Chapter 40

The sound of breaking metal and shattering glass tore Prof. Yakamura's attention from his lecture about possible improvements to the entrance of the nearby stadium. Miss Rosenthal was already rushing towards it, having drawn an European longsword from somewhere. What caused him to rub his eyes though was her sudden change of wardrobe into a yukata, the fox ears amidst her now bright orange hair and the shimmering air behind her slowly revealing more and more foxtails.

A loud shout though drew his attention away from the student that just revealed herself to be a Kitsune, and towards the blue skinned giant that presumably broke the door's half his height.

"So you are the small minded vixen that has been opposing my followers so far?" the fur and leather clad creature bellowed, tearing apart the small leather strips that held a scythe to its back. 

The repurposed farming tool looked much like the one his grandfather had taught him to use ages ago when he still went to his grandparents small farm every summer.

But with the changes made to it clearly indicated that this one was not meant to cut grass but flesh and probably even bone. Its blade had been replaced by a thicker double edged one not to dissimilar to the one Miss Rosenthal was holding firmly as she advanced instead of the normal curved one. It was still mounted at an angle that allowed it to stay parallel to the ground, and with the length of the shaft it was sitting right at head height for the average human.

"Yes and I'll stop you just the same" The Kitsune shouted as nine flames shimmered into life behind her, one a top each tail, her stance settling into a solid kamae.

"In your dream's kit, I'll cut you down like the little weed you are." the giant retorted as it swung the scythe aiming to cut off the student's head.

Miss Rosenthal though proved how much she had practiced this semester already and intercepted the strike with her blade, which looked very taxing on her.

Snapping out of his bout of inaction, Prof. Yakamura resolved to protect his student the best he could. But with her barely keeping the monster from connecting with its wild swings he did not have the time to rush to his locker to get his own blade. Looking around he noticed the slightly loose ground anchors, which he recalled to be about the same length as a short sword used in Nito-style Kendo.

While he would have prefered to have something longer to wield with one of those, he had little option if he wanted to assist his student before it would be to late for her. Even so, removing two of them from the earth took him much longer than the professor would have liked.

Rushing over, it became clear the two supernatural combatants were much to focused on each other to notice him advancing towards the giant's back. Despite the chill running down his spine and creeping into his limbs, the Human struck out, stabbing one of the anchors into the blue skinned creature's heel.

What followed after this broke up the fights momentum for one moment. As the burning pain in the Professor's blackening hand turned to dead numbness, his scream of pain attracted the attention of the other two, his student's strange eyes still managing to convey utter panic despite their pure orange appearance.

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"Sensei get back! He'll freeze you to death!" Laura shouted as she finally noticed the human screaming behind Yo-tsu. Sending a thrust towards the giant with her heavily mangled sword to keep him occupied.

"Yes run and hide puny human, your time will come soon enough." The Frost Giant bellowed, easily deflecting the Kitsune's attack, the blade of his scythe carving another centimeter deep notch into her weapon.

With a glance at her selfmade weapon, Laura noted that it already looked more like a badly made, oversized swordbreaker than a longsword, and was just a handful of bad parries away from breaking. And that was if she could keep fighting that long. Keeping her flames going to stay warm taxed her concentration while her strength was running out faster and faster against the overwhelming opponent before her.

The next attack she parried broke off her swords tip, heralding her weapons impending demise. With a bright flash of flame above her head she hoped to stun her opponent, which succeeded, but her follow up attack showed how much her weapon had already suffered when it barely pierced the giants skin, and bits of it broke of when she pulled it out again.

Looking around for anything else that might allow her to turn the tables before her enemy fully recovered Laura noticed that the protective screens this side of her engine had been knocked over. With Prof. Yakamura leaning against the protective glass screens around the compressor, she hatched a desperate gamble. "Start the compressor." she told her professor.

Moving closer to the engine she loudly taunted Yo-tsu. "Oh how mighty you are, to be blinded by a novice."

It had the intended consequence of her enemy charging towards her, thus closing the distance to the engine as well. Moment's later she noticed the sound of her engine slowly starting up and, letting most of her little flames die down, focused on a fire in the combustion chamber of the jet engine, driving it as hot as she could manage right now.

For the next few few minutes Laura desperately kept defending against Yo-tsu's attacks, her breath fogging her vision while her sword's length decreased with each block. When she finally began to hear the grinding noises she had been waiting for, she brought her swords handle up to let the remainder of the blade cover as much as possible of her side.

Now for the real desperate actions, Laura thought as she concentrated once again on creating a barrier around her, grinding her teeth against the incoming headache. For the next few minutes she remained like this, her teeth gritted against the head splitting pain that only increase with every attack of Yo-tsu the barrier had to hold out against.

But finally the loud shrieking sound of tearing metal filled Laura's ears for what felt like an eternity, before her vision faded to black.

~~~~~~

Prof. Yakamura was quite puzzled by his student's instruction to start the compressor, but seeing as she seemed to be capable of conjuring fire, he hoped she had some form of plan involving the engine as he turned the compressor back on.

The next few minutes he could do little but lean against the compressor and watch his student slowly but surely lose until minutes later she assumed a strange pose as if to deflect attacks coming from the engine before a shimmering hexagon of walls appeared around her, deflecting the consequent attacks of the giant with sparks flying every which way.

Seconds later the engine self destructed in just the way he had feared when he limited its run time. While the barrier protected Laura against the shrapnel for just long enough, and nothing managed to pierce the glass protecting him completely, the giant was not prepared in anyway for what came flying towards him, the flying bits of rotor blade stabbing deep into its body. A blink later the beast's head tilted over to the side before the monster collapsed in on itself.

After a few minutes more, the professor rushed over to the side of his unconscious student. While her hair was smeared with blood, a short check revealed it was just a bad nosebleed and a shallow wound where her head had hit the ground.

Struggling with his heavily frostbitten hand, he had yet to finish calling emergency services with his smartphone by the time students and professors alike came over attracted by the loud noise of the failing engine.