Chp.27: Hara's intervention

The vice principal Bump was clearly perspiring. It wasn't the first time someone had attacked the Magic Academy, but it was the first since he'd been working there. Now, all the students in the school were his responsibility, and it was his duty to protect them. "Whoever you are, I advise you to surrender now!" he proclaimed with some anger, glaring at the three women on the roof.

In response they laughed heartily. "Did you hear that, girls? We have to run, or they'll hurt us!" exclaimed one of them who, though Bump couldn't know it, was Teramon. "Aren't you terribly frightened?"

"Don't tell me. I'm shaking all over!" another one exclaimed, which was Tikka. After that sentence the two women and their companion, who was obviously Keita, burst out laughing again.

Bump sweated slightly. He knew that if the three women were that confident, then they must have the confidence that they could win. Otherwise they wouldn't have attacked the academy themselves. "The guards will be here soon and you'll be looking at it! For your own sake, you should surrender now that you still have your head on your shoulders!"

"Don't worry, old man, the guards will have other things to think about very soon" Keita replied, before throwing herself off the roof. "Good, then. Sisters, let's have some fun!"

Keita hurled herself at the teachers of the academy with incredible speed. She was so fast that only Bump and an other teacher were able to see her and they summoned two magical barriers at the last second; when Keita hit them they shattered as if they were made of glass, but the recoil at least stopped the woman's attack. Keita rolled back a couple of meters, but regained his balance within seconds.

Bump grit his teeth. That woman had to be at least a level adamantium, or she couldn't have broken his barrier like that. And yet, there was something else about her as well… for an instant when she attacked him, he thought he saw her move on all fours, and when she stood on her feet for a few seconds she remained in that position, as if was more comfortable in a quadrupedal posture.

However, at the moment he didn't have time to think about it. Tikka and Teramon also leapt off the roof, directly at him and the other teachers, but they moved strangely, as if they were gliding. Bump quickly recreated the barrier, and it also broke, proving that they too were at level adamantium; but unlike their sister, they didn't strike the barrier with clenched fists, but with open palms. Even though they were thrown back the barrier still broke, and this was enough for a few drops of a strange liquid to come out of their palms and rain down on the teachers. However, they weren't naive and in turn had taken advantage of those few seconds to cast less powerful barriers. Which was good, because as soon as the liquid touched the ground, everything from the longest blade of grass to the smallest grain of sand began to corrode at an impressive rate.

Bump grit his teeth at the scene. That was clearly great basilisk's venom. If the teachers had been affected, they would have literally been melted alive. This was problematic: right now, they were at a disadvantage. The three women were all level adamantium and they seemed to possess extraordinary abilities. In contrast, Bump and the only other teacher who cast the barrier with him, named Lois, were the only two level adamantium in the entire academy. Though the other teachers were all level mithril, there were barely a dozen of them. Which meant that the fight wasn't evenly balanced at all. And the three women seemed to know it, because they were clearly playing with them.

"Mph! They're stronger than I expected" Tikka murmured. "What do you say, sisters? Shall we use 'that'?"

"Are you kidding? Let's take the opportunity to have some fun. We have no reason to eliminate them right away!" Keita said. "Come on! I want to see what they come up with!"

The women again attacked the teachers. Bump and Lois summoned a barrier again, this time of fire; they hoped this would at least slow them down. A normal person at that sight would have tried to jump or go around the flames to avoid them hitting them. Instead, the three women passed through them as if nothing had happened, completely oblivious to the fire, as if they didn't mind getting burned. In fact, judging by their expressions, they hadn't even felt the heat of the flames. "What the fuck are you!?" Bump exclaimed, unable to understand what was happening.

"We?". Keita appeared in front of his nose with a maniacal smile painted on her face. "We are predators!"

The woman raised her hands almost as if to strike him with claws. Bump wrapped his hands in water magic and blocked her attack, then he solidified the water into ice to stop her even further; but this act was useless because these pieces of ice, although supported by his magic, quickly began to corrode by the great basilisk's venom and give way under the level adamantium strength of the woman. But Bump didn't mind that; casting the spell as fast as he could, he swirled the air around Keita like a hurricane, then he condensed some of it and turned it into blades. Normally he would have used fire, since it was more efficient, but since he had found that it was useless against these women, he had decided to use another method. Blades of air were hurled at Keita with incredible speed and pierced through each of her internal organs, including her brain; but Bump wasn't done yet and by rubbing the air he created a powerful lightning spell that shocked the woman's entire body with electricity.

Bump inspired deeply. He had used a lot of his mana to cast such powerful spells at such speed, but there was no way anyone could have survived such a sequence of attacks. But before he could finish his sigh of relief, the woman emerged from the air curtain completely unharmed and grabbed his face. Before Bump could react, Keita smashed his jaw with her force and then burned his tongue using great basilisk's venom. Bump managed to free himself before the amount of venom released melted his face, but he was now unable to move his mouth. "You can't use magic without chanting your spells, huh?" Keita said. "You didn't hurt me, but I didn't like being treated like your punching ball"

Bump couldn't believe it. He was sure he had hit the brain! Besides, what living creature could withstand an electric shock of that power? Either way, he still had one more cards to play. Being a level adamantium mage, Bump was able to use spells even without reciting them aloud; even if it required considerable mental and physical effort, he could do it. With his last strength, he raised his hand and a pillar of rock rose under Keita's feet, completely piercing her chest. But the woman didn't even give a sign of having noticed it, and indeed, she didn't even have to hit the pillar to free herself, but it was enough for her to exert a little force with her torso and it broke as if it were made of paper. Bump couldn't figure out how that was possible, but Keita's punch sent him to the ground before he could try to analyze the situation. "You're definitely stronger than these pathetic weaklings" she said. "Normally I would kill you, but you have helped me to learn the fighting style of a mage correctly, and technically I'm not here for you. I will spare your life as a thank you. Know that, if you try to interfere with our work again, I will have to take appropriate countermeasures"

Bump looked up slightly and observed what was happening around him. Most of the teachers were down now, and he couldn't tell if they were alive or dead. The other two women were hitting the last remaining ones, sending them down as well. And none of them showed the slightest sign of fatigue or injury: all three were completely immaculate, as if they hadn't even fought. What kind of creatures were they?

Suddenly lightning descended from the sky and split into three spear-shaped parts, which aimed at the three women. Tikka, Teramon and Keita dodged just in time before the electric bolts hit them; as soon as they landed on the ground, they exploded with such force that he shook slightly. A wyvern had appeared in the sky, and above it a woman was holding aloft a scepter. "Who dares to attack my school?" she screamed.

Hara had rushed there as soon as she heard the explosions. That day the king had asked her to escort the queen, the young prince and the recent-born princess to the noble quarters, because the boy had an interest in meeting his grandparents. Obviously Hara knew that in reality there were precise political moves behind that choice, even if she wasn't able to fully understand them; after all, her only job was to act as an escort to prevent anyone from attacking the royal family. And in fact, after a brief moment in which she had met her parents, the queen hadn't started talking about frugal things or joking like any daughter would have done, but she had talked about politics, economics and alliances, and the duke who was her father had done the same. Everything had seemed to go well, at least until Hara heard the explosions coming from the academy; very quickly, she had led the queen and her family to a safe place and then rode her wyvern towards the school. And when she arrived, she found three women brutally beating up her employees. This had clearly infuriated her.

But to her surprise, Keita, Teramon, and Tikka didn't look the least bit scared; indeed, they smiled wickedly when they saw her. Hara didn't understand, but suddenly her wyvern stirred as if it had seen something; instinctively Hara dodged, just in time to avoid a long blade that passed a few centimeters from her face.

"Tsk. Stupid beast. Unlike you, it has the instinct to detect that someone is about to attack it, even if it's invisible" a voice grumbled. Hara saw to her surprise that a fourth woman had appeared on her wyvern's head and was holding a short dagger in her hand.

Hara gritted her teeth. How had she gotten close without her noticing? Even worse, how had she gotten on the wyvern? They were about a hundred meters high. Even if she had a strength of level adamantium, it would have been impossible for that woman to jump that high. Hara would have had a hard time doing it, and she was a legendary level!

The answer was soon given to her. The other women leapt back onto the roof of the academy and then lunged at her. Their jump was already powerful in itself, since they were level adamantium, but still when they were in mid-air despite slowing down they continued to fly in only one direction, as if blown by the wind. Perhaps they had used air magic to sustain themselves... but these women were clearly warriors, not mages!

"So is she the legendary level we're looking for?" Teramon asked as soon as she was over the wyvern's back.

The fourth woman, who was obviously Kotaru, who had not only changed her appearance but changed her vocal cords to make her voice unrecognizable, nodded vigorously. "It's her"

"You attacked my academy and hurt my teachers just because you wanted me?" Hara exclaimed angrily, raising her scepter. "I don't know who you are, but you will pay for this!" and with that she began to quickly chant an incantation, and a ball of green energy began to form over her weapon.

But she didn't have time to finish it. Keita and Tikka jumped on the wyvern's wings and tore them apart, even using their own teeth to destroy them. The wyvern gave a cry of pain and completely lost the ability to fly, falling towards the ground. Hara was taken aback and quickly broke her spell, creating another one and using air magic to support herself and keep from falling. Tikka, Teramon, Keita and Kotaru leapt off its back and began gliding around the woman. The wyvern crashed to the ground with a loud bang, but it appeared to still be alive. The skin of those animals was very tough.

Hara just had time to understand what had happened before Kotaru touched her belly and a huge light hit her. Keita, Teramon and Tikka also did the same. What happened next left her speechless.

All the mana she had was gone in an instant. She fell again, and she immediately called upon her divine power, which fortunately was still there and allowed her to sustain herself in the air. What had just happened? What had those women done?

"And now..." Kotaru said, then opened her belly with her hands. Her sisters did the same and soon all their innards fell out of the sky. "Good. Now we're light enough for the wings to hold us up. After all, we don't need that stuff"

Hara gritted her teeth in disgust at the sight. "Exactly from what corner of the world did you crawl out of?"

"We don't have to answer you" Kotaru replied. "As we predicted, our trick has no effect on your divine power. Very good! Let's see what are the potentials of a legendary level armed only with the power bestowed upon her by her goddess, against four level adamantium opponents!"

Hara gripped her scepter in fury. But before she could reply, another explosion came in the distance. This time, however, it came not from the academy… but from the royal palace. "What the...?"

"Don't worry about that. That's your colleague Thornag's problem" Kotaru said, then she lunged at her. "You have other things to think about now!"

In an instant, the sky above the academy was filled with sparks.