10 minutes passed since the battle began.
Even now, the school was struggling to break through the barrier. One reason why even the top-class mages they had with them to conjure such a strong barrier would fail was due to external interference. It was obvious that the barrier had been modified and reinforced without anyone's knowledge, meaning the opponent must have been an even better mage.
"Move away! I'm going to try to break through!!"
"Y-You can't, Aldwolf-sama! We don't know what forcefully breaking it from the outside would do!"
Right now, a few adventurers were trying to hold back Aldwolf from charging right into the barrier. Most of the team had arrived at the entrance to the forest but were unable to enter from outside. As a result, they had been trying to break through without much success. Aldwolf, who had become agitated from how long this was taking and being able to sense the battle going on inside, started to want to force his way through. This prompted the other adventurers to hold him back while the mages worked desperately on the task.
Meanwhile, the students were also beginning to get worried for their juniors and schoolmates who were trapped. Without any information nor familiars to know what was going on inside, they could only wait impatiently for the authorities to try to figure something out. This was the first time something like this had ever happened, so it was something unexpected.
"What do you think is going on, Ken-chan?"
"Don't ask for my opinion. You know I am a very bipartisan person."
"Hm~ that may be true, but I think you are more pessimistic you know?"
Two of the students who were waiting with the crowd outside of the forest area spoke to each other. The area had been blocked by a few officials since this situation was starting to get out of hand so the city had to be involved. Even so, the students couldn't help but stood outside where they were allowed closest to the area.
Both of them were among the student body, yet they stood out from the rest. It wasn't like they were that different, but students knew who they were and instantly a mob mentality type of attitude was used to look at them.
"That's an amazing amount of mana leaking though, don't you think~?"
The one who just spoke had her hair tied in a side ponytail and wore big star earrings. With a huge sword that looked very… unique to her back, she faced the person she had been talking to.
"Tch, it's just mana… you don't know why there is mana in the first place."
The guy replied in a slightly grumpy mood. He had an air of being unreliable and delinquency around him, but the students knew better than to be fooled by his outward appearance. Instead of a sword, each of his fingers had rings of different variation and design on them.
"What are you saying Ken-chan? We both know that there is a very strong monster inside right~? You can sense the ground moving up and down from time to time."
"Oh, you two are here. I knew I could hear someone familiar."
"Ah, it's Ryu-chan!"
The two turned around when they heard someone else calling them. When they saw who it was, the girl acted in a cheerful manner while the guy went back to his usual sulking.
Within the school, it had been said before there existed an invisible ranking system that showed the top fighters within both the school year and the entire school. This was among the things that most people looked forward to, some form of recognition and admiration to the top of the top. These three right now were one of the few students who were within the top 10 rankings, something that was out of reach for most people without the talent or effort to reach such levels. For the top 10, people have an exclusive name for each of them.
The girl with an abnormal weapon that was unlike what most people had, Frey de Mistledream, also known as the 'Ambiguous Death-bringer'.
The guy whose mood did not reflect his true ability, Kenridge Ievan Siegfried, also known as the 'Depressed Magician'.
The man with the unbreakable defence, Ryuuseki Alva Ward, also known as 'Skjolder'.
Three of them were present to watch the events that would unfold before their eyes. Even if the exam had been cancelled, they knew that something was going on inside that neither of them had experienced before. Even though they climbed to one of the top rankings of the school, that did not mean their fighting experiences were better than the others, but they had the ability to back them up.
Right now, what that was going on had piqued their interests in different forms depending on the person. What that really mattered was the outcome. As top students who had their own individual aims and goals for reaching to the top of the school, they watched the authorities freaking out while the ground continued to rumble.
Back in the fighting ground, Yuuji's strategy was holding up quite well against the tough monster. Even with the lack of mana that was continuing to increase the difficulty of the situation, they were somehow managing with the help of mana replenishing potions. All the students who couldn't move pitched in theirs to aid the tide of the battle since they didn't want to die either.
"Vanguards, advance!" Yuuji cried out once more and charged towards the monster with his shield held up high.
The centipede monster swung its legs down at the approaching students, only to have them deflected once more by the mages who casted their attack spells accurately. It helped that Rena was able to convert her attacks into something pure magical, which meant she could adapt being an archer or a mage depending on situations like this. It was like firing magical arrows, but that her attack had more magical attack power than physical power.
Lunaria aided by attacking from the sky. As the only one capable of flying around without reserve, she attacked again and again with her sword. It didn't help that she couldn't use high-tier magic to attack, so she could only resort to something that relied more on her sword skills. 'Body Strengthening' was one of the examples of skills that didn't require mana to activate, but instead was acquired by doing something else. However, this was a story for another time.
Back to the battle, things were in a weird position for the students. While they certainly were able to break through the centipede's attacks, they weren't able to damage it much even after dealing so much damage to it. Its exoskeleton was way too tough against both physical and magical damage. How Rena managed to damage it was due to it letting its guard down, so now that it knew that it had to be wary of attacks like that, it was starting to push back.
"This thing sure is persistent," Yuuji smiled nervously as he retreated once more to prepare for the next wave of attack. "Everyone, back off! It should be attacking with its tail again!"
As expected, the centipede swung its rear end at them once more. This time, instead of snake heads that would come snapping at them, venom was sprayed all over. It was a targeted area attack, mainly towards the frontline. The tankers who were in front absorbing most of the physical attack and receiving the most healing from some of the healers and mages stepped forward to block the venom, but the venom managed to even corrode their shields. This was the first time since the battle started that their defences began to crumble.
Taking the chance that they were confused and panicking over their shields melting, the centipede hissed and raised its rear end.
"This is bad, it's going to attempt to knock us out now that we don't have a proper defence system!!" Yuuji widened his eyes at this. "Scatter, everyone!! It wants to unleash a wide area of attack!!!"
From the tail, a dark ball of magic began charging up rapidly. It seemed like it didn't require the mana from the surroundings to create the said magic attack, meaning that it had the skill itself to do so. This must have been what that caused the explosion earlier due to how the air was starting to have static, meaning lightning would soon follow. Everyone immediately retreated as fast as they could, but it was not enough to prevent all the students from being safe.
Lightning struck towards the ground surrounding it and it unleashed the ball of magic right after. The purpose of the lightning was likely to act as a stun before it released the main attack. Instantly, beams of magic released from it and made a perfect circle around it before unleashing its wrath. Loud and powerful explosions quickly occurred right after, causing screams of terror and cries from the students, whether they were caught up in the attack or not.
Lunaria, who soared in the sky above, gritted her teeth as she could do nothing about it. Even with her magic barrier, she had doubts about whether or not she could properly defend it. That was how much of a monster it was. The only way that they could possibly win now was to find an opening that it had.
"Opening…. That's it!" Lunaria widened her eyes and swooped back down.
The monster growled out loud after the effects of its magic had finished. Traces of lightning crackled in the air, as though resonating with its terror. Students could be seen collapsed all over the place, some of which were stunned right after the lightning had struck them.
Just as it prepared to unleash another volley of attack, it noticed something flying right at it. Lunaria came charging at it again, as though trying to replicate what she had tried to do earlier with her sword. The monster didn't understand the actions of Lunaria, especially after she failed once already. As such, it decided to take her up on the challenge once more by receiving Lunaria's attack.
"Haaaaaaa~~~!!!" Lunaria cried out, using her sword skill.
Flying right into its face, she didn't strike it, but waited until she got a little closer so she could get a surefire attack. When she was inches away, she unleashed her attack right at its right eye and shattered the protective covering that shielded its eyes from the attacks earlier. It turned out, from what Lunaria realized, was that it was able to reinforce its body armour with magic to make it stronger at certain places if it could anticipate the attack. Knowing that Lunaria was going to aim at its head, it reinforced magic at the wrong part and exposed its vulnerable position: the eye.
The monster, now pissed and half-blind from Lunaria's attack, snapped its jaw at Lunaria and knocked her back down to the ground. Since her sword was caught up in its hard shell when it reinforced itself a little too late, she was unable to pull it out in time and was brought down by it.
"Lunaria!!" Sera cried out when she saw her friend crashing against the floor.
Lunaria rolled backwards a bit more before she stopped herself. Opening her wings midroll, she soared backwards even quicker than she was thrown across the floor and avoided another attack just in time. With blood now dripping from her face and cuts all over, Lunaria knew things were going from bad to worse if she couldn't even pull out her sword. Normally, she would be fine if she had access to magic but it was nearly impossible to fight it when it was weaker against magic attack and there was no mana. Whoever had planned this probably wanted the ending to turn out this way.
The group of students who were able to get up were in shambles. They didn't have most of their tankers, some of the vanguards had their sword broken, the mages were running low on potions, the archers exhausted their arrow supply and the rest were either too injured to move or blacked out. This monster was simply too powerful for them to face alone.
This was also the moment that Kaze had emerged from the forest with Shoko helping him to walk.
When Kaze got to the open again, his eyes widened at the pathetic state everyone was in. He was fully aware of the outcome from that alone and it brought pain to his heart. With his fists shaking in rage, his gaze finally met Lunaria.
Lunaria realized this and slowly turned to see Kaze with Shoko. She saw the state of his body and put two and two together, knowing that Bryle must had been fighting with Kaze and the two got caught put in the monster's initial attack. With Shoko doing some emergency healing for him to barely be able to move, Lunaria too felt rage from this.
However, this was not the quiet fire that had been simmering inside her the whole time she fought. It wasn't like the pain she felt when she saw her friends and students getting blown away. She was sad, angry but nothing that brought her over the edge.
It was as though someone had suddenly increased the output of the fire inside her several times more, increasing the intensity of it. All of a sudden, her entire body turned cold and felt slightly limp. Lunaria's mind immediately went blank, unable to process what was happening in front of her. Just a second ago, she was calm when facing the monster but now it was like her body froze up in fear.
Except this wasn't fear, but the feeling of being unable to comprehend what had happened and the helplessness she felt from being unable to be there for Kaze. She already had a feeling that he was going to be targeted during this event, but she was still too late. She didn't want to tell him what she had been thinking about the examination from the start, and she had caused this.
It didn't matter what the facts of the case was, whether it was Kaze being unlucky enough to have been caught up in the attack or that she was just weakened by the lack of mana. The only thought that filled her now was anger that started to overflow. She had allowed Kaze to get hurt.
If she was earlier a few minutes…
If she had made it to him…
If she had told him to find her instead of going alone…
Would he have been safe? Would they not have met Bryle?
Lunaria suddenly snapped back to reality. It was like the cold that covered her body was suddenly gone, replaced with the feeling of her body heating up quickly. She didn't know why, but this was the first time she felt this way. Watching her friends being injured, when she could have prevented this in the first place, it was unacceptable.
"No…. No… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Lunaria cried out and charged at the centipede, not caring about the pain that it brought upon her body.
As she zoomed right at it, her body started to morph. Her arms started to grow scales, her legs began to curve, her tail growing larger, her hair trailing even longer than it already was before.
She was undergoing partial dragon transformation, something that was too risky to adapt to in the first place due to how unstable it was.
Dragonkins were special in that they could choose whether to be human or dragon, but unable to go in between. It wasn't like it was impossible, but the form was hard to maintain. It was like trying to fill a bottle of water that was already full with more water, making it unstable. Even so, Lunaria took the risk and decided to end it all for once.
If only she transformed into a dragon from the start, would the ending have been different?
If she chose to rely on herself instead of trusting Yuuji and the other students, could she have prevented this?
Countless questions came forth from the back of her mind where she had pushed her doubts in before. Her dark past was starting to haunt her again, causing her to question her decisions about whether it was right or not. This had happened before, and it was about to happen again. All the pain and suffering she tried to bury within her, it was going to erupt. She chose to settle everything with this one attack.
"Sword skill: Dragon's Breath!!!!"
A brilliant white light followed her attack as she swung her sword down at the centipede. Instantly, the centipede's skeleton cracked and it got blown backwards by the attack.
From the way it got blasted away, the attack Lunaria delivered must have been one of the strongest, if not, the strongest that she had available without any mana. It was in fact, a sword skill unique to her who had achieved it as a blessing from the goddess years ago.
Dragon's Breath: an attack that increased based on one's emotional intensity. As dragons were very emotionally unstable creatures in the past, way before the ancestors of dragonkins existed, it was said they reigned the land and sky with their fury. This skill was like a relic of the past, a reminder to Lunaria of her true identity.
Lunaria had trained to keep her emotions under control from training since young before the dark past haunted her. Even then, she persevered and pushed back against those emotions. She didn't want to rely on it, instead honing her own skills so she could protect again. Right now, she didn't care anymore and relied on it.
A percentage-based skill was risky if one didn't have the resolve to use it. Lunaria let loose without holding back anymore.
The white light left a huge path in its wake that dug up the ground. Its impact was so strong it shook the earth around them, as though an earthquake had happened. Everyone was left speechless by the attack that took place. They were only left with one question in mind:
Just how strong were all dragonkins?
Lunaria collapsed to the floor right after the skill was unleashed. With her transformation coming undone, she found herself unable to even move properly from the backlash of the skill. She was lucky that Dragon's Breath activated at the peak of her transformation, which was where she was able to withstand the blast effect of the skill. It was too powerful to be used at the stage where she was at, a very emotionally uncontrollable state.
"It's alright…" Lunaria calmed herself in a raspy voice, her chest rising and falling from exhaustion. "I… did it… I protected everyone…"
Kaze and Shoko both watched from afar at the attack that took place. It was clear that Lunaria was in a league of her own, except placed with inconvenient restrains that stopped her from using her full power. Kaze felt pure admiration for Lunaria, especially when she seemed like she knew the risks. There was no hesitation in her respond to the monster.
"W-Wow… she took it down herself," Kaze muttered softly.
"Mm… Lunaria is a very amazing person, she just has her own issues…" Shoko grimaced. "We all do, but Lunaria…"
At the same time, above the sky beyond the barrier, two figures watched the battle unfold before them.
"Hoho, it was certainly unexpected that Tauzenpod got defeated just like that," one clapped. "I didn't expect for there to be a dragonkin here."
"Whatever the reason, the experiment failed obviously," the other grumbled. "Let's grab the core and leave, we have no more reason to be here. If more people showed up…"
"Ah, but I suppose it was an interesting fight nonetheless. Perhaps we chose the wrong species to use it on, but we have good results. Gotta record this…"
"Hey, are you listening? Grab the core and let's go!"
"Ah, but why? It still hasn't ended you know?"
At the words of his companion, the other person widened his eyes.
"It isn't over…?"
"Just watch."
The ground began rumbling again, causing everyone to change from relief to agitated instantly.
"W-What's going on?!" Yuuji shouted. "Is the barrier coming down?!"
"No Yuuji-sama! Look!!" Someone pointed where the centipede had been defeated. "The monster is…!!"
"T-That's impossible…" Kaze muttered in disbelief, staring at the cause of the rumbling.
The centipede, that was supposedly shattered inside out, had begun to glow an ominous red again. Its body expanded even more as its shell reattached. The broken pieces and whatever that was damaged self-repaired, building up an even tougher and menacing body that the one that it had before.
Lunaria was utterly speechless as she watched the centipede she just defeated reconstructing itself. At once, the feeling of hopelessness and despair overcame her once more. With her heart tightening in anguish, she was unable to come up with a possible explanation for how this could happen. She was sure that she already defeated it, so… why….?
By now, her body had already been too beaten up to move properly. As she struggled to get up, she could only find herself shivering in fear instead. It was the feeling that she was going to die, combined with the feeling that she was unable to save anyone.
"Move, move," Lunaria told herself inside her head, straining herself to stand back up. "I-I have to… release Dragon's Breath once more…"
Even when she was unable to properly stand, she tried to force a partial transformation again but coughed up blood. Her prided wings crumpled behind her, a sign that she was already too weak to move. The backlash of using Dragon's Breath combined with partial transformation was too much for her right now, such that she couldn't even crawl away if she wanted.
"Oh no… we have to move," Shoko shuddered and tried to pull Kaze away with her, only to have him stuck to the ground. "Kaze?"
"… Shoko, grab Lunaria and run," Kaze grunted, pushing her off of him. "I will distract it."
"Are you an idiot?! I can just take Lunaria and run off! Why do you need to be the sacrifice?!" Shoko shouted at him. "Do you want to be hurt so much?!"
"No. This is in the event that the centipede still targets you," Kaze gulped. "You are the fastest one who is able to bring Lunaria away from where she is. Right now, she is too vulnerable."
"… Kuh, no, you are staying," Shoko grunted before running into the open. "Don't you dare move!!"
What Shoko didn't expect was that she had underestimated Kaze's determination to help. Thinking that he was going to be limping even if he said all those things earlier, she ran up to Lunaria and bent down to her side.
"Lunaria… you are in very bad shape," Shoko muttered, her voice quivering. "Don't move. I'm going to cast some healing on you and bring you away-"
At once, the terrifying bellowing of the centipede rang out, sounding distorted now. It was like it was being consumed from the inside, its rage and energy eating away itself. Whatever that was empowering it right now must have been too powerful for the centipede to withstand as its body began to crumble before reforming again. Right now, it was in the process of being destroyed and reinforcing itself over and over again.
Setting its sights on the person who killed it once, it began charging right at Lunaria in its unstable state. Even if half of its body acted like it was going to crumple at any time, it radiated so much energy that its hatred was projected in all directions around it. Even the students who were crumpled at the sidelines were shivering and some puking from the energy they could feel. Yuuji was brought back down to his knees by the monster, unable to withstand its negative reaction.
The rumbling grew more violent as it got closer and closer to Lunaria. It was a mindless monster right now, unable to control itself. Howling in pain at the memory of its face being sliced open moments ago, it was now fuelled with enough power to allow itself to reconstruct its body. It eventually overpowered its weakness for an instant. By reproducing the same attack earlier, a larger and denser beam began charging up in front of it as it rushed right at Lunaria.
"L-Lunaria!! Get up!!!" Shoko cried, pulling a limp Lunaria along the floor. "I can't move if you don't push yourself!!"
"I… can't…" Lunaria gasped, sputtering more blood down her chest. "Shoko… just get out of here… leave me…"
"N-No! We promised!!" Shoko squeezed her fists so tightly that she started to bleed. "Luna!!!"
The centipede then released the beam once it was ready. It still hadn't stopped its rampage yet, coming closer to the two in front of it. Even if it was unable to see, it could tell that Lunaria was there. It wanted to take revenge on its foe, bringing her down with it.
In that instance as the beam took over both Lunaria and Shoko's sight, they squeezed their eyes shut in anticipation of being blasted away.
However, that moment never came. What followed was the screams of a man which rivalled that of the centipede's wails.
Squinting open her eyes, Lunaria was shocked to see a familiar silhouette in front of her, where the beam was supposed to be. Even though Shoko was hugging her tightly, so much so that her body ached even more, she had her sight completely focused on Kaze.
Kaze didn't know how, but he was able to run at the last second. Approaching Lunaria just before the beam hit, he swung his sword out after charging his attack and began pushing back. Phantom Rush, a highly condensed attack that not only took magic to create but also the strength of a person. Since it was extremely hard to wield, it resulted in a higher attack power that was unlike anything normal casted by magic. The sole reason was the magic power that was gathered.
From the root of all magic was mana. When condensed, it took the form of pure magic, something that gathered before it was channelled through one's body and released in different forms. Pure magic was very unstable, hence why it was normally unobtainable from just gathering in your palms. By the time one cycled it through their body, it had already converted to 'magic' instead of 'pure magic'. An example of this was any attack or chant, or even normal magic analysation by passing mana through one's body to analyse the contents.
What Kaze used for his attack was 'pure magic' Instead of channelling it through his body, he gathered it all directly onto his sword, making it a medium that was suitable to hold onto the unstable element of pure magic. Of course, because it was unstable in the first place it was supposed to disperse upon contact unless it was maintained throughout. Maintaining pure magic was much harder because instead of channelling it through one's body to maintain the cycle or change the speed of using mana, you were trying to make an already unstable element stable. It was like trying to contain an explosion with bare hands alone.
Kaze didn't know how difficult it was to the normal person, because there wasn't a reason to gather pure magic. It was essentially useless, for it could be converted into other forms of more useful magic like common or rare magic. There was no use for it other than the more niche types of magic, but this was not really known. He could do it because this was what was taught to him by his grandfather. The only problem was that no matter how much he trained, the most he could maintain it at that state after being charged was 30 seconds.
Right now, he was essentially pushing back against a magical attack that was powered and its damage increased significantly. Using pure magic against magic.
His entire body felt like it was being stabbed with a thousand needles at a time from how powerful both sides clashing was. It felt like he was going to be blown back any moment now if he stopped, so he could only maintain stance desperately while still channelling magic into his sword to replenish the pure magic base.
The centipede noticed that it was being pushed back and let out another angry cry. Focusing more power into its beam, its body released red miasma that started to cloud the air around Lunaria and Shoko, leaving only Kaze visible in front of them. The sound of magic clashing against each other along with Kaze's sword vibrating like crazy resounded through the air, creating a high pitch screeching of magic and steel.
Kaze could be seen being pushed back, so much so that his entire body was moving backwards bit by bit. It was already amazing that he could hold on for so long, for every second felt like an eternity. His body could no longer stand in the first place, his old wounds reopening as a result. From the inside, he could feel his bones starting to break. It was like torture, no one could last from taking this attack.
However, Kaze didn't want to see those behind him getting hurt.
He was going to surpass his own limits right here.
In order to protect those important to him.
Kaze didn't have a dream or a wish like everyone else who came to Tristania to study.
Some wanted to take over the family business, some wanted to be adventurers, politicians, renowed artists…
It was only recently that Kaze understood what he wanted to do. He wanted to protect those close to him. He was going to do that by getting stronger.
This was something he decided by himself after seeing the smiles of those around him. He wanted to change and become a lot stronger.
He was far too weak, he knew that from the start. There was no definite way of saying how he could improve because that was something only he could find out for himself. After seeing how everyone treated him over the past 3 months, especially those closer to him, he needed to return the favour.
So he wasn't going to die.
All of a sudden, the beam cut out from the monster. It had likely run out of charge-up power to shoot the beam since it didn't expect Kaze to be able to fend for himself for so long. Taking a step backwards, Kaze inhaled once and uttered a silent prayer for good luck.
'Please, just one more,' Kaze silently begged. 'Goddess Tiel…'
His entire body began glowing a faint white, creating a white light in the middle of the red mist. Kaze readied his sword once more, facing the beast that was the centipede monster. Emptying his mind of all excess thoughts and aligning his breathing to a controlled pace, it was almost as though he was in his own world.
A world where only he and the monster existed.
The monster was able to sense the newfound threat and cried out loud, ready to stomp Kaze.
With each second that passed, Kaze's sense sharpened. He tried to imagine what he saw his grandfather doing every day when swinging the sword. It was nothing short of perfect, a refined movement after swinging for hundreds of thousands of time.
'Grandfather... give me strength.'
"…White Flash."
With a simple movement, Kaze held his sword above his head and brought it down. His single stroke was silent, a faint chime echoing throughout the ground and muting out all other sound.
A heaven-splitting white beam shot through the sky. It hit the barrier and protruded right through. It continued soaring, so much that even the clouds parted way. Following the light was another huge explosion, but it was due to the centipede's core shattering.
What that followed was another higher pitch chime that drowned out the wails of the centipede, it's existence disintegrating before Kaze's eyes.
When the mist had cleared, all that was left in front of Kaze was a huge crater in front of him where the centipede once stood. It had been clearly defeated, not even a single trace of it remaining.
The last thing Kaze could remember before blacking out was bowing to the supposed centipede, a final farewell as its opponent.
"Kaze!!!!"