“HAAA… Haaa…!”
Lyle Elvard was running. He was running as fast as he could, clutching his injured shoulder. Impatience stamped his face. His breath came out in shallow pants, and sweat glistened thickly on his forehead.
“Damn… How the hell did this happen…?”
BOOM!
“Whoa!
The earth shook, and Lyle tripped over something and fell.
“Ngh…”
Just as he tried to get up, the cause of his panic appeared, mowing down trees. It was so enormous that it could tear a person to pieces with a single slash. Its six eyes glared at him.
“Piss off already!”
Frustration and unease tinged his voice as Lyle stared at the very symbol of death and despair in front of him. Only a few minutes ago, he and his team had been hunting Almirajes smoothly. He’d been designated their leader; excelling as he did in attack magic, hunting an F-class monster was as easy as snapping his fingers. They were doing well, and none of them got hurt.
Right when they needed to hunt one last Almiraj to complete their task, that thing suddenly appeared. Scorching flames rose into the sky, disturbing the hush of the forest. A huge, three-headed beast emerged from the fire.
Its pitch black body and eyes glittered red like hellfire. Its flaming fur glowed brightly every time the flames rose, the individual hairs swaying as if alive.
“A Flame Cerberus…?!” a boy in his group, Luke, shouted in shock.
The monster was classified as B-level and shouldn’t normally be in this forest. It glared at the four students and growled deep in its throat like it was assessing them.
“Eeek…!”
“N-Nooo!”
Both girls stared with dread at the monster shrouded in an eerie miasma.
FWEEEEEEET!
Luke blew the rescue whistle. This situation was very clearly far from normal, so it wasn’t the time for schoolwork. But the sound only served to agitate the Flame Cerberus, who leaped at the boy.
“Whaaaaaa!”
“Luke, get away! Fire Shield!”
Lyle immediately used fire magic to create a shield in front of Luke. The impact of the Flame Cerberus and Fire Shield colliding made a thunderous sound. Lyle took the chance to jump toward Luke just as his Fire Shield broke at the same time.
They both managed to escape the monster’s attack by the skin of their teeth.
“Luke, are you okay?!”
“Y-Yeah… I think so…” Luke grimaced. He had scraped his knee.
“Luke! Are you all right?” One of the girls, Iris, ran up to him and cast healing magic.
Lyle immediately tried to attack the Flame Cerberus. “Fire Ball!”
A fireball big enough to wrap your arms around rushed toward the monster and hit one of its heads. He’d thought that maybe he could drive it off.
“Didn’t work, huh?”
The black smoke cleared, revealing their unharmed opponent, and Lyle clicked his tongue in aggravation. The Flame Cerebrus distanced itself cautiously, perhaps trying to come up with a way to attack as well. Lyle had done his best with his spells, but a Flame Cerberus elemental attribute was fire. Meaning his earlier attacks were basically useless.
I know the teachers heard the whistle, but it will still take a while for them to reach us.
He realized they must not have anticipated a situation like this. If they waited for the grown-ups, they’d all be wiped out. Mind made up, Lyle ran, shouting, “I’ll be the decoy! The three of you, head back to where the professors are!”
“Lyle, no!”
“Don’t, Lyle!”
He heard Luke and Iris try to stop him, but there was no time to discuss.
“Water Ball!”
He shot a ball of water the same size as his Fire Ball earlier at the Flame Cerberus. The monster’s body shook explosively. All three heads glared at Lyle.
“Come on! Catch me if you can!”
He ran at full speed.
“Grrraaaaaarrr!”
It moved in pursuit of its attacker, ensuring Lyle’s groupmates’ safety. So far, so good, but Lyle was still only human. There was no way he could beat the speed of a wild beast, and the thing caught up in the blink of an eye.
“Ngh…! Aqua Arrow…”
He tried to cast another attack spell, but before he could finish, one of the Flame Cerebrus’s front paws slashed at him. The sharp claws tore through Lyle’s shoulder.
“Gaaah…!”
The shock sent his body flying backward. He tasted blood in his mouth. The pain in his shoulder burned, like it was on fire. He glanced down and saw red steadily staining his uniform.
The beast didn’t pursue him, almost like it was daring him to try and escape its clutches.
“Damn it…”
Lyle staggered to his feet and ran again, and the Flame Cerberus also started moving, albeit slowly. It took its time cornering him, like a child playing with an insect by stepping on its wings.
The chase continued for a while, but Lyle’s strength finally ran out. The monster towered over him as he lay panting on the ground. Six eyes glared at him.
“Piss off already!”
It gathered flames in its mouth, readying itself to deliver the finishing blow.
I think this might be the end for me…
Lyle was about to discover the reason why it was called a Flame Cerebrus. He sensed death approaching, but he couldn’t let himself be defeated like this.
“I am Lyle Elvard…” He slowly rose to his feet and fixed his gaze on the monster. “The third prince of the Kingdom of Elvador, and the one who will become the wand that protects this country.”
He couldn’t die here. Even if he couldn’t defeat the Flame Cerberus, he would fight with everything he had to survive. With this resolve in his heart, he prepared himself to unleash his most powerful spell.
“A-Are you all right…?”
A strange voice that didn’t fit the situation. Yuffie, one of the girls in his class who shouldn’t be here, suddenly appeared.
“Grrr…”
The monster also extinguished the flames in its mouth.
Why is she here…?! Lyle’s eyes widened almost comically.
Yuffie Abisus. They’d only spoken a few words the day before the entrance ceremony. From what he could see, she was alone. Maybe her other group members were nearby, or perhaps she was lost. Either way, Yuffie, being a girl, had no way to attack. Meaning he needed to protect her. Especially because there was no one else who could.
“Oh my God, you’re hurt!”
She rushed over when she saw his torn shoulder. It was like she hadn’t even noticed the Flame Cerberus right there, and that flabbergasted him. As for the monster in question, perhaps outraged by her seemingly ignoring its existence, it once more lit a flame to fire from its mouth at her.
“Don’t come here!” Lyle shouted. “Marina Burst!”
Advanced water magic. It instantly created a large amount of water and attacked the target with immense pressure. Lyle was the only freshman who could use it.
At that moment, one of the Flame Cerberus’s heads unleashed a Fire Breath. The breath collided with his Marina Burst and exploded. Too bad for them that monster immediately fired a second Breath attack.
I was too slow…!
Lyle raced toward Yuffie. “Water Ball!” He managed to mitigate the attack with the low-level water magic spell. However, the flames, still plenty powerful, brushed against the two of them.
“Yuffie!”
“Eeek!”
He caught her just in time and turned his back to the flames.
“Gaaaaaaaaahhh!!”
“Lord Lyle!”
The flames unleashed by the Flame Cerberus burned relentlessly against his uniform.
“Shiiit!”
Lyle quickly chanted and made water appear on his back. The flames died down with a whoosh, revealing burnt bare skin underneath the charred remains of his uniform.
“Lord Lyle! Oh, no… This is all my fault…” Yuffie was panicking and tearful. “I-I need to hurry and use healing magic…”
He shook off her hand and turned around. “Don’t worry about me, just run!” he snapped at her, his expression ghastly.
“But…” she mumbled.
Meanwhile, the Flame Cerberus geared up to launch another attack, ready to unleash Fire Breaths from all three heads.
This is bad! At this rate, Lyle knew they would both die. I need to save Yuffie at least!
“Water… Ngh…”
He tried to use water magic to blast her away, but he felt a sudden loss of strength in his body. I can’t run out of mana… Not now!
After firing several Water Balls and activating the advanced Marina Burst spell in quick succession, his magical energy was depleted. Making both offense and defense impossible.
As if mocking their hopeless situation, the Flame Cerberus fired at them. Scorching hot flames roared toward them, massive enough to turn two people to charcoal.
Ahhh, damn it…
“Somewhere like this, of all places…” he muttered.
Is this where my life ends…?
He had done nothing, become nothing, and been unable to protect even one girl. He was going to die without knowing why this happened. Anxiety spread in his chest, as if he were being pulled into an abyss, and at that moment, the thought of death became real.
“Water Wall.”
Then something unbelievable happened. Yuffie’s voice echoed, and out of nowhere, a transparent blue wall appeared in front of Lyle. Countless sparkling droplets of water fluttered down. It was a beautiful sight, like diamonds raining on them.
The wall contained many times, no, dozens of times, more water than Lyle could have produced. There was enough water to cover the entire area. At least, that was how it felt to him.
The next moment, her Water Wall began to move. Like a single living organism, it expanded toward the Fire Breaths and enveloped all three streams of flame. With a whooshing sound, the wall neutralized the monster’s attack. As sudden as dropping a lit match into a lake.
Yuffie waved her hand, and the wall of water disappeared in an instant. Silence reigned again, like nothing had happened. Lyle instinctively looked around. He wondered if one of the male teachers had come to help, but there was no sign of anyone other than the two of them.
And he sure as hell wasn’t the one who’d cast it. Not only was his mana at zero, but he had never even mastered such advanced magic in the first place. Which meant it was inevitably Yuffie’s doing.
“…Huh?” That was the only thing he could say, and he barely even managed that. Proof of his shock at how Yuffie, a girl, fired an advanced spell he’d never seen before.
💠🌸💠