I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 671: The Adversaries (2)

-Kwagwagwang!

With an earsplitting roar, an explosion occurred.

Thick clouds of dust rose in succession, billowing heavily, and the smoke was torn apart by the force bursting from within, scattering in all directions.

The wind blew.

No, it was essentially a storm.

The result of a collision between weapons that seemed unbelievable.

The ones causing it were, on one side, a wolf knight over 5m tall, and on the other, a human covered in golden light.

-Awoooooo!!

The wolf knight, Hans, let out a howl.

The bodies of priests, holy knights, and mages who heard that howling froze.

"Kugh!"

"Kuhuck!"

The techniques they were preparing for support failed to materialize properly and dispersed into the air.

It was the strange power possessed by the Beast of Gevaudan.

A wave of power that preemptively interferes with opponents' techniques but Tarian was unaffected.

He was a captain-level holy knight, called the strongest holy knight of the era.

Although they had never fought, it was widely said that he could hold his own against Luthers, the continent's best swordsman.

To such a Tarian, Hans' cry was nothing more than slightly irritating noise.

"You're a noisy one."

Following the trajectory of Tarian's swinging sword, a massive golden flash drew a line.

Dazzling light flashed under the dark clouds.

Hans raised his cursed greatsword to block Tarian's blade.

The howling wasn't something he had expected to work anyway.

From the beginning, it was to interfere with annoying support from the surroundings.

Hans avoided the horizontally swung golden sword by doing a back tumble and jumping high.

The black wolf pack spread behind Hans was precisely split horizontally and vanished.

Seeing Hans in the air, Tarian was about to rush forward, timing his attack for when Hans would land.

But

With a "tat!" Hans stepped on the empty air and jumped up once more.

"Flying through the air?"

This was unexpected even for Tarian.

Stepping on thin air?

-Grrrr!

The power Hans wielded wasn't just from the Beast of Gevaudan.

He also had the power of the wolf lord, the guardian spirit of the Ulburg family.

The wind step, which controls the wind and becomes one with it, was also possible in his current state.

-Tat. Tat. Tat.

Hans began to move by stepping on the air multiple times.

'This is.'

Tarian's eyes narrowed.

He was already surprisingly agile for his size, but now that he could push off the air to move, he became even more difficult to deal with.

It was a movement unbelievable to witness, as if the air itself became his foothold.

Now Tarian had to pay attention to above as well as front, back, left, and right.

-Kwajik!

The moment Tarian showed an opening, Hans dropped suddenly from the air and brought down his cursed greatsword vertically.

Tarian created a large golden shield of holy power in one hand and held it at an angle.

The greatsword cut off a chunk of the shield but couldn't pierce through completely and struck the ground.

The ground where the sword was embedded turned black with corruption, rotting from the curse.

Tarian, who was about to swing his golden sword at that timing, had no choice but to back away.

This was because Hans' cloak fluttered, and darkness from within rushed toward Tarian.

No. It wasn't darkness.

'Wolves?'

What had appeared to be darkness were black wolves.

Wolves that sprang out from inside the cloak bared their sharp teeth, trying to bite at Tarian's vital points.

Yes. He was a Beast of Gevaudan.

Standing at the apex of all cryptids and a legion-level monster capable of infinitely multiplying such cryptids.

"How dare you!"

Tarian expelled holy power from his entire body, pushing away the wolves.

The fierce golden flames that arose reduced the black wolves to ashes.

'So he planned to divert my attention with this, then dodge?'

Tarian calculated this in his mind and prepared his next attack but Hans moved one step ahead of such a Tarian.

The tong, bending legs with reversed joints like those of a wolf were covered with dark greaves.

The kick from the large figure in solid armor was quite threatening in itself.

Tarian gave up attacking and immediately switched to defense.

-Jjeong!

A golden cross appeared beside him, blocking Hans's kick.

-Kwaching!

However, creating the cross was slightly delayed, so its strength was insufficient.

Hans' kick shattered the cross like glass and struck Tarian's side squarely.

Tarian's body flew sideways, but Hans didn't pursue him.

Tarian, who had balanced himself in mid-air, landed lightly and glared at Hans.

Though his ribs must have been broken and his internal organs shaken, he looked perfectly fine.

-Grrrrrr.

Hans gripped his sword again, letting out a wary growl.

Seeing this, Tarian formed a strong conviction.

"You know what I'm going to do."

It wasn't that he could see the future or read minds.

It was simply that the other side was staying one step ahead in response to his moves.

"Judging by your fighting style, you don't seem to have that much knowledge about combat."

Just as Hans was analyzing Tarian, Tarian was analyzing Hans.

The guy was a novice at fighting.

More precisely, he didn't know how to calculate and engage in proper combat.

Though he wore armor, stood on two legs, and even wielded a weapon.

His movements and actions were clumsy like someone holding a sword for the first time.

It was as if a beast had just become human and entered the battlefield for the first time.

But what covered all of that was precisely this movement.

A beast's instinct so sharp it could be called a sixth sense.

Hans' fighting method was crude, but that made it primal and threatening.

If Tarian deliberately opened a gap to make a move, Hans instinctively detected the trap and avoided it.

"Looking at how you fight, I can't say you lack reason."

Using wolf packs for attrition warfare and holding a weapon in hand.

He clearly had a thinking mind yet his fighting style was no different from a wild beast's.

If he had been the type to use his head well, he wouldn't have been this troublesome.

"To think I'd have such difficulty with a subordinate before taking down the Demon King. I didn't intend to underestimate him, but it seems I need to get a bit more serious."

Tarian released his holy power.

This time, rather than his entire body, the golden power was concentrated and ejected from his shoulder blades.

The golden holy power soon took the form of wings.

A halo also spread behind Tarian's head.

In one hand, a blazing golden sword.

In the other, a holy shield.

Wings on his back, a sacred halo on his head.

Tarian truly looked like a heavenly warrior sent directly by God.

Seeing such a Tarian, Hans gripped his sword more tightly.

The curse flowing from the greatsword intensified, and a dark aura rose like a heat haze.

Countless red eyes appeared from within the cloak as wolves yapped.

* * *

The follow-up unit of the Holy Crusade was experiencing some difficulties.

Since the coastal area where the ships could dock wasn't very wide, there was inevitably a limit to the number of people who could move at once.

In the end, the army had no choice but to focus on moving its elites.

According to reports from those who had already landed on the island, the Demon King had used some trick that made it better for ordinary soldiers not to go.

The forces they could deploy were limited to just mages, priests, knights, and holy knights.

Even the steam golems, powered suits, and armored vehicles operated by common infantry were said to be useless.

In terms of numbers, more than 90% of the total forces had become worthless.

Still, some infantry who couldn't completely give up their aspirations had landed to at least establish a beachhead on the coast, but the moment a green current of wind wrapped around them from afar, the situation changed.

The infantry collapsed in their places without showing any notable reaction.

The sight of hundreds falling onto the sandy beach at once seemed quite detached from reality.

"What is this...?"

A knight checked the condition of the fallen infantry.

They weren't dead. Judging by their even breathing with slight snoring, they had fallen asleep.

"They fell asleep?"

Could it be that sleep flower powder had come all the way here?

Setting aside other considerations, to think its power was this strong?

Even the knights would have fallen asleep if they hadn't properly protected themselves with aura, such was the power of the green current from earlier.

At this rate, it was practically impossible to send out ordinary soldiers.

In the end, those landing could only be composed of elite troops making up less than 10% of the total force.

"To think all infantry was completely wiped out. Unbelievable."

"The path to the sky is closed too. Seems we'll have to go to the fortress on foot."

"We've lost contact with the advance party that went ahead. What on earth happened?"

Bretus was once called the most sacred place but now, in the Demon King's grasp, the island had become a space filled with the most fearsome unknowns.

"Hmm. The situation is flowing quite strangely."

Among the mages who had landed on the island, there were those who exuded an atmosphere completely different from other war mages.

At their forefront stood Elisa Willow, whose appearance and attire were too splendid for a crusade.

She glanced at the soldiers being carried on stretchers, quickly assessing their condition.

'This is...'

A sense of déjà vu from the sight of soldiers fallen into deep sleep.

Elisa immediately recognized that these soldiers had fallen into the Dreamland.

'Faint traces left in the air. This is clearly Dream Walker magic. Come to think of it, the Dream School didn't participate in this crusade. They all disappeared, emptying their school building.'

In other words, the Dream School had currently sided with the Demon King Heathcliff.

'With the school's master Clara Cowen and the eldest Zantman dead, and with many veteran Dream Walkers killed during the Dreamland incident, the Dream School's power has greatly diminished, but even so, their dream magic is very tricky to deal with.'

The Dream School's magic wasn't specialized in physically killing people like elemental magic or pure mana.

Their magic rather subtly penetrates the opponent's mind, disturbing it or causing deep sleep.

It has no killing power, but it's optimal for incapacitating opponents.

It wouldn't work on mages or knights of equal level, but for ordinary soldiers with no resistance to magic, it showed tremendous power.

'They deliberately just put them to sleep. Since our forces are overwhelming, they're also trying to use minimal power without consuming many resources.'

However, Elisa sensed intent in these actions.

'Blatant stalling for time. What the command said was true.'

The enemies were trying to buy time right now.

That's why the command was also trying to end this war quickly by pushing forward somehow.

Because they didn't know what might happen if they gave the Demon King time.

Elisa understood the command's attitude, but at the same time felt a strange sense of dissonance.

'I understand the anxiety that the opponent might do something, but is there really a need to be that anxious and impatient?'

To Elisa, it seemed as though the command was watching someone else's reactions and feeling some sort of pressure to conclude this crusade very successfully.

'Everyone's eagerness to participate in the crusade probably follows a similar pattern.'

The moment they arrived at the Empire, suddenly the second prince Ivelon was designated as the next emperor instead of Aileen, and this Ivelon actively supported Holy Emperor Salesin.

Although Elisa said she didn't get involved in politics, she wasn't unaware of this strange flow.

'The Holy Nation is hiding some power. Probably some mental ability related to domination that can arbitrarily control others.'

With that, they would be controlling the heads of each country.

They all shared the common point of having met priests and archbishops sent from the Holy Nation.

'Then the question is, why are we unaffected?'

Elisa thought of Saint Catherine.

The reason she suddenly visited Theon and the favor she subtly showed to her.

'Interesting. Does this mean the Saint and the Holy Emperor don't walk the same path?'

A crack engraved inside Bretus.

A smile formed on Elisa's lips as she confirmed this.

Though she didn't know what result it would create in this crusade, if she could dig into it well, perhaps the worst situation could be avoided.

"You think so too, don't you? Terina."

Elisa turned to someone who had disembarked from the same ship as her.

Terina Ryanhowl, leading the Night Crawler knight order, didn't question Elisa's inquiry.

Elisa knew that Terina shared the same thoughts as her.

At least from what she could see, Terina didn't seem to be under any sort of brainwashing or domination.

"...Elisa. As you know, this war is not a simple crusade."

"I know. And you don't need to worry about us too much. Rather, that would be underestimating us. Theon's teachers may teach students, but they're all composed of elites."

Moreover, the teachers had grown even stronger after experiencing the Dreamland incident that Nirva had caused previously.

Far from the teachers holding back the war mages, the opposite situation was more likely to unfold.

"Yes. Just looking at their eyes, I can tell for sure."

Terina decided not to say unnecessary things.

Now was the time to focus on the battlefield ahead.

At that moment, Elisa sensed a wave of magical power from afar and raised her eyebrow.

"My goodness."