15. The Villain Duo

The beast’s fangs as sharp as a mountain range hardened from black lava.

Black jagged teeth dripping with lava from every direction charged like a wide-open maw.

As if to oppose it, a translucent liquid was sprayed all around.

“Burn it all!! You sh*t dog sons of b*tches!!”

Erin, wielding her harshly blue staff like an angry puppy.

She had summoned and sprayed a special potion she made through alchemy at the Volcano Hounds.

Somehow, the liquid that came in contact with the monster’s lava-like teeth began to boil.

“Grr?”

A tad flustered by how the temperature inside their mouths had increased, the Volcano Hounds hesitated, closing their mouths with a snap.

Black smoke, like burning plastic, wafted out and settled thickly between the monsters’ jaws.

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Strangely enough, the black smoke did not reach Erin and the surrounding students who had sprayed it.

“Erin! Those things are already chunks of magma; they can’t burn!”

“I know that!!”

Erin barked sharply in response to the student’s overprotective tackle.

Meanwhile, the black smoke the liquid Erin sprayed had made the Volcano Hound’s bodies even hotter.

Seizing the moment, Erin discharged her staff, encased with electro-attributed magic, towards the black smoke.

“Summon Lightning!!”

As blue lightning came crashing down, the black smoke roared and seethed as if boiling.

Volcano Hounds, monsters armed with high energy, possessed high speed and attack power.

However, their bodies resembled half-melted butter due to being comprised of an unstable, high temperature.

As a result, when too much energy accumulated in the bodies of the Volcano Hounds,

They lost control of the raging high-energy mana and self-destructed.

“Kyaaa!!!”

“Squeeeal!!!”

“No, they’re melting! The Volcano Hounds nearby are starting to dissolve when they come into contact with the black smoke!!”

“Now’s the time! Press the attack!!”

“That’s Erin for you!!” they cheered.

“Of course!!”

Anticipating this, Erin had sprayed the liquid that violently reacted to heat and even summoned lightning.

Running at the disintegrating monsters, Erin and the visibly brightening student group began to calmly execute them.

However, numerous monsters still surrounded them.

The ‘Lava Giant’ still had its eyes closed.

It was the end once that monster opened its eyes, especially since they hadn’t even escaped yet.

“You guys!!!”

With Jane’s concerned cry and a blue sword aura spreading out in all directions, monsters were swept away.

The heads of the monsters untouched by the sword aura were swiftly topped with shadow-like arrows, pinned in place.

“Erin!!!”

“Re, Rika!!!”

Rika, with a slightly recovered look in her eyes, rushed towards Erin, who was jumping around like a jubilant puppy upon meeting a person after a long time.

Upon meeting, she held Erin with both of her hands, inspecting her all over as if she was checking for any injuries.

“Phew, no injuries. Even your face is fine.”

“Don’t treat me like a puppy!!”

He was thankful for the check-up, but it felt like he was inspecting the body state of a pet who had gone out and returned alone, which was annoying.

With a sulking expression, he flailed about, then returned to a combat stance.

“Jane, Tae-seok, and some other kids are here!!”

“They must have been waiting!”

“Oh wow, what’s all this??”

“Huh!? What’s with that giant!!”

Just like that, the trainees once again formed ranks.

There were a few who were slightly scared due to the sudden events and unexpected difficulty spike.

But Jane was there at the forefront, making her longsword whiz around several times in one breath, glowing with a blue aura.

It was clear she had struck once with the longsword, but it resulted in four slashes.

Riding on the slashes, giant blue auras like a flock of long-tailed titmice swarmed in and devoured the monsters.

“As expected of Jane!! Our Jane is awesome!!”

“Wow, a 14% total damage difference really does show.”

“Let’s join in quickly!!”

As if joining Jane’s waves, the trainees surrounded her.

‘The Lava Giant isn’t moving yet! Then…!’

Checking that the Lava Giant was still sitting with its eyes closed, as if at a volcano, Jane enhanced her sword grip.

“Kids! Just hang in there for a bit!”

As if casting a spell in the air, she readied for a full-powered blow.

She held her longsword in one hand, rested her other hand on top, and intensified the blue aura.

Trainees rallied around Jane who was gathering strength, dealing with the monsters rushing toward her.

‘Focus on the essence of the sword …!’

Recalling an enlightenment she received from Rok Seo before, Jane condensed her aura into the sword itself.

She concentrated on what was in front of her, cutting all distractions for a single outcome.

Once, she couldn’t split the jewel golem’s core.

But this time, she concentrated on destroying the heart, the weak point of the Lava Giant.

‘There’s something in its heart!?’

Jane detected the existence of two crouching entities in the heart through her senses.

Predicting a threat, she focused everything into a single, simple, and most essential sword strike to destroy not only the heart, but also whatever that crouched inside.

A metallic sound of parting air followed the passage of a sword, reverberating after the fact.

A thin, glowing blue streak appeared in the Lava Giant’s heart.

Almost immediately it cleaved from within, exploding lava as the giant toppled backwards.

“That’s our Jane!!! Amazing!!!”

“Wow, Jane! You’re so awesome!!!”

“Just like a real prince!!!”

“Wow…. She’s truly incredible.”

Everyone, whether they belonged to Jane’s harem of fair maidens or not, couldn’t help but exclaim.

But…

“Ugh-! It still isn’t perfect!”

“Eirin, don’t relax. A bigger one is coming.”

“Huh!?! Rica, what do you mean, what’s coming…!?!”

Something that had been crouching in the Lava Giant’s heart leaped out and bobbed in the air.

Landing on the ground like a rock dislodged in a volcanic eruption…

“Well, she’s just a trainee but she’s quite skilled. Are you that famous Jane? You don’t look like much.”

“Don’t judge your opponent only by their appearance. It’s your bad habit.”

… Two villains appeared, their voices filled with malicious and murderous intents.

Having absorbed power from within the Lava Giant, both wore dark clothes, looking much like assassins.

Two villains, their faces unrecognizable, wore a mix of black and red.

The overpowering killing intent they exuded stiffened all students, excluding Jane, Rika, and Erin, as if they were herbivorous animal cubs encountering a lion.

“We also received a request. We have no choice but to kill you.”

“Don’t leak information.”

“What does it matter anyway? They’re all going to die. We’ll annihilate all those who ran away too. They’ll think it was just an accident if we blow this place up, what?”

The two villains nonchalantly unveiled their vicious plan, as if chatting at a bar.

‘The only ones capable of moving properly now are myself, Rika, and Erin.’

Despite their casual chats, Jane made her judgement quickly, stung by their deadly intent.

With a “swoosh!” sound, Jane swung her longsword upwards, as if leaping over space.

“Hmm- Not bad.”

“Everyone, snap out of it and move!”

She immediately started to push the villain who spoke less, knowing he might be stronger.

With a sharp metallic clash, Jane’s longsword sparked against the claw-like magic sword shrouded in dark energy of the villain.

‘Phew-!! As expected, it’s brutal…!’

If she could handle only one person in this state, she had no choice but to jump to the strongest opponent.

Awakened by Jane’s shout, the students were finally able to take a breath.

“Oh man. I wanted to fight the strongest one. Darn.”

The chatty villain seemed disappointed, shifting his gaze from the fight to the students.

Spotting the villain creating claw-like weapons in his hand, Erin bitten her lips before asking out loud.

“Can, can you tell us what the request is before you kill us!!”

Erin boldly asked, like a puppy barking at a lion. Perhaps she was trying to trick this seemingly goofy villain to share the reasons behind their attack.

The villain clapped and laughed as if he found something amusing.

“Okay, it is frustrating to die at a young age. You should at least know why!”

He seemed satisfied with his reply.

“Some guys were trying to steal your stuff and sell it. They seemed to have been caught, and they told us to remove you all. So, we started with the easiest targets- the first-year students.”

With shocking words, the villain created claws from dark energy in his hand. Despite wearing a mask, he seemed to reveal a sly smile.

Hearing this amidst the battle, Jane gritted her teeth.

“So, if we suppress you guys, we can find out who stole the weapons of my friends and seniors at the exhibition!!!”

Her long sword came down forcefully, seemingly suppressing the villain’s claws with a loud, “gnash!”

“I wonder if you can?”

Jane faced the formidable villain, her face fierce like a wild beast.

Previously, while on a trip with her club members to a weapons fair, villains appeared in the no-weapons zone and stole their precious weapons.

Jane and Rika hadn’t entered the said exhibition, but seeing distressed club members made them furious.

Consequently, they submitted a ‘research’ request to the guild and were waiting.

Today, they received a text from the club president, stating the request was completed. He also said a method to retrieve the stolen items had been found.

“hahahaha, did you also rush over? We were eating lunch when we suddenly received the task and had to run over.”

But during their search for a way to retrieve the stolen items, their plan was leaked somehow.

The loquacious villain shrugged, referring to the lunchtime when they received the president’s message.

“You damned bastards!!!”

Jane seethed with indescribable rage.

She glared furiously at the villain and launched her attack again

However, the villain, seeming unperturbed, smirked and fought back, matching Jane’s reckless fury.

“Now, it’s your time to die yes? We’re busy and need to finish you off so that we can deal with the others.”

With that, he began to release chilling murderous intent toward the remaining students, as if he had said everything that needed to be said.

“I’ll send you all to the underworld as a group, so you won’t feel lonely~ Ah, it’s pointless to reach out to the professor. I’ve already blocked the way. There’s no way in or out, got it?”

There was a hint of the presence of villains deep within the Awakener’s Academy.

They quickly closed in with brisk strides.

Rika immediately fired a black arrow from her battle bow towards the villain’s forehead, but…

“hahahahaha! At least you seem like a worthy opponent!”

The villain dodged with a snicker and pounced on her in an instant.

“eeekk!! Eat this!!”

“Don’t ignore me!!”

“You, you’re too fast!!”

Erin’s grimace accompanied a series of magic spells, barrage shooting.

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The students, specialized in melee combat, charged but only ended up swinging at the air futilely.

The more they attacked, the more they lost the battle momentum, experiencing the difference in skill, speed, and experience.

Fitting the escalated difficulty level, the villains also strengthened significantly.

While they had grown up in such a world, it was terrifying for the students to face real villains.

The movements, enough to kill them at any time, hung over their heads like a guillotine.

Erin’s set traps and alchemy spells somehow reached the villain.

Rika began catching up with the villain’s swift movements little by little.

They also trembled at the killer intent and experienced movements of the villain, making their hearts go cold several times.

The bewildered villain seemed to notice something and muttered,

“What’s this? You’re originally an archer, right? Why aren’t you using the dagger? Those movements are particularly good for wielding a blade, aren’t they?”

“Shut up!!!”

He parried the shadow arrows with a metallic nail-like aura, raising questions about Rika’s archery skill and movements.

The villain, already infamous for being strong and annoyed because he couldn’t fight Jane, skulked.

“Are you thinking you can defeat me by hiding your true skills?”

When Rika stubbornly continued moving inconsistently with her battle bow,

As if they’ll kill the students on the spot if she didn’t use her original weapon.

“Urgh-!?!”

“Taeseok!!!”

“My, my spear is broken!!”

He crushed Taeseok’s charging spear with a roundhouse kick, subsequently devastating his abdomen.

They seized the moment and charged in with quick magic attacks and shadow arrows but were easily repelled by a metallic, dark aura.

“You’d better use your original weapon quickly.”

The villain distanced himself, as though he would wipe them out on the spot if they didn’t take things seriously.

As the villain exuded a relaxed aura full of killer intent, Rika gritted her teeth.

The battle bow that she had started using to keep a childhood promise to Rocker and help him, but it had now become part of her.

While Rika gritted her teeth, the majority of the students, except she and Erin, crumpled to the ground due to the villain’s punches and kicks.

“Drop that and hold onto a proper weapon! Otherwise, I’ll kill everyone here and the people at the other end?”

Rika glared at the villain, who was blabbering about whatever he wanted.

Though it was unpleasant, she had to recognize the truth in the villain’s words.

Her power to control shadows was an ability specialized for close combat.

If this continues, they’ll undoubtedly fall back, and the villain genuinely threatened them by pointing towards the tunnel where Rocker was located.

Finally, Rika decided to protect Rocker, Erin, and her friends.

Changed her shadow battle bow into a pair of shadow daggers.

“You don’t know anything at all…”

As if to show that she hadn’t given up on her promise with Rocker, Rika strongly gripped the shadow daggers in both hands.

Rika’s intense attack swooped down on the villain like a sudden shadow.

“hahahahaha! Now, it’s getting interesting!!”

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