Seeing the man who appeared before him, Rest's eyes went wide.
"Wilhelm Lubeth. Why are you here...!?"
The one who had appeared was the strongest first-year student of the Knight Department.
He was Wilhelm Lubeth, known as the "misogynist Sword Saint."
An unexpected appearance. Caught off guard by this unforeseen lifeline, Rest momentarily froze in surprise.
Seizing that opening, a Corrosion Beast lunged at him.
"GYAO!"
"...!"
Rest tried to counter the lunging Corrosion Beast with magic.
But before he could, Lubeth moved first.
"Almakain Dance Blade Technique... 'Scattered Blossoms.'"
Multiple slashes released in an instant.
The Corrosion Beast was dismembered mid-air, falling to the ground in pieces.
"Fast...!"
Lubeth's movements were absurdly fast. They rivaled even Rest using Super Acceleration.
On top of that, he had sliced through the Corrosion Beast's body—which possessed extremely hard fur—with effortless ease.
(And that sword... it resembles a katana. A blade specialized for cutting?)
"You were... Rest, was it? That woman's friend?"
"That woman" likely referred to his friend who kept tailing Lubeth during the swordsmanship class trip... Yuri Cattleya.
"Well, that's right... Yuri is my friend."
"Why are you here? This isn't the kind of battlefield a first-year should be at, is it?"
"I'll throw those exact words right back at you..."
Lubeth was also a first-year.
So why was she here, at the very front lines?
"If you're just going to stand there doing nothing, you'd be better off going home. I'll handle this."
"You can't very well entrust an important fight to someone you've never even spoken to. I appreciate you saving me, but... wouldn't it be better if you went home instead?"
He talked back to Lubeth.
She had technically saved him, but even without her help, he would have defended himself with magic.
Lubeth was a swordsman. She was poorly suited against Corrosion Beasts that could melt weapons, and he genuinely advised her to retreat.
"GYYYYAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYYYYAAAAAAAAAA!"
While they were talking, several Corrosion Beasts fired spit-shotguns of saliva at them.
"[Star Devourer]"
"『Heaven-Cleaving Slash』"
Rest used Dark Star to absorb the saliva hurtling toward him, erasing it entirely.
Lubeth bisected the shotgun blast with her blade. The saliva, split into two halves, veered off in opposite directions and dissipated into nothingness.
"She cut through a liquid...?"
Even while slicing through corrosive saliva capable of dissolving metal, Lubeth's blade showed no signs of breaking or melting.
It seemed she was coating the weapon's surface with a high-density layer of mana to reinforce its strength. It was a technique commonly used by knights and warriors, but Lubeth's execution was far more refined than that of any other Knight Department student, Danila included.
"He nullified the enemy's attack...? What peculiar magic."
Lubeth, for her part, had furrowed her brow as well.
She was eyeing the unfamiliar spell Rest had used with a suspicious expression.
"This isn't exactly a situation where we can stand around chatting..."
Rest fired off a wide-area spell in an effort to silence the enemy.
"[" Thunder Storm "]!"
Lightning rained down upon the enemy like a downpour.
A wide-area advanced spell. Its attack range was broad, but its power was low. Against a Corrosion Beast with strong magic resistance, it could only serve as a feint.
"Well done."
Lubeth kicked off the ground.
Seizing the opening created by the lightning spell, she closed in on the enemy and began slashing at the Corrosion Beast.
"Magic sure is convenient. That was solid support."
"I wasn't exactly trying to support you, though..."
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The Corrosion Beast lunged to attack Lubeth.
Rest fired a spell from a distance, crushing the attack before it could be unleashed.
"Almacain Blade Dance… 'Severed Chapter.'"
Lubeth continued to slash at the Corrosion Beast.
Lubeth's blade was fast, above all else. And powerful, above all else.
A perfected form of the swordsman's art. An ideal level of swordsmanship that shouldn't be reachable in one's teens under normal circumstances — and yet there it was.
(He really is a genius swordsman… Could he be the protagonist?)
Rest fired off magic while Lubeth swung his sword.
It was an unexpected situation, but… compared to before, fighting was incomparably easier.
He never would have imagined that having someone else's support could make things this much simpler.
(The coordination with your allies matters this much, huh… I might need to reconsider a few things.)
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
While Rest and Lubeth fought the Corrosion Beasts, Sabnock appeared to have lost interest and began lumbering across the plains.
Ignoring the two of them entirely, it proceeded straight toward the entrance to the plains.
If it were heading back into the depths, that would be fine — but Sabnock was walking in the opposite direction.
"This is bad… Don't tell me it's getting away!"
"Hey, you…!"
"Leave this to me! Deal with these things!"
The Corrosion Beasts had already been reduced to fewer than half their original numbers.
Lubeth alone should be more than capable of handling the rest.
"I'm counting on you — I'm going after that thing!"
He activated his Super Acceleration, kicked off the ground, and shot forward at tremendous speed.
He felt bad about leaving Lubeth high and dry… but there was no other choice.
Rest shoved the enemy onto someone who wasn't his friend in any meaningful sense and went chasing after Sabnock.