Running Away From The Hero! Chapter 40

Published at 3rd of February 2023 03:45:07 PM

RATH 40

TL: Eevee

6. Hell is just beginning. (1)

#1 Their story: A certain student council president's story.

One day sometime after school began, on a day where we could count down the days to the holidays.

We still couldn't break through the defense of the teachers from the army.

“There's just not enough space.”

“What happened with the plan to get rid of the bars on the windows?”

“We failed. It's insane. It's perfectly fine even though we attacked it for an hour straight. Even the temperature contrast plan using fire and ice elementals failed.”

“What about exiting through the rooftop?”

“We couldn't open that either. The difficulty of the traps there are high to begin with, but the things blocking the rooftop access is about as hard as the window bars so they won't break either.”

At the beginning, we could defeat the teachers on each of the floors due to our advantage of numbers, but we couldn't defeat the personnel on the second floor.

To begin with, the biggest fighting potential were the students on the lowest third floor and the highest eighth floor, so we could quickly suppress the teachers and launch a two-pronged attack from the top and bottom.

But on the second floor, the only things that were there were key facilities, but no classrooms.

And since 1300 people needed to all get through the second floor, even though we had over 40 times more people than they did, we still couldn't get through the 32 teachers, including Professors Maroon and Aruhan, and were beaten down there.

“So in the end, do we need to wear them down with numbers first and then break through with our core fighting potential?”

“But shortening the time it takes to beat each floor is difficult. We tried to push through with numbers, but now the teachers have actually gotten used to it and are defending easier than they used to.”

“Then what about sending Lady Aris as the vanguard? We'll push down from the eighth floor, and send Lady Aris not as support for the higher floors, but sending her down to the second floor immediately after subjugating the third floor.”

“True, since the number of people we can send are limited, you're saying that we should just send the closest people as the first wave of attack?”

“Yes. If the people on the third floor can just beat ten people for us, especially if they manage to get Professor Maroon, then we have a chance.”

The leader of the army teachers on the second floor was without a doubt, Professor Maroon.

Maroon used three high-ranking spirits to defend his formations, if he could be eliminated, then the defensive formation could be penetrated.

“But Lady Aris alone can't get through Professor Aruhan.”

“Even if she does have the god's spear, the Empire's armoury is just as impressive. And of course there's the gap in experience.”

If the core of the defensive formation on the second floor is Professor Maroon, their single greatest offensive firepower belonged to Professor Aruhan.

The various weapons that spilled out of the Empire's armoury were so effective as to make one wonder if they had any weaknesses.

And his own skills were so great that not even Lady Aris, the one thought to be Yugrasia's strongest, could inflict damage to him properly.

“Neither breaking through the windows or the roof are working out…”

“At this rate the holidays will begin.”

“Then it's our complete defeat.”

It was then.

Where regret and despair were filling the air, a third party came in.

“You lot, I'm not going tell you to focus, but shut up!”

“Hiik! It's a teacher! Our plan's been leaked! It's a spy, it's a spy!”

This was a disaster!

The teachers had finally sent in a spy to scout our strategies…

“Oi you crazy student council brats, class is in session right now!”

After that, having thoroughly angered our teacher, the entirety of the student council had to write lines in the remedial room.

… We're sorry.

#2 Their story: The teachers' stories.

The legendary giant of the summoning world Nicerwin Ain, somehow or other he managed to make contact with the military and had army forces sent over to Yugrasia, and so we obeyed the higher ups and worked as teachers in Yugrasia.

At one time, we were summoners that used to be called one-man armies, but at some point in time we began to have no outstanding new juniors.

Because of that, the current state of the summoners' corps was just a place where unlucky kids suffered being the youngest for 3-4 years.

Even though we were declining, I do admit I was somewhat hopeful about teaching our future juniors at Yugrasia, the famous school of summoning.

But.

“I'm tired…”

When we retired to the staffroom shortly after 10 PM, tiredness washed over us with a sigh as we flopped on our chairs.

“Have we gotten old?”

“Aruhan, don't lump me in with you as the elderly. The kids are just young.”

“No, it's probably both.”

“That's true.”

It's exhausting. Really exhausting.

It feels like I've just returned from the battlefield.

“The kids are getting more and more organised.”

“What about asking either Professor Muam or Professor Harian to provide backup?”

“No, Professor Nicerwin said not to. The current formations are designed for the students education. Otherwise we would have already just joined the teachers on the third floor and sealed off the stairs down to the second floor.”

The reinforcement teachers each had their own designated floors to attend to when the students began to run, along with the teachers on their own respective floors.

And among those, we served as the first of the final three lines of defense.

According to Professor Nicerwin's instructions, we engaged in a pure war of attrition to shut out the students, and we'd successfully held out for two months so far but we were slowly hitting our limits.

“The two professors behind us. And the last is…”

“I did wonder just what that was. Could it be that Professor Nicerwin is intending to block them all by himself?”

“I wouldn't know. While there's probably no one that doesn't know that Professor Nicerwin is an excellent summoner, but we haven't heard anyone say that he's a strong summoner.”

Our defeat is imminent.

In the past, sometimes we had engaged in battles where we felt we could not return victorious, and right now we had that exact same feeling.

Next week at the latest.

More likely, this week would be the end.

And after us, the students would be facing Professors Muam and Harian, both of whom had completely different patterns compared to us.

And after that was something that we were unsure of as well; Professor Nicerwin there was something the students would never be able to get past no matter how hard they tried.

Just what on earth would be this thing that the students, who were growing this quickly, would be unable to get past?

And a few days later, that curiosity was solved surprisingly quickly.

“Diieee, Hectopascal Kick!”

“Kuooohhhhk?!”

With my own body, no less.

#3 Their story: A certain student council president's story

“Eighth floor, cleared in ten minutes!”

“It's our fastest time yet. We'll get through for sure today!”

“Fifth floor, all clear. What do we do now? They're having trouble on the sixth floor, do we send them in as support?”

“No, we'll head down ourselves! Send the fifth floor to push through the fourth floor and charge the second floor!”

The Dean of the fourth years was currently on sick leave with a cold, perhaps from being soaked with water during yesterday's battle, but either way, the strongest guardian of the eighth floor was out of action for today.

To put it in simple terms, the Dean of the fourth years was the strongest teacher on the eighth floor as well as the central pillar that led the defense.

He was the core of the eighth floor, similar to Professors Maroon and Aruhan on the second floor, and his absence led to us clearing the eighth floor, a task that normally took us over thirty minutes, in just ten.

“The vice-president has broken through the seventh floor!”

“The kids who went with the vice-pres on the seventh floor, take your time recovering and come down with the rearguard! Everyone else that hasn't fought yet, come with me to break through the sixth floor!”

I accepted the blessings of the wind elemental and raised my speed.

Around me, earth elementals broke the walls that shot up, blocked the arrows and disabled the traps.

“Stairs to the fifth floor! I repeat, stairs to the fifth floor!”

“Each man is to watch out for the traps on his own and move quickly!”

The stairs had more traps than any other structure in the school.

To reduce the number of traps by even one, the student council laid a complaint regarding what the school would do if someone got seriously injured or killed as a result of setting traps on the most hazardous structure, the stairs.

And to our complaints, Professor Nicerwin laughed, turned his back to the stairs, and threw his body backwards.

The result, just before Professor Nicerwin's head was about to hit the stairs, something shot out of the stairs like the walls in the corridors, and Professor Nicerwin's body fell onto it and bounced a couple of times before he stood up none the worse for it.

What did he say, he implemented earth magic similar to the ramparts to create a sponge effect?

When we asked just how on earth was that kind of technique possible, Professor Nicerwin raised a thumb and said.

“Made in, Black Anvil.”

We didn't know what that meant, but that answer was filled with so much confidence that it gave us an odd feeling of wanting to go out and buy a product with the name Black Anvil stamped on it.

But even so, we couldn't let our guards down.

The stairs are dangerous.

Although we won't get hurt if we fall, the stairs are dangerous.

We don't know where the arrows will fly from, the next step of the stairs could suddenly change height.

The ceiling could shoot god knows what sort of magic at us, and if we stepped down wrongly our legs could be trapped like we were caught in a swamp.

And if we were ever to fall…

“Uwaahhhk!”

“Damn it! One person retired!”

“Give up for today! Abandon him and go!”

“He, help me! Ahh! No! Not, not in there!”

A boy that looked like a third year fell while trying to dodge the arrows on the stairs.

And after that was a soft landing that Professor Nicerwin had shown us in the past.

But if there was something different, it would be that the soft wall that helped us to land, instantly transformed into legs of the legendary ocean beast, a kraken's legs, and wrapped around his entire body.

Thanks to that, the morale of the female students who saw something they should not have seen plummeted.

And the fear that that could happen to them next dropped morale even further.

But, just for today! “Hold on everyone, we're nearly at the second floor!”

An even faster advance than yesterday where we defeated everyone except Professor Maroon and Aruhan.

A strategy only possible today, when the fourth years' Dean was absent due to a cold.

“President!”

“You did it, Lady Aris!”

The scene in front of me.

Many students had fallen, but seven of the teachers had also been defeated.

“Damn it, I didn't think you kids would do this.”

Professor Aruhan's face was rigid as he faced off against a number of students, isolated on his own.

Normally Lady Aris would have held off Professor Aruhan, while the others tried to break through but today was different!

“Thy blessings to the president!”

“Will of steel, lend my comrade your power!”

All of the strategies so far were for this one move. For this moment, when all the buff spells were casted on me, I kicked off the walls and raced towards the path my allies before me had carved out.

“Risen, I'm counting on you!”

“Leave it to me!”

That moment, I felt a speed that a wind elemental simply couldn't compare to.

Loki's shoes.

The god's equipment that Risen was so proud of, the sole god's contractor before Professor Nicerwin arrived.

The shoes that could run on the oceans and the skies granted the user speed that could rival teleportation.

“Fire, water, wind, earth. Gather the almighty power of nature in this place!”

With my chant, I called on spirits from each element.

The strongest high-class elementals from each element that I could call out.

While imbued with the powers of elementals, accelerate onwards with Loki's shoes!

“No!”

“Stop him!”

The target was Professor Maroon.

If I could deal with the professor who stood as the backbone of the teachers' defensive line, the other students could defeat the other teachers!

“Very well, come! I will show you my full strength!”

That moment, the two high-class spirits fused into one.

And what appeared was a giant of earth that couldn't even stand up straight in the corridor.

“Now, this is my full power! Can you get through this!”

I knew that he had at least three contracts with high-class spirits, but I could never have imagined that he'd made a contract with a highest-class spirit.

Just below the Spirit Kings, highest-class spirits were beings were actually stronger than the successors of the Spirit Kings in terms of strength alone.

Officially, there were five people in the Empire's army that were contracted with highest-class spirits.

But, if what was in front of me was not a lie, then the Empire's army was probably much stronger than we all thought.

“But, I, no we! Cannot looosseeee!”

I guarded my head with both my arms and charged forward.

It's alright if both my arms shattered.

Since Professor Nicerwin created the self-directed night study just for this purpose anyway, he had also brought in highly talented medical professionals just to deal with the aftermath.

If he hadn't.

The teachers that had to fight with thousands of students daily would have all collapsed long ago.

Believing in my friends' magic and Professor Nicerwin's efforts to work us to the bone tomorrow as well, I will fire off my strongest magic right here!

“Haaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

Max speed. The realm where my body couldn't even make sense of the surroundings.

The acceleration close to teleportation that only the god Loki could use, was combined with the power of my elementals.

Kuuwaanng!

“Kuuuuhhgh!”

“Guhhh!”

While everyone else was keeping the other teachers in check, my strike which aimed for a single opportunity broke through the highest-rank spirit and directly struck Professor Maroon!

“Not… bad…”

Looking at Professor Maroon that had collapsed with blood trickling out of his mouth, I made a satisfied smile where I lay, completely spent.

Even though both my arms were broken, and one of my legs were suspect.

We could finally, finally break through the second floor!

Back then, I had truly believed that.

Until I beheld the silver devil.

Chapter end