Retired S-rank father becomes a teacher

I hated my dad. The thought repeated in my mind like a broken record because why were we suddenly teleported in a dungeon? I had a perfectly good goal for the combat training: improve my casting speed by one second. That was what the previous combat professor was helping me with, it wasn’t her fault that my father was an absolute tyrant.

He sat on that rooftop, eating his sandwich while watching us fight for our lives. Against rabbits. My first time fighting genuine monsters and they were rabbits that stabbed us with their horns. I was not amused and yet here I was. Dodging a rabbit and casting my space magic spear.

It wasn’t like the spear could actually do any damage. It was the equivalent of hitting a punching bag with a noodle. Useless.

A rabbit jumped at me again and I rolled on the ground, its sharp horn missed me by a few inches. Sometimes the thought of being impaled by a rabbit crossed my mind. But dad wouldn’t even let me experience that.

It was insulting.

“Kathy why are you skulking around?! Get your ass in formation!” Jessica screamed and I scoffed at her.

My body moved as I jumped to her side, Victoria was already there, casting some basic space magic. Mizuri and Meilin were fighting on the left flank. We were a good team. Our coordination wasn’t the best but it was okay.

Finally, we killed the last rabbit in the area. They had weird triangle shaped mana cores that glowed a faint pink. The ground was littered with corpses of rabbits, their eyes rolled to the back of their heads. It was a gruesome sight.

Mizuri was hunched over and vomiting, her purple hair covering her face.

“Do we seriously have to cut them open without a knife?” Mizuri asked with a disgusted expression. Her dark skin was covered in blood.

I took a deep breath.

“Dad is an asshole so yes. We have to get the cores by ourselves.”

There were a lot of rabbits. My hands went to one and I grabbed its head. My magic surrounded my fingers and then I crushed its skull like a grape. The squelch of its brain and bones echoed in my ears.

“Papa is not an asshole. You just can’t appreciate genuis,” Vic defended him with her usual smile, grabbing a dead rabbit and pulling the core out with ease. Blood dripped down her hands but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

Jessica patted me on the shoulder.

“Your sister is scary.” Her green eyes looked at Vic who was moving from corpse to corpse. She really had no fear of blood.

A chuckle escaped me.

“You get used to it,” I sighed. My hands were bloody as I started to dissect the rabbits.

We finished in thirty minutes. My fingers felt disgusting and the smell of dead rabbits was strong but my stomach growled. No one had their lunch and there was no way I was eating raw rabbit.

Looking at the roof far away, my dad was still there with his legs dangling from the ledge like a child—he was a child. I was going to spank him for this. He was watching the other teams. His sandwich was gone.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Dad don’t you think it’s time to let us go back to the Academy or at least give us lunch?” I yelled, my voice echoed through the ruins. He was far but his magic allowed him to hear us.

He put his hand on his ear as if to hear better.

“Speak up I can’t hear you.”

My blood boiled. This old man was messing around. I was about to head there when Jessica grabbed my shoulder and pointed to where Meilin was sitting. A campfire was lit.

A small smile formed on my lips. I should’ve known that our resident fire user would prepare a barbecue.

Jessica and I went to grab some sticks and put some rabbit meat on them.

“I hate your dad sometimes,” Jessica muttered.

I hummed in agreement. She was smart to not mention it when Victoria was nearby.

The smell of cooked rabbit meat made my mouth water as I sat on a stone, the roughness felt weird and the dungeon had this weird atmosphere. It was daytime and yet there was no sun, just a bright gray sky.

Everyone gathered around the fire, Victoria even sat on the ground next to me, the blood on her hands was still wet. Finally I took a bite of the rabbit meat. The flavor of spices and meat melted in my mouth, making me sigh in relief.

Then I felt a shiver. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my gut twisted. Space. Dad was using his magic and it was massive.

The next moment a giant monster was in front of us. A minotaur with a big axe. My stomach dropped. I heard Meilin and Mizuri gasp.

Victoria just sighed, putting down the rabbit skewer she was holding and standing up. Her purple eyes locked on the minotaur.

I also stood up. The iron scent of blood was strong, the feeling of danger was even stronger. This wasn’t a rabbit anymore.

Jessica, Meilin and Mizuri were frozen in shock. I didn’t blame them.

“Formation! We don’t know its attacks so be careful!” I commanded. They snapped out of it, Mizuri created a shield as Meilin summoned a fireball.

Glancing at Victoria, I nodded at her and we both ran to opposite sides of the minotaur. The spear formation.

The monster roared and charged at the shield. Mizuri was pushed back a few meters, her heels dug into the ground as she tried to withstand the pressure with her earth shield.

Vic threw her space spears at its head. The spears broke as soon as they hit its thick skull and she clicked her tongue in annoyance.

My own space spears did nothing and the monster just turned to me, raising its axe and swinging down. The blade hit the ground with a loud sound and I rolled to dodge, the impact felt like a shock wave on my skin.

This was pointless. We couldn’t hurt the minotaur and if it hit any of us we would be dead. Returning into formation, I looked at Jessica. She was the leader for a reason. Not me. She was the one who made the right calls under pressure.

I waited for her command, she had a frown on her face.

The minotaur raised its axe again and I prepared myself to dodge. Jessica suddenly spoke.

“Run and scatter!”

With a nod I started to run. We all did. That was the plan run and try to survive until our teacher decided that the lesson was learned. So pitiful. But it worked.

I could hear the axe hit the ground behind us, making the stone crack. My feet moved as fast as they could, jumping over rocks and other broken objects. The wind was cold and the feeling of running for my life filled me with adrenaline. It felt so real.

In front of me I could see the other four running as well. The monster was behind us, chasing. Its thunderous steps and the sound of the axe dragging were terrifying. My heart was beating like crazy. Yet why was his face in my mind? Did he run too like this? Pathetic.

With a sharp turn, I changed direction, leading the minotaur away from the girls.

“Kathy?! What are you doing!?” Victoria yelled, she stopped running. I ignored her.

The axe was swinging at me. Dodging left, I kept running. It felt like a game of tag and I didn’t want to be tagged. The axe missed me again and I was running back to our camp. This was stupid.

I looked back and the minotaur was pulling its axe back as if it was going to throw it. My eyes widened. This thing could throw its weapon. There was no way I would dodge that.

Closing my eyes, I waited for the inevitable rescue of my father. He was probably already in front of me, his arms ready to catch me and bring me back. Always the protector.

No. If he’s going to save me, I’m at least going to try whatever I can.

I opened my eyes, looking at the incoming axe and focusing all my mana into one single ball of space. Dad did this countless times. Open a gate between two points and connect them. My mana was shaking and the image was blurry in my head but I needed to try.

Two gates. One to catch it, one to send it back—a counter.

I gritted my teeth and cast it, pushing my mana to connect the gates. My head felt like it was going to explode.

The axe hit my mana. A shock went through my body and then the axe went flying back to the minotaur, its blade piercing its own chest. The minotaur fell.

My knees buckled and I fell but before I hit the ground, arms grabbed me. He always caught me.

“Good job Kathy,” he said and stroked my hair.

Really?

A small smile appeared on my face before I fainted from mana depletion.