novelraw Chapter 102 : Chapter 102
Chapter 102 : Chapter 102
102
Dawn broke from the far east.
Warm sunlight drove the darkness from the land.
And upon that dawn-lit earth, there were beings racing forward.
Twenty wagons' worth.
These were the carriages Avril had been using for work around Akarind Academy since the last test.
Dudududu.
The carriages kicked up dust as they raced over the unpaved road.
The people inside the carriages fidgeted with their weapons, their expressions stern.
And for good reason—their opponent today was a being called a demon.
It was on a different level from the common monsters they had experienced.
“Do demons really exist?”
“I believe it. You felt it too. That feeling back then can’t be explained unless it’s a demon.”
“No, I felt it too, but…… it’s just.”
“What, you scared?”
“Of course I’m scared.”
“Don't be a wimp. We have Teacher Cassian with us. And Senior Rozalin and the security team members are here too.”
“Uh-huh…….”
While the younger students were having such conversations, the older students—that is, the spies who had infiltrated this school—were thinking differently.
‘The appearance of a demon is surprising, but what’s important is their reaction immediately after.’
‘They are moving as if they know what it is and how to deal with it.’
‘Their instructions on where to go, what weapons to prepare, and how, are specific.’
‘Many instructors and students are participating. It doesn't seem to be just for the purpose of leading the students. Everyone has brought weapons. Mostly swords. I must assume they are Aura users.’
‘In this small academy, there are at least five Aura users. It far exceeds the level we had assessed.’
‘Furthermore, the power maintaining these carriages... it's infused with the magic of a 6th-circle magician and the holy power of a High Priestess.’
‘This is not a place where discussions of whether to invade or not should even be happening. Why on earth did the higher-ups send us to a place like this?’
Their gazes turned toward the person riding in the lead carriage.
Cassian.
He was the axis of this academy.
‘It was an absurd act. Instructor Freutche, what was that about?’
‘A timid weakling with no interest in the students, what?’
The spies had not been dispatched here for nothing.
Cassian thought he had deceived them properly, but no one was fooled.
The spies had accurately grasped how formidable Cassian was and what abilities he possessed after only a few classes.
Of course, grasping his true nature didn't mean they had come to underestimate Akarind Academy.
On the contrary, they were focused on understanding Cassian, cautiously delaying their reports to their superiors.
And Cassian, who was receiving all this attention from both the students and the spies, was...
“…….”
...quietly meditating with his sword in the lead carriage.
The main forces were seated in the carriage he rode.
Rozalin, Hati, Ulf, Yuria, Sordian, Pan.
The presence of just one of them would have been enough to face a demon.
It was a strange feeling.
I had always thought I would fight a demon someday, but now that the day had actually come, it didn't feel real.
The people in the same carriage, guessing Cassian's feelings, watched over him quietly.
The carriages ran like that for about three days.
The place they arrived at was a small forest thick with trees.
No, it must have been a forest.
“What in the world is this…….”
The forest was blazing and burning with darkness.
The tree trunks, which should have been standing straight, swayed endlessly from side to side like seaweed wavering in the water.
As if the forest was truly on fire, black ash scattered from it, and the grass touched by the ash smoked and burned away as if doused in acid.
“It's because the demon has declared its domain.”
“Domain?”
“I told you that demons wield strange abilities. Those abilities aren't constantly active anytime, anywhere. They only gain their perfect power within their own domain.”
“Then can't we just not enter that domain?”
“The domain continues to expand over time. The reason the World Eater was able to consume the entire world was because its ability to eat anything expanded to a global scale.”
Rozalin calmly continued her explanation for everyone to hear.
The students, their faces tense, all disembarked from the carriages.
The horses, sensing the ominous energy, snorted restlessly and grew anxious.
Hati tied the horses' reins to a tree on one side.
Meanwhile, the teachers checked the students' formation.
Students with ranged weapons stood in the rear, and those who had learned Aura stood in the front lines.
Once the formation seemed somewhat complete, Rozalin began to walk toward the forest from the very front.
“Let’s go!”
The moment Rozalin stepped into the Giant-Block’s domain.
Woooong—.
The forest shimmered like the surface of water.
The settled ash scattered in all directions with a whoosh.
Seeing this, the students flinched and moved to avoid it.
“It’s fine. It's only potent against natural things; it doesn't have much effect on people like us.”
Hati stepped forward as if to say not to worry.
The mercenaries followed him, the instructors followed them, and finally, the students entered the forest.
Darkness swallowed everyone.
* * *
Altman, dispatched from the Imperial Intelligence Unit, couldn't get his head straight.
He could understand Cassian hiding his skills.
According to the information they had gathered, Cassian was a talent who had graduated at the top of his class from the Imperial Academy and was a person being closely watched by both House Defnos and House Crownhardt.
But what was this situation now?
Of all people, Lady Rozalin Vürhelm, who was said to have been acting erratically after dropping out of the academy, was standing at the head of the formation.
With a confident stride, she acted as if she was familiar with this place called a domain, as if she had been here before.
The Firestorm Mercenary Guild following behind her wasn't normal either.
‘Why is the best mercenary guild in the north working as guards in a place like this?’
He couldn't understand that either, but that mercenary guild was following the command of Teacher Cassian and Rozalin Vürhelm.
Mercenaries were beings bound by pride.
They were thugs who wouldn't listen to anyone weaker than them and would often become ruffians, disturbing the peace of a town if things didn't go their way.
For such people to follow orders to this extent.
‘Were they raised as the private soldiers of the Vürhelm family?’
Such a misunderstanding was plausible.
Looking around, the other spies in a similar situation as himself also seemed to have complex thoughts.
They had gathered a lot of new information while riding in the carriages, but the information they had obtained in just thirty minutes after arriving here was even greater.
To organize all of this…….
Kuuung!
At that moment, a sound that erased all idle thoughts echoed through the forest.
Kuuung! Kuuung!
A deafening roar resounded rhythmically.
― GRUAH…….
Between the roars, a low sound, difficult to express with the human vocal structure, flowed out.
It wasn't a clear sound, as if it was quite a distance away, but it was a sound that nonetheless struck everyone's ears precisely.
“Ugh…….”
A few students with weak mental fortitude wrapped their arms around themselves and trembled on the spot.
Their faces were deathly pale.
“It's okay. Get a grip.”
Mercenaries who were guarding the perimeter immediately went to such students.
“It's like the fear that monsters emit. Don't think too deeply about that sound, and take a deep breath.”
In the meantime, the rhythmically echoing roar grew closer.
The monster was approaching.
In the distance, trees were torn apart left and right and sent tumbling.
In the middle of it all was the creature.
― GRAWAWAWAWWA!
Individual name: Giant-Block.
The name Block was given because it completely blocked ranged attacks.
And the name Giant was given because of its enormous physique.
The Giant-Block was a massive monster reaching nearly 5 meters in height.
Its overall appearance resembled a jungle gorilla.
From its ape-like features to its long arms that seemed to reach its legs even while standing, and its thick head.
At first glance, it didn't look much different from a normal gorilla, but the problem was its head.
The monster's head and body were in a 1:1 ratio.
The oversized head was a flabby mass that looked as if it would fall to the ground at any moment, and it sloshed violently with even the slightest movement, as if there was no skull inside.
In the center of the head, which writhed without a fixed shape, was a large, translucent eyeball, giving it the feel of an underdeveloped Cyclops mutant.
The eyeball, placed there without an eyelid, stared intently at everyone present.
Overwhelmed by its grotesque appearance, Freutche shouted.
“Fire!”
At the thunderous shout, ranged weapons flew in from all directions.
Most of the students had chosen bows.
Thanks to their practice during the harpy hunt, most of the entrance-level students knew how to handle a bow.
Dududududu!
With a sound like a downpour of rain, arrows struck the monster's skin.
― GRWAWWA?
But that was all.
Not a single arrowhead pierced the monster's skin.
“What are you doing, returning students! Are you going to stand there spacing out!”
At Freutche's continued urging, the returning students—that is, a few of the spies—shot the crossbows they had brought.
It was a strike with a level of power incomparable to the students' clumsy archery, but even that was useless against the monster.
The closer the projectiles got to the monster, the more their power diminished.
And finally, the moment they touched the monster's skin, their velocity became zero, and they fell to the ground.
As the students, surprised by this bizarre phenomenon, lowered their bows, Ulf raised her staff.
“Hleul hleul. This old one was curious about this.”
Would the Giant-Block monster block even the magic of a 6th-circle magician?
The magical power she had been gathering since entering this place exploded, and from beneath the monster's feet, a purple serpent appeared and swallowed it.
But the monster's form was gone for only a moment.
The darkness blanketing the forest grew a shade darker, and then the serpent's form vanished, leaving only the Giant-Block standing in its place as if nothing had happened.
― GRAW!
“Hleul hleul. The demon's law is firm indeed.”
Even though it wasn't a grand magic she had prepared for a long time, a considerably powerful spell had failed to inflict any damage.
“A, a demon…….”
Altman stared at the scene with his mouth agape.
The other spies and the students looked much the same.
There were those who began to move, taking that gap of despair as a signal.
“Alright. Here we go.”
Rozalin raised her sword and walked forward slowly.
To her left and right, Sordian and Pan took up the roles of wings.
“One strike to start!”
She brought down the sword she held high with one hand.
With a woooong sound, the Aura enveloping the sword emitted a clear blue light and pierced through the Giant-Block's leg.
A pungent smell of sulfur rose from the Giant-Block's wounded leg along with acrid smoke.
― GRWAWRA?!
The Giant-Block flailed its hands in panic.
Its massive hands were large enough to crush a person, but.
“Too slow!”
Sordian and Pan skillfully dodged the hands and slashed both its wrists.
The sword strikes, imbued with Aura, severed the hands completely.
― GRWAWRA!
The Giant-Block's head began to turn red.
The iris of its eye spun in all directions, as if it didn't know what to do.
Through that opening, Cassian slowly walked in.
“Hoo.”
I composed my breathing and drew my sword.
‘Aim for the eye.’
I knew it intuitively from the moment I first saw it.
That monster's life came from that eye.
As if it knew Cassian was targeting its weakness, the Giant-Block's eye blazed.
The energy of its red head gathered at the tip of its eye and was finally released as a single energy form.
An attack like the mana beam a Beholder would emit.
But even that attack could not stop Cassian's sword.
The sword, wreathed in Aura, slashed diagonally up through the beam and into the monster's eye.
With a tuk, half of the monster's face fell to the floor.
The black domain that had enveloped the forest vanished in an instant.
I felt fresh air in my lungs, and the ominous, heart-pounding feeling was gone.
Cassian flicked his sword clean, then looked at the Giant-Block.
“Did I finish it?”