With Orran so close to Renya, aiming for one of them with spells would risk hitting the other. Renya was counting on that to cause some hesitation in their ranks, but Natalia — the damn girl was more ruthless than he thought — gave the order to just blow them all to smithereens. He had to give her credit; her decision wasn’t wrong. Even if they had to shoot through Orran, hitting Renya would weaken him even further. With three people still standing in their front line and their back line unscathed, they would be far closer to victory. All of this, of course, was based on the assumption that the people involved — both those to shoot and be shot — immediately obeyed her command.
The four in the front all spun around to stare at Natalia as a realization dawned upon them. If Orran was first, any one of them could be next; none of them were safe from sacrifice. The three in the back hesitated. Perhaps it was due to the very act of attacking a friend, or perhaps it was the fact that they risked harming General Schmeisser’s son and heir. Either way, they delayed firing off their spells. Next, Natalia was shocked to realize that she had become the focus her classmates’ scornful gazes. The final realization came to Renya, who discovered that everyone’s attention had shifted away from him.
Renya let out a soft sigh. Looking away from an opponent in battle was to risk certain death, but there was little to gain from lecturing the students right now. Instead, he placed his right hand on Orran’s body and pushed. The burly student lost his balance and fell away. The remaining boys had just begun to look back toward Renya when he dashed up to one of them, grabbed the boy’s belt with his right hand, and lifted. Employing the technique of hammer throwing, he spun in circles, making about two full rotations. Then, with plenty of centrifugal force built up, he let the boy fly, sending him shooting into the line of girls in the back.
The boy screamed. The girls screamed louder.
The three remaining front liners proceeded to repeat their prior mistake and shift their attention to the new source of commotion. Renya shook his head, finding the effect almost comical. He couldn’t tell if these kids even understood what it meant to be in battle. If they had been listening in class, this would certainly be the teacher’s fault for doing a terrible job of teaching. Considering their haughty attitude toward Lealis, though, they probably weren’t the most attentive bunch. He couldn’t blame Lealis if she never had a chance to teach. As he picked up another victim and hurled the boy-hammer at the girls, a corner of his lip twisted upward.
Heh. Dodged a bullet this time, didn’t you?
“A-Azzy?! Is it just me or did a terrible chill just run down my spine?!”
“Relax, Ms. Lealis. I’m sure it’s just you.”
The conversation that drifted into Renya’s ears made him grin even more. It seemed that out of all the things these kids stood to learn from their teacher, the first thing should have been her sense of danger.
Only one girl and Orran remained in their front line. The girls in their back line were buried under the bodies of the two boys who flew into them. They were in the process of crawling out, but none of them were in any condition to lend support fire.
“I’m starting to get bored, my dear boys and girls! Aren’t you supposed to be nobles? And you can’t even beat an F-rank adventurer? After all that big talk, too. Man, in a way, I’m almost impressed.”
“Scum… You think you’ll get away with this?”
“Ah, of course. Step two of ‘How to be a stuck-up brat.’ Threaten people with your social standing. Honestly, this is starting to get stupid.”
“Y-You damned—”
“Look, buddy. I’m rank F and you can’t even beat me. You realize Ms. Lealis is rank D, right? What makes you think you can make fun of her? Do you even know why I’m F and she’s D? You clearly have no idea, and yet you still have the nerve to get all cocky about beating her once? What a bunch of clowns you are.”
“Shut that dirty mouth of yours!” Orran roared in rage and swung his sword at Renya. It was a predictable strike. Disappointingly predictable.
A strike from Orran, augmented by his natural gift of size and power, should have been fairly risky to block. If one was skilled enough to not block but evade, however, the big student’s blade posed little more threat than those of a windmill. Having lost even the patience to wait for the heavy strike to fall, Renya dove forward and whacked Orran’s wrist with his sword. The pain caused Orran to drop his sword again. Renya couldn’t be bothered to warn him again, so he snapped his foot up into Orran’s groin, who bent forwards with a moan. He looked down. Then, with a hint of theatrics, he slowly raised his sword high above the crumpled student’s head.
“W-Wait… Stop! Don’t!”
“Are you going to beg for your life? Too bad, because I’m not listening.”
Renya’s arm came down hard, driving his weapon straight into Orran’s shoulder. Orran fell to his knees from the blow, clutching at his injury. However, Renya did not stop there. He slammed his sword down once more. Then, he did it again. And again. Faster and faster. Harder and harder. He rained blow after blow down onto the kneeling Orran. So long as the force field deemed the attacks unlethal, it would not eject the victim outside. Also, so long as hard metal met bare skin, even a dull blade could draw blood. There was no trickery, no technique behind his strikes. There was only the raw ferocity of brute force. He raised his arm, then he brought it down. With each cycle, he tore more flesh, splashing thick globs of gruesome red onto his sword, his arm, and all over himself. Stained with blood, he laughed, high-pitched and maniacal. But he did not stop.
The scene defied description. The onlooking students blanched. No one moved. For a few breathless moments, there was nothing but the sickening noise of cold iron hitting bone and flesh. Eventually, the noises faded. Orran’s body soon followed suit.
One girl remained in their front line. Renya turned his body toward her, allowing his sword to dangle loosely from his hand. A river of red flowed down the length of the blade. Then, slowly, he turned his bloodstained face toward her as well. She barely caught a glimpse of his eyes before her legs failed her and she plopped down on the ground.
“H-Help… Please…”
Her sword dropped onto the ground beside her. She held her hands together in front of her chest and made a desperate plea. Renya said nothing. He took a step toward her. Then, another.
“Please… I’m sorry… I’ll do anything… Please don’t…”
Renya did not answer. He stopped in front of the girl. Slowly, the same way as before, he raised his sword high above her head.
“Please… No… Not like that… Not like that, please.”
The crimson guillotine paused in mid-air. Its holder looked down at the girl. In a cold, flat voice, he said,
“Die.”
“Noooooooo—”
The blade came down swiftly, cutting short the girl’s scream. It flashed before her eyes before hitting the floor with a shrill clang. The cowering girl, eyes wide with disbelief, glanced down. A length of cold metal gleamed in the ground. She glanced back up at Renya. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell onto her back. A faint stain began to spread between her limp legs. Renya looked away.
Turning around, he found that the girls of the back line had finally managed to crawl out from under the boys.
“Four more, huh. You’re next, girls. How shall I make you scream?”
“N-No…”
Without so much as a glance at Renya, Natalia and the three girls spun around and ran toward the exit of the grounds. Their reasoning, presumably, was that Renya only did this because he knew they couldn’t die within the force field. Once they were outside, they would be safe. Of course, the door of the exit did not open. Unbeknownst to them, Frau had spent this whole time setting up a massive barricade outside to keep the door closed.
“Open up! Open this door! Let us out!”
“Please no! Please, don’t let him do that to me!”
“Ms. Lealis! Help! Please!”
Slowly, Renya walked toward them. He made a point of dragging the tip of his sword along the ground. The frightening sway to his steps along with the grating metallic noise struck even more terror into the students’ hearts. They banged on the door ever more hysterically.
“What’s the matter, girls? What’re you so scared of?” There was a chilling glee to Renya’s voice. “Don’t worry. You can’t be killed in the force field. You can hurt. You can scream. You can be in so much pain you’d rather die…” He grinned and held out his sword, making sure they could all see its cold luster before he raised it high above their heads. “But you won’t, so it’ll all be fine, right?”