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By the time half of the qualifier matches of the tournament had finished, a horse galloped into Ingralowe. That specific gate led to small towns and villages, so usually there was not much traffic going through it, that’s why the sudden arrival left the gatekeepers shocked.

As soon as the horse was past the gate, it seemed to finally lose all strength, rolling into the ground with a large cloud of dust and flinging out the rider. The rolling ended up breaking its legs too, making it impossible for it to stand up again. Sadly, that horse would likely never recover from those injuries.

“Ghah…ah!”

The rider tumbled and rolled on the ground, groaning painfully.

The gatekeepers stared in disbelief for a bit, but quickly gained their bearings and rushed to the rider’s side while calling out loudly.

“H-Hey! Are you alright?!”

The rider quickly went on his feet and desperately grasped the lapels of the gatekeeper, trying to say something.

“…gh, Ru…ng!”
“Calm down, what happened?”

The words seemed to get caught in throat, tripping on each other as he tried to breathe at the same time, making it impossible to decipher what he was trying to say.

The experienced middle aged gatekeeper tried to soothe him, telling him to take deep breaths and collect himself.

“Huff… Th-the Rufus are coming!”
“Rufus?”
“They came out of nowhere and attacked towns and villages one after another!”
“Calm down, aren’t those the big eagles from the Derbidenies Desert? Why would they be all the way here?”

A Rufu looked like a regular eagle with gray plumage, except that they were terrifyingly large. There were even stories of them carrying elephants away.

But their habitat was far away from Ingralowe in the Derbidenies Desert, and they refused to get into the Valhen Woods. It was hard to believe they had somehow flown across the entire forest to reach Ingralowe now.

And yet…

“I’m not lying! My village was destroyed by them! Just look there!”

Once the man pointed into the distance through the gate, everyone fell silent.

Countless figures were flying above the forest, their large size apparent even from that distance, and heading to the city at a high speed.

“This is an emergency! Everyone to your posts!” The gatekeeper that recovered first shouted loudly.

Everyone else quickly ran away to inform others to get ready to fight.

As one of Seperion’s largest cities, Ingralowe had a large force of guards, and there were many adventurers there as well.

Rufus were considered rank C monsters, and the city had the power to fend off even a large flock of them.

Except there was an unlucky detail. The Academy’s festival was happening that same day, so many nobles from all over the country were gathered in the city.

Most of the guards had been diverted to the gates the nobles would come through, leaving less frequented ones with little personnel. On top of that, the streets were more crowded than usual, so by the time reinforcements arrived and built up a formation, the Rufu flock was already in front of the gate.

“Fire!”

Under the commander’s signal, the magician guards launched their spells which exploded against the large monsters. But Rufus lived in the harsh environment of a desert, so they did not seem bothered by the attacks.

“Tsk, second unit, start chanting!”

In all ages and situations, having the higher ground during a fight grants an advantage, even more when one can fly freely in the air.

The Rufus noticed the magicians would attack, so they nimbly dodged the second barrage, almost like their size posed no issue.

Then they reached the gate and began retaliating, or rather, attacking.

“Squeee-!”

A Rufu squealed loudly as it landed on a guard, pressing on him with its sharp talons. Then it picked his body back up and slammed it on the ground.

“Ghahh!”

The guard let out pained whimpers, but thankfully his armor was resilient enough to spare his life.

The Rufu also noticed that, so it picked the guard back up. Another guard saw that and tried to stop it, swinging his sword at the monster, but the blade would not cut through its feathers.

It was enough to distract the Rufu though, as it dropped the first guard and flapped its wings to push the other away.

The guard was blown back and rolled on the ground, but did not suffer much damage. He tried to get up, wanting to continue fighting, but the Rufu simply flew away and stopped attacking.

Wondering why that happened, he and the other guards looked up.

There was one considerably larger black shadow in the sky.

“That’s…that…”
“Black Roc…a named monster…”

Whether intentionally or not, the rider who had arrived earlier muttered in terror, shaking in a corner of the gate.

Some monsters were given unique names to differentiate them from the rest, usually when they looked particularly different from the rest. That also meant they were rare or protected species, and much stronger than common monsters. Black Roc was one such monster, being larger than other Rufus, and having black feathers instead of gray.

The Black Roc screeched once, then flew into the city together with the Rufus, ignoring the guards at the gate.

They seemed to realize they would find easier prey in the city, compared to the guards who would fight back.

“Don’t let them enter no matter what!”

The commander shouted loudly. The magicians used their magic again, those without magic shot arrows, but it was impossible for guards on the ground to stop flying opponents from crossing the walls¹.

“What should we do?! We can’t let the students or guests get hurt!”
“But why are Rufus even here? I thought they’re desert monsters!”
“Who’s even going to take over though? This isn’t something the student council can take care of…”

The Magic Academy’s student council was in an upheaval when the Rufu attack was announced.

The Academy was already under stress hosting the festival, with many visiting nobles present as well. If aerial monsters attacked, then the resulting chaos would be impossible to handle, not to mention there was no one at the Academy with the experience necessary to know what to do.

But there was one person there who remained calm. It was Charlotte, the previous student council president, who had come to see how they were doing.

(I really wanted Mathias to take over the student council, but he rejected my offer. I swear all the second year students now are just a bunch of stubborn children like Mathias and Olivia.)

Mathias had been the number one candidate she thought of to take over her spot, but he declined resolutely, so she was forced to pick someone with less ability. The new president was not incapable by any measure, but having to deal with this situation was still too much.

“I guess it was unavoidable…”

As she muttered, she smiled at Millea, who was standing with her arms tightly crossed against her body.

“It’ll be fine, Millea.”
“Lady Charlotte…”

After reassuring her, Charlotte took a step forward, “Attention, everyone!”

Everyone froze in place hearing her commanding voice.

“We’ll form a defense force with all the magic teachers and participants of the tournament! If any visitors want to help they can too! All other students and visitors should take refuge within buildings! Broadcast that through the entire campus!”
“But Lady Charlotte, using magic outside of lessons is forbidden on campus! Who’s going to take responsibility if something-”
“I and the Pynemo family will be responsible! Now hurry!”
“R-Right away!”

The student council quickly went to work, following Charlotte’s orders.

The broadcast just now mentioned that the birds flying here are called Rufus.

If I had to estimate, I’d say they’re like twice the size of Clarissa in wolf form. And there’s one…two…three…I give, there’s too many of them.

I can see magic and arrows being shot at them from the city, so the guards and adventurers are already trying to drive them away, but the monsters will get to the Academy soon.

“Natalia, we should hurry and hide.”

Amy walks up to me and holds my hand nervously. But I’m not going to hide.

“You go ahead, I’ll do what I can here.”

The broadcast told people to take refuge or help with fighting back, and visitors could volunteer too. I’m not a teacher or a student, but I’m not exactly unrelated to the Academy either.

I’m sure the Rufus will attack the Academy soon, and there’ll be a lot of casualties. I can’t just go hide knowing that’s going on.

“…Be careful then. I’ll get angry if you make Olivia get sad again.” Saying that, Amy goes back into the building.

Now I’m alone on the roof.

She’s right though, I also don’t want to make Olivia get worried like that again. And…she’ll get angry, huh.

That makes me aware of my own feelings. I’m a bit angry right now too.

Olivia had been looking forward a lot to the tournament. I stopped her last year, not letting her face strong opponents. Now that she finally has a chance to fulfill her wish, these monsters come and ruin everything.

Yes, that’s enough to make me angry. So I’ll make them pay.

I hold my hand out and take out my magic gun from my magic storage. They’re too far for Black Hawk or White Viper to reach, but this one should be able to reach them.

This is the last magic gun Ophelia left behind. So far I’ve always been fighting in enclosed spaces like caves or forests so I never got to try it, but today it can finally see the light of day.

“Let’s do this, Blue Hound.”

This is Blue Hound, the sniper rifle magic gun.

Its main focus is power and accuracy, having more recoil than the other two, and also having low capacity magazines. It’s a bit bulky too, but that’s basically the norm for sniper rifles.

I look down the scope and line up the sights. The scope’s magnification isn’t the best, and the monsters are also pretty far.

But this is fine. I might not have been the best sniper before, but I’ve practiced a lot. Not to mention that as a magic automaton I don’t have to worry about my breathing or pulse ruining my aim. I can do this.

I guess there’s only one catchphrase I can use to make sure I hit my mark.

“Overcome².”

I calmly pull the trigger and there’s a loud gunshot and a white streak shoots out.

1. Robinxen: Oh if only there was some sort of event happening with loads of ranged people being observed by someone with a long ranged weapon.
2. Nomad: from Eulen Spiegel, something a sniper character says every time she shoots. Was it worth combing through two alternate versions of a series that’s never been translated only to find out 克服あれ stood for the equivalent of the German word “überwinden”? Not really, but my brain wouldn’t have left me in peace without being thorough