Chapter 76: The Angel Learns the Style (7)

Episode 76: The Angel Learns the Style (7)

Fighting is life, and life is fighting.

“Ugh, what on earth is this…”

For superhumans, struggle and life are like two sides of a coin, inseparable.

“Block her!”

“Kyaaa!”

“So this is Fairy Martial Arts. Interesting.”

A professor personally engages in a group spar with her students. Those who collapse and can’t endure are eliminated, and those who remain standing on two feet pass. A simple evaluation method.

It was an exam practically guaranteed to be unfair, riddled with the risk of numerous injuries.

An ordinary person would naturally criticize and condemn such an examination method.

“Kukuku.”

Koo Sang-hyuk, the student council vice president, muttered as he stealthily approached.

“This, this is a true test.”

But most of the students at the Central Academy, far from criticizing this kind of exam, believed it was justified.

Why?

Because the world was inherently unjust and dangerous.

Because they had learned, from even before they could speak, that this was how the world worked, accumulating physical and emotional scars.

These children, raised as weapons for their nation, families, and guilds… could only find comfort in this brutal form of examination.

“A free-for-all! No mercy! Professor, I really like the scope of this exam!”

“…You poor bastard.”

Lusa’s eyes looked somewhat sad.

This wasn’t the Lusa from moments ago, the one who had enjoyed the thought of beating up her students.

“Come at me.”

She muttered.

And a knife-hand strike from Lusa followed.

“Ugh!”

Koo Sang-hyuk, blocking Lusa’s strike with his thigh, groaned in pain, but without hesitation, he lunged towards Lusa’s blind spot.

If it were a different exam, he wouldn’t have been hurt.

He would have collapsed after becoming Professor Lusa’s target,

And it was highly likely that he would receive a bad grade.

But he liked this kind of exam.

He liked this method.

“Thank you!”

Koo Sang-hyuk, hit by Lusa’s triple strike in his abdomen, coughed up blood, but still expressed his gratitude.

Meanwhile, even among the students who weren’t directly fighting Lusa, a chaotic battle, reminiscent of the fight with Lusa, was unfolding everywhere.

“Is this hell? This is just…”

“…This is what they were aiming for with this exam. A test where we have to watch our backs, even from our own classmates.”

Why were the students fighting each other?

Because these students, who were human weapons capable of entering the Central Academy, had devised various strategies based on the simple rules of the exam.

And one of those strategies was…

“Crush them. Knock them all out.”

“S-Stop…”

To use violence to make the other students collapse.

The rules of this exam were simple: pass if you remain standing until the end, and fail if you faint. And… there was no rule prohibiting students from fighting each other.

Of course, Lusa, in her laziness, probably forgot to add that.

But… it’s already happened.

What could they do?

Fighting is life, and life is fighting.

For superhumans, struggle and life are two sides of the same coin, inseparable.

And Leffrey had no choice but to follow that same way of life.

“Leffrey!”

In the distance, Lusa was fighting the top students, and everywhere else, students were fighting each other.

Truly, a war of all against all.

Leffrey, his resolve strengthened, tried to enter that hell.

“Leffrey!”

At that moment, a voice urgently called out to him.

A cute girl, similar in height to him, with gray hair hidden beneath a black witch hat.

It was Soya.

Soya’s small hand grabbed Leffrey’s sleeve.

“You don’t have to act like those idiots.”

“What do you mean?”

“You idiot! What’s the goal of this exam? All you have to do is stay standing until the end!”

Leffrey nodded.

“I-I developed a spell.”

“…What kind of spell?”

Soya, embarrassed, lowered the brim of her hat and muttered,

“S-Soya-style Black Magic…”

The name of that spell was…?

“Harden.”

“Harden?”

“Think of it as… creating a bunker or something. Tsk, we don’t have time to talk! Hurry up and come over here!”

Soya tried to drag Leffrey away, but Leffrey was now stronger than her.

“Thank goodness. Soya, you always have a plan.”

“Of course! Do you think I’m the same as those muscleheads who only know how to fight? We’re mages! We use our brains, not our brawn! Hurry!”

It was honestly a tempting offer.

But Leffrey couldn’t accept it.

‘I have to protect the World Tree sapling. And for that… I have to join that chaos.’

Leffrey collected his thoughts.

“Then Soya doesn’t have to worry…”

“Worry? I’m not worried.”

Leffrey gently pushed Soya’s hand away.

“Sorry, Soya. I have something I need to do.”

“N-No… Why? Worry? I’m also worried…”

And swoosh- Leffrey took to the skies.

Soya stared at Leffrey’s trajectory with wide eyes.

“Don’t, don’t go…”

Transparent tears welled up in Soya’s gray eyes.

“This… This is black magic hate…”

A girl with gray hair, sobbed in a small voice.

* * *

Leffrey soared into the air.

And he quickly recalled the things he had to do.

Leffrey’s top priority.

Don’t let the bad guys have the World Tree sapling.

And who were the bad guys here?

The demon army, demon army spies, (guilds, superhuman families, government agencies powerful enough to disregard the authority of the World Tree and the elves) and so on!

Weaker guilds or families would be wary of the elves, especially Lusa, so they wouldn’t dare to mistreat the sapling.

‘Those kinds of groups, even if they get the sapling, they’ll probably want to sell it because it’s too much of a burden. If that happens, the professors can just pool their money and buy it. Professor Klein is rich enough to buy it.’

So Leffrey and Lusa’s goal could be summarized as this:

‘No matter what, we can’t let a large guild or a top superhuman family get first place on the final exam!’

So they had to eliminate the students from large guilds and top superhuman families… from the first part of the final exam.

Leffrey, in the air, glanced at the battlefield where Lusa was.

As if she had the same thought, Lusa was locked in a fierce battle with Koo Sang-hyuk, a heir from a large guild, and Yumari, an illegitimate child of the Seocheon Yu.

Many students from large guilds and superhuman families had already fainted and were carried out of the arena. They were probably all crushed by Lusa.

And amidst that fierce battle, there was one person who seemed strangely at peace.

‘Wait, Yu Si-hyun. She’s just watching Lusa?’

She wasn’t joining the fight, nor was she running away.

She just observed the battlefield.

To be precise, she just watched Yumari fight, as if she were watching an entertaining movie.

‘Student council president Yu Si-hyun. The future head of the Seocheon Yu. The tyrant who killed one of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings and stole his powers. When Yumari transformed into a dragon and fled to the other world, she abandoned everything and followed her.’

Just what on earth was Yu Si-hyun thinking? Leffrey couldn’t even begin to guess.

Shake shake-

Leffrey shook his head.

‘Now isn’t the time to be distracted. I have to eliminate the students from superhuman families and large guilds!’

Leffrey flew swiftly around the exam hall with a whooshing sound.

And he soon found a male student hunting down fleeing first-years.

‘Third-year assassination student Evok. He was one of the super rookies belonging to the Dermatec Guild.’

Dermatec was a large guild that could even ignore Lusa’s authority. If they got their hands on the sapling, they would definitely use it for experiments or as an ingredient for elixirs.

‘Imitate Leffriel’s movements.’

Leffrey used Fairy Martial Arts to imitate Leffriel’s stance.

And he shot forward.

Like an arrow of light coming down to earth to strike divine punishment.

Just as a single angel once had, from Heaven to Earth.

“S-Senior, please, stop it! It hurts!”

“This is why newbies who haven’t been properly taught a lesson… If you were in our department…”

Evok grinned, inflicting just enough pain to prevent them from fainting… The first-year students truly hated him. But they feared him more than they hated him.

And that was what Evok was aiming for.

Evok’s blade shimmered once again.

“Ahhh! Ahhh! Sniff… sniff… Mom.”

“Mom? Haha, the title is already decided. ‘Central Academy Student Searching for His Mom’. The video will get a lot of views.”

Evok muttered,

“You know what will happen if you don’t want to be recorded… right?”

Sadistic pleasure, and a sense of conquest.

And lastly, to film their pathetic state and use it as leverage.

“Such a great test.”

Evok looked at the dryad girl on the platform. That’s the reward for the top student in the final exam?

To tremble in fear while watching this battle unfold in the arena…

Evok grinned.

“Ah, this is… This is a truly great test.”

Just as Evok’s blade was about to dance once again…

Divine punishment descended upon him.

That divine punishment was beautiful. His golden hair seemed like a symbol of the Heaven’s radiance, and in those sparkling green eyes, righteous fury and compassion coexisted.

That divine punishment was as beautiful as an angel.

The divine punishment swiftly cut Evok, snatched his phone, and smashed it.

[Hiding shame and wounds is an angelic act!]

[You have gained Angelic Power.]

A swift low kick sent the stunned Evok sprawling to the ground, and then a precise stomp on his carotid artery rendered him unconscious.

[Driving away evil is an angelic act!]

[You have gained Angelic Power.]

“L-Leffrey?”

A first-year student who had been trembling, named that divine punishment.

Only then did the other first-years recognize the boy’s identity.

“Everyone, stay still. I’ll heal you.”

Leffrey reached out and healed a first-year boy who had been trampled.

[Healing the injured is an angelic act!]

[You have gained Angelic Power.]

“Thank goodness. You weren’t seriously injured…”

The fighting style taught by Leffriel was strong, but it definitely had a limit.

He had to use martial arts, swordsmanship, and magic simultaneously,

Making it incredibly inefficient.

‘So it consumes a lot of Angelic Power.’

But fortunately, he was earning more Angelic Power than he was spending.

“That’s a relief.”

Smile-

Leffrey smiled as he healed the students.

The first-year students, speechless, just felt Leffrey’s warm divine power.

As soon as he finished healing the first-years, Leffrey took to the skies again.

The students, watching his retreating figure, couldn’t help but mutter the name of a long-gone race,

“Angel…?”

Meanwhile, on the platform of the final exam arena…

A beautiful dryad trembled in fear, watching her sister fight.

That girl, called the World Tree sapling by some and called Lime by the elf who smoked and ate meat.

“Sister Lusa…”

And a flash of light sparkled in the sky.

It was the light of that angelic like beautiful boy, whom sister Lusa called family.

That boy continuously defeated the strong and saved the weak who had been hurt.

Just like sister Lusa.

The way he stood up against the strong and protected the weak.

There was an unavoidable reason for this.

The students belonging to large guilds and superhuman families were naturally strong, and the students who didn’t belong to such were comparatively weaker.

But Lime didn’t know that Leffrey needed to heal the weaker students to recharge his Angelic Power to continue fighting.

“And… Leffrey-nim…”

Lime, looking at Leffrey, felt hope for the first time in a long time.