Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 18 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

JUST UP AHEAD

  Old Blue

The slicing came out of nowhere, and she dodged right to left to evade them, passing a magical girl in a mask to twist and break her neck. Without slowing down, Old Blue leaped over a broken steel girder and looked over to the wall on her left side. As the other parts of the building were made into wreckage and ruin, this one area alone maintained its shape as a wall. It was surrounding the courtyard, and there was magic cast on it. Destroying it would be difficult. The courtyard was beyond here.

Ratsumukana-honome-no-kami was on a rampage. There was also the report that a magical girl who looked like Frederica had entered. They had yet to conquer the courtyard. There wasn’t much good news.

Without looking toward the mercenary magical girls who were being cut to pieces by the Lightnings, Old Blue continued to run from the wall to the ceiling, and then to the floor, gradually slowing down, to come to a stop on a point by the wall that surrounded the courtyard.

She heard complaints from the Lightnings behind her, but she ignored them. Snow White didn’t interject with any questions. She was a companion who made things incredibly easy.

Old Blue’s eyes could capture the true nature of things. There was a route there that was invisible to the eye. She removed some rubble from the base of the wall to expose the floor. It was under here.

There was a magic sigil underground, from which a route extended. It was a system made of a strengthening device coated by a barrier. This made the whole courtyard a very convenient space for Halna and her subordinates.

Normally, someone aside from the caster trying to remove a barrier would require extremely complex removal spells and multiple casters. It would mean expending lots of time and effort, which was not something you would do in the middle of a battlefield.

But Old Blue was not a mage. She would use no such roundabout means to remove it. If she used her magic to see to the true nature of the barrier, she would easily be able to destroy it, just like striking a single acupuncture point to kill someone.

Stripping off the floor revealed that a complicated graphic was carved into it. This was the magic sigil. She reached out, then immediately drew her hand back. There was a magic obstacle in the way. But it was not invincible. With her penetrating eyes, she would read the route and pinpoint where to strike.

Old Blue took a step back and pointed at the floor.

“All units, attack this sigil—”

The Lightnings fired lightning bolts before she even finished her command.

  Halna Midi Meren

When she felt pain in the fingertip of her right hand, she immediately looked at it. Her magic sigil was emitting bluish-white sparks.

She looked outside. The students who were fighting with a group of Lightnings were being pushed back. They were slowing down, too. It looked like they were getting weaker.

Oh no…!

She swiftly checked and saw there was something wrong with the courtyard system. Halna pointed, ceasing the magic sigil’s functions. The students’ strengthened abilities would gradually return to normal. But if she were to foolishly continue operating now, then the energy she had sucked up from the ruins could well go out of control.

The discovery had been a coincidence.

One day, it had been growing all alone in the courtyard. A mysterious plant, like a root or like a shoot. She’d looked it up in every field guide, but it hadn’t been in any of them. Halna had not immediately reported it but had investigated it first.

She may have prioritized investigation over report because she’d had the feeling that this could be something. The plant had incredible energy in it. Halna had thought this plant was most likely connected to the ruins. It was carrying energy from the ruins aboveground, to Halna.

The amount of energy was incredible. There were any number of ways to make use of it. Halna canceled her reports. In order to hide the existence of the root, she had built in the courtyard a research facility that looked like a storage shed. Inside, she made use of the energy brought by the root, and she had researched the possibilities of homunculi.

It was the providence of heaven that Halna had found this root, and that she was the one in charge of managing this facility. Heaven was telling her to carry out a mission.

Regardless, she had to find what had caused this disaster. She could see no change in the Lightnings. No matter how excellent the casters, it should take three days to find the key parts and eliminate the defense mechanism of her system. Even just getting through the triple-layered pass system would take an incredible amount of time. And if you tried destroying it with rough methods, the mini-barrier would get in the way.

The courtyard system had not been completely lost. But it was damaged.

Malfunctions were always possible. Even if the skill of the caster would certainly reduce them, you couldn’t make them zero. Even if they happened at the very worst moment, that was no reason to give up.

What to do? What should she do? What did she have to do now? She considered.

She could not hand over the ruins and the artifact to the thieves. That was too great a power. Someone with true concern for the Magical Kingdom’s situation should use it. In other words, Halna. If she had a vast amount of power, then she could do even greater-scale fusions and bring happiness to magical girls and great benefit to the Magical Kingdom.

At the very least, she needed to revise her plan of not letting enemies into the courtyard. Trying to hold them back there would be unsustainable, no matter what.

  Snow White

The pained voices increased in number. The inner thoughts of the magical girls in the school were almost like screams. If she were to listen to every single one of them, then she would struggle to even move. Snow White had the skill to pick out which voices to listen to, but you still couldn’t call that easy.

“It seems…Frederica has acquired a…new power… One that she…didn’t used to have. She’s killed several of your subordinates,” said Snow White. She told Old Blue of all events that seemed particularly important and heard her voice in turn each time.

“Hmm.”

Old Blue’s inner voice was surprisingly calm. There were few waves. It was peaceful. Even when told of her student being in trouble, the Lightnings being killed, or Frederica’s unknown nature, her replies were composed, and that was not just a front, but from the heart. Snow White understood that she was not at all without emotion. She had feelings, and she controlled those feelings, was able to restrain them so that they did not affect her behavior.

Snow White learned of the situation through Old Blue’s thoughts. Old Blue had not taken action with full preparation. She had not managed to learn detailed information about the ruins and the relic that Frederica was after. But since Frederica had made her move, Old Blue had to do so as well, and so she’d just done the best with what she had. And neither had she managed to do a complete survey of what sort of defenses the master of this school, Halna, had laid out. The situation was one incomplete move on top of another.

But her inner voice was always peaceful. This may have been the first time that peacefulness had made Snow White afraid. Old Blue was also well aware that Snow White felt afraid of her as she ran by her side.

“And the courtyard… I just can’t pick up any voices there. But it seems like the battle isn’t over.”

“I see.”

It wasn’t only the voices—the sounds of physical destruction she heard from the courtyard hadn’t stopped, either.

Based on what Snow White said, Old Blue made some minor revisions to her strategy. She would eliminate the magical girls hard at work in the courtyard, or directly take a look at the ruins while they were busy fighting the Lightning group. Her plan would fork based on what she saw there.

One of her plans was the destruction of the ruins. Old Blue hypothesized that whoever carried that out would most likely not return alive.

While it was difficult to understand, Old Blue did love the Lightnings. She had a grasp on the characteristics and personalities of each and every one, loved these girls who worked for her sake, and even then was treating them as disposable. She would not let her feelings drag her down and misjudge what she had to do.

The courtyard entrance was drawing near. Snow White tried to call out to her to take care, but her voice was drowned out. She tried to yell as loud as she could, but her yell would not carry here. As lightning and magic flew back and forth, the courtyard was filled with earsplitting sounds and the thick, visceral scent of blood. There were so many fallen girls, there was no place to step. Even just what she saw at a glance made her feel overwhelmed. If Hell existed, then surely it would look like this.

Passing through the gates that were at the entrance, they went into the courtyard.

Old Blue was striding forward without any hesitation at all. Snow White walked three steps behind her. Over the burnt and shattered curb, through the now-pitiful trees with their leaves scattered around, she practically slipped their way along, on the way, striking at one or two of the masked magical girls who were fighting with the Lightnings. With a clap, clap, like good friends striking their hands in a high five, she hit one on the chin and one on the throat, and the magical girls crumpled without a sound. Seeing magical girls fighting even farther ahead, she came to a stop.

Snow White had only ever seen her from her chat avatar and photos in her textbook, but she could tell from her appearance who it was. The Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, was there. Slipping through the Lightnings’ bolts, with a sound strike she blew them all away, dug up earth and all.

Unfazed by the sight of Cranberry, Old Blue moved forward, and then suddenly, Diko Narakunoin appeared behind her. She had teleported with her magic.

Old Blue didn’t even look at Diko. When Diko thrust out with a spear-hand, she captured it, threw her casually, then kicked her. Right before the kick connected, Diko vanished once more, and then as if taking her place, Cranberry moved forward.

Old Blue’s mind was calm. From the voice that reached Snow White, she could hear the memories of Cranberry having mercilessly killed one who she loved. Hearing that, Snow White’s heart trembled. But despite that, even with the Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, who she hated more than anything, before her, she didn’t even waver. That was not only because with her magic she saw the true nature of the enemy before her. Old Blue was strong. No matter what happened, she would not become upset in a fight.

Diko cried out. “After her! She’s the enemy leader!”

Diko appeared behind Old Blue once more, while Cranberry ahead of her kicked at the same time. Old Blue grabbed Diko’s arm, backed up, and evaded. Master and student became entangled, and the two figures disappeared, with the group of Lightnings swarming over them. One of the Lightnings, worrying about whether she should save Old Blue or support her friends, came to a stop, got struck right in the face with some mysterious green fluid, shrieked, and was flung backward.

Snow White thrust out her weapon to support Old Blue and was blocked.

When she saw her opponent, her breath caught.

She heard confused cries coming from the Lightnings around her. The homunculus that had blocked Snow White’s weapon and was gradually pushing her back was just like Snow White herself, except dyed all black.

  Pshuke Prains

As a freelance magical girl, Pshuke Prains did not like to fight with allies. The adhesive, lubricant, gasoline, and volatile anesthetics that she created with her magic—just about every fluid that she could use in combat was bound to harm her allies as well. It really limited how she could conduct herself in combat, compared to when she fought on her own.

And being blamed for the obvious decision to prioritize her own life over those of her allies was also stressful. This was something other freelancers understood to a greater or lesser extent, but when working together with local magical girls who worked without pay or salaried magical girls who were affiliated with departments, they would often complain about the way Pshuke did things.

This was very much not something that Pshuke was looking for. She was a lone wolf mercenary; she faced her work prepared not to complain even if she was abandoned, but when those who weren’t prepared for that were abandoned, they would attack her with resentful complaints. Or sometimes they would say what sounded commendable, like, “There’s nothing to be done,” but their voices would tremble, and their eyes would blame her.

When she had been ordered into that ridiculous job of attending the magical-girl class and being a student, while she had waffled about it, she had been unable to resist the charms of moving up in her career and a sizable reward, and so she had given in, figuring if there was no danger to her life, then why not? Fighting shoulder to shoulder with some student magical girls, the symbol of lack of responsibility, was never something she’d wanted to do.

But once she’d actually tried, things were different. Under the principal’s instruction, all of them had gotten together to fight back against the attackers, the group of Princess Lightnings. Mephis and Tetty worked together, Diko came forward to strike the enemy, Kumi-Kumi and Lillian immediately set up traps, and Pshuke committed to support from the rear. The magic enhancement was gradually fading from her body, and they were no longer able to block the Lightnings at the entrance, but none of them had lost any morale. Pshuke had been pretty heavily wounded before coming here, but that had already been completely healed by the principal’s magic. She was grateful.

Her allies had resistance to magic. Their bodies, remade by the principal, would not be vulnerable to any mediocre poisons or drugs. She had no problems making use of all types of drugs that she normally couldn’t use out of concern for hurting her allies—in fact, she could even use toxic substances that she didn’t bring out because they were dangerous to herself.

But still, fighting an enemy in a loud and direct way was not Pshuke. Since they were up against Princess Lightnings, she showered them over the heads with magic insulating oil, spraying it on her allies as well, making the whole area smeared in oil.

There was one magical girl she didn’t know—she’d only seen her face in the textbook—but since she was fighting on their side, she had to be an ally. Her physical strength and sound magic were exceptional, and it was really nice to have a strong ally they could count on. Pshuke covered her particularly heavily in oil.

“After her! She’s the enemy leader!”

A blue magical girl caught Diko’s arm and vanished into the group of Lightnings. Pshuke narrowed her eyes. Now was the time to put her life on the line. She focused herself even harder.

It was impossible to live purely on instinct. But a freelance magical girl had to have good instincts in order to survive. That was definitely the leader of the enemies, the big boss. And she was incredibly strong.

Pshuke didn’t like to fight strong opponents. She thought that it was better to fight enemies you were sure to beat rather than those you couldn’t, or might not. Up until this moment, she would have just put her hands together for Diko and her recklessness to pray for her happiness in the next world, and that was it.

But that day, Pshuke was different. While spraying lubricant around, she ran at high speed, bounding off a wall to the opposite side, taking an attack from an enemy and then changing direction again, right, left, ignoring the damage to her body as she slid all over the place. Filling the area around with lubricant, she interfered with the Lightnings’ movements and got them aiming in the wrong directions.

The Snow White–type homunculus was attacking harder. She was way stronger than the real thing. The Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, joined Diko on the front lines. The Lightnings were focused in that area. They were in a fine confusion.

Pshuke had taken more than a little damage. Her flesh was cut, blood spilling, her swimsuit torn, but even then, she wasn’t stupid enough to slow down. While sliding around the spot where Diko had vanished, she fixed her aim. She would sink the whole area in poison and kill that blue magical girl. If all that was left was Lightnings, then they’d win.

They all had to work together for this, or they couldn’t expect to win. It was just like in Cutie Healer, which Sally had forced her to watch. You got stronger when you had friends. One plus one could be a hundred, or a thousand.

Right before she fired her water gun filled with magic botulinum toxin, her vision spun and flipped around, and her eyes met those of the blue magical girl. This magical girl was staring emotionlessly at Pshuke.

What happened to Diko? What’s happening to me?

Pshuke couldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t complain, either. Instead, she spat blood. Her neck was broken. Her consciousness was fading. Cutie Healer wouldn’t give up in a situation like this, she thought. She then laughed at herself: I’ve been poisoned real bad.

  0 Lulu

She really couldn’t help but get the feeling that she’d been left out of the loop. As the Lightnings were fighting all over the place, they got something like orders from the headsets they wore, resulting in displeased expressions and snorting.

Lulu had been supplied with nothing so fancy as a receiver.

Still with no idea just what was going on right now, she had no choice but to fumble her way along. Of course she didn’t want to run into either the masked magical girls or the students of the magical-girl class, but neither did she feel like encountering the Lightnings. If she met up with Snow White and gave her Ripple’s name, she could apparently read minds, so she should be able to figure things out, the fact that Lulu wasn’t lying included. The problem was just how she could pinpoint Snow White in the middle of this hell. The safest thing would be to dig into the ground under the floor and stay there in her basic trench, but thinking about Ripple’s concerns for Snow White, she couldn’t not do anything. Ripple wanted to help Snow White more than anyone here, and she’d headed off to the Caspar Faction estate in order to take down Frederica, leaving Lulu to handle things at the school, saying she was counting on her. If Lulu abandoned that now, she could no longer call herself a magical girl.

She just had to keep going. Grabbing a brownish-red sphere with a diameter of a fraction of an inch, she pulled it out and prayed as she cast her magic. This was the biggest bead of all the stones that Lulu carried, her goldstone.

God, please.

That it was big meant, in other words, that it was cheap, but it wasn’t as if price decided how strong the magic was. Even if it was a man-made stone composed of mixed copper and glass, the effect to be gained grew larger in proportion to its size.

The effect should be larger… Should be.

Just in case, she decided to take out a second and third.

The meaning of this stone was a chance encounter. What she was looking for now was a good encounter.

She wanted to head for someplace quiet. But that was no good. She doubted that Snow White would go someplace quiet. But if she went someplace where the fighting was raging, Lulu would be in trouble. As a Lazuline candidate, she had learned some combat skills, but she was just a little less than mediocre, and on top of that, her magic was not suited to combat. She had to get to a good position somehow—difficult to target, where it was easy to get a grasp on the overall situation—after thinking that far, she shook her head. If there had been such a spot, there was no way her master wouldn’t already have her eye on it.

Should she make meeting up with Snow White her secondary goal and start off with meeting her master first? Whether she could win her over or not aside, she could get the Lightnings to explain things to her and understand more about the situation—after thinking that far, Lulu nixed that idea.

She was off the mark. If Old Blue hadn’t told Lulu, that meant there had been no need to do so. She shouldn’t be clinging to her master like a god. If she were foolish enough to do that, at best she would be shaken off, or she would just be used and then discarded, or sacrificed.

She could hear sounds from all over the place. The Lazuline candidates all had sharp senses. Based on what she heard, she headed in the direction that was best for her.

The sound of lightning falling. Not that way. The sound of swords clanging. That wasn’t good, either. Different combat sounds. It sounded one-sided. Hard metal was being struck repeatedly. The smothered voice of a girl resisting pain. She was resisting pain and hurt. The words “bullying the weak” rose in Lulu’s mind.

Lulu muttered, “Damn it,” under her breath. She probably shouldn’t go that way. If she was considering what was best, she shouldn’t go. So then she should ignore it. Normally. Now was different. She was wandering about in search of connections.

Looking down at the goldstone in her palm, she clasped it tight. She prayed that this was guidance.

“Hold it!”

Prepared to take an attack, she stepped into the classroom. Five Lightnings pointed their swords at her and turned around all at once. Their expressions were not dangerous. They were confused. This, she could handle.

Lulu swiftly checked the classroom. Five Lightnings, signs of destruction, burn marks, and fire flickering on the windowsill. A metallic, crumbling human shape—she couldn’t really tell if it was standing or sitting—was in front of a cracked blackboard that was broken right in the middle, and it made creaking sounds as it wobbled around.

“Who are you?” one of the Lightnings muttered—a very reasonable question.

Fully confident that she had every right to be there, Lulu pointed to herself with her thumb.

“You don’t know 0 Lulu, the one they call the best of the Lazuline candidates? Do you live under a rock?”

The Lightnings exchanged looks. They reacted to the term “Lazuline.” It was not a hostile reaction. While they were confused, they lowered their swords.

While Lulu was privately relieved, she didn’t show it on her face and continued. “I wonder what Master would think if she heard that all five of you got together to bully someone so weak.”

“What? She’s not weak. You can kick her or hit her with lightning, and she still won’t go down.”

“She got in the way and let her allies escape.”

Lulu pulled a bean paste bun out of her pocket, and five sets of eyes gathered on it. When she held it out, one of them took it and tore open the wrapping. The remaining Lightnings also reached out their hands, and it was gone in the blink of an eye.

“No more?”

“That was the last one,” Lulu replied. “More importantly, you should hurry to the courtyard. There’s not enough people there.”

“Yeah, we got a message earlier.” One of the Lightnings put her hand to her headset. “It said not to attack the class 2-F students.”

“Then do as you were told. Why are you fighting?”

“We thought it’d be weird to let her go now.”

“Just get out of here already. I’ll take care of her somehow.”

While giving their whispered reviews on the bean paste bun, the Lightnings raced off. Lulu blew out a deep breath and let her shoulders drop. Her magic was not suited for battle, and neither was her heart, and if she had any inherited talent from her parents, then it was probably that of a fraudster. She felt like lately, she’d been doing nothing but tricking people with a glib tongue.

She was quite exhausted, but that didn’t mean she could rest. She turned to the metal humanoid who was standing in front of the hole.

“You’re…um…Miss Ril?”

She remembered every single one of the students of the magical-girl class. As for why it took her time for the name to come up, that was because the current twisted humanoid figure rather didn’t match the beautiful statue that Lulu knew.

“Who…are you…?” Miss Ril’s body audibly creaked as she turned to face Lulu.

“Are you okay?” Lulu asked her.

“Why…is the class being attacked? What’s going on with all these Lightnings? Are you with them?”

Unsure of how to describe herself, figuring that this was the best way to gain her trust, Lulu decided on, “I’m a mutual friend of Snow White’s.”

“Snow White’s?”

“Yeah, I want to save her. Do you know where she’s gone?”

Hearing some footsteps coming from the entrance to the classroom, Lulu turned around. Three Lightnings stood with their toes on about the exact line of the entrance, swords pointed at her.

“I’m a Lazuline candidate!” Lulu cried. “If you want to help our master, go to the courtyard!”

They ran off. She let out a breath in relief, then turned back to Miss Ril. “Can you run? Actually, can you even walk?”

“Running at magical-girl speed…would be difficult.”

“Looks like we should get you some treatment…or, um, repairs? Hold on a sec.”

If she used her magic stones, she should be able to help a little bit. With that thought, she tried to take one from her stones bag, but perhaps due to her ongoing tension, her fingertips were stiff. She dropped the goldstone she had been carrying; it clunked on the floor and rolled away. The floor and walls had been completely destroyed in the classroom, and if it fell into some hole, then that would mean the end of it, but fortunately, it stopped when it rolled up at Miss Ril’s feet.

Miss Ril creaked as she picked it up, and Lulu started to say thank you, then swallowed. Miss Ril’s whole body shone a brownish red with lamé in it, and under the narrow beam of light coming in from a hole in the ceiling, she shone dully.

  Halna Midi Meren

The courtyard system was falling apart. And because of that, the balance of the battle was also about to fall apart. Princess Lightning had originally been one of the best fighters of the students. Without magic support, up against superior numbers of Lightnings, the students couldn’t keep blocking them forever.

Normally, they would be overwhelmed by numbers and it would be over. But Halna wasn’t going to let it be over. From the storage hut, she could command things.

For starters, even if it looked like a storage shed, it was a sturdy magic fortress. So long as Halna stayed inside, there was no danger to her person. And secondly, even Halna herself couldn’t open the entrance to the ruins. Only a few people in the highest positions of the three factions would know the pass spell. The thieves wouldn’t know that. They shouldn’t be able to touch the ruins.

She lowered the defensive line. It was dangerous to invite the thieves in, but it would make it easier to protect. Halna would support them from the storage shed, and the students would fight inside the courtyard. She would send the Snow White–type homunculus, which was strong even without enhancement, to the front—with Cranberry as the subvanguard, Diko and Pshuke doing hit-and-run, Mephis and Tetty as support—and have Kumi-Kumi and Lillian make a provisional base. It would just be provisional—it just had to be a spot that the enemy would spend a little time capturing. While the enemy was spending their time on that, Halna would attack from the storage shed, and then she’d have them in a pincer attack.

Halna held her hand over the “root” at her side. Even with a cover over it, she still felt its heat.

She would no longer use the system. She would suck up energy directly from this to cast her spells. That meant that the students would no longer be automatically enhanced, but it would increase the force of Halna’s attacks. As for the rest, it would just be about how long they could hold out.

She didn’t see any more masked magical girls. It seemed that the Lightning group had pushed them back, but she couldn’t see from here what was going on outside. During the incident when the homunculi had gone out of control, she had been able to get a perfect grasp on the situation from the observation platform, but having been attacked so suddenly now, it was difficult to get a good position.

She had prepared some bases so that she could fuse them at any time, but unlike the specially made Snow White, the other bases needed someone to be put inside them, or they wouldn’t be very strong. And she had already gathered all the magical girls she had fused—in other words, she couldn’t increase her forces any further. Holing up in your fort in a situation where you couldn’t expect support was not good.

Rather than counting on reinforcements that wouldn’t come, it was better to look to the Osk Faction, on the outside. But there was no way that the thieves had not worked out some plot, and most likely they had set up a barrier or something. Being on the inside, she couldn’t even know how much time it would take to break that.

And there was clearly more than one force of robbers, which posed a massive problem. It would be nice if the two forces would conveniently clash with each other, but nothing about this had been convenient to Halna thus far, and she couldn’t expect that to happen in the future, either.

The Cranberry homunculus went out of sight. She couldn’t see Diko or Pshuke, either. The Snow White base was still moving around.

  Drill Dory

Dory had escaped with Calkoro, then escaped with Miss Ril, and the last to remain was Arlie, of all people. Dory didn’t think much of Arlie and showed it plainly in her attitude, too. But the other students must have been pretty dense, as they’d become so eager to try to make the two of them get along. That exasperated Dory; as far as she was concerned, they were wasting their time.

But now that she and Arlie were alone together, Arlie was the only person Dory could count on. Relying on a clumsy, stupid older model who could take a few hits was like something out of a bad comedy routine—although for Dory, it was closer to a bloodcurdling horror.

But she still had to fight. She wasn’t going to die here.

Dory backed up, shielding herself with Arlie to block the Lightnings’ attacks. She then opened up a hole in the wall of the school building, still using Arlie as a shield as she entered the passage. The Lightnings weren’t stupid; they wouldn’t come surging through the hole. They would wait things out briefly before hurrying off to open a new hole into the classroom next door.

Arlie wailed: You’re just going to keep running away?

Dory wailed back: What else are we supposed to do?

Arlie foolishly mentioned that they’d been ordered to go to the courtyard. Dory snorted, countering that they would’ve been dead a long time ago if they always obeyed such orders.

Arlie pointed out that the other students might be heading that way.

Dory told her that the enemy would also be heading to the courtyard since they’d heard that announcement, too.

Dory would have liked to compliment herself for being so noble, dealing with Arlie while also drilling holes, but nobody was going to praise her. Instead, that idiot Arlie was criticizing her and insisting that she would go to the courtyard alone.

Dory mulled things over. She would be in danger without Arlie as her meat shield. Arlie was the only one who could withstand the Lightnings’ attacks. Those daggers and longswords would probably kill Dory, but Arlie’s sturdy armor could keep her safe.

Nonetheless, going to the courtyard would be charging right into the lions’ den, and Dory would wind up dead.

Dory made a decision: She would trick Arlie.

She drilled a hole into the floor and made a tunnel. When she looked up, she saw a flash of lightning. Dory scowled and yelled at Arlie to come with her; they should go underground to the courtyard.

Arlie tumbled into the hole, kicking up dirt when she landed. Dory used her drill to stab the Lightnings that pursued them. As blood and lightning rained down, Dory frantically escaped into the tunnel.

She dug even deeper. Down, to the side, she dug onward. Arlie fought back against the Lightnings on their tail, and her damaged armor oozed back into its original shape like some slimy creature. Dory kept digging, occasionally turning around to attack the Lightnings.

A narrow passage was the best option since Dory and Arlie were outnumbered. That was easy enough to figure out. Even though Dory had told Arlie that they were going to the courtyard, she had absolutely no intention of doing that. She just pretended like they were headed there while she went in a completely different direction. Digging a meandering tunnel would easily mess with stupid Arlie’s sense of direction.

Dory and Arlie were able to escape the immediate crisis—they avoided death. Dory was relieved, but she and Arlie were still under attack. Dory repelled an enemy strike, using Arlie as a shield. But when she realized that she was relieved for both herself and Arlie, she shrieked—Dory should have been happy solely for herself.