Chapter 18
Electric currents strong enough to make the air tingle spread in all directions. The lightning ignited leaves, and a searing pain as if being slashed by knives erupted on their skin. Sevia and Paul, who were moving with Ruhan, stopped abruptly and collapsed in place due to the pain.
"Ugh!"
"Kyaaah!!"
Their bodies trembled violently. Their fingers twitched on their own, as if the electrical signals from their brains had gone haywire.
Paul gritted his teeth and raised his head to glare at Acel. Ruhan was no longer in the place where the lightning had disappeared. He had been seriously injured by just one spell and teleported away.
Just one spell?
Paul let out a hollow laugh as he recalled his own thought.
That magic wasn't something that could be explained with such words. Its destructive power was beyond imagination for a spell that manifested without any warning. Even at a rough estimate, it was twice as powerful as Selina's magic. Moreover, the speed at which the magic manifested defied common sense. If one were to engage in battle judging him as a mere mage, they would be defeated instantly like Ruhan.
"Sevia!"
Paul slapped Sevia's back with his trembling hand. At this, she lifted her head as if coming to her senses, having been lying face down on the ground crying.
"Listen carefully. We hold out until Selina completes her magic. Then we decide whether to keep fighting or run away. Understand?"
"Y-yes."
"Then get up!" Paul shouted and pointed his sword at Acel, who was standing still.
Acel glanced at Sevia, who was groaning as she got up, then turned his head towards Selina, who was chanting magic.
"Is the meeting over?"
"...Ugh."
"You're using constellation magic. It has the drawback of needing warm-up time in exchange for its power. And..."
Acel smiled as he met eyes with Selina, who had a hardened expression.
"It's also vulnerable to external interference."
Click.
Acel twisted his fingers as if manipulating a puppet. In sync with this, Selina's spell formula began to distort grotesquely. The inscribed characters were erased, and the round circle deformed, spewing magical power outwards. Selina, who had been injecting magical power into the spell formula, coughed up blood from the backlash.
"Urgh!"
A pain as if her organs had been shaken violently arose. Selina stared at Acel with disbelieving eyes, sweating profusely.
He interfered with my magic from the outside? Is that even possible?
Selina was a mage called a genius even within the Magic Tower. No matter how excellent a mage might be, they shouldn't be able to casually interfere with her magical power manipulation. To begin with, mages capable of such a feat were rare. Without being an archmage, such a thing was impossible.
Then, is this man an archmage?
"Ugh!"
The spell formula distorted further with each passing thought. Selina hurriedly regained her senses and withdrew the deployed spell formula. The magical power that had been pouring out like a broken dam struck Selina directly, and she staggered from the shock that shook her head.
"Sevia! Protect Selina!" Paul shouted loudly upon seeing this scene and rushed towards Acel.
Unlike Ruhan, he was conscious of Acel's magic. He was prepared to dodge sideways at any moment and even counterattack. Acel looked at him and let out a thoughtful, "Hmm."
"It's my first time seeing aura. So it's a structure that spreads from the heart throughout the body via blood vessels."
"Don't get cocky!"
Acel chuckled and leaped backward. Following this small action, a massive storm arose.
[Wind Flood]
Spreading wind. Paul frowned at the flying mud and slashed through the wind with his sword. Through his reopened eyes, red flames spread.
[Fire Guidance]
The flames dancing to Acel's gestures engulfed Paul's shoulder. Paul gritted his teeth at the sudden searing pain and cut off his shoulder armor. This series of actions was carried out very swiftly. Quick judgment and action. His combat sense seemed more excellent than expected. Probably due to his developed senses as a warrior.
Swish!
In the brief moment of thought, a sharp dagger cut through the air and flew towards him.
Acel caught the dagger thrown by Sevia with fire, burned it to ashes, then grabbed the ashes and scattered them widely. And with that, he manifested magic.
[Ignition]
A magic that burns whatever it touched. This magic, which directly grabbed and burned rather than projecting from a distance, was as powerful as it was risky. The scattered ashes glowed red-hot, and Paul, sensing the danger, retreated.
Whoosh!!
The flames using the ashes as a medium spread instantly, burning the forest. Paul gritted his teeth at the flames that had caught on his legs and removed his leg armor as well. His exposed pants were stuck to his skin, oozing pus and blood.
A horrific sight. Even Acel was slightly taken aback, seeing the power of his own magic for the first time.
...Was it that strong?
He already knew how far his magic level had risen through duels with other mages. But this was the first time he had directly struck an opponent and seen its destructive and lethal power. Most mages could block or deflect attacks even when hit. The number of times he had drawn blood in duels could be counted on one hand.
Even in those cases, it was mostly Acel himself. After all, his main sparring partners were Ena and mages from the Witch Association. No matter how similar in rank or talented he was, their combat methods were quite tricky for him, who had no battle experience.
Of course, they also struggled to deal with Acel's rapidly growing magic, but anyway, it was usually Acel who bled in the duels.
So, he had adjusted his power as he usually did when sparring with them, but it seemed to have been too much. Acel made a "tsk" sound and worried about the well-being of the man who had disappeared after being struck by lightning earlier.
"...He shouldn't be dead."
He muttered this, but he couldn't help feeling uneasy. Acel sighed deeply and canceled the lightning magic he was about to launch as a follow-up attack.
Unable to gauge the appropriate power right now, blindly shooting lightning magic would be insane. He might accidentally split the opponent in half. Lightning magic, focused solely on destruction and killing, wasn't a good choice in the current situation.
I should only use other types of magic in this exam.
Of course, there was no need to hold back against golems, so it was only a problem in battles against people. Acel thought this as he approached Paul, who was staggering.
"...Huh?"
Even in his precarious physical state, Paul's eyes remained sharp. Acel quite liked that venomous gaze. Although he was part of the group that had attacked him while he was well-prepared, Acel didn't think too badly of it from the start.
Hadn't the supervisor said it? That looting among participants was allowed. He had simply acted according to the rules announced in advance. He didn't particularly hold a grudge. After all, he was born and raised in the slums, what was looting to him? That was a place where people's organs were extracted while they slept.
Borwell was relatively decent in comparison. Acel smiled and stopped just in front of Paul's attack range.
A brief lull. Selina was chanting magic again after calming down, and Sevia was slowly approaching, holding daggers in reverse grip in both hands. Although she was moving stealthily, her stealth techniques were meaningless in a space filled with Acel's magical power. They were all in the palm of his hand.
"Your name?"
Acel ignored Sevia and Selina and asked Paul.
Although Paul was suspicious of the intent behind his words, he answered obediently, "Paul Pedrick."
"A noble?"
"...Yes."
"It's my first time seeing a noble. Are they all as full of venom as you?"
"...You've never seen a noble before? Have you been training in the mountains all this time?" Paul said with a hollow laugh.
Mages were as rare a resource as nobles. Because of this, they had many points of contact with nobles, and this tendency was even more pronounced among high-ranking mages.
The mage before him was at a level where it wouldn't be surprising if he had been chatting and laughing with fairly high-ranking nobles.
Such a guy has never seen a noble?
"Not the mountains. I trained in a city," Acel answered roughly and kicked Paul in the abdomen.
Paul's body burned and was pushed back by the kick, which had a barrier overlaid and flames wrapped around it. While Paul frowned at the sudden attack, Sevia rushed through the flames.
"Die!"
Her momentum was good, but her eyes couldn't hide the undisguisable agitation and fear. She probably wasn't used to this kind of situation.
Naturally, he had no intention of being considerate towards her. Acel snapped his fingers, triggering an invisible shockwave centered on himself.
“Shockwave”, a low-level shock magic. A magic that simply blew away surrounding objects, when unleashed from Acel's hand, projected enough power to shake trees. Sevia's body, which had rushed in, was pushed back and slammed into a tree.
Crack!!
"Ugh!"
Along with the sound of something breaking, Sevia coughed up breath and blood. An ambush where the outcome was decided before they could even exchange blows.
Sevia fumbled for her bracelet, possibly because a broken bone had pierced her organs, as blood trickled from her mouth. Then light enveloped her body and transported her to a safe place.
In an instant, the group was reduced from five to two. What remained was one mage with severely tangled circuits and one vanguard oozing pus from burns all over his body. What they had to face was a high-ranking mage still in his initial state.
There was no chance of winning.
Paul sighed deeply and raised his broken hands. Even just that motion made his overworked arms scream in pain.
"I surrender. It's shameless, but please spare me this once. I want to enroll."
"I surrender too!"
As soon as Paul put down his sword, Selina, who had been groaning, shouted. Acel nodded after confirming that both had completely lost their will to fight.
"I'll spare you, so hand over your cores."
"...We only have 5."
"So?"
"...Haa. Take them. Selina has them."
Acel smiled and approached Selina. She bit her lip as if frustrated and took out 5 cores from her chest. Cores with a transparent color and faint magical power rotating. They weren't fake. Acel roughly stuffed the cores into his backpack.
"You've only hunted 5 so far? Seems like you haven't encountered many golems."
"What are you talking about? We struggled to find and catch only those separated from the herd."
"Couldn't you just do a drive hunt?"
"...?"
"...?"
Both of their eyes twisted similarly.
"How could we do a drive hunt? Each one is at the level of an Expert."
"...Is that so?"
"...Your reaction is strange. How many cores do you have?"
"25," Acel said, shaking his rattling backpack.
Selina, who had glimpsed inside, looked at Acel with an expression that seemed to say, “What kind of person is this?”
"...Are you perhaps an archmage?"
"I'm an archmage's disciple."
Acel smiled slightly, closed his backpack, and moved his steps, leaving the burning forest behind.
"More importantly, you'd better run away quickly. They're coming in droves."
"What's coming in drovesㅡ"
The moment she spoke, noisy voices were heard from beyond the darkness of the forest.
"Is this where the lightning just struck?"
"I'm telling you it is. It must be an event created by the academy. We need to hurry."
"Hey, other bastards are coming too! Run, damn it!"
"Get lost, you bastards! We won't go easy on you just because you're nobles!"
"Keep Grace in check! Don't let her come!"
Commotion spread in the middle of the night forest. Selina gritted her teeth and turned her head at the voices that had grown closer than before. But Acel had long since withdrawn. His hair wasn't visible anywhere.
"...He said his name was Acel."
She got up from her seat, mulling over the words the supervisor had uttered before the exam started. Paul also got up, pouring self-regeneration potion he had brought onto his wounds. The two looked at each other, then moved their bodies as quickly as possible in the opposite direction from where the voices were coming.
The first day of the exam ended in such chaos.