Vol 3. Chapter 87: So That Really Is a Protection Spell, Huh?

“What do we do? I think we lost them??”

After Vinny and Shicodale left, the two Imperial students tried to keep tailing them so they could keep stealing last hits and disgusting them. But for some reason, even though they’d been stuck to the two of them like two lumps of stinking dog crap the whole time, they suddenly couldn’t find the way anymore, like they’d gotten lost in the forest.

“Tch, what are you afraid of? It’s not like they can just disappear in the forest, right? We just keep following, we’ll definitely find them. Don’t forget, my Spirit Soul is specialized in tracking.”

The Imperial student snorted as he held up the crossbow that was empowered by his Spirit Soul, several large beast claws coiled around it.

However, even after circling around several more times, they still didn’t see any sign of Vinny and Shicodale.

“Weird. How did those two grown men just vanish in the forest??”

The Imperial student couldn’t make sense of it. “Why can’t my [Life-Chasing Crossbow] find their tracks??”

“Could they have used some kind of spell to hide their trail?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure they can’t escape us. Keep looking.”

“Wait, I think there’s another spider ape over there!”

“Oh? Perfect. Before we catch up to them, we’ll just warm up on that thing first and get ourselves some more points.”

With that, the two of them moved in and—very “reasonably”—ganged up on the not-all-that-big spider ape.

“Die!”

Just as the spider ape was wounded and an Imperial student raised his crossbow to deliver the final blow, a teal seed floated into existence above their heads. A moment later, a massive flower vine shot out of it, lashing toward the already injured spider ape.

Two vines finished the last hit cleanly. The spider ape’s body was run through by the flower vines; it crashed to the ground and stopped breathing.

“Huh??”

The two Imperial students stared at each other and simultaneously looked up at the tops of their own heads. The teal seeds that had appeared there earlier had already vanished again, and the vines had shrunk back.

“Hey, what was that just now? What the hell happened?”

After a brief silence, one Imperial student asked the other.

“How should I know? It looked like you suddenly had grass growing on your head just now.”

“Screw you! You’re the one with grass growing on your head!”

The other Imperial student rolled his eyes.

“No, seriously, you did have grass growing on your head!”

“I’m serious too. I saw it with my own eyes—a vine shot out from the top of your head and skewered that monkey.”

“No, that’s not right. It should’ve been both of us. We both had a teal seed on our heads! The vine coming out of it is what stabbed that spider ape to death.”

“So then?”

Both of them thought of the same thing: points. Did either of them actually get them?

Since this test was being carried out in teams, it didn’t matter which one of them landed the kill. The points would be tallied together anyway.

Birds of a feather flock together; the reason the two of them had ended up as a pair in the first place was largely because their Spirit Souls were of the same type, and both of them were very good at stealing last hits.

They opened their magic cards—and discovered that their scores hadn’t changed at all. Their points were exactly the same as after they’d killed the previous two spirit beasts.

In other words, the vine that had popped out of nowhere to kill the beast hadn’t counted as their kill at all.

“What the hell was that thing just now?!”

The Imperial student was dumbfounded.

“You still don’t get it?? The two of us just walked straight into a trap!” the other Imperial student snapped. “Those seeds that Moon-elf kid scattered on us earlier were a curse he planted on us. That curse will steal the last hits on the prey we chase down!”

“Ugh, what a vicious spell! Damn it! We have to report this to the instructors!”

“Report, how? This isn’t an attack-type spell at all! The rules clearly say it has to be an attack on another student.”

The other Imperial student clicked his tongue.

“Then what do we do now??”

He suddenly remembered the ultimatum Shicodale had given them and felt a chill. “The hunt’s barely started and we already can’t bag a single prey. Our scores are definitely going to look humiliating this time.”

“What are you panicking for? Just because that Moon-elf brat says something, it doesn’t make it true. I don’t believe that weird curse of his can really snipe the kill out of our hands every time.”

The Imperial student ground his teeth. “Come on, we keep hunting. And while we’re at it, we find Vinny and that elf. We have to find them!”

“Even if we find them, then what? It’s not like they’ll undo the curse for us.”

“Don’t worry about it! We find them first. Worst case, we all fight over the same prey then and see who wins the last hit!”

The Imperial student spoke through clenched teeth.

“Look, there’s another three-tailed deer over there!”

“I refuse to believe this!”

The two Imperial students clenched their jaws, refusing to accept it, and attacked together. The moment they did, the teal seeds on their heads also “joined” the fray.

In the end, the final blow was once again stolen by the teal seeds on top of their heads.

“Aaaargh!”

The Imperial students were about to explode with rage. The two of them were livid. Now they finally understood just how infuriating and tilting it was to have someone steal your last hits.

It had been so fun, such a rush, when they were the ones doing the last-hit stealing—especially when they were sniping Vinny’s kills. But now that the roles were reversed, now that they were the targets, they were in pure agony.

“This won’t do! Damn these seeds! Here’s what we’ll do—we’ll wait for them to show themselves and then attack the seeds on each other’s heads!”

One Imperial student put forward a suggestion.

“Okay!”

So, they found another spirit beast and launched a joint attack. Sure enough, as they unleashed their assault, the seeds on their heads appeared again and joined the fight.

At the same time, they picked their moment and fired at the seeds on top of each other’s heads. But the spells they launched shot straight through those seeds without hitting anything at all. Nothing happened.

“What the hell?!”

The two of them were stunned.

Why the hell couldn’t they hit those damned seeds themselves?!

However, once a fight had started, there was no hitting the pause button. The deer-type spirit beast whose body was wreathed in flames saw that they were attacking it and instantly went berserk, charging straight at the two of them.

“Damn it! Forget the seeds for now, we deal with this fire deer first!”

Saying so, the two of them focused on the massive fire deer in front of them and fired volleys of magic arrows at it.

But before their arrows could even get close, a molten-flame barrier rose from the fire deer’s body and blocked them all.

“What?!”

The two of them, who had originally planned to end this quickly, stared wide-eyed. Only now did they notice that the deer’s eyes were burning with fire, and the concentration of magic essence in the area was extremely high.

Both of them suddenly had a bad feeling, wondering if they’d just kicked an iron plate.

There were quite a few powerful spirit beasts mixed into this hunting exam. Granted, in the first-year zone where they were, truly powerful spirit beasts were supposedly very rare—but rare didn’t mean nonexistent.

It was a newbie-friendly event, sure, but drawing a few “jackpots” every now and then was still on the table.

After several ineffective attacks, the two Imperial students were starting to get spooked.

Their Spirit Souls were both bow/crossbow-type enchants. If the magic attacks fired from their bows and crossbows didn’t work, it would be very hard for them to withstand the onslaught of this massive flame deer.

Sure enough, the flaming giant deer charged like a force of nature. Seeing the situation go south, their faces went pale with fright—they turned tail and ran for their lives, even forgetting to counterattack.

If the seeds floating above their heads hadn’t fired off a few shots to slow the giant flame deer down, they might already have been launched into the air by its antlers.

This flame deer was no joke. As it charged and trampled forward, it left a path of fire in its wake, scorching the ground.

“Aaaah!!”

The two of them fled in single file, screaming nonstop as they ran for their lives.

“Hey, hey! Buddy, looks like that Moon-elf kid wasn’t lying after all. This seed spell really is a blessing, not a curse or some evil hex. Shouldn’t we be thanking that Moon-elf kid right now? If he hadn’t scattered these seeds on us, we might already be eliminated!”

One Imperial student suddenly blurted out.

“You seriously don’t know how to pick your timing, do you? Is this really something you should be talking about right now?! Besides, isn’t the reason we’re this unlucky in the first place all thanks to him?!”

*****

On the other side of the forest, with no idea what exactly those two were going through, Vinny and Shicodale were walking between the trees when Vinny suddenly saw a new string of points appear on his magic card.

“Huh??”

Vinny stared at the score on his magic card in surprise. “Well, would you look at that. It really did go up.”

“So then, Classmate Dale, what is that spell of yours exactly?” Vinny asked.

“A Moon-elf protection spell. I told you.”

Shicodale folded his arms and raised a brow. “It keeps sending out flower vines to attack hostile targets around the holder. All I had to do was tweak the spell sequence a bit so its attack frequency slows down and only spikes right when the prey is about to fall.”

“That way, they basically can’t get any points anymore. Any spirit beast they hunt will be counted as our kill.”

“That’s brutal,” Vinny couldn’t help saying.

“What? You suddenly feeling sorry for them now??”

Shicodale slanted a glance at him.

“I’m not, I don’t, don’t misunderstand. Please absolutely do not let them off. Keep going,” Vinny said expressionlessly.

“Heh, like I need you to tell me that.”

Shicodale sneered. “Those two humans are going to regret everything they did today.”

“So you came out because you saw Classmate Dale getting bullied and specifically wanted to stand up for the other Classmate Dale?” Vinny asked.

“Not just for that.”

Shicodale turned his gaze on Vinny.

“Not just for that?”

“They bullied the ‘prey’ I’ve set my eyes on. Of course they have to pay the price.”

As he spoke, Shicodale once again fixed Vinny with that aggressively predatory stare.

“Ahem, Classmate Dale, cut it out.”

Vinny shivered and couldn’t help edging a little farther away from Shicodale.

“What? You dare look down on me??”

Shicodale didn’t care in the slightest. He just closed the distance again, every time Vinny backed away, he stepped forward.

“No, no, I don’t look down on you.”

“Don’t move. Don’t open up that distance again. Got it?”

Shicodale grabbed Vinny’s wrist in one go, speaking in a domineering tone.

“Uh, uh, Classmate Dale, don’t be like this. The two of us aren’t even acting like we’re here to hunt anymore. With all this pulling and tugging, what kind of example are we setting?”

“Oh? Since you know that, then stop resisting. Got it, human?”

Shicodale kept a hard grip on Vinny’s hand, his tone brooking no argument.

“No, Classmate Dale, what I meant was—I’ve had some issues lately, and I can’t use magic right now. So we really should stay a bit alert. What if we get ambushed by spirit beasts?”

“Oh, that’s all it is? That’s easy. You just don’t do anything. Hide behind me, problem solved.”

Shicodale arched a brow.

“I think we should still respect... Uh, Classmate Dale, forget it, this isn’t the time—there’s a spirit beast up ahead! It’s charging straight at us!”

Up ahead, three three-tailed deer of unknown origin were barreling toward them. But Shicodale didn’t even spare them a glance. He stomped lightly—and three thick flower vines burst up from underground, lancing upward and running all three vicious spirit deer through from below.

[Budding Laurel Vine]

Vinny blinked and then immediately saw his score change on the magic card.

“Tch. No-eyed idiots. Who said you could come over here and make trouble?”

Shicodale lifted his chin.

An as-always, full-of-murder kind of spell.

Vinny had never seen White Shicodale use anything remotely this destructive before.

Though, thinking about it, these had to be spells Shicodale already knew—like summoning flower vines and the like. It was just that, because of his temperament, Vinny had never seen him use them, so it was hard to even picture White Shicodale casting spells like this.

After that, the rest of the time turned into a segment of Shicodale strolling around the forest with Vinny while going full mowing-down-everything mode.

You really had to hand it to him: Black Shicodale’s combat talent was terrifying. A lot of Moon-elf spells that weren’t originally intended as direct attacks, once they were in his hands and reinterpreted through his unique understanding, were forcibly converted into terrifying direct-damage spells.

Sure enough, if you don’t have some kind of personal mastery in certain areas, you really can’t make it into the ranks of Destiny Heroines.

When Vinny first heard that this hunting points match would be done in dorm-pair teams, he’d immediately assumed their team was going to get utterly wrecked.

Forget about him being unable to use his Spirit Soul or magic—his teammate was Shicodale, that harmless, non-offensive mascot. That basically meant writing this round off from the start.

But.

Reality turned out very differently from what Vinny had expected. Their team’s results were shockingly good. All the way through, relying on those massively destructive “modified” Moon-elf spells, Shicodale rampaged all over the first-year zone.

Vinny basically hadn’t done anything the whole time. He just hung out at the side yelling encouragement and providing Black Shicodale with some emotional-support value.

Yeah. Who would’ve thought? Teaming up with Shicodale and he could still coast?

He sure hadn’t.

However.

The hunt match ended, but it didn’t feel like things were over.

Because—

“Ahem, so, Classmate Black Dale... Classmate Dale still hasn’t woken up yet?”

Watching Black Shicodale walk out of the woods still in “logged-in” mode, Vinny couldn’t help speaking up.