Chapter 57 - Conflict

Lily tried again to remove her hand from her pocket, but her arm wouldn't budge. Tim was just far too strong.

Has he been copying what Rose did to get stronger? Lily thought with fear.

If he'd been solo hunting gremlins or other monsters, then who knew how strong he was now? The boys had mentioned a pack of gremlins, and if Tim had killed them all… Lily shuddered.

Her frantic thoughts had her briefly consider just randomly activating the glyphs in her pocket, but common sense overruled her as she would more than likely burn herself in the process. Her shield glyphs were all of the talisman variety, so unless she applied them directly, they wouldn't activate.

That left her Astral magic… Arakil had warned her off trying it while unsupervised in this state, but she easily reckoned that this situation required it. But the issue was, how would she chant? No doubt Tim would grow suspicious if she started trying to whisper something, and he no doubt had good hearing.

I need to use gestures… But the only one I know is for Starlight…

Then, she recalled her own blinding misfortune. Obviously, the circumstances now weren't ideal—it was the afternoon, not the darkness of the night. Still, she needed to try something.

If I can at least startle him, I can get proper access to my glyphs. Or I can use Nebula Veil or maybe even Starburst!

Tim was flaunting, almost daring the kids to try something. But any bravado they once had seemed to have been extinguished. He began pulling her towards the forest.

"Come, Lily, you've spent enough time with these losers," Tim demanded.

"You're hurting me, Tim…" Lily said in a desperate attempt to reason with him.

"Hurting you? Try taking a punch from that stupid dragon!" Tim snapped. "If anything, I'm helping you. No way these idiots could keep you safe; they struggled to kill a single gremlin!"

Lily wanted to defend them but instead tried to use the opportunity to begin her casting with her free hand. She hesitantly pulled on her Mana Core, expecting Tim to somehow sense it, but he remained clueless.

I have to do this one-handed and behind my back—talk about being unfairly difficult! At least the Mana flooding my body is soothing the pain a little…

Tim kept saying things, but Lily was so focused on her concentration that he was effectively blocked out. Not that she wanted to listen to him; it was probably just profanities about Rose and painting himself as the victim.

She fumbled twice in the casting, both times producing an unideal result with too few stars. Lily silently thanked Arakil for teaching her so much about control, as otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to feel how many tiny stars she had created.

When she finally succeeded, she smiled and realized that Tim was glaring at her.

"Why do you have that goofy look on your face?" Tim demanded.

Lily shook her momentary happiness away as she nervously gulped. Tim also finally noticed that she was obscuring her free hand behind her back.

"You hiding something from me, Lily? If you do something stupid, you might force me to do something I'll regret…" Tim warned.

"No…" Lily whispered nervously.

"Show it!" Tim ordered threateningly.

Before clenching her fist, Lily ensured the stars were grouped as tightly as possible. She then proceeded to nervously reveal her closed hand to Tim.

Tim stared at her slightly trembling closed hand with curiosity before shaking his head and making his subsequent demand, "Open it!"

Tim was focused intently on her hand, so instead of opening it slowly, she did it as abruptly as possible. Lily explosively released her tight grip while throwing as much Mana as possible into her link with the spell and controlling the luminous orbs to rush toward Tim's face.

The Starlight spells were much brighter than she anticipated, which she was grateful for due to their daytime diminishment. She hoped the sudden bright light would be enough to startle him and perhaps even release her to shield his eyes.

"What!?" Tim cried in shock moments before the hurtling stars of light rocketed towards his face.

Lily had expected Tim to scream, but the boy was clearly tougher than that and only gave an unpleasant grunt. However, to her joy, he did release her to shield and rub at his assaulted eyes.

"What the hell is that? Glowbugs!?" Tim complained as he swatted at the array of magical stars practically glued to his face.

Lily took the opportunity to distance herself from Tim and pull out some glyph paper. She immediately identified a shield one and applied it to herself before taking out two firebolt ones.

She held them out in a defensive stance and made her demand, "Leave me alone, Tim! I don't want to hurt you!"

The boy jumped away from the blinding assault and then sneered at her. He pointed at the Starlight spells, "I don't know what the hell those are, but trying to blind me isn't good enough!"

Lily silently cursed when she realized her speed control over the Starlight spell could not keep them stuck to his face if he used any actual speed.

"Just leave me alone!" Lily repeated and held out the glyphs threateningly.

Tim chuckled, "You going to give me a paper cut?"

"I'm not afraid to burn you! These are firebolt glyphs!" Lily warned.

Tim's expression darkened, but not out of fear—anger. "Firebolt? Do you think you're some dragon like that malicious woman?"

"Don't insult my sister!" Lily screamed.

Rather than respond, he took that opportunity to lunge at her. Lily was prepared, though, and with even the slightest trickle of her Mana, activated one of the glyphs, sending the magical firebolt directly at Tim.

Tim's eyes widened, but he still dodged in time despite being taken entirely by surprise. Lily couldn't help but frown with disappointment before grabbing another from her pocket; she wanted to keep two on hand at all times.

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Tim's predatory eyes watched her pull another from her pocket, and he snarled, "That stupid red bitch is still getting in my way, even when she's not here!?"

"Rose has nothing to do with this! Just stop it already, Tim!" Lily cried.

"She gave you that magic fire paper or something, didn't she?" Tim accused, pointing at Lily's pocket. "Well, it's fine. You'll either run out, or I'll rip them from your pockets. Guess I'll need to rough you up a bit…"

Before Lily's next breath, he had already charged again. Lily almost forgot to cast the spell in her panic, releasing another firebolt. Tim dodged again, expecting it, but she was also prepared this time as she released a second one. This time, the spell struck him and released a small burst of flame where it hit.

Tim winced momentarily before rapidly patting away at his shoulder, which had been struck. To Lily's horror, he then grinned and laughed.

"Ha! If that's the best she gave you, then you'll be in big trouble, little bunny!" Tim jeered. "Looks like the big old dragon is all bark and no flame; I've taken gremlin bites with more punch!"

Lily nervously swallowed. She didn't expect her firebolts to be that ineffective. She'd prioritized them to be efficient, and it was more than enough for slimes, gremlins, or dire rats, but not the Leonia before her.

Maybe if I use all my firebolts? Otherwise, the only other thing I have is Starburst… Or hoping one of the other boys had the foresight to go call one of the guards! But would they even get here in time?

Lily reached into her pocket and pulled out her entire supply, causing the boy to whistle.

"Did you tear apart an entire book for that collection?" He taunted. "Not that it will help you. Those flames are nowhere near hot enough! That girl should be embarrassed to call herself a Dragia!"

Lily wanted to defend Rose, but the boy charged again the second she opened her mouth. He caught her off guard this time, clearly going for a gut punch.

But his fist collided with her magical barrier, cracking and shattering it. This sent Lily tumbling backward. Tim halted and began frantically waving his hand around while muttering curses.

"It's like punching a brick wall!" Tim whined as he clutched his fist, which was mildly bleeding.

Before recovering from her tumble, Lily slapped on another shield talisman and then turned to face him. Thankfully, he was still clutching his self-inflicted injury.

Gods, what if that punch hit me!? Lily thought with horror. Either Tim didn't care about holding back, or he didn't know how to.

Both outcomes terrified Lily, so she activated every firebolt glyph. Each page burnt up as it was activated, but utilizing her Mana control, she held each spell on a hair trigger—like a loaded crossbow bolt.

"Stop this, Tim!" Lily screamed. "That punch might have crippled me, or worse!"

"No ! Look what your cheap trick did to my bloody hand!" Tim shouted at her accusingly.

Before he could respond further or try another surprise attack, Lily unleashed her spells. The firebolt spells, loaded and waiting, were floating before her. Each one was a tiny representation of the fire crest, glowing a fierce orange that turned red as it fully activated.

Seeing almost a dozen firebolts go off immediately made Lily think she had gone too far. But at this point, she was so scared about what he might do to her that she almost didn't care. The barrage of spells looked like a fireworks display, surging toward their target.

Tim momentarily paled and tried to get out of the way before he was struck by a good portion of the spells. At first, he grunted, but after more hit him, he started wailing in pain. When the last micro-explosion of flame finished, Lily had expected to see him lying on the ground, but instead, he was snarling and glaring—pure hatred in his eyes.

His clothes and hair were burnt, and his impressive mane of hair was badly singed. But he stood and let out a challenging roar.

"Looks like your tricks have run out!"

Starcluster! I need Starcluster!

Lily began to chant frantically. She didn't care if she hadn't practiced it since her alignment; she needed it now .

Seeing her doing something, the boy pounced. Rather than a punch, this time, he attempted a sweeping kick. Despite his attempted caution, he still struck her second barrier and winced in pain. He must have been moderately holding back as, this time, there wasn't blood.

When the barrier shattered, he snickered triumphantly and rushed at her. But Lily had finished her chant and held out her hand. There was nothing there, so the boy had no idea what she was trying to pull off when a spray of stardust burst from her hands and erupted into his face.

"What the hell!? More tricks!?" Tim cried out and began sneezing and spitting. A vast quantity of glittery magical dust had coated him and his face almost entirely.

Lily had momentarily freaked out at her rotten luck of getting a zero-star result but immediately went into a second chant like she had done before against the gremlin. As she rapidly went through the chant, she started backing up in retreat.

I just need one star! He's coated in stardust! One star! Please !

Lily hadn't even finished the chant when her Mana surged. She thrust her palm outward toward Tim, unleashing a massive star of brightly glowing silver. The spell struck him and exploded, an enormous shower of stardust erupting forward and sending him flying backward.

His body tumbled and rolled until he came to a dead stop. Lily was midway through another chant when she noticed that he'd stopped moving and instead let out a breath of relief. It looked like it was over.

"Holy shit!"

"She beat Tim!"

"Was that magic !?"

Lily turned toward the voices and saw the other boys hiding behind trees—spectators to her entire debacle. Part of her wanted to scream at them for not helping her, but she realized they were just as helpless, so she held her tongue.

The boys began cheering and celebrating, but Lily felt somber. Two of the older boys went to check on Tim while the rest unleashed a barrage of questions at her.

"That was magic, right?"

"I thought Lagia couldn't do magic?"

"Was that fire?"

"Of course, it was, just like Rose could do."

"I guess you and Rose really are sisters!"

Lily's heart jumped at that last comment, and then she noticed a familiar Oz rushing to the scene ahead of one of the younger boys.

"Is everyone okay!?" Oz shouted frantically.

Lily silently cursed. Her secret was revealed far sooner than she would've liked. But at least with adults here, she would be freed from the relentless questions of the curious boys.