Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Cynthia’s talent for learning could only be described as heaven-defying. A photographic memory was merely the least impressive of her basic abilities.

What took ordinary people deep thought and painstaking effort-drawing inferences from a single example-felt to her more like an innate instinct.

Back on Blue Star, when she had studied swordsmanship with the old man-her master-she had also been able to learn a move after seeing it just once.

She had thought that arriving in a magical world would affect her at least a little, but as it turned out, she had been overthinking it.

Five hours later.

Cynthia glanced at the fifty books she had already finished reading beside her, neatly organized them, and placed them into her Storage Ring. Then she got to her feet and headed for the library.

More haste, less speed-but this pace wasn’t exactly fast for her, so that saying didn’t apply.
It was not until three in the morning that Cynthia finally walked out of the library.

She had gone through the fundamentals of magic and several essential guides on Magical Beasts, and had even crammed a number of hidden continental secrets that had not existed in the original owner’s memories.

Her understanding of this continent and the academy had deepened another step.

Of course, magic was the kind of thing she could not be certain she had truly mastered without practice.

There should be a chance to try casting some during tomorrow’s lessons.

That was what Cynthia thought. However…

–

The next day.

The exclusive secret realm of Moon Soul Academy.

Dead branches cracked underfoot as Cynthia, her hair full of withered leaves, and her four equally disheveled teammates staggered through the forest at a desperate run.

Behind them, a pack of Magical Beasts with blood-red eyes chased like they had gone mad.

The Magical Beasts roared without end, startling flocks of birds into scattering through the woods.

Cynthia’s usually cold and composed face had long since been replaced by sheer, twisted shock.

She ran with all her might, her stamina draining at a terrifying rate, to the point that even breathing had become difficult.

When she thought back to all that self-comforting nonsense from yesterday, Cynthia found the whole thing so absurd she almost laughed out loud.

No danger to her life, my ass!

This was basically one step away from putting a knife directly to her throat, okay?!

What decent instructor threw their students straight into a secret realm the very second they met them, then used Magical Beasts to test whether their stamina was up to standard?

She would really like to know.

And that would have been one thing. The key issue was that right now, she was only a mage with zero cultivation, only theoretical knowledge, and absolutely no practical combat experience.

You could even say she was no different from an ordinary person. Expecting her to wipe out this many Magical Beasts on her own was almost impossible.

This was insane.

Cynthia glanced sideways at her four teammates. Of them, only Eli was in slightly better condition. The other three were all terrifyingly pale.

Richter’s face was so white he looked like a ghost.

Suddenly, Vernel, who was at the very front, stopped in her tracks. Her voice was very soft, her tone gentle yet impossible to read. “There’s no road. It’s a cliff ahead.”

Cynthia looked forward.

It was indeed a cliff, so deep the bottom could not be seen, and there were no other paths around them.

…The heavens wanted her dead.

Cynthia had the distinct feeling she had been set up. She was just thinking she might as well gamble everything and confront this pack of Magical Beasts head-on when she saw a bow condense in Vernel’s hand.

The instant Vernel’s fingertips touched the bowstring, fine green patterns across the bow rippled with fragmented light, and three arrows immediately took shape.

The sound of the arrows splitting the air was as soft as the wind whispering through the forest. In less than a second, a wisp of blue-green spiritual light burst open, transforming into countless azure blades that pierced into the bodies of the Magical Beasts charging madly toward them.

The leading Magical Beasts let out deafening howls of pain. Their massive bodies staggered with a crash, and in the blink of an eye, they fell dead.

Cynthia endured the burning sensation in her throat as a trace of surprise flashed through her eyes.

No, wait-her teammate was this strong?

Richter’s voice came from beside her. “Captain, we’re out of options anyway. There are a lot of these Magical Beasts, but they’re all only First Order. Why don’t we risk it? If we’re lucky, maybe we can still make it back alive and go on to the second lesson.”

He was still thinking about the second lesson at a time like this… What a studious model student. Cynthia glanced at the Spirit Weapon that had already appeared in his hand. “If you’ve already decided, why bother asking?”

Richter’s eyes curved as he smiled brightly. “You’re our captain. We have to go through the motions, don’t we?”

“Since there’s no problem, I’m going in~” The moment his words fell, not even 0.3 seconds later, he had already vanished from the spot and flashed into the pack of Magical Beasts.
Cynthia followed his figure with her eyes.

Richter’s Spirit Weapon had two forms.

The longsword could also transform into a chain blade. Its entire body was tempered with a cold silver sheen, accented by pale-blue magic patterns that made it look all the more refined.

The instant a Magic Leopard lunged in to bite him, the longsword in Richter’s hand shifted into its second form, the Soul-Eating Chain, and wrapped around the Magical Beast’s neck from an exceedingly tricky angle.

The Magical Beast thrashed violently. Richter snapped his wrist back, and the chain blade went taut.

As magic poured into it, the chain blade transformed into triangular spikes that sank deep into the flesh of the Magic Leopard’s neck. The Magic Leopard let out an earth-shaking roar, its massive body struggling madly, only for the chain blade to cut in even deeper.

In less than a moment, the Magic Leopard’s entire head had been severed and rolled straight to Cynthia’s feet as she watched the show.

The blood-soaked head bumped against her leg. Cynthia felt no particular stirrings inside; she merely lifted her foot in silence and moved a little farther away.

–

Time passed quickly amid the fierce battle.

After Richter had been busy for quite a while, he saw that his three teammates other than Vernel were still standing around watching. He smiled faintly. “My dear three teammates… are you not planning to lend a hand?”

“…What a pain.” Eli clicked his tongue, and twin ring blades shaped like crescent moons appeared in his hands. He raised his hand and flung them out.

As the ring blades sliced through the air, they carried a sharp, humming whine, cutting down the rear-row Magic Wolf enemies with lightning speed.

The elements condensed from magic drew a crescent-like arc of white-gold light through the air.

Eli lifted his fingertip lightly, and the ring blades whirled back as if summoned, landing once more in his hand.

At the same time, Sangmo also summoned his Spirit Weapon – a necromancer’s staff in a deep, dark red from top to bottom.

As a complex, tongue-twisting incantation fell from his lips, several terrifying Ghost shades suddenly surfaced from the ground.

The moment they took form, a shrill screech rang out, stabbing painfully at the eardrums.

Under Sangmo’s control, the Ghost shades threw themselves at the Magical Beast enemies like mad. Ignoring their defenses, they drove their sharp claws into the beasts’ bodies without hesitation, carving out one ghastly bloody gash after another.

Blood instantly gushed from the Magical Beast enemies and dyed the ground dark red.

“…”

Cynthia fell silent as she witnessed all of this.

Because her four teammates had sprinted for their lives with her the moment they entered the mystic realm, each looking like some wretched soul about to breathe their last at any second, she had never even considered that they might actually be capable of fighting.

If she’d known that, why had they run at all…?

She might not be able to handle them alone, but surely five people together could manage…

“Captain?” Richter’s voice drifted over like a death warrant. “Aren’t you going to show us something? I’m very curious about the form of your Spirit Weapon.”

It was both a prompt and a silent probe.

Twin blades appeared in Cynthia’s hands. She said lazily, “Coming, coming.”

Before transmigrating into this book, she had lived for thirteen years with a strange old man who was obsessively, almost madly devoted to martial arts, right up until the day he died.

He had regarded her as his sole heir, so during that time, she had been forced to learn quite a bit of the essence of it.

On top of that, this body also had the foundation of childhood training, memories, and theory, so it wasn’t as if she didn’t even know how to swing a blade.

A First Order Magical Beast… was probably about equivalent to the level of an Apprentice Mage.

Although her current realm was 0, with a bit of cleverness, she should still be able to handle it…

And if she really couldn’t beat it, there was always the option of giving up and letting her teammates carry her, right?

The instant she rushed into the attack range of the Magical Beast enemies, Cynthia pushed aside her stray thoughts. The twin blades in her hands blocked the claws a Magical Beast swung toward her throat. The blades scraped along the claws, throwing off a string of sparks.

The violent impact jarred the webbing between her thumb and forefinger until it went numb.

Cynthia did not let go. Instead, she gripped the twin blades even tighter.

Just as the fireball spat out by another Flame Demon Panther was about to touch her body, she immediately bent at the waist and dodged it.

Like an arrow released from the bowstring, she slid to her knees beside the Flame Leopard’s abdomen. Then she raised her blades and stabbed viciously toward the leopard’s most vulnerable lethal core.