SHOWDOWN IN THE DESERT

Our eyes met.

A monster.

This was the first time I saw one up close!. A gigantic ominous looking desert sand snake. An A grade monster!

How exciting!

The massive monster had its red eyes open.

It was a dark night.

The moon was full.

So, when I saw its captivating red eyes follow me, their beauty entranced me.

In the moonlight their glow offered a sort of sacred beauty.

Then slowly, it focused its vision on my head.

—I saw a flash of light. No, it…it was more like a beam.

Wow!

Monsters are way cooler in person than in books.

“Everlyneeeee!” Teacher shouted.

E-eh there’s no need to shout I’m right next to you Teach!

That instant a red-hot beam of light faintly grazed the side of my cheek.

“—Ngh. Aha ha! That was close I almost died again…”

“What the hell was that?”

“A desert sand snake.”

“A monster?”

Teacher hadn’t seen it, huh? Flying must have held all of her attention.

I had managed to cock my head to the side at the last second, but that was still a scare aha ha ha ha!

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yup never better!”

“Cut the crap,  your face?”

The red beam had grazed me, but it wasn’t serious or anything. There was blood but it wasn’t like I was going to die right then and there.

Wait—do my eyes deceive me? Now that I’m looking, is Teach actually worried about me?! That cool aura, that lazy eyed Teacher is worried about me… It’s nice that she cares but the desert snake is still following us! She needs to focus on flying, not worrying about me.

“Heh-heh-heh…Don’t sweat it Teach I’m okay!” All I have to do is let out a fearless laugh, and say I’m okay to calm Teacher’s heart.

She glared at me.

“ You’re not okay,” Teacher said, her face turning pale.

She’s such a worrywart, plus the sand snake is taking aim at us that should be of more importance right!

There was an eye blinding flash.

Dang, Teach, pay attention.

She covered us both in a thick layer of magic before the impact. There was a violent thud as the broomstick was shot down, sending Teacher and I falling.

As we fell, Teacher began to cast a spell.

“Noitativel!” she screamed. A levitation spell.

Suddenly, we came to a stop in mid-air and slowly descended to the sandy ground.

“Everlyne.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Retaerg Gnilaeh!” A healing spell.

The desert sand snake’s not too far behind us. And Teach, wasted her magic on a dumb healing spell…. HUUUh!? Witches' are supposed to be a lot more pragmatic and heartless ya know!

I appreciate the gesture but…

“Thank you very much. But you should save your magic for the monster.” I said.

“Idiot. What kind of teacher would I be if I didn’t prioritize my students’ safety? What kind of adult would do something like that.”

Uh-oh. I never considered Teacher would be such a big softy.

“You really care about me?! You really do!?” A good witch should put her own needs before anything else, and strive to win by any means necessary. 

Teacher was way to naive. 

Teacher looked a little upset about what I had just said.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” A somewhat angry Teach replied, “you know the snake is an A grade monster. I won’t be able to take it down alone and come out unscathed. We need to end things quickly”

That’s right. I’ve seen her perform silent casting with simple spells like levitation, but now that she's stressed she's having trouble with silent casting. 

And for more complex spell formulae, actually performing the spell out loud is better for visualization and power. So she needs me to buy time.

Teacher might be an excellent witch, but at the end of the day she’s still just an F grade witch, a long-drawn-out fight won’t be to her advantage.

“I see. But it’s not like I can use magic so I won’t be of any use in a fight.”

“I’m not so sure about that. In your case, you can’t use magic, but what about your blessing? Telekinesis, was it? The overall strength of a blessing might fall short of attack spells,  but even that should be enough to distract it long enough for me to prepare a spell to kill it...”

“Just keep it distracted until I can kill it. Can you do that, Blake Everlyne?”

I nodded.

It wasn’t a bad idea, my blessing allowed me to move stuff around by thinking about it. Ughhh, no, that’s not quite right it was more like an invisible hand? No more like a…uh…whatever!

The point is, I could move stuff with it, for the most part I only moved small things with it back at school, I had never even thought about using it offensively heh-heh-heh. 

This'll be fun!

Right, I can do this! Sure, I might not have any experience but Teach is counting on me! Our lives are in my hands!

The ground rumbled.

The sand at our feet began to vibrate and screech, as if welcoming the ruler of the desert himself.

Creeeeeeeeeeeak. Creeeeeeeeeeeak.

THUD.

The bastards had finally arrived.

“It’s coming.” She said, clutching her wand tightly.

I didn’t need to ask what.

Without warning, the massive beast emerged from the sand.

SSSSSSHHH!

We were ready or so we thought. But the attack came from behind.

“Everlyne!”

“On it!”

In the blink of an eye the large snake was moments away from chomping down on us.

It was up to me.

I hurriedly raised my arm up.

I wasted no time using my telekinesis to try to stop it. The snake’s massive head immediately came to a stop. It’s large teeth inches away from us. With the sound of what felt like the air, groaning under the pressure of the space around it being held back. My blessing was effectively keeping the monster in place.

I stopped it.

I Stopped it?!

I could tell Teach was surprised. I bet she was! I was pretty damn surprised, too.

I never thought the blessing I used to move pencils around for fun could stop something like this! Blessings were generally useful, but they had no offensive ability. A blessing this powerful was unheard of, hmm… Hmm? Well, whatever all that matters is that I’m awesome!

A long tail hit me through the air from behind. “Gak!” I coughed out blood. Pain shot through my body.

“RAAAAAAAH!”

I had protected myself with a barrier, but it wasn’t enough. I shielded myself instinctively, like I had done this many times before.

Telekinesis let me manipulate the world around me, the more I focused, the stronger this invisible force got. I just understood everything about how my blessing worked, it came naturally to me, like breathing.

Basically, I pictured it as an invisible hand, then moving it around—somewhat like how my own hands work. If I wanted to grab something or cover it in a barrier, I could do that.

Even as the snake smashed me into the sand, Teacher continued silently chanting the spell formula.

…

…..

…….

The snake turned to face her. She did not flinch an inch. Teacher is trusting me to hold it off while she prepares the spell?

Pffft!!

Look at you! Putting your trust in me, when things are this serious?

Okay, let’s not make her regret trusting me!

I got my head back into gear and focused my attention on the snake.

As the Snake lunged at Teach with its mouth wide open, I quickly twisted around and grabbed it, lifting it up in a tight grip as I tried to crush it with pure force.

I’m not that strong. But when I use my blessing, it feels like I could crush a boulder! I’ll kill it! I applied as much pressure as I could.

The reptile convulsed and thrashed in agony as I tore through its scaley body.

CRACKK!

Even as the snake’s bones began to creak, I simply squeezed harder.

I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice; I’ll cover its entire body!

The snake glared at me, a red gleam in its eyes.  A beautiful red gleam. Breathtaking red. I should probably dodge it but… I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

A beam of light pierced straight through my abdomen.

Hot. So very hot. My insides were burning.

“ACK!”

Aha-ha-ha!

That was amazing Mr.snake! Or is it Ms.snake? 

It’s more interesting this way! Whoever goes down first loses! It fired shot after shot,  this time as I layered barrier after barrier, while simultaneously crashing every inch of its body.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM WHAM! WHAM! WHAMWHAMWHAMWAHMAWHNAWM!

It was a fierce battle.

Heh.

However in the end. Looks like I lose…

“You did well Everlyne.” A voice suddenly cut in before I was devoured whole. Teacher pointed her wand at the oncoming mad beast, her cool aura made it look effortless. “NOISOLPXE!”

SKKKRRREEEEE!!

The sound of the snake’s skull burning was chilling.

Her Silver hair danced to the flames of the explosion spell decimating the massive snake’s head. Her overall magic power may have been low. But by concentrating the majority of her area of effect on a specific point, she was able to achieve devastating results.

Explosion spells are large area of effect spells, but she modified it, altered it, changed the original formula. Essentially Teacher had created an entirely new spell… Amazing. So, this is what a well-trained F grade witch can do!

Pretty! Silver hair. Blue eyes. Long ears. A traditional black dress, black cape, black pointy witch hat, striped stockings, and black shoes—she not only looked good. Teacher was…

“You’re amazing!” I felt decency and decorum immediately leave my body as I tackled her to the ground.

How could I not be pumped? That was so much fun! Two F grade witches, one of whom doesn’t have any magic, just took down an A grade monster!

Teacher yelled one sentence.

“Get off me!!!”

With that one command, I was off.

She glared at me with her ocean blue eyes.

“M-more importantly, your injuries we need to heal them before you bleed ou—.” She paused.

“Teacher?”

Teacher suddenly collapsed! She must have used too much magic. This was bad we were still out in the open in a desert teeming with monsters. No. everything is fine! Looks like I gotta carry her. I thought to myself.

I was still holding up all right (thanks to my incredible endurance), and I could always fight a monster solo now given how powerful my blessing is! Yup, it’s important to stay calm.

Everything suddenly began to look fuzzy.

I fell to the ground.

HUUUUUH! No way! Waewhat! I can’t pass out! Not yet! STUPID BODY GET UP!

I tried summoning some strength in my legs but nothing. 

Oh well, I’m sure everything will work out.

There was no point fussing over it I guess.