Chapter 26: The Swordsmanship Prodigy Saintess

Academy Entrance Exam (7)

1.

Holt had been happily hunting beasts until he encountered an unexpected enemy.

“What… the hell is that…?”

It was a grotesque shaped creature.

No, could you even call that a creature?

Its eyes were rolled back like an undead.

Its body was vaguely humanoid, but with long arms like a monkey’s.

A mix between human and beast.

Something in between.

“Wh-what? Why is a demon here?!”

It was Leine who revealed the identity of the creature.

She had followed Holt on his hunting spree and ended up trapped in the demon’s illusion barrier.

“A demon? That thing’s a demon?”

“Yeah.”

Leine stomped anxiously in place.

Although she was the daughter of the prestigious Agnia family, famous for fire magic, she wasn’t yet strong enough to fight a demon.

A demon can wipe out an entire village on its own.

The stronger ones can even annihilate cities.

Why such a monster appeared at the academy entrance exam was beyond her comprehension.

“Let’s go back and report this to the supervisor.”

Leine turned to head back.

“Saintess, let’s go ba… Saintess?”

The Saintess was nowhere to be seen.

Leine had assumed she was following right behind them.

But in their excitement over hunting beasts, they hadn’t paid attention to the girl trailing after them.

“Ah, dammit…”

In this case, they’d have to find the Saintess first before returning to the supervisor.

Leaving her alone in a forest like this was dangerous.

What if she got attacked by a beast, or worse, captured by the demon while they were gone?

It would be a disaster.

“Hey, brat. Is that thing strong?”

Holt asked in an unusually serious tone.

“You idiot. I know what you’re thinking, and you’d better not.”

“So… it is strong.”

“If you want to die, do it alone. I’m heading back.”

“If someone’s gotta take care of it anyway…”

Holt lowered his sword and drew two hand-axes from his belt.

“Why not let me be the one to do it?”

“You can’t. In the first place, no one can take down a demon alone.”

There were rare exceptions—

But normally, taking one down required full-scale support from the Imperial Knights.

“Well then, guess there’s a first time for everything.”

Holt pointed his thumb at himself with a confident grin.

“I’m the guy who once wiped out an entire Demon King’s platoon single-handedly.”

“Don’t compare the Demon King’s grunts to an actual demon, you moron.”

“Still has ‘demon’ in the name.”

“Is this seriously the time for jokes?”

“Watch closely. I’ll show you just how strong a warrior of the Southern Kingdom really is.”

“If you’re so eager to die, just go disembowel yourself.”

She said she was going back to report—

But when Holt actually began preparing for battle, Leine started charging up a spell too.

No matter how she looked at it, this was suicide.

They hadn’t even been admitted to the academy yet, and they were trying to fight a demon?

“Hraaah!!”

Holt let out a roar and charged at the demon.

“That idiot! He just gave away his position!”

Two axes raised high, Holt leapt into the air.

“I’ll smash you to pieces!”

The demon, who had been aimlessly wandering around, reacted immediately.

It raised its long arm and swung a rectangular greatsword.

Clang!

The two weapons collided with a deafening crash.

A shockwave rippled through the forest.

“Ignite!!”

As Holt held the demon in place, Leine unleashed her magic on it.

A stream of fire, like a dragon’s breath, engulfed the demon.

It seemed possible.

They might actually be able to defeat it.

Maybe they’d just been too intimidated by the name "demon."

That thought vanished almost immediately.

“...It disappeared?”

The demon that had been consumed by flames disappeared.

“Behind you! It’s behind you!”

At Holt’s shout, Leine turned around.

“Huh…?”

A massive figure, over 2 meters tall, stood right in front of her.

Teleportation magic?

No… She hadn’t felt any mana surge.

“How did it…?”

“Watch out!!”

A spinning hand axe flew past the top of Leine’s head.

Holt had thrown it—embedding it deep into the demon’s wrist.

But the demon didn’t even flinch.

As if it felt no pain.

It indifferently raised its arm with the axe still lodged in it and brought it down toward Leine.

“Dodge!!”

“I-Ignite!!”

Leine cast an explosion spell at her feet, blasting herself backward.

–Boom!!

Had she been even a second slower, she would’ve been crushed flat by that greatsword.

She now understood, truly—they should’ve run away.

Leine sincerely regretted it.

The Saintess and her party members were important, but the most important thing was her own life.

Should she run for it now?

As she hesitated, Holt roared and charged at the demon again.

“Hmph!”

Rolling to dodge the demon’s whip-like arm strike with a roll, Holt closed in.

He slammed the other hand axe down right onto the first one still embedded in the demon’s wrist.

It cut deeper, cleaving through tough muscle and sinking halfway in.

Still not enough.

Sword Aura ignited.

Red energy flared like fire, turning the twin axes into something like a giant battleaxe.

“Raaaah! Haaah!!”

Whooosh.

Holt swung the blazing battleaxe—

And the demon’s wrist was severed clean off.

But he didn’t stop.

He pushed his mana output into overdrive.

Sweat poured off him then immediately evaporated.

His bronzed skin flushed red-hot as the blood of the berserker began to boil.

Like a butcher possessed, he hacked the demon to pieces with furious strikes.

–Crack! Thud! Crunch! Crack!

He cut, and cut, and cut—through bone and sinew.

“Graaaaaah!!”

He hurled the battleaxe into the demon’s skull and screamed to the sky.

At his feet was the butchered corpse of the demon, brutally chopped into ruined chunks.

“Haa… haa… See that? You saw it, right?”

He raised a proud thumbs-up and pointed at himself with a grin, as if to show off.

Credit where it’s due.

He was reckless, but that was a hell of a display of raw destructive power.

“Think that’s enough for top score in the entrance exam?”

Holt laughed boldly.

“There are people who can solo a demon anywa... Hey! Dodge!!”

“Huh?”

Before he could react to Leine’s warning—

Crack.

A greatsword pierced Holt’s shoulder.

“Guh!!”

Thanks to his mana-enhanced body, his arm wasn’t severed—

But the blade had driven halfway in, tearing muscle and shattering his shoulder blade.

“Ignite!!”

Leine fired another explosion spell, launching Holt’s body away.

–Boom!!

Just as she did, another greatsword came flying down right where he had been standing.

“What… is going on…?”

Holt groaned while clutching his mangled shoulder, tried to grasp the situation.

The demon was standing there, completely unharmed.

The dismembered corpse was gone.

“Did it… regenerate?”

“N-no… That’s not it.”

Leine spoke, her voice trembling.

The demon hadn’t regenerated.

“It was a projection.”

“Projection...? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It was fake! The one you killed wasn’t the real body!”

“There’s a real one somewhere else…?”

Leine nodded, still shaking.

“L-Look behind you.”

Holt turned around.

“?!”

Another demon stood there.

“So… which one’s the real one, then?”

“I—I don’t know.”

Can you even call these “projections”?

They were so detailed, it was more accurate to call them fully-formed entities.

Such elaborate magic was on a level far beyond Leine’s comprehension, and she couldn’t even dare to interpret its magic formula.

“It’s not too late. Let’s run.”

Maybe with two of them, they could shake them off somehow.

But then—

She realized that running was meaningless.

Just earlier, one had suddenly appeared behind them, almost as if it had used teleportation magic.

Would they really be able to escape?

No. It is unlikely.

“Kuh... I’ll hold them off. You go.”

Holt cauterized his wound using the heat of his own mana.

“Go and tell the supervisor.”

“You idiot. What are you going to do on your own?”

“Whatever I can.”

He cloaked his body in mana like armor.

“Go. Hurry.”

Her legs didn’t want to move—

But logically, if at least one of them could survive and report back, that was the right thing to do.

Better than them both dying here.

And if Holt could just buy some time… maybe he’d survive too.

If the demon had overheard their exchange, it would have burst out laughing.

Because everything they were saying was pointless.

They were already inside the demon’s barrier field, so it was impossible to get out.

But the two of them didn’t know that.

They were busy playing out a heartfelt drama.

“...I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

“Got it.”

It was the moment Leine turned around to flee—

“Ah, there you are.”

The Saintess emerged from between the bushes.

They were screwed.

The situation had just gotten worse.

On the battlefield, a Saintess could sometimes help defeat demons—

But that was only for Saintesses who had trained for years.

Elia, by contrast, hadn’t even been a Saintess for a month.

She had heard the rumors that her divine power was immense—

But having a lot of divine power didn’t mean she could use divine magic.

That required training.

They couldn't expect anything from the Saintess Elia right now.

To put it bluntly, she was more likely to be dead weight than help.

“Saintess! Run away! That thing’s a demon!!”

Elia’s crimson eyes gently shifted toward the demon.

“Everyone, bow your heads.”

The Saintess stepped forward from the bushes slowly.

In her hand was a sword.

Her eyes narrowed.

As if reacting to the sharp murderous intent, the demons lunged at the Saintess.

She swung her sword once.

A single golden slash cut through the air, splitting space itself.

“...Sword Aura?”

The golden line sliced through both demons.

Their heads jerked back then fell to the ground with soft thuds.

It was such an anticlimactic ending.

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