A few minutes earlier,
Thruck—!
Thrusting his sword forward in a swift motion, Nero struck his blade in an enemy’s chest, sniffing out the light of life in his eyes.
Thud—!
Retracting his sword as his victim’s body fell to the ground with a thud, Nero cast a gaze around himself, surveying his surroundings.
Massacre.
That was the only word that came to his mind when he looked around the battlefield.
Until a few minutes ago, Nero and his troops had the upper hand in this battle but suddenly, the waves of the war switched sides.
Right now, the cadets of class 1-C-8 were fighting with them on equal footing.
How did this happen?
Based on the radio transmissions he received, Nero was able to piece together that the enemy had dispatched a small strike team to flank his troops and launch an attack on their vulnerable rear.
Since the strike team was small, it went unnoticed until it was too late. However, that created a distraction which in turn created a few openings.
Class 1-C-8 didn’t fail to exploit those openings and changed the tide of the war.
In all honesty, it was a desperate attempt– sending a strike team to backstab.
However, since no one was guarding their rear, it worked. It worked very well.
In fact, even amidst all this bloodshed, Nero could help but appreciate the enemy’s strategist for their quick thinking in such a hopeless situation.
However, that made him think about something else too.
“Did Lucas forget to assign someone to guard our backstab and flank?”
But almost instantly, as soon as that crossed his mind, Nero dismissed it.
From what he had recently seen of Lucas, he wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake. That only means something unexpected might have happened.
Fwoosh—!
Right at that moment, Nero felt someone’s presence behind him.
He reacted quickly and swung his sword while spinning his whole body around, intending to cut whoever tried to sneak up on him in half.
Clang—!
But to his surprise, his sword shattered like glass as soon as it collided with his opponent.
“….?!”
Only then he realized it was Alberto.
Alberto was clad in a golden-white exoskeleton that surrounded his body like a suit of armor, and his hair, the palest shade of white, billowing through the air like the mane of a lion.
“Tsk,” Nero clicked his tongue in frustration at this sight. “You again!”
Throwing away the broken sword in his hand, Nero decided to jump back and create some distance between himself and this monstrosity but Alberto quickly grabbed him by his neck to hold him in place.
“Khuu!” Nero tried to shake his grip off his neck but to no avail. Alberto, at least in this form, was much stronger than him in terms of physical strength.
“Tell whoever is pulling the strings in your class that Kai Wiseman is coming after them.”
“What— Khuuyk!”
Before Nero could even question the meaning behind Alberto’s words, he felt air gushing out of his lungs as a fist was planted in his chest.
Alberto pulled back his arm and began to enforce it with mana. He was in no mood to play around today.
“Now die.”
“Arghhh!”
Cling—!
However, unfortunately for Alberto, Nero had an extra blade with him today.
He grabbed the dagger that Lucas gave him earlier today and unsheathed it.
Particles of light gathered around it and formed a bright, blinding blade of light over the dagger.
[16-Movement Sword Saint Style: Longsword Of Light]
[First Form: Quick Draw]
Thwooosh—!!!
In one swoop motion, Nero performed an upward slash at the speed of light.
Thruck—!
Splurt—!!
An arm flew off in the air and blood spurted out everywhere.
“…Huh?”
Alberto’s hand that was speeding toward Nero was severed.
“Arghhhhaaaa!” letting out a beastly scream, Alberto let go of Nero and stumbled back in pain and shock.
Nero fell to his knees, panting for air as big beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
“Fuck…”
He looked at the dagger in his hand, which had turned to dust by now, unable to bear the weight of his martial technique.
With a blade in his hand, Nero was confident enough to fight anyone in this world.
However, now that he had lost his last weapon, Nero gritted his teeth.
He squinted his eyes and looked at Alberto, who was already up on his legs, clenching his severed arm tightly in an attempt not to let the blood leak out.
“I will kill you!” he looked at Nero and roared– his eyes bloodshot red and voice hoarse.
With that, Alberto already started moving toward Nero.
He was truly a monster. Despite the pain, he was still hell-bent on continuing to fight.
“Fine,” Nero nodded in understanding. “I recognize you, Alberto. Not only did you survive multiple of my Light Cannon spell during our last clash, but you also withstood the first form of my strongest weapon art.”
Slowly getting up on his feet, Nero raised his hands. Crackles of embers appeared all around him as he took in a breath.
“Behold and be proud,” Nero declared. “You are the second person until now to push me this far.”
†
KABOOOM—!!!
Right in the direction I was pointing at with my index finger, a mushroom cloud appeared.
THWOOSH—!!!
And right behind it, what followed was a powerful and deafening shockwave.
“Get behind me!”
“What?!”
“Get yourself behind me!”𝒏𝑶𝗏𝑒𝓁𝓷𝑒xt.𝒸𝑜𝓂
Right when the shockwave was about to hit us, I ordered Amelia to quickly cover herself behind me, which she did after a bit of hesitation.
THWOOOM—!!!
The shockwave laid waste to everything in its wake– buildings, street poles, and all the other things in its path crumbled and fell as if they were made of paper.
However, for me, it felt like a warm, windy breeze on a sunny morning brushing past me.
Of course, I was still being pushed back a little, but I managed to somehow stand my ground.
FUUUU—
And finally, after only a few seconds, the shockwave washed past us.
I widened my eyes, which I had previously narrowed to endure the unsettling gusts of wind, and surveyed the area around me.
Yup. Pretty much everything was flat.
Thankfully, we weren’t around any of the wrecked buildings or else we could’ve been crushed by one of them collapsing on us.
Actually, it would have been Amelia who would’ve gotten crushed, not me.
I mean, I might survive a building falling on me but I’d probably end up with a few broken bones.
“Wh-What was that?”
From behind me, a shaky voice rang in my ears.
“I don’t know. A nuclear blast maybe— Fuck!”
And right then, it hit me.
I realized the cause of that mushroom cloud explosion.
“No! No! NOOO!” I gripped my hair as my eyes widened in horror.
“Wh-What is it, Lucas? What’s going on?”
I knew what caused the explosion to happen, but what I couldn’t understand was how?
“Lucas?!”
How did it come to this?
In my mind, I had done every calculation and predicted every outcome of Nero’s conflict with Alberto. It shouldn’t have ended like this! Then how?
Did I make a miscalculation?!
No, impossible! How can I make any mistakes?! But judging from the results, I clearly did!
Arghhhh!
“Lucas, stop acting crazy and tell me! What’s going on?!”
How did it end this way?!
Unable to comprehend the situation, I bit my thumbnail and started doing some mental calculations.
I needed to understand what went wrong.
One by one, I predicted everything again and again, but nothing made sense.
Something went wrong during the clash between classes 1-A-1 and 1-C-8 but I didn’t know what!
“Lucas!”
Right then, I felt a strong force grabbing my shoulders and spinning me around, shaking me out of my daze.
“What is going on?!”
It was Amelia.
As she asked me some questions that I couldn’t quite make sense of due to the disoriented state of my mind, I stared blankly at her face.
“…!”
And then it hit me!
“Amelia, you are here!”
“Well, duh?”
I see. So she went wrong.
Just to confirm my thoughts, I asked, “What were my orders for you on the field?”
“Wait, this reminds me!” Amelia frowned after listening to my question. “How were you giving us orders while fighting Quinn at the same time?”
“I recorded my orders on Kent’s smart bracelet beforehand and played it out on the radio for you all when I went to fight Quinn,” I replied quickly before returning to my question. “Now, tell me, what were my orders for you in the field?”
It was clear that Amelia was surprised once again judging by the tremor in her eyes, but the tone of urgency in my voice stopped her from displaying her shock.
Instead, she touched her chin and began to recall something. After a few seconds, her eyebrows furrowed in a frown.
“I don’t remember exactly, but I think your orders had something to do with retreat and… haa!”
Right then, as she remembered the task she was assigned, a loud gasp leaked from her lips.
“I had to retreat and guard the rear!”
Yes, she had to guard the rear for any potential backstab or flank attempts.
Since she left her post and came here, I think our troops were attacked from a blind spot.
“Wait b-but I don’t understand! What was that explosion?!”
Putting a hand over my face and pinching the bridge of my nose, I said, “That was Nero’s Gift. He had to use it to defeat Alberto and his class.”
“Wait, Nero possessed a blessing? And it was this strong too?!”
Just as Amelia said those words, she realized why it was not a good thing for Nero’s Gift to be publicized.
A Gift this strong would draw the attention of many who would wish to claim it for themselves.
When she realized those words, her face paled.
“No… it’s because of me, isn’t it? He had to resort to using his Gift because of me….”
“No.” I replied while shaking my head. As I continued to grit my teeth in frustration, I added, “It’s on me. I didn’t think of this.”
“No, that’s….”
She continued to speak in the background but I paid no heed to her words. After all, it really wasn’t her fault.
I should’ve been quick enough to predict this outcome in time. I was the one who miscalculated.
I should’ve taken her behavior and actions into account while crafting this plan.
I fucked it up.
And now Nero has used his Gift just like he did in the novel.
Soon, news of him will reach the Seven Abyssal Vampire Monarchs along with the rest of the world, prompting them to dispatch a team of elite vampire soldiers to track him down during the ‘King’s Tournament.’
I couldn’t change this outcome.
I failed.
[Congratulations, Cadet. Your class has emerged victorious against all odds.
Contribution Rankings:
1. Nero Dekrauf#000021
2. Anastasia Bigod#7231
3. Lucas Morningstar#116969
…
…
…
69. Kent Takeahint#122212]
Okay, well, at least I won that punch bet.