Editing Failing Witch:Volume1 Episode2 (section)

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Viocia and Melehe held onto the same broom as they flew. Ordinarily, they couldn’t hope to win an aerial battle with that kind of extra weight, but Viocia still managed to swing her broom around and used an unbelievable amount of power to catch up to red glowing Arbamini.

Melehe realized they could actually win this.

They had the greater speed. And while the fleeing enemy was constantly changing course, she never caused them to overshoot her. Arbamini wasn’t even using any obstruction magic. That meant they would catch up sooner or later.

Melehe whispered to the other girl sharing the broom with her.

“Keep pouring on that absurd power. I’ll show you how to make the subtle course corrections. Move your body left or right based on how you feel me shifting my weight. You focus on catching up to Arbamini!”

“…”

“What?”

Viocia was acting strange, so Melehe frantically called out to her.

“Your broom is Formula Broom – Wittenberg, right? We need its ridiculous acceleration to catch up to Arbamini!!”

“B-but…”

Viocia’s voice was trembling in hesitation.

“If we attach this talisman to her, teacher’s curse will get her! She’s the last of that witch trio. If she’s knocked out too, all three of them will hit the ground!!”

“…”

“But teacher never lies to me. So if he says he’ll do it, ''he really will do it''!”

Melehe’s eyes widened.

That boy had said they had 180 seconds.

That wasn’t much time. She didn’t know what he was going to do, but whatever curse Navigate Exam launched would be guided this way by the parchment talisman. It was guaranteed to be a powerful curse since it had already knocked out Holibre and Lampans so easily.

“30 seconds left,” said Melehe through clenched teeth.

Viocia still wasn’t moving, so Melehe snatched the talisman away from her.

“10 seconds to go!! The curse is coming!!”

Arbamini was doing her best to get away. Her mocking attitude was nowhere to be found. And seeing the witch for who she was, Viocia realized she had to be powerful. She wasn’t running away for herself. She had suppressed her anger and rationally chosen to run away so she could collect her two defeated friends.

The countdown reached zero.

Something massive blocked Viocia and Melehe’s view.

But this ''wasn’t'' Myousou Yagoro’s curse.

A giant pillar appeared between Viocia and Arbamini. And a huge wall. And a huge window. Altogether, it was a stone school building. It was twisted, distorted, and nothing like its original form, but the 10km structure that jutted diagonally up to this height was definitely a school building. Even a dragon flying through the sky had to quickly twist out of the way.

Arbamini disappeared beyond the wall.

Viocia and Melehe couldn’t pursue her any further.

A witch’s Formula Broom would continue forward on its own.

A head-on collision with that would mean death.

Melehe immediately reached her arms around Viocia in front of her on the broom and grabbed the broom handle tight.

“Stop!!”

The two of them came to a rapid stop. Melehe had forcibly shifted the direction of thrust like she did for a vertical takeoff, causing the Formula Broom to stop in place. They were less than 5m away from the white stone wall.

The tutor must have known the enemy had gotten away. The talisman remained in Melehe’s hand, but the long-range curse still hadn’t hit her.

Several dull cracking and creaking sounds rang out.

“Wah!!”

Melehe immediately launched the broom straight up.

The school building was not just a straight line in front of them. It was spreading out to the left and right. From above, it looked like a massive mesh folding fan. The different parts collided and tore each other part as they complexly intertwined.

And Viocia pouted her lips.

“Uhh, Mephistopheles. You always ignore me, so why did you actually listen to Melehe?”

“We would have crashed into the wall if it hadn’t. …Come to think of it, I did that in the heat of the moment, but why could I control it when I haven’t gone through the consecration process for it? That was extremely risky.”

“No, it’s incredible. You really are the prep school’s ace. You didn’t even need to try to control a Rank S<sup>3</sup> broom☆”

“Habwahbh!? N-now you tell me! Were you trying to kill me with that crazy estimated rank!?”

“I hope that Arbamini girl is okay.”

“You make my head hurt… But she’s probably fine. The school emerged behind her, so she wouldn’t have been at risk of crashing into it. And look.”

Melehe pointed down at two lights traveling along the streets of what looked like a miniature city from this height. The blue and green lights were probably on their way to join the third light.

They must have been done for the day.

Melehe frowned while using her vertical takeoff magic to hover in place.

“But what’s with that school?”

The massive structure had emerged diagonally.

The Arena was built at the center of the city, in the dangerous Lakeside area.

That could only mean one thing. Viocia followed Melehe’s gaze.

There was only one place it could have come from.

“From the lake. So is that a Maleficium building?”