The Rock Golem, having burst from the earth, howled for a while at the mist-hung sky before finally turning its featureless head toward the two intruders tumbled into a heap on the ground, and fixing them with its gaze.
"Nnnh, nnnh, nnnh—"
Leilei had barely wrestled free of their tangled robes when she looked up to see the Rock Golem closing in, step by heavy step.
The sight sent her cat ears shooting up, her tail snapping ramrod-straight, her fur bristling wildly all over as a voiceless whimper squeezed out of her throat.
She hurriedly scooped her little blackboard up off the ground, clutched it tight to her chest, and let fly a rapid string of incantation-free beginner magic at the Rock Golem.
At Leilei's command, a barrage of fireballs, ice shards, and stones came crashing down on the golem's head.
Yet, faced with these ferocious spells, the Rock Golem didn't so much as dodge, didn't even bother swinging an arm; it simply took every attack head-on and kept advancing, step by step.
Leilei's assault hadn't left so much as a scratch on it.
Feeling the tremors underfoot grow stronger and stronger, Leilei's face crumpled toward tears, and, clutching her blackboard, she turned to look back at Ningning, who was still sprawled on the ground.
Sensing this little kitten's helpless gaze, only then did Ningning haul herself up off the ground, filthy and disheveled.
She wiped the mud and grass off her face and hair and saw the words written on Leilei's blackboard —
『Run, quick! My magic doesn't work on this Rock Golem!』
But Ningning immediately shook her head hard and told her:
"If we run, this Rock Golem will attack the city! We have to deal with it here! Try hitting its joints!"
Leilei froze at that, and licked her lips, expression complicated.
That was true; she was a member of the Hero's Party, an elite chosen from among all the adventurers of the world.
If even she ran, who else could stop this Rock Golem?
If it invaded the city and caused even greater destruction, even wounded or killed innocent people...
That responsibility, she had to shoulder it!
At the thought, Leilei gritted her teeth, turned back around to face the ever-nearing giant, and hugged her blackboard tight.
A surge of powerful mana gathered before Leilei into an exquisite spell-array, hovering in the air, then condensed into a dense, concentrated fireball.
Seeing the fireball take shape, Leilei immediately pointed.
The fireball turned at once into a shooting star, streaking toward the joint of the golem's leg.
But the Rock Golem, too, had sensed this unprecedented surge of powerful mana, and it swung an arm up before its body, trying to use its sturdiest limb in place of its fragile leg joint to block the incoming fireball.
Seeing the golem move to defend, Leilei made a snap decision, steering the fireball around the arm at an utterly wicked angle to strike the golem's leg joint dead-on.
The instant the fireball hit, a muffled roar burst from within the golem's joint.
Rock splinters flew, dust and smoke billowed, and the golem's thick right leg snapped clean off at the knee, the massive stone chunk crashing to the ground.
Watching the explosion, Ningning couldn't help but marvel inwardly: Leilei's strike looked nothing like the power a beginner-tier spell could produce.
If you spoke purely of raw talent, this kid was absurdly strong.
Of course, if you spoke purely of talent.
『It worked!』
Leilei hugged her blackboard, a flicker of hope just kindling in her heart, when she suddenly noticed the Rock Golem hadn't toppled the way she'd expected.
Having lost a leg, the golem's movements stalled for only an instant before it hunched down, bracing itself on its remaining leg and both arms.
Like an enraged beast of stone, it came charging at the two of them with an avalanche's momentum, every step making the earth quake.
Leilei's face changed color again in an instant.
To ready another fireball of the same power, she needed at least five seconds.
And by then, the Rock Golem would probably have already crashed right up in front of her.
What's more, even if a second fireball landed too, a golem with both arms remaining could still move on those arms alone.
"Eep!"
Leilei let out a shriek, seized the wrist of Ningning, who was still sitting dazed on the ground, hauled her up, and turned to run.
Dragged stumbling along, Ningning shouted at Leilei as she ran:
"Leilei! Just run out to some distance like this, then charge up an intermediate-tier spell and finish it in one shot!"
Leilei said nothing, only kept on running.
"Leilei, did you hear me?!"
"Leilei?!"
After Ningning repeated it several times, Leilei finally couldn't hold back any longer.
She flung Ningning's hand away, hugged her blackboard, and turned around, trembling all over, tears welling up out of her eyes without warning:
『I can't do it!』
She sobbed, the writing on her blackboard growing crooked and warped with the chaos of her heart:
『As long as there's someone beside me, I can't make a sound, I can't say the incantation, much less use intermediate magic that needs to be chanted!』
Leilei hugged her blackboard tight, tears brimming in her eyes, and reached out to grab Ningning's wrist, meaning to keep dragging her along in flight.
But somehow, her hand closed on empty air.
The cat-beastkin girl blinked in confusion, hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes, and lifted her gaze —
The Rock Golem, from which they'd opened up some distance, was still closing in.
And Ningning was standing right in front of her, watching the ever-nearer golem, both small fists clenched tight, as if she'd made up her mind about something.
"So all we need is for no one to be beside you, right?"
She said it to Leilei without even turning her head.
『Eh?』
Before Leilei could even grasp what she meant, Ningning took a single bounding stride and, without a shred of hesitation, charged straight at the Rock Golem:
"Hurry up and chant!"
『Ningning, are you insane?!』
Leilei made to chase after her, only to see Ningning twist to one side, nimbly dodging the golem's swinging arm, then skirt around its body and dash off in the opposite direction from Leilei—
"Bam!"
But the Rock Golem's reflexes were still too fast.
Its left arm swept sideways in a sudden, heavy blow, slamming squarely into Ningning's waist.
And so Leilei watched, helpless, as that dainty figure went flying up like a kite with its string cut, tracing an arc across the sky before dropping behind a grassy slope, her fate unknown.
"Ningning!!!"
Leilei's heart-rending scream finally tore free of her throat.
And it was in that very moment that the cat-beastkin girl suddenly realized she had, after so long, spoken aloud once again.
Because Ningning was gone.
There was no longer any "person" beside her at all.
The Rock Golem paid no mind to the White Mage it had knocked away, and once again locked its target onto Leilei, dragging its ruined body onward.
Leilei drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, the tears and terror in them had been replaced by resolve.
She let go of the blackboard she'd held clutched to her chest all this time, letting it fall to the ground, and brought both hands together before her.
Clear, flowing incantation words spilled from her lips:
"O fire-spirit wandering the void, heed my summons,"
"Gather now as flame, congeal into a lance,"
"Flame Lance — Charge!"
The temperature of the air shot up sharply, and before Leilei a crimson spell-array appeared, more intricate and dazzling than any before.
Flame gushed from the center of the array, spinning, condensing, until at last it became a lance of blazing fire near three meters long, its tip searing white, the air around it warping in the heat.
"Go!"
Leilei thrust a finger forward, and the flame lance became a streak of crimson light, blasting out with unstoppable force!
This time, the Rock Golem hadn't even a moment to block.
The flame lance struck the core gem at the center of its chest dead-on, pierced through, and detonated!
BOOM—!!!
Amid the deafening blast, the golem's massive body was utterly swallowed by fire, countless stone fragments crumbling and melting in the searing heat.
When the flames and smoke cleared, all that remained was a scorched, shallow crater and, scattered all around, cooling chunks of molten rock.
Leilei, however, had no time to spare on checking whether the golem was dead.
She didn't even remember to pick up the blackboard she'd dropped, hurrying instead, staggering, toward the place where Ningning had fallen.
That idiot!
The Ningning who usually all but died from a single slime bumping into her, how had she dared charge in to draw its aggro in her place?!
Ningning couldn't be dead, could she?!
"Ningning? Ningning!"
Calling out, Leilei crested the grassy slope and spotted that dainty figure at a glance.
The White Mage lay quietly in the grass at the foot of the slope, her breathing faint, her whole body looking limp and boneless.
At the sight of Ningning, Leilei's ears snapped up, and she rushed headlong down the slope, dropping to her knees at Ningning's side and gathering the unconscious girl into her arms.
Wake up, please, please don't be dead, hurry and open your eyes...
Leilei shook Ningning hard in her arms.
Suddenly, the White Mage coughed, her eyelids fluttered, and slowly opened.
"Nngh, so good... no wait, so painful..."
Grimacing, she felt at the side of her belly where she'd been struck, then looked up to see Leilei's tear-streaked face and forced out a smile.
"Is the Rock Golem destroyed?" Ningning asked in a low voice.
Leilei couldn't answer, only nodded through her sobs.
"Wonderful."
Ningning managed a slightly feeble smile, reached out, and wiped the tears from Leilei's face:
"You did it, Leilei. You saved me, and this whole city."
Leilei dried her tears and nodded hard, her cat ears giving a little twitch, her tail rising high.
Seeing the relieved smile that had unconsciously surfaced on Leilei's face, Ningning suddenly felt a pang of conscience —
The fact that she'd only been faking her faint just now... maybe she'd best never tell her that. Ever.
"Shall we head back?"
After resting a while, Ningning sat shakily up and said to Leilei.
Leilei nodded and, relaxing, flopped back onto the grass—
Then instantly jolted upright with a start, her fur bristling all over again.
Ningning gave a puzzled "hm?" and looked closely:
At some point, a soft, wobbly slime had appeared behind Leilei, a pair of cores inside its body like a pair of eyes, silently staring at the two of them.
"Huh? Isn't this the pretty rare double-core slime?"
Ningning gazed at the slime in surprise, and said:
"Leilei, don't be scared, don't be scared, it's just a slime."
"Nnnh, nnnh, nnnh, nnnnh—"
But Leilei took a single look at that slime and bristled all over yet again, cowering trembling behind Ningning, not daring to spare it another glance.
"...Huh? What's the matter with you?"
Ningning was baffled.
She looked the wobbling slime over a few more times, and suddenly realized those two cores looked exactly like a pair of eyes glaring at her.
...No way.
This mage's social anxiety could be triggered even by a slime that merely looked like it had a face?
How utterly surreal.