“Should we just abandon them? Getting involved would most likely land us in danger as well,” Asan said in a hurry.
The Blue Dragons and the Black Tortoise stared at him in astonishment when they heard what he said.
‘How could he be so heartless?’ they all thought.
“Dude, leaving the White Tigers aside, we can’t just abandon the priests and priestesses.”
“Yeah, we have to save the Immortal Phoenix.”
“How can you say something so cruel?”
Yi-han flinched at the students’ reaction. Truth be told, he agreed with Asan on this matter.
“It’s too late! Spread out, everyone!” Nilia cried out in a hurry.
She’d had several encounters with dangerous monsters in the mountains before, so she knew what they had to do in this situation.
Showing one’s back and fleeing could lead to even greater danger.
They had to spread out and tie down the monster so that they could slowly make their retreat.
Rowena ran over to Yi-han and asked, “Can you fire again?”
“Huh? I don’t know what that is, but right now I can’t! Help everyone evacuate!”
It was only after he replied that he remembered who Eumideus was.
Emideus was a renowned mage that had come up with numerous water magic.
Either way, he didn’t have the leeway to form another water marble. The previous one had taken him dozens of minutes to complete.
With the earth golem running straight at them…
“I hide myself in the night!”
Having completed the chant, Yi-han’s body disappeared from view.
He had previously confirmed the fact that the earth golem targeted enemies based on their sense of sight.
‘What a waste…’
Approaching the earth golem, he took out the smoke screen chalk from his breast pocket. It was one of the defective artifacts that he had acquired from the Black Tortoise’s black market.
‘Let’s see you get to work!’
Ppak!
The chalk broke, forming a smoke screen around the earth golem. With its view suddenly obstructed, the golem didn’t know what to do.
Yi-han used this opportunity to whip out the Star of Dawn, the anti-magic extremist’s sword that the principal had bestowed on him.
The sword was made of black amethyst, and it emitted a strange sound as it absorbed mana from the surroundings.
The skeletal summon took a step back in disgust.
‘I’ll aim for its leg!’
Ppuk!
Yi-han wasn’t planning on taking down the earth golem.
‘We just have to steal its vision and tie it down. Earth golems aren’t like other monsters. It won’t chase us once we’re out of its view.’
The Star of Dawn was more powerful than he thought.
The earth golem wasn’t able to swiftly recover after having its calcaneus tendon sliced off, and it fell to its knees, having lost its balance.
That was when something fell from above.
“??”
Yi-han caught it by instinct.
It was a dwarf from the White Tigers.
“???”
Baetrek Bak, who had previously been caught by the earth golem, looked around him in confusion.
Someone was lifting him up, but hecouldn’t see who it was.
“Aren’t you going to get up?”
Baetrek jumped in surprise and adjusted his posture.
“Is that you, Wardanaz?”
“!?”
It was Yi-han’s turn to be surprised.
‘Isn’t he from the White Tigers? How did he notice?’
“How’d you know?”
“Well, I couldn’t think of anyone else that would do something like this aside from you…”
“…..”
Yi-han was at a loss for words.
‘What kind of nonsense is this dwarf—’
“We must rescue Baetrek! Advance!”
“Wait for us, Baetrek!”
Seeing the earth golem stop in its tracks, the White Tigers regrouped and prepared to attack it once more.
It was truly amazing how they still had the will to fight after getting beaten up to the point of fleeing for their lives.
Yi-han, however, wasn’t pleased by this in the slightest.
“Those worthless bags of trash!”
Baetrek pretended he didn’t hear this out of respect for his savior.
‘Do these dumbasses not even know how to flee!?’
His plan had been simple.
Using the golem’s weakness, he would rob it of its vision and buy time for the students to flee.
Once the students were gone, he would slowly walk away from the golem under the protection of his belt’s invisibility spell.
It was a simple-yet-effective plan, but the White Tigers had ruined it.
Granted, he hadn’t told the White Tigers about his plan, so they weren’t really to be blamed, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment.
“Tell them to flee dammit!”
“Run away! You don’t have to mind me!”
Baetrek did as told, disoriented as he was.
Yi-han had saved him from the clutches of the earth golem. The least he could do was let go of his pride and obey orders.
…However, the White Tigers ignored him.
“Hold on, Baetrek! We’re almost there!”
“Baetrek, you’re going to be alright!”
“…..”
Baetrek looked nervously at Yi-han, who was still invisible.
Boom—
The earth golem, which had been forced to stop due to the smoke screen and the damage to its leg, was beginning to move again.
The White Tigers that were approaching from the other side of the smoke screen had clearly agitated it.
It felt as if the golem was staring right at them.
‘It’s clearly locking on to its targets.’
“How did you guys even manage to get here? The earth golem must have blocked your way,” he asked Baetrek.
Yi-han had done so by using his invisibility belt, but the White Tigers didn’t have such means at their disposal.
“We threw potions at the earth golem. Priestess Siana knows how to make them…”
“!”
Yi-han was pleasantly surprised.
In that case, weakening the earth golem didn’t seem impossible.
“Hand me some of those potions!”
“We used them all up…”
“…..”
Yi-han had the urge to strike Baetrek on the back of his head. He was invisible anyway.
‘Why did you waste your potions like that? Are your heads for decoration? Huuuu…’
After letting out a deep sigh, Yi-han focused once more.
Since the White Tigers were hell-bent on engaging the earth golem, he had to deal as much damage to it as he could before the smoke screen completely disappeared.
What would be the best way to go about that?
‘Using Star of Dawn won’t do much damage to its massive figure, and it takes too long to make a water marble.’
The White Tigers were drawing closer with each passing second, giving him little time to think.
The earth golem raised its fist.
‘Damn it!’
“Flare Up!”
Relying on his instincts, he cast a spell.
He believed this was the right move as the earth golem was right in front of him, not to mention that this spell packed more punch than the others.
…And it went surprisingly well.
Hwarururururuk!
“?!?!”
Baetrek was so shocked that he fell on his back.
A column of fire had suddenly erupted and engulfed the earth golem.
It should’ve been extinguished by the rain which was pouring down, but it kept burning, fueled by Yi-han’s mana.
“A-amazing!!” he exclaimed in astonishment.
There were many people in the White Tigers who harbored hatred or jealousy towards Wardanaz.
However, there was no denying the significant gap between them.
It was truly unbelievable that a freshman could set an earth golem ablaze using just one spell.
Rather than feeling jealous, he was awe-struck.
“Shit!”
“??”
Yi-han, on the other hand, exclaimed out loud in frustration.
‘I’m sorry, Professor Garcia!’
He finally understood why the professor had told him to refrain from using fire magic.
As he was in a hurry, he had poured a lot more mana into the spell than he knew how to control.
As a result, the fire was burning uncontrollably.
He had been too confident after his initial success.
Fortunately, the earth golem was big enough to withstand the fire that had sprung out of control.
Otherwise, the magic might have shot off in a different direction.
Crack!
‘Huh?’
The sound of something cracking prompted Yi-han to look up.
The earth golem was crumbling down after being burnt to crisps.
It was a common misconception that fire could harden dirt, but that was only the case for dirt that had been specially prepared.
In most cases, the dirt would crumble.
“…S-so this was what you were aiming for…!”
It was surprise after surprise for Baetrek.
Yi-han, however, couldn’t be bothered to react anymore.
***
Yi-han undid the invisibility spell, working together with the White Tigers to chop up the earth golem.
With cracks forming all throughout its body, the golem was swiftly defeated.
“UWAAAAAA!!”
“We did it! We frickin’ did it!!”
“It’s all thanks to you!”
“?”
Yi-han was startled by the White Tigers that had come to express their gratitude.
‘The heck?’
He could understand why they were happy, but why were they acting familiar all of a sudden?
“…By the way, who are you? I don’t recall meeting you anywhere…”
“Which household are you from?”
“???”
The White Tigers soon realized something was wrong.
They had seen Yi-han fighting next to Baetrek with a sword in hand, so they had assumed that he was one of them…
But upon closer inspection, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Baetrek had to step forward in the end to explain.
“He isn’t from our tower. He’s Wardanaz from the Blue Dragons.”
“…aqkwjef!”
The White Tigers that had been thanking him just a moment ago took several steps back, shocked.
Some of them even fell to the ground as they did so.
‘They seem more afraid of me than the golem.’
“W-what are you plotting?”
“Rather, how did you trick us? Did you make use of the rain? Even so—”
“He must’ve deceived our eyes using magic!”
Yi-han shook his head as the White Tigers droned on and on, voicing their absurd imaginations.
Baetrek was limping, possibly from getting caught by the golem.
“Enough with the nonsense. Wardanaz here came to help us, and he even saved my life.”
“Baetrek, are you alright?”
“It’s just a sprain, I’ll be fine. We should call the other students back before they get lost.”
The White Tigers nodded in agreement.
Not all the students were hot-blooded like them.
The Immortal Phoenix, as well as a group of students from the White Tigers (who Yi-han thought were smarter than the rest), had fled instead of returning to fight.
They had to call them back before they got lost in the mountains.
“But…”
“?”
“Should we be leaving Baetrek alone with Wardanaz? Won’t he do something to Baetrek?”
“…..”
“I-It’s not that we don’t trust you, Wardanaz. Baetrek’s injured and all, so…”
Under Yi-han’s cold gaze, the White Tigers began putting forth several excuses.
***
“Anyone missing?”
“None. Everyone’s accounted for.”
Yi-han confirmed that everyone from the Blue Dragons and the Black Tortoise was present.
The White Tigers and the Immortal Phoenix were doing the same.
Unlike Yi-han’s group, there were a lot of injured students among the White Tigers.
They had foolishly charged at the golem, which was why most of them were bruised or had fractures.
Those of the Immortal Phoenix were giving them treatment, and Priestess Siana, who belonged to the Order of Flameng was handing out painkillers and potions that helped with bruises.
Yonaire was beyond impressed.
“As expected, she’s amazing! Not only does she know a lot of recipes, the speed at which she brews potions—”
“….”
There was a lot going through Yi-han’s mind as he had heard of Priestess Siana’s jealous nature.
—With you gone, I’ll be first place!!
…He couldn’t help but imagine her saying this.
‘I’ve already made an enemy with the White Tigers. Antagonizing the Immortal Phoenix doesn’t seem to be a good idea…’
While he was having such thoughts, Priestess Siana approached him.
“I heard you fought with the earth golem. Please drink this potion. It’ll help with your injuries.”
“Oh, there’s no need for that. Yi-han’s not in—”
Before Yonaire could finish her sentence, Yi-han received the potion and chugged it down in one go.
Then…
“This…this is the best potion I’ve ever had!!”
“Huh?”
Yonaire was puzzled by his over-the-top reaction.
Sure, Priestess Siana might be proficient, but could a potion that she quickly brewed be that effective…?
However, this was only the start of Yi-han’s flattery.
He made full use of the skill that he acquired while entertaining his boring professors.
“Did you make this potion yourself? Unbelievable! You can sell this on the market! It’s simply divine!”
He took a quick glance in Priestess Siana’s direction, only to catch her smiling with glee!
