...to cast Black Blast Clear"
Several tons of moving earth was more than enough to crush the tiny cottage. Kirito and Tabitha would have been included in the footprint if it were not for their speed. He didn't know how Tabitha dashed out like the wind but boy did she run. She was almost faster than he was. It took a while for the golem to lift up its foot again and Kirito gave her a look. Cradled in her arms was the box with the Staff of Destruction inside. It was still intact and they should probably keep it that way.
There was no need to verbally communicate as she seemed to take off in the opposite direction as Kirito when the golem finally decided to step on them. With a sharp whistle, a blue-grey dragon swooped down from on high and out of sight, picking up her master Tabitha. The dragon was swift, too fast for the golem to even attempt to follow. There was only one other target down there. Unlike Tabitha, Kirito did not have a dragon despite his mostly useless riding skill and thus had to evade the golem's footsteps by the power of his own two legs.
He ran rings around it. With the sword enchantment keeping him hopped up on the magical equivalent of adrenaline, Kirito could keep this up forever. The golem was slow and cumbersome and with the appropriate timing, would never succeed in squashing him like a bug. Still, he stuck to the plan, trusting that any moment now he would hear 'FIREBALL' being shouted out in the distance and that this whole ordeal would be done and over with.
His faith was rewarded. He didn't hear it, but it was hard to missing the massive boom as stone was simply vaporised in to fine dust and the cracking as the golem fell apart, its integrity being compromised far beyond its capacity to remain upright. A massive hole had been created on its left side before it started to topple over. Kirito didn't waste any time getting out of the way. Sprinting back towards the wagon, he was all smiles when he finally met up with Louise, Kirche, Tabitha and her dragon.
"Thanks Louise," were the words that came out of his mouth before he slumped down on the ground, "I knew I could count on you."
She didn't reply, because she looked, and probably was, exhausted. He too did not say more than that, trying as hard as he could to catch his breath. The one spell had probably taken all her energy, or mana, or whatever they called their reserves, Kirito concluded. A back up plan in case she missed would have been a good thing to have but that was just plain hindsight.
She didn't reply, not because of exhaustion, but because it was the first time anyone had genuinely thanked her for something significant. Shock, of course, was the first feeling, but it had been replaced quickly by warmth and comfort in her heart. She had finally succeeded at something by her own volition. It was true that she wanted a fireball and ended up with an explosion but the important part was that she accomplished what she had set out to do, and what another had expected her to do. In short, she felt great, ecstatic even.
It proved to be short lived. The ground shook once more, the rumbling returned and a familiar shadow was being cast upon them all once again. Rising up and reforming from the very earth itself, the golem once more, stood tall. It was still a ways away from the assembled and secretary Longueville had yet to return. They didn't have the time to fear for her right now though.
Instead of using its foot, the golem swept at them with a giant stone fist. It was near thing as they all scattered in time. Their wagon had no such luck. All that remained of it were splinters. Once more, Kirito took stock of the situation in the time between blows. He didn't think that Louise would be able to aim in such conditions, let alone cast a spell, what with having to dodge constantly. She wouldn't have the time to aim at all and he didn't know which among them held aggro.
The golem's fist was raised again before falling towards him with frightening speed. He held aggro it seemed. That a good and a bad thing, good because he was the target and bad because he had nothing else to fight it with. Or so he thought until he remembered the Staff of Destruction. Tabitha should still have it. Dodging out of the way, he shouted to her,
"Tabitha, the staff, quickly."
She nodded slightly but before she could pass it to him, she because the target of the golem's attentions. Its opposite arm swung at her. Whatever the golem was doing, it wasn't messing about. Consequently the Staff didn't travel very far towards him but it was closer, to him but more so to Louise. Their gazes met as it followed the path of the staff. He shifted his gaze down towards it and she took the hint, picking it up and started running towards him. Cursing, Kirito kicked off the ground as well towards Louise. The golem had changed targets after he spoke. This meant whoever created and controlled the golem was nearby, at least within hearing distance.
By the time he got to her, the golem had seemingly reacquired them as targets. Just perfect, he thought, picking Louise up in his unoccupied arms, ignoring her shrieks and protestations, cradling her like she cradled the package in her own arms. It took him a moment to realise how small Louise really was. She was light, almost as a feather, and wouldn't hinder his movements much. This was a good thing as he leapt out of the path of the oncoming fist.
Louise was grateful for it really, but the indignity overpowered her ability to give thanks.
"Let go of me you ill-mannered barbarian," she spoke as soon as they were out of danger.
Kirito pretended it was their current predicament's fault that he may have held her inappropriately.
"Can you hand me the staff?" he asked.
Louise didn't exactly have a reason to refuse despite it all. She opened the box, expecting it to be some kind of short wooden staff, gnarled beyond all belief. Instead, the box revealed a metallic green rod about a good length of her arm. Upon closer inspection it was a tube of some sort but she didn't quite have the luxury to inspect it further as Kirito took it out of the box. Was he going to use it? He said that he had experience with magic before but to think that he could use the Staff of Destruction was a bit farfetched. Regardless, her familiar grabbed one end of the staff and extended to its full length, fussing over it this way and that before settling it over his right shoulder.
"Stand on my left," he commanded.
She did so as he took another look behind him and shouted,
"Back blast clear," after which he depressed something along the length of the rod.
The next thing she was aware of was the ensuing explosion. It mirrored her own spell earlier and she wondered briefly if her magic was somehow similar to the staff's. The golem became undone once again. Kirito had threaded the shot past the golem's guard which had started to form after he had pointed the staff towards it. The warhead had struck and detonated precisely where it wanted it too, having trusted the assistance the runes had provided him.
They had waited some time before they were sure the golem wouldn't be getting up again and the four of them reconvened at the ruined wagon. The horse that had pulled the cart was still in the area and after a brief search Kirche had managed to locate it. Tabitha and her dragon had landed nearby and were inspecting the remains of the wagon as Louise and Kirito, with the Staff of Destruction and Derflinger slung across his back, sat down to catch their breaths.
Secretary Longueville returned, dishevelled, a few moments later. She had failed in her attempt to apprehend the thief. Well, one out of two wasn't so bad, Kirito thought, though the others may have disagreed with him. As the secretary made her way back to them she picked up the box that the staff had rested in.
"Please take better care of things," she admonished as she reached them, "Now, the Staff of Destruction if you'll please."
Kirito gladly handed it over. Hopefully no one would ask him how he used the staff and how he had expended the only shot it had. The secretary didn't hesitate either as she took it in to her hand. Dropping the box, she brandished it just as he did.
"Weapons on the ground now," the secretary shouted.
Kirito was no stranger to betrayal and even less so when he put the facts together. Who else would be conveniently late to the headmaster's summons? Who else would know where the thief had gone? She was suspicious right from the start if he had any reason to suspect her in the first place. In short, she was the thief.
Around him, the others complied, now knowing full well what kind of fate awaited them. Unlike the others Kirito's hand settled on Derflinger's hilt.
"I must thank you Mr. Agile Familiar for showing me how the Staff of Destruction works," she spoke, "It is such a shame that your usefulness ends here."
"You're welcome, Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt," Kirito replied cordially without letting go of his weapon.
"My, my, you truly are a fast one aren't you? Let's see if you're faster than the Staff of Destruction."
Knowing what the runes did to him, Kirito still doubted he could move at 522 kilometres an hour and considering they were so close to each other, he and the rest of the girls would have been gibbed near instantaneously. If there was anything that was going in his advantage it was the fact that she felt it necessary to utter the incantation that supposedly got the Staff of the Destruction to work. He exploited it, drawing and moving before she could even finish the pronouncing the second word. By the end of the phrase the blunt of his sword had connected with her. Slamming in to the space between the left side of her ribcage and hip, the blow was far from lethal though it did cause her to crumple from a sickening angle. The last word had died on her lips.
For a while, nobody said a thing.
"That was reckless," Louise stated.
Kirito smiled unrepentantly as if the joke was on her.
"Don't look at me like that you stupid familiar, you could have gotten us all killed!"
"Hai, hai," he replied finally before stripping Fouquet of her wand, "I knew that it only had one shot so we were never in any danger at all, not that she needed to know that."
Louise just looked at him incredulously.
"Well, looks like we got the staff and the thief, I say we turn this quest in."