The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 38

Whiiiiiine—!
With an eerie wail piercing the air, bullets hung suspended around Khalid, spinning uselessly in place.
“Magic shouldn’t be possible?! Without a staff, how are you deploying a Mana Control Field…?!”
The Terrorists, momentarily stunned before grasping the situation, exchanged uncertain glances with Leoryna.
Khalid had unleashed his Mana Control Field with astonishing speed—without a staff, without casting—and Leoryna’s eyes widened in shock.
“You’ve underestimated me far too much. Did you truly believe that simply stealing my staff and deploying a Mana Control Field would render me powerless?”
While the Terrorists reeled in confusion, Khalid snapped his fingers, and the bullets reversed course toward their attackers.
Yet they met the same fate. Just as with Khalid, the bullets flying toward the other Terrorists struck something invisible and ricocheted wildly off course.
“?!”
Khalid’s brow furrowed in bewilderment when someone kindly offered an explanation.
“Breaking the Mana Control Field means our mage can also cast magic. Shouldn’t you have anticipated that we’d have a mage of our own?”
Khalid stared at the speaker in disbelief.
“Leoryna…?”
“Kehehehe….”
Leoryna trembled with quiet laughter.
“Hehehehehehe….”
“Leoryna?”
Leoryna untied the ropes herself, brushed off her clothes, and rose. Drawing her staff, she spoke.
“Do I still look like Leoryna to you? I must be a better actress than I thought.”
“You’re… not Leoryna? Who are you?”
Khalid stumbled backward in alarm, retreating a step. The imposter continued giggling as she addressed him.
“Someone transformed into Leoryna, obviously. The real Leoryna is somewhere else entirely.”
“What?!”
“Isn’t the resemblance perfect? My transformation magic is quite serviceable. As for what’s happening to the real one—I haven’t the faintest idea. This staff? I took it to prevent her from resisting. It’s such a fine staff; I wanted to try it myself.”
Khalid’s teeth ground together. The imposter opened a spatial rift with a teleportation spell.
“You all escape first. I’ll handle things here.”
As if prearranged, the Terrorists abandoned Khalid to her and fled immediately. The imposter sealed the rift behind them, then poured her mana into it, corrupting the traces to prevent any tracking of their destination.
Having completed everything in an instant, the imposter turned to Khalid—who was clicking his tongue in frustration—and swung the staff at him.
“Now it’s my turn to entertain you!”
Mana bloomed around her, transforming into countless blade-edges. The blades remained tethered to her through threads of mana, allowing her to command them at will.
Khalid gestured once, and his cleaver flew into his grip. Before he could prepare, the imposter unleashed a swift barrage of blades. Yet Khalid parried them deftly with his cleaver, speaking as he did.
“You transformed into Leoryna to deceive me?! Where is the real Leoryna?!”
At his words, the imposter let out a scornful laugh.
“How should I know? But if you die gracefully, I’ll let her live safely! Resist, and the terms change. So, die!”
As Khalid parried her relentless assault, his eyes flickered at her words. Hesitation crept into his counterattacks.
The imposter exulted inwardly, launching a coordinated volley of blades at Khalid’s throat. It was a breathtaking display of swordsmanship.
Just as she believed this would be the end, tears of triumph welling in her eyes, something shifted.
Clang!
The mana flowing through Leoryna’s blade severed at the edge of the massive cleaver, and Khalid’s mana reversed course along the broken connection, surging back toward her.
“Then I’ll subdue you and tear through that brain of yours to find out where Leoryna is!”
Leoryna staggered backward from Khalid’s assault. But she quickly regained her footing and unleashed a barrage of explosive mana projectiles in all directions, blocking his movements.
“You! You don’t care if your graduate student dies?!”
“Of course I care! I’m going to defeat you and rescue her!”
“If I die, a signal goes out to my allies. Then they’ll kill Leoryna!”
“That’s why I’m not killing you. I’m just going to take a peek inside that brain of yours!”
Khalid swung his cleaver and detonated all the mana projectiles at once, then unleashed a spell directly at Leoryna. She countered with a reversal spell, deflecting it back. In that brief moment, Khalid’s follow-up spell came flying. But Leoryna had read his pattern and managed to evade the second spell with a shield spell as well.
Then, in an instant, Khalid appeared directly behind her.
‘This bastard is using ultra-close-range spatial transfer magic?!’
Before Leoryna could react, Khalid’s cleaver came slashing down to split her in half. She hastily cast a shield spell and launched herself into the air to evade. But once again, Khalid’s speed exceeded her reaction time.
‘I can’t win like this.’
Leoryna assessed the situation rapidly.
She already knew that direct combat was disadvantageous. Still, she’d thought that threatening him with a hostage and removing the inconvenient clothing would at least put him in a difficult position. But this…
‘He’s operating on a completely different level! I’ve never seen movements like this before.’
Leoryna swallowed hard without realizing it. Merely tossing around mana spheres couldn’t stop Khalid as he flickered here and there like lightning.
‘So that’s why he’s called one of the 108 Slaughterers?’
Leoryna had no choice but to swing her staff again and shout.
“Pedicasius!”
Countless thin threads of mana extended from the tip of Leoryna’s staff. They scattered throughout the abandoned factory, adhering to the empty air, weaving the space tightly like knitting. And some of the threads that extended alongside them wrapped around Khalid’s body like a spider’s web, binding him completely.
Binding threads. This was the very reason Leoryna earned the title of Petila’s Poison Spider, and it was her signature spell.
This magic could immobilize an opponent completely, prevent them from casting spells by blocking the magical formula’s deployment, and with precise mana control, could slice cleanly through even stone despite appearing as thin threads.
‘I didn’t want to use my signature spell already… but I have no choice now!’
Leoryna pulled her staff, tightening the threads around Khalid with enough force to tear him apart.
“Ugh…!”
Khalid, apparently not expecting this, tensed his entire body.
Though Leoryna was constricting him with all her might, she knew full well that this was merely buying time.
The binding threads spell was a seventh-circle magic, but Khalid could manipulate more circles than that. So he could break free whenever he wished.
However, the binding threads spell had caught Khalid off guard, and in that moment, a small opening appeared.
Leoryna didn’t miss it. What she chose to do was…
“Hahaha! See you next time!”
To flee without looking back.
Boom!
Leoryna detonated a smoke bomb and activated a concealment spell. She quickly released the binding threads, but Khalid, forced to watch helplessly as she escaped, felt his blood boil and bounced in place furiously.
“You coward?! Running away?!”
Because Leoryna completely concealed her presence, Khalid couldn’t catch her even with his ultra-close-range spatial transfer magic. With no other choice, he rushed in the direction she’d disappeared, dispersing the obstructing smoke with a wind spell, but she had already vanished without a trace.
“Damn it…!”
Khalid ground his teeth in frustration.
“You bastards! You’d better tell me where Leoryna is before you go!”
Khalid’s furious cry echoed through the dark night sky.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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