She was steadily getting closer to Maenad’s movements.
She was resurrecting the form that lived on inside her with her own body.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
As she sought her ideal movements, minotaurs boldly charged toward her with massive stone axes, intent on crushing her with size and numbers.
Lefiya’s response was simple.
“Canon.”
She gracefully thrust the wand in her left hand forward.
“Purge, cleansing lightning. —Dio Thyrsos!”
With her skill’s trigger, the magic circle ring around her wrist transformed into the mouth of a cannon.
She called upon Maenad’s iconic magic, unleashing a white flash.
“?!”
A mighty bolt of lightning reduced the herd of minotaurs to ashes. And not just the minotaurs. Even the monsters behind them in the path of the spell were obliterated, magic stones and all.
A wave of destruction stretched to the wall of the room, making the students fighting in the distance jump and the monsters cower in terror, even as Lefiya pushed on.
She continued to fight, wielding blade and spell, relishing the opportunity to gain live combat experience as a magic swordswoman.
I can still increase my reaction speed. And my decision-making can use more work… But I can do it. I can become a magic swordswoman.
It wasn’t arrogance.
It was the almost palpable feeling of pushing against the door that stood before her and forcing it open.
The old Lefiya had been a mess of assumptions.
It was a given that she would use summon burst—but because of its extended cast time and the enormous amount of Mind it consumed, the magic she chose to summon had to be both large in scale and high power. Or more precisely, she believed it would be a waste to do anything less.
However, that assumption was mistaken.
That was not the best application of the spell that was the origin of her alias. It provided flexibility with infinite options for attack, defense, buffs, and recovery, making it capable of dealing with every situation. By keeping it on standby, she could evaluate the state of the battle and select the most appropriate spell. It was an all-purpose counter. So long as she could grasp the situation and filter her choices in time, she could deal with any target at any range at any time, just like how she had used Dio Thyrsos just now.
It was not only for ultra-long chant bombardment. It could be used for rapid-fire ultrafast spells as well.
She had learned with great pain that, as her options grew, the value she could provide in battle skyrocketed as well.
Up until now, it had been Lefiya herself who had stifled her own potential.
While she regretted narrowing her the possibilities of her growth in the past, she was also thrilled that she finally realized something.
I can still grow stronger.
She was able to assure herself of that.
“Luke!!!”
“!”
Lefiya was whittling down the number of enemies in the blink of an eye, but hearing Nano’s cry of concern, she immediately focused her attention toward the students. Past the wall of monsters surrounding her, the 7th Squad was in a brutal fight with the group of monsters that had been at the head of the parade.
“Luke, fall back! Switch out!”
“What are you hesitating for?!”
“Gh?!”
Cole’s and Miliria’s panicked voices rang out as a liger fang put Luke on the backfoot.
It was one of the more powerful monsters in the Cave Labyrinth and certainly deserved caution, but it was an opponent a party with a Level 3 should have no difficulty with. Even if there were many in the swarm, they would have been able to handle it without issue.
Or rather, because Lefiya was keeping most of the monsters busy, they should have been able to handle the rest.
However, their brilliance on the training field was badly lacking in the current 7th Squad.
Luke’s movements are off, and it’s disrupting the party’s coordination!
The effects of him losing to Lefiya were showing. Luke was not displaying even a tenth of his true strength. He was failing to manage even a single monster.
He was the core of the 7th Squad. When he was fired up, they would be, and when he was off-balance, so were they.
And now that he was busy dealing with himself, he couldn’t muster the leadership he ordinarily would have provided.
This is my fault!
“Luke…!”
More than anything, Luke’s poor condition affected Nano.
She had become so distracted that she wasn’t even casting magic anymore.
Miliria and Cole had their hands full just keeping her and Luke covered.
The 7th Squad’s standard battle plan was to push in fast and hard, relying on their powerful Level 3 vanguard and mage to obliterate their enemies. In the worst case, if Nano could not act for some reason, Luke could figure something out, but the reverse was simply not possible. If Luke collapsed, the party would fall like dominos. Miliria and Cole took up the center of their formation and acted as facilitators for Nano and Luke, ensuring they could do their jobs unmolested. But they lacked the decisive power needed to break the party out of sticky situations. They had focused too much on support, and the downsides of that were showing.
It was out of place, but Lefiya could not help thinking they resembled Loki Familia.
The familia members were gathered around the ultra-capable Finn, and if he ever fell, it would spell disaster. In Knossos, they had come close to total annihilation as a result of that weakness.
That was why Finn always paid close attention to his condition, but it would be cruel to demand a first-tier adventurer’s steely heart from a student like Luke.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“Ghhh?!”
And just as a liger fang was about to slam into Luke…
Before the students could even shout, Lefiya unleashed the magic she had already finished casting.
“Arcs Ray!”
The beam deftly avoided the students and tore through the liger fang it had homed in on.
“…L-Lefiya…”
“I beseech the name of Wishe. Ancestors of the forest, proud brethren. Answer my call and descend upon the plains!”
Lefiya continued Concurrent Casting as they watched dumbfounded.
Cutting through the enemies before her, she raced to relieve the squad, taking on the swarm of liger fangs while quickly weaving her next spell.
The malice of people and monsters.
The absurdity of the Dungeon.
She originally wanted them to overcome it on their strength alone, but plans had changed.
Annihilating the enemy fell to her now.
“Frozen skies, heaven’s rain. Forest-adorning white ice, drive out the wretched barbarians.”
Using Elf Ring, she borrowed the spell she had learned from her fellow elf in Loki Familia, Alicia Forestlight.
The ice magic was the specialty of the woman who hailed from the Frozen Woods of Fanache in the north of the continent.
“Freeze, chains of winter!”
When she completed the chant, a blue-and-white sphere appeared over her head.
The hail gleamed, casting light on the students and monsters alike. An instant later, those fragments showered the entire room.