Academy’s PTSD Chaplain

67 – 67. Yearly Training (16)

Sharp enemies swiftly scanned the surroundings.

From Noble mtl dot com

Except for her, who was designated as the queen, all the other team members were unable to fight. Laura didn’t fuss unnecessarily, as she had already anticipated this. She simply stood still among the students she had defeated and observed the situation.

“Hey! Attack Adelaide Yeonae first!”

“Oh, she’s like a monster…!”

“Forel! Go back! It’s a team attack!”

Multiple students rushed towards Laura from all directions, a total of three. Laura raised her staff.

Quickly, simultaneously concise yet elegant.

The magic circle swiftly formed under her touch. Along with the freezing air around turning white, her magic circle was completed in an instant.

“Inhalation, target designation, liquid, transformation, amplification, absolute zero.”

The sequence of spell casting, calculations for direction and firepower, and the activation of the magic circle took only 4 seconds.

Even so, due to the traces of water elemental magic used by another student, it took an extra second.

“Blizzard (χιονοθύελλα).”

As Laura concluded the magic circle, the frozen circle emitted a bright light.

Soon, a fierce snowstorm with large ice fragments violently swept through the training ground.

No, it was more than just a snowstorm. It was akin to a storm.

And it naturally shielded Laura from the three students who were attacking her.

“Ugh, ugh…!”

“My vision…!”

“Damn it! Just attack!”

The female student named Forel, leading the other two students, barely managed to regain her sight through the raging snowstorm.

Thus, as she almost let go of the spear in her hand, facing various difficulties, Forel finally reached the eye of the storm.

“Huh, huh…?”

Lying unconscious on the ground were the two friends who followed her. Forel looked at them with a bewildered expression.

“You shouldn’t underestimate at a glance.”

Suddenly, a soft whispering voice came from behind her. Forel quickly turned around and lowered her spear.

– clang!

And her attack was effortlessly blocked.

What on earth? Forel blinked, facing a situation she couldn’t comprehend.

What Forel saw with her eyes was a wavering spear and a translucent barrier attached to its end.

“Mana barrier…!”

“Manipulation, gravity, target designation.”

Forel, who was desperately trying to retrieve her thrown spear, stared intently at Laura’s firmly gripped hand on the spear handle.

“Shatter (συντριβή).”

And that was the end of it.

A massive sensation of being crushed from the shoulders. Feeling the force based on the unbreakable laws of the world throughout her body, Forel’s vision went dark.

The same fate befell her, the first to fall, as the other two friends.

“Shatter (συντριβή)!”

With a bizarre and menacing sound of crashing, the male student who had recklessly charged at Cloe collapsed just as he had approached her, unconscious.

Cloe stepped aside, avoiding the relentless assault of the unconscious male student’s brute force. Breathing a sigh of relief, Cloe furrowed her brow as she began to assess the situation.

‘What just happened? Where is Elin?’

Elin was nowhere to be seen. While the thick dust in the air could offer an explanation, the real issue lay elsewhere.

– Whoooooosh!

A fierce snowstorm swept through the center of the training ground, obscuring the vision of all the students engaged in the sparring. Overwhelmed by its formidable power, Cloe found herself involuntarily contemplating.

‘I used ice magic during the entrance exam… but what I’m facing now is on a whole different level.’

It was a pure disparity in strength. Faced with the overwhelming force derived from Laura’s magic, Cloe couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder.

‘…This is not the time for this!’

Momentarily lost in the spectacle of the snowstorm, Cloe shook her head vigorously and strained to open her eyes. Quickly, she assessed the students remaining by her side.

There was only Owen beside Cloe. Hubert was busy traversing the training ground to attack the king of another team. Cloe, realizing that only two members were left on her team, unconsciously bit her lip before hurriedly covering her mouth.

‘What have I done…’

It was a disrespectful act towards the fallen teammates who had sacrificed themselves to protect her. Rebuking herself, Cloe slapped her own lips and resolved not to focus solely on the sparring.

‘I should be grateful for those who fell to protect me.’

As per Cloe’s thoughts, those who fell first weren’t simply lacking in skill. While Cloe was striving to prevent her crown from being captured, ensuring the safety of both herself and her teammates, and even attacking the king of another team, proved to be a task too demanding for a team reduced to just two members.

“Cloe, are you okay?”

“Y-yes?!”

Startled by Owen’s indifferent voice calling her, Cloe reacted like a caught child doing something wrong.

“Cloe, snap out of it. You can’t just stand there in a daze.”

“S-sorry….”

Owen’s quiet reprimand was an added blow to Cloe. She forced a smile and nodded.

‘What am I doing…’

Lost in idle thoughts during the sparring, Cloe scolded herself. However, there was no time for self-blame. Cloe quickly began to craft magic circles.

“Manipulation, gravity, automatic targeting, simplification.”

These were spells pre-stored in her wand for emergency use. As the size of the magic circle diminished, so did its power, but in a dire situation, it was invaluable.

The magic circle that had initially been formed at a regular size now released secondary incantations into the air, gradually reducing its size. Finally, the shrunken magic circle transformed into a small orb and melted into the tip of Cloe’s wand.

“…It’s over.”

“What?”

As soon as Owen’s words ended, Laura’s created snowstorm erupted and disappeared into the air in an instant.

“…Seriously.”

Chloe’s mouth dropped open. The situation in the training ground was devastatingly hard to believe.

The training ground, swept away by the blizzard, was scattered and torn in various places, and many students were lying helplessly, victims of the cruel ice shards.

Fortunately, among the surviving students was Ellen. Chloe, who exchanged glances with her, now turned her gaze towards Hubert.

“Hubert, where is he…?”

“He’s over there. That idiot.”

Chloe’s gaze followed Owen’s finger. There stood Hubert, who had put two swords back into their scabbards, looking like a ghost.

In one hand, Hubert held a battered student, and in the other hand, a frozen crown.

“With this, one crown obtained.”

Hubert tied the crown he held to his belt and whistled. And as Chloe watched, she carefully examined the face of the student overpowered by Hubert.

“That person… Isn’t he a student from Class A?”

“Right. I don’t even know his name. That guy is a sorcerer too.”

Chloe swallowed her dry saliva upon hearing Owen’s explanation. If he became a student of Class A under the Magic Faculty, his abilities must be on par with Chloe’s.

However, Hubert had defeated such a sorcerer. Of course, Hubert himself was also covered in injuries.

The male student, with his neck gripped by Hubert, wore an expression distorted by hatred.

“You sneaked into the blizzard, so cowardly…!”

“What are you talking about? You recklessly unleashed an area-wide magic, saying you couldn’t see in front of you. It’s no different from exposing your position.”

Hubert shrugged his shoulders and knocked the male student unconscious with the pommel of his sword. Another casualty lay sprawled on the floor of the training ground.

“If it continues like this…”

There were three gleaming crowns in the hands of the students. And there were five teams remaining.

If only one team was eliminated, the remaining teams would advance to the next round.

So far, this was just a taste of the competition. A system designed to accommodate even lower-ranking students to surpass the top ranks.

Once this round was over, they would finally enter a real competition where the skilled ones would compete against each other. The eyes of Chloe and all the students flickered strangely.

And those countless gazes were directed only at the tiara-shaped crown delicately resting on Laura’s head.

The surviving students’ gazes naturally converged on Laura von Adelheid, standing immovably in the center of the training ground.

The gleaming crown. And the girl who became the owner of that crown, Laura von Adelheid.

If she survived this competition, it meant that in the following rounds, they would face her in a real competition. This fact was felt deeply not only by Chloe but by all the students in the training ground.

The reason why students attacked Laura from the beginning of the competition was precisely because of that. When the number of students who didn’t fall was high, they tried to create chaos and exploit Laura’s weaknesses.

It was a significant factor that she was the only student from Team A in Laura’s team.

Of course, all of that had turned out to be in vain, but the surviving students so far were mostly recognized experts. In other words, among the twenty-five survivors excluding Laura, eighteen were students from Class A.

The abilities of Class A students who could stand against Laura von Adelheid were still intact.

‘In that case…’

‘Wouldn’t it be worth a try…?’

Exchanging glances and communicating with each other through subtle nods, the Class A students looked at the crown placed on Laura’s head with eyes filled with desire.

Despite receiving the gazes of those students, Laura did not bat an eyelash. She was that confident.

And she had every reason to be; she was an Adelheid, inheriting the noble and outstanding talents of the Adelheid lineage, the golden bloodline.

She, standing alone in the meadow where wild dogs roamed freely, was like a lioness.

“…Hmph.”

It was inevitable not to lower her head when a pack of insignificant wild dogs revealed themselves. Laura was well aware that she dominated the meadow.

“Yahh—!!”

At that moment, a male student not belonging to Class A rushed towards Laura, wielding a sword in his hand. It was a behavior bordering on madness, a fact known to everyone in the training ground.

Laura sighed and began to construct a magic circle.

“Inhale, compress, maintain form, simplify.”

The shell enveloped the unfolding ritual, and the completed magic circle was laid on Laura’s hand in less than three seconds.

“You alone…! If only you were not—!”

“Impact (κρούση).”

– Boom!

With a chilling sound, the male student rushing towards her couldn’t even take five steps before falling flat on the ground.

Laura, watching the scene, chuckled openly and mocked him.

“Dare to challenge someone like me.”

Laura raised her chin. Her pride was as high as her talent and skill allowed.

Surrounded by students with ominous intent, standing with a crown on her head…

“…Queen.”

It was like the appearance of a queen commanding this training ground.

Laura moved her hand slowly. Her gestures were so leisurely, as if she were saying, “Come at me if you dare.”

“I guess it’s time to finish. I’m getting a bit tired.”

The time limit for this training, like yesterday, was one hour. Although there was still plenty of time left, Laura preferred not to just let go of a fight where victory was foreseen but to secure a definite triumph.

“Liquid, transformation, amplification, absolute zero….”

The expression of impatience could be seen on the students standing on two feet. It was clear what kind of magic circle she was trying to form.

“It’s a blizzard!!”

“Oh no!”

Claire quickly raised her wand and aimed it at Laura. It may have been a minor attack, but it was enough to disrupt the formation of the magic circle.

“Block it—!!”

“A blizz…”

In the midst of the students rushing towards Laura, the moment when Laura’s magic circle was about to be completed.

– Duel, it’s over!!

Along with the familiar cry of Professor Andres, the illusionary magic that surrounded the dueling arena, obscuring the view from the outside, disappeared in an instant.

In the sudden end of the duel, Laura and the other students, including her, had shocked expressions. And, in that moment.

“Oh? That person…”

In Claire’s eyes, the male student who had collapsed due to Laura’s magic earlier appeared.

On his head, there was a faintly made crown of glass.

“…Ah.”

Just like Claire, Laura, who saw the crown, stared at it blankly.

“…So, is this the end?”

Four survivors, four kings. So, it also meant that the duel had come to an end.

It was the moment when the first-year students who would advance to the next duel were decided.