Souta went back to Ibish village after finishing collecting all the souls. He was with other groups that just finished their challenge.
Everyone gathered under Lumilia's order.
"We didn't know when they would attack so we could only prepare ourselves. I'll select some people to patrol around the village so that we would know if the other classes approached us." Lumilia explained to everyone.
Everyone didn't have a problem with her idea as they trusted her as their class rep. They knew Lumilia wouldn't let their class to suffer a defeat. She would do everything in her power for their class to become victorious. That's not all as they also trusted their powerful classmates like Souta, Bryan, Yujin, and Randolf.
Yujin was listening to her words with his eyes closed. He recalled the battle he had with Yuriko, the top ranker he fought in the special test. If her skill didn't improve then he could easily defeat her with his current strength.
Well, he knew that it was impossible for her to not improve. Most of the students here entered the Ladro institute to learn and increase their strength. That's only normal for students.
Souta was looking at Lumilia who was explaining everything to their classmates. She improved greatly ever since he met her. Not just strength but also her mentality and spirituality.
'It's not that bad that I entered this institute. I experienced a lot of things in that place. I should value those things...' He thought as he smiled. He was looking forward to what he would experience in the future in that place which was called Ladro institute.
It was past three o'clock and they still haven't seen any signs of other classes coming to the Ibish village. The team that was patrolling around the village changed with Bryan's team.
It was around five o'clock when they saw several teams from other classes coming towards the Ibish village. The patrolling team immediately went out to report to Lumilia and the other students.
Lumilia and the rest weren't surprised when they heard the report of their classmates. They already expected this outcome.
"Finally, I hope that they provide me some challenge," Randolf said as he stood up from his seat. He gathered his teammates and walked outside the village.
Lumilia took a deep breath before she looked at her teammates and said, "Let's go."
Lynn, Souta, Alice, and Yujin nodded and followed her from behind. They arrived on the outskirts of the Ibish village.
Lumilia swept her eyes and counted the enemy teams that appeared. "Fifteen teams. They have fifteen teams." She muttered.
That was higher than what she expected. She expected that only a few teams would dare to attack them at first. At most some of them would wait for other classes to attack the Mage Class 1-B before they also attack. Also, some of them would wait until the Mage Class 1-B exhausted their energy.
The Mage class 1-B only has ten teams. In terms of number, their class was at disadvantage. But that's not a problem for her. The individual prowess of her classmates was high.
Lumilia looked at Randolf's team and said, "Team Randolf can I leave those three teams in the front to your team? No, I'll leave it to you."
"It's time... Guys, don't be hard on yourself. Just fight someone you can handle." Randolf walked forward and said to his teammates.
After walking for some time, he turned his head and glanced at Lumilia. She really didn't give him a chance to refuse.
Lumilia then looked at her classmates, "Joshua, fetch Bryan's team from the west part of the village. Change position with them and monitor if there are teams that are going to attack us from that direction."
Joshua nodded at her and left with hurried steps.
Souta looked at Lumilia and asked, "What should I do? I want to hurry up and complete the task."
Lumilia looked at him and pondered what she should do. In the end, she said, "Okay, I'll let you go there. After you complete the first and third tasks you can go back. It's better if you reserve your energy for big fights."
"What about us?" Lynn suddenly asked Lumilia.
Lumilia glanced at her and said, "Lynn stay here with Yujin and Alice. Fifteen teams aren't a problem for them. You should wait here until the other teams come forward."
"I could wait," Yujin said as he sat down as he watched Randolf's team fought.
Alice just glanced at them without saying anything. Her instinct was telling her that something bad will happen but she couldn't find how the other class would give them a problem.
'Maybe, the rumors about the monster protecting the Ibish village.' She turned her head and looked at the village behind.
Lumilia and Lynn looked at Souta who was dashing towards the other groups from the left side. Lumilia then looked at her other classmates and command three teams to handle the people on the right side.
She just hoped that no one attacked them from the back.
...
Randolf looked at the three teams that were rushing towards them. He smiled and said, "Don't hold back if you don't have enough power. You are not like me."
Dense and heavy mana started to come out of his body. The atmosphere changed as Randolf grinned devilishly.
"Suffer and accept your defeat." Randolf slowly raised his hand and opened his palm. He then closed it and several balls of flame formed behind him.
"[Twelve Circle of Flame Sphere]... Have a taste of tier 2 fire attribute spell." He waved his hand and the balls of flames shot out towards the three teams in front of him.
The three teams immediately scattered to avoid the balls of flame.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Randolf's teammates knew what they were going to do. They quickly rushed to the side and casted their own spell to disrupt their enemy.
Boom!
...
On the other side of the battlefield, the ground was color black as several tentacles sprouted out of the ground.
Souta was standing alone in front of several teams with his hand in his pocket. He didn't show any sign that he would pull out his sword. He doesn't have to against this level of opponent. [Shadow Bind] spell was enough to handle them.
His mouth curved upwards as the tentacles behind him stretched out and shot towards his opponents.
His opponents jumped backward and used their skill to deflect the tentacles.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
They distanced themselves thirty meters away from Souta. From that exchange, they could guess that Souta was a strong person.
Then, suddenly something came into their mind. This spell was familiar. There's only one person in their batch who used this type of spell.
And that is...
"That's Souta Ieshi, the strongest first-year!" One of his opponents identified his looks.
"What?! The current top 1 ranker?" His comrade screamed.
"Yeah, I've seen his fight in the ranking battles before. There's no doubt that it's him." He nodded at his comrades with a gloomy expression. Their plan was to avoid Souta at all cost and defeat the other teams from the Mage class 1-B.
This way they could complete the task without fighting Souta but who would have thought that the one who would come would be Souta himself.
Souta smiled widely as he guessed what they were thinking. They were planning to retreat and avoid fighting him. He stepped forward and black spikes burst out of the ground. It was followed by the black tentacles.
When they saw Souta launched an attack, they didn't hesitate anymore to turn around. But they saw Souta behind them when they turned around.
"I know that all of you are wondering why I suddenly appeared here, right? Well, I'm not going to tell you." Souta said to them as he slowly walked toward them.
He casted [Shadow Ball] spell at the same time he casted the [Shadow Bind] spell. He just concealed it using the black tentacles. That's why they didn't find the black ball at all.
"You can attack the next so let me complete my task first," Souta said and several tentacles flew towards his opponents in all directions.
He knocked out all the students using his spell. At the same time, he heard the system prompts inside his head. But something transpired. The device didn't change the status of his task even though he completed it except for task number two.
"What the hell happened?" Souta wondered and suddenly he heard a deafening sound.
Boom!
The ground shook and it caused the dust to shot up in the air. Smoke covered a certain part of the battlefield.
Lumilia, Lynn, Alice, and Yujin who were watching the battle looked at this with wide eyes. They only saw something fell from the sky and that's all.
"W-What happened, Mila?" Lynn asked Mila with a concerned look.
But before Lumilia could answer her question Lynn fell on her knees.
"Gwaaaak!!"
She vomited all the things that she ate this morning.
Lumilia, Yujin, and Alice turned their head to look at her. They didn't understand why Lynn suddenly vomited. They asked her if she was fine but Lynn couldn't answer their question.
Lynn was shivering as tears poured out of her eyes. She was scared and she slowly turned her head to looked at the smoke. She pointed at it with her trembling hand.
"M-Mila, s-something is there... I-It's terrifying... We have to escape. S-Souta..." Lynn said with great effort before she once again puked.