I carefully observe the battle overhead, waiting for an opportunity to help.

“Lucas! He’s coming your way!” Silas yelled.

“Tch, ‘Boost!’”

The beast’s swipe was carefully guarded as Lucas used a combat art to enhance his strength, yet he was still blown back several meters and crashed into a tree.

“Agh! I’m okay, though my leg is slightly injured.”

“Damn it. Over here you overgrown beast, ‘Rending Slash!’”

Silas’ sword glowed red as he made his assault. It cut cleanly through the beast’s side, blood gushing out from the wound.

“RAAAAWRRGH”

That blow was clearly heavily felt by the beast.

“Teacher! What was that?!”

“That is yet another combat art. Unlike the ones you’ve seen from Abel and Alphonse, which are passive ability boosts for a certain duration, that is an attack combat art, which can greatly increase the effectiveness of a warrior’s strike.”

“Wow, cool!”

“Hmph, this much is nothing though. If it was me, a single spell would have ended the battle already.”

I ignore teacher’s pouting as I focus on the continued conflict.

“Albert! Backup Silas! Spencer, Richard, continue drawing its attention with feints! Lucas, once you’ve recovered, get back in formation!”

The Marquess issues instructions as he replaces Lucas’s position in the formation, once in a while stepping in to block a blow from the beast.

“Be more vigilant! Just because you have protection doesn’t mean it can’t kill you!”

“Yes sir!”

The battle continued in this fashion for several minutes, as the beast is slowly whittled down from all sides by the knight’s tight formation. The conclusion seems to be drawing near, or so I thought.

“Boost! ‘Aura Slash!’”

A wave of mana flew out from Albert’s sword and cleanly sliced the beast’s shoulder as it wailed in pain, but nevertheless remained steadfast.

“Fuck, this stupid bear won’t die!” Yelled Albert with ragged breath.

“Don’t lose focus now, we’ve almost got it,” Richard replied.

“Hm? What’s it doing?”

With Spencer’s inquiry, the beast suddenly dropped down on all fours and stared at Lucas. Then, it suddenly glowed a dark sinister purple aura.

“RAWRRGHHHHHHHHHHH”

Spikes came shooting out of the ground swiftly darting towards Lucas’ position.

“What? Magic?!” The Marquess gasped.

“Fuck! LUCAS!” Silas yelled.

Lucas tried to leap out of the way but stopped halfway, clutching his right thigh.

“Ngh!”

“?! N-negative wall!” I hastily yell.

A transparent purple wall appeared in the assault path of the spikes, conjured by my spell, however, it did nothing to stop the beast’s Shadow Spike as it swiftly tore through it like paper. Just as all hope seems lost, suddenly a second wall appeared in front of Lucas’ position and thoroughly blocked the attack.

I looked up and saw that teacher had activated her spell as well, with a serious look on her face.

“‘Acceleration!’” The Marquess yelled as he leapt to Lucas’ location, ceasing the momentary opening.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I think I pulled my leg trying to react to the spell. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take it from here. Silas! Take Lucas and back away!”

“Yes sir!”

Silas quickly moved to Lucas, placing his arm over his shoulder, and leaped backward.

“Now that it’s come to this… Albert, Richard, Spencer! Create an opening west! We’re going to lure it into Sir Abel’s ambush!”

“Sir!”

The men carefully maneuvered, continuing their hit and run tactics while creating a large opening in the formation to the west. The beast soon saw an opportunity and darted away. As it fled, the knights all fell down from exhaustion.

“Teacher! It’s moving!”

“I see it.”

Teacher blew out a puff of black smoke and then it slithered away to papa’s location. One of her signature spells, Shadow Whisper.

We continued to shadow the beast’s movement as it ran towards papa. Papa lied hidden behind a tree as the beast frantically ran, leaving a trail of blood from its battle wounds in tow. As soon as it approached papa’s location, he made his move.

“?! RAWR-”

Papa’s body glowed yellow the instant the beast entered his attack range, and with a leap, the beast’s head was taken clean off. Its flailing body fell lifeless with a thud, marking the end of the battle.

“Wow, papa is so cool!”

“Well, I expected nothing less from my knight.”

“Ehehe! Yeah!”

“Now, let us rejoin the others.”

“Okay!”

Teacher and I flew back to the Marquess’ position, where he is now administering first aid to his students with the help of Richard.

“Owowowow, too tight!” Albert complained.

“This is what you get for not paying attention.” Richard coldly replied.

“Hmm, okay Lucas, your leg wasn’t fractured. A few days rest and you should be good to go.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Alright, anyone else need medical attention? Hm? Ah! Your grace, young Selene, and Sir Abel as well!”

The Marquess greeted us as we landed, papa also joined us after he had confirmed the kill.

“Papa! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, the beast was quite injured already and didn’t notice my presence at all until it was too late.” He answered with a soft smile.

“Whew.”

Then, I walked over to the knights, seeing their wounds.

“Are you guys okay?” I worriedly asked.

“Hohoho! Thank you for your concern, young Selene, but this is nothing. We will be fine. A couple of days of rest and they’ll be back on their feet.”

I sigh with relief, clutching my chest. The battle was intense and I felt bad for not being able to help with my spell at all. Then, teacher suddenly patted my head.

“You did your best, don’t be ashamed. The Shadow Spike from the beast was quite strong.”

“Y-yes teacher.” I say, still somewhat dejectedly.

“Hoho, keep your chin up, Selene. Failure is the mother of success. Do not forget what you’ve learned today and next time, you will surely succeed.” The Marquess warmly said.

I nod, slightly cheering up after hearing the Marquess’ words.

“Still, to think that a demonic beast could use magic… Duchess, have you ever heard of such a thing?” The Marquess inquired with a serious tone.

“Nay. Even in all the times I’ve encountered these creatures, not once have I seen one capable of using magic…” Teacher says with a pondering look on her face.

“Hm. What should we do with this information?”

“...I will take the beast with me on my trip to the capital, I have a few acquaintances there that might help us learn more.”

“I see...Then I leave it in your capable hands, my lady.”

Teacher nods in response, still staring off into space. She seems like she has something serious on her mind, but I hold back my urge to ask.

“Well, with this we have completed our task. Let’s not dally in these woods any longer. Anyone who can walk, help the injured! Come, let us return home!”

Papa moved to help one of the injured knights, while I walk with teacher back to the demonic beast’s corpse.

Even dead, its sticky nauseating aura doesn’t cease. The ground around the body slowly seeps with its blood, turning a toxic purple color.

“Teacher…” I say as I grab her hand.

“Don’t worry, it’s dead. However, as you can see, the ground has become blighted by its blood. This is the true terror of demonic beasts.”

“Can you fix it?”

She shakes her head.

“Only a light mage can cleanse demonic blight. I will set up a weak barrier here to keep living creatures away until someone else comes and deal with it.”

(Demonic beasts, just what are they? Teacher seems to be worried about something since the start. I’ve never seen her seriously ponder over anything other than magic till now.)

While I was engrossed in my thoughts, teacher pat my head.

“Teacher will handle everything, you don’t need to worry. You must be tired by now right? Let’s return back for now.”

“Okay.”

“‘Dimensional Box’ ‘Void Cocoon’”

With her two spells, the body of the beast disappeared and a faint circular barrier appeared around the blighted ground. Then, something came to my mind.

“Teacher, won’t this spell dissolve after you get too far away?”

“Normally yes, but I’ve enhanced it to be self-sustaining for at least a week, more than enough time to deal with it.”

“Enhance it? How?”

(I never knew you could do something like that.)

“Fufu, I was going to hold off on teaching you this till you become a full-fledged 5th tier magician, but there’s no harm in giving you a head start. As you know, all spells come from runes, there exists a special type of runic formation that can be overlayed on top of base runes to amplify its effects, we call these ‘Overrunes.’”

“Overrunes? Coool, what can it do?” I say with a sparkle in my eye.

“Take a look at this.”

Teacher draws a rune in the air with her fingertips using mana.

“That’s the rune for Shadow Spikes! But, it looks a little different?”

“Fufu, actually, this is the base rune for Shadow Spike. The spell I’ve taught you have actually already been overlayed with an Overrune. Look.”

Teacher then draws the rune for Shadow Spike again, but this time it’s the one I’m familiar with.

“See these four outer markings, those are the Overrunes.”

I examine the differences, I can clearly see that the Shadow Spike I’m familiar with has four small markings on the outer edge of the rune, linking together to make a square inlaid into the rune.

“So this is an Overrune.”

“Indeed, Overrunes can be used to enhance a spell’s duration, effective distance, power, area of effect, and so much more. The Overrune I use for Shadow Spike affects casting location, allowing it to be used at the opponent’s location, rather than having to travel to them slowly from yours.”

“Wow, I never knew.”

“I taught you the enhanced Shadow Spike in preparation to teach you about Overrunes someday, but it is still too early for you. Overrunes are dangerous, it is essentially an advanced form of Overlay Magic, something you will soon learn about at the academy. Mages who improperly use Overlay Magic suffer a backlash, which can be fatal mid-combat.”

“I see, so that’s why it took me so long to learn Shadow Spike.”

I pondered as I remembered my training. Whenever I would fail, I felt significantly more tired than when I used other spells, so the learning process was much slower.

“Alright, that’s enough for today. Shall we head home?” Teacher claps, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Yes!”

Teacher and I join the others waiting for us by the stream, and together we head back to the mansion.

***

“Welcome back, Mistress, Selene.”

Mary greets us as we arrive at the gate of the mansion, Sylvae stood next to her bowing at us.

“Mary!”

I jump at Mary and hug her, it’s been a long day.

“My my, is this anyway a lady should act?” She says as she gently strokes my hair.

“Ehehe~”

“Haa.” She sighs, before looking over towards teacher. They both give each other a nod.

“Well, I’ll let you off for today.” She says while fixing her glasses.

Seizing the opportunity, I say,

“Maary. Carry me?” I say with my face buried in her uniform.

“Just what am I going to do with you.”

I feel her lifting me up.

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

A soft smile blooms on her face, finally relieving me off all my stress, and subsequently all the fatigue I’ve built up until now finally hit me, and I fell into a deep slumber in her arms.