Book 1 Chapter 29
【29】28
Durian's ball, enveloped in a lightning aura, flew towards the goal.
“Wind Shield!”
Chelsea urgently cast a defensive spell.
A powerful wind blew from the goal of Class 5.
Then, the ball, which was flying at tremendous speed, suddenly slowed down.
But its momentum had not disappeared.
It was literally just holding the ball for a fleeting moment.
Because the ball was wrapped in a lightning aura, it couldn't be caught carelessly.
Even if it were caught, it was clear that it would penetrate Chelsea's defensive magic and fly into the goal before reaching the hands of other students.
“What a useless thing to do!”
As Duran scoffed, Leo shouted.
“Kal! Get ready what I told you!”
“Ugh! If only it wasn't for cleaning the bathroom!”
Kal unleashed his magic.
Kal was an earth-attribute mage.
The specialized traits of the earth attribute were defense, and weight!
Faint brown magic emanated from Kal's body.
Leo, who protected his body with defensive magic and held Kal's hand, whose weight had been reduced using gravity magic, threw Kal towards the goal.
He intended to use a human shield.
Thwack! Whoosh-!
Kal's body flew towards the goal.
Whoosh-! Shhhhwiiiiing-!
At the same time, the ball also successfully pierced Chelsea's defensive magic.
Kal, lighter than the ball, reached the front of the goal faster than the ball due to Leo's strength.
“It's no use! You'll go into the goal with the ball!”
Durian sneered.
But just before being hit by the ball, Kal used magic to maximize the weight of his body.
In addition, Chelsea hurriedly cast a shield spell on Kal.
Thwack-!
“Gloop!”
Slap-!
Only Kal, who was hit by the ball, went into the goal, and the ball bounced out.
Before it hits the ground, if you catch the ball, the attacking right is maintained, but if you miss it, the attacking right is lost.
Tap-! Roll, roll, roll.
The ball rolled on the ground.
Beep-!
“Attacking right to Class 5!”
“Kyaaaak! So cool! Kal!”
“Your spirit of sacrifice for the class! We won't forget it!”
As Class 5 barely succeeded in defense thanks to the cooperation of Leo, Chelsea, and Kal, cheers erupted from Class 5.
Kal smiled sadly, looking at his classmates who only remembered his sacrifice and didn't worry about him.
“Sorry, Kal.”
“Are you okay?”
“Leo, Chelsea, you two are all I have.”
Kal was moved, seeing Leo and Chelsea approach him with apologetic smiles.
“That was cool. What kind of strategy was that?”
When Nella, who came over to provide treatment, asked languidly, Chelsea smiled brightly and said.
“Operation name, Friend Shield! It’s a defensive strategy that Leo oppa predicted and devised for such a situation!”
“Using a friend as a tool for victory. What an excellent judgment.”
Kal felt like crying.
Meanwhile, Illiana, holding the ball, swung her arm round and round!
“Good! Good! Aiming for an additional score…!”
Swoosh-!
Something like a whip shot out from Class 1's side and snatched the ball from Illiana's hand.
“Ooooooh! Howl!”
“So sexy!”
“As expected, the successor of Snake Spear!”
Class 1's morale soared instantly as they quickly regained the right to attack.
Illiana, who had been staring blankly, alternating between her hand and the ball snatched by Class 1, put her hands together and bowed her head to Kal.
“Sorry, I got it taken away.”
“Give me back my sacrificeeeeeee!”
***
“Oh ho! What brings you to the training ground at this hour, Senior Ain!”
“Why ask the obvious? I came to observe the combat studies class.”
Ain and Ren met in front of the training ground.
“Huhu! I see. Indeed. Right now, students Celia, Duran, and Chen Xia are in class on the training ground! As a major professor, you must want to see how proficient the Knight Academy aces are in combat!”
“I came to observe all Knight Academy students, Ren. Not to explicitly see someone like you.”
“I also came to observe all students in the Magic Department.”
Professor Ren shrugged.
The two were not simply senior and junior as teachers.
Both were graduates of Lumerne and had known each other since their school days.
Of course, it wasn't a good relationship; they had continued an ‘ill-fated relationship’ as members of different departments.
It was common knowledge among professors and current students that adding Yura, the professor of summoning, to this combination would result in the birth of a perfect bomb.
“By the way, I was surprised when I heard that the professors were teaching first-year students.”
“It’s true that it’s the first time for both of them to teach lower grades.”
“Come to think of it, Senior Ain was Professor Sedgen’s first student, wasn’t he? How was it back then?”
“It was the same as now. He cared terribly for his students. Although Professor Halind has changed a lot since then.”
“When I became a fifth-year, he was already called the Wailing Wall.”
Recalling their school days, the two professors entered the training ground.
And they were surprised.
“Bastella? From the first class?”
“That’s unconventional.”
The two professors' eyes lit up as they realized that Class 1 and Class 5 were playing Bastella.
‘The score is 1-0, with Class 5 in the lead.’
It was an unexpected result.
All of Class 1's aces were out.
Though not intentional, Class 1 was an elite class where students with high average scores in the entrance exam gathered.
A match between the top-ranked and bottom-ranked classes.
Even if entrance exam scores become meaningless a few months later, there was clearly a difference now.
‘Leo and Chelsea. Illiana and Tate. And Nella… they could be called Class 5 aces, but not the other players.’
Ain wore an intrigued expression.
“Amazing.”
Ren, watching the game, exclaimed.
“Student Leo is clearly a born leader.”
“I definitely felt it since the entrance ceremony.”
Class 1, based on their excellent skills, dominated Class 5 through individual play.
Conversely, Class 5 was playing cooperation-oriented.
The core of that was Leo.
He predicted the opponent's movements at every moment and sometimes responded to Class 1's attacks with momentary quick wit.
Ren made a regretful expression.
‘Only using aura!’
It would be good if he used magic too, but Leo was only using aura.
Of course, he couldn't help it.
Leo's spell interpretation ability was excellent, but his mana quantity was small.
Therefore, his main combat ability could only be aura.
Ren glanced nervously at Ain.
Ain was also watching Leo.
But unlike the nervous Ren, he was watching the game with a very satisfied expression.
Feeling indignant, Ren silently shouted.
‘Student Leo! Please use magic too~!’
Ren looked at Leo with an anxious heart.
Meanwhile, the game was flowing into the second half.
Bastella consumed a tremendous amount of stamina as it mobilized all supernatural abilities.
Originally, the game lasted for an hour, but for first-year students, twenty minutes was the limit of their stamina.
Then Celia's terrifying attack shook Class 5's goal net.
“Celia! Awesome! I think I'm falling for you!”
“Sister! Please make me your little brother\/sister!”
Class 1 students cheered loudly.
Celia had succeeded in scoring by breaking through three Class 5 students who were performing human shields in front of the goal.
“M-monster…?”
Kal, who was hit directly by the ball, muttered with a disgusted look, then slumped-! and dropped his head, fainting.
“Gasp-! Gasp-!”
But Celia, who had put all her strength into it, was also exhausted.
“You took down three, and there's not much time left! If we block this attack, we can counterattack and win, so definitely turn the game around!”
Celia shouted with difficulty.
The atmosphere in Class 5, which had suddenly lost its barely held advantage, was at its worst.
Conversely, Class 1's morale soared to its peak.
From the rear, Chloe glared at Class 5.
Without a doubt, Chloe was the one who performed most brilliantly in this game.
Although she allowed a surprise score early on, she later perfectly blocked Leo and Chelsea, the core of Class 5's attack.
She tried various methods to catch them off guard, but she couldn't get past Chloe.
Looking at Leo, who was preparing to attack, Chloe made a resolve.
‘I will never lose.’
After the first magic class.
Chloe felt herself conscious of Leo, even though she tried not to care.
She had never thought of herself as being behind anyone in magic.
She believed her spell interpretation ability was superior even to Abad, who was considered the strongest mage among her peers.
And it was true.
A genius of spells, rated as unprecedented even in the Northern Magic Tower.
That was Chloe Müller.
But from the first class, she fell behind in magic interpretation.
‘I can never lose to Leo Flov.’
Chloe clenched her fist tightly.
With Celia's absence, Class 1's defense also had a gaping hole.
“Attack! If we don't score this time, we'll definitely lose!”
Illiana shouted.
Chelsea blocked Duran, who was rushing to mark Leo.
Other players also tried to create a one-on-one situation between Leo and Chloe somehow.
Leo sprinted towards the goal, weaving through Class 1's territory with agile movements.
With the deterrent Celia gone and Duran also tied up by Chelsea, it was no exaggeration to say that no one could stop Leo now.
But Class 1 also had something they believed in.
Chloe stood in front of Leo.
“You absolutely can't pass.”
“Sorry, but if it's one-on-one, I think it's worth trying to break through.”
Chloe scoffed at Leo's words.
Crack, crack, crack-!
Leo's eyes twitched.
Ice instantly gathered in the air, and ice fragments appeared.
Four ice fragments, looking exactly like Chloe, blocked Leo's path like living dolls.
“No way! Ice clones? Using such a high-level magic spell? Even my brother isn't that good!”
Chelsea was shocked.
“These aren't simple clones!”
Magic circles unfolded around the ice clones.
You could consider each one a mage.
“Using such a spell at that age? A genius.”
Leo exclaimed in admiration.
Chloe's eyes twitched.
“Are you mocking me now?”
‘He got first place in the magic theory exam himself!’
Chloe snorted, glaring at Leo with scary eyes.
“Anyway, you can't get past me! So give up!”
“Indeed, I can't break through this with my aura ability.”
Leo smiled faintly.
“With my aura ability, that is.”
Whoosh!
‘Mana?’
Chloe was flustered.
She hadn't expected him to use magic at this moment.
Leo's body multiplied into several.
‘Illusion magic? How superficial!’
She was caught off guard, but if it was illusion magic, she could counter it easily enough.
Attacking a player with magic was a foul, but illusions created by magic could be attacked freely.
‘Which one is real?’
And finding the real one among simple illusion magic was extremely simple for Chloe.
She focused her magic on her eyes and looked at the illusions.
At that moment, Chloe's face hardened.
‘I can't tell which one is fake!’
As long as she didn't know the real one, she couldn't attack carelessly.
But there was an even more surprising fact.
‘This… this magic is…!’
While Chloe was in shock, Leo, having bypassed her, lightly scored a goal.
Chloe, so surprised that she even forgot to react, slumped-! and sat down on the spot.
A perfect illusion magic that made it impossible to discern the real one.
The magic Leo had just used was one Chloe also knew.
But Chloe couldn't use it.
Because what Leo used was not human magic.
Chloe stared blankly behind her.
As the illusion disappeared, leaves scattered.
A magic system different from its very foundation.
“Elf’s… Star Magic?”
Mirage.
What Leo used was magic created by Luna, the progenitor of the nebula.