novelzi Chapter 204
Chapter 204
Escape
Finally, my magic power ran out.
But we can’t let the organization members know. We have to buy as much time as possible! I need to tell Licht and Ronny. When I signaled with my eyes, they both silently nodded slightly. Alright, good.
We briefly discussed a plan so they wouldn’t notice. If the time comes, we just have to carry out our roles properly. My heart’s pounding, it feels like it’s about to burst out of my chest. I want to take a deep breath, but I feel like even that would make them suspicious. I might be overthinking it, but still.
Hmm, I always calm down when I do it during training...
“Haa... Hey, you brats, give up and come over here already.”
Gordon came over with an annoyed look. This is it.
I can do it now, I thought, taking a deep breath in and slowly exhaling.
『 This is something I always do when I’m nervous. Deep breathing. 』@@@@
『 Deep breathing? 』
『 Yeah. When you think it’s dangerous, that’s when you need to stay calm. If you panic and do something strange, it’ll only make things worse, right? 』
That conversation replayed in my head. Gordon had arrived in front of me.
『 Now then, here’s a question. Once you’ve calmed down with deep breathing, what do you think about? The dangerous situation hasn’t changed. So what do you do? 』
『 Run away? 』
Okay. I won’t do anything I can’t do. I’m only thinking about escaping.
『 The basic premise is to not get into dangerous situations, so it’s only natural to think about running away. 』
Gordon raised his saber. We all took stances, ready to move immediately.
『 Anyway, run away while shouting loudly. If you suddenly shout, even the other person will be startled for a moment. 』
Gordon swung down, and his saber plunged deeply into the ground, right in front of me. He must have been off guard, because it’d been repelled so many times. He was aiming for a different spot. But this was also as expected.
We immediately stood up, having dodged the first attack, and readied ourselves. I then threw the wooden sword I had in my storage bracelet to Ronny.
Sometime ago, Juma-kun had brought back some kind of wood as a souvenir from an expedition, and Dad, thinking it would be funny, made it into a wooden sword. And he just dumped it on me, saying he didn’t need it. I had no choice but to store it... but no one would have imagined it would be useful here!
Licht, running down the now clear passage, said that as if exasperated.
“I can’t use magic anymore, but the size doesn’t matter. Because I have stored magic power and deferred payment!”
“Stored and deferred payment... you can even do that?”
It seems like Licht doesn’t know about nature magic either. Well, I’ll explain later. I just said that, and then we ran towards the stairs.
After a while, we heard Ronny’s voice calling out. We stopped to wait for him. But it seems like he’s telling us to run.
“Yeah, Ronny’s being chased too.”
“Will he be able to catch up... !?”
“Alright, leave this to me!”
I started running with Ronny again, the moment he caught up. Licht stopped for a moment and started gathering magic power.
“Water!”
When Licht shouted, water appeared from the tips of his fingers, then surged like a river, washing away the pursuers. I didn’t know you could use magic like that! Licht’s amazing.
“I think this will buy us some time... but there are probably enemies at the top of the stairs too, so don’t let your guard down!”
That’s right, in the end, this is just to buy us time. We can’t use magic that would kill people. Even more so in our weakened state. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to escape once we get up the stairs, and even if we do, it’s questionable whether we’ll even know where we are!
I’m hoping we’ll be able to meet up with whoever Shou-chan called, but...
I was breathing heavily. The constant tension and fatigue from running out of magic power so many times. My breath didn’t get this ragged so quickly during training, but it’s incredibly hard right now.
But the fact that I can sprint with all my might on this uneven path without stumbling is the result of all my hard work. It was a short time, but seeing that it’s paying off, I’m really grateful.
“...Ravi.”
Licht suddenly stopped running, muttering the name of the person I was just thinking about. Ronny and I stopped too. A few meters ahead, in front of the stairs.
“...Are you running away?”
Ravi-san, our life-saver, was standing in our way.