No way… there’s no way!!”

Noel’s legs, which had once faltered, stood firm again, and his blistered hands picked up the fallen spear.

“Good. That’s more like it. John, how long can you hold out on your side?”

“If it’s just holding out, I can manage for 2 minutes!!”

Wrong. It would take much more than 3 minutes for the purifying power of the Mysteris leaves to take effect.

‘We need to decisively stop one first. That’s the only way all three of us survive.’

Junon abandoned his stance of deflecting attacks by stepping aside and switched to a posture using both shoulders.

Then he shouted to Noel, who could join the attack with his spear from behind.

“I’ll handle defense. Thrust!”

“Attack…? Me…?”

“Do you think I can attack without anything? If you don’t want to die, put all your mana into that thrust right now!! We need to take this one down before we can deal with the other one!!”

After a momentary blank expression, Noel seemed to gather his resolve, gripping his spear firmly and following Junon’s instructions.

“Uwaaaaah!!!”

Noel thrust his spear with a desperate battle cry.

The rat also screamed, suggesting the attack was effective.

-Screech!!

Blood flowed down Noel’s spear, which had deeply pierced the monster’s chest.

The beast immediately changed its target, and its opposite front paw came crashing down heavily toward Noel’s head.

But you’re not facing Noel.

-Thud!

“Deflected to the left! Circle around and thrust again!”

Junon’s magic shield continued to block the rat’s attacks, protecting Noel. But time was running out.

It wasn’t the two rats that were short on time, but the three people.

They needed to take down one rat and then deal with the next one together.

Junon was fully committed to defense, leaving the attacks to Noel, determined to have the two of them take down one rat for certain.

‘Here it comes. If I can just parry the attack of this bleeding, excited beast, then Noel can…’

“How long will it take you to catch it that way?”

Thwack thwack thwack!

In an instant, ice spikes embedded themselves, cleanly ending the life of one rat that had been exhausted from facing Noel and Junon.

‘Ice spikes… that means.’

It meant Charlotte had followed.

Despite Noel repeatedly thrusting his spear deep, the rat only bled without taking significant damage.

With Charlotte’s arrival, there was no longer any need to participate in the attack.

“I need you to buy me some time. That rat seems tougher than I thought, so I need to cast something stronger to handle it all at once.”

In that case.

Though somewhat abrupt, the plan changes. To quickly deal with the remaining rat.

“John, switch with me. Similarly, Noel and John will each block one of its front paws. When it brings its head down, whoever has the longer spear should go for the eyes first.”

“”Got it!””

“Casting time is 20 seconds from now. Can you hold out?”

After holding out for 2 minutes, asking for 20 more seconds.

It might seem harsh, but that’s reasonable.

“It’s coming in horizontally! I’ll just let this one pass, so dodge!”

20 seconds was enough to deal with the remaining rat.

***

Two monster carcasses soaked the ground with blood.

Exhausted, Noel and John leaned against a tree, catching their breath.

It’s hard to believe these two survived, that the three rats we encountered died without spreading further chaos, but that was reality.

Evidence of this was the gradual cessation of screams echoing throughout the Tvechar lowlands.

Monster corpses are the most efficient source of mana absorption for humans.

Because of this, in the previous regression, these three rats would have started later and taken Noel and John’s lives.

After devouring two corpses, the rats would have quickly reproduced, and their offspring would have eaten the human mana-filled host, growing to 2/3 of the original size.

Though smaller in size, they would have multiplied to an overwhelming number—20 times more.

After that, there would have been a team without a vanguard, and with the annihilation of those team members, the incident would have begun.

The Tvechar Joint Training Extermination Operation.

A mission named in the past to exterminate Giant Cud Rats.

It refers to when the joint training in the Tvechar lowlands turned into a battlefield, with more than half of the students becoming casualties or injured.

But now, things won’t escalate as they did then.

The shortage of vanguards at that time was prevented by Lenias arriving at the banquet hall and fulfilling his role.

Placing Mysteris powder and leaves in the underground waterway, where the monsters were expected to appear, also helped.

The remedy hastily created by Professor Muniher and Professor Dalia, who had arrived in the empire, doesn’t exist now, but the extermination operation won’t proceed.

“Is this the result you wanted?”

Charlotte asked Junon with a still suspicious face.

“No, how could predictions ever be certain? Just now, for instance. Without you, we would have died. Me, Noel, and John.”

“…Is that so.”

Charlotte then took out a handkerchief and pressed it against Junon’s left shoulder.

Only now feeling the stinging pain, Junon let out an “Ah.”

“Now I’d like to have a conversation, however brief. While tending to your wound.”

And here it comes.

Charlotte’s question time, completely different from her usual behavior.

However, Charlotte’s question time is interrupted once again.

“Hey!! You guys!!”

“Behind you!! Look behind!!”

Thanks to Noel and John shouting with terrified faces, Charlotte turned her head, but it was already too late.

“Huh…?”

“Cough!”

A handful of fresh blood spurts from the mouth of a man who twisted his body urgently. Charlotte, her shoulder stained with someone else’s blood, stared at the man who had taken the attack meant for her.