The fight at the Canteen progressed into a bloody affair by now, as over a hundred Troitails had surrounded the place and were steadily bombarding it.
Many competent fighters were present on the side of the students, as arcs of water danced across the place.
A student held a 20-metre-long whip made of water, with the end sporting a sphere. She was aged thirteen, on the verge of graduation, having already amassed 98 units of Prana.
Her Prana detection means spread around her Spirit Weapon range. Veins bulged across her forehead as she filtered through the chaotic activity being registered on her skin. Goosebumps had formed on her skin, with some places peeling off from sheer, sensory overload.
Despite the damage, she focused only on a certain form of skin prickles. And upon picking up one such prickle, she lashed out in the respective direction. Her psychokinesis accelerated her whipping speed and also finetuned its direction, causing the sphere at the end of the water whip to accurately smash onto an incoming scale.
Upon contact, the scale exploded, spewing out water in response. The brunt of the whip's streamlined section coiled like a snake to form a shield, which tanked most of the fierce splashes of water.
The whip was mostly damaged by now, as half its length had collapsed. However, the girl merely dipped it into the ankle-length water on the floor and pulled it out, turning it anew.
She eyed her surroundings and noticed a large enough piece of stone that had splintered off the floor from the fight. She whipped towards it, submerging the stone within the sphere at the end of her whip.
"HAARGH!" She roared and whipped with all her might, causing the tip of her whip to break the sound barrier, at which moment, the sphere at the tip exploded, causing the rock immersed within to fly tangentially.
Boom!
The rock ended up slamming into the head of a Troitail, overcoming the latter's defences. The impact shattered a bunch of its scales, which exploded promptly after, butchering its body in response.
"Huff…" The 13-year-old girl panted a little, feeling her Prana reserves had gotten low. 'How…how many are there?'
Her expression collapsed upon noticing the number of Troitails surrounding the Canteen hadn't dropped in the slightest, 'There's no end to them!'
She alone had killed six Troitails by now, and could manage to kill a few more. However, that wouldn't be making a difference in the enemy numbers. "Shit…"
During her momentary lapse in focus, a scale flew towards her head, intending to kill her.
"Careful," A boy aged 11 rushed before her and held up a shield of water that had a central pillar, and blooming after every few centimetre was a leaf-shaped filament of water.
The leaves also bent like the original. Hence, when the scale struck the first leaf, it slipped away. As the Troitail curved it around, all the leaves moved forward once, slapping the scale in unison.
They seemed to have a lot of tension within, which was released during the slap, ending up resulting in the scale's explosion. However, the moment the scale exploded and poured out water, tiny holes formed across all the leaves.
And thanks to the water pressure, the exploded water flowed through the stem of the leaves and gathered in the central pillar, which the boy ejected outward.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye. The scale exploded and splashed half its contents in the form of a bubble that moved around the boy and the girl he was protecting. The rest were redirected into the central pillar he was holding and was ejected out through the hole in its front, which struck the Troitail like a water laser.
The Troitail collapsed, producing weak clicking sounds in shock, having never expected its attack to backfire on itself.
"Phew," The 11-year-old student exhaled softly and faced the girl behind him, "Are you okay?"
"Yes," The 13-year-old girl nodded, "Thanks to you."
"Focus on offence." The 11-year-old boy continued, "I'll protect you from their attacks. With my reserve of Prana, I can afford to face around three more of those attacks."
"That's reassuring." The 13-year-old girl smiled wryly, unwilling to dash the hopes of a younger student, 'I think he's a Settlement Leader's son. No wonder he's so skilled at such a young age.'
"Wow, I think we will live." The 11-year-old boy chuckled all of a sudden and pointed at the horde of Troitails to roar, "You're all dead, fuckers!"
"Our Deity's here!"
There was a rumble in response, as the floor quaked. A powerful presence slammed into the Troitails, stiffening up their muscles momentarily.
A second later, the floor beneath a Troitail spiked out, stabbing through it in response, stopping only after raising it high up in the air as a skewer. Every other second, a skewer appeared, killing a Troitail in response.
"Bastards," The Canteen wall, made of stone, parted away like sand as Runthral sauntered in, his expression brimming with rage.
Forty scales slammed into him promptly after and exploded, only to form a sphere of water a metre before him. The sphere visibly shrunk and formed a fist, which slammed onto the head of a Troitail and screeched it into a pulp.
A wall of earth rose before the students, protecting them from harm. The stone beneath Runthral spiked and pushed him dozens of metres into the air, from where he bellowed, "This is your end!"
The air in the region stirred up in response, seemingly turning into a single structure in response. And then, it slammed down, with force, immobilising all the Troitails in a 180-metre-range around himself.
That bought him a few seconds of freedom, during which he went on the offensive. The floor turned soft to cushion his landing and then pushed him out, following which it hardened into a firm foothold.
Spikes jutted out of the floor one after another, killing a Troitail with every hit.
"Those with strength to spare," Covering the sweat dripping down his forehead, Runthral addressed the students, "Hit these Pranic Beasts!"
"You heard him!" The 11-year-old boy chuckled and condensed water in the shape of a spring beneath his feet. A second later, they launched him into the air, following which he condensed a slide of water beneath his feet that brought him straight to a Troitail.
The situation had changed with Runthral's arrival. With their morale high, the surviving students at the Canteen began to slaughter their way through the Troitails.
Back at the Dorm, the Troitails grunted and clicked nonstop, flashing their scales at the target approaching them, only to miss their attacks.
Flying through the air in the corridor was Boiboi Pet, covered by a protective filament of water. When a scale hit the Boiboi Pet, the protective filament behaved like mucus and caused the scale to skid away.
Boiboi Pet assisted their process by spinning its body constantly, causing all the targeting scales to skid past. Sommersaulting through the air unnecessarily, merely with the intent to frustrate the attacking Troitails, Boiboi Pet landed on the back of a Troitail and rolled away.
In the spot the Boiboi Pet's legs had touched the Troitail, the skin had gotten dry, with the muscles straining from moisture deprivation. All the Boiboi Pet did was dance around the Troitails, making contact whenever a chance appeared to strip them of their moisture.
And whenever a Troitail exploded a scale on its back to spew out water and energize its brethren, Boiboi Pet flew through the column of water and turned most of it into steam, which blocked their senses.
A few minutes later, upon fully enraging the Troitails that were loudly producing their clicking sounds, the Boiboi Pet flew with full speed, pulled the hand to the back, and cranked forth a punch, plunging the entirety of the right arm through a Troitail's mouth.
The filament of water covering the hand? It suddenly sprouted blades and began spinning like a grater.