“Can any of your patients fight? Protecting them while fighting two nachzehrer isn’t tenable,” Tiriana asked tensely, already beginning to prepare a barrier across the width of the room.

“Tiriana, half of these adventurers would be dead if I wasn’t here. I’ve barely managed to stabilize them, and they’re probably going to need further treatment if they’re going to live until tomorrow,” Vivi explained in annoyance.

“Sorry, ma’am,” the man Vivi was treating apologized to her before groaning in pain. “Nngh. Caught us by surprise. They were across the room before we even saw them.”

“I know. I was there,” Vivi pointed out. “I guess I can add a concussion to the list of injuries…”

“I’m just impressed they killed five of them after a surprise attack without losing anyone…” Sera said to Tiriana, eyeing the hallways leading out of the room warily.

“Looks like they’re all warriors. Probably had one person engage a leaper each while the last three killed them one at time, but I don’t think they’re in any condition to tell us” Tiriana observed. She looked to Vivi. “Do we at least have enough walking wounded to help the rest retreat? It would be a lot easier to defend a hallway than an open room like this where they have more room to maneuver.”

“I-I don’t know. Maybe? I need more time, if we move them right now we might lose someone,” Vivi responded while tying a makeshift tourniquet. Evidently she was so pressed right now that she couldn’t rely on miracles for everything.

Before Tiriana could say anything more, a loud thud drew everyone’s attention to her barrier. It shook and shimmered as if it were a physical membrane, with ripples spreading out from the point of impact where a leaper’s fist had struck it.

“We’re already out of time, Vivi! If you don’t move them now they’re all going to die; I can’t maintain a barrier this size forever!” Tiriana barked as she strained herself to keep the nachzehrer out. She hadn’t even finished speaking when a second leaper joined the first in pounding at her barrier.

“It’s alright ma’am, I’ve survived worse,” the lead adventurer boasted as he forced himself onto his feet, wobbling noticeably. “Come one, folks! Clear the way!”

“You’re not in charge of me!” snarled an elven man who appeared to be so concussed he couldn’t see straight. It was doubtful if he even knew what was going on.

“If you can talk, you can walk,” chided a woman that might have been the man’s party leader, yanking him to his feet by the arm and half-carrying him towards the hallway. Other adventurers followed suit with those capable of walking on their own supporting the others. Vivi and another woman worked together to assist a mountain of a man in making his way out.

Meanwhile, Tiriana was giving ground to the nachzehrer step by step, inching her way towards the hall behind her. Her barrier moved with her, Sera back stepping awkwardly by her side.

“Should I go with them…?” she asked nervously as she watched the nachzehrer beating away at the barrier. With them standing still like this it was more apparent than ever how greatly they towered over Sera and out-bulked her; she knew without a doubt that a single blow from either of them could reduce her to paste.

“No, stay!” Tiriana commanded, her voice strained. “I need you here to distract and disorient them. Every second you buy me is one where I can prepare a counterattack.”

Sera nodded obediently, though Tiriana couldn’t see it. Her mind was racing, trying to think of ideas she could use to throw the nachzehrer off. The biggest problem, in her view, was that they knew exactly where to strike right now. She couldn’t do anything about that. Fake attacks might work, but only until the leapers noticed she wasn’t damaging the environment or a direct ‘hit’ alerted them to the ruse.

But that was thinking too narrowly. Illusions could, in theory, make anything she wanted appear. She could blind them with pure blackness or a flash of light, though the latter might backfire. Would a kaleidoscopic effect be disorienting enough to slow them down? Maybe, but that relied on holding it in front of their eyes. Or…

While Sera didn’t know how effective it would be, the idea was better than nothing. A kaleidoscope worked by facing mirrors against each other at angles, so she needed to mimic that effect, building a facsimile of a kaleidoscope to make it look like she, Tiriana, and everything behind them were being endlessly reflected. It was hard to picture, but magic was affected by intent, and the subconscious, as Tiriana had said, did a lot of the heavy lifting.

The effect was one way, so Sera couldn’t see precisely what she had created, but it worked well enough- the nachzehrer stopped in their tracks, looking around in confusion. Although they most likely knew it was a trick, if they weren’t familiar with the concept, everything in front of them suddenly being endlessly reflected as if they were staring down the tube of a kaleidoscope was probably so bizarre that they needed time to process it. On top of that, Tiriana was able to retreat more quickly once she was no longer fending off their attacks, causing their next strikes to hit empty air.

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“Good work! Hold it just a little longer,” Tiriana instructed as they entered the hallway, allowing Tiriana to reduce the surface area of her barrier greatly. Still, these halls were designed to fit the giants that had once lived here; it was still quite a bit of space to cover. The only saving grace was that the nachzehrer themselves were actually hampered by their own size here, as they would have a hard time jumping around in a hallway.

Sera found herself struggling as well; she had to constantly pull the illusion she was manipulating back towards them as the nachzehrer advanced, gaining confidence with each step. They were beginning to understand that the flashy image they were seeing was insubstantial, and soon they were against Tiriana’s barrier again. By now, however, they were halfway down the hall.

“This barrier is still too big. I need to reduce it to a size just large enough to fit us both so I can focus on preparing an attack spell. Do whatever you can to keep them off of us,” Tiriana announced once they were far away from the nearest rooms. Before altering the shape of her barrier she glanced over her shoulder; Sera checked to see what she was looking at and realized she was making sure the door to the core was shut. It was, meaning that the nachzehrer couldn’t simply go around them. Even if they went back to flip the emergency overrides again, they still needed to get through Sera and Tiriana to advance.

Tiriana’s barrier shrank until it was little more than a bullet-shaped dome over the two women. Finally confident that Sera’s illusion was no danger to them, the nachzehrer sprang forward and through it, spotting she and Tiriana immediately. Both leapt off the ground, using their momentum to strike the barrier with more force, but at this size it was far more solid and Tiriana hardly flinched. The leapers sailed past and Sera turned to follow them with her eyes; it was much easier when they had only one vector to move along.

Before the armored giants could attack again, Sera conjured an illusory fireball and lobbed it their way, causing them to dodge to the sides. Next she tried to blind them with light, but that failed to deter them; they must have had some kind of countermeasure built into their suits because they were still perfectly able to perform another leaping strike.

That was two ideas used- three, on second thought. Anything too fast, like lightning, was out. Fake ice might slow them down, but only for a moment, and then the trick would be unusable. Physical obstacles would encounter the same problem.

“Tiriana, can you cast while being carried?” she asked after realizing her best option was to rely on the same old standby.

“Yes, wh-” The elf’s mouth snapped shut when Sera scooped her off her feet and immediately projected a thick mist into the hall. Everything went white, and Sera side-stepped away from her previous position so the nachzehrer wouldn’t be able to strike from memory. They immediately tried to, as well; one simple zipped past, hitting only air, while the other rammed straight into Tiriana’s barrier…at the waist, sending it tumbling, judging by the sounds that followed.

Although the leapers recovered quickly, Sera had already pressed herself up against the wall- clutching Tiriana closely- by the time they attacked next, and this time both missed entirely. Twice more she was able to dance around their attacks like a matador before a bull before they decided their strategy wasn’t working and began searching the mist more cautiously. But that bought Tiriana time to prepare her next spell, and just as a fist smashed into her barrier once again, she called out to Sera.

“Drop the mist so I can aim, please!” the elven mage requested. It was like relaxing a muscle; the moment Sera stopped focusing on her illusion it vanished, leaving two very surprised nachzehrer leapers exposed, standing still. Before Tiriana could aim and fire, both of them reacted by creating distance, sensing something was about to happen, but the hallway meant they could really only dodge in two directions, and Tiriana’s spell was too fast to avoid once it was cast.

The leapers went in opposite directions, so Tiriana was only going to be able to kill one. She locked her eyes onto the one that had just punched her barrier and threw one hand out. An enormous boom shook the air accompanied by a blinding flash of light, both of which Tiriana had taken the time to protect them against, but neither of those was what killed the nachzehrer. Lightning, a much more deadly force, jumped from Tiriana’s palm directly into the leaper, instantaneously melting its armor, burning its skin, and blowing apart bones and organs.

For a brief time the leaper remained standing, joints locked in place. Then it began to tilt before toppling over, dead.

That still left one to go, however, and it had already learned how to deal with most of Sera’s tricks. Her ice idea would stop it once only, and the mist she’d used before would only slow it down for a few moments as it searched for them.

“Do I need to buy you the same amount of time for the second one?” Sera asked the elf in her arms. Tiriana, too focused on the situation to find her current predicament embarrassing, replied seriously.

“With only one left, less…but not by much,” she told Sera while she started to prepare. “Can you do it?”

“…I guess I don’t have a choice,” Sera muttered as she used up her last viable idea, fooling the nachzehrer leaper into skidding to a halt to avoid slipping. The next instant it stepped cautiously onto the ice, realizing it was fake. Then the leaper was up against the barrier, battering away. “Shit. Think, think, think…there has to be something else I can do.”

But the only thing Sera could think of was beyond her current abilities and she was sure of it. With no other plans, though, she had no choice but to try it. Sera focused hard, drawing in all the mana she could possibly control at once and forming an image in her mind’s eye. It kept slipping away, though; what she needed to form was simply too complicated.

Thinking she would just have to try to brute force it, Sera began to pull in more and more mana- and then she felt something pop inside her chest.