"Rizel, are you okay?"
"Yes, Katrina, I'm fine. My magic works surprisingly well against them, their armor crumbles to dust."
Katrina and Rizel stood before the barracks; here, too, large groups of warriors gathered, but their magic could handle them with enough power.
"Krito said the last guards advanced toward us, together with Ragni and Seleria, which means he'll strike soon."
"But we shouldn't let our guard down; who knows what kind of enemy we'll face."
"Hmm, I hope it's not some powerful warrior with immunity to magic," Katrina gazed thoughtfully at the sky.
"Considering that they're all like that, your hopes might not come true."
"Rizel, you're not good at comforting."
"Hehehe, better not let you relax during the battle."
"Sigh, all of this is taking so long. Rizel, since we're alone... would you mind revealing your face?" Katrina leaned forward, trying to peer under the hood, but as always, all she could see was the glowing green eye.
"No, I'm shy!" Rizel turned away, feeling the intense gaze.
"Mmm, but I'm curious!"
"You'll have to do without it!"
Katrina tried to grab the necromancer, but she skillfully sidestepped, and the princess nearly fell to the ground.
"Mmmm, alright..."
The peaceful atmosphere was disrupted by loud footsteps. From around the corner of the building, a huge figure in black armor appeared.
"Whoa! What the hell is that? It looks much bigger up close!" Katrina stared at the guard in horror. It was a massive, roundish figure with massive arms and legs. He was over three meters tall, and from under the armor, long tubes protruded in some places.
"It seems they didn't scale the windows the same way as the other guards. This thing is enormous!" Rizel also studied the warrior. "But how will it fight with such a massive body?"
Crack, creak.
Making strange sounds, the guard turned towards the girls and fixed his gaze on them. A small, flattened helmet with a big visor was mounted on the spherical torso, and two half-circle slits with red lights were visible in it.
"Is that even a human? I have a bad feeling about this."
The answer to the question came from the guard's low, hoarse voice.
"Enemies of the Empire detected... Ssshhh... Initiating neutralization and capture." The guard extended his right arm, attached to which was a large tube on his wrist. And with a loud roar, something flew out of it towards the girls.
"AAAAH, it's shooting!" Katrina screamed and tried to stop whatever came out of the guard's hand.
Katrina's lightning struck the projectile, attempting to slow it down, and it eventually fell just a step away from the princess. It was a steel sphere about five centimeters in diameter. It wasn't flying too fast, but if it hit the girls, it would be more than enough to take them down.
"This thing means business. Looks like it wanted to knock us out with that," said Rizel.
"Katrina, I don't like this. Let's change our position before it hits those soldiers."
Katrina looked back; if the sphere hit any of the sleeping soldiers, they would hardly get away with a light scare.
"Let's go!" Katrina and Rizel ran from the dormitory walls towards a large lawn in front of them; there was plenty of space, and they could fight at full power.
The center of the lawn became the battleground. Katrina and Rizel reached it in a couple of minutes, and the huge guard followed them step by step, taking a position a hundred meters away from the girls.
"This thing prefers ranged combat. What should we do?" Katrina assessed the distance to the enemy. "My lightning won't even scratch him at such immunity."
"And my decay magic won't work at all from this distance."
While the girls were contemplating tactics, the guard raised both hands and extended five smaller tubes from each.
"Moving to the second phase."
Simultaneously, he fired from all the weapons.
"Again?! He doesn't learn," Katrina tried to intercept all the projectiles with new lightning, but Rizel noticed something strange.
"Katrina, get back!" The necromancer pushed the girl backward and extended her staff. Before reaching the girls, the projectiles struck an invisible barrier and exploded. The blast was quite powerful, and the shockwave pushed the girls back a couple of meters.
"What the hell is this?!" Katrina got up from the ground and brushed herself off. "Rizel?"
"Sorry, I thought these spheres were glowing in flight, so I wanted to stop them. I didn't expect it to turn out like this."
"If he keeps bombarding us like this, we won't last long."
"We need to come up with something."
"Targets not destroyed. Proceeding to the third phase."
From the second hand of the guard emerged a long, narrow tube, and he opened fire again. This time, small explosive spheres and large steel ones were launched, followed by a barrage of fire from the other hand.
The sorceresses could barely deflect the attacks. Katrina intercepted the large spheres, and Rizel used her power to repel the small projectiles while blocking the fire.
"We won't withstand this! Katrina, any ideas?" Rizel desperately defended against the small projectiles but found herself in an unfavorable position.
"We can't wait for him to run out of ammunition; we need to attack!"
"And how do you plan to attack?!"
Katrina looked at the ground; already a dozen steel spheres had pierced the lawn in several places.
"Heh, Rizel, how about playing ball? Whoever manages to knock down the big black ball wins."
"Ha, but I can't do it alone."
As soon as the guard's attack subsided, the girls put their plan into action. Katrina electrified the spheres to the maximum and lifted them into the air.
"Rizel, just aim carefully!"
"I will!" Rizel swung her staff and accurately sent the spheres one by one towards the target. Devoid of mass due to Katrina's electricity, the spheres flew at breakneck speed towards the enemy. The guard didn't even attempt to dodge.
DONG, DONG-DODONG.
With a deep sound, the spheres hit the torso and bounced off. The final strike hit the center of the body, and the guard staggered back slightly, taking two steps back.
"Doesn't he feel anything at all?!" Katrina couldn't believe her eyes.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. Katrina, I'll try to get closer. Can you cover me from the projectiles?"
"I'll try, but the explosions will be close to you. Can you dodge?"
"I have good protection; I won't go down easily. Get ready, here comes another wave!"
After taking a short break, the guard aimed his weapon at the girls again. The first wave consisted of small explosive projectiles, and Katrina created a thin electric lightning and threw it forward. The lightning exploded all the projectiles one by one, creating a cloud of gray smoke between the opponents. Rizel didn't miss her chance. Bending down and lowering her staff, she rushed forward. As she dashed through the smoke, the guard was already prepared for a new salvo, adjusting his aim and firing another wave of small and large projectiles at the necromancer. Rizel was ready to use her magic to stop them, but Katrina's voice stopped her.
"Go ahead; I'll handle them!" The princess leaped out of the smoke and immediately unleashed a discharge at the approaching projectiles. Without slowing down, Rizel passed through the wave of explosions and gathered a large cluster of violet flames at the end of her staff.
"Take this!" For a moment, a shining blade appeared in the flames on the staff's end, and with a precise strike, the girl severed the giant's left arm.
"Eliminate the threat... sssshhh..." As if oblivious to the loss, the guard turned his head towards the girl, and tongues of flame burst from his visor.
"Rizel, BACK!" Katrina picked up a steel sphere from the ground, powered it with a powerful lightning bolt, and threw it straight at the guard's head. With a dull sound, the sphere hit the helmet, and it flew off to the side. At the same moment, a stream of flames erupted from where the head was a second ago. The girls managed to jump back, and they were now about twenty meters away from the opponent.
"He doesn't have a head!" Katrina gazed at the gap in the armor.
"And it seems like he doesn't have arms either," Rizel pointed at the left shoulder, from which a thick black liquid was flowing, with small tubes and hoses sticking out.
"But most importantly, he doesn't care!" Katrina observed the guard's behavior in surprise. He aligned his position, first touching the place where his head was, then his shoulder.
"Could it be a golem?" Rizel made the most logical statement.
"But didn't our captive say that all the guards are living people?"
"M-m-my hand! And head! AH, YOU INSIGNIFICANT PESTS!" The guard menacingly shook his fist in the direction of the girls, but his voice didn't match his body at all. A high-pitched and slightly stuttering voice that could be attributed to a child came from the guard's neck. "What? You even broke my voice control?! I'll never forgive you for this!"
"Katrina, doesn't it seem suspicious to you?"
"Do you think there's someone inside?"
"Y-YES! YOU HURT MY BABY! I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!" The guard no longer paid attention to the damage and shook the air angrily. "Now you'll experience the full power of T.O.R.!!!"
"He's even lisping, can you imagine?"
"Well, I've never heard of a lisping golem before."
"UKEEEE!! YOU'RE FINISHED!!" T.O.R. knelt down and rested his remaining hand on the ground, lowering his head.
"Is he surrendering?" Katrina scratched her cheek thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid not. Look, on his back!" Rizel pointed at three large tubes on the guard's back, which they had noticed when they were in the tower.
"He's not going to fire from those again, is he?"
"Preparation complete, Destructor mode!" The tubes on the guard's back began to glow, and three massive fireballs shot out of them: "DIE! DIE! DIE!!! UNYAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
An even more maniacal voice than before echoed through the air as the guard bombarded the meadow with a barrage of fire projectiles.
"RUN!!!" Katrina quickly conjured an acceleration spell and sprinted away from the battlefield, taking the necromancer with her.
"Just don't stop!!!" Huge projectiles exploded right behind the girls, obliterating parts of the academy's territory.