The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

“…Ugh… Damn it, the Icarodite is totally burned out!! We’re going down!!”

It would have been fortunate if only the engine had exploded, but it seemed the Icarodite, which kept the ship afloat, was out of commission.

The hull of the Titanic, which had been soaring through the sky like magic, began to shake and gradually sink.

Is it really going to crash?

I’m fine.

I’m sure I won’t die even if I fall from this height.

But what about the others?

Nina? The ship’s cook? Will they survive?

“C’mon… Everybody gather on deck!!”

Just as I was about to rush outside, Perda shouted.

“Albion, you help too!”

“Hah… I’ve only done that once…”

Seems like there’s actually some safety mechanism set up in case we fall.

“Uh… Is the ship crashing…?”

“Yeah, you dumbass!!”

I shoved Gemma, who was in shock, and ran around searching for passengers.

Thanks to the effort Casey and I put in, even the cook was able to gather everyone quickly on deck.

“What the heck is happening all of a sudden!!”

“Do you at least have an artifact prepared for a crash?!”

“Well, we don’t have that, but we do have a safe landing method.”

Perda sowed seeds and activated plant generation magic, causing various thick branches to grow and envelop everyone on the deck in a spherical shape.

The outer layer was made up of the thickest branches, while the inside was filled with thinner ones.

It looked like a structure designed to absorb the impact of falling.

It was a very convincing structure, but it still seemed a bit lacking.

Albion used water elemental magic to fill the gaps with clean water.

“Quick, pump out the sap!”

“I’m doing it now!”

A very strong odor of greenery spread through the air.

Sticky sap began oozing out from the thick branches and the middle layers.

Then, Albion circulated the water that filled the gaps and mixed it with the sticky sap.

“Keep it like that! Let it boil up..!!”

As the mixture of sticky sap and water maintained its form as a buffer, Edgar shoved a Flamberge into it, emitting intense heat.

The vision swordsmanship of Lemnos, which can quickly convert aura into thermal energy, solidified the sticky liquid in an instant.

With all the water evaporated and the sap hardened, a shock absorber resembling a porous sponge was completed.

Thick wooden branches formed the structure, while the hardened sap absorbed the shock scientifically.

All of this happened in less than two minutes.

“Lucia, we have to reduce the impact when we crash. Should we give it a shot?”

“…I think I know what you mean.”

Seeing that, I grabbed Lucia’s arm.

Lucia nodded, realizing what we could do in this situation.

“What are you planning??”

“I’m going to reduce the impact of the fall using an expanded field of aura.”

“Then I’ll owe you big time!!”

The greatsword, while generating an invisible field around it, was originally a technique used to capture opponents even from dozens of meters away.

That was enough to handle the ten or so people around us.

As the airship descended slowly, it picked up speed as it approached the ground.

“It’s falling…!!!”

-Kugugugugung!!!

———————————

In the end, the Titanic was destroyed.

Is it even accurate to say it sank in this case?

The beautiful hull was buried in the dirt, smashed by the impact, leaving only half intact.

Near the wreckage of the broken hull, a huge wooden pod rolled around, half-destroyed, and it looked severely dented.

It was the escape pod the passengers had collectively made.

With the multi-layered shock-absorbing material combined with the greatsword’s field, the people inside barely felt the impact of the fall.

“How am I supposed to explain this to my father…?”

“Just explain it as is. I’ll be a witness for you.”

“Thanks…”

Edgar consoled the dejected Perda, telling her it was alright.

Despite Perda claiming she could waste a ship at any time, that didn’t seem to help her mood when she met with such a helpless crash.

Then, Gemma’s sharp voice resounded from within the escape pod.

“Ha! In the end, it’s just a human-made object. How pathetic that it broke down so easily. It was only shiny on the outside.”

That comment seemed a bit harsh to everyone.

Especially those who had seen why the engine burned were left wanting to say something, but Perda, having thought that the relationship with the Dragon Lord was more valuable than the airship itself, just laughed it off.

“Haha, true enough. But you’ll still have to pay for this.”

Even as Perda laughed it off, not everyone felt the same way.

“Hey.”

Atlas shot a hard stare at Gemma, his expression rigid.

“Are you seriously gonna say that after almost getting everyone here killed?”

Everyone held their breath at Atlas’s words.

This is serious.

They all thought something they’d anticipated for a while was finally happening.

It sounded like he was barely holding himself back from exploding.

But Gemma, unfazed, replied rudely as if it were none of her business.

“Isn’t it good that everyone survived?”

“That’s the result of our efforts, not something you get to claim credit for!”

Atlas seemed angry at that answer, and in an instant, an aura of intense killing intent spread around us.

“Ugh…”

Shaara’s complexion turned pale at that sight.

She trembled like a willow and gasped for breath as if in panic.

As if he didn’t even register her condition, Atlas intensified the aura directed at Gemma.

“Apologize to everyone here. If you cause an accident, at least show some intention to make amends.”

Everyone understood why Shaara was acting the way she was.

She couldn’t breathe properly.

Atlas’s face was obscured by his own shadow, cast by the setting sun, but that hardly mattered compared to the tremendous killing intent he exuded that made it impossible to look him in the eye.

They couldn’t see what expression he wore, but one fact was certain.

This was dangerous.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Why should I apologize?”

Was it stubbornness or confidence? Gemma Aurum faced Atlas’s rage head-on.

She responded with the attitude of, “So what if I did?”

At that, Atlas lowered his head for a moment before making a ‘decision’.

“I see now. You’re simply a beast.”

That was a kind of judgment.

“There’s an education suitable for a beast.”

A feeling of danger washed over everyone.

“Atlas, don’t!!”

“St.. Stop him!!!”

Everyone scrambled to stop Atlas, fearing that an accident would surely happen.

But it was already too late.

Atlas grabbed Gemma and vanished.

“…This is bad.”

————————————-

Trouble struck.

This was truly bad.

“AAAHHH!!! What am I going to do now!!!”

Perda, usually so carefree, was unusually clutching her head in panic.

It was amazing that someone had vanished right before our eyes, but that didn’t matter now.

The real issue was that Atlas, who seemed ready to kill someone, had disappeared with Gemma.

“He wouldn’t… kill her… would he…?”

Shaara, still pale, voiced her concern.

Perhaps because of the aura Atlas had released, she was still trembling.

“If he just moved quickly, could he still be nearby? Is there any way to stop him?”

As Perda spoke, River and Amy found themselves at a loss for words.

The way Atlas had just disappeared indicated he used his powers as a Master.

Having used that power, Atlas could literally move anywhere.

He could have easily gone to the edge of the continent using the same principle as warping space between realms.

The fact that he vanished right in front of everyone signified he wanted to show something he didn’t want to be seen.

River suddenly remembered Atlas just after the semester began.

The day Edgar and he clashed, Atlas had been enraged when Edgar struck River, promptly severing about twenty legs of his opponents.

He would not tolerate any harm coming to those near him.

While it seemed impossible, the way he appeared just now was too frightening to dismiss as impossible.

“So what now? Are we sleeping outside? Or is there a village nearby? We need to find somewhere quickly before night falls.”

While everyone was flustered, Casey, who had been wearing a bored expression, spoke up.

“Finding Atlas should take priority right now.”

“Are you really worried about the leader of those who attacked the airship? Do you think a runaway could handle the Dragon Lord? She’s probably looking for a hole to escape through.”

Perda chuckled bitterly at Casey’s remark.

“She’ll manage just fine. You guys are too late to find your uncle anyway. After doing that, she’s probably livin’ it up; it serves her right.”

Casey began rummaging through the wreckage of the broken airship.

“What are you doing? You planning to sleep on the ground? There’s nothing we can do here anyway.”

—————————————

“Ugh?! Wh-where am I?!”

“The southern wilderness. If you go a bit further, you’ll reach the beastmen’s plains. Not many people inhabit this barren land.”

Gemma realized she had undergone a change.

“My… circle?!”

“It was fast, but I’ve returned it to normal.”

Gemma’s previously paralyzed circles began moving as they ought to.

The Dragon Heart pulsated, unleashing its original power.

[You freed me? I was caught off guard last time, but… not this time. Prepare yourself, human!!!]

She had returned to her original form.

In a radiance of golden light, like that of a Gold Dragon.

“Yeah, that’s how you should be coming out.”

The humans were too busy trembling in fear at the radiant appearance to notice, but Atlas was instead smiling.

“I was pretty unsatisfied with my options while polymorphed into a human, since there weren’t many targets to hit.”

In that moment, Gemma witnessed a light from Atlas’s sword that she had never seen before.

It was like the light of the sun rising over the horizon at dawn.

An intense light so blinding that she could hardly gaze straight at it seemed to crash down onto the ground.

“Even if you beg while crying, it’s too late now.”