Side: Luke.

This is not looking good.

　Me and Luna are now surrounded by a group of demons called Mahonomes. Mahonomes are rhinoceros-like demons that walk on four legs and have horns on their heads.

　Their other characteristic is that their magic is difficult to use. They have such a high magic resistance that they can only deal damage with advanced magic, and these demons are usually dealt with by swordsmen and knights.

　They were B-ranked demons, and were originally supposed to be almost nonexistent in this steel forest. For some reason, such guys came across them moving in packs, and when I noticed them, I was surrounded by them.

　By the way, the Mahonome is not that difficult to defeat if you are a swordsman, so it's a B-rank, but if you encounter them with only wizards present, the danger level jumps up to an A-rank.

　However, as the grandson of a wise man, he is not an enemy to me.

　If it's one-on-one...

　There are ten mahonomes in front of us.
　I'm in a bit of a pinch.

　If I use Ultima Thunder (ultimate magic), I can take them all down at once, but I want to avoid that if possible, since it will also cause a lot of damage to the forest.

　That said, I'm not dexterous enough and don't have enough magic power to be able to fire a series of high-level magic with a narrowed range to defeat them one by one.

　Can't I get Luna to cast an auxiliary magic and defeat them with intermediate magic?

　That's what I was thinking about.

'Ruh, Luke, do you want to fight?　Or do you want to run away?

　I think I've made Luna worry about her.

'Don't worry, we can probably win. Then, in the name of the wise man's grandson, Luna-chan will definitely be protected. But just in case, get the flute you got from your teacher for me.

Yes, yes, I understand!

　I have to show Luna my best side.
　When I was thinking about that...


''──?''

　I sensed an enormous magical power approaching, giving me goosebumps.

''Hey, something is coming!
Yeah ... that could be pretty bad.

　Something (...) with more magical power than Tina-sensei is coming towards this place. Since the wave of magic power is not Tina-sensei's, it doesn't seem that she came to help me.

　If that something was an enemy, there was no guarantee that I would win even if I fought with all my might. I thought about taking out one of the Mahonome's swarms and trying to escape, but that something was getting here even faster than that.


　It appeared suddenly.

　A knight whose entire body is formed of fire.

　The flaming knight looked around for a bit at me, Luna and the crowd of mahonomes surrounding us, and then he held a spear in his hand...


"...!

　Something hot passed by us at super speed.

　When we turned around, one of the mahonomes that surrounded us was roaring and burning. A spear of flame pierced its outer skin, which was supposed to have a very high magic resistance, with ease.

　''Oh no, this guy is too strong!

　He had to find an opening and run away.
　But there was no gap at all for the flame knight.

　I couldn't even follow the spear as it passed by with my eyes. If that attack was aimed at us, a chill ran down my spine when I thought of it.

　─ No, now that I've thrown that spear, isn't this the time to take a chance?

　As I was thinking about this, the Mahonomes, angry at their companion being defeated, ignored us and attacked the Flame Knight all at once.

　The Flame Knight had a new spear in his hand.

　A mahonome that was about to pierce the flame knight with its horn was pierced by a new spear and set ablaze.

　Another Mahonome rose up on its hind legs and tried to crush it with its front legs, but the Knight of Fire caught it with one hand.

　The Mahonome's body begins to burn from where the Knight of Fire received it. The flaming knight threw the mahonome at the other mahonome.

　The mahonome, which weighs several tons, flies to its companions at high speed while burning.


　The thrown mahonome hit the companion and exploded.

　Several of the struck mahonomes died instantly, and even those that didn't die instantly were hit by a part of the burning body of the exploded mahonome, from which flames spread to their bodies.

　The mahonomes wrapped in flames rolled on the ground, but the flames showed no signs of going out.

　And those mahonomes soon stopped moving as well.

　The living mahonomes were later reduced to one piece.

　The one who realized that he couldn't win against the flame knight turned his back on the flame knight and ran away - towards us.

''Not good!''

　There wasn't enough time to chant enough magic to defeat the Mahonome coming at us. Quickly holding Luna-chan in my arms, I stretched a defensive magic in front of us.

　However, the hastily put up magical defensive wall was broken through by the Mahonome's horns in an instant.

　They hurriedly raised their defenses to the limit with body strengthening magic and prepared for damage.

　Can you withstand it!


　No matter how long I waited, the impact did not come.
　Instead, there was a dull sound and something fell to the ground.

　I turned around fearfully and saw that the mahonome that was coming towards us had been pierced from the side by the flaming knight and had died out.

　The one who defeated that mahonome was a different (...) flame knight than the one we had been fighting earlier.

　Right now, there are two flame knights in front of me and Luna-chan.

　It's over........there's no way we can win.

''Luna-chan, I'll manage to stall for time, so why don't you run away?''

　Even if I don't win, I'll manage to let my classmates get away with it.

'But,'

　Luna is trying to use the flute that Dr. Tina gave him.

　It's useless.

　It's no use, this flaming knight in one piece has more magic than Sensei Tina.

　And now there are two of them.

　There's no longer any forces in the Glendale Kingdom that can oppose it. It's possible that someone other than Harut is the only one who can?

　That guy's potential is so vast that it's hard to see the bottom of it.


　Hmm?

　Come to think of it, this flame knight, it's kind of like Hurt's magic wave.......


What?

　The flame knight turned his back on me and Luna and ran off into the forest.

''Ta, did you get saved?''
Yeah, I guess so.
It's good to see you.

　Luna flopped down and sat down. I'm sorry for making her feel scared while I was with her.

　But still, that flame knight's magic power is Hurt's──.

No way.

　The magical power of the disaster-grade demon seems to be the same as my friend's.