I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 681: Black Knight (2)

A priestess stepped forward again this time.

She was a woman wearing a tiara over her eyes that covered half her face, dressed in pure white garments and wearing a face veil.

Verom silently observed the priestess.

He did not commit the folly of underestimating his opponent based on appearance.

'The fact that she confidently stepped forward here means she must have the skills to match.'

Verom's prediction was right on target.

As the priestess who came forward to face Verom spread her right hand wide open, holy power burning like flames gathered and transformed into a sword.

In her opposite hand, a round shield symbolizing the sun was created.

'No. That's not all.'

Golden holy power gathered around the priestess' body, forming a helmet and armor on her body.

The priest, wearing armor, shield, and sword that seemed to be forged from brilliant sunlight, exuded no ordinary presence.

Seeing this, Rene opened her eyes wide in surprise.

The name of the priestess who stepped forward this time was Zenis.

Her specialty was close combat wearing a sword, shield, and armor, as she had just demonstrated.

Seeing this, Rene thought to herself.

'The abilities of the two priestesses left earlier were also different from each other. Do priestesses each use different forms of power?'

Though that power was rooted in holy power, their fighting styles were completely different.

Summoning something by invoking it, engaging in martial arts with their fists, or creating and wearing weapons and armor.

"Sister. Go ahead."

"Thank you, Zenis. I'll leave this to you with confidence."

Catherine led Rene and the remaining priests and moved on.

"Lady Saint. Do you think I'll let you go?"

Verom swung his sword to block Catherine.

Following the trajectory of the sharp sword, crescent-shaped crimson sword energy shot out in swarms.

Catherine neither dodged nor tried to block the sword energy despite seeing it.

The reason was Zenis, who stepped forward to protect her front.

As Zenis thrust her round shield forward, intense light burst forth from it, expanding to a size that covered the surroundings.

The crimson sword energy struck the shield, but Zenis didn't budge an inch.

After blocking the sword energy, Zenis flashed a gleam of light from inside her golden helmet.

Seeing this, Verom realized he couldn't dismiss Zenis.

He needed to hold back the Saint, but unexpectedly, he was the one whose movement was being restricted by the priestess.

'Seeing that the wind-using girl and the elf elder are also fighting over there, it seems the priestesses are also formidable skilled people.'

For Verom, perhaps it was fortunate to keep even one priestess tied up here.

'If a priestess has this level of skill, then naturally, the Saint who outranks her would be much stronger. From how she avoided my attack, I could tell that she might be too powerful for me to handle.'

So what could he do?

Verom strongly kindled the crimson aura from his sword.

"Well, fighting a pretty lady isn't my preference, but I guess I have no choice. Looks like that beautiful face of yours is about to get slashed."

"Despite your appearance, your speech is quite frivolous."

Priestess Zenis reprimanded Verom because Verom, wearing living armor, gave a first impression of being charismatic and taciturn.

At that criticism, Verom shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

"What, do I have to use archaic knight speech just because I'm wearing this?"

"At least I thought you would."

"Miss. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't use that kind of speech."

Verom flashed a red gleam full of anger from inside his helmet.

"I really hate that, you see."

While the battle was raging outside, a similarly intense battle was taking place inside the Galahad Fortress.

"Eek! This is really annoying!"

Sheridan, piloting a massive powered armor, moved the massive body and threw a punch toward the liquid slime.

As if to prove it wasn't just any liquid, the liquid slime formed a round hole in its body, letting the fist pass through, then grabbed the fist.

As the liquid slime's body strongly squeezed the arm of the powered suit, the arm of the powered suit shattered into pieces with a crunching sound.

"Damn, it's strong!"

Despite gathering somewhat sturdy materials to build it, the arm was easily torn apart before the liquid golem, like it was made of straw.

"It seems you used the same materials but enhanced them even more? Not bad!"

"Oh-ho-ho. Your eye for detail is certainly excellent. But that alone won't be enough to handle my liquid golem, will it?"

"Ha! Do you think I didn't prepare anything?"

Sheridan controlled the powered armor and raised the output of the magnetic cube that served as its core.

-Woooong.

The light from the black cube with bluish markings engraved on top intensified and exerted a strong magnetic force around it.

But the liquid golem, made of metal, didn't budge an inch against the magnetic force.

"Did you think I wouldn't prepare against magnetic force? Far from it! When manufacturing this liquid golem, the most basic function I included was to block magnetic fields!"

"Ha! Preparing against your colleague's technology. Isn't that too sinister?"

Having heard from Rudger who the magnetic cube's magic originated from, Sheridan could instantly see through Viktor's sinister intentions.

When making this liquid golem, Viktor had applied technology that would counter Leslie, who he judged would be the most threatening to the liquid golem.

Considering the not-so-good relationship between him and Leslie, a fellow First Order, this implied that he had anticipated the possibility of fighting against him.

"You were planning to betray from the beginning, weren't you?"

"My, my. Betrayal? I feel offended when you put it that way. Because I originally belonged to Lumensis!"

The liquid golem, following Viktor's orders, transformed into a sharp spear form and aimed for Sheridan's core.

What caught it was the arm of the powered armor that had been destroyed just moments ago.

The arm, which had been neatly reconstructed, grabbed the liquid golem with one hand and slammed it to the ground.

"I see. So the magnetic force earlier was actually to source parts for the broken arm? There are plenty of parts here."

"You realize too late!"

The magnetic force of the magnetic cube extended to the surrounding debris created by the battle.

The debris floated up and attached to Sheridan's powered armor, reinforcing the armor.

The magnetic cube, meticulously created by Rudger, had been imbued with magic from the "Alchemy (Ars Magna)" series.

This was why metal debris of all shapes and forms transformed to fit the powered armor the moment they attached to it.

The metals, whose forms changed due to the alchemy stored in the magnetic cube, were transformed into the outer armor of the powered armor or changed into something completely different.

Just like now.

-Click!

Debris gathered in both hands of the powered armor and transformed into long guns.

Given that they were held by the massive powered armor that was several meters tall, they were closer to cannons than guns in form.

The large-caliber muzzles aimed at the liquid golem.

-Ziiing.

The gun barrel, or rather the cannon barrel, turned blue, and with intense magnetic force, a projectile was fired.

A straight line was drawn in the air with a flashing light.

The blue line not only pierced through the liquid golem but also aimed simultaneously at Viktor beyond it.

However, the railgun's projectile never reached Viktor Dreadful.

-Toong!

An automaton that suddenly appeared beside Viktor struck away the railgun's projectile with one hand.

-Kwagwagwang!

The back of the laboratory that the railgun had swept through was in shambles, but Viktor was fine.

"What is that now?"

Sheridan looked at the newly appeared automaton with astonishment.

It clearly looked like an ordinary mannequin, but not only had it deflected the railgun, its arm was still intact.

While Sheridan was bewildered, the automaton moved.

The automaton, which had been advancing several meters with each step, approached right up to Sheridan and threw a punch at the thick central armor of the powered armor.

-Kwang!

With an impact that was hard to believe came from such a small fist, the powered armor staggered backward.

This meant its output was abnormally strong.

"Eek! Still, I can overwhelm you with sheer mass!"

Just as she was about to raise the output of the powered armor and counterattack, Sheridan realized that one of her feet seemed fixed to something and wouldn't move.

"What?!"

Checking below, she discovered that a part of the liquid golem that had been pierced by the railgun remained, holding the ankle of the powered armor and fixing it to the ground like a shackle.

Meanwhile, the automaton approached Sheridan again, clenching its fist.

-Click!

A sharp hidden blade protruded from the back of the automaton's hand.

Even more surprising was that a bluish energy gathered on the automaton's blade.

"Aura?!"

Sheridan's eyes widened.

Aura? An automaton with aura? Wasn't aura the exclusive property of knights?

While Sheridan was bewildered, the blade imbued with aura had already approached within reach.

No matter how sturdy the powered armor was, at this rate, both the armor and Sheridan inside would be pierced.

That's when Arpa stepped in.

-Kwang!

Arpa's full-power double side kick struck the automaton's side.

The automaton's body was knocked sideways and rolled over the floor several times.

"Are you alright?"

"Thanks to you! But eek! This thing won't come off my foot!"

Just as Sheridan was cursing at the liquid golem that still gripped his ankle, Bellaruna, who had been secretly combining drugs, sprayed a reagent toward the liquid golem.

-Chiiik!

The surface of the liquid golem rapidly corroded, failed to maintain its form, and melted like ice cream on asphalt.

Seeing this, Viktor's face flushed with excitement.

"This can't be! A reagent that melts in one go a liquid golem reinforced against corrosion, decay, magic, and curses! What ingredients did you extract and combine?! I'm really curious!"

"D-Do you think I'll tell you that?"

"Well, it doesn't matter if you don't tell me! Because I'll capture you alive and open up your head to see for myself! Ah, I'm so excited! New knowledge that I don't know yet! I simply can't bear it!"

Bellaruna made a disgusted expression at Viktor's excited outcry.

"Ugh. This makes me sick."

If Rudger had been present, he would have said, "You're one to talk."

"Huhuhu. What an incredible elf lady! An elf who uses reagents, a dwarf specialized in mechanical engineering, and even an automaton boy very similar to humans."

Viktor had already seen through Arpa's identity as well.

"Therefore, you are the optimal opponents to test my masterpiece. Can you defeat my creation?"

Automatons began to appear one by one around Viktor.

Smooth white faces without eyes, nose, or mouth.

Except for the joints, there were no flaws visible on the ivory bodies.

They looked like prototype automatons, but having just witnessed their performance, it was impossible to dismiss them based solely on appearance.

"Now! Entertain me more!"

There were a total of five newly appeared automatons, including the one that Arpa had kicked away.

Seeing that they all looked the same, it was likely that their performance was also the same.

'Aura, huh. It's surprising that they use such a thing, but anyway, as long as we're careful with close combat!'

Sheridan aimed the railgun at the automatons.

At that moment, the automatons simultaneously extended their right hands toward Sheridan.

"What are they trying to...?"

Sheridan's words were cut short.

It was because of the blue magical formulas that unfolded centered on the automatons' palms.

[Raging Flame]

[Roaring Thunder]

[Exploding Ice Flower]

The level 3 magic spells aimed at Sheridan, Bellaruna, and Arpa were fired.

"Everyone get behind me!"

Sheridan shouted and stood in front of Bellaruna, raising the magnetic cube's output to maximum.

Arpa also quickly came behind Sheridan and took cover.

A bluish magnetic barrier was generated, blocking the incoming magic.

Withstanding the exploding magical light, Sheridan shouted.

"Magic?! How the hell are they doing that?!"

"I-It seems they've stored the magic itself in those automatons."

Bellaruna shouted as she discovered the magic circuits engraved on the automatons' bodies.

Her guess was correct.

Inside the automatons, along with magic stones, various magical formulas were engraved like inscriptions, allowing them to use magic swiftly at the desired timing.

Automatons with abilities of both knights and mages.

What irritated Sheridan even more was the black automaton that was newly appearing behind the five ivory-colored automatons.

'That one is dangerous.'

She had an intuition that things would become dangerous the moment that black one moved.

That's when Arpa spoke to Sheridan.

"Can you buy me some time?"

"Do you have a plan?"

"Yes."

Arpa replied with a voice full of confidence.

"I can do it. I learned something from teacher."