Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)
chapter-70

Chapter 70: Counterattack

“Anyone who can move, come now!” Xiao Lin did not dare turn his head around, so he shouted.

“They…they poisoned the water!” Lu Renyi shakily climbed up from the ground, his face pale as he held onto his longbow with his right hand. His entire body was trembling and he did not seem to even have the strength to pull his body.

It was true; those Normans did something to the water, but the meat did not seem to have been tampered with. Xiao Lin and Gu Xiaoyue did not manage to drink the water earlier, so they escaped it by sheer luck. The ones that did not drink the water totaled up to five people, and about four or five others drank very little. Even though their faces showed that they were in pain, they could still force themselves to get up.

The rest of them were miserable; most of them could not even stand up. They were in pain and cursing up a storm; a few more severe cases were not even making noise, it was unclear if they were dead or just unconscious.

The Norman woman walked up slowly, and uttered a slew of words. This time, Xiao Lin could somewhat make out one of the phrases she said: “Surrender.”

“Why!” Xiao Lin did not understand why they were being ambushed like that.

Gu Xiaoyue tried to translate, but the woman shook her head, as if she did not understand. Gu Xiaoyue slowed her speech, and slowly repeated the sentence.

The woman had a strange look on her face. “@#￥%…&*”

Gu Xiaoyue thought for a while, and did not translate right away. Xiao Lin looked toward her and the girl said with a difficult tone, “Invaders. She said we’re invaders.”

Xiao Lin paused momentarily, then his face went green. He understood that he made a huge mistake this time. Song Junlang’s words before the test once again rang in his ears.

‘Who are we?

‘We are invaders! We are no different from the allied forces who invaded China at the end of the Qing Dynasty!

‘The moment we stepped into Planet Norma, we were destined to be enemies to that whole world.

‘Our hands are definitely stained with the blood of a foreign world!’

Song Junlang had warned him very strictly, and he felt that he had it ingrained in his mind as well. However, the current situation occurred because Xiao Lin forgot his status. Even though they were playing the role of Judge Academy’s elites, they were still invaders in this world.

It might not be the real world, and they might be facing NPCs that were extremely well-simulated, but this was still a test environment that was as good as real. The Normans did not need too much of a reason to poison them, since they were still invaders at the end of the day.

The situation could not properly be understood unless one personally experienced it, and that might just be the reason why the academy had the scenario in the test.

Wallowing in both anger and regret, the only thing that made Xiao Lin feel somewhat happy was that this was just a simulated practice. Even if they really died here, they would only give up ten years of their life. If it was in Planet Norma, then they would have had to give up 20, and if they were captured, they might even be in a situation where death was the better option.

“She wants us to surrender, and seems to be saying she does not want to kill us mercilessly! However, she might just be saying we can’t beat them,” Gu Xiaoyue explained with some uncertainty.

“Ask her to go and die!” Xiao Lin clenched his teeth, quickly trying to analyze the current situation. The opponents were a self-proclaimed merchant troupe, and numbered to about thirty people. Gu Xiaoyue and himself struck first earlier, and eliminated at least five of them, and another four or five had varying degrees of injuries. However, the opponents did not look like they were all combatants, and less than twenty of them were holding actual weapons.

On Xiao Lin’s side, there were currently only 10 of them that were ready for battle, and half of those 10 were enduring pain, so their combat capabilities were still unclear.

“They have the advantage in numbers, but they’re not that strong,” Xiao Lin analyzed, and gave the rest of them some confidence as well.

Gu Xiaoyue and his spells were both F-rank in damage and seemed to have been instantly fatal when they hit earlier. Part of the reason was that those people did not have any defensive tools, but it was also obvious that they would not be that skilled, possibly even far below the desert iguana.

“Lu Renyi, can you move?”

Lu Renyi forced himself to nod, and clenched his teeth in pain as he said, “I’ll do my best.”

Xiao Lin sighed in secret; only him, Gu Xiaoyue, and Lu Renyi had long ranged attacks on the team; the rest of the spell users and archers were all on the other team.

“Everyone else, get the ones who can’t move out of the cave; we’ll hold them off at range. They don’t seem to have any long-range capabilities. Lu Renyi, all you need to do is focus on firing. You don’t have to aim, we just need to suppress them.”

The cave’s entrance was too small, so if the enemies rushed them all at once, they would not be able to avoid it; the ones who were immobile could very well be killed.

One of the criterias for failure this time was if over 70% of the class died, and they currently did not know what the situation was on the other team. Worst case scenario: if a few of them died there, it could very well cause the whole class to fail the task.

The Norman woman in charge saw through their intentions and, with a wave, about ten of them started to advance. Lu Renyi forced himself to pull his bow; it was hard to aim, but as long as he shot toward the crowd, there was a good chance of him hitting someone. The enemies did not look like they had any long-range attacks and seemed to lack defense. This made Xiao Lin believe that they were really just a group of merchants that happened to have some weapons, since they could not possibly be the army.

Just accounting for damage capabilities, those merchants were probably not a match for them. The power of magic once again showed itself. Mages were harder to train than melee classes, and their numbers were even less, but the destructive power was very shocking.

However, actual battle did not rely on statistics. Xiao Lin’s ice bullet spell was very mentally taxing, and he did not get much time to rest either. He was actually feeling a bit dizzy at that point. Gu Xiaoyue’s Basic Meditation and Intelligence were high enough that they could support her casting energy bombs many times, but the spells were not instantaneous. In that world, spells did not have anything like special incantations, but rather needed to have their elements compiled, arranged, and constructed, which required time. At their current level, it was impossible to shorten that process to the level where it was instantaneous.

Their enemies seem to have grasped this weakness as well, and everyone rushed over, as if they planned to throw away their lives. It was impossible for Xiao Lin and Gu Xiaoyue to handle all of them at once.

‘Ice bullet!’

‘Energy bomb!’

Xiao Lin and Gu Xiaoyue did not need to discuss it; they looked at each other and chose the same target. The ice bullet and energy bomb both shot toward the leader of the merchants: the big Norman woman.

Boom! Boom!

Two simultaneous explosions and the woman who was just standing there was hit without issue by the two spells. All the other Normans were momentarily stunned, and they slowly stopped their onslaught. When the dust settled, a bright, hot flame shield was in front of the woman.

Both the ice bullet and the energy bomb were stopped by the flames. The woman was actually a mage!