#040 An Extremely Ordinary Group Project (2)
After registering our party of six, I called the members together that night.
Clank, clank.
“I really did come fully equipped as you said, but isn’t it a bit too early for this…?”
Donned in steel armor and a helmet, along with a medium-sized shield in hand, Roto was definitely more focused on defense than on the magic topics we were supposed to be learning. The sound of his footsteps echoed through the night streets, causing him to glance around restlessly as if he were on guard.
Noticing Roto looked a bit tired, I asked, “You said after we split up you were going to take a nap. Did you not sleep at all?”
“I couldn’t sleep… too tense…”
Pino, the girl with green hair, stepped forward.
She had a somewhat unique appearance for a pure mage, with a small bow slung over her back and a light armor that made her look a bit like a hunter.
“More importantly, are we really starting the assignment at this hour?”
“The professor did say ‘tomorrow’,” I reminded her.
“But that typically means during the next class.”
True, it usually would.
But when has this academy ever been typical?
I shrugged silently and pointed at the clock in the middle of the park where we had gathered, causing everyone else’s eyes to follow mine.
The second hand of the clock, which had been moving steadily, finally fell on the hour.
[-Everyone! Are you all ready? It’s time for the assignment!]
And with that, Professor Istel’s voice echoed through the night once again, just as it had in the morning.
Pino muttered in disbelief, “Whoa, this is real.”
[I had warned you in advance, but it appears some students still haven’t formed a team, and I can’t hold back my disappointment. Those of you affected will be randomly assigned to a team, so please trust in your luck! If you’re lucky, you might just meet competent teammates! Of course, they are also poor souls who haven’t found a team yet, so don’t forget to support each other.]
“Still the same, that professor has hidden poison needles on her tongue,” Rabaul remarked, and most of the gathered members nodded in agreement.
[Now, let’s begin the assignment. The first step of the task is ‘Shadow Hunting’!]
As soon as those words were spoken, Rigret suddenly lifted his head.
Gazing at the night sky adorned with a beautifully glowing moon and countless stars, Rigret whispered, “-It’s coming.”
Thud, something fell from the sky, not just one or two but a multitude, as if it were raining.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
“Yikes!?”
As one of those things splashed onto the ground, Roto jumped up in shock.
That black, sticky substance fell from his armor and hit the ground, gradually gathering with other slimy bits to form a chunk of a certain size.
It now bore semblance to a human-like figure, with limbs and a body.
However, there was no bumpy texture or facial features present. It was an abnormal entity, as if someone had yanked on the flat shadow’s hair and pulled it up into a three-dimensional shape.
[Please hunt as many shadows wandering within the academy as possible and gather their cores! The top 15 of a total of 31 teams will be recognized as passing! The time limit is until all shadows are hunted down or the moment the sun rises!]
With Istel’s declaration, the [Shadow Servants] scattered around began to roam the streets.
“Forget the chit-chat! Let’s gather as much as we can before the others figure out what’s going on!”
As I shouted, I created five [Low-Level Magic Arrows] and shot them at the black shadows lurking in front of a shop.
Each arrow made of magic hit its target, causing the black, slimy liquid to splatter like blood, evaporating before it could even reach the ground.
Losing the black liquid that made up its body, the shadow shrank down to the size of a small child and began to flail towards me. However, before it could reach me, the additional arrows I summoned struck it first.
Where the shadow had been, all that remained was a small black orb that fell to the ground.
I picked it up and placed it in my bag, then looked at my other comrades.
“What! Whoa! Ohhh!”
“Wait a second! Don’t these guys have weak points? They don’t flinch at all when hit with arrows!?”
“Hey, where are you trying to run off to?”
Roto was hiding behind his shield, simply flailing his arms to swat away the attacks from the shadow servants he was supposed to be hunting. Pino was wide-eyed as the monsters approached her, seemingly unfazed even after getting shot in the head with an arrow, and Rabaul was trying to hold off two shadows, but the sheer number made it futile.
It was undoubtedly chaos itself, but it was somewhat expected.
If I had prepped them a little more, it might not have been this chaotic, but explaining how I knew ahead of time seemed like a hassle, and more than anything, it was good for us to gather this kind of experience going forward.
However, there was one unexpected element: Fiore’s attitude.
“Roto! The shadow servants have high durability, but their attack power is not much different from an average person swinging their arms! Trust your armor and move! Pino! Slashing or impaling won’t be effective! Instead of using a real bow, you should use magic arrows to create force and shake off the shadows that make up their bodies!”
Even while surrounded by monsters, she was calmly directing those around her and sending healing light to Rabaul, who was taking hits upfront. I couldn’t help but admire her composure.
She seemed to be handling the situation with much more poise than I anticipated, and her orders were precise.
Originally, I had intended to step in and lead, but seeing her in action, I felt I could trust her to take charge.
‘The tactical lessons seem to be more effective than I thought. Or maybe it’s just her nature?’
Come to think of it, I couldn’t recall a time when I had seen Fiore genuinely flustered or shocked.
As I turned my gaze, I noticed more and more Shadow Servants converging around the park.
Since the other students hadn’t finished getting ready and weren’t out on the streets yet, our party was the only one actively operating.
If things continued like this, we wouldn’t just be hunting shadows to gather their cores; we’d be getting completely obliterated. However, there wasn’t a hint of anxiety in my heart.
‘No way I’d be worried with my cheat code activated.’
And just to prove my confidence, the “Nameless Demon” began to make its move.
Ligret gripped a long hammer with a wooden handle and a silver head in both hands.
With the simplistic name of “shock amplification hammer,” she swung it continuously from side to side, shifting her weight, and though it looked like she could barely handle its weight, the effect was absolute.
Bam!
It was as if someone had thrown a water balloon in front of a speeding car.
Every time Ligret swung the hammer, the entire body of the shadow servant it hit exploded like it was bursting. More often than not, multiple servants would turn to mush with a single swing.
Wherever she moved, the cores of the shadow servants scattered like grains of sand, and I quickly followed behind to collect them.
I shouted to my teammates.
“Damage doesn’t matter! Just gather as many of the nearby ones as you can!”
Ligret was hunting down the shadow servants so fast that the population around us was dwindling, meaning she’d have to sprint far away to catch them if we wanted to increase our haul.
Naturally, I wouldn’t let such inefficiency slide.
Low-Level Magic Arrows, disregarding their power, speed, or accuracy, spread out in the surrounding area, most of them flying off course or failing to inflict proper hits. However, the shadow servants that felt themselves getting attacked quickly rushed toward me, which was right in Ligret’s havoc zone.
Pino, too, started gathering shadows at a distance with arrows, and Rabaul… threw Roto.
Huh?
“Rabaul! That’s a throw! With Roto’s armor, he’ll be fine even if he’s in the middle of enemies. I’ll heal any minor injuries, so just throw him with confidence!”
“Sorry!”
“Waaaaait, no!”
Roto, who landed right in the middle of the swarm of shadow servants, sprang up and began to run for his life, with several shadow servants hot on his tail.
Normally, getting thrown out of heavy armor like that would cause a huge shock, but thanks to Fiore’s healing and protective light shielding him, he moved with remarkable speed.
I was momentarily speechless, then couldn’t help but admire.
“What a brilliant tactic…!”
Truly, she was an admirable commander and sister.
“Whoa!? What’s with these guys!?”
“Monsters!? Why are there monsters in the middle of the academy!?”
“Hold on! That one’s mine!”
Finally, the other students, having finished their preparations, rushed out, scrambling to hunt down the shadow servants. But by that time, our team had already monopolized over a third of them.
The benefits of preemptive strikes were indeed sweet.
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