Chapter 40: Catastrophe in School

"I wonder why you suddenly attacked me, Lucias-san"

Ariel asked while looking at Lucias as he took out a sharp katana in thin air, causing her to smile even further from amusement.

"I have my own reason Ariel, I hope you don't hold a grudge against me"

"Let's see~"

Lucias quickly made his move by charging at her at incredible speed without any sound nor vibration from the wind for his sudden movement causing Ariel to momentarily raise her guard from not sensing where or how he will move.

Lucias appeared behind her as he slashed his katana to her vital parts. Each slash of his sword was swift without any unnecessary movement, precisely aiming at each of her vital organs but due to her reflexes most of his attacks hit nothing but thin air as both of the quickly jumped away from each other to regain their stance and composure.

"You're quite strong, Lucias-san"

Ariel praised as several superficial cuts appeared on her milky skin. Lucias didn't bother waiting for her before changing his stance by placing his blade close to his face, pointing it's tip at the silver haired little girl opposite him.

A stance that Valentina used in the past against him, a stance that heavily relies on the speed and strength of his/her first attack.

Lucias tighten the grip on the handle of the blade before pressing all of his strength on his right foot, using it to increase his speed as he charged towards her location

Ariel who saw his sudden increase in speed, erected a barrier around her body to block his attack before creating several extremely thin needles of concentrated mana, launching it at Lucias' direction.

Lucias dodged each needles at ease before slashing the blade at her barrier at full force, relying both on the weight of his entire body and the force produced by his acceleration as he charged at her location while adding his own mana into the blade to enhance the damage of his attack and enhance the durability of the blade.

The barrier, unable to resist all the force contained in his attack shattered to pieces at the blade made its way towards her body at full speed, causing her to unable to react in time to dodge the attack as the blade sliced a deep wound on her chest down to her crotch before she immediately jumped back to create some distance between the two of them to allow her regeneration to heal her wounds.

Lucias didn't wait for her to recover as he immediately appeared behind her, slashing it down towards her spinal cord without hesitation causing her to erect multiple layers of barriers around her, draining large amounts of her mana.

Lucias who felt the incredible resistances of her barrier immediately moved back, knowing that his simple attacks will not lay even a scratch on the barrier she erected.

"I guess it's time to test if it really works..."

Lucias says remembering the command seal on his right hand, he didn't know if it worked or not since the Holy grail didn't exist in their dimension according to Nia... which confused him about how he could summon them himself if neither of the throne of heroes or holy grail existed in his dimension when he summoned them.

"Artoria... break her barrier"

The command seal on his right hand immediately shone brightly as a androgynous woman holding an invisible sword suddenly appeared above Ariel.

"Understood"

She muttered before slashing down on the barrier with all of her strength, shattering it to pieces as Lucias suddenly appeared in front of her, aiming to cut the tendons of her limbs.

Ariel tried to dodge his blade by moving backwards but due to the help of [Eyes of God] Lucias took a step forward for his blade to reach her limbs, successfully cutting the tendons of her limbs causing her to fall on the ground... with a wide smile on her face.

"How interesting"

She says before creating a flash of light around her, blinding Lucias as she covered her entire body with layer of mana to lift herself away with the use of psychokinesis.

Ariel

Hp: 3,973,000/4,100,000

Mp: 7,620,000/9,800,000

"I'm dealing insignificant damage to her..."

He muttered as a large wave of mana hit his body, launching him towards the classroom where Chris and Ayumu where found while Artoria launched herself towards Lucias, trying to fusion his crash by moving her body behind him.

Both of them crashed into the classroom, surprising all of the students from his sudden destruction that both of them caused from their fall.

"Fuck that hurts"

Lucias cursed as he held Artoria in his embrace for stopping her from cushioning his crash.

"Why did you..."

"Don't do anything as risky as that again, Artoria. That's an order"

"... Understood"

Artoria reculantly agreed as she stood up from the ground, turning her head to look back at Ariel who blasted both of them towards the classroom, as she flew down inside the classroom.

"You're servant is quite... loyal to you, isn't she Lucias?"

She asked as her feet touched the floor of the room, staring at the two of them in amusement.

"Thanks for the compliment... I guess?"

He said while taking out another pair of katana from his inventory, pointing it's tip at Ariel with a light grin on his face.

"It's been a while ever since I got beaten this badly"

He imbedded his mana into blade causing it shine in golden light from the nature of his mana as he read the new feature of his unknown skill.

[??? (lvl maxed) - ???

Multiplies all experience received by 10x

Grants [Transcend Limits] skill]

[Transcend Limits - Temporarily increase all status criterias of the user by 400% and increase all enhancement and spells casted by 100%. (Consumption: 100,000/sec)]

'So I can only use it for at most 1 minute... I need to save some mana left for me to use my other skills'

Lucias thought while gripping the handle of his katana as he activated the skill, causing black markings to appear on his hand up to his eyes, looking at the middle-aged man and Ariel... staring at each other with unknown intentions.

"Ariel..."

'He' muttered her name while looking at her with extreme anger as he clenched his fist from the uncontrollable emotion that she felt.

"It's been a while hasn't it... Sensei?"

Ariel says as she gazed at her former mentor... without remorse nor guilt from what has she done to her mentor in the past, causing her to become cursed by the Queen.

"W-what is going on here!?".

Ayumu shouted as he ran towards Lucias with a flustered expression on his face.

"Ayumu... I want you to do something for me"

"W-what is it, so suddenly?"

"Can you... run and alert the other students?"

"Huh?"

Ayumu asked in confusion as he felt his entire body getting thrown by Lucias outside the classroom.

"AYUMU GO!"

He shouted causing him to hurriedly run towards the nearby classroom, screaming to alert all the students as he passed by.

"... Come to me, Jeanne"

Lucias quietly called out causing his command seal on his other hand to shine in bright red color as Jeanne appeared beside him, kneeling on the ground.

"Yes?"

"You and Artoria, distract her for a few seconds"

"Understood, Master"

Jeanne responded before disappearing from her location along with Artoria.

Jeanne immediately appeared behind her, thrusting  the tip of her flagpole towards her back while Artoria slashed her invincible blade aimed at her neck.

"Ara?"

Ariel muttered before erecting a powerful barrier around her, blocking both of their attack causing it to shatter into pieces as she erected multiple layers to stop their attacks.

"[Purify]"

Lucias casted while placing his right hand above the middle-aged man's head as a warm layer of golden mana engulfed his entire body... slowly purifying the curse placed on her by the Queen...

Slowly the light dissipated around his body, revealing a little girl with bright pink curly hair which is tied into three curly tails on her left side with a small steel ball with crimson red ribbons, looking at her own body in shock before turning her head to look at the boy who removed her curse.

"T-This is..."

"Thank me later"

He said while patting her soft pink hair with a large smile on his face.

"Artoria, Jeanne... protect the students while they evacuate"

Lucias ordered causing the two of them to nod their heads before disappearing from the room.

"You need to explain everything to me later, young man"

"... Sure, if we are able to neutralise her"

"Neutralise? What if I accidentally kill her?"

"Let's see"

Lucias mysteriously smiled while brandishing both of his katana in his hands before charging towards Ariel's direction at full speed.

"What did you do, Lucias-san?"

She asked before firing extremely condensed beam of mana towards his location causing Lucias to twist his body to dodge her attack while Chris launched a pinkish beam of her own towards her location.

"It seems like... I'm in a very dire situation"

She muttered, smiling as she stared at her mentor and onto Lucias, using her Psychokinesis to create a large barrier of concrete in front of her as she tried to teleport herself back to their town but froze as she felt her magic blocked by the pink haired little girl opposite her.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Chris says before firing multiple beams of mana at her with a maniacal smile visible on her face.

"Lucias is it? Can I have her, if ever we capture her alive?"

She asked as Lucias cut the barrier into pieces with his sword before spinning his body in the air to build up centrifugal force on his body, slashing down towards her direction in full force combined by his weight and the force produced by his spin, cutting a large and deep cut on her abdomen as he landed on the ground.

"Sure"

He answered while tightening the grip on his left hand before spinning his body around, slashing her throat, causing her blood to spray on his face and clothes as several beams of mana rained down on her body.

"Oops" (Chris)

"Don't worry... she won't die from this"

He said as he jumped back close to Chris, waiting for any kind of movement from their opponent.

Ariel

Hp: 1,342,350/4,100,000

Mp: 2,667,000/9,800,000

"Ara Ara, it pains me to see you join hands with the enemy, Lucias-san"

Ariel says as the deep cuts on her throat and abdomen quickly closed as several of her injuries and wounds recovered back to their peak state.

"It's a good thing I have appraisal or else... I might think that this woman can't be killed... wait... MASH!"

He shouted while Chris launched a massive wave of mana towards Ariel without hesitation, launching her body to the building opposite their location as an extremely destructive explosion occured on the building opposite them.

"Are you insane!?"

Lucias shouted as he glared at the little girl beside him in anger. If not for him summoning Mash in time to protect majority of the students from the explosion... the consequences would've been severe.

"Hahahaha, I knew you would do that, Lucias-san"

She laughingly says while pointing at the command seals on both of his hands.

"That doesn't explain the fact that you almost massacred hundreds of innocent students!"

"I trust you, Lucias-san"

"Then what if I wasn't able to summon my servants in time!?"

"Then..."

She stared at his golden pupils filled with anger with a casual smile on her face.

"... that's unfortunate then"

"..."

Lucias stared at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face... Shocked by her lack of empathy.

'... If it weren't for the quest... I will kill you.. no, no, control yourself Lucias'

He thought while gritting his teeth... before sighing in defeat as he 'smiled' at her direction.

"It seems like you understand me very well, Lucias Frey"

She says while placing her palm on his chest, leaning closer to get a better view of her golden eyes.

"I know those eyes of yours, Lucias... You experienced it right? Being abandoned and betrayed... I can see it" (Chris)

"Those are they eyes of someone who will kill without hesitation and has experience countless battles and wars... We're quite alike aren't we Lucias?" (Chris)

"..."

Lucias stayed silent, staring deep sapphire eyes without any emotion on his face... hugging her in his embrace with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Indeed we're quite alike..."

He whispered close to her ears, causing her to grin and bury her face ok his chest.

"...but I still have my principles"

He says before stabbing her back with a contract dagger causing her to look at him in surprise on her cute face.

"You..."

She muttered before passing out while in his embrace as Lucias threw her unconscious body on the ground, staring at the explosion to check on Ariel's condition.

Ariel

Hp: 13,150/4,100,000

Mp: 4,395,000/9,800,000

"She still has enough to cast teleportation... *Sigh* I hope the other 3 aren't as crazy as them..."

He said before activating [Blink] as he disappeared from his place.

"... Bye bye, Lucias-san"

Ariel who was heavily injured and exhausted muttered before enveloping herself in mana, trying to activate [Teleportation] with the last bit of her conciousness.

"You're not going anywhere"

Lucias who suddenly appeared above her says before stabbing her in the chest with another contract dagger from his inventory.

[Chris has joined the faction]

[Ariel has joined the faction]

[100 shop points obtained]