Chapter 54

Nikami POV

I sighed as I walked along the dirt path, glancing around the trees around me.

It was quiet, very quiet, it would be perfect if I was only alone… However… I wrote down on my notebook, glancing over at the wolf beside me.

"You're here…" I grumbled, making a sharp inhale before trying to calm myself down.

"How annoying." I blurted out.

"Eeehhh?! Seriously! That's so meeeeeeaaaaaaaaannnnn!!" Yuutsu whined, her tails and ears dropping down as she did so.

"Ugh. I'll be going now, your ears and tail…" I sighed once more, starting to walk faster, and away from her.

"He-hey wait! I'm useful, you know, darling? I can hear and smell things that you can't! Like I can smell that boar over there!" Yuutsu yelled at me, running towards me as she pointed towards a direction.

"A boar? That's 3 points." I stopped to my tracks and quickly dashed towards where she pointed, and saw a boar eating on the grass. I quickly hid behind a tree, two large ice spikes forming near me.

"Hey! Seriously! You need to wait!" She called out to me, alerting the boar, the animal looked towards her.

"Oh gotdamn it-" I clicked my tongue, seeing the boar dash over towards Yuutsu, since it was in a straight forward line I aimed the two ice spikes towards it. And it landed, piercing the boar easily.

"Why would you just yell out even though you knew that an animal was here?" I asked her, glancing towards her.

"Well, uhm… A-at least I was a good bait right?" Yuutsu nervously laughed, taking the body of the boar and carrying it over her shoulders.

"Do you smell anything?" I asked her, rolling my eyes at her response.

"I smell the chemistry between us~" She teased, and I simply glared at her.

"Just shut up with that." I started to walk along the dirt path once again, hearing some casting from the distance.

"Oh, earth spirits, help me imprison my opponent's strength! !" I heard a student cast far away from us, and I gritted my teeth.

"We need to be the first one out of this, so shut up and smell anything nearby," I spoke to the wolf, glancing over at her.

Her ears were high up, Yuutsu glanced all around, alert to her surroundings. She was growling a bit too, the hairs on her tail were up.

"Huh? Kurogane, what happened?" I asked her, blinking as I looked around as well. Did she feel something?

As I asked her that, the ground shook, multiple screams from the other students could be heard.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" I heard a womanly scream just near me, I glanced over at that direction and saw their teammate leaving them on the ground. Directly in front of… Something. I couldn't see it due to the trees.

"Hey, Kurogane, you like being a princely type of girl, correct? Would you risk yourself for a girl?" I asked her, calmly folding my hands and staring at her.

"Tch… I… I would save anyone regardless of their gender!!" Yuutsu, quickly ran over to the female, biting her tongue to gain courage.

I walked over towards them, hearing a sudden roar as I looked up to the monster. It was a 8'7"ft tall being with a muscular and large body, they were humanoid in shape with pointed ears, wielding a large axe on its hand. Staring down at us with slanted eyes and sharpened teeth.

It was… An Ogre. But not just any Ogre...

"An albino ogre…" I spoke out, taking a step back as I took a glimpse at its white skin.

"Wha?! What is it doing here?! I thought there weren't any monsters in this place! Only animals!" Yuutsu yelled out, stepping in front of the girl on the ground.

"O-o-o-ogre-" The female whined, sobbing as her legs shook. She wanted to get up, but her legs were so weak, she couldn't.

"Wait, female? Now that I look at you properly... Your wearing a boy uniform..." I mumbled out, then shaking my head focusing on what is in front of me.

"This would be an easy fight if this wasn't an albino…" I mumbled to myself, casting 5 large spikes of ice beside me with a fling of a hand. Then it went straight towards the ogre, it simply stood there, taking the attack as the ice spikes turned into dust, dissipating in the wind.

"As I expected…" I muttered, hearing the ogre laugh and lifting his axe up.

"Kurogane! Take the boy and run away!" I called out to her, using my right arm to create a thick ice wall in front of me within seconds. As the axe was hammered down, it cracked… Then broke to pieces.

"Damn it." I jumped back, crouching down and used my hands to turn the ground to ice, right under the ogre, and looked back at the two.

"I said go!!" I yelled at the two of them.

"We-well I wish I could, but you don't have a chance against that thing! I won't just leave you here! Why can it make magic dissolve?!" Yuutsu called out to me, and I sighed, looked back at the ogre which slipped due to my ice.

With the impact that he had on the floor, the ground shook to its heavy weight. Making the white ogre grumble and slowly stand up, using his axe to make him properly stand up. He was stunned there for a while.

"Albino monsters are rare monsters that can make magical attacks disappear! It has some sort of nullification ability against elemental attacks…" I told her, and as the words spoke out of my mouth I suddenly realized something.

"Elemental attacks?" I blurted out, seeing that the ogre goes back to normal then roared at us, the ice on the ground was still there, and then I got an idea.

"That's it! It can only stop elemental attacks! Not elements on the whole! And that… He was effected by is fall so much that he needed to stop for a while, which means he is weak to physical attacks…" I told myself, looking towards the two of them.

"Okay, listen to me you two, I heard you cast Vine Bind earlier, so cast that again while I place more ice on the ground, Kurogane I'll propel you towards it and hit it on the head. It may look tanky but it's weak to physical attacks. I know well enough I'm physically weak, and she can't even stand, so please, take the leap and do me a favor. You do want to save us right?" I told them my plan and placed my hand on the ground once more, turning the soil all around us to ice.

"Wh-hwh-hwah-" The male(?) student on the ground nervously stuttered, while Yuutsu grumbled and nodded.

"Alright! I'll do it! But how can I get to him if all this slippery ice is around?!" Yuutsu asked.

Suddenly, a slope of ice erupted from the ground, answering her question quickly.

"Run up here and jump, hey, stuttering boy, come and cast it already, do you want us to die?" I asked him calmly, glancing back at him I narrowed down my eyes.

Shivering at the sight of my narrowed eyes, he took a large gulp and nodded.

"O-oh, earth spirits, hel-help me imprison my opponent's strength! !" The male on the ground spoke out, and with that, large vines got out of the ground and trapped the ogre in its grasp.

"Kurogane! Your turn! Knock it down!" I yelled towards her.

"Yea yea!" She nodded.

"Oh, sprits! Help thy self to kick my enemies down to the ground-" She yelled out, running up the slope, then jumping up towards the ogre's head.

"!!" She casted, making both of her legs emit a silver glow, flipping herself, and used her heel to strike the ogre. Using her momentum up in the air and her strength to kick the ogre in the head.

The ogre tried to lift up his axe towards Yuutsu, but I quickly stopped him using ice on the vines to make it even harder to break free of. And the ogre got hit hard on the head, falling down and seemed to be fainted for a while.

"Tch… Why is it so hard when it's far away…" I grumbled.

"I could have just frozen his arm then and there, but I could only freeze the vines… So this is what sensei was talking about..." I sighed as I stood up, seeing that the ogre was fainted.

"I-i-is it safe now…?" The student asked, shivering on the ground.

"I think so." I observed the ogre.

"U-uh!! Bad news everyone!" Yuutsu yelled out, dropping on the ground on her two feet, and seeing the ogre move as it roared.

"RRRROOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!" It yelled out towards us, breaking free of the vines and stood up, looking down at Yuutsu as he lifted up his axe.

"Kurogane!" My eyes widened, seeing him slash the axe towards the wolf.