Ch. 180: The Class Competition and the Wizard
With the signal to begin, Igni and his classmates ran out into the Wilderness Stage.
Alicia: “Igni, is this really?”
Igni: “It’s a diversion. This is the first match between our class and our opponent. Then, the one with the faster speed will have the first advantage!”
Igni used his [Flame Egine] {Accel Boot}, Alicia rode her broom, and Iris smoothed out the ground as if she was sliding on ice, and they ran straight towards Class B’s center flag.
Above them in the sky, a giant monitor was displaying the students on the field.
This was done using the [Light] Type Spells.
With this, the spectators can watch the match more closely even though the field was incredibly large.
Well, it was still the first day, so there were not that many spectators.
Igni: “Alicia, Iris, I can see the flag!”
The circular field was around 500 meters in diameter.
For Igni, that distance could be covered in a blink of an eye.
The students of Class B noticed Igni and his team rapidly approaching, and hurriedly began casting Spells.
“[Come between us, Earth] {Tetsura・Divide}!”
The earth shook as a wall suddenly erupted in front of them.
Iris: “Sir Igni! Leave this one to me!!”
And Iris sped forward, and began manipulating her Magic.
Iris: “Strike them, Stones] {Tetsura・Follow}!!”
With Iris’ incantation, a hardened concentration of stone was fired and collided with the wall!
A sound exploded from the impact as the stone thrust through the wall!!
Iris: “Sir Igni! Alicia!!”
It happened as Igni dove into the hole.
I was able to see the natural flow of air.
Igni: “Alicia!”
Alicia: “I know!!”
If the wind was flowing from where the Class B was, that could only mean that a Spell was in motion.
But Igni was only able to see this because of the Path between him and Alicia.
Without a doubt, she could see the same too.
Alicia: “[My Wind] {Ventos}”
With Alicia’s incantation, wind swirled around them.
Igni looked up to see a large flame burning in the sky.
It was most likely the Large-Scale Spell, {Fire・Explosion}.
It’s a simple Spell that throws the fire down to the ground and explodes, but it is that much more powerful.
Alicia: “[Pierce it] {Torquent}!!”
With Alicia’s incantation, an invisible spear made of wind flew up into the sky, and struck the descending {Fire・Explosion} in the center!
As it entered the flames, it twisted and the wind took a large bite out of Spell from the inside.
Alicia: “Igni!”
Igni: “Yeah.” And Igni did not waste a moment as he continued to move forward while the Spells collided.
Igni guessed that Class B’s plan was to cut off Igni and his group’s view with an earth wall, and as Igni was distracted to get past the wall, Class B dropped a Large-Scale Spell to knock them out.
That’s why no one was around the flag.
Igni: “.......got it!”
Igni pulled out the pole with the white flag from the ground, and the monitor in the air reported the event.
Igni: “That’s one!”
Igni shouted as he raised the flag over his head when he heard a static noise hit as the communication Magecraft earpiece came to life.
Edward: [Defense Teams. They’re concentrating their attack on the East Flag. Send 2 members from the Center and West! Attack Team! Continue pursuing the West Flag! …..Igni, did you take the flag just now?]
Igni: [Yeah, it was us.]
Igni placed a finger on the earpiece and reported back to Edward.
Igni: [We took the center flag. If the Attack team is heading to Class B’s West Flag, should we proceed to their East Flag?]
Edward: [I’ll leave that decision to you. It was great to get one of their flags in such a short amount of time. Continue doing what you’re doing and move freely.]
Igni: [Understood.]
Igni cut the communication and placed the flag on the ground.
Once the flag was uprooted, there was a mechanism that notified a teacher who was supervising the match.
Alicia: “What did Edward say?”
Igni: “Just keep doing what we’re doing.”
Alicia: “What should we do next? Should we go back?” Igni: “No, let’s go for the East Flag now. The Attack Team is heading to the West Flag. We’ll continue with our lightning strike to end this quickly.”
And as Igni spoke, the earpiece rang back to life once more.
Edward: [Hey, Igni! How many were protecting the Center Flag?!]
IgnI: [Around 3 or 4.]
Edward: [.....UGH?! They pulled one over on us!]
Igni heard Edward’s cry of frustration through the earpiece.
Igni did notice that the number protecting the Center Flag was quite small.
But he also thought that Class B must have taken a different approach.
Igni’s Class D’s strategy centered around making sure that Igni and his team had the most flexibility.
That’s why they were able to concentrate their numbers on defending their own flag.
But Class B did not have any one spectacular like Igni.
So Igni assumed that the small number on defense only meant that they had devoted the same number of people to attack.
Edward: [Everyone! The attack on the East Flag is a diversion! Members! Go immediately back to your post!! They’re gunning for our other 2 flags!!]
As soon as Edward was done, the monitor in the sky displayed that Class D had lost a Flag.
Edward: [Our West Flag has been taken! West Team! Return to the center! We’re going to tighten our defense!! East Team! Can you hold them back?!]
Igni could hear Edward’s frantic communication with his team leaders.
Iris: “SーSir Igni! What should we do?!”
Igni: “We’ll keep going. We’re going to take the East Flag.”
Alicia: “Okay.” Alicia nodded as Igni made his decision.
Igni didn’t know how many people from Class B were on the attack, but the more people they devoted to attacking, the less they would have to defend their own flags. That was the natural rules of the game.
Igni: “Let’s hurry! We need to do it before the remaining flags are taken!”
And Igni activated his [Flame Engine] {Accel Boot} as he yelled.
They immediately flew straight towards the enemy’s East Flag.
And a moment later, Alicia and Iris were closely following him from behind.
Alicia: “Igni, keep going ahead of us! We’ll support you from here!!”
But at a certain distance, Alicia and Iris stopped.
Igni: “Got it! I’ll leave it to you!!”
Igni saw that an idea had crossed their mind.
Trusting his teammates, he turned to face forward as a sound blasted from behind.
The next instant, a giant rock flew past Igni and headed straight for Class B. They had raised a small fortress around their flag, and the rock pulverized one of their walls.
Igni: “.......I see. Artillery support.”
Igni smiled as he ran into the hole Alicia and Iris made.
Inside, members of Class B were scrambling to figure out what just happened.
Igni: “Here’s number 2!”
And Igni pulled the flag from the ground.
A second later, the monitor in the sky displayed the results.
Igni: “Okay! Now, we just need one more….!”
But as Igni was about to leave, another notification came up as Class B’s final flag was taken.
Another sound rang to signal the end of the match.
Igni: “.......we won.”
And Class D was victorious in their first match.
