The match was nearing its climax, and there were only three groups left. One group had two members and the other had four; they were all fourth-year students. The last group was Yui’s.
They hadn’t developed any set strategy, but Ivo, Lyle, and Clois all coordinated well together and managed to break the upperclassmen’s ranks. If anything, they’re better off for not having discussed strategy, Yui thought. Everyone in her group, including herself, was very individualistic—for better or for worse. Each of them had their own way of doing things. It fit them the most to do whatever they thought was best in the moment, rather than restrict their actions beforehand with poor planning. They also all had a good grasp of one another’s personalities and could predict pretty well what the others were going to do next. That made it easy for them to understand their own roles in the fight. Even so, the three of them were quite fatigued. They were out of breath and stretched right to the breaking point.
The two groups of fourth-years must’ve thought that this exhaustion would make them easy targets, so they exchanged looks. As if it’d been arranged, the fourth-years all turned together to target the three first-years. Ivo, Lyle, and Clois were quickly surrounded on all sides. Their faces went stiff when they understood the situation they were in.
“There’s nowhere to run! This is impossible,” Lyle complained. Despite his timid-sounding remark, there was no trace of defeat in his eyes. Ivo and Clois were much the same—they tightened their expressions and prepared for an attack.
One of the fourth-years shot off fire that flared up high like a wall, and Ivo, Lyle, and Clois scattered to avoid it. That seemed to have been the fourth-years’ aim, and they split up as well, two of them each teaming up against one first-year. They were trying to crush them individually, without giving them a chance to work together.
“It isn’t right to be bullying your juniors,” Lyle said to the boy and girl facing him.
“We’re just teaching you how harsh the real world can be,” one of them replied.
In the midst of this tense face-off, Lyle moved first. He charged straight at them, not caring at all how it looked. The fourth-years seemed to think this was just the final, desperate struggle of someone cornered, and they looked annoyed and disappointed by Lyle’s recklessness. The female student chanted, and a mass of earth came up from the ground. Then she shot it at the charging Lyle.
The lump of soil closed in on him. If it hit, it would definitely pack a punch, but Lyle didn’t defend against it at all. Instead, he leaped at the female student. He hadn’t even tried to avoid the attack, so naturally, it hit him head-on—or at least, it should have. Just before the clod of earth made contact with his body, it was repelled by something, and it broke into pieces.
The student’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw that. She hadn’t sensed any defense spells on Lyle, and it didn’t look like he’d cast anything at the last second, so she had assumed that her single attack would end things. Taking advantage of her loss of composure, Lyle got right up in front of her and smashed her magic item with a wind-wrapped fist, shattering her glass. One of the fourth-years had now been defeated, but within a split-second lapse of attention on Lyle’s part, the male student had been able to hit him with an attack. Lyle’s glass tragically broke.
The lump of earth had been repelled by a timely defense spell from Yui. The spell had clung right to the outline of Lyle’s body, which had made it hard to tell that it was there. However, one eagle-eyed fourth-year had noticed that just before the earth spell hit Lyle. Lyle had shot a look at Yui, and she had quietly mumbled something.
The fourth-year shouted, “The Liefe! Go for the Liefe in the back first!”
One of the fourth-years instantly fired a spell at Yui in response, but before it landed, she abruptly vanished.
“Huh?!” the student exclaimed, astonished. This left him wide-open, which Ivo didn’t overlook. Because one student had been looking at Yui, Ivo had only a single opponent. That opponent had also diverted their attention when Yui disappeared, which allowed Ivo to easily get out of sight and fire a wind spell at the dumbfounded student’s back.
A loud gale and the sound of broken glass on his arm brought the student back to reality. “Ah!” he shouted.
“All right! Nice, Yui!” Ivo said, looking at Yui, who was now in a different spot from before. She still had a lollipop in her mouth and was leisurely waving her hand.
The student who had pointed out Yui was shocked. “No way, teleportation magic?!” he exclaimed. Teleportation spells were a type of nonelemental magic that anyone could learn, even if they weren’t a Liefe. However, being a nonelemental spell, it required a great deal of control over one’s magic energy, and for anyone who wasn’t used to it, a teleportation spell took some time to cast. There were hardly any students, let alone first-years, who could cast one instantly like Yui had. However, being a fourth-year, the student quickly regained his cool.
Ivo’s joy at having defeated one of them lasted only briefly. Sensing magic energy from behind, he dodged to the side, and the spot where he had been standing just moments ago burst into flames. The attacker had been one of the students who had been up against Clois.
What happened to Clo? Ivo thought, a bit irritated. He looked around for his friend, only to see that he was already outside the arena, next to Lyle. “Clooo! Why’d you let yourself get defeated so easily?!” he shouted.
“Don’t be ridiculous. After Lyle got knocked out, one of them came over to fight me. How was I supposed to defeat three fourth-years at once?”
“Gah,” Ivo groaned. The situation had gone from bad to worse. Now he had to fight against four fourth-years. “You still don’t feel like fighting, Yui?”
“A special class with a bunch of battle-addled buffoons sounds dangerous, so I’ll pass.”
“Don’t reply so quickly! And who are you calling a buffoon? You have the chance to receive instruction from a general and the grandmaster! You won’t get that opportunity again!”
Yui ignored Ivo’s frantic pleas. “I don’t wanna.”
However, Ivo wasn’t going to let things end there. A chance to learn from those two wasn’t something that happened often, even if you were a part of the army or the guild. He could turn that opportunity into a reality if he could just defeat the four people in front of him. Lyle and Clois were also shouting at Yui from the sidelines, trying to motivate her, but she was acting like she couldn’t hear them.
“Umm, can you guys finish this up?” one of the fourth-years asked, irritated.