Chapter 170: Scent of Vanilla

Freya Goldelm lay on the ground and stared at the two undead trolls as Nora Azol held them off, while Kegrog fired arrows from atop the wagon. Clypeus Gale was slicing at the trolls’ hide with his blades to little effect. Callum Veres was doing his best to support Nora with ward spells, yet the undead giants shattered the wards easily. The stalwart Kithina had been launched away at the end of a troll’s makeshift-tree-club, no one had seen her since.

The few other students that remained had run off to hide behind the trees. The situation seemed dire.

Freya glanced up at the most bizarre student in her class, the blue goblin standing next to her. “How are we supposed to win this?”

“You’re a manifold mage, right? A chromatic white and orange?” Stryg asked.

“Yeah, so?”

“We need chromatic white’s bright spells. Strong exposures of light seem to harm the trolls immensely.”

“I’m not a master mage. The Light Ray spell is master rank magic.”

“We don’t need concentrated blasts, only constant exposure. I don’t have time to explain, come on,” Stryg offered her his hand.

Freya nodded slowly. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her up.

~~~

Nora lashed a water whip at a troll’s ankle, it fell to one knee. The other troll swiped its club at her. Callum raised his hands and quickly wrote a red sigil in the air, a simple ward shield formed around Nora. The ward cracked on impact with the club and shattered a moment after. Nora ducked and dodged by a hair’s breadth.

“Can’t you make those wards stronger!?” She screamed.

“You try to stop a thousand-pound tree with apprentice ward spells!” Callum rolled past the troll’s grasp.

Clypeus jumped away from a troll’s attack. He stumbled back a step.

“Cly, are you alright?” Kegrog called out.

“My vision is still a little blurred, but I’ll manage. I can’t let Nora and Callum fight those monsters alone,” Clypeus shook his head.

“Nora, hold them down! Do it now!” Freya yelled as she ran towards the trolls, Stryg right beside her.

Nora flung her four water whips out, they wrapped tightly around the limbs of the first troll. “I can’t hold them both!”

The second troll charged her.

Clypeus took a deep breath and summoned all the green mana within his body. It surged forth and burned through his arms. He slammed his palms into the ground, the green mana cascaded into the earth, the grass shivered as the stone spell swelled through the soil. The ground rumbled and parted underneath the second troll, swallowing the giant’s feet into the earth.

“Clypeus, take cover!” Freya threw her hands in the air.

The vampire frantically jumped behind Nora.

White light radiated out from Freya’s hands and seared the trolls’ hides. The first troll struggled with its water bindings, Nora held them tight with a defiant scream.

The second troll dropped its club and started pushing itself out from the ground. Stryg vaulted into the air and smashed a hammer into the troll’s head, its neck snapped downwards with a crack. Stryg gripped the white fur on its face and refused to let go. He bashed the troll’s skull with the hammer over and over.

It didn’t matter if the troll’s hide was too thick to pierce. He could still crack its skull. The hammer struck down. Bone fractured and splintered underneath the blows.

Freya’s bright spell burned through the undead hide and quickly incinerated the muscles underneath. Freya’s hands trembled from the exertion of holding the spell for so long, her legs buckled underneath her. Callum caught her shoulders and stopped her from tipping over.

The bright spell blazed on until the undead bones were nothing but charred husks. The spell died as Freya’s arms fell limply at her sides.

“Well done, you were amazing.” Callum gently lowered her to the ground.

“When am I not?” She smiled weakly.

The students collapsed on the grass in utter exhaustion. The scent of smoke filled the air and the sound of metal on bone echoed through the grove.

Stryg smashed the charred skeletons with the hammer, shattering the little that was left of the trolls.

“What are you doing? They’re already dead,” Clypeus furrowed his brow.

“They were always dead, they’re reanimated corpses. A good hunter makes sure his prey is well and truly dead,” Stryg raised the hammer once more.

~~~

The four professors waited at the tower’s balcony in the middle of the academy’s grove. The black mage Gete was still trying to sleep. Vayu Glaz’s eyes were closed, his focus on his hawk in the distance.

Tauri Katag was doing one-arm handstand push-ups. Loh Noir was worried for Stryg, but her eyes kept drifting to the orc’s shapely bottom in those small shorts as it jiggled a smidgen every time Tauri moved.

Loh swallowed and looked away, “So, did the students manage to escape the trolls unharmed?”

“I don’t think so. The dwarf Kithina was the only one who seemed to wish to escape to safet and she was smacked away by a troll,” Vayu noted.

“They still haven’t learned the exam’s lesson then,” Tauri said through labored breath.

“What about the other students?” Loh asked.

“The few that haven’t given up seemed to have run from the trolls the moment they appeared. Well, except for the seven potential tourney candidates,” Vayu said.

“That’s what you get for sending undead trolls at mage novices. Even adepts would not want to fight that,” Gete said.

“They aren’t supposed to fight the trolls, they are supposed to retreat and understand the priority is to get the wagon to safety. This is supposed to be an escort mission, not a skirmish. Clearly, they failed to understand that,” Loh grumbled.

“My best guess is those seven students seem to share a bond, they stood by each other’s side while all the others ran. Even Kithina chose to stay. Perhaps they were invigorated by their victory against the undead raiders from earlier?” Vayu guessed.

“Maybe… What’s happening now?” Loh asked.

“I’m not sure, the Goldelm girl casted a large bright spell, impressive at her age. Unfortunately, it blinded my hawk. Give me a few moments,” Vayu said.

Loh stared out over the trees, wishing she could see beyond. Her blue eyes gradually drifted back to Tauri. The beautiful orc was now stretching, bending over, and reaching her toes with the tips of her fingers.

“My gods, I can’t believe it,” Vayu muttered.

“Huh? Wha?” Loh stood up straight and looked everywhere except at Tauri.

“The students. They managed to defeat the trolls,” Vayu said.

“H-how!? What the hell is with that group of kids?” Gete exclaimed with a frown.

“Then that means?” Tauri slowly smiled.

Loh sighed, “You’re up, Tauri.”

“Finally,” she groaned.

“Wait, you’re sending a master mage against students!?” Gete yelled in exasperation.

“My grandfather’s idea,” Loh admitted.

“I’m limbered up and ready to go, just say the word, boss,” Tauri grinned.

“Don’t hurt them too badly,” Loh said.

“~No promiseeees~” Tauri jumped off the balcony.

“...In retrospect, I probably should have sent Gete instead,” Loh winced.

“You think?” Vayu shook his head.

~~~

The centaurs pulled the wagon onward with a steady rhythm. Clypeus and Nora had their arms wrapped around each other, they walked beside the wagon.

“You were incredible out there. I didn’t know your blue magic was so powerful, why didn’t you ever tell me?” He asked curiously.

“Honestly? Neither did I. It sort of just happened,” she shrugged.

Clypeus smiled wide.

“What is it?” Nora chuckled.

“I think it's pretty cool my fiancé is a blue adept already.”

“I’m not. I don’t even know how I managed to cast those spells. And until we graduate we’re all still technically novices.”

“Meh, maybe in terms of rank, but in power, you’re an adept. You could probably beat Stryg in a duel,” he laughed.

Nora’s face paled. She rubbed her forehead, the sting of the stone Stryg had flung at her last year still felt fresh.

She cleared her throat, “I don’t know about that. You’re better off fighting him. I mean, you're a swordmaster. You could probably take on an adept with your blades alone.”

Clypeus rubbed his chin, “Hmm. Depends on the adept’s chromatic color and if I caught them off guard. The element of surprise can be incredibly powerful.”

“You can say that again,” Kegrog looked down at them from the wagon’s roof.

“Were you listening to our conversation?” Clypeus raised his eyebrow.

“A bit,” the orc pinched his index finger and thumb together. “I still remember the first time Loh made Stryg and me fight each other.”

“Oh, yeah, didn’t he drain your life force? Made your skin turn pink?” Clypeus chuckled.

“Don’t remind me, I couldn’t get out of bed for days. The white magi said it would take me weeks to fully recover,” Kegrog shivered.

“And that’s why I don’t wanna fight Stryg,” Nora crossed her arms.

Clypeus stared at the blue goblin a dozen steps ahead of them, “Fair enough.”

“Thanks for letting me borrow it,” Stryg passed the ash-stained hammer back to Freya.

“I wasn’t sure what you were going to do with it…” Freya glanced back at what little remained of the trolls, “I see I made the right decision.”

“I’m just glad everyone is alright,” Callum nodded.

“I’m not alright. I literally went flying, flying,” Kithina grumbled.

“You came back to us in one piece, I count that as a win,” Callum smiled.

“Aren’t yellow magi able to fly on their own? Why are you complaining so much, Freckles?” Freya smirked.

“My name is Kithina. And only masters can cast a flight spell, even then it's more of floating, not flying.”

“Why does it feel like all the cool spells are limited to the rank of masters and above,” Callum sighed.

“More importantly, why did those cowards come back here?” Stryg glared at a couple of students trailing behind the wagon.

“Come on, cut them some slack. They didn’t want to get eaten by undead trolls, can you really blame them?” Callum said.

“Yes and I do,” Stryg said.

“Agreed,” Freya nodded. “I don’t want to fight next to people who will turn and abandon us the first moment they get.”

“Well, at least we’re finally done,” Callum stared at the tower through the canopy in the distance.

They were almost there.

“I can’t wait to take a bath, the smell of burnt trolls is everywhere,” Kithina said in disgust.

“You’re right, Kitty, I practically can’t smell anything else,” Stryg scrunched his nose.

“Tell me about it,” Callum rubbed his nose. “I’ll have my maids scrub my body clean and rub ointments on my skin until I smell like mint and pine.”

Kithina rolled her eyes.

“So long as you don’t smell like raspberries again. It didn’t suit you when we dated and it still doesn’t,” Freya said.

“Really? I quite liked it,” Callum frowned. “Maybe if we go on another date I can prove you wrong?”

“Not a chance,” Freya chuckled.

“On the date or the raspberries?”

“That depends,” Freya winked.

Stryg tilted his head up and sniffed the air, “That’s odd.”

“What is?” Kithina asked.

“I just caught the scents of our professors coming from the direction of the tower. They must be outside.”

“What’s so odd about that? They are supposed to be waiting for us.”

Stryg closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “Yes, but I’m starting to pick up a whiff of vanilla from behind us.”

“Okay, and?” Kithina cocked her head to the side.

“Professor Tauri smells like vanilla.”

A high pitch squeal broke out behind them. Everyone turned back. The students at the back of the wagon were nowhere to be seen, Tauri stood alone in the clearing.

“Aw, and here I was hoping to surprise you all,” she smiled.