On one side of the forest, August sheathed his sword with a calm expression. There were several headbands lying on the ground, as if he had cut all of them down.
“As expected of August. Thanks to you, we’re able to defeat them easily.” A student clapped his hands.
“That’s right. If we continue in this direction, we should be able to reach the goal much faster than anyone else.”
August wanted to snort since these two people weren’t exactly his friends. He thought they were here just so that he had enough numbers to go against Rudeus. “Let’s continue!”
On the other side of the forest, students scattered while screaming.
“No! Don’t kill me please!” A student crawled away in fear, albeit a blood tornado suddenly pierced through his stomach before expanding, shredding his body.
“What is this? My stomach hurts… My head… my…” Another student wanted to escape, but foam suddenly came out of his mouth as he passed out. A lilitu struck him with her talon-like hand, crushing his heart.
There was a girl standing on top of a tree, watching the entire thing with no expression on her face.
“Are we done?” She jumped off the tree while asking.
“Yeah. We don’t have to do it so quickly. We can let other students challenge those people first before we defeat them,” said Risa while grabbing the headband.
“I can weaken them with my curse if you want.” Sasha waved her hand, splashing the blood on her hand to the ground.
“No. We will continue onward and catch up to him as quickly as possible. We might end up finding a new possibility that we have never thought of before.” Selena had made a decision. They couldn’t formalize their alliance before, but it was still not too late.
Risa and Sasha exchanged looks before agreeing to follow her decision.
…
Meanwhile, Nathan and his two familiars were moving toward the hut at full speed.
Fenrir raised his head as if noticing something. “There is something in front… something dangerous.”
“The upperclassmen?” Nathan’s heart skipped a beat.
“Most likely. We need to stop and go around. This way, we can pass without fighting.”
“What if it’s only a familiar? The upperclassmen should have four or five familiars at the very least, right?” Nathan shrugged, thinking they should check first. If the enemy was just a low level familiar, they should be able to defeat it before the summoner reached their position.
This way, they could reach the hut much faster.
Considering how vast the area they had to protect, they definitely had to use their familiars to block the path.
“Should we check then?” Anubis asked.
Nathan nodded in agreement. Anubis and Fenrir took the lead this time as Nathan maintained a certain distance to know when he needed to stop.
They had decreased their pace significantly. After a minute, Fenrir and Anubis stopped at the same time.
Nathan hid himself behind a tree, taking a peek at the figure waiting in front of him.
It seemed there was a small plain in front of them. It wasn’t big, but not small either.
The figure looked humanoid enough, so he took a closer look, wondering if he could determine its race.
That was when he was taken aback by what he found. It wasn’t a familiar. It was a human.
She made quite an impact in his mind because she was one of the few people that managed to figure out the secret assignment during the first trip. Yes, she was Noelle Flamante.
She stood in the middle of the plain while closing her eyes, her hand holding the sword close.
The wind swayed her long brown hair left and right, yet she showed no reaction, as though she were sleeping while standing.
As a swordsman, she had a rather unique form of clothing. Her student uniform consisted of a white shirt similar to others, but instead of a blazer, she wore a long white coat that ran all the way to her leg.
The elegant skirt was replaced by shorts, which allowed her to move easier. She didn’t even bother using long pants, thigh high socks, or high boots because she was confident in using her Ena to ignore some small scratches when crossing a terrain filled with bushes or thorns.
All of a sudden, she opened her eyes and grabbed the handle of her sword.
“!!!” Fenrir suddenly turned around and pushed Nathan down. “Get down!”
Noelle drew her blade, releasing the Ena she accumulated inside her scabbard. The Ena extended her blade for over 30 meters (98 feet) in a fan-shaped area, cutting down all the trees within that range.
If Fenrir hadn’t pushed Nathan down, he would have been cut on the waist.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
All the trees fell down in rapid succession. The tree where Nathan hid earlier was about to fall on top of him, but Anubis hurriedly came and pulled the tree away with the bandages.
Meanwhile, Noelle glanced in Nathan’s direction while saying, “Junior. Since you are here, there is no need to be sneaky. Come at me.”
Nathan was completely speechless. ‘Come at you? Are you insane? Do you understand what it means to hold back against your junior?’
Of course, there was no way he could say that. He ended up saying, “Are we seriously going to fight her?”
The reaction coming from Flora and Vivian switched.
This time, it was Vivian who got restrained by the dryad’s roots.
“Let go of me, Luxia. I need to beat up that knight right away! Out of all the people, why is he so freaking unlucky to meet that girl?” Vivian struggled to break free.
“Mistress, please calm down.” The dryad sighed. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
“How can I calm down? Why does he have to meet that evil knight who doesn’t know how to hold back?”
On the other hand, Flora was wiping the sweat on her forehead as she let out a long sigh of relief. “Hu… I have to thank Noelle after this. To think that she would be the one stopping him… It seems that I don’t have to intervene.”