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Ion’s atmosphere had shifted.

Ion stood still in place, doing nothing, yet everyone present instinctively sensed that something was off about his mood.

An intangible pressure surrounded them, tightening and constricting with just his gaze.

That thing, which could be called killing intent, clung heavily to the students’ napes.

“Gah…!”

“Ugh!”

Most students froze, unable to even breathe properly.

A few students, like Gwen and Batar, instinctively drew their swords. Only a handful of students who had experienced killing intent before managed to react at all.

Marian was also one of the frozen students. A chill ran down her spine, and her intuition screamed that any wrong move might lead to disaster.

“From now on, consider me your enemy.”

Ion walked slowly, as if taking a stroll in the rain.

Despite being able to track Ion’s movements with her eyes, Gwen couldn’t dare rush in. He seemed to have no openings at all, even while merely walking.

“Feel free to charge at me with the intent to kill.”

That meant, no matter what they did, they could never kill him.

Ion slowly approached the three brothers, Cornelius, Lucius, and Zaius.

The three students, overwhelmed by Ion’s intangible pressure, could do nothing but freeze in place as he walked right up to them.

Ion spoke calmly, like a teacher imparting knowledge to a student.

“Provocation is quite an effective tactic in actual combat. An excited opponent tends to have more straightforward attacks. The stronger the enemy, the more you should disrupt their reason in order to give the weaker one a slight chance. That’s one point I can commend you on.”

The three brothers felt the specter of death looming over them.

Rationally thinking, they knew it couldn’t possibly happen. An instructor killing a student within the academy was absurd.

Yet the chilling energy on their napes made Cornelius’s mind misinterpret this moment as a life-or-death crisis.

If he didn’t want to die, he had to do something.

“Uwaaaah!!”

Cornelius swung his sword with all his might.

The trajectory, thrown off by fear, was easily caught by Ion’s finger.

“Uh…?”

“However, it’s also easy to become the target of an excited opponent. If the enemy is strong enough to finish you off in a second regardless of whether they are excited, then avoid undue provocation. There’s no mercy left for a crazed beast.”

Ion swung his arm like a whip.

Thud! Cornelius, struck squarely in the chest, flew several meters away, crashing to the muddy ground without even a scream.

Cornelius, lodged in the mud, didn’t move.

At the sight of someone flying through the air like a toy, most of the students fell into a panic.

“Uwaaaah!”

“Run, run away!!”

Marian became dazed at the sight.

‘Wait, is it really okay to do that to a student? That person just flew away! They’re not moving; they can’t be dead, right?’

Contrary to Marian’s worries, the situation wasn’t as grave as it seemed.

Thanks to Ion’s precise control of his strength, Cornelius bore no visible injuries like broken bones or bleeding from the impact. It was a feat close to miraculous.

So he wouldn’t die. He might hurt enough to nearly faint, though.

But the students were unaware of this fact. All they saw was a scene where an instructor struck a student down, leaving them motionless.

In that moment, their fear became real. This was precisely what Ion aimed for.

“When faced with an insurmountable opponent, fleeing is an excellent strategy.”

Ion didn’t rush to pursue the fleeing students. Rather, he took his time walking, almost as if he was granting them more time to escape.

“Don’t berate yourself as a coward. Sometimes, surviving to fight another day is the best way to win. Of course, whether the enemy lets you go is a completely different issue.”

Gwen drew his sword and started to steady his breaths.

He crouched down in the bushes, suppressing his presence. The secret of the “Sword of the Rock” was to limit his metabolism to the point of being almost lifeless. At this moment, Gwen’s heartbeat barely thudded at a third of its normal rate.

The moment Ion passed by, unaware of the hidden Gwen…

Gwen’s body sprang like lightning.

“Excellent. You’ve learned well.”

“Ugh…!?”

What seemed like a flawless surprise attack sliced through thin air.

The cost of the missed ambush was heavy. Ion punched Gwen’s back, who had turned his back to him.

“Ugh!”

Gwen tumbled to the ground like Cornelius but managed to keep a grasp on his sword and didn’t lose consciousness.

“Ambush is also a good option. There’s no need to confront a stronger opponent head-on. The saying goes, there’s no defense against an ambush. Chivalry won’t save your life.”

Ion walked over to the wobbling Gwen and threw a punch.

It seemed like he was swinging aimlessly, but each strike cut through the air with a sharp sound.

“Using the terrain to your advantage was also very good. Such weather is great for ambushing. The falling rain masks your footprints. Your only mistake was that the opponent was aware of your ambush right from the start.”

“Ugh! Ugh!”

Gwen could only manage to block Ion’s fists. Even with his body in a disarray from absorbing a strike, he found himself unable to land a single counterattack with the “Sword of the Rock,” which favored retaliation.

If it continued like this, he would surely lose. The moment that thought crossed his mind, a piercing scream echoed out.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!! Holy Mother of Heaven, watch over me!!”

Batar charged in like a wild boar, leaping from the ground. He had no idea where he had thrown his sword; his fists, powered by sheer momentum, struck with the force of a siege weapon.

Rather than meet that foolish strength head-on, Ion chose to deflect it. His hand drew a smooth arc that gripped Batar’s arm and pulled.

“Hack…!?”

In the next moment, Batar couldn’t withstand his own force and was thrown into the air.

This was the principle of using the opponent’s strength to reverse the direction of their energy.

Gwen couldn’t dodge as Batar came crashing toward him. The two collided and rolled in the dirt, unable to rise again. Gwen couldn’t bear the cumulative shock, and Batar sustained a concussion from the impact.

Ion dusted off his hands and said, “Combination attacks are also a good tactic. However, if you can’t sync with each other, it’s no better than fighting alone.”

Two students who had no equals in close combat for the first-year class fell in an instant. It was evident how the other students fared.

Both the fleeing students and those hiding in trees were captured by Ion, screaming as if they came face-to-face with the Grim Reaper each time he caught one.

While students screamed in panic, Ion calmly dealt with each one, as if this were merely part of a lesson, adding assessments and advice with each capture.

After knocking down Zaius and Lucius, Ion approached Elizabeth, who, without hesitation, raised both hands.

“I surrender.”

“Leaning on an opponent’s mercy is also one method of survival.”

Ion nodded, leaving as if declaring her to have passed.

Somehow, Marian ended up being the last one remaining.

She swallowed nervously as she looked at the approaching Ion.

She had aimed to score the highest in all of instructor Ion’s classes; that was her plan. Thus, she didn’t want to give up and walk away empty-handed.

But…

Marian gazed at Ion’s fists.

If I were to get hit by those, it would probably hurt a lot, right?

Yeah. I can’t do it.

“I surrender, too.”

Marian quickly declared her surrender.

Seeing Elizabeth surrender first made her relieved. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have even thought about giving up.

Aside from Marian and Elizabeth, the other students were still rolling around in the dirt.

Ion confirmed that every student had been caught and said calmly, “You probably felt that this lesson was unreasonable. Your abilities will inevitably differ greatly from mine, and you likely thought it was natural that you couldn’t match me.”

“That’s only natural. Because the battlefield is always unfair. Humans are weak. Even goblins, often deemed the weakest, only seem weak when compared to adult men, yet they’re significantly stronger when matched against similarly-sized children. An orc would require a trained veteran soldier to risk their life. Let alone ogres or trolls.”

“In actual combat, you will always be forced into unreasonable fights. The battle will not occur just when I want it to. If only it weren’t raining, if only my body felt better than usual, if only it were a one-on-one battle… those assumptions are all useless on the battlefield.”

“In future combat practice classes, I will teach you how to survive those unreasonable situations.”

While Elizabeth quietly listened to the explanation, she slowly raised her hand.

“Um, Instructor…”

“What is it?”

“They’re all unconscious.”

“……”

While his lengthy explanation was all well and good, aside from Marian and Elizabeth, everyone else had fainted and missed Ion’s instructions.

Ion sighed softly, brushing his damp hair aside.

“…I suppose I need to call for a healing priest.”

That day, Marian deeply regretted her decision to attend this class.

 

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