Hilde stared at Anakin silently for a moment before speaking.
“When are you going to take off that robe?”
“When I fight.”
As Anakin shrugged, Hilde nodded quietly.
Even after the mana verification was over, the lesson continued.
Chris then spoke words that sounded like a bolt from the blue to the children.
“Alright. Now, all of you, attack me together.”
The children all wore surprised expressions.
…Was the conversation he had with Mantis before class true?
Except for the fact that it was a ‘one versus many’ battle instead of a ‘one-on-one’ duel…
Anakin felt they were being looked down upon too much, considering they were supposedly the rising stars of the magic world.
Katarina had held back, but Hilde and Anakin alone had forced her to get serious.
What would happen if all the children here attacked at once?
Of course, Chris seemed even stronger than her.
In any case, with their current level, they couldn’t accurately judge the true extent of their teachers’ strength.
“…You want all of us to attack together?”
As Chris took a combat stance and nodded, the children spoke with doubt on their faces.
“Brats like you are a piece of cake.”
As expected of a teacher, he knew exactly how to provoke the inexperienced children.
Offended, the children all scowled.
These were kids called geniuses in their respective regions.
There were ten of them; surely they could handle him?
“Well… if you won’t come to me, I’ll go first.”
At those words, Chris’s aura changed.
Before the hesitating children could react, Chris teleported in front of them and swung a mana blade.
Crack!
With just one swing, the shields were instantly shattered.
Three layers of shields were broken in a row.
The children’s faces turned pale.
They realized that he was more than capable of fighting ten disciples at once.
Anakin quickly pulled off his hood.
After tying his long hair back into a single ponytail, Anakin warmed up his body.
It felt much lighter now that his hair was out of the way.
As the situation turned urgent, the other children were busy trying to dodge Chris’s attacks.
While Chris rotated his ankles and prepared to attack again, Hilde, Anakin, Lute, and Lucien—who were quick to grasp the situation—began casting spells.
The large training ground was made of a special magical material that absorbed the shock of mana, so it rarely sustained damage.
It was also easy to restore, which meant they could go wild without worrying about the building.
Hilde and Lute’s rapid casting struck at Chris.
A bolt of lightning like a streak of light and concentrated green mana rushed toward him.
“Tsk.”
Chris clicked his tongue and raised his hand.
“Tempus Accelera.”
Suddenly, the attack magic froze in mid-air as if time had stopped.
The children all stared at the strange sight.
Time-flow control magic—it was said that only those who had transcended could use it.
Anakin had heard that there were not many users besides the Elders.
To think that Chris was one of them.
“What are you doing? Attack!”
Lucien rushed in among the dazed children.
His dark blue mana transformed into the shape of a massive arrow and surged toward them.
Only then did the children snap out of it and begin casting their own spells.
Fire, lightning, wind, and even blood magic.
The one using blood magic was none other than Kayla.
Anakin had heard that blood magic, which only specific tribes could use, had disappeared, but she seemed to be a descendant of such a tribe.
He had seen her use it during the exam as well.
Boom! Boom!
Chris lightly stepped back to dodge the concentrated barrage of attacks.
As if to show the difference in their skill levels, he continuously reinforced his body and approached the disciples directly.
“Hup!”
When a startled Mantis deployed a shield, Chris began to smash it with his bare fists.
Snap!
A fist broke through the shield and struck Mantis in the abdomen.
“Cough!”
As Mantis collapsed, the rest of the children rushed at him simultaneously.
But he was monstrously fast.
Using teleportation and physical reinforcement, dodging slow magic was natural for him.
Chris, who was still perfectly clean without a single scratch, seemed like an impossibly high wall.
Hilde, realizing that rushing in blindly wouldn’t work, temporarily stopped his attacks.
He approached Anakin, who was in the middle of casting a spell, and spoke.
“I think we need to work together.”
“…You’re right. Two of us won’t be enough to even budge him…”
They lacked numbers.
Anakin looked around the training ground and shouted toward Lute, who was standing alone.
“Lute! Use a wide-range spell. We’ll block his escape route!”
“…Understood.”
Lute, who had been fighting frantically, nodded.
“And Kayla, if Chris uses teleportation, wait for him and pour blood magic on that spot!”
At Anakin’s words, Kayla also replied that she understood.
“We have to pour out our magic all at once.”
It felt like they were trying to take down a boss monster.
To think it was this hard just to leave a single scratch.
Were all upper-class disciples gathered here such monsters?
Anakin cast a spell with a weary expression.
Soon, Lute summoned a massive field of flames.
“Solaris Ignitum!”
As the flames spread wide, Chris turned to the right.
However, his retreat was blocked by a massive ice wall.
Seeing this, Chris muttered.
“So you’re finally working together.”
It seemed like it would be a slightly long lesson.
Chris smirked and began casting magic.
Kayla prepared her blood magic, searching for the spot where Chris would teleport to follow up the combined attack.
However, the place where he appeared was none other than the ice wall summoned by Hilde and Anakin.
The solid wall, which they thought wouldn’t break, collapsed helplessly against his concentrated mana.
As Chris broke through the wall and made a frontal breakthrough, Kayla poured out her blood magic.
“Vinculum Sanguinis!”
Along with Kayla’s chant, droplets of blood began to bind his body.
Seeing Chris slowed down, the disciples all began to summon their most powerful magic.
“Die!”
‘Wait, who shouted ‘die’?’
‘It feels like we’re trying to defeat a villain.’
“Statica et Nebula!”
This was Hilde’s specialty: fusion casting.
It was a technique that used mist to block the enemy’s vision and attacked with powerful lightning from an unpredictable direction.
Perhaps because everyone was desperate to win against Chris, Anakin could feel them squeezing out their last bits of mana for the attack.
Then, a massive sound echoed as if to shake the entire training ground.
KABOOM!
“Did we get him?”
At Roque’s words, Lute frowned deeply.
“Shut up.”
If you say that, even a dead enemy comes back to life.
The children all watched Chris’s direction with tense faces.
As the mist gradually cleared, a very firm Chris was standing there, surrounded by a shield.
“Is that guy a calamity monster or something?”
Even in that situation, Lucien leaped toward Chris with a round sphere of concentrated blue mana in his hand.
“Hahaha!”
Anakin admired Lucien for his relentless assault.
‘But why is he having so much fun?’
Looking at Lucien, Anakin and Hilde both frowned slightly.
Chris looked at Lucien, who was throwing himself at him, and said.
“Is this kid crazy?”
Chris laughed in disbelief as he took Lucien’s attack.
And then, more vicious attacks flew from behind.
A whip made of flames and a summoned beast, the Wolf King, rushing like mad.
“Do you still have mana left?”
Chris blocked the whip with a shield made of mana and tore through the beast’s hide with a mana blade.
With just one attack, the spells were reduced to nothing.
Anakin calmly observed the atmosphere with determined eyes.
‘If he’s let his guard down now, it might be possible. Just like what I did to Katarina.’
Hilde didn’t look like he had given up either, seemingly having the same thought as Anakin.
They were already exhausted in both mana and stamina, but they thought it was worth a try.
Of course, Lucien would have to do his part well.
Anakin created the shape of a giant sword out of mana and leaped toward Chris.
As Anakin approached in an instant, Chris deployed a shield veil to block the blade.
To Anakin, who didn’t back down even as the sword and shield clashed, Chris said.
“Is this a honey trap?”
Anakin’s flawless, transparent skin and red lips that looked like they held a piece of apple.
His upturned eyes and long, elegant eyelashes flickered once.
Faced with the face of an incredible beauty with long hair tied back, Chris was flustered for the first time.
Cough.
Due to excessive mana consumption, blood trickled from Anakin’s mouth.
Yet, he was still facing him head-on.
At this, Chris warned him.
“You’d better move.”
“…”
Anakin, looking haggard, pulled up the corners of his lips as much as possible and spoke.
“I don’t want to.”
The sorrowful beauty smiling while covered in blood would make anyone lose their will to fight.
“Anakin…”
While Chris was frowning, Lucien’s fierce attack flew in again.
To Lucien, who attacked again without getting tired, Chris said.
“Argh. Just give up already!”
Chris was already distracted by Anakin, and with Lucien rushing in too, he became annoyed and sent out a mana wave.
It was then. Mantis suddenly grabbed Chris by the leg of his pants.
“What the—!”
Finally, Hilde used teleportation to appear in front of Chris.
“Die.”
Above him, countless golden spears were floating, enough to cover the entire ceiling, aiming straight at Chris.
