Episode 596

Episode 596

‘How on earth did he summon the giants?’

Lee Han was surprised.

Summoning giants instead of Death Knights was not an easy task, either.

In the first place, Ahsan did not even know that the giants were staying in the main building’s underground deep storage.

How on earth?

“Wardanaz! Save me!!”

“……”

The answer came immediately.

Ahsan, unlike his usual calm demeanor, was in a state of panic.

Anyone would have acted like that if they went out to ask for help and encountered a giant army instead.

‘So he hadn’t summoned the giants…’

He had simply gone to summon Death Knights and ran into the giants.

-We will save you!

-We have come to help, mage!

The giants behind Ahsan shouted in response, but it didn’t register with Ahsan.

At that moment, whatever the giants said all sounded like “I’m going to eat you” to Ahsan.

“…Thank you!”

“Wa, Wardanaz! Are you trying to throw me away as bait?!”

Ahsan, on the verge of tears, shouted, but Lee Han had no time to clear up the misunderstanding.

The vampire monster, realizing that the situation was turning strange, started targeting other students who would be easier to catch.

In a situation as urgent as now, even the help of the giants was a blessing.

“Please take the vanguard!”

-Got it!

The giants rushed over and blocked in front of the mage.

After all, isn’t one of the things warriors are supposed to do to protect the fragile mage?

Since the giants had come for this very reason, there was no hesitation in their movements.

Ahsan, who had been scared of getting eaten, was now dumbfounded as he watched the giants rush forward.

“Huh?”

“Ahsan! Get into formation! It’s dangerous to be out on your own!”

“Uh, uhh. Th-that side looks more dangerous…”

Honestly, just by appearances alone, the giants looked scarier than the vampire monster.

Ahsan, dazed, dove in among his friends. Fortunately, his friends had similarly blank expressions.

“Is… Is it really okay with the giants acting like this?”

Ahsan, wondering if it was just him being weird, felt relieved by his friends’ reactions.

Thanks to being the first one to be startled, Ahsan was able to recover his composure quickly.

“Let’s all stay calm. What’s important now is catching that vampire monster.”

“But there’s a giant in front of us!?”

“If you’re a student of Einrogard, you have to get used to giants at least.”

“R-really… is that so? I don’t think so…”

Bang!

The vampire monster rushed at the giant.

It was not like when it backed down so easily in the underground storage room.

Now, in this open and advantageous terrain, there was no reason to withdraw. The vampire monster displayed dazzling aerial maneuvers and attacked the giant.

-Ugh!

The giant, hit properly, staggered. The vampire monster accelerated even more, aiming to tear the giant’s hide with its sharp, blade-like tail.

-Ack!

The giant screamed, looking at his forearm, which was left with a red mark. The other giants jeered.

-Don’t scream like a lamb! It’s embarrassing!

-It hurts! I said it hurts!

Of course, the one most angry was the vampire monster.

How could its attack not even tear a hide?

The vampire monster’s form twisted even more, becoming sharper and more aggressive.

Pop!

The vampire monster moved so fast that only a blurry afterimage remained. From the rain of attacks, the giant crouched, protecting his vital organs. Seeing his opponent’s defensive posture, the vampire monster grew even more savage and continued to attack…

Crash!

The vampire monster was smashed and sent flying. The giant, who had been crouching, cleverly swung his club and smacked it away.

-Hahaha!

-Fooled you, you idiot! Fooled you!

-Surround it! Don’t let it escape!

‘Amazing!’

Lee Han honestly admired them.

If the giants tried to compete in speed and straightforwardness, they couldn’t keep up with the vampire monster.

So they pretended to be scared to make the vampire monster drop its guard, and made its movements more predictable.

-Here I go! 3 points!

-This time it’s me! This one’s worth 5 points!

-There’s no such thing as 5 points!

-If I hit it, there is!!

The giants smacked the vampire monster back and forth as if batting a ball with a club.

The vampire monster couldn’t counterattack since it was busy regenerating from the big hits.

Meanwhile, Lee Han caught his breath, re-cast the necessary spells, and summoned the dark skeleton warriors.

“Sharkan. Go bring Gainando!”

Now that the vampire monster was disoriented, it was their chance. The green jewel leopard dashed off and scrambled up a tree.

Then it started pulling Gainando’s coat like it was possessed.

“…Sharkan!!”

Lee Han felt a huge sense of betrayal at his summon.

He had never behaved like this before, which made it worse.

Sharkan, hearing his master’s call, belatedly came to his senses. In a hurry, he grabbed Gainando and ran back.

“I saw everything.”

-Growl…

Sharkan avoided his master’s gaze with a timid look.

‘What’s so special about this coat, anyway?’

Lee Han resolved to take this coat to Professor Mortum for a precise appraisal once the fight was over.

By now, he was truly curious.

-■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!

Just then, the vampire monster, realizing its coat had been stolen, let out the most desperate and ferocious cry it had shown today.

Driven mad by fury, its regeneration speed increased several times over. The vampire monster regenerated in mid-flight after being struck by a club, formed wings, and escaped into the air.

-Oh!

-That sneaky beast, it’s using tricks!

-Come back!

“Block its way. It will go for the coat again!”

-The coat?

“It’s after this coat!”

The giants glanced at Gainando’s coat in Lee Han’s hands.

Then they grimaced.

-Ugh!

-That’s disgusting!

-Don’t hold onto that! It’s cursed! Mage!

The giants grabbed the coat from Lee Han’s hands. And then tore it to shreds.

Lee Han thought the vampire monster had previously let out the most desperate and ferocious scream possible.

But no.

Upon seeing the coat torn, the vampire monster let out a scream that could be heard in even the remotest corners of Einrogard.

-Ugh, my ears!

-That thing’s gone insane!

The vampire monster had never been sane, but by giants’ standards, it hadn’t reached madness.

But what the vampire monster showed now was beyond madness.

Crunch, crunch, crack!!!

It gave up whatever monster-like form it had, and began expanding in a giant, amorphous, slime-like mass.

‘Is it using up its stored blood in a rampage?’

Blood was always an extremely powerful reagent in magic. With both its mystical significance and connection to its owner’s soul, it was unavoidably potent.

Of course, vampire-type monsters used such blood as their power source. The vampire monster’s abnormal regenerative ability was due to the blood it had stored.

Conversely, for vampire-type monsters, blood was essentially their life.

To use it recklessly like this, just to bloat in size without thinking, was anything but normal.

A complete rampage!

‘Is it rational for it to go berserk over just a coat?’

More than fear, Lee Han was dumbfounded.

It had endured relentless attacks from the Death Knights, and being batted around by the giants, yet now it lost its mind because a coat was torn?

Lee Han climbed up onto a giant’s shoulder. The monster’s movements were off.

-It’s coming!

The vampire monster swung its massive body, bigger than the giants themselves.

Foreseeing this, Lee Han urgently shouted.

“Two steps back!”

-Giants do not retreat!

“…Are you serious right now…?!”

The giant confidently raised his club, trying to receive the attack.

Bang!

Unable to withstand the blow, the giant was knocked back and smashed into the adjacent building.

And Lee Han, who had been on the giant’s shoulder, was also sent flying in the commotion.

• * *

For upper-year students of the Healing Magic School, tests were always close to real field experience.

-Today’s midterm… hold on… Hm. There’s an epidemic in Dry Falls Village. We’re going to Dry Falls Village.

-Today’s final exam will be at Red Lake Desert. I hear a whole knights’ order got half-destroyed.

-Wait. Today’s midterm has an addition. The epidemic has spread to the neighboring village. Finish up fast and move over there.

…Like this, since there were plenty of test materials outside the campus, exams for the Healing Magic School inevitably resembled real-life scenarios.

But even among those students, a faint hope always lingered.

Maybe…

Maybe someday, if nothing special happened nearby…

Wouldn’t the healing magic test pass by uneventfully?

“…Everyone, stay calm.”

“I-I’m staying calm.”

“The professor really isn’t saying anything, right?”

“Seems like it… Shh! Don’t jinx it. Don’t draw bad luck.”

Professor Alcassis glanced at his pocket watch and checked the parchment artifact.

From this, the students could sense that no messages had arrived yet.

Please!

Please! Please!

As if responding to their prayers, Professor Alcassis closed the cover on his pocket watch.

And then, with a voice half hoarse from exhaustion, he spoke to the students.

“Today’s test will be a simple oral exam…”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The students unwittingly stomped their feet and clapped.

“Don’t shout. It echoes in my head.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t waste your energy needlessly. Never forget the saying: a restless healing mage will come to a bad end.”

“Yes…”

The healing magic students answered, somewhat dejected.

But inside, they felt a tinge of dissatisfaction.

Is it wrong to be so happy about learning healing magic?

How often does something like this even hap…

Bang!

Suddenly, the classroom wall burst open, and the upper body of a giant came sliding in.

The students recoiled in horror.

-Oh. The sky is spinning!

“It’s—it’s a giant attack!?”

While this happened, the student on the giant’s shoulder jumped down.

He spotted Professor Alcassis and shouted.

“Professor! I’m sorry. Some crazy monster is attacking us right now!”

“Isn’t this a bit much for a final exam?”

“This isn’t the final!”

Lee Han slapped the giant’s cheek and shouted.

“Please get up! You have to get up!”

-I’m too dizzy to get up…

Professor Alcassis looked at the giant, then at Lee Han, and finally at Lee Han’s seniors.

The healing magic students suddenly felt a sense of doom from his gaze.

“Has anyone here ever healed a giant?”

“……”

“……”

“No one, I see. Good opportunity. Everyone, take your staves and come here.”

The students approached the giant looking mournful.

Of course, Lee Han couldn’t see his seniors now.

“This kind of symptom is usually a problem with the brain and equilibrium organs. Normally, you’d use a spell to check, but giants have high magic resistance. So what should you do instead?”

Lee Han never imagined that Professor Alcassis was asking him.

He simply stood there, thinking the other seniors must be nearby.

“…Do I have to ask twice?”

“Oh. You were calling me?”

“Yes. There’s no one around but you.”

“Um. In that case, I’d cast the spell a bit stronger.”

“……”

“……”

His seniors looked at Lee Han in disbelief.

Professor Alcassis was not the joking type. A perfunctory answer like that might get him sent flying out the window.

But the dark elf professor only sighed once.

“I picked the wrong person to ask.”