WeTried Translations x Flame Comics

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 105: 15. Real Combat Is Standard for Academy Summer Vacation Events (10)

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"That one's build is a little strange...?"

"I think it might be the leader."

Isabelle and Oscar narrowed their eyes as they watched the approaching group of orcs.

The orcs glared warily at the surrounding bushes, knocking them aside with their swords and spears.

They came closer noisily, as though stealth and concealment did not concern them in the slightest. Isabelle frowned as she watched.

"Isn't this strange?"

"Pardon?"

"Those bastards were creeping around terrified until just a little while ago. You remember, right?"

"That's true."

"So what suddenly made them so confident?"

"Maybe their spirits rose because they're with their leader?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

Isabelle settled into position in the bushes and stared at the approaching orcs.

There were five of them. Aside from one that was unusually large, it was a number they had a chance against.

The large one was leaning on a long staff. Was it a mage? If so, that was almost a relief.

How well could an orc possibly handle magic? Elphihara was on their side, and she was considered the greatest genius undergraduate in the entire history of Saint Yansk University.

With Elphihara's support, defending against magic would not be difficult. It would be far more unsettling if that huge thing fought them in close combat...

"Urgh?!"

The huge orc was staring at her.

It immediately pointed at the bush where she was hiding and shouted. The nearby orcs gripped their weapons and charged straight toward her hiding place!

"We've been spotted! Oscar!"

"I'll handle the leader! I'll buy us some time!"

Every plan they had made beforehand was now useless. Isabelle and Oscar were supposed to draw their attention while Elphihara sniped them with magic, then Aesidis would gain an advantage with traps and ambushes. None of that mattered anymore.

They had failed to lure the orcs to even the first trap. The orcs had approached the campfire, then turned away just before the trapped area.

As if they could see it!

"Elphiharaaa!!"

Isabelle screamed and charged out. With the plan ruined, everything depended on the two in the rear launching an ambush. Even she and Oscar could not confidently take on five orcs head-on.

-Clang!!

Isabelle's first strike shattered the orc's shoulder guard before being stopped. Even with half its shoulder split apart by the powerful blow, the orc swung its spear as though nothing had happened.

-Clang!

She barely twisted aside to evade the spear, only for follow-up attacks to come pouring in. Four orcs charged at her, while she had only two hands and a single sword.

"Argh!!"

-Clang! Clanggg!!

A spearhead came for her head. She dodged.

An axe slashed at her chest. She knocked it aside.

Two spearheads thrust toward her thighs, one after the other.

Moving with nearly acrobatic skill, listening to her joints crack in protest, Isabelle barely managed to pull away. That was only one exchange.

'I should've cut off its head with the first strike!'

Their reactions were too fast. But she had no time to think. The attacks of the four orcs meshed together with precision as they pursued her.

"Elphi! Esi!"

Isabelle quickly pulled back and shouted. Should she tap into the realm of superhumans? Not yet. Overloading her nerves with mana lasted only a short time and left severe aftereffects. She simply lacked the necessary mastery.

Considering the exhaustion that followed neural acceleration, she could not use it in battle unless she could kill every orc within that brief window. Not yet.

She needed to save it for a more decisive moment.

"Kuooough!!"

The orc standing before her stiffened and screamed. Its huge body blocked her view, but Isabelle knew Aesidis had arrived.

"Elphi!"

Aesidis held Bang-Bang, her steel conductor's baton, upside down like an awl, embedded in the orc's back. Bang-Bang, steel conductor's baton: It hurts.

Wearing the gauntlet she had taken from the orcs, she struck it like a hammer and drove the baton deep into its backplate.

Bang, bang! With two punches, the long baton sank halfway into the orc's back. No one could deny she was Einar's daughter after watching her nail a blunt steel rod through armor.

Then...

"Get back!!"

There was no need to ask who she meant. This was the decisive moment.

Isabelle desperately deflected the attacks of the three startled orcs and leaped backward.

'This wasn't part of the plan. What attack did she prepare? A trap?'

Her hair, body hair, and clothes answered her question.

Her flowing hair rose on end. The fine hairs on her skin stood up, and chills ran over her body.

Static crackled madly through the air.

It was coming.

An enormous tide of mana swept over them.

Isabelle reflexively threw herself flat onto the ground, somewhere the flow of mana would not reach. She abandoned all defense, but did so desperately.

Then a flash of light filled her vision.

* * *

Far away, in one corner of the forest, Elphihara sat atop the branch of a giant tree.

She squeezed her left eye shut to focus.

Before her right eye, her cupped right hand maintained a dual casting of [darkvision] and [Farsight].

Using it as a scope, she aimed at the enlarged target. Through the dark forest and the tangled undergrowth, past countless obscuring obstacles, she targeted the small steel conductor's baton beyond them.

She raised her left hand and loaded the spell.

Click. Mana flowing from her heart meshed together like gears. The prepared spell was [Call Lightning].

It was already a powerful offensive spell, but she went one step further. Click. The same gears meshed again, layering another [Call Lightning].

Then click. Once more. She forced mana into it, binding gear to gear as she layered the spell again.

Three layers of [Call Lightning] in total.

"Grikenkos Style, Lightning Flow."

-Krrrraaaack!!!

* * *

It was not merely an electric current that struck. It was lightning, using the steel conductor's baton Aesidis had driven in as a lightning rod.

The discharge of countless charges through the air made Isabelle's hair stand on end. Static crackled, and the fine hairs touched by a strand of lightning crumbled into ash.

It was hard even to stand. The aftereffects of the powerful lightning made her muscles tense and relax at random. Her hand trembled so badly that gripping her sword was difficult.

"Just what you'd expect from an elf, dropping something like that right in front of her allies!"

Isabelle laughed weakly and shouted at the outrageously bold Broken Arrow. The four orcs that had stood before her had collapsed in mangled heaps.

The orc struck directly had been blown to pieces, while the others caught in the blast had been charred dry, their skin split open. It was a horrific sight for teenagers to witness, but after the past few days of "training camp," everyone present was too hardened to be fazed.

"Wait, four...?"

Isabelle hurriedly turned her head. Oscar! Where was Oscar?

"Kh...!"

A short distance from the bombardment site, the huge leader gripped Oscar's head tightly and looked down at her.

"Oscar!!"

"Ugh... cough!!"

Oscar coughed up blood.

* * *

"Should I shoot?"

"No."

Ivan briefly shook his head at his adjutant, who held a scope.

"Commander, but right now..."

"Mikhail. Do you know why that thing isn't killing Oscar?"

"Sir...?"

"If it flexes even one finger, Oscar is already dead. Orcs aren't particularly patient, and that one is especially furious."

Ivan raised his pistol and held out his arm straight. He let out half a breath, then slightly turned his head to align the sights. His index finger slid into the trigger guard.

Click. He eased the trigger back slightly.

Then he waited without firing.

At that moment, the orc at the end of his sightline flinched.

"Because it can see the future."

"The future...?"

"Yes."

Whenever it showed murderous intent toward Oscar, Ivan raised his gun and aimed at it. Each time, the orc recoiled and had to pull back.

It was because it saw a future where it would certainly be killed. That was the power granted by the artifact, the Eye of the Demon King.

Ivan would offer no more help than that. There were few chances to experience the moment of death without actually being in danger of dying, a struggle that demanded one hundred percent of one's strength and forced one's abilities to their limit.

It was a more effective training method than expected. Ivan decided to add this course to the Counterintelligence Command's regular training schedule.

"It can't use line-of-fire detection or neural acceleration."

Ivan lowered his gun and continued.

"But with the power of an artifact, it can do something similar."

Neural acceleration was ultimately the power to make the body move faster, stronger, and more nimbly.

It was the minimum requirement for sensing an opponent's movements and path in advance, then landing a response even slightly faster.

But if one could see the future, if one could foresee an opponent's attack even five seconds, no, even one second ahead, they could fight no differently from someone using neural acceleration.

And a superhuman who had reached the realm of neural acceleration could only be handled by another superhuman. At least in close combat, that was nearly absolute. Below a certain number, opponents were meaningless before a superhuman's combat ability.

Therefore...

"If they want even a chance against that thing, they must learn at least the basics of neural acceleration."

Ivan raised his gun again.

He would give them enough opportunities, so they could fight with their lives on the line and earn it.

This was the fastest way to learn neural acceleration. It was a sense awakened alongside survival instinct during a life-or-death struggle against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent.

Those children were already trained enough. They had enough talent and mana.

All they lacked was experience.

Providing that was the duty of an excellent educator. Ivan humbly acknowledged his role.

* * *

Tumor of Mount Tai. The incarnation of rage, the Giant King. One of the Seven Dragon Generals, killed by Maximilian.

Tumor's army had destroyed two kingdoms, thirty-seven cities, and one hundred twenty-nine villages. It had been the vanguard of the Demon King's army and the first of the Seven Dragon Generals humanity encountered.

The warband under Tumor's command, called the Second Dragon General Army, possessed no special abilities compared to the other legions. That meant it had no strange magic or curses, no special troop types or strategies, no bizarre tactics of any kind.

There was only one reason its wartime maxim had been so overwhelmingly dominant compared to those of the other legions.

Conflict alone.

The legion led by the incarnation of rage consisted of orcs, giants, and tauros. Pitched battle alone, advance alone, annihilation alone. They ran, destroyed, killed, and marched for that alone.

Because of its outstanding military achievements, the Hero had raised his sword against Tumor the moment he took the field. On the eastern front, where the Hero fought beside the knights of Tilles, Tumor and the legion were destroyed.

Every orc, then, was a survivor from those days. They were warriors once led by the incarnation of rage. Though they had lost their fighting spirit and fallen into decline after Tumor's death, their instincts and souls still held memories of that glorious era from more than ten years ago.

And now...

A lone orc warrior, terrified after suffering isolation and torture, slowly closed its eyes as it watched the future whispered by the artifact.

It realized that no choice would allow it to survive.

It understood that it was nothing more than a training puppet.

It was tormented by the guilt of leading its own brothers into a trap and sending them to their deaths.

-Kraaaaaaaaah!!

Then the wildness of old opened its eyes.

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Footnotes:

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