Kordia hopped back two paces as she looked over the battlefield. She hadn’t had time to pull mana from the air to make her silver flames, and now there was too little available mana to do so as every student of the Academy had drawn on the same supply.
"Guess we’re doing this the hard way," Kordia said.
Concentrating on the room, she watched and watched as the melee continued to evolve. Lugh was fighting fiercely, a squad of cadets against a squad of lesser demons. So far the mix was roughly even throughout the room, and with fewer frontline fighters, the Academy students were mostly fending off the demons that got around the Knight cadets.
Already, the bodies of four Academy students lay injured or dead on the floor. In the press, it was hard to tell.
Kordia bit her lip to shake off the awful thoughts surging in her mind.
"Let’s do some rearranging..."
Dropping her personal shield, Kordia distributed it around the battlefield in hexagonal-shaped shards, simultaneously she broke them each into smaller triangles, enough to place one on each student and cadet’s chest.
Starting with her right, she suddenly pulled back most of the students into a rough formation, before doing the same thing with the cadets. Then, letting those shield bits disperse, she repeated the gesture with the students and cadets on her left.
The demons were surprised by it, and some even took a step back as they assessed what was happening, but all Kordia did was push everyone into formations, which had been something Rain enjoyed telling her about often. Guess it stuck, she thought to herself as she stepped back and let the natural flow of combat take its course.
She had spent a decent portion of her mana, and letting her shields dissipate meant she could now use offensive magic.
Looking around, Kordia saw that almost everyone was hurt in some way. She wanted to heal everyone, but at her level, the process would still be painful and distracting...
Before she could overthink it, Kordia reached within and drew on her well of mana, channeling it through her body and spirit as she enacted the calling of her fox fire.
Though she lost half of her remaining mana, she was able to create a single foxfire orb, giving her access to a little under one-and-a-quarter of her maximum.
The fox fire she held would reduce pain in healing, but she had to apply her mana through it. Instead of that, she drew the accumulated mana into herself as she spread out a healing spell over every demon.
Having their cuts forcibly healed cut through the adrenaline coursing through less than half of them. They began to write and some even dropped their weapons to clutch at their painfully healing wounds.
Though her spell had succeeded on less than half of them, the split second was enough that the Knight cadets were able to dispatch nine demons in one thrust, instantly turning the tide as they now outnumbered and out-magicked the remaining demons.
Give up, already, please...
Kordia wasn’t a pacifist. But she didn’t like the thought of killing more than she had to.
Yet the demons fought on, now at a frenzied pace that made it clear they intended to hold the room at any cost.
Amarena was having a difficult time getting into her opponent’s defense, given how versatile having two protected hands was proving, but with her advantage in reach and speed, she was slowly adding cuts to the demon every time he tried to attack. Another punch from him missed, cracking the stone floor and leaving an indent and shattered stone.
This time, Amarena left a cut on his cheek.
She dodged as he almost got her leg, noticing that something in the room had changed. The cries of the demons had gotten louder, and far more desperate.
"No..." the enemy captain whispered in his deep, grunty voice.
"No what?" Amarena growled.
A strange look came over the captain.
Amarena instinctively stepped back as she felt his mana surge. Every bit of magic he had, the demon before her was putting into size and strength until he dwarfed her completely. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
A form like that won’t last him a minute. What’s he-?
In one swing, the demon punched into a window behind him before raking his fist through the wall, unheeding of the glass in it as he punched a mass of marble stone in Amarena’s direction.
It was all she could do to dodge as she rolled out of the way, only to have the demon perform the same maneuver on the next wall.
This is getting old! Amarena thought as she turned her fourth roll into a leap that brought her to the next wall in his path.
He arrived to find her waiting for him, and with an upward slash she severed his left arm as his right hand closed for another punch through the wall, one that struck her with a half-dozen stones as it careened her into the bunched-up mages and knights.
The demon roared with rage, and then with a supreme effort of will, lowered his head and charged the remaining walls.
One of the mage students, the tall one who used vines, suddenly shouted. "Get to the stairs!"
The need became clear as the final section of the wall crumbled, and the floor abruptly tilted as cracks began to form.
"Shit!" Amarena said as she pushed herself to stand. She looked at her opponent to find him already fallen. Dead by his own hand instead of hers.
With a single, strong leap, Amarena landed on the stairwell, paying no heed to the mages she’d knocked over. Surely they could survive dropping from a few stories up. If not, they were weak.
She caught a glimpse of the girl that the foxkin had brought with her. The human wove some quick spell that lifted most of them at the last moment, her maid planting a hand on her shoulder as she quickly lent the princess her mana, meaning they were highly compatible.
Frowning a little, Amarena shrugged and looked around to see who escaped the collapse.