The High Rocky Mountain.
In the darkness, the blood-red sun rose.
*Kuuwuuung······!*
As the sun fell, it spewed smoke.
Like a giant meteor, the fireball crashed down just below the rocky mountain, exploding with a tremendous noise.
The rocky mountain was engulfed in the explosion, causing the magical beasts climbing it to fall and be buried beneath the rubble.
*Gulok! Gulok! Kheeeek······!*
As Aintz and Team 1 coughed for a long time, the smoke and dust slowly cleared.
Once visibility was restored, they noticed a previously unseen sheer cliff.
The gentle slope of the rocky mountain had instantly been blown away by the explosion.
“Is everyone safe? We don’t need to worry about the back now.”
With a magic stone in hand, the young man standing behind smiled.
The teaching assistant of Professor Sergey.
They had only ever seen him following Professor Sergey with thick glasses.
None in Team 1 could have imagined he was this capable.
“Stop daydreaming. They’ll start coming from the front soon. We have to prepare.”
“Yes!”
Encouraged, the students clenched their fists and stepped forward.
When the assistant first led them here, everyone was unsure.
Why lock themselves in a rocky mountain when they could run straight to the forest entrance?
The students’ doubts were quickly resolved.
They hadn’t run far before a pack of Fenrir appeared from the front.
Just in time, they reached the rocky mountain and barely climbed up as the assistant used Flame Magic to carve away one side, leading to their current position.
Team 1 and the assistant had indeed barricaded themselves in a natural fortress.
As they picked off the magical beasts struggling to climb, they tumbled down and took others below with them.
It was the perfect way to conserve mana.
“Are you kidding me······!”
As the slope was suddenly covered with black rabid dogs, the assistant sighed.
They had changed their strategy.
Leading with the smaller black hounds allowed more beasts to attack at once.
To suppress the black hounds, they had to use multiple single-target spells or wide-area magic.
But the larger foes, like orcs and Fenrir, wouldn’t be toppled even by the falling corpses of the black hounds.
It was a strategy that forced them to use one spell per beast at a minimum.
“Hey, can I ask you to use wide-area magic? If you can just take care of the black hounds, I can handle the rest.”
“Excuse me? You, assistant?”
“Yeah. Hurry!”
The red-haired girl and the other students began casting wide-area magic.
The pack of black hounds rolled down, caught in gusts of wind and flames; however, the orcs and Fenrir kept pushing forward, brushing aside the falling bodies.
Against orcs, that wasn’t a problem, but to face Fenrir required high-power, penetrating spells.
Just as Aintz was about to prepare his spell—
*Zweeeeq······! Kwanng!*
“Rraaargh!”
The sound tore through the air, mingling with the screams of the magical beasts.
Looking up, Aintz saw the assistant standing tall, wielding a long whip.
With each crack of the whip, marks were left on the rocky mountain, and the orcs fell, bleeding profusely.
But Fenrir was an exception.
That massive gray wolf, despite being whipped, kept clawing its way up.
The students’ flickering light spells showed no sign of breaking through its thick hide.
“Just die, you guys!”
Yelling with a high-pitched cry, the assistant wielded a sword in each hand.
His internal circuits activated, making his body feel lighter.
As Fenrir charged at him, he swung his swords with deadly speed, tearing at its flesh and kicking it down the rocky mountain.
The students looked on in admiration at the assistant as he took on multiple Fenrir by himself.
*Quack!······*
“Eh?”
At that moment, Aintz heard a rock being torn away from behind and turned around.
He nearly choked.
There stood a Fenrir that had somehow climbed the side slope, which they thought impossible.
“Rrraaargh!”
“Damn it!”
Aintz wasted no time, readying a spell to penetrate its thick hide.
He had no hesitation or delay.
He just wasn’t fast enough.
“Oh.”
He was dead.
The moment he saw the fangs approaching, Aintz instinctively felt that way.
*Quack!*
“Uuugh!”
Blood splattered his face as a fang stopped just before him.
When he regained his wits, he saw the assistant had shoved both swords into its face, halting it.
The beast quickly rolled back down due to the students’ kicks.
“Th-thank you!”
“No, it’s fine······ Uugh.”
“Assistant!”
The assistant stumbled and then collapsed.
Crimson blood poured from his abdomen.
Aintz and the students rushed towards the assistant.
By that point, his face had turned pale, trembling uncontrollably.
He was already babbling incoherently, barely conscious.
“There’s bleeding! We need to stop the bleeding with healing magic······”
“No! It’s internal bleeding. Just stopping the outside won’t help.”
“Then if we could stop the internal bleeding······”
“Do you think you can look inside, tear open the wound, and accurately cast healing magic on the injured organs?”
“······.”
At Aintz’s scolding, the students suddenly fell silent.
While they each had some confidence in magic as students of the Empire University, this matter transcended their capabilities and ventured into the domain of a doctor.
“What should we do then? You don’t have a solution either!”
“······.”
Aintz clenched his eyes shut.
There was a solution.
A somewhat viable solution.
But it wasn’t something he could easily voice.
No one would easily say such a thing.
Unless it was Schlus, who would have spoken without hesitation.
“With great power comes great responsibility······.”
As Aintz pondered Schlus’s words, he opened his eyes.
Before him were four terrified classmates and a dazed assistant.
He was likely the one with the greatest power here.
Therefore, the person who had to bear all the responsibility and sacrifice was clear from the start.
With a smirk, Aintz agreed and sprang to his feet.
“As long as we have recovery potions, we’re good.”
“But the recovery potions are in the village, how······”
“Assistant, take them to the village. There are no magical beasts behind us, so hurry.”
*Piiing······!*
Aintz tossed a rope behind him.
The rope soared with the wind, stretching down the cliff before wrapping around a tree, taut and secure.
“They aren’t stupid. They’ll know we took off and chase us back immediately.”
“We just need to make sure they don’t notice we ran.”
“······!”
Aintz turned around.
The students’ eyes widened in shock.
“I’ll stay. If I unleash the power of four, they won’t catch on.”
“Hey! Even so······”
“Extra credit.”
“What?”
“The professor said extra credit would go to the one who performs best. I’m doing this for extra credit.”
“You······”
“So hurry up! The assistant is dying!”
As Aintz yelled, the students began to move quickly.
The assistant was already dying, so there was no time to linger in apologies or grief.
One by one, the students grabbed towels or ropes, sliding down the line to the base of the cliff.
By the time they were all down, a swarm of magical beasts was once again climbing up the slope.
“Starting a forest fire is a no-no, right, assistant······.”
Aintz closed his eyes, crafting a spell.
A spell capable of sweeping away all those magical beasts.
A larger, hotter, heavier spell.
A spell that encompassed everything within him.
“I’m sorry! I’m about to make a mess of things!”
Just as a black hound lunged, saliva dripping, ready to bite Aintz’s hand—
*Kwaaaaaaang!*
A bright light erupted from his fingertips.
In an instant, a torrent of bright yellow flames flooded Aintz’s vision.
The flames consumed the slope and didn’t stop there, continuing down into the forest.
As the thick smoke cleared, there were no magical beasts left.
Only dark black charred remains remained.
The stones of the slope glowed bright red, on the verge of melting.
“Haa······!”
Seeing that the fire had blocked the magical beasts’ entry, Aintz collapsed, utterly exhausted.
Now as the flames spread, the beasts wouldn’t dare come near.
He might cough a bit from the smoke, but—
“Eh?”
But instead of spreading, the fire began to lessen.
Was it the thick mana energy reducing the oxygen levels?
If this continued, the magical beasts would soon converge again.
Aintz swallowed hard and quickly glanced behind.
“Damn······.”
The orcs were already waiting below the cliff.
Had they already caught on and blocked their escape?
*Tuk······ Tuk······*
“Ha. Just great.”
To make matters worse, it began to rain.
What started as a light drizzle quickly intensified into a torrential downpour.
The fire was swiftly extinguished.
Soon, the magical beasts were swarming up the slope once again.
“Damn it······ Maybe I should just have run away with everyone······.”
Almost died for a little extra credit.
With trembling legs, Aintz finally stood, picking up the sword the assistant had dropped.
It was a one-handed sword, but with his mana exhaustion, lifting it with both hands was a challenge.
Finally, the magical beasts reached the summit.
Honestly, in his current state, he had no confidence against even one rabid dog.
“Uaaah! Am I suddenly awakening my latent talent for swordsmanship?!”
Just as Aintz swung the sword—
*Peerrr······!*
A distant explosion echoed.
Both Aintz and the beasts turned their heads simultaneously.
Illuminating the darkness, something shot up in a bright glow, leaving a white trail.
Before they could even wonder what it was—
*Woooshh······*
“Eh?”
The magical beasts began to retreat down the mountain in a frenzy.
In their rush to flee, they stumbled into each other and tumbled down.
A dazed Aintz looked down the mountain, where he could see thousands of magical beasts running chaotically.
Just moments ago, they had been ready to tear Aintz apart, but now they rushed towards the source of light.
In an instant, the area around the rocky mountain fell silent, without a single magical beast in sight.
While the light continued to flicker above, Aintz clenched his teeth, looking deep into the Whist Forest.
“Schlus Hainkel!!!”
He had a hunch who the culprit behind this ridiculous act was.
