Black (13)
My mind went completely blank for a moment.
Emergency evasion? That only works against something of a reasonable size. What the hell was I supposed to do against a colossal drill worm that looked like it could casually clear ten floors, twisting its massive body as it charged straight at me?
Maybe I should just hurl a wind-attribute stone at my feet and ride the gust out of the way? But would I even have time for that?
Right as those thoughts raced through my head—
"How dare you...!"
With the princess's sharp battle cry, three walls of pure magical power shot up in a row. The first was easily pierced. The second managed to slightly slow the creature's momentum. If it had been stopped by the third, it would've been perfectly dramatic. But the man's romantic dream of a drill wasn't just for show—the final barrier was breached as well.
Still, the walls hadn't been pointless. They'd bought us just enough time to turn an impossible dodge into a possible one.
As the rest of our group scattered to the opposite side, a single shadow moved in the other direction. Using the crumbling magical wall that was just about to dissolve into mana as a stepping stone, Ligret leaped straight toward the enemy and swung her blade. A chillingly sharp edge sliced into the creature.
But that was all.
"Damn it, the target is way too big!"
Just like Crow said, the size difference was absurd. What kind of damage could a human-sized weapon do against something literally the size of a large building? Ligret wasn't satisfied with a single hit—she'd climbed straight onto the monster's body and was racing across it, hacking away wildly. Yet the thing on the receiving end didn't seem to be taking any meaningful damage.
I shouted at the princess.
"Laila-nim!"
Ah, damn it. My tongue still wasn't working properly. The situation had escalated so fast I'd completely forgotten about the pain. I quickly tried to pull out a potion, but a white light enveloped me before I could.
"Brother! Your real body! To suffer such a serious injury!"
"Thanks for the healing, but do you really have the energy to joke around in the middle of this...?"
"I got used to it after seeing it once in the Mars territory!"
Starting with Fiore, who seemed to be getting more shameless by the day, the other students who'd been waiting in the rear began revealing themselves one by one. Pino, Rabaul, Chase, Alphonse, and even Grendel. Even with that ridiculously huge monster right there, they hadn't run away—they'd come to help. My personal reputation wasn't wasted after all!
"I knew it! There was no way Chrome getting involved wouldn't end in trouble!"
"Calm yourself first, oh Sage!"
"Instead of wasting time on pointless chatter, keep an eye on our surroundings! The demonic beasts are gathering after hearing the commotion!"
"Grendel, guard Her Highness the Princess. The others can wait."
"Hmph."
…Yeah, I was the idiot for expecting anything else.
Fortunately, even without specific orders, the princess had already switched into bombardment mode and was firing off upper-grade spells nonstop. It was clearly more efficient than sword swings—every time a massive flame or gale struck, the trees that made up the giant worm's body were violently shredded and torn away.
But.
"The firepower still feels insufficient, doesn't it?"
The destruction continued without pause, yet the creature showed no signs of slowing down or writhing in pain from the damage. What the hell was its structure? The others were attacking as well and accumulating damage, but just like Fiore said, we were clearly lacking in raw output.
Princess Laila stopped spamming upper-grade spells and seemed to be preparing a supreme-grade one, but the opponent must have noticed. It quickly burrowed back into the ground.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The creature darted through the earth, popping its head up here and there to threaten our allies. At least moving at apartment-building size had been too cumbersome—it had shrunk to about half its previous size. Unfortunately, that only made it faster.
Even though the princess's superior mana control allowed for much faster aiming and casting than other mages, accurately targeting the enemy in this situation was impossible. On top of that, the rest of us were forced to keep jumping around, so we couldn't even maintain the earlier level of suppression.
"Ugh, this is annoying."
Ligret, who had returned to my side after apparently deciding that clinging to it while it dove underground was impossible, grumbled in her usual monotone.
"Did you try the Wedge?"
"I did, but only the trees around where I stabbed dried up and withered. New ones immediately grew from inside."
"Trees shouldn't grow back that fast... right?"
I recalled the seeds the Ivestan soldiers had used earlier. What if the creature's body had a similar seed-based structure? Then maybe we could carve a massive hole through the worm, just like how the soldiers had created paths through the forest.
Of course, the real problem was getting close to something that was frantically switching between underground and surface at insane speeds. But I didn't need to worry about that part.
"Go, Ligret! Throw the orb-shaped insecticide at that damn worm!"
"Did you take something? Your eyes do look a bit glazed over, now that I look."
Of course they do! I've been running, casting spells, and fighting for hours now! Especially that cursed mid-tier spell. It demanded a level of concentration and mental processing far beyond lower-grade spells, and I'd been spamming it like crazy. It felt like my brain was constantly pumping out weird substances. The sensation was similar to pulling several all-nighters in a row.
Eagle, the guy who threw around techniques like this as if they were basic attacks... just who the hell are you…?
I'd exclude the princess from this. That woman is a straight-up cheat.
"Yeah, I took something. So please, strongest mercenary lady, just let me get some sleep."
Ligret let out a small snort of laughter, took the mana absorption orb, and dashed off. Since she could use any tool with terrifying proficiency, I trusted she'd figure it out.
I quickly relayed the situation through the earring-type communicator I'd given the princess earlier. She confirmed Ligret's charging figure and immediately got into position.
The moment the creature fully extended its body above ground, Ligret hurled the orb straight into the hole it had emerged from.
The effect was dramatic.
Like chopping down a massive tree trunk with an axe, the section connecting the creature's surfaced body to the ground snapped clean off with a sharp crack. All that remained was its massive torso, now helplessly floating in midair.
Just like how footwork became meaningless without ground to stand on, as long as it was suspended like that, evasion was impossible.
All that was left was for the princess's spell to incinerate it—
────!
As if mocking that prediction, the creature floating in the air suddenly erupted with black mana and began growing explosively. And it was growing directly toward the princess, who was just about to unleash her spell.
BOOM!
"Uwooooooh!"
Normally, if an ordinary person tried to shoulder-tackle a building, they'd just shatter their own body. But when the Proud Barbarian attempted a tackle, something that defied the laws of physics occurred. Ever so slightly, that absurdly massive body staggered backward.
Its final counterattack sliced through empty air, and the princess's strike hit the creature dead-on. With a massive hole torn through its body, the giant tree monster crashed to the ground.
Please. Please just stay down now. You've done more than enough, haven't you?
One second. Five seconds. Ten seconds.
Whether my desperate prayer had reached it or not, the creature's body showed no further movement. Instead, the trees that formed its body slowly began turning to powder and scattering into the wind.
"Did we get it!?"
Crow...! You bastard! Why did you have to say that forbidden phrase of all things! Are you getting revenge for me not buying you a new weapon after the twin swords!?
Rumble rumble rumble!
The ground shook for what must have been the umpteenth time today. I'd grown so used to it that it was starting to get annoying, but this one was on a completely different scale. And the result was just as explosive.
Five more worm monsters of the exact same shape as the one we'd just defeated. Not only that, but smaller creatures—still easily three meters tall—were continuously spawning all around us.
Yeah. This is impossible.
I'd already used up the mana absorption item, and even if I still had it, it probably wouldn't have been nearly as effective this time. From what I'd seen earlier, these new ones seemed to be made from a mix of the instant trees and the original trees from the mountain. If this kept up, we might end up causing a landslide. And no matter how ridiculous the princess's mana reserves were, she'd already used several supreme-grade spells. She had to be nearing her limit.
So… isn't it about time you showed up?
I'd noticed the subtle support during the fight, but we really can't handle any more than this, you know?
Fortunately, the non-human professor who was actually the most human-like out of all the combat instructors didn't ignore my wish.
Unlike the flashy entrance of the giant tree monsters, they didn't appear with any particular flair. They were utterly silent, calm, and stealthy. Like shadows in everyday life that no one ever notices.
But no matter how faint each individual presence was, very few people could look at a swarm of black butterflies dense enough to blot out the sky and say they were unimpressive.
The tree monsters tried to threaten the black butterfly swarm with gestures instead of nonexistent mouths, but the butterflies surrounding us didn't budge an inch.
The suffocating battle of presence continued for a moment. Then, one by one, the tree monsters that had taken monstrous shapes turned to dust and vanished. Some of them burrowed back into the ground and took root firmly.
The feeling that they were reluctantly retreating with an attitude of 'I'll let you off this time' like an RPG boss—was that just my imagination?
A few of the kids around me looked confused, unable to keep up with the constant shifts in the situation, but I was too exhausted to explain everything one by one.
I tossed my backpack aside and was about to collapse onto the ground… but then I paused, spread out a mat first, and lay down on that instead. Whether the others looked at me like I was crazy or not, it was truly comfortable.