An earth dragon.

Its appearance resembled a gigantic crocodile with six legs.

After all, its total length was more than fifteen meters.

You could think of it as roughly the length of a single train car.

It was unquestionably a gigantic creature.

The sense of intimidation produced by its massive body was overwhelming.

Its outer skin resembled rough rock and was incredibly hard, even possessing the ability to repel magic.

On top of that it also had a mid to long-range attack known as Mana Breath.

One could even say it was a creature humanity could not possibly confront.

Yet even against such a dangerous creature.

Nobles of this country were expected to risk their lives to protect the people.

Li herself sometimes wondered something.

Why was she not feeling fear in front of such a creature?

If she had remained the same person as in her previous life, she probably would have frozen in terror.

No, freezing would have been the best outcome.

Panicking, collapsing and being unable to stand up would not have been strange either.

But what about now?

In front of a dangerous enemy that could be called a kaiju (strange beast), Li remained calm.

More precisely, she was more than calm.

She felt no fear whatsoever.

On the contrary, she even felt excited about what she should do to it.

Perhaps it was due to the Goddess’s blessing.

Li herself did not know.

In contrast to Li, the headmaster’s expression was completely serious.

The fact that he instantly prepared a barrier spell to defend against the Mana Breath showed he was a seasoned veteran.

But would such a hastily prepared barrier really withstand it?

At the moment that doubt crossed Li’s mind—

From her shining silver gauntlet, chains and the shoulder scarf ornaments shot forward faster than sound itself.

The chains bound the earth dragon’s mouth.

The ends of the scarf ornaments stabbed into the ground and wrapped around the earth dragon’s body, restraining it.

The earth dragon could no longer move.

It was not even allowed to roar.

An overwhelmingly powerful creature had been reduced to nothing more than prey.

“Headmaster, now we can conduct experiments!”

At Li’s cheerful voice, the headmaster rubbed his bald head.

Then while stroking his proud white beard he said, “Experiments?”

“That’s right. We can test why your magic didn’t work on the earth dragon!”

“Y-yes. Indeed.”

The headmaster’s eyes had become somewhat vacant.

Li tried firing a single spell.

[Ice Bullet 'Modified']

It was the conventional type of spell.

In other words, the type where there was no additional acceleration after the initial launch.

You could think of it like an arrow fired from a bow.

With a high-pitched kweeen sound, the ice bullet flew toward a section of the earth dragon not covered by the scarf restraints.

Just as it was about to collide with the dragon’s outer skin, its speed rapidly dropped.

However, unlike earlier, it was not pushed back.

The ice bullet struck the earth dragon’s skin, but its power had been greatly reduced.

After testing two and three shots, the results were the same.

“I see. I think I understand it now!”

“I-is that so?”

The headmaster still had not fully recovered.

“Most likely it is something like a layer of mana. And since the earth dragon constantly emits mana from its body, spells cannot advance beyond a certain distance.”

Simply put, it was like trying to walk up a downward escalator.

A spell that only had initial velocity would be pushed back by the waves of mana.

“In other words it is like firing an arrow directly into a strong headwind.”

With that explanation the headmaster finally understood.

It had long been said from experience that magic was less effective against large monsters designated as calamity-class threats.

Normally, defeating an earth dragon required cooperation between mages and knights.

Because direct magic was less effective, mages mainly played supporting roles such as hindering movement, creating barriers, and deploying defensive fields.

With that support, the knights delivered physical attacks.

Even then, defeating one usually required considerable sacrifice.

Situations like this—casually conducting experiments while firing spells repeatedly—would normally be impossible.

“And so—”

Li cast another spell.

[Ice Bullet 'Modified Type Two']

This one was a rocket-type spell.

In addition to the initial launch speed, the spell formula continuously accelerated it.

It was the spell Li had once used to destroy the barrier at her family’s training grounds.

The layer of mana emitted by the earth dragon slowed it for only a moment.

But the spell kept accelerating.

It was not pushed back and pierced the earth dragon’s outer skin.

No, it did not merely pierce it.

It went straight through.

Behind the dragon, the trees began collapsing with cracking sounds.

“Geh!”

A rather unladylike sound escaped Li’s mouth.

Li quickly dispelled the ice bullet in a panic.

Although several trees had become noble sacrifices, Li’s theory had been proven correct.