By Zephyria 
Ibelia took the lead and opened the door, and the rest of us followed behind her. The moment we crossed the threshold, I could feel the air change. I raised my head and looked around.
Many tall buildings, a complex structure, and a familiar landscape.
It was Battle Room A, modeled after the Imperial Capital.
“Then, I’ll go as we discussed beforehand.”
As soon as Ibelia gave that signal, the children who nodded dispersed to their respective points. I also headed to the place I had said I would secure in advance. That place was the rooftop of the Spire-shaped building of Merzel Academy.
Since Merzel Academy itself was so large and tall, it was a perfect place to stand guard.
The silent city, devoid of human presence or signs, was certainly a familiar place, but the feeling was quite different. I looked around the familiar yet unfamiliar surroundings and waited.
After a while, I felt faint vibrations in the distance. They were appearing faster than I thought. As I sharpened my senses, I could tell the direction of the vibrations, and Hawkrun was waiting in that direction.
When I looked up, I saw a lump of red Mana that Hawkrun had shot up as a signal flare.
Since I saw Ibelia’s shadow heading towards Hawkrun, I immediately moved there as well.
When I arrived, Hawkrun was already confronting the Fiends. The type of Fiend that had appeared this time was ‘Ramble,’ which had an incredibly large body and, as such, slow movements. However, its durability and regeneration were so great that Hawkrun’s attacks didn’t seem to faze it at all.
“This is driving me crazy….”
Ibelia and I arrived at about the same time, and Derek appeared nearby shortly after. Hawkrun, muttering with a fed-up expression, turned to us and raised his voice.
“What are we going to do?”
Ibelia answered him.
“What else? We have to fight!”
At that moment, the Ramble, which had been swaying, stretched out a part of its body like a long arm and slammed it down towards us.
Everyone scattered in all directions at once. Immediately after, the building we had been standing on collapsed with a loud crash. As Ibelia moved away, she simultaneously created and shot a fire arrow, but the Ramble only let out a strange scream before quickly recovering.
It seemed difficult to deal with unless we aimed for a fatal blow.
‘Did they deliberately release a durable one?’
It seemed difficult for me to annihilate it in one go as well. To annihilate it in one go, I needed time to gather power. At that moment, Hawkrun went up to a nearby building and complained.
“Fighting is easier said than done…. It seems like a similar type to the one that appeared when Ardian was here, but how could that guy deal with such a thing right away? The real monster was someone else.”
There was no disagreement with that statement.
Although they looked similar, the strength of regeneration and durability was much better on the one that appeared to Ardian. Nevertheless, the reason that difference wasn’t noticeable was because Ardian’s power was overwhelming.
The expression “monster” was quite fitting.
“Let’s fall back for now! This won’t work.”
“But the time….”
“Then do you have a solution right now?”
Ibelia, unable to find a rebuttal to Hawkrun’s grumbling, fell silent. I could almost hear her brain working as she pondered how to overcome this situation.
It was good that we had identified the location and gathered in a short time, but it was a more difficult opponent than expected. This turn of events must have been unexpected.
I turned to look at the Ramble approaching this way and said,
“I’ll try to handle it.”
“……”
“But I need time.”
The children’s gazes converged. Soon, Ibelia, understanding the meaning of my words, nodded.
“You want us to hold it in place so it can’t move, right?”
“What? How can we hold something like that in place? It’s impossible!”
“Holding it in place… wouldn’t that be possible?”
Derek timidly interjected at Hawkrun’s continued complaints. Even the timid Derek said that, so Hawkrun closed his mouth as if he had nothing more to say. He had a troubled expression, but soon after, Hawkrun messed up his hair and shouted that we should try it anyway.
Only then did Ibelia’s expression brighten as she gave instructions and stepped forward. At the same time, I began to draw in and compress the Mana in the air. The Mana drew a complex Formula, creating a giant fireball. The size of the fireball gradually increased as much as the amount of Mana drawn in.
While that was happening, the three people who had drawn the Ramble’s attention in front of me, leaving me behind, were tying it down by attacking it little by little.
In particular, it was appropriate that Hawkrun created a ring of Mana by applying basic Evocation-type Magic, which bound the Ramble’s body. The Ramble could no longer move and was only struggling.
Hawkrun, who was always pessimistic and not active in his studies, was still a guy worth watching because of his talent, as seen in his occasional wit and application.
But if he only relied on his talent like that, he would fall behind. One day, he would be overturned by the hard-working Ibelia, and he might even be pushed back by Derek.
“Are you still not ready?!”
Hawkrun, who was struggling while fighting the Ramble, shouted. Without answering him, I looked up at the fireball that had been completed as much as I had aimed for not long after.
It was a fireball even bigger than the Ramble, which was the size of a building. At this rate, the slow Ramble would have a hard time escaping, and no matter how great its regeneration was, it would not be able to avoid fatal injuries.
“Get out of the way.”
I gestured with my empty hand towards the three people.
The children, understanding that signal and turning around, were surprised by the size of the fireball and scattered to both sides at once. The Ramble, after Hawkrun fell away, roared and approached me, the closest one, after cutting off the ring of Mana that was binding its body.
I lightly threw the fireball towards such a thing.
The fireball, which had been constantly expanding with Mana as nourishment, left my hand and slammed into the Ramble. The Ramble in front of me, which had no intelligence and was a degraded version with weak instincts, hesitated and belatedly tried to escape, but it was already too late to do anything.
The Ramble, engulfed in the fireball along with the hot heat, screamed, but that was only for a moment. The Ramble burned up and hid its form, and only blackish traces remained where the fireball had passed.
The children who had been watching it from afar held their breath. They seemed flustered by the Magic, which boasted more destructive power than they had thought.
Just as Polargehen had been watching the students for a long time and could gauge their achievements to some extent, the children also gauged each other’s achievements to some extent. So, they must have vaguely felt that this Magic possessed a much greater power than my achievements.
Since I was virtually the only one who could draw in and use Mana in the air because I had a Black Mana Heart, it was understandable that they felt strange. Well, whether they felt strange or not, it wasn’t something I had to care about.
“Let’s go back.”
As soon as the Ramble’s annihilation was confirmed, a door that allowed us to return to the control room was created not long after. As I turned around first, the children, who had been spacing out, hurriedly followed.
“Wow. How many minutes did we take?!”
“It seems like it was faster than I thought thanks to Raymond….”
“But the Magic that Lord Raymond used, did we learn that?”
“I don’t know. Did he find it in the Longcrew Library?”
I opened the door while listening to their chatter. The children who had been watching in the control room turned to us and welcomed us. Polargehen scribbled something down and recorded it, then called Team B, and those who were called immediately stood up.
As I found an empty seat and sat down, the children of Team A naturally approached and sat nearby. After that, I felt a presence and tilted my head back to look, and it was Ardian.
Seriously, he was a guy who tried to follow me around like a piece of gum wherever I went.
Zeon, seeing that sight, made a sulky expression and moved his seat next to Ardian. It seemed like he was taking a seat in the back because Derek and Ibelia were sitting on either side of me.
“Good job, Ray.”
I met Ardian’s smiling eyes, who was treating Zeon as if he didn’t exist, for a moment before turning my head back. Then, I was about to watch the appearance of the children of Team B being shown on the control room screen.
‘…Ah.’
I felt a change occurring within me. I had already felt that I was close to achieving 5-Star, but through this, I had completely risen to 5-Star.
The best way to increase achievement was the Mana Storage Method, but even if I didn’t use it, Mana was gradually stored in the process of using Magic and operating Mana. The reason why my achievement had risen even though I hadn’t deliberately used the Mana Storage Method recently was also because of that.
“……”
I quietly pressed my chest and felt the throbbing Mana Heart. If it were any other time, I should have been happy that my achievement had risen, but in the current situation, I couldn’t be so happy.
Because I had not found a way to withstand a large amount of Black Mana with this human body until I finally achieved 5-Star.
‘It might be dangerous.’
The movement of the fluctuating Mana Heart was ominous.
The human body, burdened with an overwhelming amount, was clearly feeling the abnormality.