CH 2.2

Since ancient times, sorcerers have often fought with their own bodies.

When you project destructive magic, the power decays with distance and time, so the cost-effectiveness of magic power is very poor. If you want to kill a lot of enemies with a little magic power, you have to attack as close to the enemy as possible.

So if you don't have the luxury of time, get in close and engage in hand-to-hand combat. That's it.

“Now, I’m going!"

Whatever the battle, it would be ridiculous to not fight with all your might. Besides, I'm not a warrior by trade, but a magician. And so I would not think of anything that was not necessary.

Even though it was a mock battle against skeleton soldiers, I could get injured unexpectedly if I was not careful. And so I have to use all my strength.

The skeleton soldiers thrust out their spears, which I slashed away with my ‘Spirit Sword’ carrying blade.

Even if the enemy's spears were real, they would not be able to pierce my palm. My body, which was tinged with magic power, was both a blade and armor. It's a technique that combines offense and defense.

“Haaaaa!”

The first skeleton, along with its shield, is cut in half by my short sword, and then I jump into the collapsed rank of skeletons.

The skeleton soldiers were lined up in two horizontal rows, and I was able to get through to the back of the line by defeating just two of them.

The flanking line of spearmen were immensely strong against the front, but weak if you could get behind or flank them. They will need to reorganize their ranks.

Of course, I wasn’t going to allow them to do that.

“Drop dead!”

I grabbed the head of the next skeleton and smashed it against my knee, crushing its skull. I grabbed the next skeleton by the ribs and crushed his vertebrae. ‘Spirit Sword’ enveloped my fingers as well, and each had the destructive force of a war hammer.

After their bodies were destroyed with loud cracking noises, I now had a complete grasp on how they moved. 

They're even weaker than I thought. They're just for show. Their reactions are slow and their movements are monotonous. Their skills are also low.

They’re just ‘moving scarecrows’ that are supposed to intimidate the examinees.

Once you realize it, this moderate exercise becomes more enjoyable. This young body does not get short of breath easily and is light. I feel healthier.

(This reminds me of the fiasco Mariam made when she was an apprentice...)

While recalling the tearful face of the cocky apprentice, I dealt with the skeleton soldiers.

Unlike that time, the skeleton soldiers' weapons weren't real, so there was no tension whatsoever.

In fact, I've been relentlessly poked and prodded with the pom-poms attached to my spears since a while ago, but this doesn't seem to disqualify me. They didn’t say anything about it.

But it hurts a little, and it's oddly infuriating.

Behind me, the other examiners are about to complete their spells. All three of them have different schools of magic, but they're starting to chant the phrases to start shooting.

In order to stay out of their way, I used a skeleton soldier as a shield and then shouted at the other examinees.

“Fire!”

And then three rather small balls of fire were fired at the skeleton soldiers. The power of the fireballs is low, but as I had lured them close enough, they were all able to kill a skeleton soldier each. And like that, the charred bones crumbled to the ground. So, they would all be safely accepted as honor students. Congratulations.

At the same time, I swung my sword down over the last skeleton soldier. Once its skull was cleaved open, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, that’s it then.”

There didn't seem to be any more enemies moving around, so I deactivated the ‘Spirit Swords’ on both hands. If I stroke my chin without deactivating it, the shape of my face would change dramatically.

It's important to clean up after you use magic. Because if you think it's a joke, you might actually do it.

I suddenly realized that the examiners were looking at me with confusion. Furthermore, the other examinees were also looking at me strangely.

Hey, I used magic like the rest of them, okay? Please let me pass, too?

I manifested my 'Spirit Sword' once more and quickly cut the large shield with my fingertips.

“As you can see, all of my attacks were with ‘Spirit Sword.’ My attacks were magic.”

“Ah, yes. That's right...indeed."

The examiners looked at each other with increasingly confused expressions, then one of them opened his mouth.

“Um, there's no problem then. You have all passed. This concludes the second examination.”

Then they looked at the piles of bones scattered everywhere and sighed deeply.