“What’s the point in beating someone if she had to match your fighting style the whole time?”
“What did you say?”
“Oh, nothing. Don’t mind me. Just rambling on my own here,” said Renya with a dismissive wave of his hand. He shifted his attention to delinquent number two, who had brought her flunkies over as well and was standing beside Orran with her hands at her hips. Apparently, she had heard Renya too.
“Did I just hear you imply that we won by luck? How terribly offensive. Fortunately for you, I’m a generous person. Prostrate yourself and beg for pardon, and I might forgive you. Go on, now. I’m waiting,” said Natalia in an overtly condescending tone.
He looked the ringleted blonde over. Her expression was filled with lofty disdain, but for all her swagger, a growling housecat would have proved more intimidating. She was also puffing out her chest. The effort was futile, though; one could not accentuate that which wasn’t there in the first place. Even Lealis, slender as she was, had enough volume to at least prove they’re there.
Well, won the battle and lost the war, eh?
Renya chuckled. It drew a bewildered look from Natalia, who had not the slightest idea why he was laughing.
One question, however, lingered in his mind. Unlike Orran, who probably approached problems with the “just hit it harder” philosophy, Natalia seemed like she employed the same speed-oriented style as Lealis. Her victory, then, seemed to imply that she was at least on par with her teacher in skill. But was she? His answer was answered by Frau, who was sitting rather far away.
“Master, can you hear this?”
“What?” blurted out Renya. In doing so, he quickly realized Frau’s voice was different; it seemed to be coming not through his ears but straight into his head.
“You don’t have to talk out loud. This is telepathy. Frau is bonded to Master right now, so we can think to each other.”
“Damn. You fairies are like the gift that just keeps giving, aren’t you?”
“Frau likes what she hears and won’t mind hearing more. Also, Mr. Azu said that Ms. Lealis fought the blonde with the ringlets right after fighting Mr. Macho. He wanted to tell Master because that would probably answer the question Master had.”
“Huh. Fair enough. Thanks.”
“Master is very welcome.”
In Renya’s opinion, there was a downside to the protective effect of the force field, and it lay in its mechanism of action. When lethal damage was taken, the field worked by reducing the damage just enough so that it was no longer lethal. Conversely, this also meant that all non-fatal damage would remain unaffected. Normally, some sort of restorative gracecraft would be used after combat training, but Lealis had fought Orran and Natalia back to back. In other words, any injuries she sustained during the fight with Orran were carried over to the fight with Natalia. It took little effort to imagine what had transpired: macho boy there went into braindead bruiser mode and smashed his way through the fight, leaving Lealis to take on her next opponent hurt and considerably less agile.
“Geez, she went easy on one of them and fought the other with a handicap. And now dumb and dumber have got it in their heads that they’re hot stuff.”
He pressed his palm into his forehead and shook his head, feeling rather stupid for thinking these arrogant kids might have deserved a little credit. The gesture probably seemed patronizing to Natalia, because she drew her sword as well.
“Scoundrel! If you have no intention of fixing that wretched attitude of yours, then I, Natalia Fatale, shall put you in your place!” she announced, glaring at him.
“Great. I can’t wait to find out where my place is,” he answered in an even tone with his sword still sitting on his shoulder. “Come on, then. Enough talk about how high and mighty you are. After all, by your logic, whoever wins is the highest and the mightiest, right? So, bring it on already.” With a look of boredom, he beckoned them with another wave of his hand. He could almost hear the grinding of their teeth. “Oh, and forget your silly little rules about single combat. Bring all your flunkies too. I’ll take every single one of you on, all at the same time.”
“You’ll regret that big mouth of yours.”
“They’ll have to carry you to the healing hall once I’m through with you!”
Once again, Renya found himself reminded of the peculiarities of this alternate world. Since they treated people with gracecraft, they didn’t send them to hospitals, but rather healing halls. It was another example of how he found the strangest quirks to appreciate sometimes.
Meanwhile, Orran, Natalia, and their flunkies were rushing at Renya with their swords brandished. Seeing that over half the class was setting upon Renya all at once, Lealis was about to shout at the students to stop, but she was held back by Azu and Frau, who motioned to her to calm down and watch.
Renya stood his ground, not moving an inch. The first to strike at him was, as expected, the speed-oriented Natalia. She aimed a dashing thrust at his chest, which he dodged by simply pivoting his body to the right. As she passed him by, he pushed on her shoulder with his left hand and sent her stumbling past him. Next came Orran, who raised his sword high up in the air before slashing downwards. This time, Renya dodged by twisting to the left. In the process, he pulled his own sword off his shoulder and used it to strike a light blow at Orran’s waist before hurling the burly student behind him as well. Then, he took his first step forward.
A flurry of attacks from the rest of the flunkies rained down on him. He continued to press forward, evading every single strike without even using his sword. In the blink of an eye, he slipped past dozens of limbs and blades to appear in front of the spellcasters in mid-chant. They stared at him with eyes wide and mouths agape, the rest of their incantations lost to surprise.
“Tactics 101. Kill the mages first.”
Renya swept his sword in a horizontal arc. It caught a girl in the waist. She vanished from view. His sword snapped back and lodged itself in the shoulder of a boy, smacking him down onto the ground.
Thud.
The sound of a body impacting hard earth signaled the reappearance of the girl as she rolled wildly along the ground. When she came to a stop, she vanished again, this time for good. The boy, one hand clutching his shoulder, tried to stand back up. He looked up. His face twisted in shock at the sight of an incoming boot.
“Ah… Sto—”
The boy’s plea went unheard. Renya stamped his foot. A gratifying sensation came from the bottom of his boot. An arm moved to shield its body. He stomped on it. A body crawled away to escape. He stomped on it. The back of a head was exposed. He kicked it. Then, he stomped on it, too.
It writhed. He stomped. It writhed again. He stomped again.
He stomped and stomped until it ceased to move. He looked down. It was gone. Slowly, he turned around.
His gaze lingered for a moment on the remainder of the flunkies, petrified by the atrocity they just witnessed. Then, it shifted to Orran and Natalia, who were staring at him blankly in shock.
“Frau, let Azu deal with our good teacher Lealis for now. Could you go block off the exit of the sparring grounds for me?”
“Okie dokie~”
For some reason, Renya could feel a chirpy enthusiasm in her thought-words. He momentarily considered if he was maybe rubbing off a little too quickly on her as a couple of girls slashed at him with swords, their cries sounding more like screams of fear than roars of battle. He effortlessly swiped their blades away. One girl stumbled past him, off-balance. He drove a knee into the pit of her stomach. Gut juices spilled out of her mouth. She curled in agony, exposing the back of her head. He slammed his elbow down on it and stomped on the fallen body. Then, he drove his foot into her side. She retched again, throwing up fluids both yellow and red, but did not disappear. Apparently, it wasn’t enough to be lethal. He shrugged and smiled before he dropped his heel firmly onto her head once more. This time, her body faded.
“Azzy?! What is going on?! That person clearly came here to kill people!”
“It’s okay, Ms. Lealis. He knows they won’t die.”
Somewhere in the distance, Renya heard one voice cry out in distress and another trying to placate it. He ignored them and looked around at the students. Seeing three of their classmates wiped out in an instant seemed to have given all of them cold feet. He grunted. That was no fun. At this rate, the goblins at the settlers’ village would have put up more of a fight.