I still had my spear in my hand, I was frozen in place... I had not expected such an attack. Where had it come from in the first place? How had it managed to be so... silent and escape all my senses?
But I couldn't keep thinking. I put everything I had into turning around quickly... and as I did so, something unexpected happened.
The whole cave turned orange, and I felt my skin, which had no protection, suddenly become tremendously hot.
The first thing I felt was fear. The thought that Lucia and Sue would be engulfed by the flames filled my mind. But then... something else crossed my mind.
These... were Lucia's flames, not the creature's!
I gripped my spear tightly, activated Guardian Radiance as fast as I could, and dived into the flames.
I didn't care about my vision, I didn't care that the Guardian Radiance wasn't fully activated, my senses were dulled by the heat and the flames themselves, but I immersed myself completely in the mana.
