Chapter 209: Answer to the confession

"Vlad moved into the army of undeads alone," Hugo muttered, activating Sword Aura on his saber. "What kind of seniors are we to make a junior face all the burden?"

He stepped forward, moving towards the undeads that were about to break through the crystal barriers of Vix.

"I accept that I’m not strong enough to help him," he continued, the Aura on his saber rising, his eyes turning emerald. "The least I can do is to not hold him back!"

He grabbed his saber with both hands and shouted, swinging it in a wide horizontal arc.

"Wind Saber Art: Manifestation of Wolf King!"

With the swing of his blade, a massive wolf of emerald energy materialised.

Its presence alone sent ripples of storm outward, sending several undeads backward.

"Th-that is Aura manifested into physical form," Alisha gasped, her eyes widening. "Hugo reached the level of Marshal Knight."

The wolf materialised by Hugo rushed towards the undeads. Two dallahans stepped forward from the other side, swinging their Aura-laced swords at the incoming wolf.

Tang!

The ground beneath them broke apart, dust and debris flying in every direction the moment their swords struck the wolf.

The wolf opened its mouth, releasing a barrage of concentrated wind blades. They pierced through the dallahans and even sliced through some of the undeads behind them.

"I will take care of the undeads from this side!" Hugo declared, jumping out of the crystal barriers.

His direwolf instantly followed him, leaping out.

"Ghost..." Hugo murmured, looking at his direwolf.

"Grrr..." Ghost growled before releasing ice spikes at the undeads.

"Alright then, let’s do it together, Ghost!" Hugo declared, fighting fearlessly through the undeads.

---

"Hugo is pulling his weight," Alisha said, clenching her fists. "And all I did was faint without a fight and drag the rest of the team down."

She moved towards her wand that was stabbed into the ground, releasing a wave of lumen mana to decrease the strength of the undeads.

"But not anymore..." she declared, her auburn hair rising as a veil of golden mana covered her body. "Right here. Right now. I will surpass my limits!"

"Three Ring Spell: Blessing of the Holy Light!"

Raphael, Seraphina, and Hugo felt a sudden surge in their mana. Their muscles relaxed, and all the minor wounds and scratches that they had suffered vanished.

Hugo and Raphael could feel even their mana consumption reduced, as if their meridians had been baptised.

"Blessing of the Holy Light. A spell of the Holy Church that can heal wounds and improve the mana control of allies during a fight," Seraphina gasped, her pink eyes widened. Alisha had successfully cast a high-grade Ring Three Spell after all.

"As the team leader, how can I stay back?" she declared, tightening her fist around her wand.

A massive magic circle materialised above her, pulsating with crimson mana.

"Sanguine Flame Art: Meteor Shower!"

From the magic circle, numerous dark meteors emerged, their silhouettes burning with crimson fire.

Each one was over five metres wide. As they struck the undeads below, the ground split open in explosions and a mushroom of dark smoke rose into the air, burning the area in bloody flames.

---

"These kids are using the pressure of this battle to surpass their limits," Daemoth gasped, his jaw tightening. "Is that why ’they’ went so far as to give up on the Genesis Artifact just to avoid conflict with the academy students? Arcane Academy really does cultivate monsters."

Although they were reaching new heights of power, Daemoth wasn’t worried about them. The only person he needed to be cautious about was this crimson-eyed boy who had just emerged unscathed from the hordes of undeads and now stood before him, pointing his sword at him.

"With your current strength, no one can stop you from escaping the forest," Daemoth said, extending his hand. "Just leave. Why sacrifice your life in vain?"

’He is on a countdown,’ Daemoth murmured inwardly. ’His strength won’t last long. If he leaves, I can quickly deal with the rest of the team members and catch him before he can escape the forest—’

His words came to an abrupt stop as his eyes reflected the tip of Vlad’s blade, which had already reached his face.

He tilted his head, dodging the incoming sword. It still sliced through his skin from his temple to half of his ear as it moved past him.

"Aghh..." he groaned, his brows twitching in pain.

Vlad didn’t give him a moment to catch his breath, swinging his blade at him again.

He drew his own bone blade, blocking the strike.

Bam!

Ripples of shockwaves spread outward from the clash of their weapons.

Vlad’s eyes narrowed at the bone blade that not even his Tempest Grade Sword Aura could pierce.

"Hahaha, this sword is carved from the bone of a behemoth," Daemoth revealed with a smirk. "How can a mere fledgeling like you cut—"

Vlad grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands and pressed it down.

Crack!

The bone sword shattered into pieces, leaving Daemoth with parted lips.

Vlad’s blade didn’t merely stop after breaking the sword. It landed straight on Daemoth’s shoulder, carving its way through the bone armour and reaching his skin.

Daemoth responded in an instant, shoving the sharp nails of his other hand into Vlad’s guts.

Vlad immediately vanished before he could land an attack.

The next moment, Vlad was in front of him again, launching a barrage of sword strikes.

The speed of his blade had increased so much that Daemoth could barely track it.

His bone armour began falling to the ground, shattering into pieces with each strike of Vlad’s blade.

’Damn it, all of my mana is being consumed to maintain the undead army,’ Daemoth muttered inwardly, being slowly pushed back. ’I need to find a way to reduce his momentum.’

His grey eyes stared at Vlad. The dark veins had already reached up to his lips.

’He will die in just a few more minutes. I will take a gamble then.’

He drew a wand of bone from his storage ring, using it to block the relentless strikes of Vlad’s blade.

With one last horizontal slash, Daemoth was sent skidding a few feet back.

This gave him the moment of opening he needed.

The purple sphere at the head of the wand glowed as he shouted,

"Five Ring Necro Spell: Undead Forest!"

Multiple shadow-like trees with broken bark emerged in between the army of undeads in front of Seraphina and Hugo.

At the same time, Vlad rushed at Daemoth, destroying the ground in his wake.

His sword swung in a horizontal arc at Daemoth’s neck. Its blade had pierced an inch into his skin when Vlad’s eyes widened, Crimson Lightning dancing within them.

Numerous sharp branches of the ominous trees that had emerged from Daemoth’s spell shot towards Seraphina, Ghost, and Hugo, only a few inches away from their figures.

From the purple energy covering those branches, Vlad could tell they weren’t something his team could stop.

He had two choices now: Either cleanly behead Daemoth or save his team.

There was not even a hint of hesitation in his decision. He poured the Tempest Grade Mana into his legs, breaking several muscles in the process.

With speed greater than ever before, he bolted towards Seraphina through the hordes of undeads.

Bam!

"Vlad!!!" Seraphina cried in horror, her pink eyes trembling at the sight before her.

Vlad stood facing her like a wall. The branches that were shot at Seraphina had punctured several holes in his body along his shoulders, abdomen, legs, and arms.

"S-senior Hugo..." Vlad’s guilty eyes moved to where Hugo was fighting.

During his sprint, he realised that he couldn’t save both Seraphina and Hugo at the same time, so he had made a selfish choice.

Hugo was still at his position, unscathed. Behind him, Shadow stood, its blue, pearl-like eyes staring weakly at the undeads. A radiant glow had just vanished from its silver horn.

Hundreds of undeads in front of it were left with gaping holes in their bodies, together with the tree whose branches were shot at Hugo. All of them were utterly destroyed.

What Vlad didn’t witness was Shadow releasing a concentrated beam of silver light from its horn towards the incoming branches.

Bound to Vlad, it could feel his strong desire to save Hugo, so it had come forth to protect him while Vlad chose to protect Seraphina.

However, the attack seemed to be the last of what Shadow could do at its current level. Its feet slowly buckled, and it fell to the ground.

"I’m sorry, Vlad," Seraphina cried, tears trickling down her cheeks. "A-all because of me—"

Vlad moved his arm forward, blood spilling from the motion as he placed his hand on her head. "Th-this is the first time I clearly heard you calling my name. It feels good..."

Tears flowed like a river from Seraphina’s eyes, her breath coming in short, heavy gasps.

Vlad’s gaze shifted to the rest of the team.

Raphael had already completed the spell. Hugo and Ghost had returned to the array, dragging unconscious Shadow with them.

Most of the monsters at their sides had already been cleared by Shadow.

"I... will hold back Daemoth," Vlad said to Seraphina. "Go now."

"N-no!" she shouted, shaking her head aggressively. "I would rather die than leave without you."

The undead monsters behind Vlad rushed forward at Daemoth’s order as he realised they had already formed the teleportation array.

"None of you will leave!" Daemoth shouted, channeling his mana into the undead trees.

Their branches moved out from Vlad’s skin, trying to reach the squad before him, but he tightened his muscles, stopping their motion.

A wide blanket of dark mana spread from his body, standing as a wall to stop the incoming monsters.

One dallahan reached him, swinging its sword in a vertical motion.

Slice!

It sliced off his wrist, separating his hand, which fell onto Seraphina’s lap.

"Noo!!!" she screamed, releasing a sphere of flame towards the dallahan that sent it a few feet back.

Vlad didn’t show any hint of pain on his face despite his hand being severed.

"I will return," Vlad assured her, moving his other hand to her cheeks. "You trust me... right?"

Seraphina kept crying, shaking her head. The wand in her hand began glowing as she prepared herself to fight to the death.

Her motion stopped midway as Vlad leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

"Th-this is my answer to your confession."

His unexpected words left her shocked for a moment.

Taking advantage of her distraction, Vlad grabbed her by the back of the collar and threw her towards the squad.

"Senior Raphael, you know what to do!" Vlad shouted, his crimson eyes demanding an answer from Raphael.

A tear trickled down the corner of Raphael’s eye as he bit his lips in frustration.

"Nooo!!" Seraphina shouted mid-air, reaching for the array.

Raphael clapped his hands together and declared,

"TELEPORT!"

A beam of light ascended from the array, and the team vanished without a trace.