Leon's blood was up, and his Fireball carpet bombing wiped out more than half the monster swarm in the blink of an eye.
Apart from a handful of lucky survivors and the lines he'd deliberately avoided to keep from hitting Jeanne and Rose, every other angle had been scorched clean.
Flames licked at charred wood, and the cavern became a field of scattered corpses within seconds.
Heaps of blackened, barely recognizable remains filled the air with a vicious stench. Aura and Laurier, seeing this for the first time, clamped their hands over their mouths and doubled over, gagging.
"This is..." The two elven girls couldn't keep it together. The rose-tinted filter they'd been looking at adventuring through shattered on the spot.
Leon watched the pair slumped on the ground, legs folded under them, looking about two seconds from losing their breakfast. His expression stayed flat.
"'Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding.'" He let the quote hang for a second. "So? Feel it now? How brutal this job really is?"
"You... you jerk, Leon!"
Laurier forced her head up, fighting back another wave of nausea, and glared at the smirking bastard with her cheeks puffed in fury.
Setting aside those two, the battlefield on the other side was still active.
The pressure had dropped, and Jeanne and Rose seized the opening to counterattack.
Rose stepped forward with her left foot, right foot following into a braced half-stance, Pure White Kite Shield locked in front of her. She blocked heavy strikes from every angle and then rammed the shield forward. In the split second that Leon's barrage had created, she caught the enemy staggering and off-balance, and her sword flashed out, fast as lightning.
Five gashes tore open across the Orc's vitals in rapid succession and the massive body crashed to the ground.
Jeanne was just as fierce. Her Banner Lance swept wide, clearing the monsters that had closed around her and carving out space. Her eyes sharpened, and the lance ripped through the air with a piercing shriek, punching clean through a monster's neck.
"Scorch, Scorch, Scorch..."
Free to act, Leon switched to precise, controlled bursts of Scorch to support his teammates, and glanced at Laurier and Aura, who'd recovered enough to stand back-to-back in a tense guard.
"You two, this is a rare chance. Get in there and get some experience."
Laurier had been itching to move since the moment she pulled herself together. She'd only held back because Leon hadn't given the word.
The second she had permission, she dropped the Supporter's pack, drew her sword with a sharp ring of steel, and charged.
"Rose, I'm coming to help!"
Rose's expression, taut and serious since the fight began, visibly softened.
"Laurier, I'll take the lead. You cover me."
"Got it."
Laurier gripped her sword in one hand, face set, and dropped into her stance.
"Rage!"
"Gale Aria!"
The short Chanting finished and her golden hair and hunter's garb whipped wildly in a sudden wind. An invisible hurricane wrapped around her body and blade in an instant.
Gale Aria coated the user in an unseen armor of wind, boosting all Basic Abilities while deflecting attacks, with massive increases to attack power, attack speed, and movement speed. Combined with her skills, Elven Hymn, Whispering Wind, and Raging Gale, Laurier's combat power rocketed to a new level.
"Hmph, just some Orcs!" she said, brimming with confidence, and threw herself into the fight.
Rose cut down another monster and glanced sideways. "Careful, Laurier."
Aura pressed her lips tight. Holding her magic on standby for this long had drained her, sweat soaking her white hair.
"Aura, fire your magic. Clear a path for Jeanne to push forward."
She bit down against the pain of mental fatigue and nodded. "Un... understood."
Elven Hymn, Rhapsody Crest, Hazy Spirit Dream Demon, activate.
She sucked in several deep breaths, forced herself steady, and snapped her eyes open.
Staff gripped tight in her right hand, arms spread wide, legs together, spine straight as a rod, she locked her gaze on the distant monsters and began to Chant:
Ancient hunger buried beneath fertile earth!
Entwine, evergreen thorns! Let agony be your wine, let wailing be your song!
She'd barely gotten two lines out when the remaining monsters erupted into a frenzy. Mindless as they were, raw animal instinct told them something lethal was coming.
The roar that went up was deafening.
Everyone on the front line reacted instantly, scrambling to contain the sudden charge. Leon stayed at Aura's side, staff swinging without pause as he poured Scorch after Scorch into the oncoming wave to take pressure off the others.
Within this cage of mine...
Roots, pierce their flesh! Vines, crush their bones!
Drink deep the surging heat!
Sip the scattering light!
With your very life force...
Nourish my body! Feed my soul!
Bountiful Harvest Revelry!!!
A torrent of Magic erupted outward with Aura at its center, her white hair intertwining with streams of mana and whipping in the wind. In that moment she was impossible to look away from.
She cried out, and the Magic detonated.
Crack, crack, crack...
The ground on Floor 10 shook violently. Vines thick as pythons burst from the stone, growing and multiplying at a terrifying rate.
"Ha!" Aura leveled her staff, face tight with concentration, and the vines obeyed like extensions of her own limbs, lashing toward the Orcs surrounding Jeanne in a wave of green.
They struck with sharp cracks, slamming into the massive bodies and sending them flying. Then Aura's eyes flickered, the vines shifted, coiling around the monsters and binding them tight.
And it wasn't over. Under everyone's stunned gaze, the bound monsters were drained dry in a matter of seconds, shriveling into hollow husks.
The sight was, to put it mildly, unsettling.
"Ahh..."
Leon had been watching Aura the entire time. The instant the vines began draining the monsters' life force and Mind, her cheeks flushed scarlet, her whole body went weak, her eyes grew glassy, and her legs started shaking beneath her stockings. She staggered, about to fall.
If Leon hadn't caught her, the spell might have been forcibly interrupted, and that would have been a far worse problem.
"Hang in there, Aura. Your magic's a little overpowered, so some side effects are par for the course. You'll have to learn to push through it."
"I... I know..."
Face burning, Aura gritted her teeth and held the spell, directing vine after vine to crush every target in sight.
Only when the last monster in the area was gone did she finally let go, cutting the mental link. The tension drained out of her all at once and she collapsed into Leon's arms.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
She curled up small, pressing her scalding face deep into the crook of his elbow, her ears flushed red to the tips.
Inside, she was falling apart.
This is so unfair. Why does my magic have such a horrible side effect? The image I've been maintaining all this time... completely ruined! How am I supposed to face anyone after this?!
...
Leon looked down at Aura, who'd gone full ostrich, and the corner of his mouth twitched. If you can't see them, they can't see you. That's the plan, huh?
He sighed quietly and turned to Jeanne, Rose, and Laurier as they walked over.
"Good work, everyone."
He gave them a nod, then glanced at the white-haired girl still burrowed silently against his arm.
"Jeanne, take care of Aura for me. Her magic is strong, it's just got a... minor side effect. You get what I mean."
He shifted his attention to the other two.
"Rose, Laurier, come with me. Time for your first Supporter lesson."
"We'll start with dismantling monsters and extracting Magic Stones."
...
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