In A Noble Magic Academy, The Only Spell I Know Is Scan

"What's the situation over here?" Helena called as she ran up to Kaguya.

"We've been mostly trying to keep to ourselves and only fight the ones that attack us but that only gets harder the longer we survive and the more elves that escape or die. We're fighting the best we can and we've managed to kill one but that only attracted more of these lions to attack us."

"We can help the elves escape by taking the attention onto us but the elves can't help us since they can't see us, only the monsters can."

"That's the gist of it." Momo said as she landed next to them after getting thrown away by one of the lions, "What's the plan, captain?"

"If we keep fighting together then we'll be fighting the entire cradle all by ourselves. Spread out, keep the fights separate. I'm not saying throw the lions back at the elves to distract them but if that happens, I won't complain. I'll provide support to keep the fights from escalating too badly."

"That's not a very Roko-esque plan."

"Well Roko isn't here so this is the best you're gonna get. Besides, if I may say, Roko does tend to overwork us a bit so I feel like I'm a much better employer."

"Can't argue with that." Momo smirked as she jumped back to the front to relay the orders to Varis, Mikado, Roland, Brook and Reaumur.

As Helena planned, the vanguards all split up to draw monsters away into smaller groups with Brook and Reaumur backing up Roland and Mikado respectively. The lions dispersed accordingly into smaller groups into groups of three or four per combatant that whittled down into just groups of one or two with Helena's supporting fire...or ice.

"Wow." Corissa said as Helena fired off a blade of ice that cut deep through the head of a lion, "You've gotten really good with that ice spell."

"Yeah, the potency really got pumped up once I took Roko's advice of pressurizing the ice. I haven't had much practice with it but it's been a simple change for the most part. Oh, hold on."

Without looking away from Momo's skirmish, Helena fired another blade of ice at Roland's direction, piercing and killing a lion before it could attack him from behind.

"You've really mastered drone too." Corissa noted, "You've really got a talent for magic if you've picked it up so quickly."

"Haha, I just copied a bit of the camera feature on my phone." Helena explained as she moved her drone around to keep an eye on the other combatant's situations, "It's not quite complete either but I can certainly see better than how Nasturtium described it. It's a little faded but I even have color. I can't create like 20 of them or have them cast spells like Nasturtium though."

"Wow." Corissa reached out to pat the ghostly drone, "Good boy."

"Aw, don't make me think about giving my drones consciousness now." Helena giggled, "I don't think I have enough talent for that!"

The two girl's chatting was interrupted by the quaking descent of some sort of creature behind them. Turning around in dread, they found another lion like creature but this one had the addition of bat like wings of black tar stretched across thin bones and a tail of a tentacle tipped with a glowing fleshy stinger.

"A manticore?!" Helena quickly spun around to fire a spell at it but its tail was already launching forward to impale her.

"Helena!" Roland broke away from his group of lions to try and return to his princess but he was much, much too far away to save her in time. Even Varis who practically launched back with reinforcement magic was too far away to protect Corissa. Instead, a sword came out of nowhere and impaled the side of the manticore's tail, knocking it off course enough to smash into the ground away from Helena.

"Whose idea was it to split up?" Roko scowled as he pulled the sword out from the manticore's tail, "Don't they know any better?"

"Roko!" Helena gasped as Varis slammed into the manticore and pushed it back, "How was the fight?!"

"Do you really want a report right now?"

"Maybe?"

"We'll do it later."

"Okay..."

"Roko!" Roland gasped as he finally arrived, "I have some complaints to make regarding this plan!"

"I didn't come up with this plan."

"I'm blaming you anyway!"

"Then save it for someone who cares." Roko sighed, "Status report?"

"Helena split us up to lessen the burden to each of us." Momo explained as she and Mikado also arrived, "And it was working well until this manticore showed up."

"The sniper is supposed to be hidden, you know." Roko frowned.

"I was hidden!"

"What part of standing in the middle of the square firing ice magic constitutes as hidden?"

"Well someone had to give orders!"

"Oh I'm sorry, do continue then."

"Nah, I'm good. You can have this job."

"Great." Roko sighed again, "Well plainly put, we won't be getting out of this anytime soon. Doesn't seem like the memory's quite keen on finishing just yet. So we need to form a defensive front. Which, if you'll notice, is exactly what the elves have done."

"Which ones?"

"The normal ones."

"Oh yeah." Helena looked past Roko at the tree cradle's entrance which was now barred with boxes with soldiers huddling behind them to keep the monstrous lions away, "Look like they even convinced some dark elves to help them. Wonder how they did that."

"Never mind that for now." Roko sighed, "More importantly, spreading out will only ensure that more of us will encounter these lions, something we want to minimize as our goal is to be mobile in order for us to finish viewing the memory."

"So what's the plan boss?"

"Standard procedure. We form a tight circle and defend only when attacked. Do not try saving the elves. They're just memories. It won't matter. We just push forward until we finish our purpose here."

All of a sudden, Varis was thrown back into the middle of their group as the manticore roared aggressively at the party.

"But we should probably deal with this boss monster first." Roko said.

"So true, bestie." Helena said.

Roko figured any fight where he has access to Momo AND Varis would end fairly quickly. After all, they remain as the two strongest people that Roko knew throughout what felt like years of adventuring now. And these lions didn't seem too strong considering that splitting up worked surprisingly well for them. But no, this manticore creature seemed to be built different as it charged past whatever defensive blockade they tried to put up. It was strong and powerful and tricky. The mythical mimicry charged at speeds that few could keep up with, attacked with claws that would easily rend the few without armor in their group and its stinger, while seeming to lack in poison, still struck with the intensity that threw even their armored combatants back several feet.

"This thing's damn durable too!" Roland grimaced as he hacked away at the tail from the back, "I've never fought a manticore before but I don't think they'd be this hard to kill!"

I don't think it even understands what it is." Momo said as she held down the tip of the tail with all her strength, "It's using it's wings to try and skewer people instead of flying. I've never heard of any creature using their wing bones to stab people."

"Varis, are you okay?!" Corissa yelped as their remaining fighters were busy holding the manticore's attention from the front, "I'm hearing some worrying metal noises!"

"Our armor might not hold on for much longer." Mikado frowned, "It's absurdly strong."

"Ice spells are barely cutting it." Helena added, "Roko, how's that plan going?"

Roko thought. He had full confidence that they could beat this creature with all the resources at his disposal. But this manticore was really punching above its weight class. Roko had fought some of the lions on his way back. They were stronger than normal lions for sure but they were also really poorly put together. These amalgamations were the most unusual eldritch creatures he's seen yet. These mixes were definitely stronger than their parts put together but its failure to understand how the creatures they were mimicking were structured was a very key weakness. Now this manticore was a stronger variant of the simple lions that even Roko had been able to kill but even then Roko couldn't imagine the manticore being able to stand up to both Momo and Varis like this. Something was off and while he didn't have his scan spells to fall back on, Roko had plenty of experience with these things individually to fall back on.

Just looking at the manticore, the thing that stood out to him the most was the glowing stinger. This strange light was an odd addition and Roko felt like it must mean something, at least to him. Thinking back to all the component pieces, there were no comparisons with the flesh monsters, the oil monsters, the undead monsters, and the tentacle monsters...but the tree… Roko recalled seeing that exact blue glow staring right in front of him. In the orb of mana that the tree had absorbed from Momo and Murasaki. The one that he had allowed a literal lightning current to run through his own body in order to destroy it. That light was mana. Which meant it must be casting some sort of spell. Reinforcement? No, Momo would surely notice if it was reinforcement magic. Armament? Armament was supposed to be placed around its user to amplify their abilities and there wasn't any suggestion of that that Roko could see. Surely some of their party would have noticed something like that. Was there still something he was missing? The tree used reinforcement magic because it saw Momo use reinforcement magic. Roko wasn't sure where this creature picked up its mana from but it must have copied some form of magic. If it misunderstood how living being were constructed then it wasn't far fetched to think it misunderstood this magic either. If it wasn't reinforcement magic then it had to be armament. But there were no magical mechanical constructs around...it's...body…

Roko had an epiphany. Why was armament always around the outside of its caster? Well obviously because the human body already had its own internal structure that interfered with magical construction. But with these false creatures? Built so poorly from such poor understanding of life and how it functioned? If some alien intelligence was to try and reverse engineer life just from observation, it could see the shell but would it understand its innards? They certainly had some idea of what it looked like inside hence its very skeletal nature. But what about inside that? If they didn't know what was inside...why not fit it with mechanical magic? It was strong because it was using armament magic but not outside but inside. And that's when a plan began forming.

"Brook!"

"Yeah?" The dark elf stepped back from the fight to address Roko while keeping her eyes on the threat.

"Do you have string?"

"String? Yeah, plenty of them."

"I need strong strings."

"These should be strong enough to do whatever you want them to do." Brook pulled out a spool from one of her pouches, "But why do you-"

Roko snatched the string and called for the frontline to retreat.

"Uuuh, Roko?" Momo said as Roko approached the manticore alone, "If you need to do some experimentation, we can do it. I mean, we're much sturdier so-"

"Just shut up and cast the strongest defensive magic you can on me."

With nothing they could do, Momo lent Roko a strong Protect spell as Roko fiddled with the string on his approach. With his preparations complete, Roko faced the manticore who stared back at him with its unnervingly unnatural face. It roared and swatted at Roko with its claws and made small lunges to try and bite him. Roko simply dodged, placing his blade in the way of its claws and letting it get slashed while making sharp counter attacks when it tried to bite him. Whenever he did, Roko made sure to make slices in the most inconvenient places. Cutting in between the fingers of the manticore's paw and slicing in between the teeth and into the gum. None of the cuts were quite deep enough to fell it but it would be in constant pain if it felt any to begin with. And it seemed like it did, the manticore taking the hint that its traditional approaches would not work. So it shot its stinger forward which was what Roko was waiting for. The stinger impacted Roko's stomach, sending him flying through the air, high above everyone else. In Roko's hands were the strings he had attached to his sword that he stabbed through the stinger, one string tied to the handle and the other was thrown in a loop around the blade after it had stabbed through. Roko held these two strings tight in his hand and to everyone's shock, the manticore's stinger was ripped out from its body.

"Varis!"

At Corissa's command, Varis jumped up and caught Roko before he began plummeting, bringing him back to the ground safely. Roko's body was perfectly fine from the outside, the stinger had failed to pierce the protect spell. But he still took what felt like the weight of a truck right into his stomach. All he could do was hope his organs weren't bruised or something.

"Roko!" He could hear his friends running towards him but through the bottom of his eyes he could see the stinger-less manticore standing up and preparing to charge. Before he could say anything, Varis was already throwing him to the side as the manticore broke through their ranks and glance off of Varis' side. The manticore turned around to try and attack again but this time Momo was there to stomp its face into the ground and draw its attention away as everyone crowded around the pair.

"Roko you okay?!" Reaumur cried.

"Fine." Roko grunted, trying to push himself back up despite the bruised feeling in his stomach, "How's Varis?"

"He lost an arm!" Helena reported.

"What?!" The rest of the party that wasn't in the know cried out in surprise.

"Don't worry, it's the one he already lost!"

"...WHAT?!"

"He's fine!" Corissa added, "I um...don't know if we can get the arm back though. It's probably inside the manticore now..."

"So just kill it." Roko grimaced, his stomach wound fighting against him standing up, "Just use the string."

"Oh yeah, so what happened there?" Reaumur asked.

"The shell can't take it's own power. Use it's own strength against it and it'll tear itself apart easily."

"That sure is a plan by Roko." Helena smiled as she walked over.

"You want us to get hit on purpose?!" Roland cried.

"I mean, it's not that different from what we've been doing." Brook handed Roland another spool of string.

"You're not the one getting hit!"

"It's pointless anyway." Momo said as she skidded to a stop in front of them, "The manticore's already adjusted its tactics. Instead of throwing heavy blows it's using it's claws and wing bones to try and skewer us instead."

"Oh thank god."

"I don't think you'll be so happy when you see what else it's begun to do."

"What, has it begun firing lasers?" Roland chuckled but then began to widen his eyes as the manticore opened its mouth as a bright light peaked through its teeth and fired at him. Everyone quickly lunged to the side to avoid getting caught up in the laser's path.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Roland cried, "Where'd it learn to do something like that?"

"I mean, Nasturtium just pulled out a miniature version of the king's light spell so this thing just made a miniature version of Nasturtium's miniature."

"Why is this monster a better student than I was in high school?!"

"I mean, is that supposed to be strange?" Reaumur rolled her eyes.

"No no, Roland actually had pretty good grades." Helena explained, "He was just the type to do no studying until the day before, do a last minute cram session, end up with okay grades and be fed up with the educational system afterwards."

"How do you manage to say that as if you were there?" Roland scowled.

"I did my research."

"Uuuhhh, maybe we can reminisce later?" Momo said, "If it's holding back now, maybe we have a chance at killing it. Roko's still recovering so we'll need to deal with this on our own."

"I'm fine!" Roko called.

"We need to buy Roko some time to rest."

"Gimmie a minute, I'll get up."

"Corissa, don't let him go anywhere."

"Got it." Corissa said as she hugged Roko from behind.

"I can still fight!" Roko moaned.

"If your old plan isn't going to work anymore, we're going to need a new one." Corissa booped Roko on the nose, "So just focus on that for now."

"I swear to god, it's like none of you can think for yourselves."

"But you think so much better than us."

"Don't outsource your thinking!"

Despite Roko's complaints he remained where he was, recovering and thinking the best he could to resolve the situation. There was no longer any time to fight the manticore again. They needed to kill it and move on before too much of the memory can pass. And no one was more aware of that than Helena.

"Just go down already!" Helena cried, "There's still one more fight we have to watch! How are you still so sturdy?! I swear to god, if we still had our cursed items, we'd be able to beat you easily!"

"Cursed..." Roko muttered, "Corissa, I have a plan."

"Oh. Already?"

"Yeah."

…

"So you can let me go now."

"Hmmmm..."

"Corissa."

"Fine." Corissa pouted as she let go of Roko, "But try not to do it alone."

"Don't worry. I'm going to need Varis' help with this one."

"Varis?"

The black knight leaped back from a downward swipe from the manticore. Roko placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Varis. I'm going to need you to lend me a hand."

And without saying anything else, Roko patted him on the shoulder before moving forward to approach the manticore again, calling for everyone else to retreat again. The manticore regarded the approaching human with a wary snarl but without any indication that he had any particular trick in hand, the manticore seemed confident to lunge forward and try a few swipes at him. Roko deftly dodged the attacks as he raised his normal hand and threw a punch at the eldritch monster. In response the manticore opened it's mouth to bite down on Roko's arm. And in a horrifying moment, it did, the manticore's maw closing right over his punch and swallowing his arm whole. For a moment the world seemed to stand still.

"Fire."

The manticore's body began to bulge out and eventually explode into flaming pieces. Roko stood there, his arm covered in the black armor that the manticore had eaten. With the threat gone, the pieces detached from Roko's arm and returned to serve as Varis' missing arm.

"Easy." Roko said, flexing his own fingers to see if there was no further effect.

"ROKO!" Corissa tackled Roko with a tight hug, "Why'd you have to scare us like that?!"

"How'd you know that would work?" Helena asked, "I didn't think you could just use Varis' armor like that."

"Well, when you mentioned cursed items, I remembered how Corissa thought that Varis' armor might be cursed equipment and how the elves split the pieces of the cursed armor they found among themselves."

"So you figured it'd work with Varis' armor?" Momo smiled, "That's still a bit of a risky plan to just use. Didn't even explain it that well to Varis before you went and did it."

"I figured Varis would catch on."

"That's a lot of confidence for someone you can't have a conversation with." Roland scoffed.

"If you've been paying attention, you'll know that Varis is a much more experienced fighter than any of us."

"You can't pretend like you've been paying attention to Varis of all people."

"Anyway." Helena cut in, "If the boss ain't coming back, we can all focus on last bit of memory we have left. Should be smooth sailing from here."

"About that."

Mikado pointed out towards the pieces of the manticore that have been blown apart. And how they were melting into small tentacle monsters with maws on them.

"Oh goddammit."