episode_0145

Violet was in crisis. Their opponent was a high-grade magical beast, and in the blink of an eye, an entire squad of theirs was devoured!

“Ugh! If you get swallowed, it’s instant death!” “So scary! Screech!”

The Violets who had returned to the network after dying screamed.

The Violets swallowed by the black, viscous body melted without leaving even a bone.

At least, after learning the hibernation ability, if it felt too hard to endure even with pain distribution, it was effective to remove consciousness.

Though it took some time during combat.

“Fire! Fire!”

While Violet’s 3rd Platoon rushed in between the multiple tentacles to buy time, the Violets behind them fired their rifles.

Nothing happened, as if a stone had been thrown into a deep swamp. Its soft body instantly regenerated.

“Heavy weapons squad, forward!” “Fire!”

The heavy weapons team, armed with rocket launchers and grenade launchers, stepped forward.

The most powerful weapons infantry could use flew through the air and struck the magical beast’s body.

A brief flash and a deafening explosion!

Parts of the magical beast’s body shattered and scattered in all directions.

“Haha! We win!” “They said it had physical immunity, was that a lie?”

Convinced of victory, they launched another heavy weapon attack. After the second explosion, smoke briefly obscured their vision.

“Huh?” “It blocked it.”

The platoon leader, Violet, tilted her head. The Noxtera was fine. They saw parts of its body that had fallen off earlier crawl back to its main body and be reabsorbed.

“It really doesn’t work.”

It was Irene, watching from behind, who answered their question.

“That’s because it hardened. Put away your guns and crossbows.”

Unbelievable, in a short moment, it had hardened its soft body.

Indeed, the Noxtera truly was a powerful magical beast.

Its appearance was similar to a slime found in common fantasy games.

The problem was that, unlike slimes, which were treated as beginner-level punching bags, the Noxtera was a high-grade magical beast with unique powers.

When classifying magical beasts, there were various criteria for distinguishing between high-grade and mid-grade. How high their firepower was, their level of intelligence, their defensive capabilities, or if they possessed troublesome traits.

And it possessed the characteristic that almost all physical means were ineffective against it.

Because it absorbed weak attacks and adapted to block strong ones.

“Levia! Give it a hit!”

As the Violet on the rooftop urged, a giant bolt flew from the rooftop. A hole was cleanly punched through its hardened body, but the wound instantly closed up.

“Huh, this doesn’t work either?”

“Idiot! That thing doesn’t have a core or a heart. What are you going to do by making a hole? The only answer is to shatter it completely or burn it!”

Lucian glanced at me with a pathetic expression as he prepared his magic.

Burning it, huh? According to the researched data, its weakness was flame magic. That meant fire was its weakness, right?

“Ugh! I’m flying!” “My leg’s broken!” “Wounded, over here!”

The Violets were hit by tentacles and sent flying.

“Argh! It’s disgusting and there are so many of them. Violet, do you have any good ideas?”

Kalia shouted towards me, diligently cutting tentacles with her flame-imbued sword.

Each severed tentacle emitted smoke and went limp. It was the moment Kalia’s unique innate ability shone.

But the magical beast’s body was too large.

“Yeah! Just a moment! We’re preparing an attack!”

While Irene, Kalia, and Granite fought fiercely at the front, cutting tentacles, the Violets weren’t idle either.

A group of Violets pulled out molotovs.

“I’ll burn you!” “Flames of Purification!”

Lucian, who was preparing an attack, grabbed the arm of the Violet next to him in alarm.

“Hey, are you crazy! Do you want to get hit by a flaming tentacle?”

“Didn’t you say we should burn it? This is a Violet-special incendiary bomb. It’s a thing that reaches a maximum temperature of 2000 degrees.”

“It’s meaningless if it’s not magic!”

Ah, so this was where the problem with a magic-all-powerful world came out.

But there was no problem. Because their Violets knew how to use magic. They would show the results of the magic they learned from Professor Albert here!

“Flame spray!”

The Violets extended their hands.

The most basic of basics, flame spray, shot out from their palms. The tentacles recoiled and pulled back.

“Huh?”

Oh no, the reason the tentacles pulled back was to gain elasticity.

The Violets spraying flames were hit by an attack and collapsed.

“Argh!”

“The magical beast isn’t stupid, it’s not going to just let itself be roasted by such beginner magic. You, get out of the way, all of you at the front! I’m going to smash it and then burn it!”

As the teammates quickly retreated to both sides, Lucian snapped his fingers.

It was his usual magic arrow attack, but this time it shimmered with dazzling, bright blue flames.

Six arrows flew consecutively from the magic circle behind his back and struck the magical beast. They could see that the wounds it sustained weren’t regenerating.

Not only that, Lucian launched another attack, more powerful than imaginable.

A flame spear the size of a utility pole pierced the Noxtera’s black body. Flames shot high into the air.

“Got it!” “No, not enough!”

As soon as they prematurely celebrated, the Noxtera emerged from the smoke.

Its body had shrunk somewhat, but only the outer surface had peeled off; shattering it completely had failed.

“Ugh! Is it Phase 2?”

The magical beast seemed to consider Lucian, who was casting magic from the rear, as a threat, ignoring other teammates and rushing towards him.

“Ha, that was max output, and this is all it did? Typical high-grade magical beast.”

“I’ll buy time! Retreat!”

Dozens of Violets rushed forward to block the magical beast. Their appearance was like a swarm of mice attacking an elephant.

The courageous mice stabbed and bit the elephant frantically, but only managed to provoke its wrath.

The magical beast now generated more tentacles and wildly swung them around.

“Ugh, ugh!”

Casualties occurred. That dull Granite was hit by a tentacle and fell over. Thanks to a shield, they avoided serious injury but rolled across the floor once.

“Ugh! Irene, should we just retreat?”

No. 227 urgently said to Irene, who was grappling with three log-sized tentacles.

Her skin was red and inflamed from the magical beast’s bodily fluid dripping from the tentacles. If it had been me, I would have melted long ago.

As a giant bolt severed a tentacle, she found a moment of respite and replied.

“Well, the Noxtera has a tenacious nature. You’ll have to be prepared to die whether you run or fight.”

“Ugh, there are quite a lot. So, a definite way to kill it…”

“We’ll just have to cut it up piece by piece and burn each one!”

Ugh, there was no easy way. I even thought about self-destructing but quickly dismissed the idea. It might regenerate.

In the end, it was up to the Violets to do the hard work.

One hundred Violets, holding weapons imbued with sword energy, charged all at once.

“Disassemble it!” “Cut it off!”

The Violets furiously tore at the magical beast like a swarm of ants clinging to jelly. As they tore off pieces, they burned and trampled them with their hands.

As its body slowly began to shrink, the magical beast thrashed wildly.

“The resistance is too strong!” “Headquarters reports: Authorization for use of the Blade of Blazing Flame has been granted!”

Their proud 5-star weapon, the Blade of Blazing Flame, also appeared. As magic power flowed through it, scattering flames, the magical beast’s tentacles fell off in droves.

“We should have used it earlier!”

They had cherished the 5-star weapon so much that they forgot to use it. If they had taken it out and used it earlier, they wouldn’t have had to go through such hardship.

Feeling the crisis, the magical beast tried to flee.

“Daphne, shield!” “It’s set!”

As the magical beast tried to escape, they deployed thin shields around it like a barricade, blocking its movement.

Tentacles constricted and swallowed Violets, but even more Violets rushed in and tore the creature apart.

Slowly, little by little, the Noxtera’s size diminished.

“Haha! Die!” “Vengeance for 1st Platoon! Grudge for 2nd Platoon! Fury for 3rd Platoon!”

After dozens of Violets had died, its size was reduced to a manageable level.

“Now!”

Lucian launched another flame spear. The magical beast shattered into pieces.

After meticulously burning every single flaming remnant, we clinched victory.

“We won!”

I looked back at my teammates to share in the joy of victory.

“…Violet, are you okay?”

My teammates were looking at me with some concern. What in the world was the problem?

“It seems too many died…”

“Huh? Don’t worry! It’s our job to die, anyway.”

Lucian said one word with a disgusted expression.

“Crazy bitch…”

Hmm, it seemed they weren’t used to their teammates dying. They should get used to it.

While everyone rested, I gathered the injured Violets and their body parts and organized them.

“I picked up a leg here. There’s an arm too, so attach it!”

“Alright…”

Daphne silently treated the severely injured Violets with a bitter expression.

It felt like repairing broken dolls. Where parts had melted away, soft, smooth flesh filled in again, and crushed, severed arms reattached neatly as light green magic flowed.

“Thank you!”

The Violets were running around full of energy again, as if they had never been hurt. Daphne is really kind!

**

I realized something from this battle: the importance of magic.

Thinking about it, their Violets had only fixated on swordsmanship and weapons, never really considering specializing in magic.

Although they had learned things by being tutored by Professor Albert, pulling the trigger was more convenient than manipulating spells. When would they have time to calculate everything during a fight?

“An opponent unaffected by bullets, what a headache.”

It was fortunate that they had trained hard in swordsmanship and close-quarters combat. Otherwise, they would have had to retreat unconditionally. It would be troublesome if a situation arose where they couldn’t use guns and bombs.

Magic, huh? Should they try applying the collective computation they used before once again?

As Company Commander Violet pondered while sipping her drink, vehicles bearing the Aegis Academy logo, which she had seen that morning, drove past them and stopped.

“Huh, why are they here?”

The people who got off the armored bus got out cautiously, looking at them.

“No way, did they come to catch us?”

“No! They’re students. I see people who look like instructors too.”

Why were they looking at them so cautiously? Although they were suspicious-looking, dressed in black combat uniforms with their faces entirely covered.

“Who are you?”

The familiar voice she had heard that morning spoke again. When she turned her head, there was Adela!

“That appearance, surely it’s a recognition interference device…”

Oh no, to even recognize it as a recognition interference device, they might arouse suspicion. Company Commander Violet turned off the recognition interference device and took off her mask.

“It’s, it’s me!”

“Violet!”

I was a little scared. Adela wouldn’t get angry again, would she?

My prediction was wrong.

“To see you here again… I’m sorry for getting angry earlier…”

Adela smiled sheepishly.