"Close...!"
He used the [Super Acceleration] magic to dodge the Sabnock's tongue attack in the nick of time.
If he had been even a fraction slower, he might have been crushed by that enormous tongue.
(This isn't an attack I can block with a wall of magic. With the Dark Star I could absorb it, but the size and momentum are enough to kill me before I can absorb it completely...!)
"[Healing]"
He restored the eardrums that had been ruptured by the roar.
Sound returned from the world around him, and the silence dissipated.
"Alright... but still, this is genuinely troublesome..."
He had genuinely thought the sheer force of the roar would rupture his eardrums and knock him unconscious.
The lord of the demon realm, indeed. He hadn't expected this to be easy, but the creature was still formidable.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Several Corrosion Beasts fired volleys of corrosive saliva at Rest.
He defended against the corrosive saliva with a wall of earth. The saliva dissolved the wall, but he immediately counterattacked with magic.
"[Thunder Cannon]"
"GYAO!"
The advanced lightning magic detonated.
The powerful bolt mowed down the Corrosion Beast, but it quickly got back up and let out a growl.
"So ordinary advanced magic won't deal a fatal blow, huh..."
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Tch...!"
The Corrosion Beasts launched their tongues and saliva volleys.
He used [Super Acceleration] to dodge, then closed the distance and lunged in close... a point-blank [Star Eater].
The Corrosion Beast was sucked into the Dark Star and vanished without leaving a single strand of fur behind.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
But then, attacks rained down on him from every direction, one after another.
The Corrosion Beasts refused to bunch up in one spot, instead spreading out and attacking from a distance.
If they would only group together, he could wipe them out all at once... but since they were scattered, even that wasn't an option.
"...They're guarding against close combat. Are you trying to cut off my escape routes?!"
Rest gritted his back teeth, his expression twisting.
He caught the saliva volley with the Dark Star, but an attack launched from a different direction grazed his arm.
"That hurts...!"
Corrosive saliva had gotten inside his body.
Rest instinctively severed his arm with a blade of wind.
He accelerated his body to get away from the spot, then cast healing magic to treat the wound.
"This is a pain..."
Severing his own arm had been a desperate measure.
Had he not done that, the corrosive saliva that had entered his body would have traveled through his bloodstream to his heart or brain, and Rest would have lost his life.
While dodging enemy attacks and focusing on treatment, the severed arm slowly regenerated.
"If it hadn't healed, I don't know what I would have done... I was genuinely panicking."
Regenerating a lost limb was considered the pinnacle of healing magic, but Rest was capable of doing it.
That was because both healing injuries and regenerating lost body parts were possible through [Healing].
He had learned this in academy classes... the bottleneck when healing a missing body part was mana capacity, and simply increasing the mana invested in [Healing] would clear that hurdle.
(If I didn't have infinite mana, this would have been impossible... If I couldn't become a court magician, should I try living as a cleric or healer?)
While he was thinking that with a touch of self-deprecating humor, the severed arm fully regenerated. He gave it a light wave to check — no issues.
The damage was gone, but that didn't change the fact that he was in a tight spot.
The subordinate Corrosion Beasts were getting in the way, preventing him from focusing on Sabnock. There were at least twenty of them here.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"...!"
To make matters worse... as if seizing the perfect moment, Sabnock unleashed a roar.
Drawing on his earlier experience, he conjured a wall of air — [Wind Wall] — to block the sonic cannon.
This time he withstood it without rupturing his eardrums.
"[Smoke Screen] [Amplify] [Wind Control]"
A triple cast of magic.
He scattered a massive amount of white smoke and controlled it with wind magic so it wouldn't blow away and disperse.
His field of vision was completely obscured, but he layered another spell on top — [Presence Detection] to track the enemies' positions.
"[Acceleration]"
"GYA..."
Then he closed the distance and unleashed [Star Eater], thinning out the enemy numbers.
Without letting them detect his position, he intended to literally keep them hidden in smoke while reducing their numbers... but.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Figured as much...!"
Rather than "as expected," it was exactly as he had predicted.
Sabnock blasted away the smoke screen with a roar.
He tried to manipulate the smoke with [Wind Control], but the sonic cannon mercilessly scattered the white smoke.
"No matter what tricks I come up with, they keep finding ways through...!"
Rest deployed every spell at his disposal, but the enemy broke through each one.
The massive bodies and corrosive saliva were certainly dangerous, but their sharp wits were also incredibly troublesome.
Perhaps that aspect was even more dangerous than the rest.
(Humans are supposed to surpass beasts through wisdom and cooperation... but if monsters are outmatching us in a battle of wits and teamwork, isn't that cheating?)
Fighting alone.
If only he could have fought alongside trusted teammates, it might have been easier, but there was no one around to support Rest.
Danila would have been nothing but a liability, which was why Rest hadn't brought him along in the first place.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Man... this is genuinely annoying..."
Rest knew the battle was gradually turning against him, but he wracked his brain for a solution.
He tried to come up with a way to turn the tide... but of course, the enemy wasn't going to wait.
They launched a relentless barrage of attacks at Rest.
"Almacain Sword Dance... 'Fragment.'"
"...!"
But then, something unexpected happened.
A shadow sliced through the air and bisected one of the Corrosion Beasts.
That shadow wielded a white blade. A long, curved sword... shaped much like a katana.
"Well now, looks like there's some rather cuttable prey gathered here."
A composed yet gloomy face.
Hair covered the eyes, making it impossible to read what the person was thinking.
"Lubeth...?"
The top-ranked first-year in the Knight Department. The sword saint who despised women.
Wilhelm Lubeth stood there.