Glan Natural Science Academy

Lulu, who destroyed the fireball, did not have it easy.

To be exact, because of a lack of actual combat experience, she was not able to completely utilise her strength. After landing, the scattered purple flames descended from above, and the pony-tailed girl, after a moment of dazedness, scrambled to dodge the flames.

The ember spirit beast had reached Violet’s side by this point. Its true nature was that of blazing flames and because of that its shape was indistinct and it was only possible to see two red eyes and four fiery claws.

Purple embers fell onto the sand below and crackled like popcorns. 

“Awoo…”

At that moment, Kyubey, who had been bound by the male student’s magic equipment, let out a miserable cry.

It turned out that after seeing Lulu was stronger than expected, this male student had attacked the bound Kyubey so that he could move on and help share Violet’s burden, making it easier for her to catch Stella. He had coalesced a dark rock in the air then spun it. Under the male student’s control, the rock became a high-speed rotating top and crashed towards Kyubey.

It was fortunate that Kyubey was a true blackfire wolf, a true proteus! Although he hadn’t yet formed a gemheart, his body was already well developed and in terms of build alone, he was already in the domain of a proteus. He only needed time to form a gemheart.

As such, under the guard of Kyubey’s firm fur, this basic academic skill “Stone Drill” only caused some superficial injuries and didn’t hurt Kyubey much. Though, the attack completely ignited the aggressiveness of the wolf which had grown up with Lulu, causing him to struggle even more. Under the intense struggling, the magic chain that bound Kyubey started to show signs of instability.

“Kyubey!”

Lulu screamed out after seeing Kyubey getting injured, so worried that tears were about to flow. The spirit that she had shown was completely gone. Kyubey was a partner that had grown up together with her. After her grandfather died, he was her closest friend in this world and be it when sleeping or eating, they were always together, and up till now he had never gotten injured. Seeing her dearest friend now tortured and in pain, how could this unexperienced girl’s heart not ache with pain. 

And so, the only one on Ryger’s side who could face off against Violet in the form Lulu ignored everything else and went to save Kyubey.

 

The other side.

This Sealand male student who was restraining and binding Kyubey had an unspeakable suffering. Because blackfire wolves possessed an innate ability of metal-corroding black flames, blackfire wolves that matured and had a gemheart would naturally emit a slight amount of black smoke from their nostrils. This feature was very easily recognisable, and it was only so that the male student found it extremely easy to determine that Kyubey was a juvenile wolf.

Only, he didn’t think that a force beyond his expectation would come from Kyubey after he restrained the wolf with his prided magic equipment “Etching Chain”. It must be noted that the Etching Chain was a level one magic item and although he’s the power of restraint he could unleash was limited owning to his insufficient energy field, this situation he was facing now couldn’t possibly happen once he successfully restrained a Blackburn wolf who hasn’t yet advanced.

And so, that left only one explanation – this blackfire wolf he was facing off against now was mutated and its body was stronger than a normal blackfire wolf. This point was deducible from the wolf’s build. Because of this, he was unable to complete the planned arrangement of him binding the wolf then occupying Lulu. As though he could feel Violet blaming him, the male student formed another drill after noticing his singular attack didn’t injure the wolf. Even the mushroom girl who should have been in charge of supporting Violet from afar unleashed a wind arrow against Kyubey.

“Leave my Kyubey alone!”

Lulu charged at the male student while sobbing, and her target, knowing full well Lulu’s might, unleashed a stone wall. Like a turtle, he hid himself in the wall and protected himself from attacks from all directions. For the moment, there was nothing Lulu could do to him.

Only a brief moment had passed and while all of this was going on, Stella finally got rid of the purple flames on her protective barrier. Sensing the tremendous amount of energy lost, Stella completely understood the fearfulness of this purple-haired student from Sealand. She no longer dared to face her head on and didn’t even have the intention of striking back at all. She merely relied on Feathering’s agile and hallucinatory characteristics and tried her best to evade.

Under the pincer attack of Violet and the ember spirit beast, Stella relied on her lightness and agility, scurrying about around the reefy beach and coconut trees. And while Violet and the ember spirit beast weren’t good at speed, they still frequently plunged Stella into situations of danger.

Though, in the short term, the two sides were in an unusual sort of stalemate.

 

“Uncle, we…”

Ryger, who had no presence at all on the battlefield, was about to say something when suddenly, a boom came.

It turned out that Logic planned to use the opening of mushroom girl attacking Kyubey to get close and do a sneak attack but was ultimately repelled by a blazing fireball that came from the combustion totem.

After the fireball exploded, another new fireball formed atop the combustion totem. The mushroom girl pushed up the glass frames on her nose, looked at the old mercenary who avoided the fireball wretchedly, and smiled disdainfully. Her gaze then moved towards Stella and Violet although the wind blades and wind arrows shot at Kyubey non-stop.

“Damn it!”

Uncle Logic whose face was covered with dirt spitted on the ground then looked at the ‘idle’ Ryger. He grumbled, “How are these Sealand magician apprentices so strong!” 

In a battle between a scholar and a fighter of the same level, or, in a battle between a magician and a fighter, the magician commanded a large advantage. Because the fighter’s attacks were simple, direct and inflexible, it became very easy to determine what it was. Conversely, the magician’s attack methods were multifarious and thus hard to determine for fighters. Moreover, be it mentality or wisdom or even resilience and control over the battlefield, magicians were simply superior. The only area where fighters are better than magicians was in dealing with sudden changes. 

Naturally, Ryger’s face froze after hearing Logic’s grumblings. After all, wasn’t he saying in a roundabout way that the Glan Natural Sciences Academy’s students were no good!

If it was only grumbling directed towards Ryger alone, he wouldn’t mind. But once it was directed at the Glan Natural Sciences Academy, Ryger – he thought of Mentor Kubo, then of Adva, Enid, Peerless, Satro – couldn’t help but get frustrated.

He clenched his teeth. He really, really, really wanted to charge out and use some powerful academic skills to beat the three Sealand r students to a pulp and show off to this old mercenary.

Sadly, this was only imaginations in Ryger’s heart. After all, it was only a little over two months since Ryger had interacted with academia. Compared to the Sealand academy’s students’ excitements and fanaticism towards combat, students that grew up in the Glan academy were more inclined towards rationality and calmness, or at least the most of them.

He couldn’t just stay idle anymore!

Ryger’s gaze wandered about the battlefield, thinking of what he could do.

He immediately threw away the idea of facing off against Violet head-on. As for that male student, he was restraining Kyubey while hiding in his stone wall that Lulu was whaling away at, and Ryger didn’t think he would make any difference there. His Air Bubble would do nothing and with the thickness of that stone wall, a full power strike with his Fan of Wind Kite probably wouldn’t be able to breach it and would instead result in him possibly facing the consequences of energy backlashes.

That left the mushroom girl.

Ryger gulped and his face was bitter. That piece of combustion totem pillar was summoned by Violet and though its weaknesses were apparent in that it couldn’t move and can only defend reactively, the advantage of it was also apparent – it required no energy consumption. The etched markings on the totem were able to perpetually take in flame power from nature.

What’s more was that the combustion totem aside, the mushroom-headed female student herself was extraordinary. Two attacks beforehand that were aimed at Violet, be it Uncle Logic’s swift flying knife or Stella even swiffer feather, were both perfectly deflected by her perfectly. This sort of combat awareness and minute control over energy field wasn’t something that he could hope to compete with.

Was he going to hope Air Bubbl-

“Wait!”

Suddenly, Ryger seemed to discover something. His body shook, his pupils contracted suddenly, and his angry and ashamed face completely calmed down at that moment.

“Able to intercept an ambushing flying knife and accurately stop even the flying feather that suddenly appeared using Wind Blade?”

As he muttered to himself with incredulity, Ryger’s gaze landed on the Sealand Principality’s mushroom-headed girl’s spectacle, on that pair of slit pupils!

His mouth opened slightly, and the anatomical knowledge of a certain specimen flashed through his mind. He muttered, “Dynamic, Vision!”

 

“““

Term change yes I know there’s been quite a lot of them

Dynamic visual acuity -> Dynamic vision
For those who forgot, dynamic vision was brought up when Satro and Ryger was dissecting a frog. It enables the frog to view with perfect clarity objects in swift motion.