Work on the bridge was progressing quietly and peacefully. Ragni, having moved a large block, sat comfortably in the shade near the bridge support. Grain assisted in laying the pavement, and several people hung on makeshift scaffolds, carving reliefs on the bridge pillars.
"Mr. Leonardo, I'm amazed that you're building such a bridge for a small town," Grain struck up a conversation with the architect during their free time.
"Oh, come on, the town is growing larger every day, and this is necessary for its development. My grandfather was from this town, so I decided to help," Leonardo replied.
"But still, it's exceptionally well built. Nowadays, bridges are mostly made of wood, as it's much harder to build them with stone. Yet, you managed to design such a bridge."
"Well, Grain, you're a smart lad, but I'm not a real architect. I'm more of a supervisor for this construction. The actual bridge design and construction method were created by someone much more talented."
"You've intrigued me. Who could it be? Perhaps someone among the workers?"
"No, she can't come here, but if everything goes well, I'll introduce you to her. She's a remarkable girl."
"I'll look forward to it. If everything goes as planned, we'll finish everything in a couple of days."
"Grain, Ragni, RUN AWAY FROM THERE!!" A voice, audible only to those to whom it was addressed, echoed in their heads.
"Grain! Did you also hear Kurone?!" Ragni woke up immediately.
"Yes, what happened?"
"I don't know, but it seems the ground is shaking in the riverbed."
Grain quickly grabbed the nearest rope and descended into the riverbed. When he stood on the ground, he immediately looked through his magic in the direction from which the vibration was coming.
"Something enormous is approaching along the river," the boy immediately remembered the architect's words about the riverbed. "Leonardo, quickly gather all the workers and leave the bridge!!!"
"What happened?"
"The dam you used to block the river is breached; it's going to engulf everyone!"
Although there was no evidence yet, the architect trusted the boy.
"Alright, I'll take everyone away. Help the workers on the scaffolds."
"They are closer to you; take them up."
"Unfortunately, the parapet of the bridge won't allow them to climb up. They can only descend to the riverbed. If you don't help them, they won't make it out."
The workers who were carving the reliefs began descending hastily, but the blocks that facilitated the descent and ascent were moving too slowly.
"They won't make it in time," Grain estimated the remaining time, and soon the raging flood should appear from around the river bend. "Ragni, bring them down here."
"Looks like I'll have to!" The dragoness spread her wings and soared upward. Hovering next to the first worker, Ragni tried to cut the rope with her claws, but it didn't work. "Damn, you can't tear such a sturdy rope."
At that moment, a torrent of water surged from around the bend. With such speed, it would reach the bridge in a minute.
"Damn it, to hell with it," Ragni grabbed a worker and forcefully struck the block, shattering it into pieces and freeing the young man, who now dangled in the dragoness's arms. "Grain, catch!"
Without hesitation, the girl hurled the worker to her companion, who was standing about five meters below her.
"Be careful!!" Grain yelled, but managed to catch the worker in time. "Run to the shore, we'll save the second one."
The worker rushed towards the left bank, but his partner was still on the bridge's central section. Ragni flew to him and started working on the attachments.
"Grain, I won't be able to carry him in time!" Ragni released the worker, but the stream was already approaching the bridge.
"Throw him to me and fly away! I'll figure something out!" Grain caught the worker, and in a few seconds, the torrent reached the bridge.
The earth mage instantly erected a wall of earth before him, which provided some protection from the torrent, but with the first impact, the wall started crumbling backward. Grain tried to hold it, but the water pressure gradually pushed him back.
"Damn it, can't you do anything on your own?!" Two scaly paws suddenly appeared behind the mage's back, digging into the wall.
"Ragni?! I told you to fly away!"
"Pff, and leave you here? You know that Krito will eat me alive later!"
Ragni pushed against the wall, but the stream was starting to erode it from the edges.
"Damn it, couldn't you make it stronger? It's going to crumble any moment now."
"Sorry, but there's only such solid ground at the bottom. I can't make it any stronger."
A large boulder from the stream knocked a considerable hole in the wall right above the dragoness's head.
"We need to get out of here. Can you create a wall to the shore?"
"It won't withstand the torrent, but we can reach the bridge support."
Grain gathered his strength and raised a wall of earth to the nearest column.
"Faster!" All three rushed toward the column, and the wall, which Ragni could no longer support, collapsed from the force of the stream. Once they were behind the column, Grain created two additional barriers at an angle to the stream, making space for all three of them.
"We made it here, but what's next?" Ragni tried to shout over the roaring water.
"Can you fly us out of here?"
"I'm afraid the torrent will sweep me away before we reach the bridge's surface."
"You should fly away, and I'll try to hide with the worker in an earth shelter."
"Are you crazy? Didn't you see how the stones easily broke through your wall? No matter what shelter you create, it won't last long."
"The main thing is to wait until the water subsides. I don't think it will last more than ten minutes."
Ragni fluttered into the air and looked at the mountains from where the water was pouring.
"I'm afraid you won't like this, but a second wave is coming, and it carries much larger debris."
"Damn, where did they come from!?"
"I'm sorry; it's our fault," the worker intervened in the conversation. "There was a dam holding the river in the mountains, but over the past few months, there have been heavy rains, and the water level rose dangerously. We had to release some water, or the dam might not hold. But we were eager to finish the bridge quickly, so we decided not to do that. I'm afraid the stream has eroded other valleys too, where the mud also accumulated due to the rains. This won't end soon; you'd better leave."
Grain assessed her chances, and they were not very encouraging.
"Fly away, don't die here in vain," Ragni urged.
"Yeah, I better run. Even if I can't lift you up, maybe I can pull you out!" The dragoness fluttered onto the bridge's surface and rushed towards the nearest rope. "I'll lower it, tie yourself tightly!"
The girl started to lower the rope, but, concentrating on the torrent below, she forgot to protect her back. The second wave of rocks and mud collided with the bridge, and several boulders flew over the bridge. One of them hit the girl squarely in the back, and she fell to the ground, powerless.
"Damn, we almost made it," Ragni tried to get up, but the pain from the impact paralyzed her body. "I won't let go of the rope!"
"Good thing you said that," help was already running along the bridge; I, along with Aileen, finally arrived at the scene.
"Aileen, can you lift them?"
"I think I have a suitable winch. I'll take care of them, and you make sure the same thing doesn't happen to me as it did to Ragni."
"All right," I picked up a plank from the ground and positioned myself to guard the guardian.
The girl took out a small reel with a handle from her bag and quickly attached it to the rope.
"We need some additional weight to keep the rope in place," she said.
"Take one of the statues above the column. They are not so firmly attached," Ragni finally managed to get up and came to Aileen's aid. Although she was unsteady on her feet and swayed from side to side.
"Hey," the guardian supported the dragoness around the waist to prevent her from falling. "If you collapse as well, it will only complicate my task. Better rest, we'll take care of everything."
"Girls, maybe you should hurry; I'm afraid I won't be able to protect the bridge for long!" I tried to fend off the stones flying at us, but with the increasing flow, huge boulders and trees carried by the torrent were getting closer.
"Well, I can handle that," another figure appeared on the bridge, wrapped in a black cloak with a silver staff in hand. The girl promptly positioned herself against the current on the bridge's railing and conjured purple flames at the staff's end. "Krito, help them get up, and I'll take care of this."
"Thank you!" I turned to Aileen, and she handed me the end of the rope.
"Wrap it tightly around a sturdy column and don't let go under any circumstances!"
"Okay," I secured the rope, and the guardian lowered the end of the rope down. Grain insisted that the worker be pulled up first, and with the joint effort of the girls, we managed to lift him. Rizel, standing in the most precarious place, deftly dodged boulders and used the power of decay to break the stones flying towards us. But she couldn't intercept everything, and every stone that passed hit the bridge, tearing pieces of stone from it.
"Faster! Something worse than simple stones is coming this way!" Rizel shouted, pointing at a huge mass floating downstream. We still had to pull up Grain, and we were running out of time before an enormous tree carried by the current would crash into the bridge.
"Rizel, give us some time; we're almost done."
"Damn it!" The girl leaped high into the air with incredible agility and, performing a somersault, traced an arc of decay flames in the air. Upon landing, she delivered a strike directly to the center of the tree trunk, but the attack was not enough to completely burn the threat. Split in two, the tree bypassed us and crashed into the nearest bridge support on the shore. The impact caused a part of the bridge's span to collapse, creating a gap over three meters wide above the raging current.
"Sorry, it seems I overestimated my strength," After the previous attack, Rizel had expended a lot of mana and was now on her knees at the railing.
"Now we won't be able to escape; we'll have to defend this bridge until a chance to flee appears!" Apparently, Rizel could no longer protect us alone, and we stood facing the torrent, trying to protect what was our last hope. But the current showed no signs of slowing down.
"If this continues, it will wash us away anyway. Grain, can you somehow block the flow?"
"No, the rocks at the bottom are too weak; they'll be washed away as soon as I put them up."
"Then make something stronger! Look over there," I pointed to a tall cliff towering above the right bank of the river. It could completely block the entire river if only it could be nudged slightly.
"It's solid granite; I can't budge it, no matter how hard I try!"
"This is no time to argue! Whether you can or cannot, whether you survive or not, that's what you should be doing."
"I'll try," the earth mage pressed his hands and feet against the ground. Sending a large amount of mana at such a distance was very challenging, but he had no choice. The earth began to tremble, and deep cracks appeared at the edge of the shore, near the promontory. However, the rock itself did not move; it went underground for hundreds of meters, and simple shaking meant nothing to it. The mage strained his whole body; he had to destroy the very structure of the rock rather than trying to move it. But the young mage did not yet know how to do that. "I have to remember what Levris told me."
Those days, every evening, the teacher would practice magic with him, although she only passed on what she had learned from the old man she had been working for. However, all her lessons were unlike anything he had known before.
"With solid rock, you need to break the bond between particles. If you direct mana correctly, you can make precise cuts over vast distances. Although I myself have only managed to tear off a chunk of stone just over half a meter long."
The lessons were not in vain; Grain focused on the rock, its structure, on each individual particle, and tried to sever the bond between them. He needed to create a clean break along a single line so that the rock would not crumble entirely but would be precisely cut at its base. However, the boy's powers were clearly too feeble. After five minutes of futile attempts, he fell to the ground in exhaustion, and the grotesque body of the rock showed only a small crack, no wider than two meters. All his efforts were in vain.
"Forgive me, I'm still too weak for this."
"What are you talking about? We've got a chance at salvation after all," I pointed at the crack, which began to grow and soon ran through the entire rock. "You did it!"
But rejoicing came too soon; the rock was cut, but it remained in place; its enormous weight kept it from moving.
"Grain, if you can do something about this, please help!" Aileen pleaded.
"I'll try," overcoming fatigue, the boy stood up and concentrated his strength on the rock. His powers were not enough, but a miracle happened, and the rock yielded to his command, collapsing across the current. The mudflow was redirected to the left bank, giving those of us stuck in the middle of the bridge a chance to escape.
Once we descended from the bridge, the whole group made it to the right bank and lay down on the grass.
"Grain, you said you couldn't do it. You just need to have more faith in yourself."
However, Grain's face did not show great joy about our rescue.
"I know the limits of my strength, and I could never have moved that rock on my own. Someone helped me."
"But there was no one else here."
"Maybe, but with earth magic, you don't need to see the target to move it. I'm sorry, but I need to check something."
The mage jumped up and quickly ran to the city, towards the southern outskirts, where the only one who could have done this might live – the one who knew more about earth magic than any instructor at the Academy, the one who had been pretending to be a harmless old man all this time. Soon, Grain found himself standing in front of the coveted door.