小嫂子的味道

"I don\'t really need a sword, you know," I said, raising my hands, clenching my fingers, and making a fist.

"Huh? We\'ll see about that," said the guy in front.

Instantly after that, the two other boys who were standing on his side darted toward me. I fixated my eyes on those two, while tracking their movements I took a few steps back.

"You\'re not going to get away!" one of them shouted.

"Well, I don\'t plan to," saying that I did a 360-degree spin and connected a kick in the stomach of the guy on my right.

"Khwa-" clenching onto his stomach he stopped in his tracks.

I didn\'t have a sword on me at this moment but there are some self-defense moves dad taught me. At that time I thought of it as unnecessary, didn\'t know they will come in handy in a situation like this.

\'Thanks, dad, I owe you one.\'

"Oops!" dodging the guy on my left I mumbled. I can\'t afford to get lost in thoughts right now.

I held him from his shoulder and then drove a punch straight into his abdomen. Though it wasn\'t enough to send him flying, it did make him take a few steps back.

\'That\'s E rank for you.\'

I was the person with the highest rank in my home city but when I came here to this academy, I realized an E rank was not that rare. Still, it\'s not like it\'s nothing.

Plus I have trained myself with the sword for a couple of years, which alone improves my physical strength unlike the rest of the girls here.

\'If this is going to be like this then I doubt I\'ll need someone to save me. I can get out of this situation alone myself.\'

With that in mind, I again raised my hands toward the two boys who were now back on their feet.

*

While Anya was busy dealing with the other two, the boy who stood behind, Winston was his name—was doing something else.

"Spirits of eternal flames, heed my call and summon before me a brink of your power," he was chanting an incantation.

"Fireball!" he shouted and stretched out his right hand in Anya\'s direction.

The next moment several small flames collected in front of his palms, spinning in a vortex they finally turned into a fist-sized fireball.

The ball was then launched toward Anya, cutting through the air it reached and then collided with her. She noticed it coming and raised her hands to block the fireball and save herself but it was too late.

"Ahhhh!"

The ball hit her and for a second a cloud of fire surrounded Anya. Due to the force of impact, she was sent flying backward and crashed into a wall. In just a few minutes she was on her knees.

Though she was alive and not physically injured. The reason for this was that Winston wasn\'t able to activate the spell correctly. He did the incantation right but the amount of mana he supplied the spell with was relatively low.

A part of this was probably because he didn\'t want to kill and knew that if he used the spell properly, he will end up killing her or providing her with a few fatal injuries.

That\'s why he held back. Maybe someone had told him to not kill Anya.

***

Time stopped for me when I saw a fireball coming straight in my direction. I was careless, I let my guard down. I ignored the third guy, the one who seemed the most suspicious, and gave him a chance to attack me.

I forgot that this is a magic academy and almost everyone here can use magic.

I knew I couldn\'t dodge this attack; the fireball was just a few steps away from me. Still, I raised my hands in front of my face in an X position, trying to stop the fireball from directly hitting me.

And then it happened. The ball clashed with me, and the moment it did, I felt heat surrounding all of my body. My vision turned blurry and maybe, maybe tears rolled down my eyes.

The next thing I know is that I was sent back flying and then I crashed into a wall behind me. The impact was hard, leaving me unable to stand on my feet.

"Now, now, what were you saying a few minutes ago? What happened to all that confidence you had?" the guy who launched the fireball said as he walked near me.

I looked up, now he was standing just in front, looking down at me.

"So what if you caught me off guard one time? I can still defeat you," I warned as I tried to land a punch on his face.

But I failed to do so. He held my hand, and now I didn\'t have much power left to counter it.

"Hold her down," he commanded.

The two other boys who were with him then came forward and each of them held one of my hands, forcefully pulling me up they make me stand on my feet.

I tried to resist but it was of no use. Maybe I can still fight back if it\'s in a one-on-one but, against three people and in this condition. Not possible.

Both of them held me tight and kept me pinned against the wall behind me. Then, the guy—who was commanding them—came closer.

He touched my hair, caressing it with his fingers. "You see, I quite like you. You are just my type of girl," bringing his face close, he whispered in my ear.

Then he started sniffing my hair, I wanted to resist but I didn\'t know what was going on.

What is this? I feel disgusted!

Nothing like this ever happened before; I don\'t know what to do.

Slowly he moved his fingers and now started feeling my shoulders.

Before I knew it, a stream of tears rolled down my cheek.

I thought he will leave me now but the guy just ignored that I was crying.

This is bad! I don\'t like this!

"S-Stop! Please stop!" I cried.

Someone, please help me! I don\'t want to be touched by this guy! This is disgusting!

Zero! Where are you? I need you, please help me!

…Anyone?

"HELP ME PLEASE!" I screamed.

…

"Umm, what are you guys trying to do here? Whatever it is, I think you should stop."

I heard a voice, and it was the voice of a male but not of one of these; it was someone else.

"Seriously, you people are the worst!" another voice, this time it was of a girl.

"Huh? Who the fuck are you" the guy was touching me stepped back and turned around.

When he left, my line of sight also became wider and I was able to see those two—the people behind those new voices.

He was Leon, and next to him stood a girl—Ellyn was her name I think. She was also among the popular students in class 1A.

The guy in front and the other two who were holding me froze the moment they saw Leon. Everyone in the first year knew about him and knew how powerful he was.

"I\'d rather deal with this peacefully but if you won\'t leave, then I\'ll have to get violent against you," said Leon.

"What? Why are you still giving them a chance? They were clearly forcing themselves on her," Ellyn complained.

While the three boys—who were now drenched in a cold sweat—were whispering among themselves.

"Hey, hey, no one told me *he* will be here!"

"Winston! This is not what we agreed on!"

"Shh! Be quiet for a second, I am just as confused as you two. It will be better if we just leave now."

After that, the guy who seemed to be their leader—Winston was his name maybe—came in front with a smile on his face.

"W-We were just passing by, please don\'t worry. We\'ll leave right now," he proposed.

The next thing I know is that all three of them ran away as fast as they could.