Kirekouk's wind magic struck Ede Sine head-on.
I hadn't expected it to actually hit, so I was surprised, but when the dust kicked up by the magical impact cleared, I finally understood why Ede Sine hadn't bothered to dodge the attack.
Unscathed.
For Ede Sine, Kirekouk's magic wasn't even worth dodging.
However, we had bought some time.
Because Kirekouk had fired off magic first, the slow-moving Rock Turtle had been able to reach the front line.
The Rock Turtle, whose specialty was its high defense.
We would use that Rock Turtle as a shield while the other three launched their attacks.
Kirekouk's wind magic rained down from above while Suiten's water breath burst forth.
Feberute swooped in right after both attacks landed.
Feberute, excelling in speed and physical attack power, flew straight at Ede Sine.
A spear of earth lanced through Feberute.
A massive earth spear had erupted from the ground without warning, and Feberute was impaled before it could even react.
Right after that, Kirekouk—who had been flying overhead—crashed to the ground.
The force was tremendous, as if something had slammed it down.
Kirekouk hit the ground hard, letting out a sickening sound as it embedded itself into the earth.
What on earth was happening?
Kirekouk was then crushed by something invisible.
Meanwhile, Suiten kept firing its water breath.
But Ede Sine paid it absolutely no mind.
It slowly turned toward Suiten and launched a wind magic attack.
Not just earth—wind too!?
In my stunned field of vision, I could see Suiten being blown away by the wind magic, defeated in turn.
The only one left was the Rock Turtle.
But the Rock Turtle wasn't moving.
It couldn't move.
Sensing something was off, I used Appraisal on the Rock Turtle, and found that it had somehow fallen into a Paralysis status abnormality.
Moreover, all of its Status values were plummeting rapidly.
Its HP too.
In a span of time so short you could barely call it an instant, the sturdy Rock Turtle became a husk.
The summoned creatures who had faced countless hardships alongside us were being slaughtered one-sidedly.
And yet, what gripped me in that moment was neither sorrow nor rage.
It was fear.
I felt pathetic, and I was sorry to the summoned creatures who had died.
I knew that much, but the terror surging up from the depths of my body was something I simply could not fight.
I wanted to flee this place as quickly as possible.
But as the one leading the unit, I couldn't run away before my subordinates.
The subordinates were already beginning their retreat, using the precious few seconds the summoned creatures had bought by sacrificing themselves.
But it was too slow.
Ronant, who had been on the verge of losing his composure, had been punched back to his senses, and was preparing to evacuate the entire unit with large-scale teleportation magic.
Even so, it would still take more time for the entire unit to fall back within range of the teleportation.
The gap was only a few seconds.
In those few seconds, the nightmare unfolded.
Earth and wind magic flew everywhere.
They looked like they were being fired at random, but each one claimed a soldier's life.
Some soldiers dropped suddenly.
It was the same mysterious attack that had taken out the Rock Turtle.
The kind of attack that could end even a high-HP Rock Turtle in virtually an instant.
The soldiers couldn't endure even a single second, falling one after another.
Magic was flying toward Ronant, who was preparing the teleportation.
I steeled myself to burn through all my MP and summoned more monsters to act as bodyguards for Ronant.
Magic was fired again and again.
Each time, I summoned more creatures.
I drank a recovery potion to restore my MP.
Summoning while drinking.
My MP gradually recovered.
But the recovery rate couldn't keep up with the consumption.
Magic comes, summon, magic comes, summon.
As I repeated that cycle, I finally exhausted every last summoned creature I had.
And still the magic didn't stop.
If anything, there were clearly more projectiles flying at us than before.
Wondering why, I looked around, and realized that the only ones still alive here were Ronant and me.
"Ronant!"
"There's no other way. We're going back, even if it's just the two of us."
Ronant was about to activate the teleportation magic when Ede Sine closed in right in front of him.
"Ronant!"
"Guah!?"
A dark spear was launched.
It carried a terrifying amount of magic power, making the earlier earth and wind magic look like child's play.
Its target was Ronant.
Ronant had been focused on constructing the teleportation spell and couldn't dodge.
I had used up all my summoned creatures and had nothing left to use as a shield.
In that split second, I used my own body to intercept the dark spear.
My body burst apart.
The dark spear pierced through me and continued toward Ronant behind me.
Ronant's right arm and part of his flank were blown off.
My intervention had shifted its trajectory just slightly.
Ronant activated the teleportation with a pained expression.
My vision warped.
I instinctively closed my eyes, and when I opened them, we were no longer inside the labyrinth.
"Huh?"
The person in front of us froze in shock.
"Someone who can use recovery magic!"
Ronant said through gritted teeth to the people in the room.
Was this the Empire's magic research institute?
Immediately, the area erupted into commotion.
"Hold on a little longer."
Ronant cast a healing spell on me.
"Nearly half your upper body is gone, and yet here you are, still alive."
"I—"
I tried to say something, but what came out of my mouth was blood.
"I owe you a punch in return, you know. So don't go dying on me yet, got it?"
My body was gradually healing.
My HP had climbed out of the danger zone.
Someone who could use recovery magic rushed over to treat Ronant too—he had been neglecting his own injuries to heal me first.
I let out a breath of relief and went limp.
We had suffered enormous losses, but we had survived.