【99】98.
“Haap!”
Chelsea moved swiftly, unleashing a barrage of magic.
“Fast.”
Howl of Class 1 narrowed his eyes, deflecting the swirling wind magic with his spear.
Seeing this, Iliana raised her arms and jumped up and down.
“Just as expected, Chelsea! Small and strong!”
“Who are you calling small!”
“What are you doing not helping? Laden!”
Chelsea and Howl shouted simultaneously at Iliana.
Iliana flinched, tucking her neck in.
“Wind Chain!”
Chelsea created a chain of wind and shot it forward.
Howl, however, lightly executed an Aura Step to evade Chelsea’s attack.
‘As expected from someone aspiring to be a battle mage. This is no joke. To move and cast magic at this speed…’
Howl had already eliminated five students from the Department of Magic, but Chelsea was on a different level from the previous students of the Department of Magic.
‘Moreover, even if I close the distance, she’s accustomed to close combat.’
Unlike other students of the Department of Magic, Chelsea did not fall even when allowed to approach.
Meanwhile, Chelsea felt similarly burdened by Howl.
‘His snake-like movements are so annoying!’
While Howl’s Poison Aura would be deadly to other mages, Chelsea, who specialized in wind magic, had an advantage.
She blew away the poison with the wind.
Yet despite the unfavorable match-up, Howl continued to dodge Chelsea’s magic and closed the distance.
‘My speed is greater.’
Howl, ranked just below the top three of the Department of Knights, showed no signs of the duel ending anytime soon.
“Both of you fight on!”
“So stop watching and help! Laden!”
“How long are you going to back off? Hurry and join in! Iliana!”
When Howl and Chelsea shouted at the same time, Iliana scratched her cheek.
“Even if you say that, it’s too ambiguous for me to attack you!”
“What’s ambiguous! You’re from the Department of Magic!”
“What are you talking about! You’re from the Department of Knights!”
“No. I haven’t chosen either yet.”
Leo wasn’t the only student who hadn’t chosen a department.
Specifically, among the dual-class students, there were a few who were ambiguous about their department choice.
Iliana was one of them.
In preparation for the interdepartmental competition, she focused more on the combat aspect of the Department of Knights rather than the mobility training of the Department of Magic.
As a sword mage, she had already secured her agility.
Hence, she trained alongside students from the Department of Knights during the class period leading up to the competition.
“Then help me out! Howl is in Class 1!”
“Sorry, Chelsea. Howl helped a lot during this Department of Knights class, even if he grumbled about it. So, attacking him mercilessly because he’s in Class 1 feels a bit wrong.”
Howl helped Iliana, a skilled student, solidify her commitment to the Department of Knights before the interdepartmental competition.
Chelsea pressed her temples as she spoke.
“If you’re not going to help either side, go somewhere else. Don’t annoy us around here.”
“I agree with Chelsea LeWalyn’s words.”
With a sigh, Howl said this, prompting Iliana to laugh playfully.
“But, you know. If you two keep fighting, eventually a winner will emerge, and the winner will also be exhausted, right? At that time, we can take down one of you! Hehe! Good strategy, right?”
Both Chelsea and Howl’s expressions turned icy simultaneously.
“Just kidding! Just kidding! If one of you gets tired later, I’ll help…”
“So you’ll stab us in the back?”
“What a vile strategy.”
“Huh? Huh? Even if it’s a joke…”
“Chelsea LeWalyn. I propose we deal with Laden first.”
“We’re on the same wavelength. I was thinking that too.”
“Ah! I said I was kidding!”
Iliana let out a scream.
Whoosh! Bang!
Something crashed down from the sky behind Iliana.
Graaaarrrr!
It was a monstrous creature with a size that seemed to be about 3 meters tall.
Its thick hands, capable of shredding a human body just by grazing against it, held a fearsome battle axe.
Siiik- Siiik-
It let out a powerful snort from its nose.
A monster with the head of a bull.
“Minotaur?!”
“Why is a monster here?!”
Chelsea and Howl were horrified.
Graaaarrrr!
The Minotaur swung its axe towards Iliana.
Boom-!
“Indeed, you have arrived. Lord Giese.”
“It’s been a while. It’s the first time since the entrance exam, Lord Rogez.”
People around Giese stood up in a flurry.
Seeing them, Rogez raised his hand.
“I hear news of your nephew at the royal palace every day. The Emperor himself is impressed that he is a Zerdinger.”
As Rogez LeWalyn smiled, Giese grinned back.
“Abad and Chelsea also ranked first and second in the midterms of the Department of Magic, right? I believe His Majesty would be even more pleased by that.”
The eyes of those around naturally focused on the real powers of the Zerdinger and LeWalyn families, the strongest nation in the western continent, Rodren.
At that moment, the entire audience watching the interdepartmental competition began to murmur.
“Is that… a monster?”
“Why is a monster appearing in the interdepartmental competition?”
“Is Naigrang a monster-sighting area?”
As the audience wore perplexed expressions, the professors also sensed the anomaly.
“Why has a monster suddenly appeared?”
Sedgen widened his eyes.
Halind stood up and quickly headed to the control room overseeing the ongoing interdepartmental competition.
“What’s going on?”
“H-Halind Professor! It’s a big deal! We’ve lost contact with the control room on the Naigrang side!”
“What did you say?”
Halind’s face hardened.
“Immediately stop the interdepartmental competition and bring the students back.”
“Wh-What? What do you mean…?”
The sudden words from Halind left the staff in a panic.
“Are you saying you’re going to leave students in a dangerous area when you can’t even control the situation?!”
“But Professor Halind, if we do that…!”
“I’ll take responsibility! Enough with the excuses, bring the students back!”
“Yes, yes!”
The staff members flinched at Halind’s fierce demeanor and activated the teleportation.
“Ah, it won’t work! The teleport won’t activate!”
The urgent shout from a staff member made Halind’s eyes widen.
“What’s going on! Halind.”
“It’s an emergency. All connections with Naigrang have been cut!”
“What? ”
Sedgen’s face turned pale.
Several hours had passed since the beginning of the interdepartmental competition, but there were still one hundred students remaining in Naigrang.
“You take command here. I’m going to the principal.”
“Understood.”
Halind left the control room and grimaced as he looked at the magical transmission screen.
‘What on earth is happening!’
The students who had survived the interdepartmental competition also began to notice the anomaly, one by one.
“Haap!”
“Cough!”
A student from the Department of Knights was violently pushing a student from the Department of Magic.
“I struggled to move so quickly! But here’s where it ends! Don’t blame me for knocking you out! I’ll buy you a meal later!”
Two students from the same class were friends.
So they promised not to blame each other even if they fought during the interdepartmental competition.
The student from the Department of Knights, exploiting a gap, smirked as he lunged his sword toward the abdomen.
The magical bracelets given to the students activate teleportation magic the moment danger is sensed.
This magic was granted to ensure the students’ safety.
Therefore, even if they were actually attacked in the abdomen, they wouldn’t be seriously injured.
Pwook!
“Cough?”
“Uh…?”
Both the student from the Department of Knights and the student from the Department of Magic widened their eyes at the situation that unfolded.
“W-What… Cough!”
Seeing his friend spitting bl**d, the Department of Knights student’s hands trembled.
“W-What the hell. Hey! Stay focused! Stay!”
Holding his friend, whose face had turned white, he cried out in panic.
“Is anyone there? Help! My friend is hurt!”
Meanwhile, outside the castle walls, monsters began to converge around the castle ruins all at once.
The students guarding the gate looked stumped as they saw this.
“What is it! What’s happening?”
A student from the Department of Summoning had a startled expression at the situation outside.
While the departments were fiercely battling each other, a massive wave of monsters had suddenly launched an attack.
This turned the area in front of the castle gate into chaos.
“Monsters?”
“W-Wait, this is too many!”
A large number of monsters.
Normally, they would need to unite forces, but due to the interdepartmental competition, they couldn’t work together.
“What luck!”
A student from the Department of Summoning shouted joyfully.
While barely holding off the students from the Department of Knights and the Department of Magic, the monsters had come rushing in at the perfect timing.
From the perspective of those guarding the gate, it was a very favorable situation.
At that moment, Warden, who was sitting atop the castle wall, narrowed his eyes.
He had never participated in combat before.
He had simply been watching the interdepartmental competition, as if waiting for someone.
Despite calls for help from his peers in the Department of Summoning, he had consistently ignored them.
Suddenly, Warden stood up.
“What? Are you finally going to help?”
The student from the Department of Summoning who was in charge clicked his tongue as if to say it was about time.
But Warden merely stared at the swarm of monsters.
‘This is strange. Monsters are suddenly behaving collectively?’
As a summoner, Warden felt a sense of alienation in the monsters’ movements.
‘They are being controlled by something.’
At that thought, Warden raised his head.
He spotted the black wyvern he had seen during the midterms in the sky above the castle and gathered his energy.
“Uh? Warden?”
Gooouuuuu!
Red energy radiated from Warden’s entire body.
Whoosh! Boom!
A large explosion occurred amidst the monsters that were attacking the students from the Department of Knights and the Department of Magic.
“What, what is it?”
“Warden? Why is he helping us?”
Students from other departments, who were not on good terms with Warden even among their own department students, looked on in bewilderment as he came to their assistance.
“Open the gate.”
“What? What nonsense are you talking about? And why are you helping those guys all of a sudden?!”
“Enough chatter. Just open the gate. This is not the time for the interdepartmental competition.”
“What nonsense is this out of the blue! And why should we listen to your orders… Cough!”
Warden grasped the throat of the student who was directing the operation.
“No time to explain. Move.”
“Cough, cough-!”
The student, choked, rolled his eyes and fainted.
As the surrounding students looked on in horror, Warden spoke with a cold voice.
“From now on, I will take command. Open the gate.”
Warden moved the fainted student aside.
“From now on, our enemies are the monsters and beasts. If any of you fight among yourselves, I will deal with them first, so keep that in mind.”
“Y-Yes!”
“I’ll make sure to let the other departments know!”
“And you.”
“Eek? W-Why do you call me?”
A female student responded with fear to Warden’s call.
“You’ve made a contract with the familiar of the wind, right?”
“Y-Yeah!”
“Then go to the other gates and let them know.”
Warden looked up at the sky and gathered his energy.
Paphnir began descending at an alarming speed.
“Since an abnormal situation has occurred, stop the interdepartmental competition.”
——————==
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