Chapter 14: CH 11

Afterwards, we were brought to a place that seemed like a shooting range of sorts. But it wasn’t exactly a shooting range as the distance between the deployment station and the targets were rather short. In fact, it didn’t really look like a place used for archery practice either.

“Next up, we will be testing the potency of your magic. Your magic potency is the highest amount of damage you can deal to a designated target at a given amount of time. But since this is only going to be a temporary measurement, you don’t really have to worry about it too much.”

Everyone was thrilled at the chance to showcase their own magic. And all the students seemed to be pretty confident of their own skills since they were skilled enough to be attending the Noble class after all.

“But keep this in mind, no matter how weak you think your magic is, you’d better give this your all. Don’t think for a second that you can fool my eyes. If you dare to slack off even just a bit, I won’t be showing you any mercy on the final scores either.”

With that final warning, Zest then began explaining how the measurements would be taken.

“Well anyway, It’s not that complicated. Just stand on the marked place and use all your power to hit that target at the back. Alright then first up… Oy you, Alfire.”

“Ye-yes!”

Melon-chan hurriedly raised her hand.

Slightly nodding his head at her vigorous reply, Zest pointed towards the target with his sleepy eyes.

“You are one of the best vanguards here. So I’ll be counting on you for the demonstration.”

“Understood.”

Melon-chan replied in a booming voice while stepping out from the crowd of students, and for some reason… She stopped midway, then suddenly turned back just to glare in my direction. She snorted while glaring in provocation before proceeding towards the designated position.

Hmm…

“Oi. It looks like she’s staring at us, no? Alf-”

I quietly whispered and tried to give him a friendly tap on the shoulder but he suddenly took a step back in response, making me tap on nothing but air.

“The one she’s glaring at, is you.”

Seriously now.

Putting our comical exchange aside, Melon-chan began to earnestly focus on her magic. She held both of her hands in front and soon after, a geometric formation of a magic circle started to slowly materialize on top of her palms.

After about a minute of its projection, Melon-chan finally deployed her magic.

[Wind Strike]

It was an advanced tier wind attribute magic that was almost on par with Hyria’s [Flame Cannon]. It was considered to be one of the most powerful offensive spells of the wind attribute.

The [Wind Strike] rushed forward, creating a spiraling gust of wind in its path before colliding squarely on the target.

After hitting the target with a loud burst, due to the high mana concentration within the magic spell, a gust of wind generated from the after-shock immediately spread throughout the entire training ground.

“Oooh. That was as powerful as an instructor’s magic. It could even be used in battle if the casting time was a little shorter. Then again, that’s something you’ll only have to worry about in the future. This will do now.”

Even though Zest had sung her high praises, Melon-chan still seemed rather dissatisfied as she kept staring at the undamaged, healthy ‘target’ that had just received a direct hit from her [Wind Strike]. The target remained unscathed even after getting struck by a bolt of such concentrated mana.

“You shouldn’t feel bad about that, Alfire. The target is a little special after all. There’s only a few people who can destroy it even among the teachers… Actually, I’d rather have none of you destroying it so easily.”

I didn’t quite catch that last part.

“Well then, I want you all to give it your very best just like Alfire. Alright, so who’s going next?”

When Zest was looking for the next candidate, Melon-chan, who had just finished her power measurement, raised her hand.

“Hm? What is it, Alfire?”

“Since this is a good chance, why don’t we give this opportunity to our top scorer to show off his ‘skills’ to everyone here. I’m sure others are interested too.”

Everyone’s gazes, including Zest’s, focused in my direction.

“Eh, me?”

“Is there any other person with a perfect score on the entrance exam?”

Ah that’s right. I completely forgot about that.

“Hmm… I’m quite curious about that too.”

Upon hearing that new suggestion, Zest gave it a thought before nodding his head in approval.

“Alright, Louise. Go on ahead. But remember, don’t take this easy and go all out.”

If that’s what the teacher wanted, then I’ll have no other choice but to oblige.

But before I turned to go, Alfie pulled me back from behind with a light whisper that only I could hear.

“Reese, please do this seriously.”

“Whoa how rare, it’s a first for you to say something like that.”

“Even I hate seeing my rival being belittled all the time. Go beat the lights out of everyone here.”

“Roger that.”

Even though I was the top student at the moment, I was still a commoner after all. I was aware of just how much my classmates, who upheld a high sense of pride as nobles and mages, didn’t really appreciate my existence within the Noble class.  Although I wasn’t particularly bothered by that fact, it seemed that it wasn’t the same for Alfie.

Well, I didn’t intend to slack off on this in the first place, so let’s get a little serious now.

I passed by Melon-chan as I strode forward.

“Hey you… Louise, was it?”

Then I stopped in my tracks upon hearing the passing remark. Melon-chan was glaring at me with her arms folded below her chest.

…This is probably off topic but, when she was in that position, her huge boobs seemed even bigger than usual. Wasn’t that a bit too provocative for innocent teen eyes? Ah, but still, what a sight for sore eyes.

“I don’t care about what sort of underhanded methods you used to pass the entrance exam before but, the top student of the Noble class is none other than I, Kadina Alfire. So, don’t get carried away, you commoner.”

Melon-chan blatantly expressed her unconcealed hostility towards me as she returned back to the crowd of students. At the same time, I moved to take over her place at the shooting range.

I could feel all the scrutinizing gazes of the entire class, focused squarely on my back. Even Zest was carrying a sharp glint within his narrow eyes.

“Looks like everyone is very curious about the skills of the top scorer.”

Alright, allow me to be as loud as you all expected.

Channeling mana to both of my hands, I uttered a few words.

“Activate, [Reflection].”

–Zest furrowed his brows as he watched the spell cast by Reese.

[Reflection] — As its name suggested, was a different type of defense magic that generated a force field to reflect a received phenomenon in its original form, or to multiply the received impact by many folds upon reflection. This type of magic was also very compatible with barrier type magic.

From its description alone, it might have seemed to be a rather formidable spell, but it wasn’t without its own flaws.

Just like other kinds of defense type magic, [Reflection] also consumed a tremendous amount of mana when used. In fact, it consumed even more mana than a typical defense barrier of the same strength.

It might also seem peculiar that [Reflection]  was being used in a test to gauge magic potency, when there was no magic to reflect in the first place, but Zest was more interested in something else instead.

…Why are there separate reflection magic projections in each hand? And how is he even supplying mana for those reflection spells in the first place?

Setting those issues aside, Reese slowly lowered his hips and bent his knees. He propped his hands forward, as if to wrap something in between and froze all movements as he stood still in that position.

Soon afterwards, a silver light began to emerge from the gap between his hands.

Zest stood absolutely shocked.

Wha!? That… [Light Magic]! … Ah shit, now I’ve done it. Thanks to those ludicrous mana fluctuations from earlier, I ended up forgetting something important!

Zest finally realized the true nature of the silver light upon composing himself. However, neither him nor anyone present at the training grounds could decipher what kind of ‘magic’ Reese was about to perform.

— No. Actually there was one person who was aware of everything.

He was Reese’s best friend and biggest rival, someone who had spent most of his time together with him ever since he was born, Alfie.

Unwittingly, a small smirk crept up on his face when he caught the sight of the silver glow.

After casting for the same amount of time as Kadina, the radiant glow had grown so large that it could no longer be contained within Reese’s palms.

And then…

“It’s been so long since I’ve used this at its maximum output. Alright! here we goooooo!!”

The ‘object’ with the overflowing silvery radiance was finally released.

[Full Pressure Canooooooooooooooooooooon]!!!

The silver flash left Reese’s outstretched hands.

The magnificent torrent was akin to a dragon’s breath as it engulfed the target entirely. Yet its momentum still did not abate even after submerging the target and even with the walls behind it in a trail of destruction.

After the light started to dim down, quite a pitiful sight emerged in its place. The ground before him was shattered and gouged out as it seemed to stretch on forever. On top of that, the target that received a direct blow was obliterated without a trace.

Everyone was left speechless at the sheer power of the magic.

“Err, was it too much?”

No one could muster a reply to Reese’s final question.

Tl/n: Any suggestions for Kadina’s nickname? Big boobs-chan sounds pretty awkward, that’s why I used melon-chan instead but I’m open to suggestions ^^;)