Ch.29Chapter 29. Crisis? (2)

Gareth had pride in his skills.

Though not from a prestigious family, the Iskea Family swordsmanship he practiced was undeniably powerful and captivating.

It was a style that emphasized offense over defense, particularly focusing on speed.

Until now, few opponents at the Academy had been able to face his consecutive strikes.

Of course, excluding the professors.

The same was true during last year’s dungeon exploration.

Countless monsters that appeared in the dungeon fell helplessly before his sword.

That’s why he expected this year would be similar.

“Verthe!”

“W-what is this?”

Clang-

“Ugh.”

His hands tingled after blocking the opponent’s sword strike.

Such tremendous power behind a single swing.

“Verthe! Hurry!”

“Almost… done!”

Even Verthe’s voice, usually calm and unshaken by most situations, was trembling slightly.

When Gareth sensed the surge of mana from Verthe’s direction, he pushed back the opponent’s sword and leaped backward.

Woong- Whoosh-

Almost simultaneously, blue flames erupted from Verthe’s hand and stretched forward.

The Bernstein blue flames, refreshing to see as always.

“Phew.”

“An Undead?! Are you kidding me?!”

Gareth wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, while Verthe erupted in fierce anger.

What had just blocked their path was a Death Knight.

An Undead—a dangerous entity never found in ordinary dungeons.

And not just a low-level Undead, but a Death Knight, classified as a higher Undead.

Both of them were seeing an Undead in person for the first time.

After all, the last Undead sighting on the continent was several decades ago.

“Something’s not right.”

“We didn’t have such insane monsters last year. The strongest was just a Giant Spider.”

“…Wait.”

“This is truly insane…!”

Kigigik-

The chilling sound from ahead instinctively drew Gareth and Verthe’s gazes forward.

The sound was coming from the space where the heat of the blue flames hadn’t yet dissipated.

Kigigik- Thud-

“W-what… this is really…”

Verthe’s voice trembled much more than before.

Despite taking the flames head-on, the Death Knight was still moving.

And completely unscathed at that.

“Verthe, get behind me!”

“Uwaah!”

Claaang-

A massive metallic sound rang out as Gareth’s sharp sword collided with the Death Knight’s heavy blade.

Gulp-

Gareth genuinely sensed danger.

An Undead that wouldn’t fall to flames.

This was truly dangerous.

Moreover, the Death Knight that had been engulfed in blue flames looked completely fine.

‘Is this really the inter-grade competition…?’

Gareth tightly shut his eyes and pushed the Death Knight back again.

Though the Death Knight barely moved.

“Damn it.”

Even Gareth’s voice was trembling slightly.

**

“Grrrr…”

“What is that…?”

“It appears to be a monster!”

What finally revealed itself under the light was a repulsively formed creature.

A being with grayish skin, moving slowly but steadily.

It must be a living creature since it was clearly walking on two legs.

“Miss Cynthia, get behind me!”

Swoosh-

Elaine pointed her sword at the something that was walking slowly but surely toward us.

Cynthia quickly moved behind Elaine while drawing her bow.

“Th-that can’t be…”

“Emily, do you know what it is?”

“Th-that shouldn’t be possible…!”

Emily seemed to know something.

With a voice trembling more than usual, she reached out toward Elaine while staring at the approaching monster.

“H-how can an Undead be…?”

“Undead, you say?”

“I-it looks like a ghoul… H-how can it be in a place like this…?”

While Cynthia and I were listening to Emily, Elaine took action first.

Woong- Slash-!

Along with the sound of Elaine’s sword cutting through the air came a distinct sound of something being cleaved.

Elaine’s sword cleanly cut through the ghoul’s chest.

I expected blood or something equivalent to spray, but there was nothing of the sort.

“Grrrr…”

“What in the…!”

Despite the clear wound on its chest from Elaine’s strike, the ghoul didn’t stop.

It just kept walking forward as if it felt no pain at all.

Elaine, shocked that her attack had no effect, stumbled backward.

“Y-you have to cut off its head to kill it!”

“Its head…?”

At Emily’s words, Elaine immediately changed her stance.

Then she rushed toward the ghoul without hesitation and swung her sword horizontally.

Slash-

Thud- Thump-

Once again, the sound of something being cut echoed through the cave, just like before.

Followed by the ghoul’s head falling.

“Ugh, disgusting.”

When the head with barely visible facial features rolled toward my feet, I instinctively kicked it away.

“Repulsive” was the perfect description for its appearance.

Thud-

“It’s… fallen.”

Soon the headless ghoul’s body collapsed forward lifelessly.

This time it seemed definitely dead.

“W-we need to run away!”

“Huh? Emily?”

“Hurry!”

After a brief moment of silence with the fallen ghoul’s body, Emily urgently tugged at my clothes.

Her expression was filled with fear.

And not just any fear—absolute terror.

“Come on, we killed it. Our supreme swordswoman Elaine took it down with a single strike.”

I spoke playfully to lighten the mood since Emily seemed so frightened, but it didn’t work at all.

Emily gripped my sleeve even tighter.

Though she was only holding my sleeve, I could clearly feel her trembling.

‘What’s wrong with her?’

Even if it was an Undead, it seemed excessive to be this scared of a monster that was already dead.

“G-ghouls never travel alone!”

“What?”

At Emily’s desperate cry, Elaine and Cynthia, who had been examining the fallen ghoul’s body, instantly turned their attention to her.

“But how do you know so much about Undead…”

“Grrrr…”

*Flinch*

Just as I was about to ask Emily something to naturally change the subject, another sound came from ahead.

There was definitely nothing there until just moments ago.

Both Cynthia and I had checked.

‘What is this, really?’

“Grrrr…”

The sound coming from ahead was the same as the ghoul Elaine had just beheaded.

No, sounds, plural.

Thump- Thump-

“U-uwaah!”

Swoosh-

“Everyone behind me!”

“Kyaaah! Hurry, we need to run! Or else, just like that time… Kyaaaah!”

“Hey, Emily!”

It was total chaos.

What emerged from the darkness was at least 10 ghouls, from what I could see.

How many more were behind them was impossible to gauge at a glance.

As the ghouls appeared from the darkness, Emily collapsed on the spot, screaming.

Cynthia also jumped back in surprise.

Elaine was the only one who remained relatively calm.

She calmly drew her sword and pointed it at the ghouls.

‘But I’ve never seen Undead before either.’

Over the past few years, I’d visited pretty much all the famous dungeons.

I’d been to dungeons that hadn’t been cleared yet, and ones that had been cleared but might still have something left.

I’d encountered countless monsters inside them, but never an Undead.

Didn’t Addy say that Undead were a race that couldn’t be seen after the “Black Mage Expulsion Period”?

“Run… we need to get out… quickly… Aunt…”

“Emily, hey, Emily?”

“Ryu! I think we should retreat for now!”

Woong- Slash-

Everything was chaotic.

Between the suddenly appearing ghouls and Emily trembling while clutching my leg and muttering incomprehensible words.

Amidst all this, I heard Elaine beheading another ghoul.

“Cynthia, take care of her!”

“O-okay.”

“And move back a bit. Geez, what is this really?”

At my words, Cynthia quickly put her bow back and started comforting Emily.

While Cynthia was detaching Emily from my leg and supporting her to move back.

Slash- Slash-

Elaine was swinging her sword without hesitation, beheading ghouls one after another.

‘I really want to recruit her…’

Elaine, with her shimmering golden hair flowing, was cleanly beheading the ghouls one by one.

Not only was her skill in cleanly cutting off heads impressive, but Elaine was also remarkably composed.

While Emily was in shock and unable to gather her wits, and Cynthia was at a loss for what to do, she alone was slaying ghouls.

She truly didn’t seem like a student.

The ghouls were numerous, but their individual combat ability didn’t seem particularly high.

However, there were just too many of them.

Despite responding calmly and positioning herself to avoid being surrounded, Elaine was gradually being encircled by the ghouls.

“…Ryu!”

‘Sigh, I was planning to be a mage.’

It was an unavoidable situation.

If I had known even one area-of-effect spell, I would have used it without hesitation.

All I could do now was a very simple magic of condensing and releasing mana.

A magic that wouldn’t be much help in the current situation.

“Is this really an exam?”

“N-now is not the time for such remarks!”

Slash-

Elaine shouted as she beheaded another ghoul that had approached right in front of her.

Now Elaine was on the verge of being surrounded by ghouls.

‘No choice.’

Grip-

I opened a space with my right hand and grasped the sword handle.

‘Is this really Academy student level?’

From the obstacle course and now this, there were too many unexpectedly dangerous situations.

It seemed excessively dangerous for an exam conducted at the Academy.

I had hoped to avoid drawing my sword in this exam if possible, but this was already the second time.

Earlier I had just gripped the handle, but this time it seemed I had no choice but to draw it.

Shing-

After a very long time, I drew my sword.