Sword, Magic and Academic Society

"......This was an utter failure for us. We completely lost our number advantage, and with Tim's fall, we also lost any hope to raid all four posts at once. I can take down one, but it would be of no use when it would only change hands once again when I leave that place. I would simply be sacrificing my soldiers for no gain.

In my experience, I’ve never heard of mountain strongholds that worked so immaculately together despite such erratic movement. I for sure thought that there would be a hole in your plan while building such an intricate stronghold setup... but I failed to spot any in time. We no longer have enough military strength to push forward, we’ve lost all initiative."

Huh? Hey, hey, hey. You can't give up on me here!

"W-What're you doing by giving up so easily?! What about the 'Indomitable' title of yours that sparked hope in your people!? C'mon, you can't trample on people's hopes so easily. You don't know it, Sensei, but Bester's pettiness is kind of like a mother-in-law who tries to nitpick at every single thing. I’m sure you'll be surprised by his imagination and stubbornness.

Anyway, it's too early for you to give up here, Sensei! We can't conclude who the victor is unless you or our class get taken out of the game completely!"

I had been napping inside the basement ever since the final scenario began to give him a surprise blow. Now that it was finally my time to take the stage, what did he mean by giving up like this? At this rate, my memory of the whole outdoor class would become a dark history where I was a loner no matter the scenario. There was no way I would let him dash away my hope of working together with my classmates!!

Godorfun squinted his eyes in surprise, his hand stroking that white beard.

"......But this is no longer a siege. We, as the attackers, planned to start our invasion by capturing this border stronghold and then proceeding to invade this country. So the moment we lost our forces here is when we lost for good."

Heeeey, do you even understand what I'm saying!?

"T-Take a deep breath first, Sensei! Why the hell do you invaders have so low motivation?! Are you saying you would let your enemies trample over you so easily even when you're the one protecting your nation?! Alright, let's swap positions. You're now defending this base! I’m sure you wouldn't fuss over such a minor setup after meddling with all the previous scenarios so easily, right?

The time limit is 12 PM tomorrow, and both of our reinforcements will arrive around then. Whoever manages to keep the base to themselves will be the winner. Don't forget, every civilian's eyes are on you to save them from this predicament! We’ll start now!"

Godorfun's fighting spirit slowly climbed up as I criticized his stance.

"What's your goal, Allen Rovenne? It would be boorish of me to give up now after your speech...... but you're clearly the 'winner' already at this juncture. I doubt you would get any extra score from our continued confrontation either way."

Phew. That was close. Seriously, what about him was indomitable? He still caved in to my words so easily.

I chuckled and replied.

"Score? I don't even care about such flimsy numbers. I— no, we still aren’t done playing around yet! So you're going to relieve our boredom until then!"

Berd, who had been next to me, smiled wryly, but nodded just as assertively.

Godorfun's eyes turned round, and he then followed up with a booming laughter.

"......Fuhahaha! Very well, Allen Rovenne. Berd Yuniwance. I’ll take you on with my full power as your teacher in-charge. Though... a pity that after all these words, you—"

Godorfun continued as he unsheathed his training sword and lunged at me.

"You're going to die here!!"

However, Berd parried his blow.

I had to slightly twist my words to get things done, but the scenario was moving forward just as I wanted.

I used that paper-thin gap to leap back, opened the top of the red cap phial, and scattered the paralyzing drug in Godorfun's direction.

Berd was already holding his breath, but that wouldn't be too effective when he was facing Godorfun. I was going to confront Godorfun alone, but he stayed behind, saying ‘Someone needs to be your shield so that you survive’. They still needed me later since I could use detection magic to find out the enemies' situations.

Godorfun immediately changed his target to Berd, deflecting the strike of the latter's longsword, and aimed the blade part of his sword at Berd's nape.

But his sword was lacking its usual sharpness. Berd dodged Godorfun's sword and jumped at him to pin him down. Godorfun shook his body, and somehow escaped from Berd's hold as he jumped back.

As soon as he found a gap, he used his robe to cover his mouth, and started circulating the mana inside his body to expel the foreign substance.

"......So this was your plan. This is where your confidence stems from, huh, Allen Rovenne?!"

Immediately after shouting that, he jumped out of the ruin and made a beeline for the forest.

"Dammit!"

Wasn't that geezer's reaction speed and judgement ability a bit too fast!?

"We're chasing after him, Berd! We’ll be at a disadvantage if that geezer manages to clear out the paralysis effect!"

Nonetheless, the geezer's speed was still top-notch, despite suffering from the drug's effect. He soon disappeared from my detection magic's range.

I used to hear him say 'Your attainment in Body Strengthening magic is the key to all the basics'. So this was what he meant, huh?

......From the direction he took, he had to be either in the south or east.

Berd and I gave chase with our top speed, but felt stuck at which direction to go when we eventually arrived at a branching path. However, the doubt was soon cleared by Dan, who had just appeared.

"It's east, Allen. Al and his team are lying in ambush up ahead, let's corner him there."

"Roger!"

With the direction on hand, we blitzed toward the eastern base when we heard the 'Boom! Boom!' sound of Dol's Earth Burst echoing from a distance.

Dol had set up some Earth Bursts just in case Godorfun escaped to the east. And there was no way Godorfun could have guessed how they were laid out as we were the only ones who had memorized the layout.

However, the sound of explosions never stopped.

It would have been in our favor if he had slowed down and took a detour, but Godorfun wasn't a greenhorn to cave in so easily. Besides, Dol's Earth Bursts were still lacking in power to deal any serious damage to Godorfun.

If it couldn't hurt him, then he could brute force it, that must have been what Godorfun thought. And this train of thought was exactly the thing we hadn't wanted him to take. There were too many spots to hide in at the eastern base, and it was going to be just as hard to search for him there.

But it had at least slightly slowed down Godorfun’s pace as we soon caught a glimpse of his back.

Al, who had been waiting there, shouted.

"Surround him now! Don't let him get away from here!"

He fired his ice barrage at Godorfun, halting his steps and pushing him toward our preassigned hunting ground.

The earth burst that had been buried there in a different way, and as soon as Godorfun stepped on the 5th Earth Burst, the ground beneath him caved in.

It was the so-called pitfall trap, but Godorfun used his training sword and thrust it into the wall of the pit the instant the ground caved in, slowing down his descent and also avoiding completely falling into the hole.

The bottom of the pit had been filled with a heavy amount of adhesive substance that could be obtained from agate spiders, so had he fallen in, we would have won.

"Hmph, childish tricks!"

He shouted, manipulating the soil with his magic and jumping out of the hole. From falling into the pitfall to jumping out of it barely took him a second.

What the hell did that geezer eat growing up?! I even doubted if my paralysis drug was working on him.

But Al and Dol pushed him to halt his progress, and successfully trapped him in their siege. Everyone leapt at him for a simultaneous attack.

Sophia, who ended up receiving the first blow, and Berd, who had forced himself to chase Godorfun ‘til here, got taken out. But we were able to push Godorfun near the river channel, and now behind him was a waterfall that was at least 70 meters deep.

"This is your end, Godorfun!"

I said as I placed my hand on my bow.

However, Godorfun’s lips were curled into a dauntless smile as he jumped down from the waterfall toward the lake.

Hey, hey... you could die!?!!

SPLASSSH!!!

We fearfully gazed down at the waterfall lake. After a moment, Godorfun had appeared in a distant place from where he had dived in, and jumped onto the coast. However, he never once stopped to look behind as he slipped inside the forest.

No one told me that the old man was a cockroach!!

But I had expected him to throw out some words. To not even spare a glance in our direction, the old geezer was absolutely serious.

Very well, it wouldn't be fun otherwise!

◆◆◆

From that moment on, Godorfun would appear like a ghost to launch surprise attacks on us. We fended him off with Bester's strategy, but that couldn't stop casualties from appearing in our group.

04:00 AM — We lost Dol and Fey.

07:30 AM — We lost Stella, Coco and Shar.

10:00 AM — We lost Kate and Lala.

And finally, in our last siege battle at 11:30 AM, we lost Jeu, Magge, and Viz. But, their sacrifice enabled us to corner Godorfun into a dead end... However, we ran out of time by then.

"Shit! It’s a tie! You know, you're too tenacious for your own good, old fart!"

With the match coming to an end, both Godorfun and I were sprawled on the ground.

Our assignment was to maintain our hold on the bases, so it was our victory in that regard, but I could never bring myself to declare that after failing to subdue Godorfun.

"Hohoho! It was a question of dignity as your class teacher, after all. But I have to say the consecutive attacks and the traps surely tired my old bones out. There really is no winning against youth, fuhahaha!"

In contrast to his usual hard-to-decipher demeanor, Godorfun was now laughing like a child.

T/N - And this is the last chapter for the scenario. Next is the result announcement, and the arc would come to end in one more chapter.

E/N - I have to say, this has been my favorite arc so far and the last scenario in particular was a blast to read. Though the MC screwing up by snatching a tie in the jaws of victory due to his pettiness is pretty on brand with him, not gonna lie.