I Became the Academy’s War Hero Chapter 44 : You Guys Were Even More Trash Than I Thought? (

Chapter 44: You Guys Were Even More Trash Than I Thought? (7)

When the slash ca flying toward his face, Vicious finally regretted his careless judgnt.

If it had been one of the other two instead of him, this ambush wouldn’t have resulted in a fatal wound.

He twisted his body desperately, but avoiding it completely was impossible.

Pusshk!

Perhaps it was fortunate enough that it only ended with him sacrificing his left shoulder.

The two behind him released their concealnt and imdiately rushed forward, barely managing to catch him.

“Ghk!”

The slash that tore through his armpit rendered half of his left shoulder useless.

“Ugh….”

“Stay with ! I’ll do ergency treatnt right now….”

Evelin first used Frost Magic to freeze the wound, then picked up a piece of wood rolling on the ground to use as a splint.

She pressed extra cloth onto the wound and tore a part of her cloak to tie it tightly.

While she focused on treatnt, Maledic stood guard in front, preparing for a possible follow-up attack.

Soon, with a creaking sound, the car door on the opposite side opened.

“Urgh… thought my back was gonna snap.”

“Quit whining and move your ass already.”

The three who had gone ahead appeared, relatively unhard.

They had scrapes here and there, but there didn’t seem to be any fractures or bleeding.

The two mages aid their wands at Maledic with hostility.

The target of this assassination mission—Eugene Carter—held his single-edged sword firmly and smiled.

“Your greeting was a bit rough, so I thought I’d growl back a little. How’s that? You like it?”

The blade, imbued with mana, flickered with intermittent light.

“……”

Maledic’s expression twisted slightly at the sight.

‘…That weapon wasn’t in the report.’

Judging by its appearance and the lingering mana… it must be the high-grade artifact—Lukezax.

“…I see.”

So he’d managed to get his hands on that precious weapon, huh.

Among the existing magic swords, it ranked in the top five for mana efficiency.

For Eugene Carter, whose mana usage was restricted by a curse, it was the perfect weapon.

Only after realizing this did Maledic finally admit that their judgnt had been far too hasty.

‘…We should’ve been more cautious.’

To think they’d fall for such an absurd ambush.

Maledic gritted his teeth and swallowed his frustration.

They had deliberately hidden the weapon’s presence, then struck at the exact mont his side had been most off-guard, inflicting a critical blow.

If the other side hadn’t known about their plan beforehand, such a reaction wouldn’t have been possible.

‘Seems the enemy’s got quite the capable informant.’

Perhaps since the ti Jack Brown attempted the assassination, the bastard had already foreseen this situation.

“…You got us good.”

Seeing Maledic’s deeply furrowed face, Eugene chuckled faintly.

“Those bastards from last ti and you lot now—you’re all trash just the sa. Guess the Bernhardt Family’s gone downhill. You thought you could kill with scum like this?”

Crack.

It was an obvious provocation, but there was no reason to hold back either.

Enraged, Maledic closed the distance to his target in a single bound, and Eugene let out a soft sigh.

He gently parried the opponent’s dagger with the back of his blade, then imdiately readjusted his grip.

anwhile, Walter Clark, standing to the side, activated a Binding Spell.

Maledic glared with contempt and shouted,

“How dare you!”

Wooden vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping around his legs—but before even a second passed, they turned to ash.

This ti, Rubia raised her wand toward him and cast a spell.

“Frozen Spear!”

An ice spear ford in the air and shot straight toward the enemy’s heart—but it never reached him.

Maledic swung his arm roughly, and the spear shattered into glittering frost that scattered in all directions.

He stood firm, unfazed, even while facing three opponents at once.

After evading another slash from Lukezax with a side roll, he pulled out a poisoned needle from his sleeve and threw it.

All three imdiately leapt behind the trees to avoid it.

With that brief exchange over, the Fourth Seat—Evelin—finally returned to the scene.

Catching his breath, Maledic pointed behind him.

“We’re switching to Plan B. Inject the drug.”

“……”

Normally, she would’ve snapped, ‘Who are you to make that call?’—but there was no ti for that.

Even though it was a surprise attack, the Fifth Seat, Vicious, was already nearly incapacitated. They couldn’t afford to hesitate.

As long as they eliminated the target completely, the Bernhardt Family would take care of the aftermath.

“…Fine, let’s do this!”

Evelin nodded and swiftly turned toward the vagrants in the rear.

anwhile, Eugene rolled his neck from side to side and stepped forward first.

“I think that’s enough of a warm-up, don’t you?”

To his provocation, Maledic replied with a cold expression.

“…You should drop the bluffing there, Eugene Carter.”

“Think whatever you want. Anyway, it’s about ti I get serious.”

At that mont—

Thud!

A sudden explosive sound rang out, and Eugene’s figure vanished from sight.

Like a bolt of lightning, he closed the distance and was already right in front of Maledic.

‘He’s fast…!’

Maledic barely managed to assu a defensive stance, but because of the suddenness, his guard was wide open.

Eugene’s full-powered downward slash struck cleanly through that gap, sending Maledic flying far back.

Ever since the assassination attempt in Karbenna, I’d known very well that there were people out there targeting my life.

Especially when leaving Karbenna, I’d been on high alert and had set up a few precautions of my own.

‘I didn’t expect them to co at this openly, though.’

Still, I could roughly guess their intent.

Since the previous assassination attempt in Karbenna had failed, they must’ve been ordered not to fail again this ti.

So they prepared thoroughly, switching to an all-out approach where thods and ethics didn’t matter.

They never intended to let live anyway, so they probably didn’t bother considering any variables in case I survived.

I’ll admit, I’d been a bit complacent in that regard—so their plan wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

However, they’d overlooked one crucial fact.

That I wasn’t the only one leading the advance team.

Walter Clark, who wielded various plant-based spells, and Rubia Magnus, who had mastered both offensive and defensive magic and reached the rank of Special Agent.

The mont they failed to account for those two, their plan had already started falling apart.

We’d noticed the enemy’s surveillance about thirty minutes before reaching the scene.

“Wh—here?!”

“…What should we do? Should we tell the coachman?”

“No. Don’t let them notice. If we do, we’ll regret it later.”

This wasn’t sothing we could just hope to get through safely.

I needed to crush them completely—to the point they’d never dare try again.

So first, we used every possible defensive spell to reinforce the carriage’s durability.

‘Didn’t expect they’d even prepared mana-infused mines, though.’

Because of that, the coachman and horses lost their lives—but it gave us the opening we needed.

When the careless enemy approached without guard, I struck from inside the carriage, slicing one of them out of formation right away.

And now, back to the present.

I tilted my head as I looked at the panting enemy leader.

“Your defense is top-class… but the rest of you’s pretty unimpressive.”

Judging by how he’d managed to offset most of Walter’s and Rubia’s magic as well as Lukezax’s slashes, he likely had so immunity-based ability.

Of course, it couldn’t be permanent—there had to be a ti or usage limit.

Or maybe his durability and magic resistance were just abnormally high, but that was unlikely too.

I could exhaust his ability first and then break him afterward, but—

‘We don’t exactly have that kind of leisure either.’

There was no telling when enemy reinforcents might arrive.

So I went all out, tearing into him with everything I had.

Every now and then, one of his subordinates tried to interfere, but Rubia wasn’t about to allow that.

“Damn it, that bitch—!”

“You’re not taking a single step forward from there!”

Kwa-kwakwakwa!

Rubia pulled up Earth Needles from the ground and fired them rcilessly.

When the enemies barely dodged through the field of spikes to close the distance, she showered them from above with Hailstorm, forcing them to endure heavy damage.

Even then, a female assassin attempted an aerial assault—

“Hey now, didn’t I say that’s as far as you go?”

This ti, Walter stepped forward as if he’d been waiting, setting up defenses around Rubia.

Caught in a bind, the assassin darted uneasy glances between her leader and the rear.

Watching that, I swung my sword again.

“Hm… looks like you’re waiting for sothing?”

Tiiing!

Barely parrying my strikes, the enemy smiled bitterly.

“It’s a desperate gamble for us too, but still…!”

The more I pressed, the more his exhaustion beca apparent.

“……”

Even during my fight with the Werebeast in the cavern, I’d realized that this body of Eugene Carter had exceptional combat instincts.

Despite being outnumbered and on the defensive, he fought desperately, searching for any chance to counterattack.

He threw daggers and shot poisoned needles at every opening, trying to disable —

—but none of it ca close to unsettling .

“Ghk!”

Unable to withstand the relentless assault, the enemy finally collapsed to the ground.

Blood had soaked deeply into his clothes, probably from the earlier slash of Lukezax.

“Maledic!”

A subordinate tried to rush to their leader’s aid, but Rubia and Walter remained utterly vigilant.

“…I thought it’d be a good opportunity, but that’s too bad.”

That was my brief assessnt of the battle.

Without hesitation, I brought my sword down.

Whether I pierced his abdon or split his neck in two, I intended to end it with this strike.

But as always, anomalies tended to occur at the most critical mont.

Ting!

Sharp claws barely deflected Lukezax’s blade.

The owner of those claws stood firmly between and the assassin.

“…What the hell?”

It was a humanoid beast with reddish-brown skin and coarse black fur scattered across its body.

Standing just over two ters tall, it was smaller than a Werebeast but no less muscular.

It glared at , crimson tears of blood streaming from its eyes.

Grrrrr…

Drool dripped from its snarling mouth.

Thanks to the beast’s sudden intervention, the assassin barely managed to survive and quickly retreated ten ters back, letting out a sigh.

“…Didn’t think I’d have to rely on forbidden power.”

“Forbidden power?”

Naturally, no answer ca.

The assassin leapt into the trees and vanished in an instant.

And then—

Grrr…

Kyaaaak!

Keeeeegh!

At the heart of the forest where he disappeared, four beasts had suddenly appeared.