The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 261: [Boss Fight] Strikeout (3)

Chapter 261: [Boss Fight] Strikeout (3)
0% A yellow cluster of light surrounded the top of the altar.
“W-what’s this?”
There was commotion below the altar.
Aether looked around, then bit down on her lip.
“What on earth....”
What was going on?
She made a shield with her hand and raised her head, and amidst the bright incandescent-like light, she could see something faint.
It was... a figure.
“......!”
Aether freaked out and backed away. There was a metallic taste from her bitten lower lip.
But where she happened to back up wasn’t flat ground.
“Miss Asteya!”
Thud, thud, thadunk!
The world turned over about three and half times.
“Miss, are you okay?”
“Miss!”
Lotte was the first to step up and grab Aether who fell down, her face clearly alarmed.
“...I’m fine, I’m fine.”
Being made of steel, it didn’t really hurt. Instead, it was damn humiliating.
Aether stood up with a groan. It didn’t hurt anywhere, but she had to act like it so that there wouldn’t be any trouble later.
“Oh no, we have to get you to a hospital!”
“No, I’m okay. Really.”
“But you never know what could happen later.”
It’s acting, it’s acting.
Aether, with Lotte’s support and concern, moved slowly. Others like Freyr, Yufiel, and Leninya were behind her and watching with concerned gazes.
By the time she recovered, the light was nowhere to be found; she must have lost connection when she fell down the altar.
“That thing just now, it was a yellow light, wasn’t it.”
Several of the student’s gazes turned to Wilbur, asking for an explanation.
Wilbur shook his head and started speaking.
“I’ve never seen that color before.”
“Miss Asteya’s specialty is Fire Magic.”
“Yes, so it’s normal for red light to come down. But if it’s gold.......”
One student asked.
“Can you receive a prophecy from an Elemental of a different type?”
“The bottom line is, it is possible. But it’s difficult because Elementals normally pick contractors according to their type.”
For example, Fire Elementals were drawn to those with red eyes. Elementals of other types could be interested, but it was extremely rare.
“There are also cases like the president of Iliad Academy, being favored by four Elementals. That’s a very special case.”
In cases like that, a colorless light descended due to the overlapping properties. But the light that Aether saw had clearly been yellow.
“A yellow light.... I’ve never seen yellow in all my time as a priest. Is it perhaps......?”
Ta-ta-tap!
Wilbur’s words were cut off by a maintenance worker who came in gasping.
“...F-father! We’ve got trouble!”
“What is all the fuss about.”
“Sea Dragon, the Sea Dragon has appeared...!”
**
Shaaaaaaa!!
A heavy rain started falling.
The water level was rising quickly. Waves that were a deeper blue than crayon surged like it was going to swallow the cliff.
“You, it’s dangerous here!”
Cecil shouted.
“You get to where Professor Heisenberg is. The mages I’ve brought are enough to handle this place.”
Cecil was a mage with four Elite Elementals. No Elemental Mage was stronger than her in elf country.
But the Great Mechas weren’t to be taken lightly, either.
They were easy opponents if one knew the strategy, but without knowing, Cecil could lose.
“I can help!”
“What do you think you can do! It’s dangerous so stay back!”
Boooom!
The crust making up the ocean surged up, the force causing the fish to jump out of the waters.
Screee, screee.
One by one, Beasts came onto land mixed with those fishes.
“Ahhhh!”
“W-what is that!”
The first thing that came onto land was a snake.
‘Purple Adder’, a Calamity with purple armor.
Thousands of Purple Adders rode up the cliff and came upon them like tidewater, moving hideously like a wriggling chopped sausage.
Ssss.
At the horde of vipers flicking their tongues, the mages trembled.
The mages knew from the tactic manual–if they got poisoned by the venom that was spit out by those vipers, they’d die within minutes. They were even capable of long-range attacks. Just one of them might have been fine, but they didn’t have the confidence to take down hundreds and thousands of Calamities.
And like that, everyone was losing their morale.
With the exception of one–Cecil Renay.
“Everyone step back for a moment. I’m taking on the first wave by myself!”
Cecil lightly swung her staff.
Soon, her eyes turned brown.
[Ultimate Earth Elemental Magic ─ ‘Pluck the day (Carpe Diem)’]
Boom, boom, booom!
The ground was heaved three times.
The earth surged like it was going to touch the sky, turning into a sharp awl. The sharply-transformed ground aimed exactly for the Beasts’ necks, taking them by surprise.
Screee, screee!
It looked as if they were being harvested. Most Purple Adders were skewered before they had the chance to spray their venom.
The ones that survived were also short-lived. Cecil personally went around bashing in the heads of the sea snakes with her staff.
“They’re using a wave tactic.”
Having dealt with all the approaching Purple Adders, Cecil adjusted her grip on the staff.
“Using this strategy means that the commander is nearby. Probably the Sea Dragon.”
She was right.
Once the snakes were all dead, turtles appeared next.
A gray, medium-large sized sea turtle. Judging from its size, it, too, was a Calamity.
Cecil wasted no time giving commands to her troop.
“Line up into three rows! Have Fire at the front, Water and Earth in the middle, and Air mainly in the back to prepare for enemy attack!”
Cecil was excellent at strategizing as well.
She had already stopped the first wave by herself, boosting the morale of the mages. Vermel saw this and rummaged through his bag. Out came a transmutation scroll in his hand.
They’re coming.
Then the third, fourth, and fifth waves came.
Craaaaash!
There was a series of thunder clapping. They were exchanging signals.
“President!”
“I know!”
In the distance.
With an earth-shattering boom, a water column plunged upside down.
Shaaaaa!
The rainfall increased exponentially, and gusts began blowing so hard that it was difficult to stay on their feet. The rain whipped around at a 45-degree angle to the ground and whipped around like death.
“We can’t see anything!”
“Hold onto the person next to you!”
They tried using all sorts of spells but it was useless. They couldn’t even see an inch in front of them because of the torrent.
At the same time, a fog descended. Cecil panicked, but soon kept a calm watch on the situation.
Shwaaaa!
A massive silhouette appeared in the sea mist.
All sorts of sounds could be heard:
The water rising and falling, the moisture in the air vaporizing, mages running about frantically.
The Beasts in the sixth wave charging onto land, the branches of the World Tree shaking hard in the ocean winds, the water level dropping rapidly according to fluid laws.
And the sound of death coming....
Cecil looked up at the sky. Higher, higher, higher. She lifted her head until it might fall off.
[.......]
There, a hundred yellow eyes.
“Sh-shit....”
Cecil’s jaw dropped.
She didn’t know it’d be this huge.
Cecil clenched her teeth. The Elementals within her resonated anxiously.
The thing had a tall, long body. The body itself was covered in a terrifying number of scales and wires.
[
Grrk, grrruk, grrrk....
]
Each scale was a single cell. Several Calamities had amassed together, forming independent nuclei and cytoplasm.
The whole comprising the one; the one consisting of the whole.
“Th-this is the Sea Dragon....”
Sea Dragon Leviathan.
Cecil wondered if this would be what the intangible concept of a nation would look like.
[Are you the leader of the elves?]
In the torrent.
Upon appearing, Leviathan chose to talk to her instead of attacking.
Originally, behavior like this was to give the enemy time to catch a breather. But Cecil couldn’t even think about that, due to the force of Leviathan being more overwhelming than expected.
[Didn’t you say that you would turn us into chipped stone tools.]
Fuuuuuu
–the Sea Dragon blew out smoke through his nose.
[Such recklessness.]
Boooooom!
“Ahhhhgh!”
“Kyaaa!”
“Huaaahgh!”
Lighting struck, falling right behind Cecil. Startled, she immediately turned around.
[.......]
But contrary to her expectations, the mages she brought weren’t hurt or anything.
A giant lightning rod was embedded where the mages were, and next to it, an elf wearing insulated gloves dusting his hands off.
“Pattern number three.”
It was Vermel Horde.
“I died to this a few times myself.”
**
As soon as it was ed that the Sea Dragon appeared–
“We need to get the students out quickly!”
“Are you mad? If we leave here, we’ll be fish food!”
The inside of the World Tree was just chaos.
“Being inside the World Tree doesn’t mean we’re safe!”
“It has to be much better than outside!”
Wilbur Vierbein, the guide of this tour, was arguing with another facility worker.
In the meantime, Aether was going around comforting the trembling students.
“What do we do, Miss?”
“Don’t worry, everything will be alright.”
Without realizing, she was looking around for missing persons. There were more than a hundred students, but Aether remembered them all after seeing their faces once. She didn’t see any missing students.
Anyway, an attack by Leviathan, was it.
She had said over and over to withdraw the troops, but it hadn’t listened.
A clear act of treason.
It felt like her blood suddenly drained. Pasmo of Spring–there was a chance that he gave the order again. Aether grit her teeth with a
crack.
Blink, blink.
And amidst all this, the malfunctioning lanterns continued flickering like a morse code.
“Just what is going on with these lanterns?”
They had been in a dank, damp place for a while. Wilbur Vierbein’s stress level was at its peak. With a sigh, he snatched one of the floating lanterns.
“I should just break this....”
In the next moment.
Spla-plat!
Wilbur’s eyeballs burst.