The scar faced man's mana flared.
Light gathered around his body. His lips moved silently, chanting "Awaken."
A faint magic circle appeared in front of his chest, spinning faster and faster until it blurred.
That light sank into his body.
Mana surged inside him like a storm waking up.
His back straightened. The pressure around his body changed.
Even the air in the cavern began to move, thin lines of wind twisting around his arms and sword.
"Wind Devil, First Style," he said coldly.
Wind exploded.
The white tiger's golden paw came crashing down.
The man stepped forward instead of back. His sword cut upward, wrapped by a spiraling vortex.
BAM!!!
The two forces collided with a deafening boom.
Wind howled. Broken stone flew in all directions.
Oliver watched the clash with wide eyes.
For a moment, he forgot to breathe.
This was the true power of a sorcerer.
Those who reached this level could use their mana core, letting them cast powerful techniques almost instantly.
Every mana core was different.
Even if two sorcerers built their core using the same method, the path they walked and the mana they refined would turn it into something unique.
No two cores would behave exactly the same.
This cultist's core seemed to require activation.
When he triggered it with his spell, it granted him a burst of power, letting him stack strong techniques on top of his martial moves.
Magic and physical strikes combined into one.
In this world, this type of style was called a Martial Spell.
Inside the bag, Ethan sucked in a breath.
'So people really shout their move names out loud in battle here,' he thought. 'Why. Why do they do this. There has to be a reason, right?'
On the other side, the tattooed woman did not stay idle.
"Earth Wall," she said.
She swept her arm forward.
The ground beneath the incoming ice spears trembled.
A thick slab of stone rose up in front of her like a shield.
The spears slammed into it one after another, cracking and shattering, shards of ice flying everywhere.
Dust rolled.
Before Fiona could follow up, the woman's eyes sharpened.
"Earth Punch."
There was no magic circle in front of her.
Her mana core pulsed once inside her body, and the earth responded as if it already knew the shape of the spell.
Unlike the man, her core had circles carved directly into it. She did not need to call them out into the air.
She could cast earth spells instantly, as long as she had enough mana to feed them.
Faster, smoother, and much more silent.
The earth wall in front of her quivered. Its shape began to change.
The stone melted and flowed, lines fusing together.
In a few breaths, the wall had turned into a gigantic stone fist.
The fist shot forward across the cavern, air whistling around it, aimed straight at Fiona.
"You have guts to attack a real sorcerer like me," the woman said, eyes cold.
"It seems you have history with our organization. Unfortunately, your courage will only turn you into our sacrifice."
The stone fist grew larger in Fiona's eyes.
Oliver's scalp tingled.
Without thinking, he shouted, "Fiona, pour your mana into the hairpin!"
Fiona did not argue.
Her mana flared, rushing into the blue crystal hairpin pinned in her dark hair. The runes etched deep inside the metal woke up one by one.
The hairpin started to drink mana, not only from her but also from the surroundings.
The air stirred as loose mana was pulled in toward that small piece of metal.
"Sorry," Oliver said.
He suddenly placed his palm on top of her head, pushing some of his own mana along with hers into the hairpin.
Fiona's eyes flashed, and she shot him a quick glare, but she did not brush his hand away.
She knew he was helping.
On her shoulder, the Silver Moon Fox also reacted.
It lifted its tail and gently tapped the hairpin.
A cool light spread from its fur into the crystal.
The hairpin pulsed.
Mana burst out of it, not as raw power but as runes.
Tiny symbols of light shot into the air, spreading out to four points around them.
Those symbols linked together, forming lines that drew a simple geometric shape.
Then more runes followed.
Layer after layer, the array became thicker.
The lines multiplied, the shape grew more complex.
Hexagonal patterns stacked over one another, forming a dome shaped barrier that looked like overlapping turtle shells made of light.
The stone fist slammed into the barrier.
Boom!
Cracks spread across the outermost layer, spiderwebbing outward.
A few hexagons shattered, but new lines lit up to replace them.
The barrier shook, then steadied.
The force of the blow dispersed along the shell pattern and sank into the ground.
Fiona's eyes widened.
This was not a simple artifact that held one spell and released it when fed mana.
This was a true magic array artifact, a compact formation tool.
Even many artificers who had already graduated from the academy could not produce something like this.
It required a deep understanding of runes, structure, and mana flow.
One mistake and the array would collapse instead of forming a stable shield.
Oliver's lips curled into a confident grin.
"I am amazing, right?" he said smugly.
"Told you I will become the greatest artificer this world has ever seen.
This is my own creation, Magic Array: Turtle Shell."
Inside the sandal, Ethan snorted silently.
'You shameless kid,' he thought. 'I gave you the basic idea, you know. Oh well, I will let you boast in front of your girl for now.'
Inside the sandal, Ethan spread his senses out as far as he could.
Mana currents flowed through the cavern in messy lines. The white tiger's power was like a burning sun.
The two cultists' cores pulsed with a greasy feeling that made his soul itch.
The air around Fiona and Oliver was thin from how much mana the Turtle Shell was sucking in.
'This woman is not surprised at all,' Ethan thought.
'She saw two kids rush into a Tier 5 nest. Is this within their plan?
But we were pushed here because I broke the crystal. Strange.'
He wanted to dig deeper into that thought, but another heavy impact hit the barrier and shook his sandal body.
'Forget it,' he decided. 'First we need to survive.'
The cultist woman lifted both hands.
"Earth Hammer."
The ground in front of her swelled up again.
A thick stone hammer formed in mid air and crashed down toward Fiona and Oliver.
The Turtle Shell barrier rippled.
Hexagonal plates cracked, then re-formed as fresh runes lit up to replace broken ones.
Fiona's face had gone pale. Sweat slid down her cheeks.
Oliver forced his mana into the hairpin again. His lungs burned.
"Senior," he thought in his heart, "you really cannot help a little?"
"I am looking for a way out," Ethan replied quietly. "You focus on not dying."
The woman did not give them any chance to rest.
"Earth Spear."
Sharp stone spikes pushed up from the floor, stabbing at the barrier from below.
Cracks webbed across another layer.
Fiona gritted her teeth and pushed even more mana in.
Oliver's arm shook as he kept his hand on her head.
The Silver Moon Fox's fur was completely raised.
It poured its mana in without holding back.
On the other side of the cavern, the fight between the cultist man and the white tiger reached a new peak.
"Wind Devil, Second Style," the man said.
Wind wrapped around his legs.
He moved in a blur, leaving afterimages as he darted around the tiger's flanks, sword cutting from angles that seemed impossible.
Each strike carried a compressed wind blade that extended his reach.
Shallow wounds opened on the tiger's front legs and chest.
Blood dripped onto the stone floor.
"Wind Devil, Third Style," he followed up, without pausing.
He stomped once.
A circular gust exploded from his feet.
The floor under the tiger's paws suddenly turned smooth.
Its claws scraped without finding any ground.
Its massive body slid half a step at the worst possible moment.
The man's eyes lit with cruel satisfaction.
"As expected," he said coldly, "even a dying Tier 5 beast is not to be underestimated. But at the end it is still prey."
The white tiger roared again, a sound that shook dust loose from the ceiling.
Its eyes were bright with fury.
Blood continued to flow from earlier wounds.
Each breath seemed to deepen the color of the red stains on its white fur.
Still, it refused to move back even a single step away from the deeper part of the cavern.
The man narrowed his eyes.
"Stubborn," he said. "Fine. Then I will end you here."
His mana core pulsed again.
"Wind Devil, Killing Style."
The air in the cavern thinned for a moment. A
ll stray breezes were drawn toward his sword.
Wind gathered along the blade, layer upon layer, until the sword looked more like the center of a spinning tornado.
The sword edge expanded, a swirling cone of compressed air that hummed with destructive power.
He thrust forward.
The wind cone screamed through the air, aimed straight at the white tiger's heart.
In that instant, a round pink body hurled itself into the path.
The Rock Snout Boar.
It squealed, but its eyes were not confused anymore.
They were clear. Its hooves dug in as it threw its whole weight in front of the tiger.
The killing wind pierced through its flesh.
Blood burst out in a straight line from its chest. Its fat body shook. Its legs almost gave out.
The white tiger's eyes widened.
The boar turned its head slightly, as if trying to look back.
It let out a short, rough snort toward the tiger.
Its mana flared. Its body began to swell.
The pink skin stretched tight.
Small cracks of light shone out between the folds of flesh as mana burned violently inside it.
The boar let out a long, painful cry.
The white tiger hesitated for a single breath.
Then, as if making a decision it hated, it turned away and moved deeper toward the back of the cavern, limping but still fast.
It headed toward that faint glowing area it had been guarding all this time.
The cultist man sneered.
"You stupid boar," he said. "Even self-destruct will not save her."
The boar's body grew larger again. Its outline wavered.
The light inside its flesh reached a peak.
Oliver's eyes went wide.
"That thing is going to blow!" Ethan shouted.
He felt the mana build, wild and unstable, like a cauldron about to explode.
"Oliver!" Ethan snapped. "Smoke bomb, now! This is our chance to escape!"
Oliver did not hesitate.
He snatched a sphere from his pouch with his free hand.
His fingers shook, but the motion was practiced.
He twisted the cap, activated the rune, and hurled it into the center of the cavern with all the strength he had left.
The small sphere arced through the air.
At almost the same moment, the Rock Snout Boar reached its limit.
Light burst out from every crack on its swollen body.
Then it exploded.
A blinding flash filled the cavern, followed by a roar even louder than the tiger's.
Shockwaves slammed into the Turtle Shell barrier, into the cultists, into the walls.
Oliver could not hear anything except ringing.
The smoke sphere hit the ground and popped, releasing dense, dark smoke that mixed with the dust and debris from the explosion, turning the battlefield into a churning gray storm.
"Do not waste time!" Ethan yelled in his head. "Grab Fiona and move!"
The barrier still shone faintly around them.
Oliver sucked in a breath, braced his legs, and reached out for Fiona's arm.