Lucky went out into the open and was just about to run to the town when Sumara said, “Wait! What are you doing?”
“Running to the town, miss,” he replied, pausing and looking at her in surprise. “Aren’t we running?”
“By the time we reach there, we’ll both be exhausted,” she replied with a wry smile. “No. We’re not running. We’ll fly there.”
“Fly? You know flying magic, miss?”
She shook her head and replied, “No. It’s not flight magic, it’s just a wind magic to get us to our destination.” While he looked surprised, she aimed her hand down at the ground and said, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, gather around us and carry us to our destination.”
In an instant, the wind began to speed up as it gathered around the two of them. Lucky managed to wave at the cat to stay back when he felt something strange gather around his feet. He turned towards his teacher and as saw something was swirling around her feet as well.
“W-What’s going on?!” He exclaimed, feeling anxious.
“It’s the wind,” she replied shortly.
A moment later, the gathered wind suddenly increased in strength before it slowly lifted into the air. At the same time, Lucky felt as though he was rising off the ground and got lifted into the air. He felt as though he was touching something, but when he looked down, he could only see the ground shrinking away.
“Woah!” He exclaimed, tripped and landed on the wind that was carrying him and his teacher away into the sky. “This is… unexpected!”
His teacher smiled at his reaction and turned in the direction of the town, which was where the wind began to take them towards. Lucky glanced over the side of the wind carrying them and breathed a sigh as he felt the fear of falling from such a height. Then he glanced up at his teacher as he suddenly realised something about her magic.
“Is this how you go from place to place, miss?”
“Only for short distances,” she replied while they were on the move. “You see, this magic can only take us for a short amount of distance. It doesn’t matter how much you output because it cannot breach its limitations. That’s why I tend to fly as far as possible. If I reach the town, that's great, but if I didn't, I would have to walk the remaining distance because I can't use it consecutive times.”
When she said that, he looked confused as what she said did not make sense. That was when the Decisive Player gave him an explanation.
“The Elemental Spirits don't run on infinite energy, and certainly don't like it if they are pushed too far. So, they basically ignore the spell's activation until they are ready to do it again. That's why she said that because she doesn't fully know of the minor details.”
Lucky nodded in understanding, but he still smiled and said to her, “That’s amazing though, miss!”
She grinned and replied, “I’m sure you can manage to learn this too if you put the effort in.”
“Yes!” He replied happily with a big grin on his face.
They continued to soar through the air for several minutes in silence before the town appeared before them. From that height, they could clearly see the destruction that had happened there, but most importantly, they could see the monster that was the reason for it all.
“Huh?!” The two of them exclaimed simultaneously, looking shocked.
The Two-Headed Cerberus was not small anymore. Rather, it was bigger than a building as it roared and smashed through several buildings. With its tail alone, it knocked down two buildings. The Demon girl and the human could not understand how the beast had grown so big in size in such a short amount of time, or what had caused for that to happen.
“That thing looks far bigger than I last saw it,” commented Lucky, unsure whether he was seeing things.
“No! It’s definitely big, or rather, it got bigger!” Sumara exclaimed, furrowing her eyebrows and staring seriously at the monster. “This doesn’t make sense! I don’t remember a Two-Headed Cerberus having an ability to increase its strength!”
“We’re almost near the town, miss,” called Lucky to her.
She nodded and aimed her hand down at the wind and said, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, please lower us and let us down here.”
Heeding to her command, the wind slowly lowered them down and landed them gently on the ground. Once the wind dissipated, both Sumara and Lucky hurried towards the town, where the monster was roaring and thrashing around with both of its heads while it's tail swung around wildly, causing the same amount of damage.
“That monster sure knows how to dance,” commented the Decisive Player inside Lucky’s mind.
“This isn’t the time for jokes!” Lucky muttered, eying the monster with a serious expression on his face. “We need to bring it down somehow!”
Just as they neared the entrance, Sumara grabbed her student by his shoulder and turned him to face her.
“What is it, miss?” He asked her, startled by her action.
“I’ll fight the monster, Lucky,” she announced much to his alarm. “You stay behind and watch.”
“What?!” He exclaimed, looking frustrated. “But miss, I came to help!”
“It’s okay, Lucky. I didn’t bring you intending for you to fight the monster,” she explained with a small smile. “I want you to watch my battle and learn how to use magic properly in battle. Understood?”
“But… Miss…” he said slowly, looking intently into her eyes.
She gazed solemnly at him and replied, “It’s too risky to have you battling a monster when you recently starting learning to fight, so stay behind and watch. Trust me. Even by watching you’re doing a great deal of learning.”
With that, she rubbed his head and hurried away towards the town in order to fight the monster on her own. Lucky stayed there, looking lost as he was unsure whether he should heed his teacher’s words or not. Nevertheless, he turned and watched the monster thrashing around while she made her way towards it by going through the entrance.
“Good luck, miss,” he muttered, hoping for her success.
[ ====== ]
Sumara ran through the entrance to the town, which was barely there except for the side pillars. Much of the road was filled with debris from the destroyed buildings, but she did not stop and merely clambered over them to make her way towards the monster.
“That thing certainly trashed the place good,” she muttered, glancing around to see if there were any survivors.
There were a few people staggering and trying to escape from the monster while people wearing what looked like adventurer’s cloths, did their best to escort them while saving anyone they could on the way.
“What happened?” She asked the nearest man for any information regarding this attack.
“That thing just came out of nowhere and began eating people left, right and centre!” He told her, making her feel instantly guilty. “Each time it ate someone, it grew in size and now it’s this big. Magic doesn’t seem to be affecting it at all!”
“It’s not affected by magic?!” She asked, looking alarmed. “Are you sure?”
“Positively sure,” a survivor said from beside the adventurer. “There were a few mages who fired a lot of attacks at it, but the monster just didn’t act like it felt any of it!”
“Since we can’t do anything about it, we’re evacuating everyone to safety,” the adventurer informed her. “You should evacuate too before it does more damage to this place!”
With that, he pushed the victims towards to safety and followed after them. Sumara stood alone, surrounded by the debris of the destroyed buildings, the result of her blasting the monster here. The thought of her being indirectly responsible for the destruction of so many buildings, and the thought of the countless people that probably lost their lives shocked her.
As the monster roared again, she glared angrily up at it and shouted, “Damn you!”
She aimed her hand down on the ground and said, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, keep me afloat.”
In an instant, the wind gathered around her and lifted her into the air. Then, dictated by her will, they moved towards where the monster was thrashing around. While searching for more food to devour, it caught sight of her approaching it and turned to growl at her.
Sumara, with a serious look on her face, aimed her hand at the monster and said, “Oh, Spirits of Ice, blast the enemy with your shards!”
Her chant had changed drastically, making way for an easier chanting method for battle purpose. Upon her command, a magic circle appeared in front of her extended palm and shards of ice flew through the air at high speed and at the monster. The shards pieced into the monster’s body, causing its blood to spurt out while causing it pain.
The monster roared and shook its entire body before glaring at the person responsible for it to feel such pain.
As it charged towards her, she muttered very quickly, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, dodge,” and the wind made her dodge around him. Once it got clear, she muttered, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, fly away from the town.”
Upon her request, the wind began to carry her away from the town while the monster stumbled and turned. Roaring loudly, it chased after her. Once they were clear from the town and surrounded by open fields, she aimed her hand at the monster and muttered an attack spell.
“Oh, Spirits of Wind, cut it down!”
In an instant, the wind began to blow quickly towards the monster and began cutting down rapidly into its body, causing blood to fly in every direction. As the relentless attacks continued, the monster could only stagger away while roaring in pain and confusion. However, it knew the source of its problem was the magician flying several meters away from it.
With its mind focused on the problem, the monster turned towards Sumara and let out a bellowing roar. It was so powerful that the slicing wind got destroyed and its roaring wind flew straight at her.
Sumara was momentarily shocked by the attack before she aimed at it with her left hand and said, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, shield me!”
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At her command, the wind quickly formed something like a barrier in front of her that blocked the monster’s roaring attack. Still, it was tough, and she kept channelling her energy to keep the wind barrier up to defend herself. Once the wind subsided, she raised her right hand aimed it high in the air while glaring at the monster.
“Oh, Spirits of Ice, rain down your bullets of destruction!”
As soon as she finished casting the spell, she cast another spell by muttering, “Oh, Spirits of Wind, take me to safety.”
In an instant a large magic circle formed in the air above them just as the wind followed her instructions and carried her away to safety. A moment later, many ice bullets began to rain down on top of the monster since the caster had gotten out of the way.
The monster looked up in shock at the rain of attacks coming down on it with immense force. It attempted to let out a powerful roar to destroy all of them and managed to take out several of the ice bullets, but it could not stop all of them from continuously falling down on it. As such, its legs sprung into action as it began sprinting away as fast as its large body could move while dodging the ice bullets, which followed it like it was solely targeting it, leaving behind a trail of ice in its wake.
“Damn!” Sumara complained, staring at the monster with a frustrated look on her face.
While moving away from the attack, it focused its sight Sumara and reaching for her in order to devour her. The Demon girl knew about this, and she instantly aimed her right at it before chanting the attack spell.
“Oh, Spirits of Water, blast my enemy.”
In an instant, a magic circle formed in front of her hand before a jet of water erupted from the circle and soared straight towards the monster. It yelped in shock before it got hit by the jet, causing it to crash and then get pushed right underneath the falling ice bullets. They pierced right through its thick fur and caused it quite a bit of damage.
The ice bullets continuously rained down on top of the monster while Sumara watched it happen from her vantage point. She was thinking of using another magic spell when she saw the monster stand while ignoring the ice bullets that continuously pierced into its body.
The monster glared at her, opened its mouth wide and let out an enormous roar. It was very loud and powerful, instantly creating a tremendous gust of wind that formed in the area. The wind flew around and destroyed the magic spell that was floating high in the air and buffeted against Sumara, who still had her wind barrier in place. However, she was shocked when the strong gust smashed through her barrier and blasted her away.
“Ah!” She yelled, shocked at the revelation that the monster’s gust of wind was much stronger than hers.
She sailed through the air and flew towards the ground, but before she could crash, she clenched her fists and muttered “Oh, Spirits of Wind, cushion me.”
In an instant, the wind gathered around her as she fell and slowed down her fall before she hit the ground with a thud. Then she rose to her feet and groaned from the slight prick in her shoulders, which must have occured when the monster’s gust of wind smashed into her.
As she got into a kneeling position, she saw the monster charging towards her, causing loud quaking to occur in the ground with each step it took. She had no idea that, while she was falling, the monster had chased after her with the intention of not giving her the chance to recover.
So, with no room to activate an attack spell, she aimed her hand at him and shouted quickly, “Oh, Spirits of Light, flare!”
The moment she completed her spell, a brilliant flash of light occurred that blinded everything in sight. The monster, staring directly into the light, closed its eyes in an instant and lost sight of where it was charging at. As such, it tripped and fell forward, which resulting in it crashing for a few meters before coming to a stop.
The moment the monster crashed, Sumara dived out of the way and ran away from the monster in order to maintain some distance between her and him. Suddenly, she tripped over a rock and fell flat on her face and cried out in pain. She quickly recovered and tried to get back to her feet, but she suddenly winced with pain, realising that her leg must be fractured during the fall.
“Damn! What a thing to happen now of all times?!” She exclaimed incredulously.
She looked at the monster, which was staggering around while unable to see anything. Her magic had blindsided the monster but it was only momentary. It would soon recover from the attack and regain its sight, then continue searching for her.
However, she had even less time because the monster suddenly began to sniff the air. With its keen sense of smell, it was able to discern through the smell of blood the scent of a woman nearby. So, it turned its head and faced towards Sumara, who could only look at it in shock.
Realizing that she had been located, she aimed her hand at the monster and shouted, “Oh, Spirits of Water, drown the enemy in a bubble!”
In an instant, a magic circle formed above the monster before water rained down on top of it before it formed into a solid water bubble around its head. The monster began to struggle breathing as its head was submerged, and it tried shaking its head this way and that way to get rid of it, but the bubble of water kept on without letting it go.
While that was happening, she aimed her hand down at her injured leg and muttered, “Oh, Spirits of Light, heal my injury.”
In an instant, green light surrounded the part of her injured leg and took a few moments for her to feel the pain disappear. Once the light subsided, she tested the leg and was satisfied when, all of a sudden, she heard a violent roar from the monster as it destroyed the water bubble around its head and sent waves of gusts in all directions.
Caught by surprise, she put her hands forward and tried to defend herself with her magic. However, the speed of the waves were fast and smashed into her before she could complete the spell. And so, she got blasted away and thrown into the air, travelling for several meters before smashing heavily against the grassy ground that knocked the wind out of her.
“D-Dammit!” She muttered, wincing slightly form the pain in her back.
She lay there, breathing heavily and feeling a little light headed from the head injury she sustained from the fall. It took her several seconds to push herself up and see the monster that was charging towards her because of it being able to smell her scent.
“So, is this where I die?” She muttered, not expecting a response from anything or anyone.
However, she did not count on a familiar saying, “No, miss. I’m here for you.”
She looked up in surprise and widened her eyes when she saw Lucky standing in front of her as if to defend her against the monster. Lucky was smiling confidently as he faced the charging monster without the slightest bit of fear on his face.
“It’s time I show my true power!” He commented, and then said firmly, “Let’s do this!”
“Yeah!” The Decisive Player replied in confirmation.
[ ====== ]
Earlier, while waiting outside the town, Lucky watched his teacher depart into the town and then appear moments later flying through the air as she engaged in battle against the monster. He was surprised to see her lead the monster away, making him run into the town and arrive at a vantage point to watch her battle along with many other survivors of the town. It was there that he witnessing her fighting the monster with all of her might and was very impressed.
However, her chances did not appear to be strong because the monster appeared to be quite strong judging from its size and ferociousness. The fact that it survived a hail of raining ice bullets proved that point, and he was not the only one who felt this way about her chances of success.
“This doesn’t look good for her,” commented the Decisive Player in a voice filled with concern.
“Isn’t there something we can do?” He asked the Decisive Player out loud since no one was there to eavesdrop on him.
“Yes, there is,” replied the wandering spirit to the kid’s delight.
“Really? What?”
“Energy Force.”
“Huh? Energy Force?” Lucky asked, looking shocked. “Why?! I thought I wasn’t that great with it yet!”
“That’s the only thing that can sure fire destroy that stupid mutt,” replied the Decisive Player confidently. “Of course, it’s a risk, but at this stage, should we even consider the risk when we got a gigantic monster rampaging around?”
Lucky nodded and asked, “So, I just have to do what I did in the morning? Gather it in my hands, aim it at the monster and throw it?”
“You don’t need to throw it. What I’ll be teaching you now is known as the Wave of Destruction. Basically, you’re transforming your energy into an indestructible wave that will basically incinerate that monster from existence.”
“Oh! That sounds nice!”
As Lucky replied, he heard the monster let out a roar and send a gust of wind in all directions. Realising his teacher was in danger, Lucky ran over to find a hole made by the monster in the perimeter wall and hurried as fast as he could to reach her while the townspeople desperately tried to call him back. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him while he watched her fly through the air and land heavily on the ground.
“That’s going to stun her quite a bit,” commented the Decisive Player, noticing that she did not use any magic to cushion the fall the second time around.
Lucky gritted his teeth and increased his running momentum to reach her, and arrived a few seconds later and replied to her words of, “Is this where I die?” with his words of “No, miss. I’m here for you.”
He stood in front of her and faced towards the monsters with a confident look on his face. His confidence stemmed from the fact that he was not alone, with the Decisive Player being both a friend and a mentor to him.
“It’s time I show my true power!” He commented, and then said firmly, “Let’s do this!”
He aimed out his right hand and opened the palm while focused on channelling his Energy Force into it. As he did, particles of light began gathering in front of his open palm and quickly formed into a small ball composed of his energy.
“Keep channelling more and more energy,” the Decisive Player urged him in his mind.
Heeding his words, Lucky channelled his energy continuously into his energy ball, making it grow more and more volatile and unstable. While he was doing that, the monster roared and kept stumbling around as it was still unable despite using its great sense of smell to locate them.
“What are you doing, Lucky?” Sumara asked him from behind.
“I’m channelling my Energy Force to blast that thing, miss!”
As his declaration, she widened her eyes in shock and said, “Stop, Lucky! Don’t do it! Your control over your Energy Force is still unstable! If anything goes wrong—!”
“Thinking negative leads to failure, miss!” He said, cutting her off in the middle of her sentence. “I may not have control over it, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try and control it, especially after knowing that I have the power within me to solve this problem at hand!”
His teacher looked at him in shock and asked, “What are you saying, Lucky? What kind of power are you talking about?”
He was going to respond to her, but he winced when he suddenly felt a strong pain from his right hand. His energy ball began to cause sparks to erupt as he was forcefully trying to keep it contained while fuelling it with more and more of his energy.
“Almost there, Lucky! You can do this!” The Decisive Player told him encouragingly.
“Yeah…! Almost there…!” Lucky said, agreeing while struggling to keep the energy in check.
As the energy became more and more unstable and volatile, his hand began to shake uncontrollably, forcing him to firmly hold it in place. Even the sparks began to get violent and went flying in all directions at random intervals.
“Lucky!” Sumara exclaimed, shocked by all the sparks flying everywhere in random and seeing him straining.
“It’s fine…! Almost… ready…!” He replied through gritted teeth while firmly holding his energy in place.
Meanwhile, the monster stopped and shook its head before slowly opening its eyes. Its vision was still a little blurry, but it was now able to see enough to understand where it was and locate its target. It let out a wild bellowing roar and charged towards them in a mad dash to kill all of them.
As it came, Lucky glared at it with rage when he suddenly sensed something strange about his energy ball. It was an indescribable feeling that he had, but he knew instantly that his attack was ready and so did the Decisive Player
“Now, Lucky, release it!” The Decisive Player advised him. “It’s like throwing water from a bucket, you’re releasing everything in one go. It’s the same thing here! Release it all!”
Lucky gritted his teeth and glared at the monster before he shouted, “Right!”
So, with his focus on the monster, he pushed his arm out a little further and imagined that he was throwing water from a bucket. As he did, the ball of energy in his palm resonated violently and gave of a strange sound before a massive wave of destruction was unleashed. The wave surged forward, digging deep into the ground and destroyed everything in its path as it flew towards the monster.
The monster was shocked at seeing the wave coming at it and attempted to get out of the way. However, there was no chance for such a thing to happen because it was much too close to the wave to do anything but meet its end.
In an instant, the wave consumed the monster and wiped him out completely before it continued flying away. It smashed through the boundary wall of the town and soared several kilometres into the distance before an enormous explosion occurred. As it happened, a large dome like shape appeared in the distance where the explosion had occurred, destroying the nearby grassland.
The wind bellowed everywhere and caused everyone to get buffeted from the wind force before it slowly died down. Everyone saw a large mushroom cloud rising into the distance from when the explosion occurred at. In the city, the monster was nowhere to be seen except for a deep groove like a line left behind by the wave of destruction.
Lucky stood in the same spot as before, his hand still extended out while being supported by his other arm. Then he let them both drop to his side and breathed a deep sigh from the relief and exhaustion he had felt. A moment later, his legs shook as they struggled to support him because he had used up all of his energy in that destructive wave to finish the monster.
“Lucky!” Sumara exclaimed, struggling to her feet and supporting him as she realised that he could not stand on his own.
“I’m tired,” he muttered wearily and sighed deeply, and when he closed his eyes, he instantly fell asleep from the exhaustion.
“Lucky?” She asked, but he was fast asleep and did not respond.
Sumara looked surprised at her student before she smiled serenely and gently sat down on the ground while resting his head on her lap. Then she looked at the destruction that was left in the wave of the monster’s rampage and the destruction from his attack and smiled wryly. There was a lot of work to do, a lot of repairs to be conducted, but at least, there was no monster to cause harm anymore.
“Well done,” she said quietly, and she smiled warmly down at his sleeping face and rubbed his hair affectionately.