The dragoness pushed off with all her might just before the golem's core began to disintegrate. However, the explosion was much stronger than those from weaker golems, and even leaping three meters away, Ragni got caught in the magical wave and was forcefully thrown to the ground.
Meanwhile, the first golem swung at the interfering sorceress. The girl wasn't as enduring as the dragoness, and even a grazing blow dealt serious damage to her. The golem shifted its attention to the more serious threat, an opponent who managed to destroy a giant with her bare hands.
While Ragni struggled to get up, the golem approached her, wielding its weapon on the remaining arm. Its previous attack had weakened it, and it didn't risk attacking from a distance. When it got closer, the golem released a volley at the injured sorceress, throwing her even further away.
"This is too much," Ragni couldn't get up properly, as so many parts of her body were turning back into those of a dragon. Her paws and legs restored themselves to a human appearance, and the considerably battered wings now disappeared behind her back. "And this is a bad sign."
Gaining a bit of strength from her hidden paws, the dragoness managed to rise. But the golem was already in front of her, opening its breastplate for a finishing blow.
"Come on then," Ragni gathered the remnants of her strength into flames and directed the flow inside the opened armor. From the inside, the armor didn't protect against magic, but it wasn't enough to destroy the crystal; the flames only heated the rear wall of the breastplate. "What a shame."
"Not everything's over yet," barely recovering from the blow, Leira jumped onto the golem from behind. The heated armor easily broke under the sorceress's strike, revealing the charged core. The girl gave a slight smile to her friend and concentrated the lightning in her hands.
"No, Liri!" Ragni leaped towards the golem but couldn't stop her friend in time.
The sorceress pierced the core, and it split into pieces, releasing the gathered energy. Leira found herself at the very center of the explosion.
"Foolish girl, why did you do that?" the dragoness held her wounded friend in her arms. Her hands were burnt by the explosion, her body pierced by shards of armor, and the bleeding couldn't be stopped.
"I wanted to help in any way I could. I'm glad that this time I could save you and the others. Escort them to the princess, Katia will protect everyone, I know. It's just a shame I won't be with you anymore."
"Lira!" the group of apprentices finally reached the battlefield, from which a frenzied swordsman burst out. "No, please, Feris! Feris! Help! Do something."
The bright sorceress tried to heal Leira's wounds, but they wouldn't close.
"I can't do anything. I'm sorry, I don't have the strength."
"Ah!" the roar of the young swordsman echoed over the square. No one could console him, and nothing could be done. "Why are you always so reckless?"
"Please forgive me," the girl tried to hold back her wheezing, but blood gradually accumulated in her lungs. "I told you I would help her. Now you must reach shelter."
"I don't want to leave you."
"Please, go," Leira tried to gather strength to push the boy away, but her hands barely obeyed. "I don't want you to perish too. We'll meet again someday."
The sorceress touched the hand adorned with a simple ring she had received from the young servant almost a year ago. The only thing he could afford, a simple servant, but one who got a chance to marry the count's daughter.
"Algo, we have to go," Ragni tried to distract Algo but couldn't move him from the spot. "You mustn't."
"I must," the boy turned to the exhausted dragoness. "You can barely stand on your feet, and you have so much more to go."
Both giants were defeated, and the smaller golems, like scavengers, were already gathering around the small group of survivors. And from the wreckage of the golems left behind, new giants were beginning to rise again.
"Somebody must clear your path, and you have no more strength."
"But you don't either!"
"Hah, you're wrong," Algo tightly gripped his mithril blade.
If Ragni could still sense magic right now, she would see how the dying sorceress's soul left her body with invisible threads. The golden aura of lightning left the body, departing to the world of spirits, while the blue aura of wind wanted to linger a little longer in this world.
"I'll buy you as much time as I can," filling with magic alien to him but which he still used, overloading his body, the swordsman gently laid his beloved on the ground. "I won't be alone."
For the first time in his many battles, the swordsman felt the same lightness that true wind mages experienced. The pressure of the air no longer impeded his breathing, the raging whirlwind didn't disrupt his smooth movements, and power filled his body with gentle caresses. From the hilt of his sword, it flowed gracefully throughout his entire being. Magic altered his body, making it as it was meant to be.
"I will show you my strength," Algo opened his eyes. Behind the fiery tears, his blue eyes sparkled. With a single swing of his sword, the hurricane swept away all the golem debris lying nearby. They propelled the golems ahead, towards the square. "I promised that I would always be with her, and so I will be."
No longer a mere swordsman, but a wind mage, Algo rushed into the fierce battle.
Most golems were distracted from the central square and attempted to surround the approaching group of students. Only Werner and Vivien were still able to fight, the other warriors barely stood on their feet, and the mages had only enough strength to defend themselves from magical arrows.
The hurricane wind tossed the debris of two giants and scattered the golems ahead.
"Run forward, don't stop, I'll cover you," Algo, filled to the brim with magic, stood in front of the bewildered students. "Just trust me, ignore the golems."
"Run!" Levris gave the command, and the students finally gathered their wits. They were only two hundred meters away from the protective barrier of the rector and roughly the same number of golems, almost twice as many as the students.
Ignoring their pursuers, they all ran together, helping the wounded warriors to keep up with the main group.
A five-meter golem emerged ten meters ahead of them, preparing its weapons for a barrage, but before the first magical arrow was launched, a blue flash streaked in front of it. In the blink of an eye, Algo stood before the golem. With a single swing, he cleaved the armor in half and leaped away before it could explode.
The smaller golems closed in from the flanks, but the swordsman reached them before they could get within two meters of the students. He cut through all the small adversaries with such ease, as if they were made of paper. He had never studied magic, but he had always observed his mistress's training from the shadows. He couldn't create whirlwinds or shields from wind like other mages, but he knew the effects of using magic on his own body and weapon.
All his movements were filled with the speed of a wind mage, but not the sharp and explosive kind like lightning magic; it was a lightness that filled his muscles. With each strike, he was already preparing to propel himself towards the next enemy. The warrior barely touched the ground; he simply moved from one foe to another, dealing devastating blows.
At the moment of each attack, he infused his blade with magic and withdrew it before delivering the next strike. The golems' barriers dissipated magic approaching them, but they didn't protect against direct contact, so Algo didn't waste his energy in vain. He tried to take down each opponent with maximum energy efficiency.
Just a couple of minutes passed, and there were no golems left around the students. The last wounded warrior reached the barrier, and only Algo remained outside the protected zone.
"Come on, hurry up!" Ragni tried to call to him, but he simply turned away slowly.
The swordsman's hands trembled; even though he gained control over this power, he couldn't avoid its negative consequences. Meanwhile, the defeated enemies were starting to recover. More than ten eight-meter giants closed in on the shield, leaving only a small group of warriors inside. Hilda and Asura couldn't fight for everyone at once, and, from the other side, golems occasionally managed to break inside.
"I will buy you as much time as I can," Algo gathered all the remaining magic within his body. Until help arrived or until the rector erected the protective barrier he mentioned, he would defend his friends.
The swordsman dashed towards the nearest golem. With a graceful somersault, he circumvented its arm and struck the chest. When Mithril touched the armor, he allowed the magic to pass through it, and a clean cut split the thick metal. The strike went much deeper than just through the first layer of the armor – it cleaved the crystal and the back of the armor. Before the crystal exploded, Algo pushed both halves towards the two golems approaching from both sides.
The explosion boomed near other living armors, not affecting the swordsman but stunning the enemy and giving him time to counterattack. He seized the opportunity and leaped towards a group of four golems. He plunged his sword into the center of the first golem's chest, using the wind magic to pierce both the armor and the crystal. Pulling out the sword, he immediately rushed at the second golem. The golem tried to strike him, but the swordsman severed its arm and delivered a blow through the hole in its shoulder. Algo then moved on to the two remaining golems, slicing off their helmets, shattering the magical stones, and leaping away from the armors before they could explode.
Using the remnants of his magic, Algo dealt with the remaining five golems. Between the square and the dormitory, not a single golem remained, only the debris of armors and magical stones, which were already starting to reassemble.
Gripping his sword tightly, Algo headed towards Leira's body. The last golem was gathering itself next to her. The warrior had already attempted to destroy the golems before they fully formed, but as long as the core and torso of the golem weren't complete, all his strikes were in vain. The severed parts simply reattached themselves. As long as the pieces of the small golems hadn't fused together to form a new armor, the core remained fragmented, and attacks simply passed through it.
"It seems we'll meet again soon," Algo smiled and checked his sword, which was now barely emitting a blue light. "I just hope I have enough strength."
From the debris, the body of a new giant was already forming.
"Ha-ha, how to deal with such a monster..."
The armor was over fifteen meters tall. Its arms were three times thicker than the swordsman himself, and the crystal in the center of its chest was over a meter in diameter.
"Let me be your knight a little longer, Leira," using his last magic, the swordsman leaped at the colossal enemy.
The colossus was swift. Algo barely managed to dodge its strike and attempted to sever its arm, but the sword failed to cut through the armor. The blade sank into the steel half a meter deep and got stuck. The new armor was much thicker than the previous ones, and even with all his strength, Algo couldn't cleave through such thickness of steel.
"Argh, to hell with it, I just need to destroy the core."
Algo stood on the arm and struggled to pull the sword out of the crevice. The swordsman tried to run up the arm, but magical gun barrels appeared on the surface of the armor. They opened fire continuously, forcing him to jump back down.
The golem didn't stop firing, wielding the guns on its hands and armor. Algo could barely escape the barrage with his speed.
"It seems this is the only cover," Algo slipped under the golem's feet and found himself out of its line of sight. There were no weapons on the golem's back, but there were also no open slits through which he could reach the core. To deliver a strike, he would have to end up in front of the monster. "Well, let's go."
Taking a deep breath, Algo gathered all the magic in his legs. He had little strength left, but it should be enough for one attack. Algo stepped five meters behind the golem's back and took a stance for a single lunge. He had to hit a weak spot, and he saw it. Three armored plates converged in the center of the chest, which opened up for an attack. If he couldn't pierce those armor pieces, this was his only chance.
The golem gradually turned towards the swordsman and aimed all its weapons at him. Before the barrage turned the place where Algo stood into dust, the swordsman leaped onto the enemy. With one jump, he reached his target and thrust his sword into a barely noticeable crack.
"Take this!" All the remnants of his magic were directed into the sword, and the blades of wind rang inside the giant armor. The attacks widened the crack, slightly opening the armor, but they still couldn't reach the crystal. "Just a bit more."
The last of his magic surged out of the sword and slashed across the massive crystal, leaving only light cracks on its surface. With this, the last light left the blade.
"Missed it by a little... a shame."
The golem swept its arm and knocked the swordsman to the ground. Algo's body hit the ground with force, and the crunch of bones stunned him. He landed not far from the sorceress's body and, with his last strength, reached for her hand.
"Thank you for your help," Algo weakly smiled. "I couldn't finish the job, but I left them a clue."
Algo cast a final glance at the sword remaining in the golem's chest. A blue glow illuminated his body with his last breath.