Tl Note: Correction, the raybeasts weren’t flying. I think they were on top of a building and were about to leap at them when Youko shot them down. I’ve already added the corrections to the last chapter.
03-17: How the Patrols Fight (3/3)
“Uwaah, Reflect!”
“Kyaa, KyaaA!? A, AA, let go!!”
“Ah, idiot! Calm down!” After dealing with the raybeast on her end, Youko saw what the other students were doing and yelled at them.
The male student panicked when he saw the raybeast jumping, so he immediately invoked a defensive skill.
The female student couldn’t receive the raybeast’s attack properly and ended up getting bit. Because of that she was currently in full panic.
Youko exchanged glances with her younger brother, then she went behind the male student.
“If you’re going to use a skill, then choose wisely.”
“B-But Senpai, that’s…”
“Focus!”
Youko scolded her cowering kouhai as she forced his face forward.
The raybeast that he’d deflected with his hemisphere-shaped shield was now trying to stand back up.
The defensive shield class skill, Reflect, has the special characteristic of deflecting attacks.
It’s a low level skill that’s easy to use, so it often gets misused.
One common example is when a person uses it in panic upon seeing his enemy jump at him.
“Reflect is certainly a convenient skill that could deflect your enemy’s attack, but there’s no point in deflecting a highly mobile opponent like this. All you’re doing is resetting the board. Look, it’s about to attack again.”
Naturally, a skill like that wouldn’t be able to defeat this raybeast when it could just stand up again and fight.
“Ugh!”
The raybeast stood up on its four legs and glared at them with its sharp eyes.
Seeing that, the male student was about to back off again, but Youko firmly grasped his shoulders.
“Don’t worry, your decision to use a shield class skill wasn’t wrong.
You’ve already proven that you can defend against that thing’s attack even with your low level shield class skill, so what’s there to worry about?”
Youko encouraged him and patted him from the back.
She didn’t say anything more, as she was confident that he already knew what to do.
The raybeast kicked off the ground and came leaping for the male student again. In response, the male student stretched out his hand where his foster was equipped.
“Shield!”
The defensive skill he used was the most simplest of them all. It was the lowest level shield that could only create a hemisphere-shaped energy that faced forward, but it was enough to defend against this dog-class raybeast’s claws.
“Now!”
“YAAa!!”
As the male student received the enemy’s attack with his shield, he swung his blade from the side and cut the raybeast in two.
The shield erected by one wouldn’t interfere with one’s own attacks.
Because of that he was easily able to finish off the raybeast that was busy grappling with his shield.
When Youko saw the raybeast disperse and leave behind a glowing organ, she patted the male student on the head.
“Good job. Keep it up.”
“Y-Yes!”
The male student blushed a little as he nodded.
As for the female student who was bitten, help was quick to reach her.
Having arrived at the same decision as his older sister, Yousuke used an offensive gun class skill.
“Shotgun!”
Yousuke used the shock waves released by the bullet to blow the raybeast off the female student’s arm.
As for the female student, she went tumbling away from the raybeast and had no idea what had just happened.
“I know you’re scared. We’re scared too.
But there’s no reason to feel unnecessary fear.
Look at your arms, that thing’s fangs haven’t touched you at all, has it?”
She looked at her arm just as she was told, and just as he said, there were indeed no wounds.
But that was only natural, after all, her arms were covered in armor.
The only thing the raybeast was clinging onto was the barrier covering her body.
Although that in and of itself was enough to cause her fear.
“Don’t worry, we have your back, so leave the support to us.”
In order to relax the panicking student, Yousuke smiled at the girl and gave her a thumbs up.
As the female student calmed down, she fixed her posture and took out her blade again.
“You, support her. Shoot your blasters toward that beast.”
“Huh? But I’m not good enough to hit it…”
Yousuke gave commands to a female student who was in the rear guard.
She argued that she can’t keep up with the raybeast, but Yousuke shook his head.
“You don’t need to hit it. Tell me, what is our role?”
“…To support!”
As if she’d understood something, she held her blaster with her two hands and started shooting.
As soon as she did, the raybeast jumped up and dodged her attacks one after another, but the rain of photon bullets was endless, and the raybeast was left with no choice but to keep on dodging.
“Shoot there!”
“U-Understood!”
When the raybeast jumped horizontally, she shot toward the place it would land.
Unfortunately, the raybeast was able to sense what she was about to do and was able to dodge it by jumping high up into the sky.
“Don’t jump when you can’t fly!”
The student yelled as she held her blade in the lower stance.
“Jet Blade!!”
As she drew a path with her blade, photon energy coursed through it and shot forth a blade of ether.
The raybeast, who had jumped high up to the sky, had no way of dodging.
In the next moment, the blade of ether tore its body apart.
Unlike Shock Blade that relied on shock waves, Jet Blade was literally a flying slash.
“We did it!” The two kouhais said.
With the battle being able to progress just as they’d hoped, the two female students high-fived each other.
“Considering you thought that up on the fly, I’d say you make a pretty good combination.
These patrols are also a form of practice for team combat.
There’s no reason to take the raybeasts on alone. Let’s work together.”
“Yes, Yousuke-senpai!”
As Yousuke said that, he raised his hand up. The two kouhais hesitated a little, but they high-fived him too.
The three of them were all blushing to some extent, but Yousuke was able to regain his calm quicker.
He looked at his older sister as she patted the head of a male student.
“Sis, stop trying to swindle the helpless freshman. The next wave is coming,” Yousuke said to his sister before turning to his kouhais. “The numbers are different, but please don’t forget that earlier feeling.”
Yousuke pointed to the monitor projected in the space before them as he spoke.
There were 15 blips blinking on the map, and they were all headed where they were.
This time, however, the raybeasts could be seen approaching them head on.
“Who’s trying to swindle who!? I don’t want to be told that by you!” Youko said to her younger brother before turning to her kouhais. “Don’t just block, hit them in the head too when the opportunity shows itself.
Focus on containing the situation before gathering trophies. Let’s go!”
“Yes!”
After regaining their calm and having a taste of victory, the front guards finally stopped fearing the enemy.
15 dog-class raybeasts were now approaching them, but they felt little fear.
It was a coincidence, but the siblings were happy to see that they were able to deal with a smaller wave first.
Actually, the older sister could have just taken them all out in one blow, but it was important to let these kouhais of theirs gain some experience, so she sent out a shock wave attack instead and had them fight them.
Thanks to that though, they were now in the ideal mental state for combat.
“From here on out is the real thing! So open your eyes wide and watch!” The older sister said to the students protecting the buildings.
“Don’t push yourselves too hard and take them out one at a time! They’re coming!” The younger brother said to the front and rear guards.
The students each gave their replies as they engaged the pack of raybeasts.
Tl Note: Next chapter on Saturday. We’re back to our usual schedule. Yay!
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