Helen who was repelled by the Clamaris flew several meters away. She tried her best to get up and rush over to help Luon, but she was too late.
The Clamaris swung its claws intending to reap Luon’s life. She couldn’t bear to watch the scene where one of her students is killed in front of her. However, she didn’t look away in the middle of combat.
The hand vanished from her line of sight and from where she was positioned, she couldn’t see Luon’s last moments. It was as if time froze, she stared blankly waiting for the blood to gush out like a fountain.
Seconds pass but not a single drop of blood appeared, curious at the same time worried she rushed over to find an unprecedented scene.
In front of Helen was the same student she had taught numerous of times, he was alive and well, almost too good to be true. The surprising thing was that he was using only one arm to hold onto his sword to counterbalance the force behind the Clamaris’s arm.
If someone didn’t know Luon’s physical capabilities, they would think that within his tiny frame of a body was a muscle density beyond belief. However, Helen knew it wasn’t like that. She quickly analyzed the strange predicament and found that Luon was manipulating the energy density that was coating his sword as well as his body to disperse the force. It was an art, with precise control there was not a single bit of excess mana, every single particle had a purpose.
Helen didn’t know what to make of the situation, such intricate technique could come from a combat genius. The only data the government provided the teachers about Luon was that he was a smart engineer, and a good commander. His combat abilities were slightly above average, but nothing too notable. Or at least she didn’t believe that he would be able to stop an Inzektor nearly 30 whole levels beyond his capabilities with a single arm.
Helen shook off her thoughts, the first thing she should be doing is to subdue the Clamaris. She plunges her sword into the Clamaris’s body but found an odd reaction. Frozen in fear the Clamaris did not let out a single sound of pain after being impaled by Helen. Helen couldn’t tell if her attack was effective or not, just as she pulled the sword out of the Clamaris, it screeched once more.
The force from the sound waves knocked Helen back a few meters. Fortunately, Helen managed to pull out her sword in time as blood gushed out from the body of the Clamaris. However, instead of looking at Helen who had wounded it, the Clamaris continued to stare at Luon and seeing that reaction Helen unconsciously did the same.
At this moment Luon faced looked up, and within his eyes, Helen could only see empty darkness, the bright bluish light was replaced with a gray dye. Luon’s expression was even more expressionless than Tyron on an average day. This single fact caused Helen to fear Luon a bit despite being allies.
Luon appeared indifferent to their stares, he slowly turned and slowly evaluated his body. He raised his arms and swung his swords horizontally a few times and said in a monotone voice, “Pathetic.”
As if urged by his words the Clamaris impulsively charged at Luon who was still adapting to the changes. The Clamaris was a few steps away from Luon before he turned to face it. With a speed that he didn’t possess moments ago, he began to exchange blows with the Clamaris. Within seconds numerous of blows were exchanged, if it were the old Luon, he would have already lost after two attacks. Helen couldn’t help but stare, Luon didn’t become physically stronger. Instead, his control over his Mana energy became more profound, and his reaction speed nearly doubled if not tripled.
Before Luon was using Manaqi energy when he fought Ravagers, but the new Luon only used mana. He had recognized the supplementary flow of energy but didn’t use it as it was unfamiliar to him. Luon frowned as he continued to exchange blows with the Clamaris, although his mana control became more cost-efficient at the pace he was going at his mana pool will soon run out faster than the Clamaris stamina. Luon let out a sigh as he looked downwards again and said, “Simply pathetic.”
At this moment Luon’s aura rose as the energy he had inside of him burst out like a busted faucet without a stopper. The Clamaris was intimidated from the mana that came out of Luon. It wasn’t like the regular type that Luon had used earlier. In fact, Luon had converted it to dark elemental type which was easy to do if one was profound in the field. If it wasn’t for the conversion rate disparity, anyone could use any kind of elemental type magic. Some races are more favored with certain elements compared to others which made it easier for them to convert normal mana to elemental energy.
The darkness eroded the surroundings and soon converged into Luon’s sword, the pitch black sword was covered in an even darker fog rotating evenly like a Baumkuchen being layered with more batter. When Helen saw this, she thought, ‘My gosh, I wouldn’t be surprised if tentacles come out from that sword.’
Both Helen and the Clamaris’s eyes followed the flow of energy of the sword which had formed several spirals before vanishing from their sights. When they both regained their senses, Luon had also disappeared. The Clamaris quickly evaluated her surroundings but found no traces of Luon.
“Fool,” it was at this moment a voice came from above the Clamaris as it looked up in response. Luon who appeared above the Clamaris was shrouded in light particles like it was a piece of armor shattering into pieces. In fact, the initial display of dark magic was just a fancy show. By exaggerating the dark energy, besides Luon, everyone else was confused. It was like a man who wore a black shirt every day walked in town with a white one for the first time when people expect to see something familiar or something that sticks out they overlook some factors. And Luon using light magic for an invisibility spell was one of those factors.
Luon stabbed the sword into the Clamaris’s mouth, although the sword is sharp it was still difficult to pierce the bone structure of the head. Impaled by the sword the Clamaris tried to peel Luon off, it raised its arms and just as it was about to touch Luon it stopped. Helen looked at the scene with an odd expression, she didn’t know what Luon did to stop it. However, her questions were quickly answered as Luon poured all the dark energy that was coating the sword into the body of the Clamaris. Unlike the typical properties of darkness, it was like a flame that eroded the Clamaris’s body. Luon poured all his mana into this attack as he silently said, “Netherworld Flames.”
It was dark magic with properties of fire, such a technique was rarely pulled off. It wasn’t something new as Helen had heard of stories of famous figures having water type flame or a rock that generated electricity. However, the important point was that they were prominent figures. The boy before her was someone she had met daily, Helen couldn’t help, but smile when she saw this other side of Luon.
Her smile didn’t last that long though, parts of the Clamaris combusted starting with the brain and Luon who was on top blanked out. He began to descend like a rag-doll falling off of its one-time fantastic performance on stage. Helen hurried over and caught Luon in her arms and quickly escaped away from the Clamaris. As if recognizing their absence the energy inside of the Clamaris exploded ending its life.
Helen who had escaped the explosion began to check Luon’s state and was relieved to find that he had over exhausted his mana.
The Inzektors who were nearby felt the Clamaris fall and began streaming into the area. Seeing the waves of Inzektors Helen swung Luon onto her back and dashed out of the area.
The weak Inzektors couldn’t help but stare at their escape.
…
“Milady there’s simply too many!” cried Keyral as she swung her bardiche reaping the life of many Inzektors.
“Just focus on defending and killing. If your tired just rotate out and get someone else in,” replied Arisa as she swung her sword.
The final line of defense was enclosed by several walls and had one intentionally opened door. Normally the Inzektors would be tempted to climb above the walls which were armed with automatic defense turrets that they had retrieved from the outer walls, but Arisa had created a single entrance causing most of the Inzektors to charge towards them.
As the battle raged on a change occurred, Arisa looked up and saw Gizmo, Bendan and Tyron come flying above the Inzektors on the ground and into the base. Seeing their safe arrival, she swapped places with Kiri to ask about the situation. Fortunately, the Inzektors that were bred on this planet were related to spiders, if they had flying Inzektors, the base would have been long gone.
When Arisa met up with the guys, she found Belle and Shizuka were there as well. Shizuka was in charge of developing more munitions while Belle was on break, so she wasn’t surprised to see them there, only they had some sad expression as if they had lost something. Arisa evaluated the state of the newcomers and asked, “Where’s Luon?”
Hearing those words, Gizmo who had tears in his eyes began to recount everything that had happened to the group. When she heard Luon stayed behind to delay the Clamaris her heartstrings tightened as she thought, ‘Why would the Clamaris target only Luon? Could it be the flower? This…’
Although she felt sad, she knew it wasn’t the time for it. Arisa reassured herself as she thought, ‘Everything’s going to be fine, Helen was there so there should be no problems. Right now we’ve got to reinforce our defensive lines and heal Bendan.’
Arisa coughed over the depressing atmosphere as she said with determination, “Gizmo, Tyron, although I know you would want to rest, however, I can’t let you absent if your range attackers. Go sit up at the top of the wall and shoot those bugs down. You can rest while attacking. Don’t worry about Bendan, Shizuka will take care of him.”
Shizuka nodded in response. Reassured Tyron tapped Gizmo shoulder and led him to the top of the defensive wall while Shizuka took Bendan to the medical bay leaving Arisa and Belle behind.
“Arisa, are you-” before Belle could say any more words Arisa interrupted her.
“Belle, break times over. Let’s get back to the front and kill some Inzektors. Don’t worry, we’re all going to make it out of this alive,” said Arisa as she left the room.
Belle stared at Arisa’s back as she held back her tears as she thought, ‘Arisa, although commanders need to make logical decisions they are still human. Don’t you feel sad? Or are you overwhelmed with anger? If only I could carry some of that weight on your shoulders for you. The least I can do is mourn for you, and fight for you.’
Belle paused for a second to confide her feelings, she then began marching towards the frontline with a determined expression.
With the aid of Tyron and Gizmo, the front lines felt less pressured. However, this equilibrium didn’t last long as a the Inzektors began to attack more furiously. It was a sudden change and to make things even worse the Ravagers who were overseeing the battle all rushed towards the choke point as if maddened by something.
Arisa was helpless at the situation, the moment they arrive at the door everyone would be slaughtered, the moment they closed the doors, they would quickly scale the walls, and then kill everyone. There was no solution that she could up with to remedy this situation.
Arisa readied herself for the worse, and just when the Ravagers were a few meters away from her, a figure appeared instantly killing all the Ravagers in the vicinity. Arisa happily cried out, “Teacher Helen!”
“Umu, leave the rest to me. Here take this,” said Helen as tossed something large at Arisa. She hurried to catch it and her heart bounced, in her arms was Luon. She quickly checked his condition and sighed in relief to find that he was not in a dangerous state.
After sending Luon to the medical bay, the front line rotated between Helen by herself and Arisa’s group relieving a significant amount of pressure on the students. In fact, after Helen had arrived a few of them started to sleep soundly, it was challenging to fight battle after battle without rest continuously. The stressful situation wasn’t as bad as it was before.
After about half a day, more waves of Inzektors came and finally a group of starships arrived firing energy blasts upon the Inzektors, scattering them about. Within the group of Inzektors were Bavolings which were fragile, quick, and explosive, that leaped towards the ships but fell upon the rapid fire of the starships defensive turrets.
The students after seeing reinforcements came to save them cheered and waved vigorously, and when a particular ship appeared within the squadron of starships, they became even more active. The starship that they were more familiar with landed and the students orderly vacated the outpost with their belongings.
Helen entered the ship with the girls in tow. When she got inside, she rushed over to Captain Waver and gave him a hug, initially he wanted to dodge her charge but held himself back from doing so as she was the star of the show. He decided to let it slide for now.
…
And after some time, Luon woke up.
