Magic Academy's Villain Bodyguard: I Must Tame All The Princesses-Chapter 27: Volca Blaze

It didn’t take long for Azariah to familiarize himself with the party.

There were a total of 5 people, including him.

Three men and one woman. The woman that had called him out was named Lara, and she was the healer of the party.

Meanwhile, the three men were James, Dyke, and Matthew, with the roles of archer, heavy hitter, and close combat fighter.

Lara was a Spectronapth. James was an Aero, Dyke was Terra, and Matthew was Pyro.

It was a pretty solid party if Azariah had to say. There was a person for every role and the Kinesis paths were all different as well.

They accepted him when they found out he was a gun user, even though he had a low rank.

As long as he didn’t get close to the monsters, they didn’t need to worry about his safety, and he could provide extra long-range power with James.

Overall, Azariah was happy with the party, and soon, they proceeded to the Linkgate entrance area.

There were multiple Linkgates in the area, all stored and maintained under spatial-kinesis artifacts with people monitoring them.

There were signs next to the portals indicating their name, so immediately they were able to find their respective Linkgate.

’Volca Blaze.’

Walking up to the portal, an old-looking man stood outside it with a tablet in his hand, confirming people’s entry.

Every Linkgate had a specific limit to how many people it could hold. Once it would show signs of destabilization from a high number of people, the monitors outside would then shut entry for the Linkgate.

It was important to know that it could get very competitive inside the Linkgate.

By Linkgate rules, every item or equipment worn or dropped by a monster was entitled to the Synapth who inflicted the last hit on the enemy.

By this logic, even the equipment and loot dropped by the boss were given to the person who inflicted the last hit on the boss.

And then it was upon that person to either keep it with himself or distribute it within his party.

In most cases, he had to, since parties would oftentimes make a foreign person sign a contract, which Azariah had to do 5 minutes ago.

Focusing back on the current situation, the party walked up to the monitor and presented their tokens.

"Please go right ahead," he said, pointing to the portal.

Without any wait, the party quickly stepped through the portal, with Azariah going last.

As a person who developed such things, he was excited to see how portals would actually feel when one went through—something that he couldn’t witness in his past life.

And as he stepped through it, he immediately regretted his decision of wishing so.

The moment Azariah stepped out of the portal, he quickly rushed to the nearest lava pit he could find.

***

"Blergh!"

He poured all of the food he had eaten before coming right out of his mouth.

He heard loud laughs coming from Lara and Matthew ahead as they saw him vomit.

"First time, eh?" Dyke, who seemed to be the oldest of the bunch, laughed.

"Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it with time." Lara smiled.

’Sure hope I do.’ Azariah commented.

It felt like he was thrown into a nauseous washing machine and whipped around until all his insides were outside.

Cleaning his mouth with some water in his backpack, Azariah stood up and followed behind the party, who were now walking ahead.

Now that he was feeling alright, he was finally able to realize how hot it was.

’No wonder, I felt like tearing my clothes off.’

They were literally standing in a volcanic environment with charcoal-black mountains and hard rock underneath their feet.

Every few meters, there was a lava pit with the golden-red liquid bubbling up like a stew ready to pounce on anyone’s face.

’No wonder people hate hot-environment Linkgates.’

With all that armor on to defend yourself from monsters, and the heatwave pressing against your face, one would want to kill themselves.

However, there was a reason why Azariah wore so many layers of clothing and ignored the laughs of his teammates when coming here.

Focusing ahead, the team walked forward, carefully avoiding any smears of lava from falling on them.

However, it didn’t take long for them to find their first monster encounter.

Lava Wasps—long black insects with numerous wings and golden stingers erupting from their mouths, with lava dripping down from them.

It was well known that one sting from these wasps directly on your body could burn your arm into ashes within a few seconds.

"Take positions everyone!" Dyke shouted. He was the leader of the group.

Immediately, James and Azariah withdrew back while Matthew and Dyke took the front positions of the group, with Lara centered between them.

She was the weakest in the group physically, but at the same time, her magic was just as potent.

It was demonstrated a second later as well.

Intertwining her fingers, she closed her eyes.

"Holis Protectia. Holis Boftium."

Immediately, a shiny light erupted from Lara that enveloped Matthew and Dyke like a veil, hugging close to their bodies.

"Alright, let’s take care of these lil’ bugs." Dyke smirked, taking his gigantic hammer in his hand as he struck it onto the ground.

The moment he did so, multiple earthen stalagmites erupted from the floor and shot into the sky, piercing through numerous wasps.

Screech!

The wasps took notice of their group, and some of them instantly dodged the attack, gliding to the side.

Unfortunately, they were pierced a moment later by pyro spears that cut straight through their slim bodies.

Scree—

Their screams of pain were drowned as they dropped to the ground while Matthew and Dyke continued with their carnage.

The number of wasps was too many to be quickly taken down by their attacks though.

But there was also James and Azariah at the back to cover up for the two at the front.

James manifested sharp wind arrows on his body and launched multiple of them at the wasps, killing them more often with one or two.

Despite the fast agility of the wasps that was making them dodge their attacks, the party ensured they never got too close.

Azariah too was able to take down a single wasp with 4 or 5 bullets, or 2 with headshots.

He was surprised when his aim got much better than what he was expecting, but he soon realized that it was James.

The guy, though silent most of the time, had high observation skills. He was manipulating the wind trajectory so his bullets barely missed.

’Insane.’

This party was really good.

"Alright, we should be done soon. We didn’t get hit even once, but this is the first wave, so we mustn’t be soft!" Dyke shouted as they cleared all the wasps.

Screech!

Suddenly, a seemingly dead wasp lunged from the ground at Lara, taking them all by shock.

"No!"

But before it could get close, it was suddenly sliced in half by a dark sword that slashed through the air.

The party looked back at Azariah, knowing he was responsible for that sequence.

The latter just slightly smiled and gave them a thumbs-up, assuring them that he was there too.

’Unfortunately, not till the end of this dungeon.’

Suddenly, Azariah deliberately stepped on multiple tiles near him that triggered huge lava pillars to shoot into the sky.

The sudden launch of lava separated him from the view of the party on the other side as they screamed at what happened.

And in a second, he was gone.

____