I ran in the direction of the monster army.

Epona was following me in silence.

This was in order to see with her own eyes that I could “prove that I was strong enough to stop Epona”, as I promised.

As soon as I started running, I also started chanting.

…There was no way I could win by fighting normally.

Hence, I would use the strongest large-scale annihilation magic I possessed.

Namely, the Divine Spear【Gungnir】.

Its one flaw was that after rising to an altitude of 1000 km, it would take ten minutes or so to land due to its free-falling property.

Therefore, it was near-impossible to use the spear with pinpoint accuracy.

Nonetheless, if the enemy wasn’t a hero-class monster, then they would die even if it wasn’t a direct hit.

In order to strike down the crowd of monsters, I launched tungsten spears into the sky.

I did so in succession.

My mana reserve was 1000 times larger than that of an ordinary person, and although I couldn’t display the same level of strength as a hero, I could still rely on my inexhaustible mana to strike continuously.

As I ran toward the enemy army, I kept launching Divine Spears.

I stopped running when I was about 500 m away from the enemies.

If I got any closer, I would be caught in【Gungnir】’s blast.

The army of orcs and goblins had begun their march.

Even if I was prepared to take the risk, I had to draw them toward me.

If I let them carry on, I would end up dragging my companions from the academy, who were putting up a line of defense, into the upcoming bloodshed.

Where I stood defined the area where I could exhibit my full power without getting them involved.

[I won’t spare any of you!] (Lugh)

I took out a foul stone from my pochette and filled it to the breaking point with my mana. I created a bow and arrow with magic, then I attached the foul stone to the arrow and fired it.

[Go…!] (Lugh)

With a bow of which the string possessed excessively high tensile strength based on the fact that I was enhancing my physical abilities with mana, I shot my foul-stone-mounted arrow more than 500 m away.

It landed on the front row of the orcs that had started marching and exploded.

The mana I had loaded the foul stone with was 70% fire affinity, 20% wind affinity, and 10% earth affinity.

Those proportions gave it the most destructive power.

Fire ran from the ruptured foul stone, the wind fueled the flames and caused an explosion, and the blast sent pieces of iron flying around.

Dozens of orcs and goblins were obliterated.

An explosion generated with three-hundred people’s worth of mana wasn’t for show.

I came to a stop and shot one foul stone arrow after another.

Like the first shot, I aimed at the front row.

I could’ve killed more monsters by aiming at the center, but the purpose was to slow them down and keep them away from the academy. So this was enough.

And this way, it could serve as a warning to the people back at the campus. One that said “Do not come here”. If they got any closer, they would die from my next decisive attack.

As I had planned, the army stopped, screamed, and the troops charged at me, the cause of that catastrophe just now.

I had used up all the foul stones in my pochette.

I needed to replenish them from the Crane Leather Pouch.

However, before I could do that, my conclusive attack came down.

[Eat this. Divine Spear…【Gungnir】] (Lugh)

The Spears of God poured down from heaven.

The earth was split open, creating a radial carter so deep you couldn’t see the bottom, and causing a tsunami of soil on land.

An object weighing 100 kg reaching a speed of 4000 km/s after a freefall from 1000 km far away in the sky made for the most powerful weapon of mass destruction ever.

The United States tried to develop a conventional weapon that would hold more power than a nuke.

What I did was recreate one with magic to get the greatest and strongest ultimate attack there was.

Monsters within a 100 m radius from the point of impact vanished without even leaving a trace. Even those that were far from the point of impact were crushed by the ensuing shockwaves, rocks, and earth tsunamis.

It was only the first shot, but it did that much.

Then came the second, then the third, then the fourth. Before long, all the remaining nine divine spears I had launched into the sky came down like rain.

I calculated the landing points so as not to give them any escape route.

Tidal waves of earth arose from all directions and engulfed the army of monsters, not letting even a single one of them escape and overrunning them.

[So this is Lugh’s true power…! Even I could never…] (Epona)

I could hear Epona’s voice, mixed with a hint of terror, from behind me.

I should be proud that I got a hero to say something like that.

However, it also meant that I had revealed my techniques to my assassination target.

First, every time I used my powers, killing this hero would become harder.

I was fully aware of that.

Still, it was a necessity if I wanted to protect those dear to me.

Even I could take down the small fry.

But the demon was another story.

If Epona didn’t stand up, nothing would change.

I wanted to protect Dia, Talt, and this academy.

To that end, I had to reveal at least what I could do right now.

[And here I believed no monster could survive that.] (Lugh)

Monsters crawled out of the soil.

There were eight in total.

It was plain to see that they were unique individuals gifted with power that set them apart from other orcs.

So these were the high-class monsters I had heard so much about.

Considering that I hadn’t seen any before coming here, they were most likely the Orc General’s trump card.

These guys probably possessed the kind of abnormal power that allowed them to survive anything but a direct hit.

Nonetheless, even that was within my expectations.

I brought out my Crane Leather Pouch.

[【Installation】] (Lugh)

I pulled out the gun turrets I had hidden in my pouch.

The guns I used earlier to rescue the hostages might as well be toys compared to these.

They were turrets the size of a 120 mm tank gun fixed to the ground with spikes.

What was inside those huge gun barrels wasn’t foul stone powder, but actual foul stones I had charged with the equivalent of three hundred ordinary people’s worth of mana.

The prototype cannon was so bulky it could withstand the full force of my explosion magic to the best of its abilities.

But this new model was different.

I made it much thicker, applied alloy, and even fortified it with magic, turning it into a monster of a weapon that could withstand even a foul stone explosion.

Since they took a lot of time and effort to create, I couldn’t create them by instant chanting, but with the Crane Leather Pouch which I could store and carry around, I could make use of them.

Again, this was one of the Crane Leather Pouch’s strong points.

[【Aim】] (Lugh)

I aimed the turrets at the eight surviving high-grade monsters.

The orcs sluggishly turned in my direction.

Perhaps was it because they were rather confident that they could defend themselves, but they didn’t take any evasive action.

…Clearly, they had great faith in their durability too.

Even though it was only the aftershock, they did manage to endure【Gungnir】.

However, what they were displaying now was overconfidence.

And they were about to pay dearly for it.

[【Bombardment】] (Lugh)

I fired a salvo of cannon shots.

I used entire foul stones as gunpowder.

In other words, this meant that three hundred people’s worth of mana was converted into raw destructive power.

Unlike when throwing a bomb at the enemy, their power was concentrated into one shell each.

Although it was no longer made for long-ranged attacks, in terms of firepower against a single unit, cannons were several times better.

Among all the easy-to-use magics, these ones boasted the greatest firepower.

Which was why, even high-grade monsters prideful about their absolute toughness would wound up blasted to smithereens.

The monsters in front of me were eradicated.

I single-handedly laid waste to the mob that had been tormenting and cornering the academy.

I turned around and smiled at Epona.

[Until now, I’ve been hiding my real power because of some circumstances. But this is how I fight when I’m serious. If you ever go on a rampage, I will do everything to stop you. Will you believe in me?] (Lugh)

Epona opened her mouth to reply.

And then… I jumped backwards as fast as I could.

A massive iron club was swung down at the spot I was standing in.

The one who waved it was the demon Orc General.

Despite possessing a terrifyingly huge body and power, he hid his presence by digging into the earth, moved underground and launched a surprise attack.

Despite being a member of the dimwitted orcs, this one was calculating.

[Uh-oh, and here I thought I could kill him. This brat has no opening.] (Orc General)

[And you’re wide open.] (Lugh)

An assassin never lowers his guard.

No matter how much he concealed his presence, these eyes of mine could detect his mana.

I could see this guy approaching me from underground.

And it was because I knew he was coming that I had also prepared a counterattack.

When he opened his mouth like a moron, I threw a foul stone on the verge of rupturing into it.

The stone exploded inside his mouth.

That was the firepower of a foul stone. Even if he was a demon, he couldn’t get out of this unscathed.

His head was vanishing from his upper body.

However…

[You almost got me there. If you were the hero instead of that female greenhorn, it might have really been our loss. But you are just a regular human.] (Orc General)

He instantly recovered from having his head blown off.

This was nothing as cheap as regeneration ability.

This was something much more different.

…This was the reason why only the hero could kill demons.

Demons had a physical body, but it was materialized by their power of existence.

Unless you cut down their power of existence, they could restore their body as many times as they wanted, and only the hero’s attacks could reduce their power of existence.

[Epona, fight! You still won’t believe in me after seeing how strong I am…!?] (Lugh)

[But, I…] (Epona)

[Getting comfortable in the middle of a fight? You will regret it.] (Orc General)

With the tremendous strength typical of an orc, he swung his iron club as large as a tree in all directions.

He did so with aberrant speed, and even if I could see it coming, I could barely avoid it.

His attacks may seem dull, but they weren’t.

Normally, even when you had the energy for a full swing, you would be forced to use your muscles to stop and turn back. His attacks were hard to predict and nerve-racking.

If all I had done was bring out my full power, I would’ve been caught in his attacks a long time ago now.

The only reason I could barely react to them was because I used a medicine to remove my brain’s limiter.

By injecting myself with a special medicine, I removed the limiter and strengthened my physical abilities with twenty times the mana of an ordinary person.

Again, this was a trump card I had originally saved for when I would fight the hero.

…I wouldn’t be able to keep up this reckless act for much longer.

I saw his full swing coming at me, and although I managed to dodge it, I was blown away by the wind pressure.

As payback, I threw a poison-coated titanium knife at him, stabbing him very deeply into his thigh.

[Ooh…! To think there was a poison that would render even me unable to move. But if I discard the poisoned flesh, then it becomes pointless.] (Orc General)

He tore off one of his own legs, instantly regenerated it, and then charged at me.

I was seriously getting sick of this guy.

I could recover from physical fatigue with【Hyper Regeneration】. But long would I be able to maintain my mental focus?

…This wasn’t a battle between me and the Orc General.

This was a battle to see whether Epona could have faith in my strength.

Before I turned into mincemeat, I had to show off my strength so Epona would fight.

And this was going to be bone-breakingly hard to do.