Chapter 781: 781: Forgotten Arts And Training

The fighting style of the dragonkin was very simple. They lined up the strongest individuals in the front and let them fight as they pleased. The antidemons who came forward through the gaps between them were slain by the troops in the rear with long-range attacks.

I guess you could call that teamwork?

The reason why the antidemon pressure on us decreased was because they saw the dragonkin as a threat, and decided that they had a higher priority than us.

「Let's go help.」

「Right.」

Fran and Hilt were about to move in, but Diggins stopped them.

「Please wait just a second!」

「?」

「What's wrong?」

「If we're dealing with dragonkin, we might want to ask them if they need assistance first.」

Apparently dragonkin tended to be very proud as a whole, and there were even a few who would refuse all assistance from others.

If such a proud person was their commander, we might get into trouble for lending them a hand.

「Then shall we send a emissary? By the looks of things, I don't think they are in any urgent need of help.」

「Okay, I'll go.」

「No, wait. Let's send someone else.」

「I can go really fast.」

「Stop.」

Hilt decisively vetoed Fran's offer. The look on her face seemed to say, "Send Fran as an emissary over my dead body." Well, I can understand the thought process.

「Then I'll go myself. I have some dragonkin friends, so I know how to handle them.」

「Okay, please go ahead.」

Diggins, sensing the atmosphere, volunteered himself. He had a point. If they were difficult to deal with, then it would be less likely to cause trouble if the person sent was familiar with them.

Fran agreed as well, and withdrew with a light nod.

That's a great help because I would be worried if Fran had to talk to a dragonkin too. Fran has been showing a lot of growth lately, but taking on a negotiation-type job? Let's just say we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

We waited at a distance, taking out the antidemons approaching us.

Hilt and Colbert, as well as the other disciples, were showing off some great moves. And they were defeating the antidemons without having any trouble with their hard shells.

They were destroying the antidemons internally rather than crushing the shells. Phobos-kun was the only one who couldn't manage it.

Or rather, he also crushed the shells too. He wasn't able to fully transfer the force of his blows to the insides, so the power must have been partially dispersed.

Also, Colbert was back to using the Dimitris style. There was supposed to be a 'Forgotten Arts' skill that only the head of the school could use. That skill had been used on Colbert following his expulsion from the school, so he should have forgotten all the skills of the Dimitris style.

「Colbert, you can use the Dimitris style again?」

「Yeah! When my expulsion was lifted, we also canceled my Forgotten Arts.」

And it seemed that it wasn't just the return of his Dimitris style.

「And not just that, my skill in manipulating mana has clearly improved. I had been trying to recreate the Dimitris style movements, which seems to have improved the sharpness of my techniques even after it came back.」

Colbert said that as he hit antidemon with a light jab. With that, antidemon collapsed and disappeared.

Indeed, the power of his penetrating force punch had increased and the flow of mana was surprisingly smooth. He was closing in on Hilt.

I guess that the training he did during his Forgotten Arts period was not in vain.

「I'm wondering if I should incorporate the Forgotten Arts into the new Dimitris style training regimen.」

「It's that good?」

「Yes.」

Hilt said that with her face completely serious. She was really considering it.

「To think that training with Forgotten Arts would have such an effect......」

「No one noticed it before?」

「That's because expulsions like Colbert's case are very rare.」

「What do you mean?」

「Most people don't train properly after they've been expelled.」

In other words, the average expelled disciple was trash. They entered the Dimitris school in search of power, but were expelled for bad behavior. There were many such people, it seems.

Such people would obviously not train seriously, especially after expulsion.

It was even more rare to return from an expulsion. Dimitris would not allow such a thing without a good reason.

Colbert was both rare as someone training seriously after expulsion, and even more rare for being able to return after expulsion. As a result, they discovered the usefulness of training via Forgotten Arts.

「Unfortunately, I can't undergo that training myself.」

Apparently she can't use her own Forgotten Arts on herself.

「It looks like Diggins is back.」

「Oh, he is.」

We saw Diggins running toward us, knocking off a few antidemons on his way.

「How'd it go?」

「Hey. They want our help.」

「So that means they were the reasonable type.」

「Yeah. They were led by a warrior chief belonging on the moderate side.」

「Then let's move quickly.」

「Nn!」

If we're allowed to fight, then the rest is easy.

Fran and the others split up and began their raid on the antidemons, focusing their attacks on the areas where antidemons were most numerous and providing support for the dragonkin.

After a short time, the dwarves caught up with us. The low-ranked antidemons that lost their leader were no match for the dwarves, even if there were more than 10,000 of them.

The dwarven warriors continued to advance with a thousand of them lined up in single file, mowing down the antidemons at a tremendous pace.

Within thirty minutes of our arrival at the battlefield, the antidemons had been completely exterminated.