Chapter 16
“You… who the hell are you!”
“What do you think? I’m the true top-ranked student.”
Martin Veller, Martin Veller… Right, I finally remembered.
He was from a branch of House Hartmann, one of the Seven Great Houses.
I simply walked past Martin and his hangers-on, who had gathered leisurely to discuss their strategy. In the distance, I could see Julia and the underachiever, who had reached the target area, raising their hands high.
“Then let’s get started right away. Eli, please!”
“Y-yes!”
At this point, speed was of the essence. At my words, Eli drew her wand and stepped forward.
I also raised my wand over my head to signal Julia, then aimed at the final exam’s target, which was flapping its wings in place.
“A juvenile wyvern’s weakness is the scales on its underbelly, which haven’t fully hardened yet. Attack it directly there.”
A juvenile wyvern. Honestly, it was a formidable opponent for four first-years. Ugly as it was, it was still a dragon.
But this was only an exam. The thing flying over there was not a real wyvern, merely a convincing target created by magic.
This was simply a test of our ‘common knowledge’ about dealing with wyverns, and whether we could carry it out as we would in an actual battle.
“Fulgur Disruptor!”
With a shout far more confident than yesterday, Eli sent a purple current shooting straight out to strike the wyvern’s belly.
The wyvern reeled with a sizzling sound, then immediately beat its wings and severed the current trailing from the tip of the wand.
“Grrr-!”
Only then did it turn toward us with a thunderous roar.
The real exam had finally begun. I spotted Julia moving her wand in the distance, then casually turned my head backward.
“Damn it! What the hell is going on!”
‘As expected, they aren’t completely oblivious.’
Not far away, Martin and his hangers-on, who had been staring blankly at us, were scrambling to their feet. They immediately ran toward us, drawing their wands.
“Eli! Switch!”
“Ah… yes!”
Eli ran straight toward me. She passed me without stopping and headed behind me, toward where Martin’s group was charging.
“M-Miss Klostermann?”
Martin stopped dead as if he’d seen a ghost. Eli, her expression now utterly serious, spread both arms wide. She mumbled uncertainly for a moment, then squeezed her eyes shut and raised her voice.
“Y-you… you’re not getting past me!”
‘Good, she’s doing great.’
I snorted and turned back toward the wyvern. Behind me, Martin’s bewildered voice rang out.
“Th-this isn’t befitting a noble! Move aside at once!”
The more middling a noble was, like Martin, the more concerned they were with appearances.
Besides, she was the esteemed daughter of House Klostermann. Martin had seen the adults of House Klostermann countless times from a distance, so he would never dare lay a finger on her.
‘No way I’m sharing even a single point with you.’
Just then, I saw Julia’s magic get blocked by the wyvern.
I gave the wand in my hand a quick spin and stepped forward two paces.
‘Mana levels… yeah, a mess.’
My condition was clearly far from normal. I had slept poorly the night before, and I had also used my still-incomplete detection magic at maximum output.
‘Even so, I can’t afford to complain.’
My future depended on this. I steeled myself and aimed my wand at the wyvern.
“Lacerat!”
A wind blade shot forth with a sharp whistle.
At the same time, my vision swam slightly.
“Kyaaak-!”
Even so, the blade flew true, grazing the wyvern’s left wing.
Its left wing stiffened for a moment, then it rapidly climbed higher, letting out a pained scream.
“Eli! Switch!”
I hadn’t expected it to end in a single blow anyway.
As I swallowed the dizziness and turned around, Eli cried out energetically, “Yes!” and trotted straight toward me.
“Damn it! Move faster!”
Martin and his hangers-on started running toward us as well.
“Now, now. Let’s all calm down.”
This time, I took Eli’s place and stood in their way.
“Move!”
But, well… naturally, they aimed their wands at me without hesitation and shouted menacingly.
I aimed my wand at them too and said calmly,
“We got here first. Why don’t you go over there, to the wyvern’s flank?”
“Get lost!”
They ignored me so completely it was almost absurd. They immediately shoved me roughly by the shoulder and stepped up before the wyvern.
Martin was the first to aim his wand and shout.
“Glacies!”
“Disruptio!”
“What?”
With a sharp snap, Martin’s spell shot off in a completely wrong direction. He glared viciously and turned toward me.
“I told you to go over there.”
Fortunately, I could cast a disruption spell without expending much mana. I spun my wand and continued,
“If you stay here, I’ll keep interfering.”
“Urgh… you little bitch!”
When Martin raised his fist, the other three approached me with grim expressions.
“Ms. Rene! Switch!”
At that moment, Eli’s voice rang out at exactly the right time.
I ducked behind Eli as she ran up in front of me, then stuck my tongue out at them.
“G-go, Martin!”
Eli shouted, looking fairly serious. Martin clenched his teeth, unsure what to do. I chuckled and turned my gaze toward the wyvern.
‘Hmm… as sturdy as expected.’
Even after being hit twice by the full-power spells of Eli and Julia, the wyvern’s belly was still perfectly intact. The wing my slash had struck also seemed to have recovered already.
Fortunately, unlike the upperclassmen’s exam, the wyvern wasn’t counterattacking, but it was obvious this would take far too long at this rate.
The third group to arrive would surely be Kairos’s group. If possible, I wanted to land a decisive blow before that guy arrived.
‘There has to be some good way…’
I quietly surveyed the area around the wyvern. Teacher Levan always hid some kind of hint somewhere in the exam grounds to test the students’ creativity.
In the past, a magic bomb had been hidden at the final exam site that would explode with tremendous force if it was crystallized with ice magic, compressed with enhanced gravity, and then ignited with fire magic.
From across the field, the underachiever gestured for me to attack quickly, but I ignored the signal and continued searching the area around the exam grounds.
Quite some time passed, and just as even Eli, who had been holding Martin at bay, began looking back at me with a puzzled expression… I finally found something.
“……A rock?”
My gaze fell on the area directly beneath the wyvern. It was the very spot where the shadow of the wing-flapping creature flickered.
Looking closely, the ground there seemed slightly unnatural. I aimed my wand at it and shouted.
“Terra Fender!”
A spell for prying up the earth. A rumble echoed.
“Ugh….”
But the ground only quivered; it did not budge.
Gritting my teeth, I gripped my wand with both hands.
“Gravitas Adrifta!”
This time, it was a weight-reduction spell. The spell consumed mana at an extreme rate, draining mine away, but I somehow held on. I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted once more.
“Levita Tendra!”
Then Julia’s voice joined in as well.
“Levita Tendra!”
She was remarkably quick to catch on again. Thankfully.
“L-Levita Tendra!”
Next, the underachiever joined in.
“Levita Tendra!”
Eli joined in soon after.
“Damn it… Levita Tendra!”
Martin and his group also lent a hand, seemingly deciding they might as well help.
And only then did a truly enormous boulder begin slowly rising from the earth beneath the wyvern.
As though it had been waiting for that, the wyvern shifted slightly to the side, and the space left by the enormous rock filled back in as though fresh flesh were growing over it.
‘All right! This must be the answer!’
If it was this obvious, there was no room for confusion. I clenched my fist, sensing victory, as the boulder, infused with everyone’s mana, floated up to just above the wyvern’s head.
All that remained was to drop the rock, send the wyvern crashing down, and then have everyone focus their attacks on its belly. And barring any unforeseen events, I would be the one receiving the highest score—the person who had found the rock first.
‘All right, let’s finish this properly!’
Gritting my teeth, I squeezed out the last of my mana. I focused all my remaining strength into the tip of my wand.
“It’s done!”
At last, the boulder had risen above the wyvern’s head. We were almost there.
“We’ll drop it when I count to three!”
I immediately called out. With one hand, I held up three fingers and folded one down right away.
“One!”
I folded down the second finger.
“Two…!”
And then, the last.
“Three! Let go!”
At the same time, I stopped casting the levitation spell. Everyone else lowered their wands almost simultaneously, and the enormous boulder began free-falling toward the wyvern’s head as if it had been waiting for this.
But then, at that very moment.
“Levita Tendra.”
A quiet voice came from directly behind me.
At the same time, the enormous boulder that had been falling came to a miraculous stop in midair. It hung directly above the wyvern’s head, as though time itself had stopped.
A brief silence, yet one that seemed eternal, as if all movement had frozen.
“……What?”
I turned toward the source of the voice in confusion… and, sure enough, that bastard was standing there. Kairos, his wand raised.
‘He… held that up all by himself?’
There was no sign of any other group members nearby. He alone stood there with his wand raised, supporting the enormous boulder without the slightest wavering.
“Implodere.”
Kairos calmly recited his next spell. The boulder suspended above the wyvern’s head split silently, exactly in half.
“Lacerat.”
Next, a sharp wind sprang up and began slicing across the halved boulder with tremendous force.
The sharp wind slash literally ‘cut away’ the boulder, then began carving it into a specific shape.
It was an overwhelming display of mana control that left everyone with no choice but to watch in a daze.
After some time, two sharp, finely crafted stone spearheads were finally completed above the wyvern’s head.
“Fall.”
It wasn’t even a spell this time. Just ordinary Imperial.
Yet, by some principle I couldn’t understand, the stone spearheads plummeted with terrifying force and pierced straight through the wyvern’s body.
“Kweeegh!”
The wyvern’s horrible scream. Its massive form came crashing down, followed by an earth-shaking roar.
And with that, everything was over.
Once the thick cloud of sand and dust settled, all that remained below was the shattered wreckage of a golem, no longer even retaining the shape of a wyvern.
“What the hell is that guy?”
That was the only thing I could say in the face of such overwhelming mastery of magic.
“Group 17 has passed the final exam. Treasure recovery confirmed. I hereby announce the end of the exam for all students.”
Right on cue, Teacher Levan’s voice rang out, and Kairos let out a brief sigh before turning to look directly at me.
Then he flashed me a smile and said,
“Good work, Rene. Thanks to you, we finished that with ease.”
“……”
Honestly, I felt like punching him right in the face.