Chapter 19: Close Call

"Hurry up, Aqua!"

While the students in the female dormitory were busy running helter-skelter as the huge fireball created by the Demon Lord was heading directly at their building, two students, in particular, were racing to the roof and it was a race against time.

The one ahead was a red-haired student who happened to be a third-year student, that much was obvious from the purple outlines in the uniform.

She had her hair tied back in a ponytail to prevent it from getting in her face, especially in situations like this and I guess it was a smart thing to do as her green eyes were not getting covered by her hair as she raced up the stairs to the door.

The person behind her was a second-year female student, she had dark hair with a little bit of blue tint and unlike the senior in front of her, her hair was loose but maybe she left it like that because it was shorter.

Looking at her blue eyes, they seemed to be glowing a bit as she quickly hurried upstairs as fast she could to catch up to her senior.

It didn't take long before the red hair got to the door but instead of opening it like any normal person would, she sent it flying far away from its frame before quickly rushing into the area.

The second-year student quickly got to the area just after her and now they were both staring at the huge ball of flames as it got closer to their dormitory building.

The male dormitory was going to take some damage if that ended up making an impact but their entire hostel would vaporized compared to that.

"Don't fret, Aqua, we can do this." The red hair assured her junior before quickly dashing forward to get to the edge.

"I highly doubt that just both of us can make anything large enough to counter that but at least we can hold it back for a while." Aqua retorted before dashing to her side. "I just hope those boys can give us a hand from their side." She added.

"Don't worry we'll pull through or my name is not Rena Lawson."

She quickly raised both of her hands at that time, and without hesitation, a huge volume of water began to form just above it in the shape of a ball.

The water ball continued to grow until it was just about one-third the size of the fireball just about to run their dormitory down.

Aqua was doing the same thing and her water ball seemed to have gotten quite huge but it wasn't as large as the one Rena was holding up and it was still growing.

"Alright, now Aqua!"

At her command, Aqua quickly joined her water ball with hers to create a water ball almost as big as the fireball created by the Demon Lord.

Everything was off Aqua's hands now, Rena was the one keeping the water ball stable with her mana and it was starting to take a toll on her body as her breathing was starting to get faster and louder.

"Are you alright?" Aqua inquired with a worried expression on her face.

"Don't worry, I still have a long way to go before I pass out." She assured her with a smile as she got ready to send out the water ball. "I just wish there were more people in this academy who could handle making static water balls but I guess we have to deal with this as the only ones who can."

"We're not the only ones," Aqua muttered.

Rena didn't seem to have caught that as she quickly sent the water ball flying down.

"It's off my hands now." She muttered in a hypnotic voice before falling backwards but Aqua was right there to catch her.

The water ball got in the way just before the fireball could make an impact with the building and now it was a fire versus water fight.

By the time this was happening all the students in both dormitories had already been evacuated so they were all watching it from the ground.

The effort of Aqua and Rena was doing quite a good job of holding the fireball back but it was just as Aqua predicted, their counter had weaker mana reinforcement, and on top of that it was smaller.

While the fireball was slowly reducing in size, the water ball was rapidly increasing in size.

"Hmph, did you really think that was going to stop my attack?" The Demon Lord scoffed before slowly turning her gaze to the two.

The water ball was rapidly getting smaller and there was nothing the girls could do other than just stand there and watch the flaming ball get close with terrified looks on their faces.

"What we do, Rena?" Aqua asked while slowly gathering water in her left hand.

Rena, not being able to stand on her own at that moment, took a deep breath before slowly closing her eyes.

"Why don't you take a closer look first, Aqua?"

She turned her gaze back to the water ball at that moment to see that it was starting to get bigger again, it was starting to regain its original size and that meant that the fireball was stopped from advancing once more.

"What is going on?" Aqua inquired with a shocked expression on her face.

"It looks like someone decided to give us a hand."

Aqua quickly scanned their surroundings to see if she could find who Rena was talking about but there was no one in the area.

"Oh, I see." She muttered in realization.

"Try all you want but your efforts are futile." The Demon declared before flying closer to the fireball. "This little tug of war ends now."

She placed her hand on the fireball at that moment and the just restored ball of water completely got vaporized.

"No." Aqua gasped.

Seeing the outcome, the only thing Rena could do was let out a deep sigh.

"And where's Ariel when you need her?"

"I'm right here."

A strong blast of wind hit the fireball at that moment sending it flying back and preventing it from making contact with the building and while the ball was still flying back, a bolt of lightning flew straight toward it.

The bolt of lightning made contact with the fireball just after it had exited the academy's vicinity, the ball exploded just as the lightning made contact with and most of the students watching had to cover their eyes because of how bright it was.

Both Aqua and Rena opened their eyes a few seconds later to find Ariel floating in front of them with her spear in her left hand.

"Are you alright, Rena?" She inquired before turning to them. "And?"

"It's Aqua." She uttered.

"Oh, you're from the Aqua family, you're a second-year student I see."

"You know you could have gotten here faster, Ariel, we almost died." Rena couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief before getting off Aqua's body to drop to the floor.

"I'm sorry but you two did quite well to hold this back, thank you," Ariel remarked before turning to the Demon Lord who was facing her on the far end. "Rest easy now, I'll take it from here."

"You know she's a Demon Lord, right?"

"I'm aware of that but we're about to find out if that makes any difference." She responded before flying closer to the Demon.

"So, you've finally decided to come out of your hiding hole."

"I was never hiding, to begin with, I was just scolding an old friend who likes to neglect her duties when I heard about the commotion you were causing here." Ariel retorted. "I heard you asked for me specifically, by any chance does this have anything to do with the burnt Demon I found at the arena?"

Hearing her blurt that out like that, the Demon bit her lower lip in anger.

"Dead body you found at the arena? Don't act like you're not the one that murdered him."

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You'll know once I burn you to ashes just like you did to him!"

Her temper was well beyond boiling point as she quickly charged toward Ariel with both of her hands covered in flames.

"What is she doing?" Aqua inquired with a worried expression on her face.

She was asking that question because Ariel was just standing there as the Demon closed up on her.

She thought she had the third-year student where she wanted her but just before she could hit her with both of her hands, Ariel quickly quickly thrust herself further up and with both of her legs reinforced with powerful wind force, she slammed the Demon down.

She flew straight down and crashed to the floor creating some sort of mini earthquake across the academy.

Getting slammed down from the height kicked up quite a lot of dust and when it cleared up, the Demon could be seen lying in the dent she created.

She was confused because at a point while she was falling, she seemed to have lost consciousness.

"For a Demon who is ranked fourteenth of the fourteen Demon Lords, you're quite weak."

She slowly looked up at that moment to see Ariel hovering directly above her.

For a second there, it looked like she was not going to react to that but then her whole body suddenly got covered in flames.

"And what do you know about it?!" She screamed in rage as she slowly got up on her feet.

"Hmm, looks like we're taking this seriously then," Ariel remarked before she sent her spear flying directly toward her.

No wind or lightning was surrounding the spear, it was just a pathetic attempt to hit her, at least that's what it looked like.

"Don't tell me you were expecting that to hit me." The Demon uttered just after dodging the spear and allowing it to stab the floor instead.

"Of course not, I knew that would be easy for you to dodge but things would have been easier if you allowed it to hit you."

"Huh?"

The spear suddenly took a bright red glow at that moment and unaware of what was going on, the Demon instinctively moved back.

A red light shot into the sky from the spear just after a few seconds and the next second, they were both in some kind of red dome that left out the buildings and the students who happened to be a little close by, it was just the two of them in there.

"What is this?" The Demon inquired with a confused expression on her face.

One annoying thing stood out to her, the wind in there was moving in a fast synchronized manner like it was being controlled by someone.

"Oh, this is a little something I like to call Wind domain, I told you letting the spear hit you was the better option." She remarked with a condescending smile on her face.