The Hero In The Military academy Suit

Chapter 17

  Ludwig immediately rose into the air and flew behind us.

Ah, that kid mastered [Levitation] too, huh? It’s becoming obvious how many powers he’s stacked on himself.

But now, he’s planning to use us as a barricade.

The rest of the team, suddenly put in the position of protecting Ludwig, stiffened up.

“Wow, this is serious…”

If it’s a fight between someone who graduated from the military academy and a candidate for heir, this kind of reaction makes sense.

‘This much was within the expected range.’

Now, Ludwig and the instructor had us in the middle as a wall.

With this setup, he couldn’t just ignore us.

For now, we were holding our ground, but if we kept moving around and he attacked from an unexpected angle, there would be an opening.

“….”

The instructor remained silent, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

On one side, we were just a bunch of rookies in our second week of training.

On the other, he was a warrior who had graduated from the regular officer academy.

Although he had failed to move up to a higher rank and ended up stuck as a trainer, he was still officially certified as a semi-hero.

Click.

With a grinding sound, the instructor leapt forward with incredible speed.

“He’s coming. Ushers, hold your ground!”

“…”

Instead of replying, Ushers took a deep breath and braced his shield firmly.

The instructor’s punch was coming straight for the shield.

It was a basic monster-type training, after all, where charging straight in was the enemy’s main tactic.

Boom—!

As expected, when the instructor tried to strike Ushers’ shield, I thrust my spear through his line of sight.

It was just a quick distraction to mess with his focus.

As expected, the instructor’s eyes flicked to the side, and at that moment, he twisted his body to slam into the shield.

Bang!

The earth trembled with the shock, and Ushers groaned as he was pushed back.

“Ughhh…”

As Ushers struggled to stabilize himself, the instructor once again launched his fist with brutal force.

At the same time, I thrust my spear.

It was a simple thrust.

But it was a perfect thrust—one that I had practised thousands, maybe tens of thousands of times over the last few days.

Swish!

The spear pierced the air with a sharp sound, aimed precisely at the instructor’s neck.

On top of that, [Hunting Time] Phase 1 activated.

For the instructor, at that moment, there must have been an overwhelming sense of unease.

If he ignored the sharp incoming attack and kept smashing the shield, he might suffer an unexpected blow.

That was a warrior’s instinct after years of experience.

“Tch.”

He clicked his tongue and retracted his punch, jumping back.

In a split second, he did that, the tip of my spear grazed his skin, leaving a small cut.

Blood began to drip onto the ground.

My well-aimed strike had failed, but I immediately withdrew my spear and took a deep breath.

Then I glanced at Ludwig, who was busy recovering his power.

If I were him, I would’ve used the opening to fall back and then unleashed my third power.

But Ludwig seemed more focused on recovering than cooperating with us, as though he was stubbornly refusing to work together.

“You stubborn little brat…”

“What did you say?”

Ludwig flared up at my muttering, but I didn’t answer him.

The murderous aura emanating from the instructor made my skin tingle.

‘Now, this is the real deal.’

That killing intent was genuine.

He absolutely couldn’t accept the idea of being defeated by trainees, even if we were on the brink of failure.

With two rounds of combat and a single wound, it was enough to ignite the instructor’s fury.

Now, he was going to come at us with everything he had, trying to break us apart.

Thud!

The instructor’s foot slammed into the ground.

Once again, his target was the formation of the three of us, myself included.

He was going to exploit the weakness that Ludwig and I weren’t cooperating.

The sharp sound of air splitting filled my ears.

In the blink of an eye, he reached Ushers, who was holding the shield, and jumped up again.

A spinning kick.

The leg aimed directly at me, ignoring the front line to target the mid-rank first.

He was going for my left temple.

There was no way I could counter with my spear from this distance; it was too short of a time for me to respond.

The moment the foot was about to land, I could see it clearly in my peripheral vision.

Wham!

“Sorry, but the shield’s on the inside too.”

But I blocked his attack with the round shield I had stashed inside, grinning as I yelled:

“Corry!”    Bang!

At my call, Corry reflexively pulled the trigger.

Even if he’s a clumsy, slowpoke, hitting a large target right in front of him is way harder to miss.

A triple-barrel shotgun designed for dealing with big monsters.

The powerful shells shot toward the instructor, who crossed his hands in mid-air to block them.

However, he couldn’t stop the rebound force, and he was sent flying like a balloon deflating.

Thud! Kkrr…

“Good job.”

That was a solid hit.

He had overlooked the small round shield on my arm.

That’s how excited he was.

Someone with that much of a temper wouldn’t be suited for anything higher than a trainer role.

I spoke to the instructor, who was spitting blood.

“That’s enough, instructor.”

“…”

Now that we’d achieved our goal, it was time to wrap things up.

“Instructor?”

But why was he staring at me like that?

Is he starting to get scared now?

“Instructor, you’re bleeding a lot. This should be enough for the evaluation, don’t you think?”

I wasn’t trying to provoke him.

He was bleeding from his shoulder, the back of his hand, and his mouth.

This was just a test.

Continuing beyond this point would certainly be a fatal mistake on his part.

Then, it happened.

The instructor’s pupils went completely black.

[destructive Mode]

Hold on.

What did you just use? Huh?

His eyes just went crazy.

“You crazy bastard.”

As the aura of his power started flowing from his ankles, a curse slipped out of my mouth.

The instructor was using his power against trainees? During a training session, not even a duel?

This was insane.

He was completely losing his mind…

I quickly glanced behind the instructor, looking for the supervising instructor.

But all I saw was Colonel Conrad, casually watching the situation from the platform with his arms crossed, seemingly entertained.

The rest of the trainees had frozen, watching us with a mix of concern, curiosity, and horror.

‘That bastard…’

Did he order this?

Is he having the instructor hurt trainees in front of everyone?

Did he intentionally put us in a situation where we’d provoke the instructor and cause him to go crazy?

Despite my doubts, Conrad just kept his calm expression.

“Get the medical officer to attend to the injured.”

“Is it okay not to stop…?”

“Training is just training. Is there a problem? Did anyone die?”

“…No, sir.”

“Stop making a fuss. It’s just part of the training.”

Conrad was limiting his involvement to just sending a trainer, letting the situation unfold while staying hands-off.

Even if someone were to die, the instructor would take full responsibility after everything was over.

“Russell!!”

I snapped out of it at Corry’s shout.

[“beauty” and “flower” – Invisible Step]

“Damn, move!”

I yelled and dove to the side as fast as I could.

But it happened so quickly that the other two couldn’t react in time.

The instructor’s legs seemed to multiply into dozens of afterimages, and then the air exploded like a bomb going off.

Boom! Boom boom!

It was over in the blink of an eye.

The explosion from his legs created a cloud of gunpowder-smelling smoke, and the ground was destroyed.

Ushers and Corry, both in their armoured training gear, were left in tatters, lying down out on the floor.

“This crazy, out-of-control bastard…”

The instructor’s next target wasn’t me, who had fallen, but Ludwig, who was standing there stunned with wide eyes.

He was trembling slightly, probably never having faced such a murderous intent before.

[Moonlight Strike]

[Invisible Step]

Ludwig and the instructor’s powers activated simultaneously.

A dark blue light surrounded the instructor, and his legs, now imbued with a crimson aura, ruthlessly slammed down where Ludwig had been standing.

Shlick, shlick, shlick.

The physical damage-nullifying effect isn’t invincibility.

As the damage stacked up, the instructor’s powers started to fade.

Ludwig tried to create some distance using [Levitation] in a hurry, but the instructor grabbed his neck first.

“Ugh, gah, let go…!”

Just as the instructor was about to slam Ludwig into the ground, I shoulder-checked the instructor and pushed him off.

I was the one that got thrown back further, but at least Ludwig had a chance to use [Levitation].

Ludwig, holding his red-marked neck, coughed hard.

“Hey, kid.”

“Cough, cough.”

“Temporary alliance.”

“Cough, no way.”

“Can’t you see that psycho’s lost it? Someone’s about to die, you little brat.”

“I’m not a kid!”

“If you cooperate, I’ll start calling you by your name from now on. The last of the Night Clan, Ludwig. Got it?”

“How do you… you?”

“Ugh! That boar bastard is coming! Hurry up and decide.”

“Only this time!”

“All right, half and half on the heavy lifting!”

I immediately threw a javelin at the incoming instructor.

He parried the spear with his fist, and after the blow slightly slowed the spear, he kept charging.

I gripped my round shield tightly and ran toward the instructor, colliding with him.

My left arm shook from the impact as our fists and shield clashed.

Wham!

I tried to regain my stance, but his punch landed square on my face first.

Everything in front of me flashed.

‘That hurts like hell.’