Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 299: Second (2)

The Liberation Army and the black mages realized that enemies had infiltrated their stronghold.

They couldn’t help but notice—after all, the chimeras they had stationed in the sewer were being eliminated rapidly.

At this pace, it was only a matter of time before the enemy stormed the underground facility they occupied.

So the Liberation Army made the first move.

The moment the intruders entered, they changed the terrain to block escape routes and sent their own forces to eliminate them.

“So this is the result?”

Veronica immediately grasped the flow of the situation.

She drew her sword and stared intently at the enemy in front of her.

Her usual lively expression was gone—replaced by a cold, sunken gaze.

It carried the chill of a long, northern winter—ice that froze to the bone.

There was no denying the evil standing before her.

The instant she recognized that truth in her heart, Veronica became a sharp blade.

She wouldn’t let her guard down. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Surely the Liberation Army knew this team was composed of elites.

They wouldn’t send cannon fodder to face them.

In fact, the small number of enemy combatants appearing now confirmed it.

‘The passage isn’t wide enough for a large force to charge at once. They might buy some time with firearms, but against combatants of this level, bullets are meaningless.’

So the enemy had chosen a more decisive option rather than wasting resources.

“Prepare yourselves.”

As Veronica stepped forward, the mage beside her—an imperial war mage—began chanting a spell.

He hadn’t been present for the Arcane Chamber exhibition, but he was certainly skilled enough to be assigned to this mission.

Veronica trusted him to watch her back.

Flames swelled from the mage’s spell, while cold air coiled around Veronica’s sword.

* * *

Explosions echoed from various directions.

Ludger raised his head slightly to gauge the distance and direction of the source.

‘They deliberately spread us far apart.’

He drew back the mana he had scattered into the air, gathering it cleanly and safely.

The bluish mist that had surrounded him was absorbed back into his body like water into a sponge.

As the mist dissipated, the scene that revealed itself was nothing short of a ruin.

He had held back his power, so the terrain hadn’t collapsed entirely, but the scars left behind clearly showed how fierce the battle had been.

All around Ludger lay the defeated members of the Liberation Army who had fought him just moments ago.

There were five in total.

Though they hadn’t used guns, indicating they were already far above the level of ordinary humans, they still weren’t a match for Ludger and his unorthodox methods.

‘Insane.’

Chris, who had watched Ludger’s battle from a short distance, recalled the scene.

Ludger was a mage, but his way of fighting was anything but mage-like.

Normally, mages stand in place, draw their spell formations, and fire off spells.

In modern battle doctrine, a mage is like an artillery battery—sweeping the field with overwhelming firepower.

Of course, there are exceptions.

Some mages do move, directly invading enemy lines.

These are the so-called war mages—combat-trained spellcasters who serve in military units.

But even by Chris’s standards, Ludger’s style defied understanding.

Even war mages didn’t radiate the feeling that something was fundamentally different about them—not like Ludger.

‘Even if he served in the military, how could that explain this level of skill?’

Ludger’s combat was wildly versatile.

At the start, he immediately fired magic the moment he spotted the enemy from a distance.

The attribute was fire.

In a narrow corridor, it was the perfect element for incinerating multiple foes at once.

Naturally, the enemies were prepared and took defensive measures.

Two of the five were mages, and they combined their efforts to conjure a barrier that blocked Ludger’s initial spell.

And just as the raging flames distorted their vision, Ludger charged directly into their ranks.

The fire wasn’t meant to harm them directly—it was cover to hide his approach.

Once inside their formation, Ludger released his mana outward from his entire body.

A dense blue mist spread around him, blinding the enemies’ sight.

Then, weaving between them, Ludger fought with a combination of magic and close-range attacks.

He didn’t use any large-scale spells.

Instead, he relied on foundational magic—spells no higher than 1st or 2nd Circle.

And yet, with those basic spells, he achieved overwhelming superiority through impossible control.

‘It’s not the power of the spells—it’s the incredible mana cohesion, the precision, the tactical instincts, and accuracy down to the centimeter... Who is this man, really?’

Even his control over the ambient mana was absurd.

He released that much mana mist into the air—and could retrieve it all cleanly?

Chris couldn’t believe it, even after witnessing it himself.

He had known Ludger was highly skilled from the exhibition match among faculty at the Magic Festival.

But this was on an entirely different level.

‘So that wasn’t even his true ability back then.’

Yet instead of being shocked, Chris found himself resigning to the reality—somewhere beyond surprise now.

“The cleanup’s done. Regrettably, it seems you didn’t get a chance to participate, Mr. Chris.”

“...That’s fine. I never planned to awkwardly force our styles to sync anyway.”

Chris replied curtly, glancing back at Ludger.

Behind him, Bellaruna, who had watched the entire fight intently while hiding behind Chris, suddenly fixed her gaze on the corpses.

“...!”

The urgency in her eyes made both Ludger and Chris instinctively begin to ask what was wrong—

But before they could speak, Bellaruna reached for a small vial in her pouch and hurled it at one of the corpses.

The vial, clearly prepared with some mechanism, exploded midair and splashed a transparent liquid across the corpse.

And then—something both incredible and deeply unsettling happened.

The body began bubbling and melted rapidly where the liquid touched it.

Ludger and Chris were both stunned and about to ask what she had just done—until they saw what came next.

One of the corpses not touched by the liquid suddenly jerked upright.

Crunch!

Its limbs twisted at unnatural angles, moving grotesquely.

Its skin turned purplish, its eyes burned red, and black blood dribbled from its mouth.

And the changes didn’t stop there—sharp spines erupted from its back, and its nails grew into claws.

The fact that the dead were resurrecting was shocking enough—but they were mutating, too.

Screeech!

There were two of them.

They had retreated instinctively to avoid the splashing liquid, so their ambush failed.

If Bellaruna hadn’t melted those corpses in advance, the enemies they thought were dead would have risen together and launched a surprise attack.

“What in the world...”

Chris’s voice trembled at the defiance of all reason.

Ludger, on the other hand, focused his gaze on the reanimated enemies.

‘Black mages tampered with their bodies. It looks like necromancy, but that’s not all. They mixed in a lot of other things.’

The physical changes were proof.

Pure necromancy revives corpses—it doesn’t alter their form.

“...Looks like they came here expecting to die from the start.”

“What?”

“That power writhing in their bodies. It’s similar to chimeras. They must’ve injected the genetic material into themselves through chimera research.”

“You’re saying they experimented on their own bodies? While still alive? That’s... insane. Who the hell would...”

“They’re right in front of us. How else would you explain that form?”

“...Damn it. You’ve got a point.”

Screeech!

Taking the opportunity, the now-monstrous foes—devoid even of human speech—charged at Ludger and Chris.

Their mouths stretched unnaturally wide, filled with sharp, jagged teeth.

It no longer even resembled a human being—its appearance was now monstrous, and calling it a “creature” would have been more accurate.

As one of them charged forward with its jaws wide open, Ludger spoke casually.

“Isn’t this fortunate? Now you finally get to fight, Mr. Chris.”

“Is this really the time for that?”

“You seemed disappointed earlier.”

“I never said that!”

“Then now’s the time to prove it. Miss Bellaruna’s watching from behind you.”

“You son of a—!”

Chris growled, but he didn’t take his eyes off the creature rapidly closing in.

Faster than words, his hand moved.

With a vial clenched between his fingers, he hurled it straight at the charging enemy.

Screech!

The monster lunging at Chris twisted its body as low as it could go, narrowly avoiding the flying vial.

‘It dodged?’

There’s no way it could know what effect the reagent had—yet it avoided it?

And that unnatural movement, if only for an instant...

Chris had already suspected it from the mutated limbs, but now he was sure—these things had far surpassed human limits.

Grinding his teeth, Chris activated a spell he had prepared in advance.

The thrown reagent had never been meant as a real attack—it was merely a feint to buy time.

The real blow was the magic he’d finished preparing beforehand.

Crack!

The ground between Chris and the monster rippled, and a sharp spike of stone erupted upward.

The creature, crouched as low as it was, had no room to dodge.

But then it thrust its elongated arms into the ground and propelled itself into the air.

The spike missed entirely, piercing nothing.

“What the—!”

Chris hadn’t expected the enemy to dodge a spell he had set so precisely.

The creature, now airborne, spread its arms wide as it descended toward him.

At the end of its unnaturally stretched limbs, blades protruded—its bones mutated into sharpened weapons.

“Don’t underestimate me!”

Chris widened his eyes and surged with mana.

His hair flared wildly in the mana wind, and behind his back a translucent image began to form.

A massive flower bloomed behind him, radiating a pale green glow.

It was Lau Blome, the [Magical Beast] Chris Bennimore commanded.

Shhhraaa!

Countless vine-like tendrils burst forth from the mysterious flower, whipping up to seize the airborne monster.

No matter how fast its reactions were, without a foothold in the air, there was no way to dodge.

The creature struggled violently in the vines’ grip, but they didn’t budge.

Then, just as a flower blossoms in full bloom, the bud opened wide and began to gather mana at its center.

Bright yellow energy concentrated into a single point, compressing further and further—until it exploded forward in a massive fan-shaped blast.

The monster, caught in its path, vanished without a trace.

Having defeated the enemy, Chris dispelled the magical beast and staggered as he caught his breath.

“Huff... Huff...”

“All done?” came Ludger’s voice as he approached Chris.

Chris stared at him in disbelief.

Over Ludger’s shoulder lay the other monster—dead, with holes pierced clean through its forehead and chest.

“When did you—no, how did you even...?”

“I just used magic,” Ludger replied plainly.

“......”

He says that like it was nothing—while I nearly killed myself to bring mine down.

Chris clenched his jaw but tried not to let it show.

“That thing you just used... was that a magical beast?”

“...Yes. I don’t like to use it—it consumes too much mana.”

There was another reason Chris rarely used that magical beast.

A flower.

It didn’t suit him.

For someone as cold and rational as he believed himself to be, having a magical beast in the form of a flower was something he never wanted others to see.

“The power was impressive. Those vines locked down the enemy. Seemed quite useful.”

“...Well, it does drain a lot of mana.”

At that moment, Bellaruna approached, her eyes sparkling.

“My goodness! What was that magical beast just now? It was amazing!”

“W-Was it?”

“Yes! Maybe it’s because I’m an elf, but it felt so familiar. It really matched Mr. Chris—it was so cool!”

“Ahem. It’s nothing.”

‘......’

When Ludger asked, Chris wouldn’t even look him in the eye to answer.

Now, with Bellaruna asking, he was practically beaming.

This kind of double standard was so typical by /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ now that Ludger simply turned away and examined the corpse he had brought down.

‘Once revived, they lose their reason, but their physical capabilities become superhuman. Their instincts and reflexes shoot through the roof.’

Even beyond reaction speed, it was the creature’s animalistic sense—how it avoided attacks through sheer instinct—that grated on him.

And the movements it pulled off went far beyond what a human body should be capable of.

‘If you’re not fast enough, you’ll never land a hit.’

More than anything, what bothered Ludger was the strange power he could faintly sense within the corpse.

‘There’s no mistaking it—this is demonic power.’

The black mages had managed to inject demonic power into human bodies.

And the worst part was—

They weren’t going to stop there.