『Well, let’s give them a little lesson, shall we?』
「Nn!」
The students were frozen in place, unable to make a move to respond to Fran. There was a strong sense of fear and just a tiny bit of motivation left on their faces.
We were told that the purpose of this class was to get the students used to facing an overwhelmingly powerful opponent so that they could know how to deal with them.
I felt a little sorry for them because they were being forced to fight an opponent that they had no hope of winning against. However, this kind of training might save their lives one day if they can experience despair in this class and not stop thinking during their adventures. So, I guess it was in their best interest for us to beat the crap out of them right here and now.
It seemed that the students could also understand it too. They knew that they had no chance of winning after being shown Fran’s power in the beginning. And what was worse is that there was no victory condition set for their mock battle.
There was no condition such as if they can get a hit on Fran, if they managed to hold on for 10 minutes, or if they could escape to a specific location. In other words, all they had left was a future in which Fran would beat them to a pulp.
Even so, I was impressed that they were determined to at least get a hit on Fran before they were defeated. Well, we were not going to make any mistakes though.
『What do you wanna do now? Do you want to scatter stun bolts over a wide area? Burst Flame will do too』
I suggested that we should use magic to wipe them out, but Fran seemed to have a different plan.
While keeping me down, she slowly approached the students.
(I’ll only use Master for defense)
『What are you trying to do?』
(Nn? Breakthrough the front)
And the moment we were about 30 meters away from each other, the students started to move.
From the other side of the wall created by their vanguard, countless arrows and various attributes of magic were released all at once.
The reason for the variation in attributes was probably because it was the techniques they were best at.
Even though we were already so close, their aim was still poor. After all, only about half of them were on the trajectory to hit Fran.
Or maybe it was their purpose. They scattered them far and wide so that Fran could not escape with only a little evasion. That was quite a nice plan.
Normally, she would have jumped away from the spot or used a barrier to block it. However, Fran took neither of those actions.
Without stopping her slow steps, she stared at the barrage of bullets raining down on her.
The students must have thought that she would get hit if she didn’t do something. But instead of being happy, I could see that they were rather worried.
For them, this kind of attack was probably just to probe the other party. But it would be great if they could stall high-ranking adventurers with this. That must be the extent of their thinking.
They looked surprised because it looked as if it would be unexpectedly effective.
Well, they were wrong though.
「Fuuh!」
Fran swung me so casually. But she managed to knock the arrows away. After that, she continued to slash and play at their magic, and walked leisurely through the barrage.
「Did she just cut the arrow!?」
「You fool! Even Instructor Inez could do that! But what’s more important is…!」
「She even slashed the magic!」
「Is that the ability of her magic sword!?」
「That was just her ability! You’ll just blow yourself up if you don’t have the skill to accurately break the magic!」
The students were making a lot of noise when they realized that Fran was still approaching. They then started to chant a spell again, and the students with the bows began shooting more arrows.
When the distance between Fran and the students had been reduced to about 15 meters, the second volley of magic was fired. This time there was a lot of Wind Magic and Water Magic. They must have chosen this technique as they were hard to see.
Moreover, the vanguard started moving in time with simultaneous shots.
They tried to get close and attack her while she was blocking the long-range attacks.
The long-range attacks that were more accurate than before were fired one after another with slightly delayed timing. Were they planning to keep Fran on the defense, so that Fran wouldn’t have a chance to counterattack the vanguard?
Immediately after slashing away the magic, the students in the vanguard attacked Fran at once.
Four swordsmen slashed at her from all sides, and spearmen thrust their spearheads into the gaps. At the rear of the encirclement, the second group was looking for an opening to attack.
They were able to attack at the same time, and their aim was accurate. I guess this was the result of their training in a party to fight a single magic beast.
However, the opponent now was not a magic beast, but a very skilled swordsman.
「Wha! How!」
「Impossible!」
「Re-reflection!?」
Fran didn’t stop walking. And yet, all their attacks were being repelled at the same time. Well, while it looked that way to the students, Fran just had swung me at super high speed and repelled their attacks.
It seemed that there were even students who misunderstood that their attacks had been blocked by Reflection Magic.
The same went for the spear thrusts. The tip of the spears was being flicked upward. Because their attacks were repelled upwards, the hand of the swordsman and the spearman were all pointed up to the sky, leaving a huge gap in front of Fran.
「Nn. I’ll start from the four of you」
「Ghaa!」
「Ghuh!」
I wonder if the two guys in front of her who took a punch to the stomach and collapsed on the spot were still okay. But the two in the back were hit with a kick to the back on their head and were blown several meters away.
Moreover, her attack was just enough to keep him from losing consciousness, so he didn’t pass out and was writhing around, spitting out stomach juices.
The reason she didn’t let him faint was to make the other students wonder whether they could recover or not and delaying their decision even for a moment. The other purpose was to instill fear into them by showing them the sight of their fellow students writhing in agony. Well, there were other purposes too, but they didn’t matter right now.
As I had expected, the students who had been waiting behind as the second group slowed down. In that time, Fran had finished taking care of the spearmen.
What Fran used was her magic release skill. The current Fran could attack multiple enemies at the same time by sending her magic power flying like a bullet.
For the students, in a matter of seconds, more than half of the vanguard had been defeated. The astonishment stopped the students from thinking, exposing more gaps.
Fran then continued to attack the rest of the vanguard with her magic release skill and rendered them powerless. In the end, they didn’t even last ten seconds after they launched their attacks.
「S-shoot, shoot!」
「I-If we keep up the attacks…」
「That’s all we can do right now!」
「Wait! Don’t shoot so recklessly!」
The students in the rearguard were also very confused. Some were even casting magic recklessly. Some were wondering if they should run away. Some were trying to rethink their strategy.
In the end, the scattered attacks did not stop Fran, and when the distance between us was less than ten meters, about half of them started to retreat to get some distance.
But she wouldn’t let them escape so easily.
Fran suddenly stepped up a gear and closed the distance between her and the students at once.
The rest was a one-sided beating. Even though they were the rearguard, they also had some experience in close combat, but they were still inferior to the students in the vanguard. In the end, they were unable to do anything and all of them fell after being punched in the stomach.
However, none of the students in the vanguard and the rearguard were unconscious. However, that was what she was aiming for.
「…Hey, if you’re gonna sleep here, I’m gonna one-sidedly attack you, you know?」
「??」
「Eh?」
A puzzled look appeared on the faces of the students when they heard Fran’s words. With anguished expressions on their faces, they were probably thinking hard about the meaning of those words.
But they immediately understood.
「G-get up! Everybody, get up! The mock battle isn’t over yet!」
「I’ll start attacking again in ten seconds」
「Get up! Get up!」
「Shiit!」
Fran only hit them all once each. Their life force hadn’t diminished much as they hadn’t lost consciousness.
In other words, the mock battle was not yet over.
Yeah. I felt a little sorry for them, but I think she managed to give them despair, just like what Inez had asked her.
Later, when the students managed to get up and readied their weapons, Fran completely destroyed them again. The relieved expressions on the faces of the unconscious students spoke volumes about their feelings.
But I now understand why Inez was called the demon instructor.
「Thanks to you guys for finishing the mock battle so quickly, we still have a lot of time left! Rejoice! We’re now ready for the second round!」
She said so to the students who had just regained their consciousness after being taken care of by Deaden.
Well, neither I nor Fran would go easy on them though.
