The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 44: Boxing

Leaving the bowl of steaming-hot pasta in front of him to cool down, Athen leaned back in his chair to get a better view of the plaza.

Near the right side of the plaza, Athen could spot a decently sized crowd of about thirty students surrounding a teacher.

The entire area where they stood was coned off, preventing anyone from wandering in and interrupting.

The teacher, standing still with a wand in his right hand, simply stared at the group of students and smiled.

"All you have to do is make me fall."

As those words came out of the professor’s mouth, all thirty students suddenly rushed at the teacher, confusing Athen.

Was it a group exam!?

The challenging students all wielded different wooden weapons: sword, axe, and spear-users were in front the front while the others were at the back.

Contrary to Athen’s expectations, the group seemed well-organized and prepared, as when the teacher abruptly raised his wand, one student yelled.

"FIREBALL INC, RIGHT!"

Suddenly, the student’s formation parted, and three students with large shields charged forward through the gap.

In unison, the three ducked downwards, below their large shields that were the height of a human, and all the other students behind them followed suit.

A small fireball, maybe the size of three basketballs, appeared above the professor’s wand before barreling forward.

*CRASH*

"GO!"

As the fireball collided with the shields and came to a halt, all the students who had been ducking behind suddenly dispersed.

Dozens of students rushed from the right and left of the shields and pointed their weapons at the professor.

At that moment, a barrage of arrows suddenly burst into the air and rapidly descended on the professor.

Ignoring the close-combat weapon users, Athen focused on the six sharpshooters who were still hidden behind the shields of the three tank students.

"Are they...machines!?"

Without even looking down at their quiver, the students fired one arrow after another, their arms shining a very light blue.

Each student fired an arrow about every four to seven seconds, and miraculously, each arrow was perfectly on target.

Back at the front lines, the shield users were still firmly defending against the fireball, which had diminished to the size of one basketball.

And, in front of them, the first sword user finally reached the teacher, side-stepping and plunging his sword straight ahead.

Yet, just as the tip of the student’s sword was about to touch the teacher, a small shield, almost exactly the size of the sword’s tip, appeared, blocking the attack.

Then, as the student withdrew his sword, the small magical shield disintegrated and disappeared.

At that moment, the first set of arrows finally reached their peak and started descending; however, a massive shield suddenly appeared above the professor.

The magical shield was just big enough to cover the professor’s entire figure and easily deflected the barrage of arrows like they were plastic.

Then, it happened again and again...and again.

Every time the teacher faced a spear attack, axe slash, sword uppercut, or even an arrow, a small magical shield appeared and blocked it before immediately disappearing.

Throughout it all, the professor simply stood, smiling, arms behind his back, and staring at the students.

He was...quite literally invincible.

No attack could hit him.

That was until...Athen spotted a familiar figure.

Percy, the second-ranked student, suddenly appeared a couple of meters from the professor’s back, holding a wooden katana.

Raising his hand to imitate a stop sign, Percy smirked for a moment and said.

"Attack."

"...?"

What did he mean by "attack?"

What the hell had they been doing for the last minute, then?

Then, every student suddenly withdrew and stopped attacking, except for the archers; those arrows kept coming.

Within a few moments, a small circle of around twenty students had formed around the teacher.

Finally making a move, the teacher simply looked down at the watch on his wrist and announced in a cheerful voice.

"30 seconds!"

At those words, every student simultaneously rushed forward with their weapons; however, this time, they seemed to be more coordinated.

Previously, the students acted as individuals and attacked whenever they could, leading to utter chaos where students would even hit each other.

Yet, this time, all the students were matching each other’s pace, with no individual jabs or slashes even being thrown.

Twirling his fork in the bowl of pasta, Athen muttered.

"Are they trying to overwhelm him?"

If all the students attacked at once, could twenty magical shields really appear and block every single one?

"Twenty seconds!"

As the teacher’s words echoed throughout the plaza, every student... threw their weapon forward...?

That’s right, dozens of wooden spears, swords, and axes suddenly flew straight at the teacher.

But...the students didn’t stop.

Following their flying weapons, they continued sprinting forward with their bare fists, ready to throw haymakers.

Before the weapons even reached the professor, a massive box suddenly appeared, encapsulating the professor’s figure.

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

As the wooden weapons banged against the box’s walls, a small voice could be heard from inside.

"10 seconds!"

Then, just as Athen was about to turn away, the students... grabbed the box?

With all their strength, every single student crowded around and pushed one side of the box forward.

Combined with the strength of the wooden weapons and arrows, their sheer force caused the box to start leaning forward.

Within a second, the box succumbed to the pressure and fell forward onto the ground, causing the bottom to pop off.

And, through that hole, Athen spotted the professor lying down on the floor with an intrigued expression on his face.

"Congratulations, you pass! Well..some of you do."

Wiping the dust off his pants, the professor snapped his fingers, causing the box to disappear, and stood back up.

Then, after a second of staring at the confused students in front of him, he finally announced.

"I did say you could all participate, but that doesn’t mean all of you have passed."

"Percy, the leader of the swords; Jason, the leader of the bows; and Kenta, the leader of the tanks. You three have passed."

"The rest of you have neither failed nor passed, so you may attempt the test again if you’d like!"