As the three wind bullets darted at them, Alya immediately sent countless spears of ice to intercept the bullets, slowing them down significantly but not destroying them.
On the other hand, Lily took the defensive approach, creating a massive shield of water to protect Ruby and the students behind her.
The elemental reaction created by the air and ice intersecting decreased the room's temperature significantly, causing a chilly breeze to spread throughout the vast common area.
Stepping forward, Liam lifted his sword, causing it to shine a bright blue, before directly taking on the first two slowed bullets while Kevin took on the third.
As Alya and Astrid began preparing a counter-attack, the teacher silently raised his cane upwards, with the bottom of it facing the collapsed roof, before chanting some words that could not be heard.
As tree roots emerged from the floor of the common area and countless lances of ice appeared beside the two students, the bottom of the teacher's cane began to shine a dark purple.
Before the counterattacks could even go past Kevin and Liam, a sudden purple flash blinded everyone in the room.
5 purple lightning bolts appeared immediately appeared in the sky above the dormitory before surging downwards.
Passing through the floors of the royal dormitory like they were nothing, five lightning bolts, each positioned above one of the main cast members, broke through the second floor and spiraled right towards each of their heads.
Being the first to open her eyes, Astrid immediately noticed the dark purple light above her, so while diving to the side, she screamed.
"DIVE!"
Even though they were blind, the other four students obeyed Astrid's instructions as they dove to their right and left sides.
As both Liam and Kevin both dived towards each other, the two of them landed on top of each other, causing Kevin to scream out in pain as Liam's elbow pushed down into his stomach, coincidentally the same place Liam had punched during the cruise ship incident.
Staring at the floor below his previous locations, Liam almost collapsed once again as he saw that the wood was shattered into hundreds of pieces and that a slight fire was burning on some of the pieces.
That could have killed them...
As the five students regrouped to their original formation, the teacher, instead of attacking, simply watched them before lifting his cane and asking.
"You should know that this battle is a lost cause; after all, you are the top students of the best academy in the realm. So, just hand it over, will you?"
Of course, the teacher wasn't planning to spare the students even if they handed over the sword as he still had to take care of the prince, but right now, obtaining the blood-red sword was his greatest priority.
Astrid, who saw this talking as an opportunity to stall for more time, pretended to think for a moment before slowly responding.
"Yes, as we are students of Celestial Academy, the 5 of us are inclined to understand that continuing to fight this dangerous and terrible battle will lead to our demise. However, we are quite confused and befuddled by your choice of words when you say, 'Just hand it over.' "
Standing behind Astrid, Lily continued.
" *ahem* In other words, we have no idea what we are supposed to give you."
Not realizing the number of students in the common area was dwindling as Ruby teleported back and forth, the teacher tapped his cane on the floor, manifesting a swirling orb filled with darkness above his head.
" *sigh* Student council president, must you play dumb? I have already confirmed your presence at the scene. Nobody wants their time wasted here, but if you must, I am looking for a sword-colored blood-red."
Thinking for a moment, the teacher pointed to the light-blue sword in Liam's hand.
"It is quite similar to that one, except it is red. Wait... is it that sword? Did you manage to alter its color?"
While the teacher curiously stared at Liam's light-blue sword, Astrid, who faintly recalled the djinn with the blood-red sword in the cave, said to her fellow students.
"I don't know where the sword is, and it is most definitely not with me.."
Kevin, inwardly cursing as he realized that he had not once but twice gotten himself into near-death situations, replied.
"So... you do know about the sword?"
Pointing at Liam's bright-blue sword, Astrid replied.
"It's exactly like that but red."
Alya glanced around the common area, noticing that almost all of the students were already gone, and quietly said,
"It's only a matter of time before he realizes that we're almost done evacuating the room... we need to keep him distracted."
Staring at Liam's light blue sword, Lily hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Well... if we don't know where the sword is, why don't we just give Liam's. He already seems to think that it's the one he's looking for."
For the first time, Kevin actually expressed anger at Lily, and he outragedly responded.
"WHAT ABOUT WHEN HE REALIZES THAT ITS NOT? DON'T YOU THINK HE'll KILL US, THEN?"
Kevin did have a point; they were basically gambling with their lives.
Realizing the teacher's attention on Liam's sword was starting to waver, Astrid stared at the others, who nodded their heads.
Liam did not have any problems with the plan. After testing for a bit, he realized that he could make any sword light up a light blue, so this sword didn't matter much to him.
"Yes... you're right; that's the sword you're looking for."
"Then, what are you waiting for? Hand it over already."
After Lily created a wind current connecting Liam and the teacher, Liam placed the sword in the current, allowing it to fly toward the teacher.
However, Liam forgot to mention one thing about his sword's light blue aura... it only shone light blue because of him.
When he received the sword, the teacher stared at the regular metal sword in his hands for a solid 10 seconds before slowly turning his head up with a creepy smile on his face.
"Oh, are you guys pranking me now? Is this some kind of joke to you? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT!?"
As the teacher threw the metal sword on the ground, Kevin immediately turned to Liam with a dead serious face.
"Before we die... I just want to let you know THAT YOU ARE THE SINGLE DUMBEST PERSON I HAVE EVER FUCKING MET."
Tapping his cane multiple more times, the teacher sent countless more balls filled with darkness toward them, exhausting most of his mana.
Being a djinn, his desire for the sword had taken all rationality out of him, so he no longer cared about conserving mana but solely obtaining the blood-red sword.
Glancing around for a moment, Lily was ecstatic to see that Scarlett and all the students beside them were gone. However, her ecstasy soon transformed into horror as she was faced with countless dark energy balls surging towards her.
Scarlett was their only way out, but now she had probably left after transferring all the students.
They had been so focused on saving their fellow students that they had forgotten to save themselves...
All 5 of them were now stranded inside the dormitory with the crazed teacher. They had accomplished their goal, but at what cost...
While Astrid was able to stop one of the many balls with her tree roots, the other simply broke through the weakened roots with ease.
Liam, who was left with no sword, was forced to retreat immediately. Similarly, Alya, Lily, and Kevin, whose attacks were futile against the tens of energy balls, retreated as well.
With the walls behind them and the energy balls in front, the five students had nowhere to dodge.
Turning to the wall behind them, Kevin and Liam immediately screamed out.
"SLOW THEM DOWN."
As Lily, Alya, and Astrid cast dozens of spells at the horde of energy balls, their expressions only darkened as they realized that there were far too many, and their pace was only decreasing by a tiny margin.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Liam hacked desperately at the wall, trying to create a hole big enough for them to fit through.
Unfortunately, the magic spells cast by the girls were unable to break the wall, so Liam and Kevin were forced to make a hole the old-fashioned way with their swords.
From outside the mana barrier, Ruby stared inside the house, immediately recognizing the situation inside was perilous.
Even if she intervened now, she could at most save one of them, but in the process, risk being hurt by one of those energy balls.
Just as Kevin formed the hole in the wall, the energy balls were less than a second away from hitting them.
Ruby immediately recognized it was too late...