Leave a comment

The ones standing at the front were Cloud and me. I pulled out my katana while Cloud set up his shield side by side.

The reason we spread out like that was so the enemy would not be able to slip behind us.

Celica and Zanastia were focused on magic so they were behind. Sullivan on the other hand insisted on being a mid-range attacker.

“Okay, Zanastia and Celica, you attack from behind. Letina—”
“Please call me Zanas, okay?”
“O-Okay. Err, Letina, remain as a support in case anything happens. Can you do it?”
“No problem at all.”
“As for Michelle…”

Michelle’s eyes glittered as she made a fist at my call. She was overflowing with motivation.

Did she really wanna eat that bird so much? I bet she did.

“Leave it to me!”
“You’ll just one-shot it, so stand by.”
“Boo.”

Her skill was already among the best. If she participates, it would end in an instant. This was an assignment from the academy, so doing that would be a bit awkward.

“No need to sound so dejected, we won’t let it go.”
“But you tend to be careless, Nicole.”
“You’re really not holding your punches lately, huh…”

In the elementary grade, I was seen as a closeted maiden desperately trying to be a vanguard she wasn’t used to being, but I wouldn’t make such a blunder that I’d let a Raum Pheasant go.

Catching that bird did need a bit of skill, but nothing too difficult.

“Okay, listen. When you’re hunting a Raum Pheasant, you either need to take it down with one move, or if you can’t, deal a weak enough attack to make it think it can take you on. If you do that, it will come rushing towards you on its own.”
“Then, wouldn’t it be faster if I attack it?”
“Again, there would be no point in this assignment if you do that. I know you can probably take it down with one move, Letina, but hold back this time. If you think it will run, then you can shoot.”
“Alright.”

Letina nodded without opposition, but hearing that, Celica raised her voice looking nervous.

“Please wait! That would mean the two of us have to take on the attacker roles.”
“Yeah. Honestly, Both Letina and Michelle can easily take down an enemy of that level. And I’m the same.”
“T-Then you three should…”
“If we do that, that won’t help you at all.”
“Ughh?!”

If we defeated the targets while they simply watched, people could object that they just leeched off us and didn’t finish the assignment. If we all play our roles to a degree, they can avoid slander from other students.

“It’s okay. We have Cloud so you won’t get injured, and if it is about to escape, Letina and Michelle will defeat it.”
“Really?”
“Leave it to me!”
“You know Letina’s skill… right?”

It has been some time since she transferred to this senior academy. Everyone in the class got to know how amazing her skill was during this time.

I also had outstanding marks as far as knowledge went. I made some blunders with the alchemy that I wasn’t used to, but I was just doing it for fun.

“Then I will give it my all…”
“You don’t have to do that for an enemy of that level. You should be fine with your skill, Celica.”

Even she had quite good results in our class. Unlike me who could only use the interference magic, she was incomparably superior.

I, unfortunately, didn’t know Zanastia’s ability, but Raum Pheasant could be defeated by Celica alone.

“Then here we go!”

While glancing at the tense duo, I picked up a stone smaller than my fist and closed the distance with the Raum Pheasant.

Then threw it before it even noticed me. It was first surprised and jumped up from the branch where it sat, but once it realized that my attack only amounted to a weak stone throw, it gave a threatening cry.

Even so, I didn’t stop throwing stones. That seemed to piss it off, it spread its wings and swooped down.

“Luring success!”

I yelled and jumped back.

Cloud stood there with his shield on, so I switched places with him.

The Raum Pheasant failed to adjust to the replacement of the target and grazed the shield’s surface with a loud scratching sound. But the shield that was maintained by God Hastur, even if its surface was just iron, offered much more defensive power.

The Raum Pheasant failed to pierce the Evil Dragon’s leather lining of the shield, so it gave up and tried to fly away. But then I yelled, intent not to give it that chance.

“Celica, now!”
“O-Okay!”

Responding to my voice she hurriedly started to construct a magic circle. But her actions were quite crude, so it seemed like it would escape at this rate.

Thus, I made a big jump and slashed its wing at its base. This part was the point used for flapping the wings, so wounding it meant it would be unable to fly properly.

I landed on my knee. Then the Raum Pheasant came falling down on me.

“Uwah!?”

I didn’t expect it to just come crashing down, so I hurriedly rolled to the side.

If I got carelessly pinned under it, its giant claws could wound me.

When I took distance, Celica and Zanastia’s spells were finally finished. Both of them released the Firebolt spell that shot fire bullets. They landed on the fallen Raum Pheasant in succession.

But that wasn’t enough to land the finishing blow.

It got burned all over its body and gave a cry of agony as it tried to get up while writhing in pain.

Then Cloud decided to use his shield to push it to the ground, but it didn’t seem like he would make it in time.

Letina, naturally, was ready for this. Her spell was already constructed and only needed to be released. She just needed to put an end to it—just as I was thinking that, something unexpected happened.

The Raum Pheasant that was trying to escape had a steel thread twined around its wing. Michelle and Cloud looked at me for a moment, but it didn’t belong to me. Looking behind, I saw Sullivan manipulating a single thread.

“Oh, so you were a thread user…”
“I have the Thread Manipulation Gift. I can only use one thread, but it’s handy in these situations.”

He responded not with his usual frivolous tone but an unusually serious one. Still, he had quite good judgmental skills for him to interfere during that perfect timing.

The Raum Pheasant lost the strength to run away and had fallen to the ground. It only needed a finishing blow, but when I looked at Celica and Zanastia, they were stiffened in place without even managing to fire their spells, perhaps seized by fear from seeing the pheasant squirm on the ground.

“Well, I guess that’s what you’d expect from sheltered princesses.”

I muttered to myself and switched the grip on my katana. Perhaps Letina, who could deal the finishing blow without trouble, was the odd one among the noble girls.

I approached the squirming Raum Pheasant, raised the katana that I held in a reverse grip, and stabbed it at the base of its neck.

Having its throat pierced, the pheasant couldn’t even raise its dying scream, and after convulsing a few times, it stopped moving.

And with that, the first battle of our party came to an end.