Mistress Of The Evil Forest

Case 40: Joint practical class – The heavenly strike.

''Saintess, please stay here and protect Claire, it's aiming at her!''

Luxia nods at Chloe while still chanting, her pink hair flutters in the wind of her own magic.

''Haap—!''

Chloe shoots herself forward, dragging the blazing claymore behind her with momentum before slashing a wide horizontal at the minions. 

[KIEK—!]

Immediately, her blade cuts through dozens of monsters, splitting them into halves, and the sparks of fire shooting out engulf the ones behind them. Burning their bony bodies to a crisp.

''Tch.''

But those are barely a fraction of the army. 

Chloe quickly raises her claymore above her head before slamming down as hard as she can. With an audible blowing noise, her claymore travels through the air at nearly the speed of sound. The moment it touches the ground, intense fire explodes in all directions, creating a circular zone of inferno, burning everything except Chloe herself.

''—Tornado!''

Just in time, Luxia finishes her spells. 

Three giant wind tornados manifest themselves right near Chloe's inferno zone, quickly catching the fire to become fire-tornados before moving away to suck in the monsters.

As Chloe temporarily retreats, Claire and her party members are just staring at the scene in silence.

'A-Amazing...' 

Claire had intended to help as much as possible, but she is sure now that she will only be a nuisance if she tries to intervene. They seem to be doing well anyway, the monsters are being properly taken of—is what the girl is thinking, but the reality is quite different.

''How long can you hold, Saintess?'' Chloe, who had successfully retreated, asks.

''...A minute.'' Luxia replies with a frown, her hand outstretched.

''That's quite...''

The tornado spells do need quite a number of MP to maintain, and after using two AoE attacks, Chloe doesn't have a lot of MP left. Plus...

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''Wait, that's...!'' Someone exclaims, pointing at the swirling dark spells vaguely visible through the fire hell.

That's right, Balnok is not playing either, it has been casting multiple spells since earlier, with the only goal of eliminating Claire, and if lucky, the whole group altogether.

''Run— Ah?!''

A female member attempts to run away but is swiftly caught by Luxia.

''Don't. Create a protective barrier instead. I recognize those spells, they are homing bullets.'' Luxia looks at Chloe, to which the latter eagerly nods.

This is the reason why Chloe retreated earlier instead of keeping on slashing. She goes in front of the group and stabs her sword into the ground resolutely.

''Protect me, flame barrier!''

A reddish and transparent barrier envelops the group, just in time as hundreds of dark bullets fly toward them.

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

''Heavy...!''

Chloe grits her teeth. Her barrier can withstand individual dark bullets, but against such a rainy attack, she is forced to pour more and more MP into her barrier to repair the damage that each bullet chips away.

It doesn't help that these mobs, although having a status screen each, don't give anyone any experience when defeated. How unfair!

But she has to persevere. Professor Claudia should soon be present, and if she can stall until the right moment, Aurora can easily take care of this demon.

''Tch...!''

Luxia runs out of MP, she stares ahead with a heavy frown, trying her best to find a solution to this. The fire tornados disappear entirely, enabling the minions to once again flock to the group.

''—Wind cutter!''

''—Earthquake!''

The mages of her party by this point have decided to help by shooting their magic at the mobs, but they are not quite effective.

''—Light beam!''

Claire squeezes out her remaining MP and shoots a beam with [Fixed Hit] applied at Balnok.

[ARGH—!!]

Which successfully scrapes off around 20 of its HP. 

In the game, the player would have to run around and wait until reinforcements come, and by delivering a powerful strike to the boss within its moment of weakness created by Claudia, they will be able to barely kill it. Unfortunately, that is not the case here.

''I'm about to run out of MP...!'' Chloe says, tightening her hands holding the sword. 

The dark bullet rain is still going, and the minions are approaching closely. Right when the group is about to lose hope—

VROOM—!!

A giant metal wall spurts out from the ground, completely blocking both the dark spells and the mobs. 

'This is...!'

High earth magic, there is only one person capable of this in this field.

''Your Highness!''

From the side, Sierra walks closer to the group calmly while chanting multiple fire spells. After briefly checking the group, she jumps up the wall and begins to blast the fire magic at the demons below. Sierra herself has a barrier to block the dark spells, and although it combined with what she has cast is quickly causing her MP bar to drop rapidly, she knows she is not alone.

''Hiya—!''

From another side, Scarlett jumps right into the sea of monsters with a lone spear and a wild smile.

''Ha—!''

Aaron jumps onto the metal wall and starts cutting the dark bullets coming toward Sierra with his sharp swordsmanship, allowing Sierra to go full offense.

''Hup—!''

The mysterious transfer student—Ryuji, who has just arrived with Aaron, joins Scarlett below, punching and kicking away his opponents.

''Phew...'' Chloe sighs in relief, but they can't hold the demons back forever.

VROOM—!!

[KIEEK—!?]

Just as she thinks that, a giant flaming phoenix slams itself straight at Balnok, causing a devastating explosion and successfully making it stop blasting dark magic.

''Students! Fall back!''

Claudia's powerful voice spread out. She, together with around twenty more fighters, throws themselves into the pit of chaos, ready to take on anything for their students.

''Aunt...!'' Scarlett calls out.

''Retreat! We will take care of this place!'' Claudia quickly passes through the mobs and jumps at Balnok.

From behind the professor, hundreds of blazing swords form and follow her every move. They rain on the demon's huge body at the same time as Claudia strikes her sword. In response, Balnok hastily constructs a dark barrier to block.

[Annoying!!]

Balnok is enraged. This has gone far too long for its liking. 

[These insects—!!!!]

The demon lets out an ear-piercing shriek, almost stunning everybody, especially Claudia—the closest to it. It then swiftly slaps the red-haired professor away before opening its jaw wide. Intense mana begins to swirl inside its mouth, fueled by dark mana coming from the wooden crosses and the mobs below.

It's Balnok's final spell—[Sinner's Relief].

''Tch!''

Claudia judges that only she can stop this—the lives of all students here depend on her. So she slaps her own cheek and rises to her feet. She wills her everything into her flame sword, causing it to shine a bright red, at the same time as her hair and eyes begin to turn a neon orange.

Right when Claudia is about to jump at the demon again, she, and everyone else, notice something in the sky. A spark of light appears in the sea of ugly purples.

'She's here...!'

Chloe rejoices.

Right above Balnok, a giant 'spear' is rapidly plunging toward its head, ripping through the thin clouds and the purple aura itself. The scene can only be described as a demon about to be punished by a divine strike from heaven—a heavenly strike.