Gapari.

The dragon, its head pierced by countless swords, opened its mouth while facing downward.

If it breathed its breath attack straight down, it would spread in all directions. There was no time to escape. The quick-witted had already distanced themselves, but nearly half remained frozen in hesitation. Some fools were still attacking.

“Run behind the pillars—!!”

Void discarded his iron slab sword and, without hesitation, grabbed the collars of a nameless male and female student who stood there paralyzed, dragging them along. Having already witnessed the breath attack once, Oujin immediately seized Riona by the sleeve and pulled her away from the dragon.

Ilga, who also knew the terror of that breath, pushed those beside him forward as he ran. Seeing this, Bernald instantly threw away his broken spear, scooped up Letis and several other Team Two members in his arms, and bolted.

But it wasn’t enough.

Not everyone could be saved.

If I were Blythe, I would sever the dragon’s neck, directing its breath to minimize casualties. Or, in that instant, I could strike its jaw from below, forcing it to breathe upward.

But with Eremi’s body… Not even Void or Bernald could pull that off.

“Eremia!?”

“El-tan! Hurry!”

Give up. Evacuate. We have to retreat.

There’s no saving them anymore. I know that. I have to abandon them. I need to accept it.

And yet… why won’t my legs move?

Void’s furious voice rang out.

“Eremia, you bastard!”

It was then.

Someone dashed past me, running against the tide of evacuating students, heading straight for the dragon.

Too thin for a knight, no taller than Oujin. Even now, when nearly everyone in Team One had switched to more practical weapons, this unremarkable boy still had a rapier—meant for noble swordplay—hanging from his waist.

But I knew what he was capable of.

“Fix!?”

Fix Ougus.

The sole magician in Team One. Even amidst our fierce battle with the homunculus, he had never once let his magic waver, keeping Ilga alive with his spells.

Before I knew it, I was chasing after him.

“Do you have a plan!?”

“I-I might be able to do something about the breath attack—maybe.”

The dragon continued to swell, as if it would burst at any moment. Not just the fire sac in its throat—its entire body had bloated, round like a ball, yet it kept inflating. Was it trying to self-destruct?

The heat was unbearable, as if we were already being scorched by flames. I could feel it in my skin—this was nothing like the breath we had endured earlier. This would be far worse.

Fix collided with a slow-moving student who had only just begun to flee from the dragon. He staggered, losing his balance, about to topple backward.

“Ah…!”

I caught Fix under his arms, supporting him back to his feet.

“Ah, th-thank—”

“You can do it, right!?”

“P-Probably.”

Probably.

A flimsy word to stake our lives on. But at this point…

The blade of Fix’s rapier was inscribed with what seemed to be ancient script. It was a school-issued weapon, yet he had apparently carved the markings himself.

Lili’s going to scold him for that.

The dragon stopped inflating.

It’s coming—!

“Here it comes! What do we do to stop it!?”

“We can’t stop it. That’s why—”

Before Fix could finish, the dragon unleashed its breath at its own feet.

—Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!

In an instant, the heat surged as though we had been thrown into a furnace.

The flames radiated outward from the dragon’s center in a circular spread, swallowing the ground beneath our feet. They surged toward the backs of the students who had failed to escape—

—only to be suddenly diverted, as if swept away by a powerful gust of wind.

“This is how you do it…!”

I don’t really understand magic. I’ve taken a few hits from it on the battlefield, but I have no idea how it actually works.

But regardless.

My eyes widened as I looked up at the scene unfolding before me.

“Uuuu…!”

The flames that were about to consume the students twisted, pushed back toward the center of the circle, engulfing the dragon and crawling up the ceiling. For a moment, my legs should have been swallowed by the wave of fire, but the flames didn’t even have time to catch onto me.

All of the fire converged back onto the dragon, coiling around its entire body like a massive serpent, then rising toward the ceiling. Soon, the flames formed a towering pillar, burning the dragon alive.

“I-It… it looks like it worked…”

Fix murmured in a trembling voice.

What the hell is this guy?

“Y-You… that was incredible…”

I muttered in disbelief. Fix hurriedly shook his head, then spoke hesitantly.

“N-No, i-it wasn’t me. I can’t create such powerful flames… all I can do is manipulate the flow of magical energy…”

That was more than enough.

In other words, as long as someone else started the fire, Fix could control all of it. When I thought about it, there was nothing more terrifying. There was no upper limit to its power.

In all the battlefields I’d seen, there wasn’t a single magician who could do something like this. They would just hurl fire or ice at their enemies, only as much as they themselves could produce.

“Fix, why did you choose the knight academy instead of the mage academy…?”

“Ah… well… among my siblings, I had the least amount of magical power… I could barely create fire or water on my own… So I thought at the very least, I should learn how to control it freely. I studied all sorts of magic books and grimoires on my own, cramming my head full of knowledge…”

Self-taught…?

Fix trailed off awkwardly before giving a wry smile.

“But the truth is, I didn’t choose the knight academy. The mage academy didn’t want students with low magical power, so I failed their entrance exam. That’s all. Ahaha…”

That’s not something to say with such low confidence, you idiot. No—at this point, you’re basically a genius.

That’s a one-of-a-kind power earned through sheer effort.

“You failed the exam?”

“Ah… yeah. Embarrassingly enough. Actually, I barely made it into the knight academy as a backup candidate, too.”

Good thing the dorms were full. If there had been an empty room, and I had been assigned there instead, Fix Ougus wouldn’t have been in Class One at this moment.

Maybe he really was one of those people Kilpus mentioned, the kind who could advance an entire field by a hundred years.

The instructors at the mage academy were complete fools. They let a priceless talent slip away just because he didn’t fit their test criteria.

“This is all I can do…”

I clenched my fist and smacked Fix’s chest.

“Idiot. Stand tall. Be proud. Do you even realize how many lives you’ve saved, not just this time, but before as well?”

“…Thanks.”

Inside the towering pillar of flames, the dragon had stopped moving.

Whether it had already reached its limit and this was its final struggle, or whether being consumed by its own redirected fire had finished it off—I couldn’t say for sure.

But…

“Can you stop the flames?”

“Yeah.”

Fix swung his rapier, the one engraved with ancient script. Instantly, the flames scattered like sparks, vanishing as if a flower had bloomed and then dissolved into the wind.

“Stay here and wait.”

“Okay.”

I stepped forward and gently drove my dagger into the dragon.

—…

It didn’t move. I couldn’t sense any trace of life from it.

Letting out a slow breath, I exhaled the stench of burnt flesh.

“Hahh…”

That was exhausting.

Even more so, mentally, than the battle with the homunculus.