It caught it off guard, but it probably wouldn’t buy them much time.
However, Ledriano and the other two didn’t move from their spot.
“What are you doing?! Hurry up and run!”
“…Can’t…” Raos muttered.
“What?!” (Emilia)
“I said we can’t…! There’s nowhere for us to run! We’re in Gairadite, in the Hero Academy of Arclanisca! Where the hell do you expect us to run?! If we run here, we’re finished! Heroes ain’t supposed to run away!!” (Raos)
“…All right… Here goes… I’m going first. If my <Source Destruction Light Burst Gavuel> spell works against that thing, the rest of you follow up on it.” (Ledriano)
<Source Destruction Light Burst Gavuel> was a forbidden hero spell that forcibly unleashed all the magic power within the user’s source to cause an explosion of light magic.
It was the same self-destructive spell that the 10,000 Zeshias had once attempted to use.
“…Sure you’re not losing your nerve, Ledriano?” Heine said.
“You’re right, I am… I am an imposter, after all… However, this is the same path Zeshia once took. And so, we have the obligation to do the same…” (Ledriano)
Hmm. Perhaps I should save them.
But just as I considered it, a black fireball was shot at the three of them.
“Whoa…!” (Raos)
Engulfed in the flames of <Demon Flame Gresde>, they instantly jumped back.
“Hey…! Emilia! What the hell are you doing?!” (Raos)
“Those burns should give you a good enough excuse for you three to run away! Just say that your teacher ordered you to flee against your will! No one will blame you for it!” (Emilia)
Emilia started burning the ground with her flames, leaving no place for the students to stand.
“If you don’t save the others quickly, they’ll all burn to death! You wouldn’t want to die because of me instead of a dragon, right?! If you boys are heroes, then save them!” (Emilia)
“GROOOOAAAAAAARR!!!” (Red dragon)
The red variant opened its jaws and breathed out a fireball at Emilia.
By dragon standards, the firepower was low, probably because it was trying to eat her. A dragon’s breath at full power wouldn’t even leave her skeleton behind. If that happened, not even a dragon would be able to eat her like that.
Emilia avoided the small-sized fireball, then used <Flight Fless> to flee while drawing the dragon’s attention on herself.
The beast chased after Emilia, destroying Arclanisca with its giant body in the process. Since she was the only one to counterattack, it must’ve decided to target her first.
“GROOOOAAAAARR!” (Red dragon)
Once again, the dragon shot another fireball.
This one, more than ten times larger than the previous one, flew in Emilia’s direction, and with no way to dodge it, she was engulfed in flames.
“Ah…! KYAAAAHH…!!” (Emilia)
Her <Flight Fless> spell was distrusted, and she fell through the air.
Waiting for her on the ground was the dragon variant, with its jaws wide open.
“…Not yet…” (Emilia)
In the middle of her fall, she poured all of her magic power into her magic circle and cast <Flight Fless> once again.
“Come and get me…!” (Emilia)
She staggeringly rose to the sky and flew away.
She must’ve thought that if the dragon saw her as prey, then it would spread its wings and chase her if she took to the sky.
That way, she would minimize the damage done on the ground, and buy time for her students to run away.
The “Bell of Thoughts” attached to Emilia’s neck glowed faintly.
Despite being bruised and battered, her emotions remained strong.
Those emotions were amplified by her magic tool and overflowed.
—I have nothing, I’m empty.—
—Clinging to false glory, and holding in my heart an impossible illusion, I kept turning away from reality.—
—When I realized this, I… ran away.—
—I ran and ran, I kept running away from everything until I ended up here.—
—At this hopeless dump of an academy full of unmotivated, lazy students, and nothing but idiots beyond salvation.—
—What I found there were… people as shallow as I was.—
—What I saw in them… was myself.—
—I slapped him and told him not to think that he was the only one who had suffered from injustice, but…—
—The one I really wanted to slap was myself.—
—It’s okay to run away.—
—Everything will be fine. I wanted someone to tell me these words.—
—That’s what I immediately yelled at those boys because they wouldn’t run away.—
—I’m not a respectable person, so it must have delusional of me, but…—
—I wanted to at least give the opportunity to run away—
—to those young boys, who were just like me.—
—Even if no one would praise me for it, and even if I’m not doing it right, I’ll keep pressing on, because it’s my job.—
—I can’t tell them not to run away.—
—But I can at least pray that they don’t end up like me.—
—I wanted them to escape safely if they could.—
—I was aware that there were horrible teachers who would make their students do what they couldn’t do themself.—
—But at the end of running away, surely they would find the answers they seek.—
—That’s what I wanted to believe.—
“…In the end, I couldn’t teach them anything but boring classes…” (Emilia)
The dragon variant closed in on Emilia.
It opened its jaws wide to swallow her whole, and snapped them shut on her.
“Grrrr…!” (Red dragon)
However, its fangs didn’t pierce her body.
Four magic circles were set up to protect her. They served to cast the <Four Attributes Barrier Seal De Ijelia> spell, a barrier composed of the water, fire, earth, and wind attributes.
“Don’t you dare give up… EMILIAAAAA…!!” (Raos)
Raos, Ledriano and Heine ascended from the ground using <Flight Fless>.
The three of them surrounded the dragon variant while pouring all their magic power into <Four Attributes Barrier Seal De Ijelia>.
But the difference in power between them and the dragon was too considerable.
If the dragon’s intent wasn’t to eat them, but to crush them instead, this fight would’ve been over by now.
Of course, I could go and save them immediately.
I would have no trouble incinerating the dragon with <Hell Flame Annihilation Mortar Jio Graze>.
However, it would only serve to save lives.
Right now, for the very first time, Emilia and the other three were gathering their courage, rising up, and moving forward.
Lending a hand to an infant who was trying to stand on its own would render it unable to stand again.
Emilia.
You’ve been running away over and over again.
But now, you’ve finally turned around to fight.
Show the full extent of your emotions.
And hopefully, you’ll come back victorious.
