Calamitous Courtyard Carnage

To say this was bad would be the understatement of the century. If the dragon could access Robolina’s memory, it would learn that I wasn’t really Kaledrak, just a kid attached to his soul. And if he could cast Robolina’s spells, he could Sanctify the coach and be done with her. Could I warn her in time?

Luckily, the formerly-possessed man chose that exact moment to become a distraction. He grabbed Robolina’s hand and pressed it to his forehead as he sobbed. “Lord Zagroth, thank goodness. I thought we had lost you forever.”

I didn’t wait around to hear the rest. I sprinted with all my might back to where the others were gathered. “The Dragon’s in Robolina!” I shouted.

All heads turned my direction. Yuumondou was the first to react. “Phantom Grasp,” he called out. A large, green spectral hand grabbed Robolina from above and pinned her where she was lying.

Blooming Flame Blossom acted next. “Raging Inferno,” she yelled. Some of the other students ran in the opposite direction upon hearing this. “Burn! Burn it all down! Ha, ha ha!”

A blast of intense heat hit me from behind, so intense that I thought I was about to get burned to a crisp, but I kept running. A moment later, Robolina and the man were completely engulfed in a vortex of flame.

“Brighter! Hotter!” Blooming Flame Blossom encouraged the spell. The fire reflected brightly in her eyes. “Leave nothing behind but ash! Spread across the realm and consume everything in your wake!”

Sheesh. I was starting to wonder who the real threat was.

As quickly as they appeared, the flames fizzled out. The smoke cleared, revealing the same kind of bubble shield Robolina had cast earlier. The ground outside was scorched and barren, but inside, Robolina and the man remained unharmed.

Well, that answered one question. The dragon could use her magic. Given that, its next move would be obvious. The bubble popped and Robolina held out her arm.

“Sanctify.”

No time to think. I ran headfirst into it. Getting hit was going to suck, but it was better than letting the others get hurt. For whatever reason, I seemed to be immune to that spell. Besides, there was one other advantage to getting attacked by Robolina. I’d have a lot of apologizing to do when we freed her from the dragon’s control though.

Perhaps because it hit me straight on, the magical orb didn’t knock me into the air. I leaned into the force to remain standing as I slid backward across the grass.

“Kaledrak, what are you doing?” The dragon asked. “Don’t tell me you’ve betrayed us. Ah, I see now, you were never Kaledrak to begin with. Come here, Sei. Tether."

Robolina held her arm forward, but nothing happened. As I’d hoped, the gods had punished Robolina for attacking me twice and removed their blessing from her. She could no longer use mana.

It wasn’t fair of course. Robolina had no control over her actions. She wasn’t responsible. But the gods had gotten mad at her for hitting me with that first Sanctify even though it was my fault. They didn’t care about the particulars, apparently.

“Coach, she can’t cast Sanctify anymore,” I yelled.

“I don’t need holy spells to take my revenge,” the dragon growled. “My draconic mana is more than enough.” Blue wings made of pure light unfolded from behind Robolina’s back, the same color as her eyes. She rose into the air, the orange aura glowing around her hands.

All around us, monsters appeared. But not small monsters like slimes or fluffletails. Elementals, liches, dire wolves, and even a manticore surrounded us.

The team snapped into action. Blooming Flame Blossom still had some fire left in her, and managed to take down three dire wolves on her own. Akemi Anmori went total beast mode on the liches, breaking them apart with a thorn covered whip and stomping on their skulls to crush their cores. Yuumondou faced the manticore alone, dodging strikes from its tail and killing it with a beam of pitch-black magic.

With a few powerful swings of her club, the coach splattered the lava elementals. But it was obvious that she was slowing down. Exhaustion was catching up to her.

“One of you brats juice me up,” she ordered. “Cast a holy spell on me.”

“Holy Lance,” Kageko Anmori said. A thin blade of light stabbed into the coach’s back and disappeared. Even from a distance, I could hear the sizzling of her flesh as holy magic met demon skin.

The look in her eyes turned wild. “Yeah, that’s the stuff.” She took off running toward Robolina. Her running form was flawless. Head up, shoulders relaxed, long strides. When stone spikes emerged from the ground, she didn’t miss a beat, jumping over them and even grabbing the last one and chucking it at Robolina like a javelin.

The flying spike forced the dragon to dodge back to the ground, where the coach grabbed her head with one hand.

“Purg--” The coach’s spell was cut off as the dragon slugged her in the stomach, causing the coach to double over and clutch her abdomen in pain. The dragon then picked Robolina’s pistol up off the ground. But before it could fire, the man grabbed Robolina’s arm.

“Lord Zagroth,” he pleaded, “please, allow me to be the vessel of your vengeance, not this golem. You promised I could share in your glory.”

“Get off me, fool.” The dragon backhanded the man, knocking him unconscious. At least, I hope that’s what happened. Robolina’s arm was essentially a metal pole. It could do a lot of damage.

Speaking of damage, the coach took advantage of the distraction and swung it at Robolina’s hand. The sound of metal hitting metal rang across the field. The strike of the blow sent the gun flying from Robolina’s hand, and I swear I saw one of her fingers sailing through the air alongside it.

The gun landed at my feet. I picked it up in time to see the dragon deliver an uppercut to the coach, knocking her out as well.

“Stay back.” My voice shook as much as my hand as I pointed the gun at the dragon. At Robolina.

“Listen to me carefully, Sei,” the dragon said. “If you shoot me, you’ll only be killing Robolina. My true body lies slumbering deep within a dungeon. But if you come willingly with me, allow me to extract Kaledrak’s soul, then I will spare this realm. I’ll even leave the kinslayer with her pathetic life.”

He was right. I had no way to win. At this point, it was a matter of what I stood to lose: Robolina, or the coach? The smart move was to go with him, so no one got hurt. But who knew what would happen to me afterward? If I was going to die, I might as well deny the dragon what he wanted.

I pressed the barrel of the gun to my temple.

“Release Robolina, or I’ll take Kaledrak with me.”

The dragon smiled. “Go ahead. I’ll collect his soul from your corpse.”

He was bluffing, but so was I. So we stood amidst the ash, staring at each other. It wasn’t going to work.

I had to shoot Robolina.

But I couldn’t do that either. I was about to surrender when I felt the gun disappear from my hand. It appeared in Robolina’s good hand a moment later. The dragon had summoned it.

In a last desperate move, I thrust my hand out to cast Fireball. I knew it had no chance, but I had to do something. Then I remembered the coach’s reaction to the holy spell, so I cast the pulsing orb instead.

Light enveloped the coach’s body. She awoke with a grunt, but before the dragon could shoot her, the coach delivered an uppercut to Robolina’s chin. I could hear the coach’s bones crack as she made contact with the metal. I saw the dragon’s aura separate from Robolina as the coach cast purge.

And then, to my horror, it started seeping back into her.

“Summon a blanket!” I shouted. “Cloth blocks the mana absorption.”

Robolina looked at me. Her eyes were once again blue, but they were filled with sadness. “It’s too late, Sei. My body has been corrupted. Besides, if I can’t use magic anymore, what’s the point?.”