Accompanied by the overwhelming gravity, Noah plummeted from the sky with the two young women.
Even before they touched down, the ground had already collapsed into a shallow crater under the distorted gravity field.
Just landing required a delicate four-step process: descend, deactivate, reactivate, and deactivate again.
If he forgot to deactivate the gravity in time, he would have splattered Stella and Tohka Todo into meat patties along with himself.
At that moment, a massive horde of Rock Golems noticed Noah and the others.
Noah glanced at the two women beside him, their legs still trembling. He figured they wouldn't be able to fight properly for a while.
He cracked his knuckles as Raven Feather materialized.
The moment the dark gauntlet fully formed, he began to stroll leisurely toward the swarm of Rock Golems.
He raised his hand, aiming his palm at the more than twenty Rock Golems standing before him.
Each of these Rock Golems stood just under four meters tall.
Clearly, these things were not living creatures.
They didn't possess souls since they were merely inorganic matter.
The only reason they could move was due to the magical threads connecting to their bodies.
"A Wire Puller, huh?"
Interesting.
This was the first time he had encountered a Blazer of this type.
To date, the person he had fought most was Stella.
Beyond her, the opponents he'd faced in public matches since arriving at Hagun Academy had been rather ordinary, with only Shizuku possessing any notable strength.
But Shizuku's power lay in her precise magic control. Her innate Ability itself wasn't difficult to handle.
In contrast, Causal Interference-type ability users like Utakata were a different story.
Once you faced them, you'd realize just how broken their conceptual powers were.
Bizarre "first-encounter kill" abilities were common in this world.
For example, an ability that could kill with a kiss.
Though the trigger condition was strict, its effect was absolute. If a peerless beauty possessed such a power, the trigger condition would become much easier to meet—countless people would willingly throw themselves at her for a kiss, only to die.
Wire Pullers were one of the more bizarre types Noah knew of from his League studies.
They didn't fight physically.
Instead, they used their Noble Art to transform magic power into invisible threads, connecting them to inorganic matter to manipulate it from afar.
The current opponent was assembling loose rocks into giants and controlling them like puppets.
If that were all, it would be simple enough.
To capture the king, first capture the bandits.
The problem is that first-rate Wire Pullers can safely control their pre-set puppets from dozens of kilometers away.
And since the puppets are just inorganic matter, even if you defeat them a hundred times, a thousand times, they will simply reassemble.
Legion War is the most common tactic for Wire Pullers: manipulating a vast number of inorganic objects to swarm their enemies.
Their own forces feel no pain and fear no death, so only the besieged side gets worn down.
For some people, this makes them the most troublesome opponents imaginable.
Take Ikki, for example.
His innate Ability is Body Enhancement, and his only attack method is physical swordsmanship.
Against Rock Golems, he couldn't even scratch them without charging his attacks, let alone defeat them.
Even if he went all out and managed to destroy one or two, the puppets would regenerate indefinitely, eventually overwhelming his stamina.
Even if he activated Ittou Shura and took them down with a single strike each, once his one minute was up, he'd be helpless.
This is the difference in combat compatibility.
Even a master like 'Another One' could be crushed without any chance to fight back if his weaknesses were exploited.
Perhaps one day, his sword might become so powerful it could even sever causality itself, allowing him to overcome this specific weakness.
But Noah's approach was far simpler and more brutal.
One after another, massive fireballs materialized in his hands and were unleashed, bombarding the army of Rock Golems like a Vulcan cannon.
BOOM! BOOM!
The intense explosions made the three Student Council members trapped in the encirclement break out in a cold sweat.
"Hey, hey! Our junior isn't going to hit us too, is he?!"
"With this kind of raw firepower, is he even human?! He's more like a bomber plane!"
Dozens, then hundreds of fireballs flew out in continuous streams, blooming like crimson lotuses against the stone.
Smoke filled the air, and flames billowed backward.
The Rock Golems were blasted to smithereens again and again, yet Noah's assault showed no sign of stopping or slowing down.
...
Meanwhile, nearly a hundred kilometers away...
A man wearing a clown mask felt a chill run down his spine!
He was the Wire Puller remotely controlling the Rock Golems.
As his puppets were repeatedly destroyed by the fire, he, as their master, had to constantly repair them—an act that rapidly consumed his own Magic Power.
In contrast...
"Wh-what's going on?! Is this guy's Magic Power infinite?! How can he cast hundreds of A-Rank spells like this without even pausing for breath?! Am I dreaming?!"
The Wire Puller began to question his very existence.
After enduring the bombardment for several dozen seconds, he finally refused to remain on the defensive.
He had always been the one to overwhelm others with the advantage of legion warfare, he had never been the one suppressed.
Now, he was being beaten so badly that all he could do was endlessly repair his shattered puppets just to keep them standing.
"Damn it! If quantity won't work, I will bet on quality!"
"Gather! All of you!"
The Wire Puller intensified his Magic Power output, causing all the shattered rock fragments across the Okutama campsite to converge onto a single puppet.
...
Seeing this massive shift, Noah temporarily halted his attack.
At the same time, the three Student Council members scrambled to escape the epicenter.
Staying there any longer would cost them their lives.
"Is this the Calamity? He's literally a walking natural disaster... terrifying," Renren muttered, using her innate Ability, Mach Greed, to accelerate and carry Utakata and Utsutsu to Stella and Tohka's side.
By now, both Stella and Tohka had mostly regained their composure from the flight.
Watching the central Rock Golem grow rapidly, easily surpassing seven meters and still expanding, Stella's ruby eyes widened.
Then, she stammered, "Th-the Rock Giant... it's completely different from what I imagined!!"
"Is this really the time to be worried about that?!" Renren retorted.
Tohka pushed herself to her feet and shouted to Noah, "Noah-kun! The Wire Puller can only control one core puppet that acts as a central relay hub! If you destroy that specific one, you can break their Noble Art!"
Noah turned his head and gave her a slight nod.
'So that's how it works.'
He had originally planned to simply overwhelm the Wire Puller with sheer magical attrition, but it turned out his opponent had a structural weakness.
Come to think of it, the Student Council members, with their exceptional strength, had already participated in special League missions arranged by the academy—real combat situations.
These missions typically involved suppressing riots and facing a wide variety of enemies, from ordinary terrorists to wanted, illegal Blazers.
Through these experiences, they had encountered many Blazers with diverse abilities and gained corresponding tactical knowledge.
Unlike them, this was Noah's first encounter with a Wire Puller, and his initial strategy was to crush him with saturation attacks.
While overwhelming force could solve many problems, it was always better to use just enough effort to get the job done efficiently.
Noah observed the Magic Power flowing through the massive Rock Golem using Truth Seeker and noticed a glowing thread of magic leading directly to its chest cavity.
"Thread" was an understatement—this concentrated stream of Magic Power was as thick as a water bucket.
'All I need to do is sever that.'
With a light stomp, Noah cracked the ground beneath his feet.
He extracted iron elements and used his smelting magic, forming a dense black sword just over a meter long in his hand.
The fully formed Rock Giant exuded immense physical pressure. It swung its massive fist down like a small mountain crashing from the sky.
Noah waved his left hand, unleashing a massive wave of frigid air that instantly encased most of the Rock Golem's descending arm in thick ice.
Then, a highly pressurized torrent of water erupted from beneath his feet, propelling him upward onto the giant's frozen arm.
He manipulated the icy surface, gliding at high speed along the Rock Giant's arm, rapidly closing in on its chest.
The Rock Giant violently severed its own frozen arm and took a heavy step back.
At the same time, its other hand expanded to an enormous size and swept horizontally toward him to swat him out of the air.
'I can't block this.'
Even if he managed to defend against the kinetic force, he'd be sent flying like a baseball, potentially landing kilometers away in the forest.
Flame and lightning merged.
Noah unleashed a barrage of Fire-Lightning from his sword, launching dozens of explosive sword slashes.
Under this heavy bombardment, the Rock Golem's massive hand shattered into countless, burning fragments.
Dispelling the magic, Noah infused his sword with pure kinetic energy and leaped toward the Rock Golem's chest.
He plunged the black sword downward, piercing straight through the stone armor and into the core Rock Puppet hidden inside.
The magic connection was instantly severed by the strike.
Without its controller's signal, the massive Rock Golem collapsed, reverting to ordinary rocks that scattered harmlessly across the campsite ground.
"So... so strong!" Renren watched Noah, who had effortlessly defeated the towering Rock Golem without even breaking a sweat, and felt an overwhelming sense of pressure.
She knew she could never win against him in a tournament.
Tohka narrowed her eyes, observing the boy who remained completely untouched by the dust.
The corners of her lips couldn't help but curve upward into a fierce smile.
She quickly pretended to adjust her glasses, using her hand to hide her expression, afraid she might burst out laughing.
She didn't even need a mirror to know her expression was one of pure excitement!
Having witnessed such flawless power, how could her heart not pound with exhilaration?
In that very instant, she made up her mind: she had to fight the Calamity!
Regardless of victory or defeat!
Just to test her blade and ascend to a higher level!
...
Bang!
A hundred kilometers away.
The Wire Puller, wearing a clown mask, violently kicked over a stool beside him in his hideout.
Next to him, a dignified black-haired man watched his outburst with a disdainful snort.
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