Magic Academy's Villain Bodyguard: I Must Tame All The Princesses-Chapter 19: Melissa

Azariah walked out of the training facility with a shock on his face that couldn’t be put to words.

’What the actual hell?’

He could not believe what he witnessed inside the training ground.

The possibilities of the ability ’Pixelation’ were endless.

He couldn’t start to fathom how this ability had ended up in the game.

***

Today was the day.

Sitting in his class, Azariah wondered how he would approach the fight.

As he sat there zoned out though, Evangeline was quick to call him out for it.

"Student Azariah, it would be appreciated if you could focus on the class."

Shaking his head, the white-haired boy nodded.

"Yes, my bad."

Evangeline’s eyes remained on him for a second.

"Thank you, it would be a problem if your attention span proved to be as worse as your weapon skills."

Muffles of laughter erupted across the room, but Azariah remained silent, no expression on his face.

And Evangeline didn’t try to humiliate him further as well.

Though he was surprised she didn’t. Usually, she would jump at chances to put slacking students in their places.

Regardless, even if she tried to, Azariah would give her no chance.

Just like the last time, he knew everything she was teaching about the topic as well.

Fortunately, such an opportunity didn’t arise, and the lecture continued like normal.

However, just as he was about to go back to his thoughts, Evangeline’s line suddenly repeated inside Azariah’s head.

Or two words.

’Weapon skills.’

That was it.

His key to getting a hit on Melissa in today’s battle.

***

After the class, Azariah was quick to excuse himself from Alyssa again.

Getting late already, he rushed through the corridors and floors before arriving at the committee door.

Wiping the sweat across his face and readjusting himself, he took a deep breath.

Looking at his hand on the knob, Azariah realized he was much more nervous than yesterday.

The other day, he was as calm as the sea.

Today, he had a lot to lose. His admission to the committee wasn’t guaranteed, and it was now up to him to get it.

Calming himself down with a deep breath, Azariah twisted the knob and entered the room.

Immediately, he felt himself being targeted by everyone’s stares.

"You’re here."

It was Melissa who spoke immediately, even before Darius.

Now that he had entered the room, Azariah had cleared all thoughts out of his mind.

He had no emotions on his face.

"Yes."

"I take it you’re ready then?" Darius asked, prompting Azariah to nod.

"Very well, let’s take this somewhere else." He stood up, along with Melissa and everyone else as well.

Aside from Azariah, Darius, and Melissa, there were three other captains as well.

Two of them male and one of them female.

The male was from the second year, same as Melissa, shown by the bars on his coat.

And the other male and female were from the third year.

To Azariah’s expectation, there was no first-year captain, and it made sense.

Captains had a lot of students under them, with most of them being juniors—people who they could easily overpower.

Aside from no one in the first year being that powerful enough, they wouldn’t expect someone from their own year as their captain.

Though this egoistic characteristic would be removed by the time of the second year naturally.

They were too immature and prideful right now. Fresh younglings right out of their noble parents’ pockets.

Focusing back on the task at hand, the group left the committee room.

Travelling through the corridor, they reached another section at the end where Azariah saw multiple familiar doors.

They were the huge doors of the training facility from yesterday.

’Oh yeah...’

Now that he remembered, the committee area had a separate section with training facility doors available to them.

It saved them much time going to the training facility building and allowed them to hold private matches between themselves.

These doors didn’t consume a member’s personal hours but the committee’s hours that were allotted to the head every month.

It was up to him how to allocate it further.

"We are here."

After picking the committee’s room, Darius flashed his card and led them all inside to the white surroundings.

Azariah and Melissa stood against each other at a distance while the captains and Darius went to the side.

"Do you want to use any weapons?" Darius asked, to which Azariah nodded.

He then looked to Melissa, asking if she was fine with it.

"Sure, go ahead."

Taking her approval, Darius opened the weapon storage at the side walls of the room, asking Azariah to pick his weapon.

The latter wasted no time in picking his usual gun and bullets.

However, it was safe to say they were just as confused as his classmates when he first picked the weapon.

"A gun? That’s interesting," Darius spoke, his curiosity increasing.

"Maybe he’s really good with it," the second girl in the group spoke, her eyes also on Azariah.

"Regardless, I don’t see him lasting a second in a battle with her. Tsk." Yoro, the male captain from Melissa’s year, replied.

It showed that he didn’t quite like the white-haired boy.

"Are you ready?" Melissa asked.

Taking another breath, Azariah checked his weapons and his state once more.

He was ready to fight.

"Yeah."

"Well then, let’s go." Melissa pulled up her hair into a bun before taking a stance.

’Is she really going to fight me in those heels and that suit? Insane.’

It was going to limit her movement by a lot, but Azariah was up to take any advantages for himself.

"Begin." Darius signaled the start of the match, and immediately, Melissa disappeared from Azariah’s sight.

There were a couple of reasons why Melissa went on to become one of the most feared figures in the future.

One among them, though, was her insane speed and stealth.

Fortunately, Azariah had enough experience with her in the game to know her weakness.

Especially this early on in the stage of her life.

As soon as she disappeared from sight, Azariah didn’t waste a single part of a second.

His body had already shifted to the right with his arms the moment she moved from the spot.

In the next second...

BOOM!

The sound of a gunshot rattled through the air as a sharp gust suddenly went past the side of Azariah’s face.

As everyone’s eyes went to the ground, it was safe to say that Azariah’s shot had missed by a wide margin from where he had tried to aim.

Fortunately though, it had done the job for him.

"Close one." He heard the faint whisper of her in his right ear.

A trickle of blood rolled down his right cheek as a cut opened up there from the gust where Melissa moved.

Thump... Thump...

Azariah’s heart beat like crazy as he held his breath, waiting for Melissa’s next move.

Whoo...

At the faintest sight of movement, Azariah moved once more.

BOOM!

And again, a force of wind shot to his left side as the bullet rattled through the air.

Blood trickled down his left cheek once more.

However, Azariah didn’t care. He had a smile on his face, a big contrast to the confusion on everyone’s faces at the side.

How was he matching with Melissa’s speed?

"It’s easy," Darius commented, the only person whose physical sight allowed him to keep up with Melissa.

"The very moment Melissa moves, for a split tenth of a second, you can see her direction and path of movement as she disappears from space."

Darius squinted his eyes as he followed the battle.

"Ohh..." the girl to his side commented.

"The lean, the small gust that is left as she launches herself tells you enough about where the attack is coming from."

Everyone nodded, understanding the thought process behind the battle now.

But it was still confusing how he was able to follow sight and keep track of someone at the pinnacle of Advanced rank.

Unfortunately for Azariah though, his gimmick wasn’t going to just keep working till the end of the battle.

And if that was all Melissa could amount to, then what good was she as a captain?

Azariah though, noticed before long that with every movement now, she closed the space between them.

With less and less space, it took her no time to reach him.

Before long...

Azariah moved at the sound of movement again the next second.

But this time, his armed hand was suddenly grabbed.

Within the next moment, Azariah found himself dispossessed of the gun and lifted into the air by Melissa.

"Urgh!" He choked in pain as Melissa’s grip on Azariah’s throat tightened, and he found himself unable to break free from her strength.

The gun went and landed far away from him, ending his shenanigans.

"It was fun while it lasted, kiddo. Unfortunately, you are still at the lowest of Division 2’s," Melissa spoke, coldness radiating from her tone.