A black breath, a pillar of dark light as thick as when a deity is forced to descend, surged directly towards Alice.
As for Alice...
A dozen or so dolls, already prepared, soared into the air. Alice poured every last drop of her magic power into them.
Facing the Black Dragon's roar, the magic power within the dolls erupted instantly, forming an arc-shaped magical barrier.
When the Black Dragon's breath crashed against the barrier, Alice's shield acted like a blade, splitting the torrent clean down the middle and dissipating a massive amount of its power.
By the time the breath struck the ground, it scorched the earth like fire, burning away an entire layer.
Simultaneously, the breath that landed began spreading outwards in all directions.
Seeing how the Black Dragon's breath set everything it touched ablaze, everyone immediately began to flee as fast as they could.
The area directly under the Black Dragon's assault, where Alice was positioned, however, remained relatively unscathed.
Even so, Alice was left gasping for air, feeling utterly terrible.
Thanks to her continuous research into the Seven Luminaries magic, the mana consumption of her defensive barrier had been significantly reduced.
But even then, while her barrier hadn't shattered against the Black Dragon's breath...
The amount of magic power consumed from her reserves was terrifying.
Just that single attack had drained about eighty percent of her mana. No matter how quickly Alice recovered her magic power, she couldn't sustain a drain like that.
Watching the Black Dragon circling in the sky, Alice's eyes were grave, her brow furrowed tightly.
'This is bad. If every one of its attacks is like this, not even Ottar from Freya Familia would be able to withstand it, let alone me.'
ROOOOOAR!!!!!
The Black Dragon let out a deafening roar. Hearing it, Alice's face paled, and her sense of danger intensified sharply.
Glancing back at the civilians who hadn't finished evacuating, Alice bit her lip lightly. Magic power stirred within her as she lifted directly off the ground, flying up into the air.
"The high ground is a tactical advantage. Don't think you can keep it all to yourself." She flew straight up, coming face-to-face with the Black Dragon.
From the ground, she couldn't make out its features clearly, but now, up close, she could see it perfectly.
The Black Dragon's single eye looked rather dull, but being stared down by it sent a deeper chill down Alice's spine. The way it looked at her was like she was already a corpse.
Alice's heart was pounding wildly, her mind racing.
She was thinking of any way to handle this Black Dragon. At the very least, she needed to stall it until Loki could gather their forces and arrive.
Suddenly, the Black Dragon's massive wings twitched slightly.
Alice's pupils constricted.
The Black Dragon was impossibly fast. In the next instant, before Alice could even track its movement, it was right in front of her.
A gigantic claw swiped towards her. Caught completely off guard, Alice was seized in the dragon's grasp. In that split second, all she could manage was to deploy a layer of magical barrier around herself for protection.
Compared to the enormous dragon's claw, Alice seemed like nothing more than a tiny plaything.
A delicate girl against a colossal dragon—it seemed as if the slightest squeeze would crush her.
And Alice could indeed feel the immense pressure from the claw.
Her magical barrier continuously drained her mana, straining to hold the crushing force at bay.
Feeling her magic power depleting rapidly, Alice gritted her teeth and directly opened a gap, pulling the very claw that held her into the spatial rift.
Then, she snapped it shut.
Blood rained down from the sky. The Black Dragon's claw had been severed by Alice.
"SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!!" The Black Dragon let out a furious roar. Its left claw severed, crimson blood gushed from the wound.
The cry was full of rage, but held no trace of pain.
A moment later, Alice emerged from another gap, her face deathly pale.
The gap was a spatial ability. By opening and closing space itself, it could achieve the effect of severing anything.
However, pulling off something like this demanded a tremendous cost from Alice, especially since what she was cutting was the claw of the Black Dragon.
The Black Dragon's magic power was so vast it constantly spilled out, and the mere aura of its mana could affect even Level 1 adventurers.
That alone was proof of its overwhelming strength.
The Black Dragon's immense magic power also exerted an influence on space itself.
Opening and closing gaps required Alice's own magic power. To sever the Black Dragon's claw, Alice had to use her power to control space and force it to happen.
Right now, Alice was frantically drawing on the magic generated by the energy furnace stored within her gap, trying to recover as quickly as possible.
The Black Dragon's senses, however, were exceedingly sharp.
The instant Alice reappeared outside the gap, the Black Dragon detected her presence. Its target had been Alice all along, and now, with its claw severed, its fury burned even hotter. It unleashed another blast of its breath directly at her.
Facing the same technique a second time, one usually figures out some countermeasure.
If your bag of tricks is small, you might be out of luck. But Alice's bag of tricks was very, very deep.
Seeing the Black Dragon aiming another breath attack at her, Alice felt not fear, but a spark of grim satisfaction. She raised her hand and opened a gap to her left.
The Black Dragon's breath shot directly into the spatial rift.
Then, Alice opened another gap to her right. The Black Dragon's own attack shot out from this second rift, now flying straight back towards its master.
Seeing its own attack turn around and come right back at it, the Black Dragon seemed momentarily taken aback.
Its massive form hesitated for a split second.
But in the next moment, the Black Dragon dodged its own breath with a swift, evasive maneuver.
Meanwhile, Alice's small face had turned as white as a sheet.
Severing the dragon's claw via the gap had already placed a huge strain on her. Now, using the gap to reflect the Black Dragon's breath back at it...
Had completely emptied her internal magic reserves.
To make matters worse, due to the Black Dragon's breath, the magical explosion reactor she kept inside her gap had been destroyed. Now, Alice had no means to replenish her magic power artificially.
She could only rely on her own natural recovery to restore her mana.
Her eyes flickered towards Orario. She could see a team of adventurers rushing towards her location.
But it would take them at least a minute to get here.
Alice shook her head with a bitter smile. 'Can I even hold on for that one minute...'
--+--
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