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“I would use earth magic to break the floor under his feet and attack.”

“Then I could use water magic to create mud and stop his movement. If I can, I could use ice magic after that to freeze it.”

My magic would supplement hers. It seemed like it had a better chance of working than wholly relying on a novice’s magic.

“It would be splendid if you could use ice magic, but are you sure of it?”

She asked me with a worried expression.

“I haven’t had much opportunity to use magic… So I’m not sure. If it turns out I can’t partway in, you should ignore me and run.”

“Fool. As if I could do that.”

She glared at me.

“Of course I want us both to make it out of here, but at least one of us should be saved if that’s not possible.”

She was looking at me rather angrily now. I ignore the impulse to look away and glare back at her. Then it was her that looked away. Her cheeks looked a little flushed.

“Fool. We will both make it out alive…”

“Uh, ah…yeah. Well, I’ll lure him over here. You cast the spell when he comes.”

I say as I jump out from the shadows. Daniela was shouting at me to wait, but I ignore her.

It was better this way.

Just then, I could hear the sounds of heavy creaking. I use Presence Detection. I could very clearly sense the presence of the wolf near the entrance now. With determination, I shout in an attempt to provoke it. The battle had begun!

“Come here! I’m over here!!”

The answer was a deafening crash. The stones around the entrance blew away. I covered my face with my arms with just enough space to view ahead of me, but there was so much dust in the air that it was hard to see. But I didn’t have any time to think about it, because something was charging through the dust cloud and then jumped.

“Wha….!”

I felt something blast into my stomach. A blinding pain overtook me. My body had been thrown through the air and against a wall before I crumpled to the floor. All I could see ahead of me was stone. Stones that made up this building. They had flown through the air like cannonballs, and one had caught me in the stomach. Shit. That was my weak spot for rather personal reasons. I breathed in the air which tasted of sand and then coughed up something that tasted like blood. I stood up then. There was a strong wind blowing now, it was pushing away the dust cloud. Daniela. I knew she would think of something.

Now my vision was much clearer. I glare at the enemy in the room.

“Bastard… You got me real good back there…”

In the center of the room stood the giant wolf with silver fur and three tails. It calmly looked down in our direction. Then he answered my outcry with a roar.

“RUOOOOOOOORRRR!!!”

The room began to shudder violently. Beowulf’s legs bent as he prepared to pounce on me. And in that brief moment.

“NOW!!”

The signal to Daniela. In an instant, the ground beneath the giant wolf’s feet crumbled. The wolf was unable to escape, its legs were swallowed up by the hole created through magic. Now it was my turn.

“Imagine…imagine!!”

Easy. It was like discharging a dam. Imagine that going into the hole. It was easy, but the magic depletion was also insane. I could not make precise adjustments, but I could make it rotate in a whirlwind. And so the water combined with the dirt in the hole, creating a tide of mud against Beowulf. Thankfully, some of the larger rocks that he had crushed were inside as well. They rushed speedily in the current and scraped at his flesh. As the mud began to turn dark red with blood, I finally started to think that we could win.

But then I sensed that my magic had run low. An intense fatigue, like after catching a terrible cold overwhelms my body.

“Daniela! I can’t freeze it!”

“Leave it to me!”

Daniela leaped forward. Before I knew it, she had her bow made from the Tree of Life and Death in her hands and was firing arrow after arrow. Beowulf thrashed in a frenzy as the arrows pierced his back and the sides of his stomach.

“Take that…!!”

It was a strong shot that took all of her strength. It must have been the power of wind magic, as the arrow had a glow to it. The arrow flew, enveloped in a tornado as it went straight into Beowulf’s right eye.

“RUWWOOOoooOOOOooOO!!!!!!”

The maddening cry pierced my ears.

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