Arriving at the edge, she took a deep breath and brought Hydran forth, forming a thick pole in her hands. Focusing mana on it, sharing the energy with her familiar, she held it up for a few seconds. After it began spinning much more ferociously, she shouted loudly and shoved the butt of the swirling staff into the ground.

  Water rushed to the sides like two rolling waves, just short of the patterns in front of it. After circling the crater, they smashed into each other, and Tina twisted her spiritual weapon. The low hedge of crystal-clear liquid surged upwards and soon covered the entire hole with a thick dome of violent water, trapping the monsters inside.

  Grea cheered and everyone looked at Tina’s spell in awe. The elves were going to continue their work but stopped after a splash reached their ears. While most of the beasts couldn’t do anything against the swirling barrier, the occasional, more durable creatures pushed themselves into it as if their life depended on it, hurting themselves in the process to an astonishing degree, but also creating small gaps in the liquid wall. Through those, some smaller beasts could possibly slip outside for as long as the disruptors weren’t torn to shreds.

  It looked like Tina couldn’t do that much to the barrier after it had been erected so Suanori jumped in to help her without a second of hesitation. The guildmaster trailed the tip of her wooden staff in the air, creating many glowing sigils of green color, and hit the ground with its butt.

  Immediately, countless thorny vines shot out of the mud all around the spinning obstruction and crisscrossed each other above its surface. In just a few seconds, a durable and sharp net covered the liquid dome, additionally reinforcing it.

  But, while clearly very effective, it still wasn’t completely failsafe. Asterios and the others could take care of the few small monsters that would make it through, and they would be extremely wounded at that point too, but any chances of something breaching the patterns they had laid down were not welcome.

  After running his gaze over the people gathered around the chasm, he sighed softly.

  “How long do you need to connect the ends?” he asked the elf Summoner.

  “A minute, two at worst,” Fievedem answered.

  “Alright. Doable.” Asterios nodded to himself. “I have an idea. I’m going to stop them completely for that time but under one condition. You have to swear an oath not to divulge anything you will see to anyone, especially the queen.”

  She frowned at him slightly and he could tell that she was going to ask for an explanation, but Imadil stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Just do as he says. He’s a trustworthy person. The two of us already did it.”

  His words seemed to shock Fievedem, but she nodded at the man. She and the two other elves made a similar oath as the father and daughter duo, turning to look at Asterios after they were finished.

  “Thank you. Now, can I destroy those vines, or will it hurt you, Suanori?” he asked the guildmaster.

  “Go ahead. I’ll be fine,” she grunted while upkeeping her concentration on the spell.

  “Perfect. If you can, bring out some more. I’ll have Tina cancel her dome before I get to my own thing. It’s not too compatible with what I’m going to do.”

  Right after the last word left his lips, he closed his eyes, relayed his plan to his blue-haired lover, and reached for a lot of the scorching hot energy. A wave of pleasant yet fierce warmth hit everyone as a crimson aura burst out of him. The elf trio gasped when draconic wings, horns, and tail came into existence at various parts of his body. Tough, crimson scales surfaced on some spots over Ast’s skin, and his hands were completely covered by them.

  Opening his ferocious, glowing eyes of pure crimson, he regarded the elves with one more look and launched himself into the sky with a powerful flap of his wings. After reaching the desired position above Tina’s water barrier, more or less in the center of the giant hole, he began drawing an immense breath while giving her the signal to drop the technique.

  Everyone could hear him strongly suck in more air than his lungs should technically have been able to store as the swirling dome receded to the ground. Grea was literally shaking from excitement, bouncing on the soles of her feet, and they looked at her weirdly.

  But then, they all understood.

  The entire area was suddenly illuminated in a deep crimson shade as a ferocious hellfire of the same color burst out of Ast’s mouth. Loud noise and hum of powerful, surging flames filled their ears as the relentless inferno burned the viny net into ashes in less than a blink and rolled down the wide chasm, covering its entire diameter. Screams, screeches, yelps, and other sounds of pain echoed through the air as all the rushing creatures suffered the same fate.

  Noticing that the three elves were utterly stunned and flabbergasted, Grea gave Fievedem a juicy smack on the ass to force her out of her stupor. The Summoner woman shook her head and immediately went to continue the formation with her helpers, trying her best not to be bothered by the intense flames raining down from the sky right ahead of her. Thankfully, the heat was somewhat bearable, which seemed to be quite a curious thing considering that the insides of the crater sizzled with scorched and melted flesh.

  Not a single creature managed to come out of the bright and utterly deadly flames during the time Fievedem took to draw the remaining patterns. She gave her best, not wanting to test if Asterios really could breathe fire for as long as he had said. Finishing in just over a minute, she hastily made the array permanent and backed off with the other two.

  Tina let Asterios know that things were finished, and he gradually withdrew his fire. He was nearing his limits, so he was thankful for her assistance. After the last spurt of flames left his throat, the surrounding forest returned to its natural, dark shade of the night. Everyone stared at the bright red, melted walls of the vertical tunnel in astonishment.

  He flew down to join them on the ground while coughing lightly. Tina and Grea quickly ran up to him and began patting his back as he chuckled and did his best to let out all the black smoke still occupying his lungs and throat.

  “I thought I had it under control now, but I guess breathing fire for an entire minute is still a bit over my current capabilities,” Asterios commented with a wry smile.

  More screeches and yelps reached their ears, and he took a peek over the edge with the two women by his side.

  “The earth is still hot and will inconvenience them a lot, but they are climbing up again,” Tina said. “Plus, flying types won’t be bothered. What now? Can we close it?”

  Fievedem shook her head. “Not from here. We need to get under that giant portal, to the core formation, and do the rest through it. Otherwise, the chances of failure are much greater, and that means another explosion.”

  “Didn’t it get blasted when the array imploded?” Asterios asked.

  “I guess you haven't seen too many summoning circles blow up, have you?” She showed a rare, faint smile. “The energy can surge out causing a frontal, reverse, spheroidal, tectonic, or planar implosion. Only the last two have a high chance of damaging the array while the rest takes place almost fully around it. Judging by this pit, we definitely are dealing with the frontal implosion, the most common one.”

  “Yeah, yeah, super fascinating, for sure, but we have practice to carry out instead of discussing theory,” Grea inserted herself into the conversation, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. “If you want to follow up with your lecture, I’m sure Ast would gladly be up for some personal lessons. Hell, I would love to watch or join in too.”

  He bonked her on the head while chuckling. “Albeit very crass, she isn’t wrong. I’m always happy to learn more, especially since the academy’s resources weren’t infinite. But, as she is also right, we need to finish—”

  The ground suddenly shook strongly, interrupting Asterios. He hastily wrapped his arms around Grea’s and Tina’s waists and took off before they fell over the edge. Everyone took a few steps away from the pit and he set the two women down in a safe area before flying over the ominous opening once more.

  “Uhhh… Grea? Fievedem? What are the chances that my flames went through the breach?”

  The elf woman’s forehead furrowed a little. “I’m… not sure, actually. Thinking logically, it shouldn’t be possible for anything like that to pass, but these flames felt…”

  “But considering your condition, anything goes, really,” the mischievous demon lady continued after her and raised a brow at him. “Why?”

  “I think someone didn’t like that.”

  A powerful howl made the air shiver as it rolled out of the tunnel and echoed in the distance. Then, a huge, thick arm of light gray color reached out of the swirling, purple rift, sinking the fingers of its hand into the slowly cooling earth. Another one popped right up and grabbed the other side of the crater, clearly announcing that whatever was making its way out of the chaotic portal, was big enough to spread its limbs across the entire hole.

  After a giant canine head resembling a terrifying jackal poked out of the gate, locking its glowing yellow eyes on Asterios high in the air with a ferocious snarl, he instantly turned to the people on the ground.

  “Tina! Get them to the hidden entrance! Now! And call Umbra to your side just to be safe!”

  “But—”

  “No buts! This thing is clearly locked on me! Go!”

  With a strained line over her lips, she nodded obediently and began herding everyone toward the direction of the secret tunnel. Asterios noticed Umbra’s shadow joining hers and smiled to himself. But that smile didn’t last long as another bone-chilling howl rumbled through the crater.

  The humongous creature was halfway up now, and he could see it in most of its glory. It had a humanoid figure of massive size. There was no doubt that it could easily close its fist around Asterios and still have some room to spare. Its light gray body was furless but covered by what looked like jagged, natural plates of rock armor. A lot of it was chipped or decorated with impressive claw marks.

  Passing the half point, it lowered its posture and tensed its visible muscles. Asterios knew exactly what was coming and hastily pushed himself aside, flying towards the land. The gigantic jackal launched itself out of the hole and landed on the ground on all fours with a powerful thud. Rising to its hind legs like a person, it growled at Asterios viciously, its ominous shape extending far over the tree line.

  “Yeah… I guess a simple apology will do no good here…” He smiled wryly after seeing its ravenous expression.

  Worried about damaging the patterns they had worked so hard to prepare, Asterios flapped his wings and flew away from the chasm. Looking over his shoulder, he was glad to see the canine giant following him while dashing forward on all fours again. There was no way of resolving it peacefully anymore.

  Moving far enough from the now obliterated hill, he stopped and faced the monster. Before it got to him, he hastily flew higher, using his wings to his advantage to observe and analyze his opponent before it engaged him.

  But Asterios didn’t get to watch the jackal for long as it was fast to come up with a countermeasure.

  The massive monster snarled, starting to growl, and hunched forward. The jagged rocks over its back began growing in size, soon creating a sharp spike. After it grew in size enough, the beast grabbed it and broke it off, drawing one leg to the back.

  With a powerful swing, it hurled the rough javelin at Asterios strong enough for the wave of force released by its throw to bend the nearby trees, breaking a few. Since its intentions had been very obvious from the moment it had picked the projectile, Asterios managed to prepare himself and dodged out of the way. The big spike disappeared in the night sky, flying who knew how far.

  “I can’t have you do that repeatedly. You might hit something important by accident,” he muttered to himself and unsheathed the artifact sword, starting to fill it with mana. “Let’s see how tough you are.”

  Brandishing his weapon at the monster, Asterios supplied his wings and organs with some more energy and shot forward with a thud. The jackal swung its massive arm to intercept him, but he ducked under it and sliced into the unarmored skin of its armpit.

  His sword did penetrate the thick, leather-like layer, leaving a long but shallow wound on its surface. Unfortunately, considering its humongous size, it seemed no more than a scratch. Even if he plunged his blade deep into its body, he would have to aim for vulnerable zones, which were all covered by additional plates of tough stone or something similar.

  Avoiding another slash aimed at him, Asterios did a roll and increased his distance again. He felt like a fly in front of the canine giant. Or a mosquito. Felling it would certainly require something with much more penetrative power. Or power in general.

  He had a few decent spells stored in his Runic Chips, so he wasn’t completely out of options. He could also stall the enemy for as long as Fievedem needed to disable the summoning circle, the girls to clear up most of the remaining monsters, and then reach him, but there was always a chance that the monster would grow bored of trying to chase after him.

  Looking at his artifact blade, Asterios recalled its unusual behavior back in the town and was just going to reenact that scene when a voice reached him.

  “Ast!”

  The jackal’s sharp, pointy ears twitched, and they both turned their gazes to the side. A scarlet-haired woman in a black battle uniform ran into a more open spot between the trees.

  Asterios immediately launched himself towards her, doing so shortly before the monster. Pushing his wings to their limits, he reached her first and snatched her from the ground moments before the giant dropped on the girl with its massive body. Carrying Silvia in his arms, he flew up again, watching his opponent for any signs of it hurling more javelins at them.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked in mild confusion.

  “Gods, it’s huge…” the princess commented as her amber eyes widened slightly, then turned her face to match his. “Tina told the others that you are facing a powerful, unknown enemy alone and they told me to leave the battlefield to them so I came to help you as quickly as I could.”

  “I guess I could use a hand or two.” Asterios chuckled quietly and she showed a gentle smile. “Care for one more dance, Princess?”

  “With pleasure.” Silvia’s smile bloomed a little. “Let’s finish it quickly and get back to the others.”

  Chapter 41

  Perfect Match

  Asterios tightened his grasp on Silvia and spun to the side. A sharp javelin of dark gray rock whooshed by them, and he quickly changed directions by strongly flapping his draconic wings and twisting his body, avoiding another one.

  The giant jackal was certainly a crafty opponent with at least a bit of brain and not all just brawn. Launching a second projectile shortly after the first to catch its target in the middle of dodging was commendable. Thankfully, Asterios had been able to notice it preparing that tactic, ready to react in time.

  “This will be a bit tough,” he said, watching their opponent attentively. “I can’t really let you down or it will get to you in an instant.”

  Silvia sighed softly. “I really need to work harder and catch up to Father. I can’t use my magic to casually fly yet.”

  “Right. He did seem to be able to hover in the air when we were dealing with the situation in Dagger’s End,” Asterios mused to himself.

  “He achieved a high level of control over his spiritual energy that allows him to heat up the air around his body enough for it to uphold his weight. It’s still a bit more than I can handle at the current moment,” she explained.

  “That's a quite sensitive piece of information you have shared with me, Princess. Are you really sure it’s fine to reveal your father’s potential weakness just like that, for me to potentially abuse?” He raised a brow at her.

  “And will you abuse it?” Silvia turned her face to meet his eyes and smiled gently. “Because I don’t think you would. Unless the two of you entered a duel or something, I guess, but then, anything goes, really.”

  “I appreciate the trust, then,” Asterios replied with a soft smile too. “I promise not to betray it ever. Now, let us focus on the task at hand. I have an idea.”

  Lowering his left arm, which held Silvia’s legs, he allowed them to fall and hang down alongside his body, still holding the princess snugly to his chest. He helped her quickly turn to the front and set her heels on his shoes. Shortly after that, his clothes fluttered with dark crimson flames, and Silvia let out a quiet gasp as the fire rolled up them both.

  The tiny flames faded away as quickly as they had appeared and revealed a few additional pieces of clothing. Black leather belts with dark silver buckles tied Silvia to Asterios. A bunch of them locked their legs together, and three bigger ones affirmed her torso to his body, below her chest. She could still freely move everything from her shoulders up.

  “Amazing. I didn’t know you could do that,” Silvia whispered in awe.

  “Neither did I, but technically, I just wanted to alter my attire a bit, and it seemed to work. These clothes are made of spiritual energy, in the end.” He chuckled and made a few motions with his legs and entire body. “Is this somewhat comfortable?”

  “It’s perfect. Don’t worry about me. Just do your thing and I’ll do my best to assist you with my magic,” she replied with a confident nod.

  “Can you make it work without your dancing?” Asterios asked curiously, noticing that the huge monster started preparing something new.

  “Dancing is just a form of casting, as you know very well, which suits me the most. I’m not completely hopeless without it. Especially with you by my side,” Silvia answered, also focused on the jackal.

  “Yeah. I can feel it too. There’s nothing around that we have to worry about destroying so let’s see what our bloodlines can achieve together.”

  Before their opponent had a chance to hurl something new at them—a huge piece of sharp rock that resembled a boomerang—he spun around his own axis and pushed himself forward with a small explosion of air. Silvia summoned her staff from her storage ring and gripped it strongly as they flew toward the monster.