-----------Hervalle Empire, Gloomrot Marshes------------

Avior walked through the waterlogged Gloomrot Marshes looking at his mishmash of companions. Somehow Christina had convinced two of her classmates from Eagle Class to accompany him and his Sparrow classmates on their hunt. Worse Avior guessed he might smell oddly as he kept getting odd looks not only from both of Christina's classmates but his own classmates as well. Avior just hoped they'd come across a monster soon. Once everyone started fighting and sweating he was sure his own apparent smell would stand out less.

Soon enough pushing through the grasses they came across a small clearing where in the middle sat a large pond with with Aqua Skirters atop it. Aqua Skirters were blue shelled insects the size of a fist who collect mana from the water's surface before using it to bring down larger prey by shooting collectively in volleys of Water Bolt. As individuals they weren't too hard to defeat, but Aqua Skirters were rarely alone and there were over three dozen on the pond in front of them. Worse, judging by the rapid rate at which the monsters were skirting across the water towards them the students had been spotted and deemed as prey.

Avior took out the mana artifact he was currently testing. A wooden spear as tall as his shoulders with no tip. Really it just looked like a very smooth walking stick. Inside the stick's interior, Avior had filled it to the brim with mana circuits that should direct mana to enhance sharpness. Clicking a mana gem into place Avior looked forward to seeing just how sharp he could make an aggressively blunt object. Avior was sure it would be useful knowledge eventually.

Excited for the warm up Avior readied his staff to meet the incoming monsters.

"Quickly protect Avior!" Christina's shrill voice broke the low hum of the Aqua Skirters and soon Avior found himself "protected" behind six Hervalle Academy students. Jessica stood in front shoulder to shoulder with Virgoh and James. Her artifact greatsword Avior had made for her ignited in red flames as she swung it wildly missing all of the skirters but forcing a few to retreat back. Next to her Virgoh armed with his own artifact, a sabre covered in moving shadows, slashed expertly cutting apart three skirters in as many seconds.

Unfortunately, his footwork was subpar allowing for a few skirters to get past him launching water bolts at Piran who waited armed with the same silver tube Avior had used in his duel a few months before. Triggering the silver tube a familiar blistering streak of wind blasted past the incoming water bolts dissipating them before colliding with three nearby skirters smashing one into pieces while sending the other two flying back toward the pond. As for James armed with a shield Avior had made in one hand and a firebolt spell in another, he met the skirters attacking him head-on. Blocking some water bolts with his shield before bashing it into some of the water skirters sending them backwards.

Moving his shield to the side James launched his readied fire bolt at an Aqua Skirter dazed by the shield bash withering it to a husk. Trying to get another James cast another fire bolt for it to be met by a volley of water bolts from enraged Aqua Skirters. James's fire bolt collided with a few of the smaller water bolts evaporating them, but many more made it past his attack slamming into James while his shield was still lowered. With a cry of pain, James managed to raise his shield fighting for consciousness as blood began coming out of wounds from his chest and even back where a few water bolts had punched straight through his body. Christina moved up from behind him placing her hands on him as she began to channel mana into him guiding his wounds to close.

Finally, Victoria who had been focused on casting since the fight began unleashed a growing tornado in the middle of the pond catching a dozen Aqua Skirters and sending them into the sky before collapsing from overexertion with her tornado spurtering out soon after. The still dozen and a half Aqua Skirters remaining pulled back to the edge of the pond launching a continuous volley of water bolts at the students. Virgoh managed to conjure a barrier in time drawing on the shadow element to create a small oval covering him. And only him. Behind him, Piran who was not covered by the slim barrier, was hit with a few water bolts before going down in a cry of pain.

Christina seeing Piran go down moved to heal him. Her mana which had been guiding James healing was jerked out of his body as she subconsciously called it so she could heal Piran, causing James to faint. As for Jessica, she blocked part of a volley with her sword but more than a few shots hit her leaving large holes in her body which was slowly beginning to be covered in red.

Avior who saw how well his "protectors" were doing stepped around the six and walked into the firing squad of Aqua Skirters falling upon them with his stick. The blunt stick tip being thrust toward the foremost skirter as Avior performed a dart with the staff releasing his foremost hand while simultaneously taking a step with his forward leg. Similar to a fencing lunge. The staff effortlessly punched a hole through the targeted skirter. Recovering Avior brought the staff back bringing his hands to be equal lengths apart before dodging an incoming volley of water bolts by simply sidestepping them.

Next Avior stepped towards the outermost skirters bringing the staff through three separating them into halves and forcing the remaining skirters to retreat towards one another blocking each other's aim. Finally, Avior bent low and swept the surface of the pond with the staff cutting through the now densely packed skirters. The staff with the hidden sharpening enhancement performed perfectly parting anything in its way like a hot knife through butter cutting apart almost a dozen skirters to pieces in one swing. Lastly, Avior dodged the last of the skirters, who were too far into the pond to reach with his staff, as he retreated to where the unconscious Piran lay. Picking up the silver tube Avior only had to shoot and dodge a few times before the last of the skirters were no more. Well until the dozen Victoria had thrown into the air inevitably fell back to the ground wherever the wind carried them. They were insects after all they could survive a fall from any height. Avior kept his eyes out for them but it seemed like the skirters had been carried by the wind far away. Hopefully, they wouldn't land on another group of students.

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With the battle done Avior turned to face his party that had mostly regained their consciousness to varying degrees and were all staring wide-eyed at their unhurt member. Which was somewhat understandable, even without using mana, and with his continuously exhausted muscles, Avior was still a weapons expert, how could he not be he'd had literally hundreds of lifetimes as practice. If he still didn't know how to swing a stick properly then he would have more problems to worry about than just the end of humanity.

Seeing his classmates bewildered faces showing no signs of returning to normal any time soon Avior decided to indulge just a little by taking charge.

"Christina lightly check everyone for deep injuries if none are found just patch up surface-level wounds for now. Don't waste mana doing things the body will naturally do once the bleeding stops. And whatever you do never pull your mana out of someone you're in the middle of deep healing again." Christina hesitated just for a moment before doing so making her way to each student checking for serious injury.

Avior continued his indulgence. "Victoria."

An audible gulp sounded as Victoria looked up at Avior like a hurt puppy.

"Victoria, you can't waste yourself on a single spell at the beginning of battle. It makes you a liability for the rest of the fight you were lucky Aqua Skirters don't target immobile prey during battle. And think before using a spell, especially an area effect spell. Using a wind area spell on insects is one of the worst matchups I can imagine it just gives them a free ride. As for you Virgoh."

Virgoh as the only other untouched member looked proud of his accomplishment. "Virgoh your positioning is thoughtless as if you expect to be moved into the correct position by a horse beneath you and your barrier choice was poor."

Virgoh not quite accepting the comments spoke up. "Thoughtless positioning? I didn't take a single hit! As for my barrier choice, I specialize in the dark element what's wrong with using what I'm good at? It worked didn't it?"

Avior who was about to speak to James turned back to Virgoh. "You stepped in as a frontliner, but failed to protect anyone in your backline. Your positioning was selfish and only prioritized yourself showing your situational awareness at a similar level to that of an animal, well less so since even mother birds know to protect their nests. As for using shadow mana as a barrier, it's a massive waste of resources. The darkness element is best at obscuring vision and mental attacks, use it for that. With the same amount of mana you used to create a barrier barely big enough for you to shelter behind you could have dropped a shadow haze on top of the skirters making them unable to aim rendering their volleys useless and protecting everyone in the process not just yourself."

Turning away from a sputtering Virgoh, Avior continued. "As for Piran and Jessica. Dodge. You don't need to be stationary when fighting. That just forces you to parry every incoming attack an impossible feat for you currently Jessica. And if you're in the backline you can't expect the frontline to never let anything through. You must be prepared to dodge anything that gets past them so they can have time to recover and reset the party's defensive layout."

Piran unwilling to be talked down to spoke a rebuttal, "But as a backliner I need to deal damage. If I'm always dodging I won't be able to aim and if all I'm doing is dodging while Jessica is getting beat up protecting me I might as well not even be in the fight."

"Your focus should not be for you to do as much damage as soon as you can but to survive and do the most total damage over the period of the fight Piran. Besides learning to launch spells or at the very least use artifacts while dodging is an extremely necessary skill if you ever want to fight in combat."

"As for you James." Avior turned to his last victim. James looked ready to be torn apart his trusting eyes filled with disappointment in himself. "Great job James! Besides getting greedy and trying to launch a second fire bolt exposing yourself too long in the process, you did an excellent job. Preparing a firebolt with one hand while protecting the backline with the other armed with a shield. Also using that shield as an offensive weapon once the first volley occurred to make the opponent more vulnerable and easier to target. Finally even managing to bring your shield back up after taking some big hits despite the pain. Great job!" Avior gave the surprised James a thumbs up. Then as if nothing had happened Avior sat down and began to inspect his staff with his mana seeing if any of the mana circuits had sustained damage during their use in the fight.

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After collecting the corpses of the Aqua Skirters the humbled students began making their way back to camp in silence. Alert to their surroundings, but mostly stuck in their own heads as they replayed the fight applying Avior's advice and realizing he was right. With his advice verified other questions began to form in their heads like how Avior could be so proficient fighting monsters with a staff or knowledgable about so many different fields of combat to the point he could give pointed advice the second battle was over to an individual level. Of course, for most, these questions were answered when they thought about his powerful background. Obviously, a crown prince would receive excessive training in combat. Especially if that crown prince was believed to be weak in magic capacity. In the end, only two of them couldn't quite wrap their head around the idea.

Out of the two of course Christina spoke first.

"So...Avior?"

Avior walking with a bag of Aqua Skirters over his shoulder while adding some new mana circuits to his staff responded idly, "Yep?"

"How do you like, know so much, about fighting and stuff?"

"I like to read."

"-_-"

Victoria, who was already on the edge about asking anything decided to default to a nice safe silence instead after hearing Avior's response. She guessed his apparent inhuman ability to learn and apply knowledge was one of the reasons the Council had decided to back him despite his supposedly weak mana pool. Only a supposedly weak mana pool since Victoria was beginning to believe the "weak mana pool story" might be some kind of smokescreen meant to keep prying eyes off of him, either way she would try to learn more during the rest of the monster hunt.

Avior enjoyed the silence for the rest of the journey back into camp where they turned in the two dozen Aqua Skirter remains alongside a warning to look out for any Aqua Skirters falling from the sky. After all with strong wind currents and the Water Skirters extremely light body weight they could be up there for a while. Their group received a commendation from the older professor who was the only one still in camp. With the others apparently patrolling between student groups in case any got into trouble.

Wasting little time they went to sleep deep in thought. Replaying the battle in their head and thinking what they'd do next time to prove themselves as the competent Mages they know they are.

As for Avior, he was just happy no one seemed to think he smelled odd anymore.