"Stay behind me, Jasmin," Zinia commanded firmly. The strong earth mage stepped in front of the siblings. She cracked her knuckles. Her face turned incredibly serious. She did not look scared. She looked ready to fight.
Several student guards rushed forward. They wore blue school uniforms. They held small wooden magical staffs. They wanted to protect their classmates. They stood in a line. They pointed their staffs at the giant green beetle.
"Fireball!" a student guard yelled bravely.
He shot a small burst of orange fire from his staff. The fire hit the giant beetle right on its green shell.
The fire fizzled out instantly. It did not even leave a scorch mark. The beetle did not feel any pain. The shell was far too thick. The bug let out a loud hiss. It charged straight at the student guards.
The guards panicked. They turned around and ran away. Their basic magic was completely useless against the massive monsters.
Ken stopped complaining about the noodles. He squinted his sleepy eyes. He looked very closely at the giant green beetle. He looked at the flying wasps.
He noticed something very strange.
These were not normal, wild bugs from a forest. The bugs looked totally wrong. The green beetle had thick, pulsing purple veins running across its shell. The wasps had glowing red eyes. The centipedes leaked a toxic, dark gray sludge from their mouths.
Ken recognized those specific details immediately. His sharp mind analyzed the visual data in a fraction of a millisecond.
"These are not natural monsters," Ken thought to himself casually. He slouched his shoulders. "These bugs look exactly like the Ashura creatures. They have the same glowing veins. They have the same toxic sludge. Someone injected these giant bugs with that forbidden radiation serum. These are totally mutated insects."
Ken let out a long, dramatic sigh.
"This is incredibly annoying," Ken mumbled lazily. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "I thought we destroyed that secret laboratory. The bad guys are definitely mass-producing this serum. Now they are dumping it on bugs. That is very lazy villain behavior. They are just recycling their old plot devices."
A massive centipede slithered toward them. It knocked over a trash can. It bared its sharp, dripping fangs. It wanted to attack Zinia.
"Get back, Ken!" Zinia shouted fiercely. She planted her boots firmly on the dirt. "I will hold them off! Take Jasmin to the main building! Keep her safe!"
"You cannot fight all of them alone, Zinia!" Jasmin cried. She hugged her math book tightly. Tears formed in her eyes. "There are too many of them! They are too big!"
Ken looked at the swarming mutant bugs. He looked at Zinia's determined face. He looked at his scared sister.
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He knew Zinia was incredibly strong. She could crush regular monsters easily. But these were mutated, highly enhanced bugs. Their shells were reinforced with toxic magic. Zinia would exhaust herself trying to break their armor. She might get hurt.
Ken could not let his friend get hurt. He could not let his sister stay in danger.
He needed to help Zinia. But he absolutely could not reveal his true power. He could not summon a giant dragon. He could not use a massive energy beam. His sister was standing right next to him. If Jasmin saw him act like a god, his peaceful life would vanish forever. She would tell his mother. His mother would freak out.
Ken needed a very subtle, totally unnoticeable way to assist the earth mage. He needed to make Zinia look like the ultimate hero.
"Do not worry, Zinia," Ken smiled a goofy, relaxed smile. He casually grabbed a leftover meat skewer from the nearby stall. "I will provide excellent moral support. You are going to do great. I believe in you entirely."
Ken took a bite of the meat skewer. He chewed it slowly. He stepped behind a fallen wooden sign. He hid his right hand perfectly out of sight. He prepared to use his absolute favorite, incredibly lazy support magic. The giant bugs were about to experience a very confusing, highly frustrating defeat.
---
The school courtyard was completely overrun. The giant mutant bugs chased the screaming students. The air smelled like dust and toxic sludge. The situation looked entirely hopeless.
Zinia stood her ground. She did not take a single step backward. The strong earth mage glared at the massive, slithering centipede.
"Stone Gauntlets!" Zinia roared loudly.
She slammed her hands together. Solid gray rock ripped out of the dirt. The rock wrapped tightly around her fists and forearms. She created massive, thick stone boxing gloves. She raised her fists. She prepared to punch the giant bug.
The centipede hissed. It lunged forward with terrifying speed. It opened its dripping jaws. It aimed directly for Zinia's shoulder.
Zinia threw a massive, powerful punch. She aimed right for the center of the bug's face.
Behind the fallen wooden sign, Ken Eliot watched the fight. He chewed a piece of meat from his skewer. He looked completely bored.
"That bug is moving entirely too fast," Ken analyzed lazily in his mind. "If it hits her, it will leave a nasty bruise. I need to slow it down. Time to use the classic finger gun."
Ken kept his right hand totally hidden behind the wooden sign. He pointed his index finger directly at the lunging centipede. He squinted his left eye. He stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth.
"Pew," Ken whispered very softly. The word made absolutely no sound over the chaotic screaming.
He fired his reality-bending space-time magic. A tiny, completely invisible cyan mana bullet zipped across the courtyard. It moved with impossible speed. It tapped the mutant centipede right on the side of its head.
The magic activated instantly. There was no explosion. There was no flash of light.
The centipede was violently, abruptly shifted exactly two feet to the right. It did not slide. It just popped into a new spatial coordinate.
Because the bug shifted mid-lunge, its attack completely missed Zinia. The bug's head sailed harmlessly past her shoulder. The bug lost its balance entirely. It stumbled awkwardly on its many legs. It exposed its softer, unarmored side directly to Zinia.
Zinia did not miss the opening.
Her massive stone gauntlet slammed directly into the exposed side of the centipede. The impact was absolutely deafening. The sheer kinetic force crushed the bug's exoskeleton. The centipede shrieked in pain. It flew backward and crashed into a brick wall. The bug crumpled into the dirt. It did not move again.
Zinia blinked in surprise. She looked at her stone fists.
"Wow," Zinia mumbled to herself. "I hit that perfectly. It just totally missed me. My timing is incredible today."
"Great punch, Zinia!" Ken cheered loudly from behind the sign. He waved his meat skewer in the air. "You completely wrecked that ugly worm! Your footwork is totally flawless! Keep it up!"
Zinia grinned a wide, confident grin. She felt a massive surge of adrenaline. She turned around to face the rest of the swarm.
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