* * *
Chester scowled habitually at the mention of Ruite’s name.
Even in her panic, Rona managed to briefly explain the situation.
Hearing the full story made it even more absurd to him.
If Ruite had realized the monster had evolved, he should have thought about escaping first, yet he chose to stay behind to buy time.
Chester stared at the restless Rona.
‘I suppose his plan was to let this girl escape so she could inform the professors.’
By the time he finished processing the explanation, Rona was already long gone, desperately sprinting toward the mountain entrance to spread the word.
Chester stared intently at the path to the right.
‘Was that mana I felt earlier from the evolved monster?’
Wait, does that mean he’s currently facing an evolved monster all by himself?
“Sigh.”
Chester let out a deep sigh and changed direction.
Just as he was about to enter the right path, the ground vibrated, and he heard a faint voice.
Adding to that, the sensation of a familiar mana signature drawing closer caught his attention.
Chester narrowed his eyes and watched the front.
Something was approaching through the fog, which had grown thicker than before.
“Aaaagh!”
The first thing he saw was Ruite.
With his silver hair fluttering, he was sprinting toward Chester like a madman.
Chasing right behind him was a monster that looked considerably powerful.
“What on earth is he doing…!”
Chester clicked his tongue at the unexpected sight but gripped his sword firmly.
As the distance narrowed, Ruite spotted Chester.
Ruite’s eyes widened.
He ran past Chester, then came to a sudden, skidding halt.
“…The catalyst.”
Ruite stepped toward Chester and muttered as if possessed.
“What?”
Before Chester could ask what that meant, the monster charged toward the two of them at full speed.
“Chester, lightning.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hurry and pour some lightning into that bastard… I mean, that thing.”
Tsk.
Chester bit his lip, clearly displeased at having to move according to Ruite’s orders, but he drew his sword immediately.
He thrust his blade into the belly of the charging monster and unleashed a burst of lightning.
Blue sparks instantly enveloped the massive beast’s body.
However, Chester knew instinctively that an attack of this level wouldn’t suppress it.
Even so, he poured in every bit of his remaining stamina and mana.
At that moment, Ruite stepped back about three paces behind Chester’s back.
“You, what are you trying to do?”
“Just stay like that.”
Ruite started warming up, massaging his shoulders and stretching his legs.
Chester frowned at the nonsensical behavior, looking back and forth between the monster and Ruite.
‘I should have just ignored him and kept going.’
Yet, seeing Ruite speaking so urgently with his bangs disheveled, Chester’s body had moved before his mind could object.
Then, Ruite—seemingly finished with his warm-up—kicked off the ground.
Aiming for Chester’s back, he dashed forward.
As the gap closed, Ruite put strength into his right foot and leaped high into the air.
“Sorry in advance!”
“What?”
Ruite stepped on Chester’s back and then his shoulder, gaining altitude.
Finally, using the crown of Chester’s head as a stepping stone, he soared upward.
“Ah…!”
Chester let out a low groan as he was unexpectedly stepped on.
Meanwhile, Ruite, having reached the monster’s eye level, swung his hand through the empty air.
A thin flame flickered into existence, quickly forming the shape of a spear.
Ruite plunged the spearhead, made of pure firepower, into the crown of the monster’s head and detonated his mana.
A monster’s vital points are not much different from a human’s.
Attacking the head where the brain is located can deal massive damage.
Furthermore, the monster was currently covered in Chester’s lightning. If you added fire to that…
Kaboom—!
As expected, an explosive reaction occurred.
With a tremendous roar, wind howled in all directions, and debris of dirt and stone flew everywhere.
Ruite’s firepower, which had been insufficient on its own, met Chester’s lightning to create a massive elemental explosion.
“Ugh…”
Simultaneously with the explosion, Ruite lost his balance.
He tumbled toward the ground, swept up by the violent blast of wind.
While being tossed around, Ruite grabbed onto the first thing his hand could reach.
After a moment of chaos, the wind gradually died down.
Smoke from the explosion was still rising into the sky.
Ruite slowly opened his eyes, feeling sharp pain all over his body.
“Oh.”
What met his vision was Chester’s face, twisted in a heavy scowl.
Looking down, Ruite realized Chester was pinned beneath him on the ground.
“What are you doing?”
“I should be asking you that. You’re the one who pulled me down.”
“Aha.”
Come to think of it, while he was flying through the air, he had instinctively flailed his arms and grabbed something—it must have been Chester.
When Ruite let out a low sound of realization, Chester let out the deepest sigh possible.
“What exactly happened?”
Chester, covered in dust from head to toe, stood up and irritably brushed himself off.
“I tried to buy as much time as possible, but that thing was way stronger than I thought.”
Ruite looked toward the area still shrouded in thick smoke.
Seeing the broken trees made him realize once again just how powerful that explosion had been.
“So, the moment I was about to run away, I saw you.”
The moment he remembered Chester’s primary attribute was lightning, he thought he could make good use of it.
While his own firepower couldn’t suppress the beast, Chester had the ability to trigger an explosion by enhancing that fire.
“You should have just run away with Rona in the first place.”
“Well, Rona is a slow runner.”
Chester tilted his head as if he didn’t understand the logic.
“She’s a slow runner, so she’d be terrified if a monster like that was chasing her from behind, wouldn’t she?”
“What the…”
“Well, putting various reasons together, I concluded that I should be the one to buy time.”
‘Not that it turned out perfectly,’ Ruite muttered, brushing the dirt from his hair.
Ruite’s strategy was actually quite efficient.
However, considering the significant risk one of the roles carried, most wouldn’t dare try it, no matter how efficient.
Yet here was Ruite, saying he chose that role simply because his classmate would be scared.
“Anyway, that was a very appropriate attack, Chester.”
Ruite gave a thumbs up, causing Chester to let out a hollow laugh.
When Ruite first came running and shouting about lightning, Chester thought he was just begging for help.
But he wasn’t.
Ruite had used him as a literal stepping stone to launch an attack.
Thinking about it again made him annoyed.
Chester turned his head to glare at Ruite.
‘Wait, normally, you don’t step on the head of the person you like, do you?’
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been used.
Ruite, oblivious to Chester’s inner thoughts, merely scratched his cheek and looked away, feeling uncomfortable under Chester’s sharp gaze.
But then, the ground vibrated.
The smoke from the explosion wavered, and from within it, the tattered monster slowly began to crawl out.
“Wow… it’s still alive after all that?”
Ruite let out a disbelieving laugh.
Chester immediately readjusted his grip on his sword.
He looked at Ruite, who was still sitting on the ground, and noticed the blood splattered beside him.
Ruite was bleeding from a cut on his forearm.
“Hey, you’re in the way, so get lost. Go check on the professors or something.”
“Huh? You’re going to face it alone? Can you do it?”
“Who do you think I am? I could have handled it alone without your help in the first place.”
“Still, by yourself…”
He was about to say it might be too much, but Chester began to glare at him with sharp eyes. Suddenly, the monster roared.
The moment Chester tensed his body, a faint magic circle appeared in the sky above the monster, and a rain of ice arrows poured down.
Under the sudden attack, the monster let out a groan of agony and its body slammed into the ground.
Taken by surprise, the two of them could only blink in confusion.
“Ruite! Chester!”
Urgent voices called out from a distance.
It was Professors Harold and Neo.
The two approached Ruite and Chester with pale faces.
“Are you both alright?!”
Harold frantically checked their condition.
Neo approached the fallen monster and lightly snapped his fingers, causing the magic circle in the sky to vanish.
He checked to see if the monster’s breath had stopped.
“Professor, we’re okay.”
“When I heard from Rona, I was so…”
Harold was so shocked he couldn’t even finish his sentence.
Only when Neo confirmed the monster was dead did Ruite finally breathe a sigh of relief.
“For now, come down with me.”
Ruite touched the ground and slowly tried to stand up.
At that moment, his head spun.
He felt as if his vitality and mana were being sucked out of his body like a sponge absorbing water, and he stumbled.
“Ruite!”
His vision blurred.
The last thing he saw was Chester’s scowling face next to a panicked Harold.
His vision went black, and Ruite lost consciousness.
Just as Harold reached out to support him, Chester stepped forward first.
“…You really are a piece of work.”
Clicking his tongue, Chester reached out without hesitation for the collapsing Ruite.
He pulled Ruite’s limp body onto his back.
“Let’s head down, Professor.”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
Harold was going to offer to carry him since Chester looked exhausted as well, but for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out.
Perhaps it was because Chester was carrying Ruite so securely.
* * *
