——— Mira ———
I felt invincible.
I saw from the front row how vicious this Ella's monster thing that Minho called 'T-Rex' was, but now that I found a way that my illusions could have REAL physical presence, I felt like my whole life was about to change.
The armor worked. It REALLY worked. When the 'illusion' of armor was cast on top of Minho's hand, it really, like physically, protected his hand from my mighty stomp.
Our tactic was simple.
Just play it nice and slow (not that we had many other options considering that this Ankylo was supposed to be about half the speed or less of the T-Rex), keep Minho protected from the harm with the armor, and find an opportune moment to strike with the tail club.
Easy peasy.
"Ella, was it?"
I spoke first as we stood at the half line facing each other before the match began.
"Yes, Mira. The 'chosen one' with a Human Demon"
Hehe. Praise me more.
"Your luck ends here."
Right, so she was being sarcastic, this brainless bee…
"I think everyone wants to see more of your Human. Why don't you forfeit the match now instead of getting him killed by my monster? I promise you mine can beat that big ape of Tanguy. We both progress - me with 6 points and you with 3 points."
"How nice of you. But I decline. And I'm sorry that your monster will end here. You won't have a monster to fight in the match against Tanguy."
"Sigh… don't cry after you lose then. I gave you a chance." Ella shrugged.
"Bring it on."
After this brief exchange, I had positioned ourselves at the very edge of the battlefield in our own half again before the match started. I needed time to silently recite, and most importantly, clearly visualize this Ankylo creature that Minho drew for me earlier. Ella on the other hand, seemed confident enough in her and her monster's ability that she stood right at the half-line, ready to launch.
"Mira, you better be quick. That T-Rex will close its distance with us in no time."
"Got it. Have some faith, Minho."
Sir. Odobert then made the customary explanation of rules, counted down, and the match started.
Just as expected, the T-Rex ran straight toward us, head-on.
"Shit, Mira. It's faster than I thought! Hurry!"
I had no time to tell the Human to shut the hell up.
I know we are under pressure, you fool.
Before I could finish my spell though, the monster was already upon us and it stretched its head forward. We were just a split second away from getting crushed by its mighty jaws and Minho wrapped his body around me. Just as its fearsome teeth were about to sink into Minho's body, I finished my spell and Minho 'turned into' a big monster that he called 'Ankylosaur'.
I heard a loud thud and crack as the T-Rex bit into Minho's armor, after which it immediately re-opened its mouth to let go and took a few steps back.
"Did that hurt?" I asked Minho who let me go now and slowly positioned himself between me and the T-Rex.
"Like hell."
"Any damage?"
"I don't think so. But it HURT!"
I suppose so. Even if you wore armor if you get hit you may be saved from getting pierced but the impact is still going to be felt.
"Look, it's got blood in its mouth."
I quickly pointed out as I realized and examined Minho's armor, but there was no blood on it at all.
Ah-ha.
Ha. Ha.
"You are not hurt, Minho. That monster's hurt. Its gums are bleeding. Our armor is strong!"
"Good to hear. But I just say it one more time. It HURTS!"
"We have this saying in our - No pain no gain" I tried to calm Minho down with words of wisdom.
"We have that too. Funnily enough."
"I guess it's a universal truth then. Now get on with it."
"Tsk."
With that, Minho started to approach the T-Rex slowly, but the T-Rex was actually backing off.
"What are you doing?!", Ella shouted from a distance at her monster.
But the T-Rex clearly wasn't interested in fighting. It must have felt like it was given some kind of food that was hard to chew and probably didn't even taste good even after you got past its shell.
As Minho tried to close the distance T-Rex simply moved faster sideways, strafing and circling the slower Ankylo.
Dang. We are not going to win at this rate.
However, it was Ella who ran out of patience first and made the move. She seemed to be reciting some sort of a long and elaborate spell that I couldn't hear from a distance, then yelled at her monster.
"…thus, I COMMAND YOU TO ATTACK, NOW!"
Something about the T-Rex changed. I could see it in his eyes. Sort of reluctance and rage mixed in together. It started to approach Minho again drooling blood from its gums.
Well, not a bad situation for us.
Then it turned bad.
"FIRE!!!"
As Ella shouted, the T-Rex roared and it spit out fire from its mouth.
WHAT THE HECK?!!!
But that's right. This was no different from me 'strengthening' Minho with my own magic. We were allowed to do this and this was what the Academy was looking to see from their students too. Ella was effectively combining her magical power with her monster.
The fireball flew through the air and landed directly on Minho, who was too slow to dodge it with all the heavy armor weighing it down. The fire didn't only hit him though, but it kept on burning on his back. Although it was burning on the surface of the armor, perhaps this was more damaging than a kinetic assault with the teeth of the monster.
"AARRRRRGH! Mira! It burns! It burns!"
"Use your water!"
Minho then started to shoot out water from its mouth, but well… his neck was too short to turn around to aim at his back.
This didn't look good.
We only thought about countering T-Rex's bite with armor and how we'd knock it with the tail club but did not consider the possibility of Ella endowing the monster with magic to increase its attack options.
I quickly placed an 'illusion' of water on Minho's back but it evaporated quickly in the heat, not to mention the fact that the T-Rex was capable of throwing new fireballs aimed at Minho. Ella was playing it smart. She kept the distance of T-Rex from Minho's Ankylp, far enough that we could not reach it with the slower speed. At this rate, the armor was going to get burnt down. It may withstand the strong jaws of the T-Rex but it will surely get worn down by the non-stop barrage of fire.
What to do now…
What to do…