I Got a Fake Job at the Academy
Chapter 473: The Strongest Druid (2)

Chapter 473: The Strongest Druid (2)

Ventmin gazed at Rudger's group with calm eyes.

Her tightly closed lips clearly showed that her attitude toward this fight had changed from before.

"Be careful."

Vierano said in a voice more tense than usual.

"If Ventmin Lifrey gets serious, the situation could get worse."

"Why?"

It was Ambella who answered Luther's question.

"That's because she's the head of the Lifrey family."

Elves born with good bloodlines are inherently stronger than other elves.

In other words, their position is determined by their measure of strength.

Although irregulars who surpass this exist, this was the general view in elven society.

Head of the Lifrey family, Ventmin Lifrey, had maintained that position for 500 years.

She could never be considered weak.

"Ventmin Lifrey is a druid superior to anyone else. That's why her compatibility with the World Tree was the highest. After Ella Plante, that is."

Even such a Ventmin was intoxicated by the power of the World Tree and wielded that power recklessly but now that the World Tree's output has decreased, it has rather become an opportunity for Ventmin.

It meant she could now properly handle the power without being overwhelmed by it.

The actual decrease in output is about half.

However, the finesse, precision, and operational speed in handling it had increased more than 5 times.

"This will be even more troublesome."

Rudger also realized the identity of the anxiety he felt in one corner of his mind.

His instincts were warning him that the current Ventmin Lifrey was far more dangerous.

"Have you all left your last words?"

Ventmin asked in an indifferent tone while looking at the group.

"Though it would be useless anyway. Since no one will leave this place alive today."

"That remains to be seen."

Sedina shot back without backing down.

Ventmin gradually raised her energy while looking at Sedina.

-Slosh. Slosh.

Something was rising through her lower body that had taken root in the ground.

The power of great nature.

The energy of life.

And even part of the World Tree's power.

Having greedily devoured those like nutrients, Ventmin didn't forcefully release the power like before.

Instead, she finely and densely calibrated it, unleashing it anew in a way she was good at.

Like thin unwound thread scattering in the wind, golden energy flowed from both her hands and pervaded the surroundings.

At the same time, everyone could smell the sweet fragrance entering their noses.

It was Vierano who responded to the fragrance so sweet and aromatic it seemed like it would melt even the brain.

"Don't breathe it in! It will cause hallucinations!"

Vierano used wind spirits to push the smell outward and created a fine barrier to protect the surroundings by preventing it from penetrating inward.

Even though her first attack didn't work, Ventmin showed no regret.

After all, this was merely a precursor to the abilities she would show from now on.

"Bloom, my children."

Ventmin spoke in a gentle voice and with motherly affection completely different from her usual viciousness, as if caring for her own children.

One flower.

Another flower.

Around Ventmin, sprouts grew, stems lengthened, and flower buds swelled at their tips.

Flowers bloom, creating a garden while emitting beauty in all natural colors.

When the wind blew once, pollen flowed out between the flower petals and rose hazily around.

The golden haze filled the surroundings faintly like dawn mist.

Then Ventmin's appearance changed.

Large flowers bloomed all over Ventmin's wooden body, and a helmet made of pink petals was placed on her head.

Some petals wrapped around her body like armor.

It was a scene exuding beauty like a painting.

It was so enchanting that even those with dried hearts would be captivated by this sight.

However, the group knew that only death lurked there.

The wood zombies stood in the garden.

Unlike before, the number of wood zombies was extremely small but their movements were smoother than ever.

As the numbers decreased, the movements of individual wood zombies had become much sharper.

"Take up weapons, my warriors."

At Ventmin's command, the wood zombies stretched their hands forward.

Then the garden's flowers grew long and intertwined with each other, eventually transforming into various weapons that were placed in the wood zombies' hands.

Spears with sharp flower buds at the tips.

Whips covered densely with rose thorns.

Shields tightly woven with sturdy clovers.

The wood zombies each gripped their weapons and lined up around Ventmin.

Ventmin raised her hand and pointed her index finger at Sedina.

"Your queen commands, strike down those who defy my will."

The wood zombies moved upon receiving that order.

"...So fast!"

A wood zombie that disappeared from its spot like a mirage had already approached within arm's reach of the group and swung its weapon.

Vierano was quite surprised that he had momentarily lost track of the enemy's movement.

But the surprise was brief, as he properly blocked the whip being swung at him with a fist wrapped in spirit power.

-Whoosh.

The rose whip covered in thorns wrapped around Vierano's forearm.

Vierano concentrated power in his forearm to prevent the thorns from digging into his skin.

The wood zombie and Vierano entered into a tug of war over the tightly pulled whip.

Alex stepped forward to help Vierano.

Just as he swung his sword to cut the whip connecting the two, a wood zombie appeared before his eyes and blocked his sword.

"You..."

Alex widened his eyes looking at Bereborn who had become a wood zombie.

"...Having to kill an opponent I've already killed once leaves quite a bad aftertaste."

Instead of answering, Bereborn swung the sword in his hand.

Alex stepped back thinking he had no choice but to dodge this.

"Fighting with a sword even after death for love. Whether it's the one who freely uses corpses, or the one who accepts it without hesitation. What a frightening world."

Alex's eyes settled calmly.

When fighting the same opponent again, the probability of winning was higher on this side but that only held true if Bereborn's armament was the same as before.

-Swish.

Bereborn pointed the sword in his hand toward Alex.

The cross guard part attached to the sword's handle was made of flower petals, which were undulating as if alive.

Just as he wondered what that could do, the blade that rose from the petals burst into golden flames.

"...Ha."

Alex let out a laugh close to a sigh seeing that sight.

While this side no longer had artifacts, that side had been supplied with even better weapons than before.

"Why don't we fight fair and square with regular weapons?"

Though he asked that, what came back was a sword containing the sun's heat.

"Right. I knew it would be like this."

The golden energy undulating along the sword's trajectory emitted heat that made Alex's skin feel hot.

"Ah hot! Are you going to take responsibility if my skin burns?!"

While throwing a joke that wasn't really a joke, Alex drew out his gray aura and spun it at the tip of his sword.

Ambella and Luther also had to face off against the wood zombies approaching them.

"Bellaruna."

Rudger, who was watching that scene, called Bellaruna.

Bellaruna was sweating profusely with her hand pressed to the ground.

"Ah, no! The control is too strong, I can't even interfere!"

"Tsk. Indeed it's become more troublesome."

Even spatial movement was practically impossible.

Whether she had already seen and grasped that weakness, Ventmin densely spread pollen to preemptively block the very space Rudger could move through.

If they carelessly tried to move to such a place, their coordinates would overlap and their whole body would be covered in pollen.

[I'll open a path.]

Hans wrapped his whole body in magical power while violently pawing the ground and charged forward.

Pouring magical power from a distance was no different from watering plants.

The only thing Hans could do now was pure physical attacks that could be unleashed with his giant-sized body as a rhino.

It was an action the usual Hans wouldn't take, but the situation wasn't favorable.

No matter how much of a coward he was, he wasn't so incompetent as to not distinguish situations where he had to step up.

[I've grown a lot too!]

Hans ran across the flower garden.

Every time his giant hooves trampled the flowers, pollen burst hazily and stems tried to grab his ankles but such things couldn't stop Hans's charge.

Hans aimed his sharp golden horns at Ventmin.

"How dare a mere human who can only imitate a rhino."

Ventmin grabbed Hans's horns with her burly hands.

When the two bodies over ten meters tall collided, a gust of wind swept through.

The flower garden undulated like waves riding the surf.

Though it was a desperate charge, Ventmin who had deeply rooted herself to the ground didn't budge an inch.

Holding the golden horns, Ventmin applied force to try to topple Hans's body sideways.

Taking advantage of that opening was Steel Raven wrapped in shadows.

-Kieeek!

With a shriek, Steel Raven's sharp claws aimed for Ventmin's face as it flew in.

Ventmin had no choice but to let go of Hans's horns to block Steel Raven.

Hans, who withdrew in that gap, kicked off the empty air and soared into the sky, planning to accelerate to charge again but Ventmin didn't allow that.

"Such annoying things."

Following Ventmin's command, giant flowers bloomed behind her back.

The fully bloomed flowers aimed at Steel Raven and Hans floating in the air and shot seeds like a machine gun.

[Blossom Shooter]

-Tutatatata!

Hans widened the distance in panic at the seeds shot like a machine gun.

Steel Raven who couldn't respond in time was hit by several seeds.

-Kieeek!

Steel Raven let out a shriek because vines grew from the wing joint hit by the seeds and completely bound one wing.

It was extremely fortunate that Steel Raven wasn't a living creature.

If it was, the seeds would have sucked up the body fluids to grow even larger.

Steel Raven took out several artifacts built into its body and scattered them around.

-Pububbung!

Colorful fireworks exploded and burned away the vine stems stuck to Steel Raven's skin at once.

However, the seed bullets continued to fly, and Hans and Steel Raven had no choice but to focus on evasion.

"That takes care of the air."

Ventmin's eyes turned to Rudger.

She solemnly declared toward Rudger who was staring at her with a hardened face.

"Die and become nutrients."

Huge stems suddenly shot up on both sides of Ventmin.

The thick green stems twisted and intertwined like straw rope, and bloomed golden buds at their tips.

Then the bloomed flower heads turned toward Rudger and contained massive energy.

[Gran Reina Sol]

Two beams of light containing solar energy aimed at Rudger and Sedina and flew in.

The flower garden that the intense light beams grazed burst into flames.

The burning flowers disappeared into black ash, and new flowers grew in their empty spots.

Rudger deployed defense magic circles while developing spell techniques.

The collision of two massive opposing energies caused an explosion.

Rudger who barely blocked it had no choice but to frown.

The flower buds that shot the beams were already starting to contain solar energy again.

The charging time was almost non-existent for shooting such powerful attacks.

It was when Ventmin was about to aim at Rudger and fire another attack.

At the same time as Ventmin's gaze suddenly turned toward the sky, bombardment of fire rained down from above.

"This is..."

Rudger, who saw the unexpected bombardment, looked up at the sky.

Beyond the sky where the World Tree's branches spread, through the huge hole opened there, an airship was slowly descending with its guns aimed.

[Ah ah. This is the Captain. Can you hear me? We've come to help.]

"There's still quite some time until the promised time..."

But there was no reason not to come either.

The situation on the ground was clearly messed up enough to be visible even to those waiting in high altitude.

-Pupupupeng!

The airship's guns spewed fire.

The Zeppelin airship made for military use naturally carried various armaments assuming combat against armies.

Firepower that could sweep away armies was poured all at once at the gigantic Ventmin.

"These vermin endlessly try to interfere with me."

Even Ventmin slightly frowned, apparently quite irritated by this.

Though the falling incendiary shells exploded and raised bright red flames around her, Ventmin didn't receive a single proper wound thanks to her body unified with the World Tree and the flower petals covering it.

"Damn it, what the hell is that?"

Robert on the airship unconsciously spat out a curse seeing that sight.

That monster was clearly made of plants, yet it was glaring at them even in the midst of flames?

"Captain! What should we do?!"

"For now continue the attack... evade!"

At Robert's order, the vice captain sharply tilted the bow to the side without even asking why.

Just as the airship tilted sideways, a golden stem pierced through the airship's side and passed through.

"Wh-what was that just now?! Return fire from the ground?!"

"It was an arrow!"

"An arrow?! These crazy elves can even do this?!"

"Never mind that! What's the situation?!"

"Left wing engine damaged! Lost 30% maneuverability! We can barely stay airborne! But the ammunition storage is intact!"

"Pour out all the remaining incendiary shells!"

The reloaded guns moved to aim at Ventmin.

At that moment, Robert noticed a flash of light from the ground.

"Morse code?"

That signal was being sent by Rudger using light magic.

The meaning of the signal was:

─Pour the bombardment this way.

'This way? Is he telling us to shoot at him now?'

Had he gone mad?

In a situation where every second counts, telling them to shoot precious shells at himself instead of that monster tree?

"Captain! Your orders!"

"Oh whatever! Do as he says!"

The direction of the guns changed from Ventmin to Rudger.

Sedina and Bellaruna were shocked at that sight.

"Teacher?! Wh-what are you going to do!"

"Watch and see."

-Pupupeng!

As the guns spewed fire, bombardment rained down on Rudger.

Rudger waited and used magic while raising his magical power.

Sound wave magic, a derivative of wind attribute magic.

The intense sound shockwaves met the falling aerial bombs and caused continuous explosions.

A rain of fire poured down above Rudger's head as bright red flames mixed with incendiary materials poured down heavily.

Rudger looked up at that sight.

He had no intention of blocking it from the start, after all, these flames were what he wanted.

Taking out a red jewel from his pocket was almost simultaneous.

The red jewel emitted light and sucked in the falling rain of fire like a whirlpool.

The sight of flames covering the sky being absorbed into one small jewel was incomprehensible even to the eye.

Sedina and Bellaruna stared at that scene in astonishment.

-Whoosh!

Perhaps unable to avoid the hot heat, fire caught on Rudger's hand holding the jewel.

In the pain of burning flesh, Rudger did not lower his hand.

"How long will you hide like a coward? Having eaten this much, isn't it about time you wake up!"

-Woooong!

The jewel that had sucked in all the falling flames vibrated finely.

Rudger threw the jewel toward Ventmin and shouted.

"If you've eaten enough, get up and fight!"

The jewel completely shattered in midair.

All the power of flames contained until now was spewed outward.

The breath of the fantasy species dragon.

The sun's heat shining on the forest.

The flames of explosion containing the essence of modern science.

All of that arose like scarlet clouds forming.

Then two huge arms suddenly protruded from within the clouds and a giant revealed its form.

-Uwoooooo!

The fire giant revived once again let out a fierce roar.