CHAPTER 59: FRESHER BALL (7)

Chapter 58: Fresher Ball (7)

The ground trembled as the academy’s outer field erupted into chaos. Mana pillars hummed with a sickening resonance, jagged cracks of violet energy racing up their obsidian shafts. Each pulse tore open new rifts in the air, bleeding crimson light.

And from those tears... came demons.

The lesser fiends surged forward hound-like beasts of shadow, grotesque humanoids with warped limbs, and winged carrion things that shrieked overhead. The stench of brimstone and burnt flesh blanketed the battlefield.

Michael’s grip tightened around his sword. His mana surged, icy mist spilling from his blade as his heart hammered in his chest. He could feel his classmates’ panic pressing against him like a tidal wave.

If I hesitate now, everything collapses.

His eyes flickered violet.

"Ice Domain—activate."

A surge of power erupted outward. In an instant, the earth beneath their feet crystallized, frost racing across the dirt like a living tide. A circle thirty meters wide shimmered into existence—Michael’s domain.

The effect was immediate. The charging demons slowed, claws dragging through suddenly frozen soil. Their movements grew sluggish, every step resisted by biting frost. Even the air felt heavier, their wings straining against invisible weight.

[System Notification]

Ice Domain activated. Hostiles suffer –30% STR, movement slowed. True Frost damage applied.

Students around him gasped.

"Wh-what the hell...?"

"He froze the entire battlefield!"

"An E-rank did this?"

Michael ignored them. His thoughts sharpened into crystalline clarity, aided by Quantum Analysis Mind. Fractal lines of probability flickered at the edges of his vision, every enemy movement mapped into branching outcomes.

"Formation!" he barked, his voice carrying authority none of them had expected from him. "Maria, control the left flank with ranged spells. Aiden, strike teams only when I call the opening. Chris, shield line in front! Selena pick off stragglers who break through. Leon "

His eyes flicked to the Lionheart heir, whose holy flame was already alight along his blade. "—hold center with me."

For a heartbeat, there was resistance. The nobles in particular—Draven, scowling with his massive halberd, sneered.

"You think you command us, commoner?"

But before he could take another step, a demon wolf lunged from the frozen ground. Its maw opened, teeth glinting black.

Michael’s sword blurred. Aura surged from his blade, a flash of white-blue. The wolf’s head exploded in a shower of icy shards.

Michael’s eyes didn’t even flinch. "Follow me, or die. Your choice."

A silence, brief but telling, rippled among the first-years. And then Selena moved first. Shadow flared around her, her scythe manifesting in her grip.

"I’ll take the stragglers," she said coolly, vanishing into the frozen mist.

Maria was next. She planted her staff into the ice, runes blazing. A volley of razor icicles screamed overhead, impaling three demons in a single strike.

The others fell into place. Even Draven snarled and swung into formation, though his pride fumed like smoke from his nostrils.

The battle began in earnest.

---

(Michael’s POV)

The demons tested the line immediately. A group of twisted humanoids with blade-like arms rushed at Chris.

"Stone Guard!"

His greatshield slammed into the ground, earthen mana layering across its surface. The impact rang like a gong. The demons crashed against him, claws scraping uselessly against stone.

"Now!" Michael shouted.

Aiden blurred past him, lightning crackling along his twin blades. "Storm Fang Blitz!"

His swords tore through the slowed demons like lightning cleaving trees. Their bodies disintegrated into steaming chunks.

Michael pivoted, raising his hand. "Frozen Edge!"

A sweeping arc of ice erupted from his blade, bisecting a flying carrion beast as it swooped down. Blood sprayed across the frozen battlefield, hissing against the frost.

But there was no time to breathe. His Quantum Mind pulsed, highlighting another outcome

Left flank breaking. Maria too exposed.

"Chris, rotate left! Maria, three steps back!"

They obeyed before they even realized it. A hulking demon with four arms smashed down where Maria had been standing, its blow cracking the ice. Chris intercepted, shield braced, and the impact shook the field.

Michael’s jaw clenched. Sweat already stung his eyes, but his mind raced faster than his body could register. Every second, a dozen outcomes flickered, only one leading to survival.

Keep the lines tight. Control the field. The pillars are still active we’re just buying time.

Then his gaze snapped toward Leon.

The Lionheart heir’s blade burned with radiant fire as he carved through a cluster of lesser demons. He moved with noble grace, every strike precise, textbook-perfect. But Michael could see the flaw immediately predictability.

He’s strong, but he fights like an academy manual.

"Leon! Stop aiming for clean cuts flow with the momentum!" Michael shouted.

Leon blinked, startled. "What?"

A demon lunged for him. Reflex made him parry with Rising Fang—too slow, too rigid.

Michael was there before it landed. His aura-infused strike shattered the demon’s skull in an explosion of frost.

He glanced at Leon sharply. "If you fight like a book, you’ll die like a book."

For the first time, Leon’s composure cracked. His eyes burned, but not with anger with something closer to shame.

The battlefield was a storm of chaos—frost-bitten soil cracking beneath pounding claws, shrieks echoing as demons hurled themselves into the first-year formation.

Michael’s breathing slowed into rhythm. Every second, his Quantum Analysis Mind painted the world in flickering probabilities: red lines marking fatal blows, blue threads revealing survival. He had seconds, sometimes less, to adjust.

And still, the nobles doubted him.

A guttural roar split the ice-fog. From the largest rift emerged a hulking demon, at least twice the size of a man, its body armored in jagged black chitin. Four burning eyes glared, and its claws gleamed like scythes.

Draven’s lips twisted into a cruel grin. "Finally, a worthy opponent."

Michael’s heart lurched. Idiot—don’t charge it alone!

"Draven, wait—!"

Too late. The noble heir spun his halberd, aura surging. "Crimson Rend!"

The weapon blurred, cleaving in a massive arc. Sparks exploded as steel met chitin. For a heartbeat, it seemed Draven’s strike had worked. Then the demon roared and swatted him aside like an insect.

"Argh—!"

Draven’s body crashed through a frozen tree, splintering ice shards everywhere.

Gasps erupted from the students.

"He’s down—!"

"That thing’s too strong!"

Michael cursed under his breath. If morale breaks now, it’s over.

He slammed his blade into the ground. Frozen Spikes erupted upward, impaling two lesser demons that had been creeping toward their flank.

Then he roared, his voice cutting through the panic.

"Hold the line! Don’t scatter!"

The hulking demon turned its burning eyes toward him, hissing like boiling tar.

It’s targeting me now.

His grip tightened. "Fine. Come, then."

---

The beast charged, claws tearing gouges in the ice. Michael’s Quantum Mind spun a dozen futures. In nine of them, he died.

But one

just one

showed survival.

He lunged to meet it, aura igniting along his blade in a blue-white flare. At the last instant, he swapped with a shadow across the battlefield—Shadow Swap!

The demon’s claw raked through empty air. Michael reappeared behind it, slashing downward. His blade, wreathed in freezing aura, cleaved through the demon’s shoulder, spilling steaming black ichor.

The creature shrieked, staggering.

"Now! Focus fire!" Michael bellowed.

Maria’s staff flared. "Frost Shard Volley!"

Dozens of icicles streaked into the demon’s torso, shattering chunks of its armor.

Aiden blurred in next, lightning trailing his blades. "Storm Fang Blitz!"

He slashed across its knees, sparks flashing as he cut deep. The demon buckled, dropping to one knee.

Chris roared, shield raised high. "Stone Guard—Crush!"

He slammed his greatshield into the monster’s chest with a thunderous crack, forcing it backward.

Michael seized the moment. Mana surged from his core, his body vibrating with strain. He triggered Aura Holder—converting a torrent of mana into pure combat aura. His blade screamed with power, glowing like a frozen star.

He leapt. "Frozen Edge!"

The strike cleaved through the demon’s neck in a shower of frost and black blood. Its body collapsed, convulsing once before disintegrating into ash.

The battlefield froze in silence for half a heartbeat.

Then the students cheered. "He did it!"

"Michael killed the elite!"

"He’s... commanding us like a veteran."

But Michael didn’t bask in it. His chest heaved, sweat slicking his brow. Too much mana output. If I keep this up, I’ll burn through my stamina.

His eyes flicked toward Draven, who staggered out of the wreckage of the frozen tree, coughing blood.

"You—" Draven spat, glaring daggers at him. "You think you’ve shown us up?"

Michael didn’t waste time answering. "Fall back into formation or die. Your choice."

The noble heir’s jaw clenched. But for the first time, Draven obeyed, retreating to the shield line with murder in his eyes.

---

The lull didn’t last. More rifts split open. Three new squads of demons poured through, smaller but swifter fliers, assassins, and warped beasts whose bodies seemed stitched from shadows.

Michael’s Quantum Mind flared with danger. This is their true push. If the pillars keep pulsing, the ritual will succeed.

He turned to Leon. "Lionheart, center with me. We’re cutting a path to the nearest pillar."

Leon hesitated, gripping his blade. His holy flame wavered as doubt flickered in his eyes.

"I... I nearly lost earlier."

Michael’s voice cut sharp as ice. "Then stop doubting and fight. People will die if you hesitate."

Leon flinched—but then his jaw set, and his flame burned brighter.

"...Right."

Side by side, they surged forward, cleaving into the demon wave.

---

(Michael POV)

Every breath burned, every swing tore deeper into my stamina pool. But I couldn’t falter. Not with dozens of eyes on me. Not with demons howling for our blood.

The nobles hated me, the commoners relied on me, and somewhere in this chaos... a shadow darker than these demons was watching.

And I could feel it the pillars were not just summoning fodder. Something worse was clawing its way through.

We’re running out of time.