Glan Natural Science Academy

“Wind Blad-“

Pop!

Suddenly, as an inconspicuous bubble exploded at Konan’s face, this delicate girl felt pain as though she was whipped and she instantly yelped, interrupting Wild Blade’s build-up of power.

“Who is it? Come out!”

Konan covered her face tightly and cried out fearfully. The two slit pupils under the glasses darted around in all directions, trying to find the enemy who attacked her. But she found no traces at all.

She felt chills from her back.

Her originally calm face was now showing some panic. At the moment, Konan was like Ryger when he had lost his faith – the Sun missing from the sky and she was surrounded by a dark abyss. She felt fear towards everything around her.

If it was a normal person getting hit by Air Bubble, they would at most feel pain as though they were whipped. And if it were fighters, who were physically fit such as Lulu and Logic, it would be nothing more than a party trick. But to Konan who was casting a skill, she didn’t merely feel pain.

The consequences of having your skill interrupted were… very horrible!

Konan grunted and she felt her blood boiling. It was as though the entire world was crushing her. Her knees bent slightly and blood flowed from her two nostrils. Her rational side was telling she had experienced an energy backlash.

She forced herself to calm down. Silently, she controlled the totem’s fireball then suddenly turned around, using her combat instincts to unleash it behind her.

 

Pop came the sound. She only managed to hit a bubble and didn’t strike the enemy that made her feel fear.

Just as this happened!

Another popping sound rang out and Konan felt as though the other side of her face was slapped fiercely.

At this very moment, this graceful, refined girl wearing black-framed spectacles was no longer able to calm down. She was completely plunged into endless terror! Although she was from the Sealand Natural Sciences Academy, she was still a 16-year-old girl. And while she was the smartest and most knowledgeable of the trio from the Sealand Natural Sciences Academy, she was also the one with the least experience and willpower.

After getting hit by incomprehensible attacks and also having nobody around her to rely on, Konan felt as though she had been isolated from the world!

Panic-stricken, Konan didn’t care about the weakness brought about by the energy backlash and instead roared panickily, “Wind Shield!”

The energy consumption that casting Wind Shield required was three times that of Wind Blade. It used powerful wind energy to encircle the body, forming an omni-directional defence and would last for around 5 breaths’ span of time. After that period of time, further usage of it required a continuous supply of energy.  

Konan’s heart received some sense of safety, but the physiological burden caused by the energy backlash was now even greater. One could very well say that the damage caused to Konan by the energy backlash far exceeded the sum of damage Ryger could cause to Konan even if he casted as many Air Bubble as he could!

After all, Air Bubble strikes were utterly unable to result in fatal injuries. At most, it would cause some bruises and even Konan with her weak constitution would completely recover from these Air Bubble attacks after resting for a few days. Conversely, energy backlashes were deadly and their consequences went far beyond people’s imaginations.

“Come out!”

As Wind Shield’s energy got lesser and lesser, a sense of danger descended onto Konan once more. Under such great physiological pressure, Konan screamed and panted vigorously, her usual calm already lost for quite some time.

Others were naturally unable to understand the fear she now felt. Konan was now faced with an invisible enemy. She was now experiencing what a person who suddenly went blind and went barging into a forest full of danger would feel, what the common man faced with supernatural events that could not be explained at all would feel – the fear of having your life be out of your control, the fear of not knowing and not being able to control what is happening, the fear of possibly getting a fatal injury at any time. It was a fear that simply made people go crazy.

Stella and Baker naturally noticed Konan’s oddity. But the purple-haired girl had chased after Stella and was several hundred metres away from Konan. And so, she only glanced back and didn’t pay any more attention. After all, her combustion totem was there protecting Konan and with her fusion power and wind and fire, the girl, when standing under the combustion totem, was even stronger than her! 

As for Baker who was hiding in his wall, he relied on his skill’s strong defensive power and was absorbing an energy crystal with one hand while also supplying energy towards Stone Wall using the other hand. In the short term, he was not in any danger. But for him to go supporting Konan while under Lulu’s and Logic’s siege was simply impossible.

“Konan!” shouted Baker as loudly as he could as he hid in his turtle shell, “Calm down! He’s using his weak point against you. Stop…”

Among the backdrop of disruptions that were Lulu’s and Logic’s attack of cutting the wall, Baker’s voice was simply too faint. Add to that the fact that Konan was already in a state of extreme paranoia because of her fears. She only desired to find the thing that was attacking her as soon as possible, and as she felt the energy in Wind Shield about to deplete completely, what remaining sense of safety she had was gone and she was about to snap.

“Wind Blade!”

The moment Wind Shield collapsed, Konan yet again followed her instincts and fired Wind Blade in one direction. But this time, her endeavour was not met with anything.

Pop!

Another Air Bubble exploded.

The girl, dizzy and light-headed, staggered and leaned onto the combustion totem. Finally, the polite and urbane girl snapped. She screamed like a lunatic.

“Ah…”

From the top of the combustion totem, Fireballs blasted in all directions then exploded. At the same time, Konan was chanting incantations inwardly and was about to unleash a powerful skill that she had only recently grasped. But at that moment, another popping sound rang out – an Air Bubble got close to her and exploded.

Her skill was once more interrupted!

What’s more was that this was a powerful skill whose energy field consumption far surpassed Wind Blade!

The girl’s body suddenly shook for a moment then stood there frozen, dazed. She naturally was not aware that there were currently about 8 bubbles floating around her in all directions at about a distance of one metres. Once she moved, the bubbles would explode.

Ryger, who was hiding far away and not moving at all, had a very simple line of thought – as long as he held up this girl then it was fine. After all, Ryger still thought of this fight as nothing more than an uncontrolled and dangerous academic exchange. His final mission was only to protect his specimen. Because of this, he was only standing far off and unleashing Air Bubble one after another. He wished not to have great accomplishments, he only wanted to not mess things up.

Although Air Bubble’s projectile had a weakness of being slow and weak, the distance over which it could be controlled, however, was ridiculously far.

Ryger didn’t worry about his safety at all. Instead, he was feeling somewhat confused. He knew very well what his Air Bubble was capable of. How was it then that it was able to injure her to the point of nosebleeding? Isn’t this girl’s physique a little bit too weak?

“What in the world is going with her?”

This was still the first time Ryger was in a fight in the real sense. Air Bubble’s hidden ability to interrupt the energy accumulation of academic skills and hence cause energy backlashes was not something that Ryger nor Enid who gifted Ryger an elemental bubble had thought of.

Suddenly!

On the face of Konan, who had stood frozen, emerged unprecedented fear!

In faraway Ryger’s vision, the originally slim girl suddenly expanded out like a balloon for some reason!

On every pore of her skin, large amount of blood seeped out. Her capillary vessels had instantly collapsed and the world’s atmosphere crushed her. She instantly became a bloody person. Her head, too, expanded outwards like a bubble and with a pop, her glasses were forced out too much and broke.

“Nuoo….”

Konan let out her final wails.

BOOM!

The whole process lasted for only about two to three breaths. As the sudden sound of a gigantic balloon popping resounded, mists of blood mixed with minced meat. Konan’s body exploded with a resounding blast.

Faraway, Ryger saw this. He stood there frozen. He was stunned. He felt the dampness on his face. He raised his hand and wiped it. He slowly moved his hand till it was in front of his eyes. His hand was crimson red and under his fingernails there were some red minced meat from heaven knows which body parts. And within it, there were some white sticky substances. The blood was still warm.

“I…… killed someone?”

 

Far off in the distance, Lulu and Logic, as fighters, naturally didn’t know that Konan’s death was caused by energy backlashes. They thought that Ryger’s Air Bubble had an additional ability of causingin vivo explosions.

Seeing Konan dying in such a miserable manner, they were both dumbfounded. Though, as mercenaries who deal with all sorts of danger, they – even Lulu – didn’t feel discomfort.

Although Lulu didn’t perform as well as she could because of slight nervousness since this was her first time fighting from the mountain she called home, she didn’t think at all that Ryger’s killing in such a way was cruel. Instead, she felt full admiration towards the strong power that Ryger possessed. Her two eyes sparkled with excitement.

Baker, who was hiding in his wall, looked over absent-mindedly.

“Konan?”

Although the death rate of the Sealand Principality’s students was far above the Glan Principality, the death of someone was still something that first-year students could not face with calmness, especially for such a miserable death.

For a moment, Baker looked at the blood-stained Ryger with an expression of fear as though he was looking at a man-devouring monster.

Meanwhile, the battle between Kyubey and the ember spirit beast was also nearing its end. The two of them bit at each other and were constantly rolling on the beach. The wolf was prevailing. 

Although the ember spirit beast didn’t fear death as it was an elemental, it was ultimately a lowest-level elemental that was summoned by a first-year student. The moment Kyubey evolved into an adult proteus in the future, there was nothing that an ember spirit beast could do to him at all.

Even further beyond, Violet who was chasing after Stella slowly stopped. She looked at that mist of blood that had yet to dissipate and her eyes, seemingly infected by this bloody mist, turned bloodshot. 

“““
Now that’s how you should kill someone.

On a sidenote, I should probably take a look at earlier chapters again. If editing chapters that several months old makes me go ‘what was I smoking’, I can only imagine what the early chapters, when I wasn’t particularly sure what I was doing, was like