They had almost made it to the far tree line when Nadrina saw the lead knight go down from a stab to his lower thigh. He whipped his sword around, mortally wounding his attacker, but they had reduced him to kneeling on one knee. His partner was trying to get to him, but was being kept on the defensive by a trio that had surrounded him. The other knights looked torn between assisting their leader and defending the carriage.

Nadrina saw one bandit raise his bow and take aim at the downed leader, a cruel smile on his lips as he sighted and drew. The knight noticed him, too. He seemed resigned to his fate, his shoulders slumping and head drooping down in defeat.

It occurred to Nadrina that she was about to watch this man die in front of her. Before she could form any cohesive thoughts, and despite her overwhelming terror, Nadrina yanked her hand out of Lilianna’s grasp and sprinted towards the dying man. Lilianna screamed for her to come back, but Nadrina’s feet had already overruled her common sense.

She was only a few paces away when she realized she hadn’t a damn clue what she was going to do. She was too far away from the guard to protect him, and even further away from the bandit with the bow. With a speed and strength born out of desperation and fear, she grabbed at the first thing she found in her bag and hurled it at the archer with all her might.

Nadrina had taken to crafting magical items to practice her magic theory, little things that normally didn’t take too much time or mana to make. Lately, she’d been trying to replicate what she’d seen the professor make in his duel, the exploding ball of mud that had deafened everyone. The solution she’d come up with had involved a magic crystal that acted as both fuse and mana source inside of a pressurized glass vial. She didn’t think she’d ever figure out how he’d made a timer just out of runes or made the whole device so quickly, but hers theoretically did the same thing. Maybe. Hopefully.

As she watched the glass vial tumble through space, she hoped with every fiber of her being that she hadn’t just made a horrible mistake.

Nadrina had planned for a loud popping noise, something that would distract the archer long enough for the captain to get away. What she got was an earth-shattering explosion, followed by a shock wave that slammed so hard into her it felt like someone had punched her. If an angry god had ripped the heavens apart, it would have been slightly quieter than this.

The force of the explosion sent a burst of air out in all directions, enough to kick up an enormous cloud of dirt and debris. Everyone in the clearing, including Nadrina, immediately dropped to their knees and gripped their ears in agony. The only thing Nadrina was conscious of was an incessant ringing in her ears that took up her entire world right now.