The Guardian

Chapter 8: It was my fault!

The group of students who Aurora left stopped restraining themselves, now that she had already gone.

“Tch... How can she leave now? This is just a test, and she’s running away in fear,” a student muttered.

“We came to Hero Academy to become ‘Heroes’... Not to be running away with our tails between our legs,” added another student with disdain.

“If she runs away in a test, I don’t want to imagine what she would do in a real situation...” commented another student.

The more they thought about it, the more contempt they felt for Aurora’s actions.

This was a test, but she ran away at this point?

She got into the Hero Academy, but when the opportunity presented itself, she ran away?

It’s as if someone wanted to become a firefighter but had pyrophobia.

It just didn’t make sense!

“Stop it.” Clémentine interrupted with a severe expression.

She didn’t know why Aurora had decided to run away, but it didn’t sound like fear.

Aurora was a young woman with a soft, bright-eyed expression that didn’t match her usual bored look.

Clémentine had seen her from the start look bored without surprise and fear.

That slender young woman with charming factions that made her look weak and delicate had been walking with a criminal leader as if she were strolling with her neighbor... Then in the ensuing battles, she would watch from the background shaking her head when her group made a mistake or nod when everything went well.

Besides, she was very good at spotting mistakes.

“Still, for her to abandon us now when she knows it’s a test and that we need her is outrageous,” Erica commented with a tone full of contempt and irritation.

Clémentine did not know what to reply, as deep down, she could understand Erica’s contempt and anger.

In a real battle, to be abandoned by a member would, sometimes, be extremely dangerous and, in others, fatal.

This was a test, it was true, but this test showed the character of each student.

If she abandoned them in a test, who’s saying she couldn’t leave them later?

That idea had planted itself in everyone present.

Clémentine sighed as that fact dawned on her, but she didn’t let herself get carried away with those thoughts.

“Stop,” she ordered as they were about to reach the auditorium. They were two classrooms away from the back entrance to the hall.

Clémentine could feel a unique slight vibration in the atmosphere.

Light mental waves were searching for any enemy, and those waves had the auditorium as their center.

“Can you break it?” Leslie asked, without understanding too much of the subject.

Clémentine focused her mind and some of her mental strength to feel those ripples, but in the end, she shook her head.

“If I try to break it, they will notice. If I try to hide us, they’ll notice... It’s an impenetrable net to my current self.” Clémentine said, slightly upset.

If those ripples were like a still, motionless lake, then her going in was like a stone falling into that lake... A huge one.

Leslie frowned, for if they attacked and the enemies noticed they might have a moment to prepare, professionals were that good.

Although the plan was to attack directly, any leader liked reducing casualties and having a second option.

“But... I can do a mental attack.” Clémentine said, and the group looked at her with genuine surprise.

A well-known standard among psionics was that only A-Rankers could mentally attack their enemies; B-Rankers could only show their prowess physically.

“Can you?” Leslie asked, honestly intrigued.

Clementine could sense that the question was not only intrigued but a bit of concern.

“Yes, yes I can,” Clémentine said with a severe expression after careful thought.

It would be strenuous, but not dangerous...

—Be prepared. Clémentine will perform a mental attack on the enemy psionic, and when the net falls, you will attack the front door.

—Understood.

Andrés and Cristian, who was leading the other group, quickly replied to Leslie’s words over the mental net.

Clémentine nodded at Leslie’s gaze and sat down cross-legged.

It was a great effort for someone of Rank B like her to launch a mental attack on her enemies, but she could do it if she concentrated.

She had practiced and trained her skills to get to this point, and she was a true genius.

She closed her eyes, focused her mind, and felt the ‘outside’ world through her mind.

Small mental waves that searched for any enemy surrounded the auditorium.

All around her, she could feel various glows that revealed the presence of her companions, Joslyn being the one that shone the brightest because of her being a psionic.

In the middle of the auditorium, she could sense another psionic presence concentrating on creating that safety net.

His range for sensing the ‘outside’ world was lower than hers, but he was dazzling.

He had more mental strength than Clémentine herself, but his talent was lesser, which allowed him just to maintain the safety net.

Clémentine did not believe she could take down a psionic with a mental attack since, from Rank C, psionics generate mental and physical barriers to protect themselves.

That barrier increased the stronger the psionic became, and this enemy, as a psionic with the mental strength of a Rank A, could resist it.

Still, she could give him a big headache... Literally.

Concentrating and gathering her mental strength following the thoughts in her mind, she created a glowing dagger, much like the ripples that covered the auditorium.

There was only one big difference, this dagger, though slight, shone brightly.

—Be ready.

Using a small part of her concentration, she sent the message into the telepathic network that connected her mind with the other leaders.

As soon as she finished, Clémentine threw her ‘dagger.’

That dagger went through the waves that made up the safety net, and before the enemy psionic could grasp what was happening, the dagger reached the glowing sphere that made up the psionic himself.

There was a bit of resistance, but the dagger could strike the enemy’s mind, dissolving some of the glow.

“AHHHHH!”

A scream could be heard, and Clémentine opened her eyes, only to realize that she was sweating and was quite pale.

Only a glance was needed for Leslie to give the order.

—Now.

Nothing happened for a moment, and then...

*BOOM*

The sound of a door being smashed in was heard, then Clémentine stopped and held her agitated breath.

“Let’s go.” She ordered, and they all charged.

The fighters and swordsmen went first, bursting the door wide open.

“Damn idiots! Defend! Mages create barriers! Psionic... Psionic, stop wallowing in pain and fight!”

“Shut up! Who the hell said that was going to be easy? Damn, that was a fucking mental attack! A fucking mental attack!”

“Gentlemen, we’ve lost the psionic! Now let’s beat it!”

“I’m not dead yet! Damn it! I just feel like my head’s been pierced by a thousand needles!”

Chaos... That was the scene that awaited Clémentine’s group.

The enemy psionic rolling on the ground and rolling around cursing her ancestors, along with all the other masked criminals, were in chaos.

They never expected that after their psionic was shot down, they would be attacked immediately.

Worse yet, while Cristian slashed the enemies with his sword, Andrés took control of the enemies’ holographic clocks and electronic devices.

Music, calls, holographic figures were created, even embarrassing images and selfies appeared before the criminals, confusing them and leading them to lose concentration.

Leslie moved first.

Giving a military signal to her group to rescue the other students near her, Leslie began firing.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Shots began to ring out, and Eva joined in as well, firing her weapon, unafraid of injuring a fellow student.

Those guns were for training, so instead of leaving critical wounds, they only caused a lot of pain, and mainly, they both had good aim.

“Demons! Defend our back! They are flanking us! Don’t let them rescue the students!” shouted the enemy leader while waving his baton, hitting several students and dropping them unconscious.

That and another small group seemed to be unconstrained and were taking down the students quickly.

Clémentine moved, knowing that her group followed.

Using her mental strength, she threw two weak enemies towards the leader so that they collided.

One of her psionic traits was telekinesis.

Her ability to move objects using her mind was undoubtedly among the best of her rank.

Those two criminals who had been able to resist if they were prepared were thrown at the enemy leader; unfortunately, he dodged it and the criminals collided with each other before disappearing because of the object they were carrying.

“Shit...”

Without giving him a chance to curse, an arrow launched by the archer Wendy was sent at the enemy leader, and he deflected it using his baton.

Skillful...

That thought came to Clémentine’s mind, and she, using her mental strength, created a shock-wave in the shape of a cannonball and sent it at the leader.

She wasn’t looking to defeat him. Her only goal was for the others to defeat the remaining criminals in large groups and rescue the students here.

So far, she noticed that both Joslyn and Nicole were rescuing the students, and the students were jumping in to help the others.

They lacked experience and practice, but they were helping.

That shock-wave in the form of a cannon quickly reached the enemy leader, and when he was about to dodge it, an image of a half-naked man dancing appeared on his holographic watch.

It was shocking since that projection filled the leader’s sight, leaving him stunned and delaying his reaction time to dodge.

Before Clementine could feast on her attack, the man grabbed the wooden sword at his hip and, with fantastic skill, cut the shockwave into a cannon shape.

The wooden sword did not break, but was surrounded by a strong sword aura that reinforced it.

“...”

Clémentine froze.

That sword aura was a characteristic of a Rank A swordsman... An enemy that even if she could attack mentally, she could not face.

The difference between Rank B and A was a qualitative difference that was very difficult to overcome.

Clémentine could attack mentally after concentrating for a long time, but a true A-Rank psionic could launch mental attacks at will.

Just as an A-Rank swordsman could use his sword aura to defend and attack.

That was showed only because he used a wooden sword to pierce through an attack that would typically have shattered a thick metal wall.

“...” Silence stretched out, and the battle momentarily stopped from both sides.

Clémentine’s side was surprised and was cursing because of that powerful enemy that had appeared.

But the other side...

“Idiot leader!”

“How the hell do you use your sword aura? Are you stupid?!”

“He’s stupid!”

All the criminals cursed in unison at their leader and he looked at his wooden sword, and when it cracked due to his aura, not being able to strengthen it for too long, he muttered. “Shit.”

With those words, his body glowed and disappeared.

“...” This time, Clémentine’s group was stunned, but for that unexpected ‘escape.’

Clémentine could understand that it was something related to the ‘test’ itself and the students’ limit.

Following those thoughts, a big smile appeared on her face.

“Let’s get this over with!”

Now all that was left to do was to give the remaining members a beating.

******

“Tch... I almost got caught.” Professor Miller muttered.

He had headed in a very different direction from what he had told the students he had encountered.

Instead of going to the Director’s room, he headed for the Director’s personal office.

Even so, he was still cursing the students who had almost caught him.

Who on earth would think that those students would catch him just when he had changed his form?

Thanks to his quick improvisation, he could escape from those ‘kids.’

“Hahahahaha... I’m close, I’m close...” muttered Professor Miller... No, he could no longer be recognized as the ‘Professor Miller’ that the student in Clémentine’s group had identified.

His form changed to that of an old, ruined man grinning like a lunatic.

“Where should it be, where should it be?” the old man wondered, letting out a silly, meaningless giggle.

He searched through the books one by one, not caring if he messed them up or not; he just threw them on the floor and kept looking.

Then when he threw a specific book from a particular row, the sounds of gears moved, and the shelf where the books were located opened, revealing some stairs.

“Hahahahahaha... I found it... I found it,” muttered the old man, shaking his head with a strange frequency.

Nervously, anxiously, and expectantly, the old man walked down the stairs and continued down the hallway as if this wasn’t the secret area of an SS Rank mage.

When the hallway ended, a round room surrounded by many shelves with different books appeared, but a single book caught his attention.

That book was on a pedestal in the center of the entire room.

The old man’s eyes gleamed with anticipation and madness.

“The ‘Enemy of Humanity’ Summoning Grimoire,” said the old man, this time, his tone imperceptibly changed.

The next moment, the old man shook his head again as if it were a tic and approached the book with a stupid grin.

“With this book... With this book, I can become an Archmage... No, a Great Archmage!.... If I give it to him... If I give it to him... I can rule the world and kill all those who mocked me!” exclaimed the old man in a voice full of madness, happiness, and excitement.

“Well, I think this is enough.”

A slightly lazy voice sounded at his back, and before the old man turned around, he felt a pain in his cheek, in his stomach, and then lost consciousness.

“...” Aurora watched the old man fall before she even finished her ‘combo.’

She blinked somewhat incredulously and asked. “What the hell?”

So far, she had followed a ‘villain’ who infiltrated the great hero academy, disguised himself perfectly as a professor, discovered the secret room of a powerful archmage, and broke into it to steal... A book.

—It is not a mere book. The book was personally written by the ‘Enemy of Humanity’ who devastated Terra nova, murdered powerful gods, and created great chaos. At the same time, he was a player in this world, just like everyone else.

Seeing the system’s response to her shallow thoughts, Aurora looked at the ‘Grimoire.’

It didn’t look old, dirty, or anything like that, but simply looked like an ordinary book of magic.

—The ‘Enemy of Humanity’ was a powerful archmage with extraordinary abilities in summoning and other types of magics.

Her system reminded her of what she knew.

Like any average person, she knew the actions and the player’s name who during ‘Terra nova’ created a ‘Chaos’ faction and made it face the ‘Order’ faction.

He performed terrible deeds by outdoing all the ‘evil’ players to the point that he was the cause of the genocide of a race and killed gods after tricking them into confronting each other and only to end up killing them when they were weak.

That individual who had been known as a ‘Sage’ among the very natives of that world during the early years of Terra nova, was to many the cause of players going so crazy when it was revealed that the world of ‘Terra nova’ was real.

A player like everyone else went into the game ‘Terra nova’; only this particular player knew that the world was real and performed all his actions, knowing that fact leading many other players to perform heinous acts, all from the beginning.

Still, no matter how unbelievable and evil his actions are...

“No idiot would leave their secrets in a damn book,” Aurora said, looking at the book on the shelf.

That person had disappeared a long time ago, and Aurora had met many who were looking for any trace of him, but that didn’t mean that kind of person would leave their secrets out in the open so easily.

Besides... That was a book!

—That’s right. This is just a volume of summoning magic of an advancing level written by that person. That said, the theory is quite innovative and would help any Summoning mage.

Aurora shook her head upon hearing those words; this book was far from a ‘grimoire’ and was just a mere magic book.

No matter how she thought about it, no one would leave their secrets in a book. After all, anyone could take it, and it would be different if it were a truly magical ‘Grimoire.’

Those grimoires had methods of security, and some even had a sense of their own.

When she came to that conclusion, Aurora looked at the old man who had fainted.

Her mind was working hard to find an answer to this situation that was far from being a powerful ‘villain’ who infiltrated the academy to steal a ‘grimoire’ from a mighty mage.

The only answer she could find was...

“So, is this something set up by the Director?” Aurora asked, blinking at that conclusion.

It could be a hidden test within the main trial or...

—Apparently, the Director wanted to catch someone else... And you stopped that from happening.

Aurora froze at those words, and her system warmly sent her the location in her mind of what appeared to be a magical camera and...

“I’m sorry. it was my fault!” Aurora shouted, looking at a particular location.

Without holding her embarrassment, she ran away without even looking back.

Aurora cursed her instinct that she was not only good at stealing puddings, but also at ruining other people’s plans.