Invincible
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#164
🕑 Added 2024-12-12 18:23:27 +0000 UTCSpirit Battle (4)
“Even with one arm missing, I can manage.”
Professor Ildiran from the Knights Department said this as he decapitated a monkey with his sword held in his one hand.
Despite the apparent pain, he showed no sign of discomfort, as if he’d resolved himself completely.
Perhaps others sensed his determination, as everyone continued to fight with calm, stoic expressions.
Bellman smirked in understanding.
“If I waver, I’ll be in for it.”
As the number of monkey troops dwindled, a brief respite appeared.
Bellman glanced sideways, trying to locate the professor’s severed arm.
“Not sure yet. Of course, there’s no fixing what’s been bitten off… but if we stitch the wound and Hersel applies healing magic like we did in the Demon Realm practice, we should be able to reattach it.”
Bellman waved his staff, encasing the area around the severed arm with frost and setting up a protective barrier.
Just then, the number of monkey troops began to swell once again.
“Ah, here they come again.”
“How many more are there?”
The creatures were entering in single file through a narrow passage in the barrier.
If they had all come at once, they might have counted their numbers, but now, they flooded in one by one.
Bellman spoke to his bewildered classmates.
“There’ll be orders soon. For now, all we can do is hold our ground.”
The moment would come — the critical point to repel them and seal the external barrier completely.
But in this intense situation, it felt as if that moment was forever out of reach.
In a battlefield where each second dragged like a minute, everyone showed signs of exhaustion.
Then, the most anticipated words resounded through a loudspeaker.
“Brief report: We’ve identified the root cause of the situation. A plan has been devised.”
Bellman thought the timing was perfect.
Rockefeller’s words, revealing a path to victory in this otherwise grim situation, were enough to rekindle everyone’s fighting spirit.
“The immediate goal is to eliminate the three high-ranking spirits who have left an opening in the barrier. Start by clearing out those inside the barrier. Once we advance beyond the fortress, further instructions will be given. That is all.”
Glances shifted toward the window.
Three high-ranking spirits were holding open the barrier, arms spread wide: one clad in armor made of ice, another a feminine figure wearing clothes woven from leaves, and a third with a liquid-like body, its outline blurry.
“We’ll need to hunt down those three high-ranking spirits first.”
Professor Gomon shouted with force in his voice.
“You all heard that, right? Our task now is to kill all these creatures and push forward beyond the fortress! All the way to the opening in the barrier the high-ranking spirits have created!!”
Now was the time to press on.
To demonstrate, Professor Gomon launched a massive spear made of rock toward the main gate.
Thud!
The spear impaled a row of monkeys that hadn’t evaded, leaving them groaning in pain as their heads drooped.
Blocking the entrance was a good start, but thinking the creatures would simply change course, more swarms began flooding in from the windows.
Bellman decided to stop providing occasional support and focus on blocking the windows.
“I’ll block the windows with a barrier. Fight as if I’m not here!”
He wasn’t sure how long the barrier would hold against the attacks of mid-level spirits, but the situation was becoming increasingly dire, with people beginning to falter from exhaustion.
“I need to buy them some rest time, even if it’s just a little.”
Bellman squeezed out his mana and used a barrier to seal off the windows.
Everyone’s expressions brightened a bit, perhaps because they felt a slight relief.
However, there were still some who didn’t stop swinging their swords, even in this brief respite.
They were Leana, Erucel, and Mircel.
“Those two I can understand, but Mircel… How can someone his age have that kind of stamina?”
It wasn’t long before he discovered the secret.
Whoosh!
He dodged attacks with minimal movement.
When the monkeys tried to bite him, he simply raised his sword, waiting for them to impale themselves on the blade.
Thud!
His movements were so precise that there wasn’t even an inch of error.
While Leana swung her sword with straightforward force, Mircel seemed to focus on efficiency with every motion.
Bellman, even as he concentrated on the barrier, couldn’t help but murmur in admiration.
“Using the opponent’s strength to conserve his own stamina… so that’s his secret.”
Around Mircel, monkey corpses were piling up.
The monkey horde, perhaps realizing their strategy wasn’t working, began concentrating their attacks solely on Mircel.
Screeeech!
Mircel narrowed his eyes as sparks crackled around him.
At that moment, Erucel broke through the horde to approach Mircel.
“Hey, you should fight closer to the others. This guy, always making things risky…”
Erucel grumbled to Mircel as he fought the monkeys.
“Stop going off on your own, Mircel!”
“Oh, what’s your problem now?”
“The way you talk! If you get even a scratch, it’s me who’ll get in trouble with Mom!”
As they bickered, Mircel looked exasperated.
“Fine, fine.”
Thanks to the blocked windows, the monkeys couldn’t swarm in anymore.
Moreover, with those at the front steadily slashing through, the number of enemies noticeably decreased.
It was a good rhythm, but most of the first-year students were so fatigued they could barely catch their breath.
“Those three alone aren’t enough. Even the strongest among us are exhausted.”
To give them as much rest as possible, Bellman poured all his focus into maintaining the barrier.
Each time the enraged monkeys scratched at the barrier, Bellman felt his mind grow hazier.
“So this is the power of a mid-level spirit? The barrier breaks too easily…”
The mana required to repair the barrier grew with each passing moment.
As he approached mana exhaustion, Bellman sank to the ground, gasping for breath.
“Huff… Huff… The barrier’s almost reached its limit. Everyone, prepare to fight again—”
But at that moment, there was a pounding noise, and shadows fell over them.
Two nearby students, trembling, muttered with wide eyes.
“Are all of those…?”
“No… it can’t be.”
Countless handprints covered the barrier at the window, dense with fingerprints.
Seeing this, a chill ran down Bellman’s spine.
‘How many more of these monkeys are there?’
If he released the barrier now, they would be completely wiped out.
Bellman bit his lip.
The pain barely kept him conscious, but it wasn’t enough to stave off his fading awareness.
“Ah…”
His upper lip felt damp.
Seeing the red drops on the floor, it seemed he was getting a nosebleed.
Just as he was reaching his limit, a sneering voice echoed in his ears.
“Oh, so that barrier was your doing, you little four-eyes?”
A voice filled with mocking disdain reached him.
“Not bad for a first-year. I’ll give you some praise.”
Bellman looked up at the man who clapped insincerely, letting out a shallow sigh.
There was Kerndel from the First Seat, followed closely by members of the Ten Elites.
Amanda from the Fourth Seat waved at Erucel.
“Hello, Erucel.”
“Oh, hey, Amanda. What brings you here?”
“They said a lot of enemies were gathering here, right? We wrapped things up quickly on our end, so we came to help.”
The first-year students wore complicated expressions at Amanda’s words.
Undoubtedly, they saw their previously disliked seniors in a slightly different light.
Bellman opened his mouth to inform them that the barrier was about to collapse.
Just then, someone patted him on the shoulder.
It was Berthnal, the Eighth Seat and representative of Adele Hall.
“Good job, Bellman.”
“…The barrier will soon fail. Do we have enough time to strategize?”
“No need to worry about that. Kerndel may look like a fool, but he is still the top of the Ten Elites.”
A man approached from the left this time — Emeric, recently appointed to the Tenth Seat.
“Berthnal’s right. Before Hersel arrived, no one doubted his power, whatever they thought of his character.”
Relieved, Bellman closed his eyes.
The first-year students at Adele Hall had been sharpening their skills, hoping to defeat them before they escaped through graduation.
So there were things they had learned, even if they didn’t want to.
‘It reminds me of that time… sneaking a look at his secret training to see just how strong he was…?’
He recalled the Knights Department members running at full speed through the mountains with iron bars strapped to their bodies.
In the Magic Department, they exhausted their mana every day as part of their training.
Kerndel, in particular, had a training routine that was exceptional and intense.
“Are you spying on me like a little rat?”
“Oh, since when did you notice?”
“At least have the decency to use a concealment spell or something.”
Kerndel’s routine involved gripping his sword in front of an iron bar the size of a wardrobe every night.
“Well, fine. Since you’re here, watch closely. No matter how much a weakling like you observes, there are walls you simply cannot surpass.”
He said this smugly, creating a heat haze on his sword.
At first, Bellman thought it was just aura release, but soon, solid crystals began to form and adhere to the sword.
“Hup!”
The neatly severed surface of the iron bar, as though swept by intense heat, glowed with a reddish tint.
But he didn’t stop there, slicing the iron repeatedly until it became as thin as paper.
That night, Bellman reluctantly acknowledged something he didn’t want to admit.
‘To handle an aura blade while still a student…’
Kerndel was an undeniable hard worker and a prodigious talent.
A few minutes before the Ten Elites arrived at the first-floor lobby.
“Rockefeller, I’m sorry, but I’ll need to break your window.”
“W-What? My window?”
“Didn’t you say the operating budget was tight? This will cost less than breaking through the floor, don’t you think?”
Arkandric shattered the window of Rockefeller’s office and threw himself out.
Taking the stairs would take too long; this was the shortcut.
Thud!
With frost coating his feet, Arkandric dashed down the fortress wall.
Everywhere he went, ice crystals formed in his wake.
To the spirits attempting an ambush along the wall, his 90-degree descent seemed surreal, and they looked at him in shock, their eyes wide.
Each time, Arkandric met them with a fiery gaze and launched fierce punches.
“How dare you defile the ancient walls of Frost Heart!”
With a loud pop, the head of a serpent spirit exploded.
Without stopping, Arkandric continued to crush any enemies overlapping with the path to the control room.
As he passed by a particular window, Rockefeller’s words came to mind, and he paused briefly.
‘Hmm, didn’t Rockefeller mention there was a spirit here that even ten professors couldn’t handle?’
This was the exact spot.
If he could take it down quickly, a brief detour wouldn’t hurt.
Arkandric peeked through the window and surveyed the room.
The professors were struggling against a spirit with an eagle’s beak, wings, and a horse’s body.
At that moment, a familiar old woman entered through the door, and Arkandric smirked.
“Perfect timing.”
Hearing Arkandric’s voice, Bellen flinched.
“Geez, you startled me. Was that you, Arkandric…?”
“I appreciate you stepping up, Bellen.”
“And I thought I told you to stop climbing around on walls? You’re creepy, like a spider.”
“Ha ha ha, there’s a reason for it. I’ll leave this place to you.”
With that, Arkandric threw himself backward.
As he plummeted through the air, he aimed for another window and reached out.
It was the window of the control room for the barrier mechanisms.
Crash!
Breaking through the glass, he stepped inside just as a monkey was about to enter.
Without a second’s hesitation, he lunged toward it.
