A Space Oddity

by J. J. Pavlov

  The professors below me each cast an individual spell for either offense or defense, while the Svarteka father and son duo prepare something bigger. Maybe they want to bury me alive in a stone prison, which could be the only way to stop my movements decisively.

  I undo the wings and drop down toward them, then extend a tentacle to grab a ledge just in time to swing out of the way of a water jet fired from Eydis' wand. I learned that kind of movement from Asoko's display in the battle against the Golden Queen. Doing it once again, I swing back and extend an arm at Hrafn, whose spell I just dodged.

  But Ulfric jumps in the way while raising his cane, creating a shimmering barrier just like the one he used earlier. I'm not throwing a spirit spear at him, though; simple heat can't stop my physical attack. Covering my surface in dragon scales, my hand bursts through his flimsy defense and grabs him by the throat.

  In the same motion, I let go with my other arm and let my momentum take me straight at the old professor he tried to protect. With my powerful legs, I kick the latter's chest and push him to the ground before swinging the fire mage at Eydis, who almost finishes another incantation. She can't dodge in time, and the two humans crash together with an unhealthy cracking sound. Somebody broke something for sure there.

  "Try using your magic." I point at Bjorndal and Magni each, who have stopped their motions because Hrafn is under my foot, pinned by the tentacles spreading out from it. If they use earth magic, he will be caught in it, too.

  "Do it!" But the old mage speaks as if he doesn't care about his life, willing to sacrifice himself so that I can be defeated. "We cannot allow this creature to escape!"

  "Maiorem Guttam Terram!" Without hesitation, Magni stomps his foot in a forward step while bringing his fist down. The ground gives way and sinks almost two meters in an instant.

  "In Manibum Terram..." Meanwhile, Bjorndal has lowered his stance and bent his knees. Finally, he brings his hands together in front of him in a crushing motion. "... Aeternum Custodiam!"

  "Sorca Inversiga." I finish at the exact same time as he does. It's the spell Thorvald used to cancel two of mine in our last battle. Just as I did with Gravico Slosito, I can make it my own as long as I know the incantation and the effect. This spell doesn't even seem to require me to see the target.

  Just in case I still extend my leg and propel myself out of the sinkhole that the elder Svarteka created, but it seems that I was able to counter the younger one's spell. If all mages were capable of this, magic as a whole would be useless, so I assume only those with the space affinity can cast it.

  "Wha-?!" Both father and son earth mages stare in utter bafflement when their combined effort fizzles out. I leap up onto the edge of the hole while leaving behind Hrafn, and throw an arm around at Bjorndal, turning it into a spike aimed at his chest.

  But Magni pushes his son out of the way and takes it straight through the center of his own. He collapses on the spot, and the stunned Bjorndal stares at his father with his eyes wide open. Before I can do the same to him, a shower of icicles flies at me from the side. One pierces my head while another nails my arm to my torso. None of those can even harm me, and I pull them out while turning to Eydis.

  "Come at me!" She shrieks, her eyes filled with madness while she stands on wobbly feet with her left arm dangling down at an odd angle. It's sad to see her like this after I studied under her, but saving Senka and Asoko is more important to me than any of the lives of the professors here.

  "As you wish." I charge forward while she moves her lips as quickly as she can, but before her incantation is finished, I grow out a tentacle and grab her ankle with it. Jerking her around, I pull her across the ground and slam her face-first into the stone doorframe. Her body spasms as her skull is crushed from the impact.

  From inside the doorway, a burst of flames flies in my face and physically knocks me backward several meters. I quickly repair the superficial damage and look up to find that Astrid has emerged with a new group of professors. And among them is Ninlil, wielding an oversized hammer that no human could carry. I never thought that she would be a fighter.

  Please don't make me kill the catgirl.

  Suddenly, an explosion rocks the front of the academy building, as Hestia's massive spear of darkness impacts the entire area around the window to Thorvald's office. Debris rains down on the professors below, who are too slow to erect barriers. I see at least one get buried under a pile of stones, while two others are buffeted by rocks and collapse. The others somehow scramble out of the way and look up in surprise.

  I take that opportunity to rush forward while chanting my original fire explosion spell. What would be more fitting to defeat Astrid with than this one?

  "Grandor Mico Ignis Fortior!" It's the volatile one I accidentally came up with while trying to go bigger and flashier on my first day of fire magic class. After everything that I learned, it's still the best large-scale destruction spell to use in an open area.

  "Aerus Inanor!" Hrafn rises from the sinkhole I left him in by riding on a pillar of stone and points his staff right at the point where my spell was supposed to go off. I've seen this used against me before; it sucks the air out of an area and stifles all fire magic.

  "Mico Coruscaris!" Astrid raises her cane and swings it in an arc in front of her. I grow my left arm into a large shield and cover it in dragon scales, causing the heat to wash across me without much effect. Then, from behind cover, I shoot forward my right arm turned into a spike, which runs through Hrafn's abdomen, then turns into a hook and pulls him toward me.

  I can't hope to compete against them using magic alone; they're far more experienced and have the numerical advantage. Instead, I'll use my physical abilities, which carried me through the battles against Kiamedras and the Golden Queen, who both were more or less immune to regular spells.

  Even with a fellow professor in my grasp, the others don't get discouraged from chanting their spells. Hrafn has expressed that he's ready to lay down his life so that I can be killed here, and the others must feel the same way. As history professor Snorri implied before, humanity did everything in their power to prevent something like my grandmother from happening anywhere in their territories. Since they know I'm a Crawling Chaos, they'll do everything in their power to kill me.

  "Scatter!" I roar in their direction and grow out my real face. In our last battle, I didn't show it and created a mask in its place because I was considerate of Kamii. Hestia already saw me and lost her mind to a certain degree, but I couldn't know how the little dark elf would react. Daica is far behind me, and there's nobody else I could harm with this that I wouldn't want to.

  Instantly, several of the professors turn tail and run away, while others break down on the spot sobbing. Astrid stares at me wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open from terror. But Ninlil rushes forward without hesitation, moving in an arc while holding the massive hammer behind her to swing it at me horizontally. It's not a blind charge due to fear, but a calculated attack; she hasn't lost her mind after seeing me and doesn't even seem intimidated. Maybe she has seen many of my kind before, or it doesn't affect demons as much as it does humans.

  Swinging Hrafn like a club, I aim at the little cat girl. But she rolls across the ground to avoid it, then swings her weapon vertically to impact the earth before using the momentum to propel herself into the air along the handle. I raise my shield when she uses her body as a pivot to pull the hammer out of the ground and bring it down on me.

  Even dragon armor, which could withstand Asoko turned into a bone spike at maximum density, cracks under her strike. The force alone slams me down into the dirt.

  However, Ninlil isn't done yet, as she pivots one more time in midair and swings the hammer straight toward my head. Pulling my body away using the lifeless Hrafn still on my hook as an anchor, I narrowly avoid getting my face smashed into a pulp. I've survived worse, but it would have taken a moment to consolidate myself, and it might have given the professors time to gather their wits.

 
But it's already too late, as I hear the end of an incantation spoken by Astrid, and flames burst out all over my body. Stumbling back, I try to put them out with my hands, but they cling to me like napalm. There's no other way than to shed my surface, or the flames will keep burning me.

  Leaving behind an empty shell, I break out of my own back like a butterfly out of its cocoon. Taking that opening, Ninlil rushes at me again from one side, while Astrid has started chanting her next spell on the other. I extend one arm toward the cat girl, then spread it into countless individual tendrils that I harden into spikes with dragon armor. With my left, I do the same in the fire mage's direction, but with a pinpoint lance aimed at her chest.

  As expected, Ninlil swings her hammer around just in time to slap aside most of the spikes, but her momentum runs out as more come her way, and she falls back. Astrid, on the other hand, isn't as skilled in avoiding the physical attack and takes it through her left shoulder. However, she doesn't let the pain stop her from completing her incantation; a spark appears right in front of my chest when she finishes. Then an explosion rocks my vision, and I feel my body get ripped apart.

  I should have covered my whole body in dragon armor even if it slows my movements down considerably. Now I see the world spinning, as the lower half of my body remains standing while everything above it has been scattered across the area. But I still have enough mass to form conscious thoughts, so I quickly extend tendrils from my severed neck toward my legs. This way, I pull myself together while scattering more tendrils to gather up as many of my blobs from the vicinity as I can along the way.

  "Chloe!" Hestia screams as if worrying about my life. Then I realize that it was meant as a warning call. Ninlil appears in my field of vision, swinging her hammer with a furious expression, aimed right at my severed head. If that scatters me further, I might die.

  But before it reaches me, my tendrils reconnect with the largest part of my body. Without a moment to lose, I try to send my consciousness through that flimsy connection. In the next instant, I find myself seeing out of somewhere near my body's crotch area, as everything above it is still missing. Then I hear Ninlil's hammer splatter my severed head where my consciousness was just a split second ago. That was too close for comfort.

  Using the mass stored in my body, I reform a humanoid shape and reconnect my arm to the one still stuck in Astrid's shoulder. Just as I do, a wind blade cuts it off halfway between me and the fire mage, to prevent me from pulling her in as I did with Hrafn earlier.

  Ninlil has realized that I'm back in my main body, so she immediately switches her focus. However, she suddenly rolls sideways, just in time to avoid a black spirit spear through her back. She has incredible instincts and reflexes.

  It seems that the giant lance of darkness that destroyed the principal's office took care of the two up there, so Hestia has come to help me. She's out of reach for the professors but can continue to snipe them with black spirit spears, which makes her very hard to deal with. All they can do is shield themselves, which limits their offense against me.

  "Gravico Slosito!" Thorvald's deep voice suddenly thunders across the area. In the next moment, Hestia is caught by gravity and drops out of the sky at more than terminal velocity. I run across the grass, avoid Ninlil's hammer swing at my knees by diving over it, and roll across the ground before expanding my mass to the maximum to cushion the falling angel girl.

  She impacts the blob that I am, but I still feel one of her wings break from the force. My mind blanks out as I realize that she has been hurt, and I quickly pull myself back together into a human form. Placing her on the grass, I check on her condition.

  Her left wing is definitely broken, and she's in too much pain to chant a healing spell herself. But I don't know any for mending bones, so there's nothing I can do for her right now. Her glasses have disappeared as well, so she won't be able to help in the battle when she can't see too well at a distance - not that she could in her state anyway.

  "THORVALD!!!" I roar in rage. Running forward and away from Hestia, I transform into a full dragon. Unfortunately, I'm only about half the size of Kiamedras due to all the matter I lost since eating him - both in the battle against Aurelia and in this one.

  Whipping my tail-bludgeon around, I take Ninlil off her feet. She's flung across the grass and straight into the academy building before breaking through the wall with her hammer still gripped tightly. She will definitely be back.

  Spreading my wings, I beat them once and create a whirlwind around myself as I take off into the air. Thorvald is standing at the broken wall to his office and staring down at me in surprise, unable to tear away his gaze like a rat caught in a snake's glare.

  Then something slams into me from above, and powerful claws grab onto my armor, cracking it in the process. With both momentum and weight, it pushes me back down before smashing me into the academy wall a short distance away from my intended target. When I look up, I see that it's a dragon with a red body and a sturdy build.

  At my current size, we're nearly equal in height, but while my body is covered in scales, this one sports armor plates that make it look more massive and powerful. It's the first dragon I've seen in this world, though it isn't a full-fledged one.

  "Dregana!" With an angry growl, I turn my neck to bite hers, so she quickly lets go of me and beats her wings to take some distance. Stomping her forearms on the ground, which causes a tremor each, she roars at me while fire explodes from the gaps between her armor plates. I break free from the rubble and charge at her, but she meets me head-on.

  That's when I realize that her heavier build is much better suited for physical combat than Kiamedras' is. I wouldn't have this problem if I were at full size, though. The impact flings me backward, causing me to crash into the building behind me once again. However, she doesn't hold any regard for the venerable academy and rams me with all her strength. We break through the entire building, and I'm propelled out onto the grassy field, where she taught Hestia and me wind magic classes.

  She comes to a skidding stop, but my momentum causes me to roll across the ground one more time. Even now, I regret not having had any time to experiment with this body before coming here. If only I could use the plasma breath, all of this would have been over already.

  I get back on all fours and whip my tail around, aiming to hit Dregana in the head with the spiked bludgeon. However, she shies back and narrowly avoids it, even though she could have charged forward to get within my range. She has the advantage when it comes to physical attacks, so she should want to get into a melee.

  But she has given me time to think of a way to overcome her; I transform into a gigantic version of myself, covered in the heavy dragon armor. The tail bludgeon grows from my palm and becomes a mace appropriate for my size. It's time to go dragon-hunting.

  Just as I think this, Dregana's fire breath explodes into my face and robs me of my vision. I don't even feel it, as my body is still covered in the heat-resistant scales. I swing my arm around and disperse it through sheer wind pressure before charging forward and heaving my weapon over my shoulder to bring it down on the dragonkin's head.

  However, before I reach her, I stub my foot on something painfully and trip, slamming down into the ground face-first. When I look behind me, I find that Ninlil just crushed the toes on one foot with her hammer. She's bleeding from her head, and her clothes are partially ripped, but her focused expression tells me that there's still plenty of fight left in her.

  I can't face both a dragon and this little girl with super strength at the same time. When I'm big, the latter has the upper hand, and if I'm small, I'll get crushed by the former. But before I can think of a way to overcome this situation, Dregana already charges at me.

  In the last moment before impact, I shrink down to my regular human size and grab onto her wing. Transforming my arm into a dragon blade, I aim to cut off her limb, but Ninlil suddenly appears above me. She spins her body horizontally while swinging her hammer at my head like a pend
ulum. I harden the surface of my body with dragon armor to avoid getting decapitated from the force.

  Instead, I get flung off Dregana's wing and land in the middle of the field, where I quickly undo the hardening to get back on my feet. But nobody is pursuing me, as both the dragonkin and the catgirl watch me cautiously.

  Then the ground around me suddenly lights up with runes and symbols, forming a glowing circle with a diameter of several dozen meters. A shiver runs down my nonexistent spine as my jaw drops. Don't tell me this is a transportation circle!

  "Abisa Gravita Krispada." Thorvald's voice echoes across the field and speaks an incantation from the academy building. I lift my head to look where it's coming from, only to feel immense gravity force me down to the ground. All the bones in my body groan, so I quickly return to my true boneless appearance. Still, I can't even move and am flattened against the magic circle like a frog run over by a car.

  I spot Astrid coming through the hole in the academy, the hole in her shoulder healed by Madame Idunn, who's following closely behind her. Bjorndal comes after, tears rolling down his face twisted in rage, and Ulfric limps over as well while supporting himself with his cane. They each walk toward me while chanting something, and it appears that they're preparing big spells meant to finish me off.

  Ulfric seems to be done first, as he stands on one leg while raising his cane, causing dust and tiny pebbles to rise all around him and fly into an orb of fire, which melts them into slag.

  But just before he can unleash his spell on me, an icicle pierces his chest from across the field. He loses control over the orb, causing it to drop on his head and melt its way down into his body. He didn't even have time to scream.

  When I look in the direction the icicle came from, I can make out two people through the distorted space inside the magic circle. They come running over from the student dormitories, and the moment I see the translucent blue skin, I know who they are.