“What are you planning?” Melvine asked, not even glancing at him. Lev and she were the only two in the bubble still, most of their attention focused on the battle taking place below.

  He didn’t answer, opting to instead dissect how his teammates fought. Rapid communication took place through the telepathy item, and Isabella adopted a supportive role.

  With Rena, Isabella, Lisa, Kora, and Luna supporting the melee combatants, the battle was taking an interesting turn. Whips and ropes of fire impeded the monsters at every opportunity, opening them up for retaliation.

  Elias and Aryan found the most success, which wasn’t surprising given their sharp weapons. Zack and Viktor, however, showed a lot of cunning, too.

  The former’s flame lances from the gauntlets were deadly, and he used them as leverage to stay on top of the monsters even as they thrashed. While one arm used the lances as support, the other pummeled the relatively fragile stone armor with a metric ton of fire, the fuel replenishing immediately due to the support.

  Viktor’s shield surprised Lev the most. He used the barrier version, one that could absorb and store kinetic energy, and used it to devastating effect. Not only could he smash the monsters off-course with the stored power, but his shield bash also afforded him enough strength to halt their momentum to a significant degree, which was utilized by his sharp axe that sank deep.

  Still, it was far from enough to put them down, and neither did they expect it to be. While Lev was still within the range of the communication device, Viktor had asked how they could even kill such monsters. Aryan’s answer was quite concise.

  “With a thousand cuts.”

  True to that, the scene unfurling below could only be called a cruel battle of attrition. With two different aura mages providing the warriors with excess mana and stamina, they didn’t shy away from giving it their all. Cuts upon cuts appeared on the massive worms, each adding up, especially when they slashed deep enough to draw showers of blood.

  Whenever a combatant got into trouble, Isabella’s ropes were already there, wrapping around the humans and bringing them out of harm’s way. Unsurprisingly, the less agile combatants often needed that help, yet Lev still didn’t expect mishaps to be lethal.

  As heavy as the worms were, they weren’t quite precise enough to splatter the humans. Masters had monstrously strong bodies themselves, and even if being buried would batter them greatly, the resulting force would instead push them deeper into the ground instead of reducing them to a pulp. With their armor, weapons, shields, and skills, there were a lot of ways to reduce the damage, though those were utilized to stave off the stone magic of the monsters.

  Spikes grew randomly on the worms, threatening to impale the humans. They were dangerous, but not overly so, for most of the magical might was focused on creating new burrows for the monsters to escape and resurface through.

  To the mindless creatures, it probably seemed like a good ambush tactic. For the humans, however, it was a precious respite and a good chance to press their advantage, for they could easily track the destroyers and where they were going to come up again.

  “You’re not going to let the hunter die, are you?” Melvine asked after fifteen minutes of combat. She was reasonably certain that her companions below could handle the fight and that no monsters were attracted by their battle. The worms were oddly silent.

  “Of course not,” Lev replied without missing a beat. “Why? Do you think I’m taking a stupid risk?”

  “Risk? Yes. As for whether I would do the same? Definitely. It’s rare to find someone so incredibly strong yet kind and firm, even in humans. To meet one such being here, it can be one of our greatest finds.”

  “Hmm, I doubt the hunter wants to be affiliated with humanity, but it will definitely not shy away from helping us in dire times,” Lev mused, both for her and himself. “I don’t like it, not the thought of hanging a favor over its head. Unfortunately for us, there may not be a choice.”

  “No point in thinking so far ahead,” Melvine changed the topic. “What do you plan to do?”

  “Lightning,” Lev shrugged.

  That was enough.

  The first Earthen Destroyer fell after a grueling forty minutes of combat. It leaked only black blood by now, completely overwhelmed by Aryan’s venom.

  The remaining two also fell in the next five minutes, too cut and pierced to continue for much longer. All in all, it was a great haul, especially because every participant gained at least two levels, with Aryan getting five whole levels.

  And, after a long time, Lev’s own itch flared, urging him to progress faster than his friends. He very, very firmly clamped down on it, pushing it to the furthest recess of his mind.

  He would rather die than willingly hold back his friends.

  “Monarch take me, that was so incredibly tedious,” Aryan said, entering the lowered bubble and immediately slumping into the closest barrier chair with a sigh. His eyes were bloodshot, an unfortunate consequence of overusing his untrained willpower for so long. “I even made sure not to rely on my active skills too much. What the hell?”

  “You will get used to it,” Lev commented, amused. It was already impressive that Aryan had lasted as long as he had, though it remained to be seen if it would be the same against a more durable monster.

  “Mana?” Luna asked, getting a nod from Lisa, who was about to ask the same.

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  None of them had more than half of their mana remaining, which was fine. Kora accelerated their regeneration while Lisa and Luna healed all the minor injuries. The battle against three whole third-threshold monsters was a resounding success, and Lev was excited to face something by himself now.

  They rested for the next hour, wondering how the hunter was doing. During the entire battle, they had only heard one roar, which was incredibly distant. The fact let them relax for at least a little while, doing wonders for their psyche.

  There was hope, still.

  “So, how was it?” Lev asked everyone, even if he didn’t really need to ask Aryan. The rogue’s labored breathing was answer enough.

  “Kind of exhilarating,” Elias answered thoughtfully. “I also understand that I feel that way only because the matchup was skewed in my favor. How often can one face something so soft and big?”

  “It was difficult,” Viktor answered with an eye roll. “Not as dangerous as I expected, but quite taxing nonetheless. At least it let me explore the limits of my class quite thoroughly.”

  Zack just gave him a thumbs-up, lost in his musings. There was plenty to go over in the short battle, and if Lev was being honest, Zack’s potential was also quite high. With enough skill training and practice, he could outshine everyone else in terms of raw physical strength.

  Which leaves the two of us, he thought, glancing at Melvine. Unlike her usual self, she was ready to tear into some monsters, the enthusiasm matching Lev’s.

  First things first, though.

  After about two hours of rest and recovery, the bubble flew straight up, higher than all of the hills and bordering mountains. Just to be safe, Lev didn’t fly too fast and used as much mana as he could for the stealth enchantments.

  Gradually, the whole dungeon was laid bare in front of them. From the distant white border walls of the dungeon that seemed like they were hundreds of kilometers away in every direction, to the small skirmishes taking place not that far from them, he took it all in, made a conscious choice, and flew towards an ongoing duel.

  The monsters weren’t something either he or Melvine could take lightly. Even as they neared their clash, he could feel it as the bubble vibrated from the vicinity, the sheer power of those beings.

  They could very well die fighting these monsters.

  [Ebonwalker - ????]

  [Steelfeather - ????]

  Both of them are at least level 580, if not even higher. Can we take them?

  He didn’t get to make a choice. Melvine had already warned everyone to stay back, and after Lev slotted in enough cores to keep the bubble hidden for hours, she jumped out.

  Taking a deep, steadying breath, Lev followed, lightning flooding his armor as he stepped out.

  Their targets were already chosen. While Lev could have done better against the eagle-like monster due to his aerial flexibility, he chose the Ebonwalker instead.

  As he neared the monster, he took out several constructs from his bubble while observing Melvine. Both monsters tried to rush her, only for a thick blast of mist to obscure all their senses. It targeted the bird, and if its screeches were anything to go by, flight was very difficult in that misty domain.

  Lev didn’t let the ebonwalker disturb her. Lances filled with lightning landed on its massive bulk, barely charring the bark covering its torso, spanning from its shoulders to its thighs.

  The head was covered in a strange green wooden mask, and the moment their eyes met, Lev knew that he had made a mistake by looking into them. The world came alive around him, roots and vines both shooting out of the ground as he flew up to avoid them.

  They followed, extending seamlessly without showing any signs of strain. A few of them became inert when three barrier disks cleaved through them, but they were far from enough. Compared to the dozens rushing him, the ones they cut were barely a drop in the bucket.

  I suppose this is as good an opportunity as any.

  The final two constructs he had brought with him were powered up. Not as… suicidal as his contingency plan, they were still twice as tall as him, and just as wide. The disks greedily gobbled up both pure and lightning mana to increase their lethality, and for the first time, Lev also used wind mana to augment their fluidity and speed.

  Two heralds of death passed cleanly through the organic bindings, searing and charring them as they went. Lev used that moment to fire a lance at the ebonwalker’s face, the construct enchanted and imbued with a ton of lightning for maximum speed.

  Unable to block it in time, the lance landed just shy of the walker’s eye, the monster managing to save them at the last moment. The subsequent explosion robbed it of any visual on Lev, and surprisingly enough, that stopped the advances of all the roots and vines he was desperately cutting through.

  Curious. A tracking skill connected to its eyesight? That probably gives it heightened clarity and bonuses.

  His hunch was proven correct when the monster just walked through the explosion, never actually losing track of Lev, only direct line of sight. The bindings immediately advanced again, and this time, he also made a move.

  An overloaded lightning bolt tore out of his arm, landing on the monster’s chest in an instant. It didn’t even flinch and picked up the pace, its arms morphing into thick roots.

  Stargazer cut through the first that reached him. He deflected the next two while backing off, wincing at the terrible impacts coursing through his arm. Still, he kept his flight control and continued pushing mana into the glaive.

  The other arm’s roots were just about to reach him, which provided him with an opening. His disks cut through a few of the initial arm’s roots, and while Stargazer severed another two, a gap opened up in the limb.

  All of the stored lightning was shaped into a crescent Fracturing Wave, then compressed again to the absolute limit before it was fired.

  Wood and flesh didn’t stand a chance. The slash sheared through everything as if it had a personal vendetta against the ebonwalker, and while Lev hastily backtracked and cut through all the wooden creations trying to strangle him, the slash lost cohesion near the shoulder.

  Reality turned white and blue. Lev hurtled backwards before his back slammed into something hard that also gave way. His entire body was jolted agonizingly, which also cleared his concussion from the intense flash.

  Sounds returned to the world after a moment, letting him discern just how badly the Ebonwalker was hurt. It was still surrounded by a towering flame that crackled with lightning, but that wouldn’t last.

  Lev was already making his preparations when he felt a gaze snap onto him through the curtain of fire. The ebonwalker no longer walked or jogged. It leapt towards him without any grace or tact, dense bark growing on its body like armor.

  Seeing something so wild and gigantic rush him, Lev understandably backed off, wanting nothing to do with that terrifying creature. His disks worked tirelessly to keep him free as wall after wall of green and brown tried to drown him, and once he got over his hesitation, lightning erupted.

  A path was cleared directly to the monster. Stargazer led the charge as his armor sizzled from the overload, the melting and damage constantly repaired by his willpower.

  While the blast of lightning still expanded in front of him, Lev formed two orbs and dumped lightning mana inside them while emptying his armor and Stargazer.

  He was reasonably certain that the monster couldn’t see him, and by manipulating the orbs to explode a short distance away on either side of him to buy a moment, he thrust Stargazer straight ahead.

  Another fracturing wave shot out of the wild and turbulent electric blasts they were both rattled by, and this time, it found purchase on one of the eyes just as Lev was smashed into the ground by its thick arm.

  Before he could right himself, a wooden foot descended to turn him into paste.