Chapter 37: An Academy Legend

Strange, chaotic, and insane.

Those three words perfectly described everything Mirela had just seen.

"Why? Why is this happening?"

"How did a bunch of monsters that were so disorganized a moment ago suddenly form such a bizarre encirclement in the blink of an eye?"

"They were so chaotic and weak before, getting hunted by the centaurs..."

Suddenly, Mirela remembered a name she had long since stopped paying attention to at the academy.

Dorian Vex.

"Could it be him?"

"Dorian Vex!"

There was a reason that name came to mind.

Besides the strange tactics of the monsters below her, Dorian himself had been an odd presence at Blackspire Academy, where the heirs of Hell’s minor houses trained for the Claiming.

His marks were dead last in almost every subject.

Territory management, domain-shaping, the histories and customs of Hell’s many races; he failed all of them and stayed firmly at the bottom.

There was only one exception.

The Warboard!

The ranking for the Warboard was set up so that whoever held first place only had to accept challenges from whoever held second. The champion never had to fight his way up from the bottom again.

Since Mirela had never ranked very high, she had never been matched against Dorian and had never seen his tactics for herself.

Still, as someone obsessed with climbing the academy rankings, she had heard plenty about him.

First of all, Seline Ashgrove, the academy’s greatest genius, had failed to take first place in only one subject.

The Warboard.

And the one keeping her from being the undisputed champion wasn’t Corvin Hale, who was just as gifted, or Draven Kael, heir to a warlord’s bloodline.

It was Dorian Vex, the academy’s worst student!

According to the few students unlucky enough to face him in his first, and so far only, ranked match, he used a terrifying style that seemed to have no method or structure at all.

At first, he didn’t seem strong.

Facing him, you’d feel you had an overwhelming advantage and were practically guaranteed to win.

But as the match went on, you’d slowly discover how terrifying he really was.

It was absolute control of the field, like being slowly suffocated.

Every move you made, he matched.

Every scheme you set up, he saw through.

Even your thoughts seemed known to him...

In the end, every careful plan you had would collapse, and you’d be forced to face him head-on in a battle drowning in chaos, fighting to the death.

And yet, he always won.

On top of that, the way he used his soldiers could only be called insane!

Those who had faced him said they usually only understood a piece of his plan when they were already about to lose.

His deployments and movements were so chaotic they could barely learn anything useful from the board.

The reason was simple.

Useful information had to be something you could understand and act on. Only then was it actually useful.

But against Dorian, all anyone saw was endless chaos and madness.

They couldn’t understand him, let alone figure out what he was thinking.

However, since he was hopeless in every other subject, and so few students had ever faced him, many doubted his first place on the Warboard.

On top of that, the only one who ever challenged him afterward was Seline Ashgrove, who always held second.

Taking all that together, many students came to the same conclusion.

The kind, gentle academy goddess, Seline, had to be throwing her matches on purpose, to keep him from being expelled over his terrible marks.

She kept letting him hold on to that otherwise meaningless title just so he wouldn’t lose his place at the academy.

So Dorian’s first place on the Warboard, along with his supposedly mysterious style, became something at Blackspire Academy that was...

Well, how should she put it?

A legend?

Once it became a legend, students stopped caring how he actually played.

They preferred talking about his terrible marks in everything else.

After all, it was the only way students who weren’t ranked very high could squeeze out a little confidence, by comparing themselves to "the worst student in the whole academy."

But now...

"If it’s really him..."

Mirela flew above the battlefield, looking down as she muttered to herself.

"No, no, no."

"If that legend is actually true, then everything makes sense!"

"That bizarre, chaotic style, that madness that doesn’t care how many of his own soldiers die, and the way you only understand his plan at the very last moment..."

"There’s a real chance it’s Dorian."

"After all, he’s the only one who’d fight like this..."

Mirela had started to settle on the idea. But then she remembered something important.

"Wait! Even if Dorian is behind these monsters, how did someone known for being so slow at management and building become the first lord to reach the Tithe Lands?"

"And how did he raise and keep an army this size when most lords are still struggling through their first days?"

But before she could finish talking herself out of it, a desperate shout from Ursok pulled her back.

"Spirit of Nature, help us!"

"Find a weak point in their formation and help us break through!"

At this point, Ursok and the others below hadn’t lost hope. They weren’t even really panicking yet.

They were surrounded by a demon army more than five times their number, and the swamp badly limited their movement, but the centaurs were still far stronger than those inferior demons.

And the encirclement wasn’t very thick!

If they gathered every warrior together, they could carve a path through with their curved blades. Their chances of escaping were still good.

As long as they moved fast and didn’t lose too many, this fight was still up for grabs!

Once they got out, they could use their speed and bows to turn the tables and make the demons the hunted ones again.

Thinking of that, Mirela’s competitive spirit flared.

The centaurs weren’t officially her followers yet, but she had already spent several thousand soul stones to get them on her side. She had long since started thinking of them, and their grasslands, as hers.

In her mind, all of it already belonged to her.

So...

’Hmph! So what if you’re Dorian? Let’s see if you can stop me when I can see the whole field!’ she thought.

With that, she called out to Ursok in the common tongue of nature.

"Ursok Windstride!"

"Follow my flight! I’ll lead you and your warriors out of this!"

She said it with such confidence because her sharp mind had already found what she believed was the weak point in his formation.

As long as she moved fast enough, she could lead her future followers through those despicable demons without losing a single one!

"It’s not over yet, Dorian!"

Deep in the Third Layer, as the centaurs found their fighting spirit again, the lord holding the Abyssal Codex smiled even wider.

"Interesting!"