The Legendary Hero is an Academy Honor Student-Chapter 29: Starlight Mirage

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The Legendary Hero is an Academy Honor Student

[Original — Yerona]

[TL — MiT7]

[PR — Spades]

[QC — Lumi]

Chapter 29 — Starlight Mirage

——————

Duran's ball, wrapped in lightning aura, rocketed toward Class 5's goal.

"Wind Shield!" Chelsea shouted, casting a defensive spell.

A fierce gust erupted from Class 5's goalpost.

The ball's blazing speed slowed for a fleeting moment.

But its momentum didn't vanish—it was merely stalled.

The lightning aura made grabbing it risky.

Even if caught, it would likely break through Chelsea's shield and score before another student could intervene.

"Pointless!" Duran sneered.

"Carl! Do what I told you!" Leo yelled.

"Ugh! If it weren't for bathroom duty!" Carl groaned.

Carl summoned mana.

As an earth-attribute mage, he specialized in defense and weight manipulation.

Faint brown mana surged from him.

Protecting himself with a defensive spell and lightening his weight with gravity magic, Carl let Leo grab his hand.

Leo hurled Carl toward the goal.

A human shield tactic.

Whoosh! Swoosh!

Carl's body sailed toward the goalpost.

Swish!

The ball broke through Chelsea's shield simultaneously.

Lightened, Carl reached the goal faster than the ball, thanks to Leo's throw.

"No use! You'll just crash into the goal with it!" Duran mocked.

But just before impact, Carl maxed out his body's weight with magic.

Chelsea hastily cast a shield spell on him.

Thwack!

"Urk!"

Splat!

Carl, hit by the ball, crashed into the goal alone.

The ball bounced away.

If caught before hitting the ground, attack rights stayed; if dropped, they shifted.

Tap! Roll, roll, roll.

The ball hit the dirt.

Tweet!

"Attack rights to Class 5!" Sedjen announced.

"Kyaa! Awesome, Carl!"

"Your sacrifice won't be forgotten!"

Class 5 erupted in cheers for Leo, Chelsea, and Carl's clutch defense.

Carl, seeing classmates honor his sacrifice without concern, gave a bittersweet smile.

"Sorry, Carl," Leo said.

"You okay?" Chelsea asked.

"You two are all we've got," Carl said, touched by their apologetic smiles.

"That was cool! What was that strategy?" Nella asked languidly, approaching to heal.

Chelsea grinned. "Operation Friend Shield! Leo predicted this and planned it!"

"Using a friend as a tool for victory. Smart call," Nella said.

Carl wanted to cry.

Meanwhile, Iliana spun the ball in her hands. "Alright! Let's score again—!"

Whoosh!

A whip-like tendril shot from Class 1, snatching the ball from Iliana.

"Oooooh! Howl!"

"So sexy!"

"Heir of the Snake Spear!"

Class 1's morale soared as they reclaimed attack rights.

Iliana, staring between her empty hands and the stolen ball, bowed to Carl, hands clasped. "Sorry, I lost it."

"Give me back my sacrifice!" Carl wailed.

***

"What brings you to the training grounds at this hour, Senior Ain?" Ren asked.

"Why ask the obvious? I'm here to observe Combat Studies," Ain replied.

Ain and Ren met outside the training grounds.

"Of course. Celia, Duran, and Chen Xia are in class now! As their major professor, you must want to see how adept our Knight Studies aces are!" Ren said.

"I'm here to watch all Knight Studies students, Ren. Not blatantly scouting someone like you," Ain countered.

"I'm here for all Magic Studies students too," Ren said, shrugging.

The two weren't just colleagues—they were Lumern graduates who'd known each other since their student days.

Not as friends, but as rivals from different departments, their "bad blood" was legendary.

Add Summoning Studies' Yura, and you had a perfect volatile trio—a fact well-known among faculty and students.

"I was shocked to hear you two took first-years," Ren said.

"It's our first time with underclassmen," Ain admitted.

"Weren't you Sedjen's first student, Ain? How was he back then?" Ren asked.

"Same as now. He adored his students. Halind's changed a lot, though," Ain said.

"By my fifth year, he was already the Wall of Wails," Ren noted.

Recalling their school days, they entered the training grounds.

They froze.

"Bastera? On the first day?" Ain said.

"Bold move," Ren remarked.

Realizing Classes 1 and 5 were playing, their eyes gleamed.

'Score's 1-0, Class 5 leading,' Ain noted.

An unexpected result.

Class 1's aces were all in play.

Though unintended, Class 1 was an elite class with the highest entrance exam averages.

Top versus bottom.

Entrance scores might lose meaning in months, but the gap was clear now.

'Leo, Chelsea, Iliana, Tade, and Nella are Class 5's aces, but the others aren't,' Ain thought, intrigued.

"Impressive," Ren said, watching.

"Leo's a natural leader," he added.

"Felt it since orientation," Ain agreed.

Class 1 relied on individual skill to overwhelm Class 5.

Class 5, however, played cooperatively, with Leo at the core.

He predicted opponents' moves, sometimes using split-second ingenuity to counter Class 1's attacks.

Ren frowned. 'Just aura?'

He wished Leo would use magic.

Leo's spell analysis was exceptional, but his mana reserves were low, making aura his primary combat tool.

Ren glanced at Ain, anxious.

Ain, unlike Ren's nervousness, watched with satisfaction.

Frustrated, Ren thought, 'Leo, use magic!'

As he fretted, the match entered its second half.

Bastera, demanding all abilities, drained stamina fast.

Normally an hour-long game, 20 minutes was the first-years' limit.

Celia's ferocious attack shook Class 5's goal.

"Celia! So cool! I'm in love!"

"Big sis, adopt me!"

Class 1 cheered as Celia broke through three Class 5 defenders to score.

"A monster...?" Carl, hit directly, muttered, then collapsed, fainting.

"Huff! Huff!"

Celia, exhausted from her all-out effort, gasped.

"Knocked out three, and time's almost up! Block this attack, counter, and we win!" she shouted.

Class 5's morale, briefly ahead, plummeted.

Class 1's soared.

From the back, Chloe eyed Class 5.

She'd been the match's standout.

Despite allowing an early surprise goal, she'd since shut down Leo and Chelsea, Class 5's offensive core.

No tactic could bypass her.

Watching Leo prepare an attack, Chloe vowed, 'I won't lose.'

Since their first magic class, Chloe couldn't ignore Leo.

She'd never felt inferior in magic.

Even compared to Abad, deemed the strongest mage among peers, she believed her spell analysis was superior.

And it was.

A prodigy, hailed as a once-in-a-generation talent by the Northern Mage Tower.

That was Chloe Muller.

Yet, in their first class, Leo outdid her in magic analysis.

'I can't lose to Leo Flove.'

Chloe clenched her fists.

Celia's absence left Class 1's defense wide open.

"Attack! If we don't score now, we lose!" Iliana shouted.

Chelsea blocked Duran, who was marking Leo.

Other teammates worked to isolate Leo and Chloe for a one-on-one.

Leo, with nimble movements, weaved through Class 1's zone toward the goal.

Without Celia's pressure and with Duran tied up by Chelsea, few could stop him.

But Class 1 had one last ace.

Chloe blocked Leo's path. "You're not getting through."

"Sorry, but one-on-one? I like my odds," Leo said.

Chloe smirked.

Crackle!

Leo's eyes twitched.

Ice formed in midair, spawning four ice clones identical to Chloe, moving like living puppets to block Leo.

"No way! Ice clones? She's using such advanced spellcraft? Even big brother can't do that!" Chelsea gasped.

"They're not just clones!" Leo said.

Magic circles appeared around each clone.

Each was a functional mage.

"Using spellcraft like that at her age? She's a genius," Leo said, impressed.

Chloe's eyes twitched. "Mocking me?"

'You got first in the magic theory exam!'

Glaring, she scoffed. "You can't break through. Give up!"

"My aura alone can't, true," Leo said, smiling.

Whoosh! freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

'Mana?' Chloe froze.

She hadn't expected magic now.

Leo's body multiplied.

'Illusion magic? Pathetic!'

Caught off guard, she could counter illusions easily.

Attacking players with magic was a foul, but attacking illusions was fair game.

'Which is real?'

Finding the real Leo in a basic illusion was simple for Chloe.

Focusing mana in her eyes, she scanned the illusions.

Her face stiffened. 'I can't tell what's fake!'

Without knowing the real Leo, she couldn't act rashly.

But what shocked her more was the magic itself.

'This magic...!'

As Chloe reeled, Leo slipped past, lightly scoring in Class 1's goal.

Too stunned to react, Chloe collapsed to her knees.

A perfect illusion magic, indistinguishable from reality.

She knew the spell Leo used.

But she couldn't cast it.

Because it wasn't human magic.

Chloe stared back, dazed.

As the illusions faded, leaves scattered.

A fundamentally different magic system.

"Elven... Star Magic?"

Mirage.

Leo had used a spell created by Luna, the Nebula's progenitor.