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—Selena’s POV

「No way, no way, no way! She can do that!?」

Big sis is chasing me on a tiny dragon with a really scary face. She’s so scary, you’d mistake her for some new type of monster.

Just before she was still struggling against the ropers I made too much of, but after the tiny dragons big sis called came, the ropers were cleaned up quickly. There should’ve been nearly a hundred of them, but… well, I suppose monsters loaded with a lot of magic power are nothing more than a delicious treat for apex magic beasts like dragons.

「Kyaa~ At this rate, I’m gonna get caught~」
「You’re damn obvious! I’m going to have you explain all of this!」
「Kyahaha! Your tone’s slipping~! Nya~go!」

I summoned one of my pets from [Dream Storage]. This fly-cat Nya~go is a cat that has hidden wings. It’s a monster that can carry about ten times its own weight, and with its beautiful fur and three tails, it’s super cute.

「I’m counting on you!」
「She can even fly!?」

Since I can’t outrun a dragon on the ground, I’m escaping to the sky. Tiny dragons are earth dragons, so they should be bad with flying. If it’s just big sis, then I can still manage. Or so I thought……

「Eh~! That’s unfair! So unfair! Cheater!¹」
「It’s not!」

Big sis made footholds midair with the magic “Wall”, and continued chasing after me on the tiny dragon. Her being able to create “Walls” sturdy enough to support a dragon’s weight was surprising enough, but for the dragon to continue running with full trust on big sis’ footholds, their bond is amazing.

「Nya~go! Go faster!」
『Bnya~』
「Come, Kuuchan!」

After having Nya~go speed up, I then summoned another monster from [Dream Storage]. This tiny spider, a monster called little poison, is a spider about as small as my fingertip. This spider has a venom lethal enough to kill within 24 hours after being bitten by it.

But this poison isn’t what makes Kuuchan amazing! Despite having such a small body, Kuuchan can make super big spider webs. Kuuchan’s sticky webs are sturdy enough that once they stick, they can’t be removed unless they’re burned or washed off with water.

「Go~! Kuuchan!」
『Shuu!』

On my command, Kuuchan began continuously spitting out lots of webs towards big sis. These webs quickly spread out, some newer ones overtaking the older ones, some others going up and falling down, all being fired by Kuuchan with consideration. With this, even big sis won’t be able to dodge them! Is what I thought, but……

「I’ll shoot down the ones that’ll hit! “Burn”!」
『GuGya!』

Big sis melted the webs with her magic and even the ones she missed were avoided by the tiny dragon. Grr, those two work too well together! Maybe I should have practiced a little bit of magic too.

Unlike big sis, I can barely use magic. My [One that Produces] is super bad at creating things with no tangible form. Repeatedly casting those kinds of vague and fuzzy things is practically impossible. Still, I’m relatively good at casting magecraft with proper tangibility. But since being in a different class with Jason would defeat the purpose of coming here to the academy, I didn’t put effort into the exams.

「“Bind”!!」
「Uwaa-!!」

While I was in my thoughts, big sis got closer to me than I expected. Since “Bind” pursues the target until it hits, I sacrificed a growleu to avoid it.² They’re already this close to me. I wanted to go a bit further away before doing this, but things aren’t going my way…

「Still, I guess here should be good enough.」
「Have you finally given up? You seem to know a lot, so I’m going to have you answer me.」

After exiting the forest, there’s a grass-covered plain. It has good visibility and both monsters and magic beasts don’t come here much, but the sun’s rays feel good here. On this plain, I finally landed on the ground and faced big sis.

「Hmm, I wouldn’t really mind doing that though. We’re done with playing tag. This time~, How about freeze tag then?」
「What are you…? Haah!?」

She’s surprised, super surprised. After all, the reason I chose this open place is because if I don’t, I wouldn’t be able to get all of them out. With 1000 of them, even goblins look like a spectacle! I made a lot of them to play with big sis with, but since I couldn’t find her at all, I ended up hoarding a lot.

「Now go~! Capture big sis!」

With my command, the goblins all rush to big sis. Or rather, they should have.

「Guga? Gogo!」
「Gigiga, gugo!」
「Gagi, gigo!」
「Gah!」
「Gah!」
「Gah!」

Just as I saw several goblins talking to each other, several dozens of them suddenly evolved on their own. The goblin mages and warriors are still fine. A goblin lord appearing is also still within my expectations, but why the heck did a goblin emperor appear!

「Huh? Why are they heading here? Wai- Listen to my command!」
「Gu-gah!」

Despite being created by me, half of the goblins ignored my command and headed towards me. The other half is still heading towards big sis, but huh? Why? As I was wracking my head about that, a certain word came to my mind. Stampede. The calamity when monsters overflow from dungeons. I always thought that this is none of my concern, but when monsters born from dungeons want to leave, it’s the same as them opposing the dungeon itself.

Even if I know the cause now, there’s nothing I can do. After all, I can’t win against these goblins with my strength alone and my other pets can’t defeat the goblin emperor as well. And bringing forth a much stronger monster, isn’t something that I can finish in time.

So this is what despair feels like, a strangely calm part of me thought so. Weirdly, the nails of the goblin nearing me were slow, almost like it stopped. I guess time really does look slow when you’re near death. I was being a bit dramatic, but the goblin’s nails showed no signs of moving any further. On the contrary, even the air around stopped as if it was frozen solid.

「Haahaa…… Don’t… summon anything anymore…… This is already too much……」
「Ha… haha…… Big sis, unbelievable……」

The thousand goblins I kept… were all turned into statues of ice.

1. Lyly: Kek, says the one unfairly escaping to the sky
2. Lyly: Rip growleu. He’s not dead though, I think