An old man with a worried face asked another old man who seemed tired.
"Somehow. The academy is our last point of resistance; if we let them enter, the fate of all our students would be worse than death. Swordmad, thank you for remaining here until now. You had no obligation to risk your life for us."
He knew very well that there wasn't anyone in the current Nacesai Academy for who Swordmad would risk his life.
"Sainac, I am sure that if Yale were here, he would have chosen to help. Moreover, that lass, Ange, was kidnapped due to my negligence. Who would have thought that the Roanmad Clan would pretend to be in a crisis to lure Ange and kidnap her? Those who are attacking us are the same ones who allied with the Roanmad Clan to kidnap her; I can't forgive them."
Sainac nodded, he knew very well Swordmad's temper, and he wasn't someone who could be tricked without expecting retaliation. However, helping the Nacesai Academy wasn't necessary to retaliate; he could just attack them crazily, and they would have severe losses.
The two of them had been taking turns to maintain the protective barrier at the strongest point since the city started to fall. A lot of clans surrendered to the attackers from the neighbor city, while the rest had died or turned into slaves. Those like the Roanmad Clan who changed sides since before the attack obtained a better position than those who surrendered after being unable to battle against the attackers.
"I can endure here a bit more. Go to check the current state at the barrier."
Swordmad nodded and left the room where Sainac was controlling the formation; without the two of them taking turns, the academy would have fallen long ago like those clans.
The Nacesai Academy seemed a battle camp after a big battle finished; there were a lot of students and teachers injured from the moment when the attack started. Although they avoided casualties thanks to their quick reaction in controlling the barrier actively, the number of injured people in that short span of time wasn't small.
The barrier could expel anyone who wasn't a member of the Nacesai Academy when fully activated even if someone was already inside, so they stopped a lot of battles at the critical moment saving a lot of lives.
"Those bastards of outside aren't that strong, but their numbers are too high. Even if I join hands with Sainac, we won't be able to finish before the academy was destroyed."
There were only two people at the Elder Rank in the opposing party, but the number of people at the other ranks far exceeded those of the Nacesai Academy. Moreover, those teachers and students weren't specialized in that kind of battles. Thus, the situation would be dire in a direct battle.
They had even tried to poison everyone outside the barrier using the best poison of the poison teacher who was an expert at the Master Rank, but the attackers had enough healers to avoid that poison from provoking true damage.
Swordmad looked to the rows of injured people who were being treated by all the healers they had at the moment, sadly the number wasn't too high. Ange's master was the one who was in charge of distributing the healers, but even with that kind of efficiency, the healers couldn't heal everyone and was a matter of time before someone died due to the injuries.
If Ange hadn't been kidnapped, even though she was still at the Apprentice Rank, she would have been able to mark a difference with her powerful healing skills. The fact that she could use Time Healing made her one of the best healers of the academy despite her low level.
Sadly, the other students weren't so impressive. Aizu was one of the top healing students at the Nacesai Academy, but she was only at the 2-star Novice Rank, and her healing abilities were far too lacking for the current situation. It was easy to imagine how effective the other students were, seeing that even of the top was like that.
Swordmad continued his way to the barrier when Zack crossed his way; he was in charge of delivering supplies to the injured ones thanks to his speed. He was at the 4-star Novice; after being crippled and healed, he started to train like a madman, and his achievements were top-notch for a student in the Nacesai Academy.
However, in that situation, all he could do was run carrying supplies with him. The healing magic wasn't enough for everyone, so they were also using a lot of conventional medicine that was being refined at another part of the academy; a lot of people like him were running all the day transporting the newly made medicines to the camp with the injured people.
Swordmad didn't greet anyone; he had crossed with everyone a lot of times since the attack started.
At the barrier there was a tall and sturdy man giving orders to others; that man had created a great reputation for himself in the past years.
That man was George, who had lost an arm in the special realm. However, that didn't break his confidence; it only made him train harder.
Until that point, he was quite similar to Zack, but their achievements were on a different level because George had recently reached the Apprentice Rank.
George was someone who liked to use big swords, but with one arm using them turned difficult, so he started to look for alternatives to be able to wield those swords despite having lost an arm. He didn't even try to change his battle style; he felt that giving up on that would be like losing to the bastard who cut his arm.
The answer he found were golems; he always had talent in earth magic, so he started to study how to make golems, and his achievements in that area shocked even Sainac.
Maybe it was the madness he developed due to his obsession, but he developed a metal golem arm that could be attached to his body and could be used as a natural arm. Moreover, that arm was permanent and would exist until being destroyed. However, that arm was a few times sturdier than a normal arm, and with enough time and resources, it could be remade; it was even possible to create a temporally one in the midst of the battle.
The arm acted like those golems who could move without an owner thanks to a core, but instead of a core, he managed to synchronize his own energy to the arm directly, managing to act himself as the core of the metal golem arm. Thus, that arm felt like a normal arm to him but was stronger than a real arm.
That arm had a lot of strength and could use it to move easier those enormous sword that he liked. Moreover, his training speed soared since he created his metal golem arm like if being able to win against his own weakness had transformed him.
It wasn't unheard that after someone managed to surpass a huge setback, their training speed changed.
At that moment, George was leading a group of people to create a golem wall behind the barrier; he hoped that such golem wall would be able to restrain the attackers a bit if they were to break the barrier. They had no place to flee, but instead of worrying, he decided to do everything in his hands. At that moment no one in the Nacesai Academy could surpass him in creating golems, so Sainac agreed to let him create that golem wall and assigned all the students capable of creating golems under his orders.
That golem wall would have some attack power, so everyone hoped that even if those attackers broke the barrier, some of them would die thanks to the golem wall.
"Nacesai Academy! Surrender right now, and you will be able to live! Being our slaves is better than dying! If you render meritorious services, you may even turn into a senior slave and have some rights like resting fifteen minutes every week or eating human food instead of animal one once per month."
The leader of the attackers shouted those words, but no one reacted to them. They were already used to hear his nonsense. They would rather die than live like that.
"Remember that we have that genius healer with us! That Roanmad Clan really showed loyalty towards us. If you don't surrender, in less than two days we will enslave her as punishment!"
They had tried to enslave her before, but for some reason, there was a seal placed on her soul that was blocking the enslavement, but that seal wouldn't last for too long. Of course, she would be enslaved regardless of the decision of the Nacesai Academy.
That threat was also something that Swordmad had heard a lot of times, and every time, he was about to rush outside to attack, but he knew that acting rashly would just put everyone else in danger.
Before Swordmad started to check the barrier, it started to rain outside it. It wasn't a strong rain, and the drops were thin enough to make everyone disregard them.
However, everyone who was touched by one drop fell to the ground seconds later, completely unable to move.
"The ones who shall surrender are all of you!"